WEB SITE - ROUGH DRAFT VERSION

http://ninoparks.tripod.com/index.html

Here's some of the website - not done yet, but here are some of the paintings I've been going on and on about here on the blog.

I'll have my other paintings photographed this weekend and try to get them up on line - especially the new ones that I just talked about in the last post.

Sometimes the camera doesn't pick up the brightness of the colours in the paintings, but you get the general gist of what they look like. Ah, we're working on it!

Enjoy!!

...almost forgot to mention...

...and thank my music that I've been listening to this week - I think that helped as well. Of course, this week's music is one of my favorite CD's ever - check it out here:

http://www.johnbarlowjarvis.com/

You'll be glad you did - just awesome music from a real musician. Not only that, but he's a family friend and truly a good guy. Love him!

What are you still doing here reading???? Go get the CD!!!! NOW!!!! LOL!!!

Entries in for the NEW competition today

I can't believe I did it! TWO paintings done in roughly a week (the best of 'em turned around in less than a day).

See, the deadline thing got me upset and working and - VOILA! -- I did it!

The painting I worked on too long and didn't finalize (but framed anyhow) is of an old rustic barn in the area my Aunt lives. I'm going to paint it til I find a style that I like interpreting it in. So far, close, but no bells ringing yet.

The second painting was a fill-in painting for another painting that I almost completed, but stopped short of due to the fact that it's subject was not in the county lines. Ooops! So, the fairground official, who sounded very annoyed that I can't tell what county things are in (hey, I'm on a lot of medication lady!!) and said "Okay, since you messed up, what other seascape would you like to enter?" -- to which I blurted out "A painting called 'Bodega Harbour' - that IS in Sonoma County!" She probably wanted to say "Um, yep, congrats on the geography honey!" but sighed and wrote it in. :o)

The problem was that the painting didn't exist! Egads! What to do? I took the title and scanned the brain (which is kinda foggy right now) and found two scenes that are very sentimental for me and combined them into one AWESOME painting! I'm really happy with this one because it's so vibrant and so colourful that you can't help but be pulled into the seascape! Not a boring one that's for sure. To test this theory, I took it to a few art shops (to frame it myself) and had to bring it to the two most honest ladies I know on this planet. They tell me when somethings not quite right or if the painting doesn't work for them. They loved it! Both of them! I am very pleased.

Then there's another thing - I don't WANT it to place and be sold (entries are judged, auctioned and eventually sold off with a percentage going to whatever charity designated) - and I don't want this one to sell. I really like it. It's too personal of a painting to be with someone I don't know. If they call me and say 'pick it up sister!' - well, I'll be happy!

Now, that's a different post from me, right? LOL!

This new painting I did ended up NOT in my typical style (which I'm still floundering about for) but in a Van Gogh type of style. I love VG, but thought I was more of a Cezanne girl. Sigh! Hey, whatever works - and this worked!

Glory to God for all things! Finally, some joy in the midst of the chaos of my life! Thank you God for this tiny drop of talent - it makes my heart sing! I go to sleep tonight a happy and thankful lady!

Painting blocks....

I used to work very well on a deadline - but apparently not last night. I have two works due on Monday and the skyline isn't working out on the darn painting, but everything else is coming along just fine. Changed the colors from a Summer light scene to a vibrant Fall scene - using the infamous Barn as my subject.

The darn sky won't even out and it's bothering me. Time to whip out the knifes.

I think the most recent blocks are from the stupid meds I'm on right now. I don't know how anyone can do this with any form of meds in their system - recreational or otherwise. With mine being the otherwise, I can at least call the doc and say 'what's up with this stuff??' - he's a painter too, so he'll understand.

...and I entered yet another competition. This is a deadline for next year, Jan 2005. There's a deadline I can handle, right? Well, check here in January to hear my whinings about that!!!!! This competition is more about a famous garden here in my city, so that's different. (yeah, right!)

I also decided to RUN back to my instructor and take any painting classes he's giving. I need his imput really bad. I'm stuck in some ways and can't get out of it.

Nothing a nice hot mocha can't fix, right? LOL!

Ms. Deadline to get me going again

Here she comes - another DEADLINE!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHH! Well, more like "ahhhh!" since the entries for the Harvest Fair (a pretty popular wine and art fest around these parts) are mostly completed.

