Tree at the Bend

I got a photo from a friend in Canada of a big sky and rainbow but i liked this small part of the picture much better. I also liked the format I choose for it. What attracted me to it most was the light and shadow that falls across it. I hope that it works.

Tree at the Bend
12"x4.5" pastel

a few new paintings

Thousand lashes with a wet noodle, i have been neglecting my blog!
I have done a few paintings over the last week, first a very small 4"x6" painting out of my head

Rivers Edge 4"x6" pastel


Next is a boat on the bay at sunset, not sure about this one, maybe its to dark or just to boring...

Boat on the bay 9"x12" pastel


This last is based on a Marsh in Cape Cod, Ma. I embellished a bit because it was really very boring

Cape Marsh 9"x12" pastel

Today I am off to hang paintings for a local show i am in ( http://laureltonart.com/Festival_in_Art_2009.pdf ) and tomorrow one of my paintings is getting picked up for the Art Of Goodness art auction that I donated it for.

Anyway, off to hang paintings, thanks for looking!

Barnegat Sunset

I finally got back to the easel after quite some time! This painting is of a sunset over the Barnget Bay in Seaside Park, NJ. It is painted in soft pastels on art spectrum colorfix paper. I am glad to be painting again and hopefully life wont keep me away from the easel anytime soon! Thanks for looking!

The Great Escape (from the talking heads)

A friend of mine is a known painter of pears. He painted a series which he made into a book called The Secret Life Of Pears. So I was in an art chatroom with a bunch of artist and several of us realized we had never painted pears before so Joe challenged us to paint them.

I found them to be fun.. they are a fun shape, and very uncomplicated, which, in this very complicated world was quite refreshing.

It reminded me that I should turn off the talking heads, stop thinking about the tangled mess the world is in and paint more, simplify my world, my outside influences and focus on that blank canvas (which can be scarier then the crashing stock market..) and make a mark, and another till something beautiful or at least pleasing emerges.

So I painted the Great Escape, the one pear breaking away from his cello prison :)

And now I should turn off the news with all their doom and gloom and the sky is falling rhetoric and head to my easel!

and the winner is...

Art Print Giveaway

WINNER is.....

Angie!

Thanks for participating, it was fun and will do another at the end of the month!
Results were determined on random.org

watermelon dreams

CHECK OUT MY GIVEAWAY 2 POST DOWN
A customer had requested a couple crushed cans with watermelons painted on them so thats what I did today, tomorrow I get to do an Abraham Lincoln on a crushed can!

Artfire

Enter My Giveaway (1 post down!)

ARTFIRE
I have been on artfire for a couple months now and I am amazed that according to google analytics my shop traffic has grown 890% in the last few weeks! I am now getting more views on artfire then on etsy! Someone is doing something right. Anyway, if anyone wants to join artfire, they are $7 a month for life, but they only have 1500 $7 spaces left. If you want to consider joining, i would appreciate it if you used this link
Register on ArtFire.com
So I can get credit for the referal. Anyway, happy shopping and selling.. im off to paint a few crushed can request.. I'll post them later today!

End Of Month Giveaway!

Art Print Giveaway!



Its the end of the month and I have decided to host a giveaway of any print in any of my shops! Its simple to enter! Browse my shops located at 1000 Markets, Artfire and Etsy and leave a comment here on my blog about what you liked best!

I would also love to know what you would like to see me do more of! It would be great if you could blog and/or twitter about this giveaway! Be sure to leave a way to contact you so I can let you know if you won, winners will be choosen by random.org.

If you are the winner, you'll receive one print of your choice from the shops listed!
Contest Ends March 2nd, Winner will be announced March 3rd!

IF you find any item you would like to buy during this
contest in my shops, email me and I will give you
20% off the entire purchase!
artbyjoni [at] gmail.com
(use the @ symbol and let me know you came to my site through this contest)
Open to everyone, anywhere :)

Good Luck!

Gator

This past week I did a portrait of my vets dog, I'm hoping he'll hang it in his office for customers to see and maybe, just maybe, get a sale from it. I do have flyers there, advertising my Pet Portraits. His name is Gator and he i a cutie. Unfortunately I only had a somewhat blurry photo to work with but I think it came out ok.

Gator
9"x12" Pastel

Gallery Opening on Saturday

I had my gallery opening Saturday night and it was alot of fun. The theme is Red White and the Blues. None of mine sold that night but I did meet a lovely couple who purchased an $11,000 painting that night, a large abstract.. really large. The show runs till March 31st at www.jagfineart.com

This is my sister outside the gallery


A view of the Gallery


2 of my pieces


the flag is one of mine

New Painting Snow Creek

I finally got back to doing some more serious painting and started off with an ode to winter. The snowfall we had last week inspired me to get out and get some reference photos. It isn't often we get more then a flurry or dusting down on the shore. It was good to be painting again and my next one is a dog portrait for my vet.

NEW Obama crushed can art

I did some crushed art cans today, something to get me into the swing of things again. I went to lunch today with a friend and she suggested I do some Obama themed cans so I figured what the heck. So here are some
Obama cans for Obama fans

Click on photo for larger view and purchasing options
Planning on doing some real painting tomorrow so check back!

Lucky Day!

Arts Afire recently had a contest to win a free painting to celebrate her 50th follower and guess what? I won :) Go check out her blog and etsy shop, she is a pretty amazing artist and apparenty it runs in the family. Her grandfather Jay is also a wonderful artist and has a shop on etsy too.

Thank you Sara!

As for me, I haven't been painting in the last 2 weeks but have a few paintings planned and ready to go. See you soon!

The New Show I am in at JAG fine art

You are invited to an early cocktail reception at JAG Fine Art
on Valentine’s Day, Saturday, February 14th from 5-7 pm.
Wine, cheese and chocolate. Stop by before your hot dinner date.

