esordio>debut>beginning Exhibition Invite

A couple of months ago I heard about an Emerging Artists' Exhibition so I put on my brave girl boots and rang the gallery and left them my website address. They phoned me back and said yes they'd like me to exhibit so I've been busy painting, varnishing and getting my paintings ready.

The opening night is this Friday, 22nd March at 6:30pm at the Zig Zag Gallery, 50 Railway Road, Kalamunda.

Do not miss the wonderful opportunity to view the works of these emerging artists at

The Zig Zag Gallery Kalamunda


Vicki Lee Johnston Botanical Artist

Katalin Dobos Textiles

Michelle Reynolds Acrylic on Canvas

Julia Sutton Hot Wax Encaustic

Carolyn McIntosh Acrylic on Canvas

Ian Kaye Found Sculptural


Yesterday I wrapped up my paintings and dropped them at the gallery.

On Tuesday I wrapped up two paintings to go to the Beverley Art Show which will be held over the Easter Weekend.

So I've been busy and it's all been happening here which is all very exciting as well as scary and nerve-wracking.  Wish me luck, all the best, send out positive vibes and good ju-ju that I sell a couple of my babies, oops I mean paintings. 

Malmalling Vineyard Art Show 2012

It was a great weekend at the Malmalling Vineyard Art Show.  I displayed 25 paintings along with my friend June Stevens, a traditional, oil landscape artist and Inge Giebeler, who creates great metal art. On Saturday the weather was warm and sunny and we had around 50-60 people come visit whilst on Sunday an unpredicted storm hit around lunchtime and we had to grab our paintings and put them under cover.

 

I sold this painting to my friend Claire....

Later in the week I will blog about my two new pieces - The Birdbath and The Birdcage - with some close up shots for you too.

Art Show Sneak Peak

Here's a few photos, a sneak peak as to what paintings I will be displaying at the Malmalling Vineyard Art Show this weekend:

Some Confetti Trees:

And some of my girls including my mixed media African Princess on the right inspired by Inge's Metal Art (see her art below):

Don't these displays look awesome??  Well done to my friends June and Bob for making them out of recycled corrugated iron.

And here's some of the Metal Art by Inge:

These photos do not do her work justice so go check out her website.  I'm hoping to sell a few paintings and buy myself one...though which one I'm not sure maybe the African Princess which has inspired my African Princess painting.

I'm really excited about the art show, the weather is going to be great, warm and sunny though this morning it was a touch windy which is why the paintings are a little wonky - note to self: bring blu tack and a hat and drink lots of water.

More pics and blogs over the weekend.  :D

Art Show and Painting Demo

Over the weekend the community centre had an Art Show on Saturday night and the Opening of the new Kindergarten on Sunday.  I sold 7 or 8 pendants, not as many as I was hoping to sell.  I have 20 left to sell and will make a photo collage later today to show you which ones are available in case you would like to buy some - will have to get my etsy store up and running too.

A big hello to everyone who stopped by and said hi, gave me some positive feedback, bought a pendant and even took one of my biz cards.  Thank you for stopping by my website and visiting my blog.

Here I am with my paintings:

Here I am doing my painting demo out the front of the art shed - with small children around I went for something very simple - a house and trees - I added people but they look really bad so I'm going to paint over the whole painting today - I'm thinking black, white and bright squares.

Here's my pendant displays - the board was outside next to my paintings and had to be tied down with the orange rope - the wind blew it over a couple of times and I had one casualty - the glass on one of my pendants is scratched.

Here are my other paintings on display:

I made a couple of big decisions over the weekend which I will tell you about later...

Monday Morning Art Group

During art group this morning I finished off the Wine Bottles - I think, I'm not too sure about this painting for a lot of reasons....

Here is the painting that I'm going to be working on during the painting demo session on this Sunday for the opening of the Kindergarten...

Here are the glass tile pendants that I'm working on at the moment - glued onto the pics:

And here is my glass tile pendant charm - it's my girlie logo - she's a little washed out and I added a bail to the bottom of her so I could add some more charms to her.  :D

Glass Tile Pendants

My glass tiles arrived on Friday, so on Saturday afternoon I got stuck into making my pendants.  I followed the tutorial from Tracy Yarbrough  at Chickpea Studio and this video by Tam from willowing:

Here are some of the photos I've taken over the weekend of the pendants:

I found some photos of my art and printed them out onto card - you can see some of the glass tiles glued onto the prints.

The blue scrapbooking paper behind the board of pendants is the paper I used on the back of the tiles - this is one of my favourite papers and I should make a pendant out of that paper.

