Completed Commission, and Am I going to Have to Research all my Dumb Ideas?

I finished my latest portrait commission of a Father and Daughter painting and up-loaded it yesterday.  This really is a charming portrait.  The patron lost her father to MS when she was young and this painting is a celebration of his life.  I will always remember his courage to keep working, even when he was in a wheel chair.  The daughter, who was a Daddy's girl, is trying to coax a smile out of her father.  She is delighted with the painting.

Still having a great time letting my expressive side take over and I now have the first one in my portfolio!  Check out the energy of this work!

I depend on my husband for some humor for the blog and last week he came up with The No Bell prize for underachievers.  As always, I thought that was hilarious but he decided to see if some one else had already come up with that quip.  Sure enough, he found a number of people that came up with that joke, including a Rapper.  So now he is wondering if he is going to have to research all his dumb ideas.  Oh well, my addition that I know a lot of people that could win the Not Quite a Ding a Ling Award is a first as far as he knows.

Be sure to check out my specials in The Limited Time section of Fine Art America and The Mindy Project is on Mondays right now. Look for Reaching Out in her office. I am pleased that the show has been renewed for another season!

Enjoyed the TV taping of The Hour of Joy and Should I put it on the floor?

I had a great day in Roanoke yesterday for the taping of my appearance on The Hour of Joy and I didn't trip or say anything particularly stupid!  The audience seemed to like my short talk and they especially liked the three large paintings I brought with me.  The crew put them up on easels and Joy commented that the one behind her made it look like she was outdoors!  The lighting was good and I put on my-I am not painfully shy and can do this act- that I did for twenty years at Radford University.  My back muscles were spasming big time afterwards.  People commented that I was perfectly composed and natural.  Maybe I should have gone into acting.  Anyway, it was great working with Joy and the crew.  Everyone was so nice!

The other day my husband was complaining that he couldn't reach the itchy spots with lotion on his back and I mentioned to him that there were other ways of getting the lotion on there. His reply was do you want me to squirt it on the floor and roll in it?  No, me, you could ask me to put it on, genius.

I put it on so now he isn't so miserable.

Check out my large canvas print specials on Fine Art America this week and "Reaching Out" on The Mindy Project.  So far there have been shots of it on the 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 8th episodes.  It is in her office across from her desk.

Here are the paintings that will be on The Hour of Joy on March 10th!

Pleased to Sell Another Print of Reaching Out and

I am pleased that my drawing, "Reaching Out", is reaching new places.  This time a framed print went to a great patron in Wexford, Pennsylvania.  It is great to see in on The Mindy Project in the main character's office.  I hope more patrons will get a print of my best seller!

Can't think of anything funny and my main source, my husband, said I am on my own this time.  My television appearance will be taped this Saturday.  It was supposed to be today but it was called due to weather.  I guess I can trip over my own feet next Saturday just as well as I would have today.  Now I can be uptight for another week.  My friend can't help me this Saturday, so my husband will be in the audience instead of her.  Not sure what I think of that.  He better not make any faces at me or I am doomed.

Anyway, check out my canvas print specials on Fine Art America and come April 3rd I will be on FoxTV out of Roanoke with Joy Sutton.  They have easels for my work and I am going to give away one of my small gem paintings.  Should be fun but my nervous stomach tells me otherwise.  Looking forward to the taping and looking forward to it being over!

Check out my YouTubes and Headaches...

I have been working hard on some YouTubes of my work in spite of two sick guys at home.  My husband is better but my son took a few days off last week and then started a secondary infection that swelled his throat up so much he could hardly talk.  Anyway, I am proud of my efforts and I hope people keep checking them out.  The first one is on my Beautiful Nude Series which includes "Reaching Out" which was picked out of over three million works of art on Fine Art America to be on The Mindy Project.  The second one is on my portrait work and includes my recent portrait of world famous violinist David Garrett and the third one is on the beautiful Blue Ridge Vistas that I have made and sold many paintings of.  I live in the most beautiful place in the world and I never tire of painting it and adding my own special interpretation.

A new commercial about a help center got my husband and I joking around as usual.  The center is called The Headache Center, and , of course, the purpose is to help people who suffer from headaches but we couldn't help cracking jokes about how this must be  the place to go if you need a headache.  This week only, two for one sale! Buy one headache and get the second one free!  No offense to the center but I think they might consider adding the word Relief to the name.

I am working on a portrait this week that I didn't finish a long time ago.  Yes, artists do go back to old work sometimes which is why it is always good to sell them.  Sometimes revisions kill the initial effort.  Fingers crossed!

I saw it that time on The Mindy Project and Maybe a Trained Monkey...

I was so pleased to see my drawing, "Reaching Out", on The Mindy Project yesterday on Fox TV.  It wasn't visible on the first episode so it was great to see it on the second one.  The set director said it wouldn't be on every show.  I thought the first episode was funny and fun but the second one was hilarious and I am thrilled to have my work on such a good show!  They have great writers and great actors!  I don't watch a lot of TV because I love movies so when I can watch TV I am almost always shoving a DVD in the box.  I will watch The Mindy Project and The Big Bang!  Excellent shows!

I am getting ready to put my second YouTube up and as usual I am having computer trouble.  It seems like I am always searching the help section for one simple thing and looking at tutorials for one simple thing that should be obvious.  Yesterday I watched a tutorial that I'm sure a six-year-old could easily follow.  It could not have been simpler.  I followed the directions and nothing happened.   It seems to me that the only way I can find answers to software problems is to poke around for a while and then, by accident, I find what I want.  I could probably save myself a lot of time if I just got a trained monkey to poke around while I work on a painting or housework or something.  That way I could get something useful done while the monkey finds the solution by accident.

My First Youtube Video and He maybe he didn't get into Yale...

After much frustration and watching tutorials by young people that grew up on a computer I have finally got my first Youtube video about my artwork up! I didn't think I would ever figure out Audacity or the movie software on my computer.  It is always simple after I understand how to do it but I really have a hard time catching on.  It doesn't help that the kids on the tutorials talk at the speed of light or, at least, that is how it seems to me.  I am going to do this, then that, adjust this, take my cursor here, select that, go to the other side of the screen and select something that has tiny letters and bingo, you got it!  Oh well, I am nothing if not stubborn.  I did get it and I will continue to get it so the videos look and sound better.

I watched part of a movie called the Nim project which was an experiment with a chimp in the seventies.  A family decided to raise a chimp as if it were a member of the family.  It was interesting at first but then I just couldn't get into it so I sent it back.  I told my husband that I did want to find out how it turned out so I would look it up on the internet.  He said the chimp was probably either turned down for Yale or is now a congressman.

 The Mindy Project airs next Tuesday at 9:30 p.m.!  Be sure to look for my most popular nude, "Reaching Out" in the main character's office!







Also, check out my canvas print sales for this week on Fine Art America!