“American Colors:
Red, White and the Blues“

Paintings and photographs that celebrate and critique American culture in a time of severe economic turmoil and great political hope under the first black President of the United States.
Remember to support the arts and artists of your community!

Painters: Gwen Gavios, Rachel Gavios, Melissa Bartlett, Katelyn Schuh and Joan Swanson

Photographers: John Andrulis, Ariana Lance, Gene Szucs and Alison Dunlap

Visit http://jagfineart.com/ for more information!

more soda pop art :)

A few more crushed can designs I did this weekend. Im planning on doing some serious painting in the next day or two (since it is "supposed" to snow) as well as organize and begin marketing for the classes I will be teaching later this month.
All my crushed cans are available for sale on etsy.com

Classic Art.. on a crushed can!

A couple of silly pieces I did, cartoony styled old master copies... on crushed cans LOL

Davinci's Mona Lisa (sort of) on a crushed soda can


Van Gogh's Stary Night on a crushed soda can


They both come mounted in the frame and available on my etsy shop and currently on SALE! :)

one of those days...

Good news, the painting, New Beginnings was accepted into the show at the JAG gallery so I am pretty excited. When the show is over and if it hasn't sold it will be listed on 1km. (really hoping it sells). I'll post more details on the show when i have them.

Have you ever had one of those days? Days when you should probably have never gotten out of bed? Sunday was that day for me. Without going into a long drawn out depiction of the day, i scalded my hand with boiling water (it is mostly ok, ran cold water over it immediately), got a flat tire, while with someone else that day her car's battery died, and then to top it off, while carrying a 70lb air compressor down a set of stairs i missed a step and fell down the stairs. Banged up a bit but otherwise ok... what a day! Kind of afraid to paint now... i might poke an eye out with a brush or drink some turps! LOL

New Beginnings Oil on canvas 24"x12"

Finished the painting and tonight will submit it to the show and see what happens from there. I named it New Beginnings because I started it during the presidential inauguration, a new age in America was beginning. The sunrise, a new beginning on a new day, and the tattered old flag kind of spoke to me about where we are now as Americans. Is this the new dawn of a bright future, or is it a beginning of the end? Only time will tell. It was fun working in oils again and with as much paint is left on the palette i think i will do one or two small paintings in oil in the next day or two. Right now though.. i have a date with a washing machine.

possible piece for an upcoming show

I have been working on a piece that I am going to try entering into a local show. The theme is Americana, ironic or iconic, it has to be done in oils so I figured I could whip something up. I decided to redo a painting I have done before, since it was the most interesting flag reference I have. I did a more wide angle view and grabbed part of the sky from a different photo from the same shoot in hopes to add more interest. It isnt finsihed yet, but hope to finish it tomorrow. Submission is due by Friday, so I figure i will know in a few days if it is excepted since the drop off for the show is a week later. SO anyway, here are the WIPs so far. Tomorrow I will post the finished piece.

Brrrr... its cold out there! Good day to stay in and paint!

I have been in a bit of an artistic funk lately and I think I miht be breaking out of it finally. It is bitterly cold here and yesterday we ot a bit of snow, around sunset I saw these awesome clouds over the beach and new despite it being 19 degrees out I had to go to the beach and shoot some photos. I got some nice shots and today I painted one of them, although i am not sure i am very happy with it.

After the Storm
9'x12"
Pastel

new shop at 1000markets!

I just opened my new shop at 1000markets.com. Initially I was skeptical, thinking it was just another crafty site like etsy but I see they have alot of fine art as well so I am excited about that! I'll see what kind of traffic I get over there and may start movin more of my artwork there. Anyway I have spent the whole day on the computer working on promoting my shops and updating my site so I should get back to the easel!

Check out the shop at http://www.artbyjoni.1000markets.com

crushed can art

a bit of a diversion from the norm, I decided to try something a little different. I came across a a guy painting soda cans and thought it was pretty neat so decided to try some and see if they sell on etsy. Here is a few samples :)




So I crush the can as flat as I can, of course cleaning them out first, and then paint the side to be painted with gesso. The I paint the imae with acrylic paints and sprays it with a clear enamel to protect the painting. I then glue the can to a piece of acid free mat board and place it in the frame.

So will give it a try and see if any sell.. the electric company is calling so I sure hope they do!! LOL

The waiting begins in the jurying process

This weekend was a complete washout at work with the snowstorm that almost was but i did take 4 of my paintings in to be juried for the Monmouth Festival of Arts show in April. I should hear back by the end of the week if any paintings got accepted. These are the paintings I submitted, I think the sunset is the weakest.

new website design is up

No art today but a bunch of art marketing, one thing I spent a great deal of time on is redoing my website so feel free to take a peak and let me know if you have any suggestions or if anything is not working :) It is i think alot simpler and not as busy as the old site was.

http://www.serendipityartist.com
Have a wonderful day!

Morning Sail

Morning Sail 9"x12"
Available Here

Finished this one up today, enjoyed painting it. The reference I used was from a photo I took on my trip this fall to Cap Cod. Feel free to leave comments or critiques.

New WIP

Finally got back to painting today, started a new piece but havent finished it yet. It is from a photo I took while in Cape Cod this past September. Here is the WIP as it stands now. I hope to have it finished by Wednesday.

Summer Carousel in Oils

Happy New Year... glad to see '08 in the rear view mirror! The last few days I have been working on a piece in oils, first time i pulled the oils out in over a year. It was fun and I am glad to work in oils once again.


Summer Carousel 12"x16" oil
Available for sale here

I look forward to a prolific new year and hope to advance my art marketing skills for 2009, do a few shows, sell a few paintings :)

Happy New Years!