I've been meaning to show you my newest purchase of colorful art. It was painted by Tetiana Gorbachenko from the Netherlands. It is 24 X 20, so a decent sized piece and OH so colorful.
In general, I don't usually buy art outside of the US, not because I'm US snobby, but just because with shipping and distance and all that stuff, if there are any issues, it is much harder to handle sometimes if it is from outside the country. That being said, I have taken a chance 3 times and all has gone well. For some reason though, I am still hesitant.
Most of the time, the first thing that draws me to a painting is the color, the bolder, the better. Bright colors make my brain spark in a very happy way. Knowing that, you can see why I was drawn to this painting. Although the subject is a bit general and not very complicated, the combination of colors were mesmerizing to me. It seems everybody is doing the "looking up in the trees" in their own version these days. Maybe I will try it too one day.
I hesitated for a while after I saw it, being that it wasn't in the US and being that she originally had an over $500 price on it. Yikes ! Right ? ...but one day I was looking through the items I had "liked" on Etsy and low and behold, there was a huge sale on the artist's page where some of the pieces were listed for half of their original price. Since the shipping was included in the price I figured NOW was the time to give in and so I did. I was curious if it would make it here from that distance in good condition. I also wondered how long it would take. Happily and surprisingly it was here in about a week. It was packaged very well and was in pristine condition when it arrived. I was delighted.
Some of my favorite colors together are bright yellows and blues. I also am attracted when there are different shades of turquoise/blues and coral/deep pinks. This had a little bit of everything. There are actually quite a few shades of many colors here, yellows, oranges, blues and pinks and of course the more neutral colors on the tree trunks and limbs. All in all, it is a very happy pop of color and I am super happy with it.
Here is where I make the money ! I have my newest art hanging beside my desk where I can look at it with an easy glance up at any time while I am working. My photo doesn't show it up that well, but it is very prominent in that area and it shows up well here at my personal pc/desk across the room where I am now (which is to the right of the window on the right in this photo). I had finally taken down the snowmen I had hanging around the desk for winter this weekend and put some general art back up. None of the art around my work desk was created by me.
I thought I'd share with you the first real art painting I ever bought. The artist is Christine Karron, a Canadian artist. I used to follow her on FB. Although at the time she did many other paintings, it seemed she would paint a small painting daily and sell it from her FB page. There were many followers there and they seemed to scoop most of them right up as soon as they were listed. This is a very small painting, 6 X 6. I knew that before I bought it as it seems that is what she did all her "daily" paintings on. In November of 2014, I paid $60 for it. That's a bunch, right? It felt like a bunch to me as at the time, I really didn't have that kind of extra money to spend on something like art, but in a flash I was compelled to do it. (I may have eaten sandwiches daily for two weeks or more to buy it LOL)
For some reason, I loved the painting instantly. I was fascinated with how she could make such a pretty face with mostly just dabs of different colors dashed quickly onto the canvas. I wanted to be able to do that one day. I wanted to be able to just quickly dab some color around and come out with something good. Once I saw it, I grabbed it quickly as I had been around there enough to see if you hesitated, someone else would scoop it right up pretty quickly. I had also thought it looked a bit like one of my nieces who is VERY pretty.
When I received it I was happy to get it, but also a bit shocked at how small it was. Yes... like I said, I was aware the size when I bought it, but somehow it still seemed smaller than I imagined when it was actually in my hands. $60 for this tiny thing?? LOL.... I laughed at myself for the thought. I still loved it, but I did pondered it a lot off and on for a good while. I thought about art and prices and all the art that has ever been sold and how the art world could make something so small be viewed as ok to be sold for $60. I don't mean that to be insulting to artists. I know many paid lots for art educations and have spent years developing and practicing and most likely some years never making much money before they came into their own. I don't mean to be misunderstood on that. I have made that much or more on some of mine, but they were much bigger than 6 X 6. My painting so far is just a hobby though and I don't depend on it for any income, neither do I make any effort to sell it.
I thought that first piece was a very good lesson on perspective.
I have always been creative and I have tried to paint now and then through the years, but I really didn't take hold of it till around 2012. I had moved back to my home town a few years before after living halfway across the country for 6 years. I wanted my place to have interesting decor and entertained the idea of making everything I hung on the walls myself. Not all painting mind you, but still hand made by me. I worked on that for a long while, but in the end, I was drawn more to painting than other art forms, so I began to paint more. I originally was only doing it for my own decor, but then I liked it so much, I just didn't stop. I don't paint daily at this time, but the art table and canvases and paint are always sitting there, just waiting for my next whim.
I love to change an art photo to black and white to see the brush strokes. I find it interesting to study.
Somehow, my fast dabbing attempts, don't come out anywhere near this ...heh... My pieces always seem to come out odd or very whimsical. I love whimsical, so sometimes it's ok, but most times, after it dries, it gets it's second incarnation as I paint something totally different over it.
It's Sunday morning here. I am still sipping coffee and about to call my Mom so see if she wants me to bring some lunch out to her house. It was sunny and pretty when I got up, but now the clouds have appeared and I just heard thunder, so I guess we are in for a little rain here shortly.