Then, I get the call on Saturday from an official. They didn't like the title of my boat painting. Apparently it's not in Sonoma County, but Marin County. Oh brother! So, I'm doing a quickie Cezanne like painting of Bodega Harbor or Bodega Head. And I mean quick. The paintings are due in about five days.

Then Christmas is coming up (well, it is) and family members are placing 'orders' for their gifts. Hey, it beats going to the mall for something they may or may not like. Not to mention cheaper - hey, I'm a full time mom with a husband in school full time in the languages/Classics department - cheap is GOOD around here.

Last night we celebrated my best friend's birthday (we're both 21 - always, we never age). Anyhow, she surprised us with one of her black and white photos (double photos of hot air balloons taking off placed in a very cool frame). Today she realized that my husband's birthday and Name Day are coming up (both in the same week with her son's smack in the middle) and said she should have given the gift to him that week. These photos she gave us are my hubby's favorite from her last batch of cool stuff, so maybe she should have waited, but he LOVES it so much...well, there's always our family photo that she's taking - maybe a nice one of him and his son? She'll think of something, I'm sure! Today I bought the husband his birthday gift - can't say what it is just in case he checks in here. His Name Day gift is TOP SECRET and so is the anniversary gift...coming up in October.

We decided to just go out to our favorite sailor haunt in Bodega Bay for breakfast instead of the evening dress up dinner stuff. Easier for me and with the new medications I'm on going out to dinner may have me sleeping in my pasta. Not very romantic.

I'll bring my boards and a limited set of paints while he reads the paper and watches me paint. I know, we're weird, but it works for us. We're old people at heart, sorry. Then, he'll choose a painting and have it framed for the house. That's how it's gonna go, I just know it. Ah, now that's romance for us - a whole nine years of it! Forget roses and all that stuff, this is the stuff that we're really into. I just couldn't see him with a material girl. Wouldn't work in a million years.

Well, the Deadline is calling me to get it into gear over here. She's a pushy broad. What a muse to have.

Still working on the posting photo thing...website to come soon I hope. More to come soon!

They actually bought it -- the artwork that is!

I'm official now. I'm a real artist! Well, not in a big way but I finally sold something to someone other than my family! At our annual International Food Festival at our church we had a 'Fine Art' booth this year - first time! We have a LOT of very talented artists in our church - it was very humbling to put my paintings next to some of these masterpieces. And I'm not kidding.

My little painting was sold this morning as the festival opened! If I wasn't feeling so awful health-wise I'd jump up and down! Well, not in front of the customers anyways!

Okay, it was only ONE painting (and a few prints), but darn it, it was a good one! It's one of those paintings that you complete in less than an hour (45 min or so) and just bang it out with a limited palette, one brush. I felt inspired to paint it and boy, is it a bright painting. It's called "Blood Red Oranges" because, well, that's what it's of. Oranges and a whole bunch of those thick green leaves to set off the color against a black background. I loved the idea of the colors against one another and the painting went rather well I think - and so did someone else apparently!!

If I could learn how to post my pictures (or took the time to learn how) I'd do it with this one especially, it just jumps out at ya. My best friend (the photographer genius) who took the photo of the piece is helping me with my website - so as soon as that's done nicely, I'll let everyone know where to check out these mystery paintings I keep blathering on about.

The prints that were sold this weekend were prints of the infamous "Purple Mountain" painting that everyone likes. I frame a smaller version of it in a very nice gold thick frame and the creme and gold matting inside just sets the print off so nicely. When my family visits, they tell me that's what they want for the holidays this year, so I'm making everyone a nice set of two paintings/prints each - depending on their particular tastes.

My closest friends and in-laws have already put in 'orders' for real paintings - kind of a birthday/Christmas dual gift. Of course, my best friend can have whatever she wants because I can't possibly live without her and her golden advice!

I'm hoping to start painting again - for real - very soon. I'm still in the process of getting myself healthy and it's taking longer than I expected. I know that God is teaching me something here, so I'm trying my best to look out for that lesson -- haven't found it yet (or maybe I'm not looking hard enough!).

Glory to God for all things, especially the ability to paint and love colours so much! Also, if you are inclined, please pray for my dear friend Katie - thank you!