Jennifer Love Artwork BLOG

Originally published 8/7/12, a few updates made for republication. ___________________ Kokopelli Conga  ©Jennifer Love I am a fan of Jason Horejs' book, Starving to Successful , and am represented by his gallery, Xanadu (brick and mortar gallery located in Scottsdale, AZ), in their Studio Artists section online. ( Click here to go to my Xanadu page.)  I receive email with info and blog articles from Jason and Xanadu gallery quite frequently. This blog article , written by Jason - from a gallery owner's perspective, is a good reminder about consistency in work (whether style or subject matter). As artists, I think we don't always remember to think of ourselves as a business. We need to create a marketable product and inspire confidence in the gallery owners who carry our work. They need to know that they can replenish our sold pieces with other pieces that are easy for their clientele to recognize as being our work. Kokopelli Circle Dance  ©Jen

Re-post (first published 4/29/12).  ______________________________________ Inspiration! One thing that is wise for an artist these days is to have plenty of your very own, original reference photos whenever possible. It's also good for an artist to plaint en plein air when you can to just get a good reference on color and how light and color intermix in nature rather than a camera interpretation. I don't paint en plein air a lot, so I am trying to do that more often to let my brain work on the color theory. So, while we were out of town visiting Mesquite, NV last weekend, I painted my little "Bottle Bush" painting en plein air one morning. I also took some good reference photos of the Bottle Bush and also an Aloe Vera plant that is about to bloom to add to my reference photo file. (I've never seen a blooming Aloe Vera before - have you?)

My apologies to those of you who follow my blog. I have been a blog slacker in the past few months! Now, December is here...and a time to reflect on the things that really matter in your life, things you are happy with, and things you want to do better on. In my defense, my blog slacking (and art slacking for that matter) have been due to family issues. Myself or one of my kids or my husband have been sick from one week to the next, literally since mid-September. So, I have been paying more attention to my family, trying to get our household running and organized (yeah, right - like that will ever happen), and trying to get my kids well, myself well, my husband well - and still keep up with work at this busy time of year. Crazy!!  Unfortunately, the time and attention to my artwork and my blog have paid the price. But, I can't say I'm sorry about it. While I wish I had more time in the day to paint, think wonderful "artistic" thoughts, and blog away...the reality

Early this summer, I planted six new flowering bushes in our yard - four lilacs in the front yard, one lilac in the back (to replace a butterfly bush that had died last year), and a Rose of Sharon (which is in the hibiscus family). This Rose of Sharon is called "Freedom" and is supposed to turn out a red blossom. I planted lilacs from the same nursery a few years before and they took about 4 years to grow big and give us blossoms, so I knew that we would be waiting a while on these bushes. But, surprise for us this week...the Rose of Sharon is already blooming! :) The flowers are actually more of a pink color than red (probably due to the different acids in our soil). They are beautiful flowers and I am so excited!

Click here or scan the QR code to read my May 2012 newsletter.  :)

This month the Nibblefest theme is Elements. We are usually limited to three entries per theme, but since there are four elements (Earth, Air, Fire, Water), we could enter up to four as long as each entry represented a different element. (Nibblefest is a monthly art contest on ebay. The participants each create artwork around a monthly theme. Each auction must start on or after the 20th of the month, and must end on the 27th of the month; and each auction must start at only $0.99. Search NFAC or ART NFAC each month to find the Nibblefest entries) I've been thinking about creating a series of Kokopelli paintings for a while, but hadn't formed in my mind exactly the path I wanted to take on that journey. (As you may already know, I love the Moab, UT and Arches National Park. If you ever go to Moab, you will see Kokopelli everywhere!) So, when this theme came up on the Nibblefest list, I decided it might be a good time to turn "thinking about it" into "doi

This book was mailed to me recently with a request to read it and provide a review. Typically, I keep my blog posts related to my art pursuits and art-related topics. But, this book actually kind of qualifies in that arena. Since many full-time artists I know are trying to find ways to generate more income to support themselves and their families, and many part-timers are also looking to find additional revenue streams or to find a way to be able to work as a full-time artist, I thought the book might contain some useful information. So I decided to give it a read. Here are my thoughts on The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future . (This is the review I posted to Amazon.com) "This book was quick and easy to read. I found the information to be useful and I appreciated the personal examples of businesses in a variety of industries from mattress sales to map makers to consultants. I felt that there could have been a li