I cut out card and wrote on the back -'Glass Tile Pendant is NOT waterproof so please avoid getting wet. Thanks, Michelle.  www.shellsinthebush.com.  I have added my biz card to add a bit of colour and so the buyer has some info about me in case they would like to purchase a painting/print/pendant etc.

I even managed to find an old box to put them in for selling and have an nice notice board to display some on too - to sell at the community centre art show next weekend.  Ten pendants were completed this weekend as I ran out of supplies, so will buy some more ribbon and card and get to making some more during the week.

More exciting news - my friend June whom I'm planning an exhibiton with next year - her painting at the arts festival sold - so very happy and excited for her - Congrats JuneBug!!!  :D



Hope you are having a great weekend.

Prices for Paintings for Art Show

Today I had to decide which paintings to go on display to sell at the community centre art show and cocktail party on Sat 12th November.  Prices are always difficult to decide on and it was suggested to me to show my lower price paintings as the lower price items are more likely to sell, which meant Ribbon town was out but I will take that with me on Sunday 13th Nov when I do a painting demo at the community centre for the opening of the new kindergarten/school for 3 year olds that the community centre fundraised and built.

Paintings aren't selling at the moment in Perth, I've been to few galleries and shows in the past couple of months and there were very few red dots.  I've also heard this from others who have been to exhibitions/galleries/shows too.

I live in the Perth hills where there are a couple of galleries and a small art community.  People of a variety of incomes live in the same suburb - I guess you could say middle class - what ever that really is.  The wealthy suburbs of Perth such as Subiaco, Nedlands and Dalkieth have quite a few galleries with higher priced paintings in.

So how do I price my paintings???  I have a middle price and depending on the commission of where my painting are to be sold  will affect the mark-up on the painting.  I have a family price and that recovers the cost of materials and a little time.  I also have the lowest price I'll go before selling this painting at that price leaves me feeling icky.  I tell the ladies in my class don't make it so low that if you sell it at that price you are left feeling yucky and regretting it.  Some art awards take 30% but the community centre ask a 10% donation - which is great.

Kelly Rae Robert's Etsy article on pricing is the best one I've read and recommend it if you are having trouble deciding on how to price your paintings.

Spring Blossoms Acrylic on Canvas 24" x 24" 61cm x 61cm

York Art Show $300
Community Centre Art Show $250 (less commission means I get $225)
My lowest price before it leaves me feeling yuck is $200.
Family price is even lower because I'm happy that it's staying the family and I can go visit my painting - no on selling though....

Butterfly Windows Acrylic on Canvas 24" x 24" 61cm x 61cm

 York Art Show $300
Community Centre Art Show $250

My lowest price before it leaves me feeling yuck is $200.
Family price is even lower because I'm happy that it's staying the family and I can go visit my painting - no on selling though....

Butterfly  and  Dragonfly  Acrylic on Canvas 46cm x 46cm (18"x18")

Community Centre Art Show $150 each

The Vase Acrylic on Canvas 25cm x 51cm

 Community Centre Art Show $75

The Tulip Acrylic on Canvas 25cm x 51cm

Community Centre Art Show $75


So what do you think of my prices???  Too high???  Too low???  Shells, you know best???

I guess the real question is How much will someone pay for my painting?  I wonder how much the price will change when I'm still trying to sell them in a year......

York Art Awards

No, I didn't win anything  :( not that I expected to, just hoping to sell a painting - will find out next weekend when they get picked up.  It was great to see all the beautiful paintings, the award winner was   Carmen McFaull's  Footprints in the Sand. 

Here are the paintings that I entered in...

Hope you are having a great weekend....let me know.  :D

Art Sale

All my paintings are now ready for the art sale, here are the ones I've decided will be for sale at the community centre...(The local art shop will also be selling some of my paintings but not all of them are finished.)

The Red Boathouse   Acrylic 101cm x 76cm

Day or Night Town   Acrylic 61cm x 61cm

Terracotta Pot   Acrylic 51cm x 76cm

Five Tulips   Acrylic 51cm x 76cm

The Vase   Acrylic 25cm x 51cm

The Tulip   Acrylic 25cm x 51cm

Engagement Present

I recently gave the painting below to friends as an engagement present and thankfully they loved it and thought it was beautiful.  Phew, that's great news.

I loved this one so much that I created a similiar one, I managed to find a moment of sunshine and took it outside for a quick photo....

Before...

Here's  another upside down town that I've been working on...you need to decide which way round to hang it...

Day and Night Town...hmmm I think I need to add grass and a garden to the front of the houses....



And these are Mexican Water Jugs that I'm working on too....

By Friday, I need to have decided which 6 paintings will go to the community centre for the art sale over the last weekend in July where I'll be doing some live painting as an Artist In Residence....

Have a great weekend, hope you get the chance to be with the ones you love and to do something you love.