Saturday, December 26, 2009

Goodby 2009, Hello 2010!



This portrait was an interesting challenge for me. This pretty young girl's grandmother commissioned me to paint it for a Christmas gift. The biggest problem was working from a dark 5"x 7" photo and interpreting the look of her teeth under braces. I had the painting checked several times during the process to verify correctness. Fortunately the client is happy with the end result. Would I do it again? I'm not sure. Ask me next year. Actually I had fun doing it. I never thought I would ever say something that sounds so masochistic but it's true. With every new challenge comes knowledge gained from the experience and I love challenges so I must be getting smarter, right? ........Don't answer that.

Nancy and I had a nice holiday with family members who live locally. We always wish the entire family could be there but that's never possible anymore. That's kind of sad.
What's ahead for 2010? As I mentioned in my last post we will be staying here in Loomis, CA over the winter and I plan to build up my painting inventory for the Art Fairs this summer. This, of course, will depend on the progress of the economic recovery. I want to paint some larger paintings which seem to do better in the West. Most of my current works are smaller 8"x 10" to 16"x 20" and some of these I'm selling at auction on Ebay to Easterners where, I'm told, smaller works sell better.
Ebay is a tough art market because customers there are looking for bargains and there is so much work available world wide. In the future this may change as marketing art on the Internet becomes more acceptable to collectors and there is no reason why it shouldn't. Naturally you have to use good common sense just as you would any purchase and make sure the seller is legitimate. In most cases you are guaranteed satisfaction or your money back. In my case I even refund the shipping cost of returning it.
Please email me with your comments at ernie@erniekleven.com. Also you may click on http://www.erniekleven.com/ to go directly to my website to view other works of mine.
Free Web Counter


Saturday, December 12, 2009

Early Morning Color, Oil Painting


Have you ever walked along a quiet frozen creek in dead of winter? I have and it is amazing. The crunch of the frozen snow under your feet warns of your advance keeping the animals and birds v-e-r-y still. Stop for a few minutes and the forest comes alive with bird calls and squirrel chatter. The air is crisp and Jack Frost bites at your cheeks and fingertips. You feel alive, really alive and it is good.

Memories of scenes like this live in my mind from days of my youth in North Dakota and adult hunting outings in Wyoming, Idaho, & Montana. I remember a time when I was a Boy Scout in Cavalier, ND when in the dead of winter I and a couple of my buddies decided to try winter camping in the woods of my friend Bill Well's uncle's farm. I had to borrow a sleeping bag and the zipper didn't work. It was a really cold night and I would get up every hour to re-start the fire to warm up. I was elected to sleep with the canteen to keep it from freezing but guess what? It was frozen solid in the morning. We were only a mile outside the town limits but we had to hike back in a blizzard and temps about 10 deg below zero which was common in those days. That memory is as clear as if it were yesterday.

As usual I've been re-miss in keeping up with this blog. I've have another painting just completed which I will post next and I've been working hard on a portrait I was commissioned to do of a granddaughter for her grandmother. It is a present for Christmas so it has to be completed in time to dry. I'm almost finished with it. Right now I'm nitpicking it finding little corrections to make. I'll post that on a future blog.

Normally Nancy & I would be preparing to leave for Arizona for the winter months but we have decided to stay in Loomis, CA through the winter this year. The winters here are mild anyway, just a little wet in normal years. In fact it is raining as I write this. It has been 12 years in a row that we have travelled to Quartzsite, Yuma, & Wickenburg during the winter months so this will be quite a change for us. I expect to be working the Census beginning in March through June or so. I did Census work in 2000 and it was fun with a little adventure added here and there as some individuals feel they don't have to give census information. I have news for them.

Well that's it for this time. Oh yes remember the paintings I posted for auction on eBay? One was shipped to upstate New York and the other to Virginia. You missed a great buy if you didn't bid on those two. It's customery to leave a comment, positive or negative, about the transaction and I was please to receive this from the last one, " Painting is a real gem! I feel lucky to have won it!" Thank you so much.

As always please feel free to forward this blog to your friends and family and should you choose to discontinue receiving it simply reply with the word, cancel, in the subject line.

If you would like to be included on my mailing list please email me at ernie@erniekleven.com. Also you may click on http://www.erniekleven.com/ to go directly to my website where you may view other works of mine.
Free Web CounterFree Web Counter