Pattee Canyon Aspens (20 x 16 pastel on panel)The other day I opened the mailbox to find an envelope with the return address of my gallery in St. Louis. It had a little bump in the envelope, so I figured it was a Christmas card. Much to my surprise, out fell a check for the sale of this painting! (Yep, the monthly statement was included in a Christmas card. With a tassel.)
Slowly but surely, I'm paying off the debt I incurred while painting this last summer and preparing for my big show in August. What a relief. My wife and I are the type who do not use our credit cards unless necessary, so this debt is stressing me out!
Fortunately (so those of you that are here for my 2D art), I'm feeling the urge to paint again building inside of me. The jewelry thing has about run its course. I have a feeling it will end at about noon on Christmas Eve.
Unfortunately, there are several custom orders awaiting my attention this weekend. I have to work on a charm bracelet for a friend's wife, a bunch of stained glass angel ornaments for my bosses, a couple of earring and bracelet orders from my 'mini jewelry shows' this last week, and a final stock-up for my last mini show this next week. Oh, and there's one more special project that has to be completed, but that's hush-hush. If it turns out, though, it'll be a beaut worth blogging about!
Anyway. This Pattee Canyon painting was painted this last summer out in the field beside my grandparents' home in Missoula, MT. At the time, I was very dissatisfied with it, probably because it didn't turn out anything like I had intended. But now that I look at it again, I think it's pretty good. It's hard to do a painting of basically one color and basically one object (like green trees). There are no wildflowers to add a touch of color, not even any mountains, or a path, or clouds. I ended up having to rely on the shadows to give it that breadth of color that prevents it from being too mundane. Actually, I so did not like this one that I almost washed it off so that I wouldn't have to bring it all the way home on the airplane. But I needed it for my shows, so I kept it as backup.
Little did I know that my 'backup' would sell before any of my 'masterpieces'. What do I know?
Until next time,
PastelGuy
http://www.matthewweld.com/ - pastels
http://www.studio206.etsy.com/ - handmade jewelry for sale