I have just loved so many of these floral reference photos that I have taken in the past week! Beautiful spring flowers! I definitely intend to make some paintings from the shots, but I also decided to make some notecards with the photos themselves. Three different ssortment sets of cards are now available at my Etsy store . (Click the links below if you would like to see them). :) Pretty Poppies Ravishing Roses Lovely Lilacs Here is a pic of the set of Pretty Poppies notecards with envelopes. (Glossy print photo is approx 3.5" x 5" and the cards are approx 4.25" x 5"

As you may already know, I love to travel. My husband and I especially love Moab, UT and Arches National Park. However, we also have a great love for Northern California and the Redwood National Park. Truthfully, we actually like Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park better, but the entire Northern California coastline is full of beautiful Redwood trees, from the Avenue of the Giants all the way up the coast to Crescent City, CA, where we stayed on our honeymoon. Actually, the "honeymoon" was a vacation we took seven months after we were married - but we still count it! :) Besides being an easy drive to Redwood trees, hiking trails, and beautiful, awe-inspiring scenery, Crescent City has lovely coastline and, during July, Crabbing from the docks. I found this such an interesting sight to observe - fishermen tossing colorful round nets and baskets off the dock to catch rock crabs. I got some great photo shots with my camera, as well as wonderful Redwoods pics. Unfortunately, it wa

I participated in this month's mid-month ACEO "Interpretations" challenge on ebay. The mid month challenge is for each artist to create their interpretaion of the same photo reference. Here is my entry " Spirit Island Sunrise "  the auction starts at just $0.99 and ends on the 17th. :)

Beautiful Saturday! We ran errands and gave the yard some much-needed love today. While running differrnt errands and taking care of tasks that needed to be done, I took my camera on a mini photo safari to capture some of the beautiful Spring blooms that are happening in my yard (roses) as well as around the town (Bountiful, UT). Roses, Iris, Poppies. My Peonies are also just starting to bloom! Spring in Utah brings such beautiful flowers! A trip to Lowes resulted in the purchase of a lovely Gardenia that I will be planting in my yard as well. Mmmmm....LOVE the smell of Gardenias! Here are some of my camera shots from today's photo safari. (Perhaps we will see some paintings from these shots soon!) Happy Mother's Day weekend to everyone! :) Purple Iris in my back yard Rose in my front yard - on a bush I started from a clipping off one of my grandmother's beautiful rose bushes Rose in my front yard Rose in my front yard Rose bud in my front yard

May is already here! The 1st of the month always signals the beginning of ACEO Theme Week on ebay (search ACEO TW for all entries). This month the theme is butterflies, so of course I had to submit something on THAT theme!  Click here if you would like to go directly to my ebay auction for "Spring Monarch." This auction is starting at just $0.99. :) ACEO is an acronym that stands for Art Cards Editions and Originals. They are mini paintings the size of baseball trading cards. Quite popular among artists and collectors alike! A great way to collect original art - especially when you don't have a lot of wall space! I also listed some matted prints of my other butterfly paintings to run this week as well. :) Click here (or search Jennifer Love Artwork on ebay) to see all my current auction listings. Also, don't forget to check out my Etsy shop periodically. I am trying to list some new things each week to keep it fresh! And, my larger (and some smaller) ori

"Bottle Bush" (watercolor. Image Size 5" x 7" matted to 8" x 10") Painted en plein air this morning! :) I have listed this on ebay for 7 day auction. After that it will go to my Etsy store . Click Here if you would like to go directly to the ebay listing.

My April newsletter is here.  You can click this link if you'd like to read it, or scan the QR code below. It's also Nibblefest time again on ebay. This month's theme is "Reptiles."  All Nibblefest auctions are created around a monthly theme. Each artist is limited to three works of art. Each piece must start at $0.99.  :) Here are my three REPTILE entries: "Under the Sea Brown Turtle" Click here to go directly to ebay auction. "Under the Sea Red Turtle" Click here to go directly to ebay auction. "Under the Sea Green Turtle" Click here to go directly to ebay auction. Thanks for reading. Have a great weekend! :)