Gearing up for the holidays!

I've been busy the last couple days putting up Christmas decorations, and have a few commissions lined up to finish by the Holiday.  Busy as I have been, I still have an itch to do some Christmas paintings.  I loved drawing pictures of Santa as a kid- I even went so far as writing and illustrating a young reader book when I was about ten called Doppy the Christmas Elf- which will never see the light of day again! I love the Coca-Cola vision of Santa created by  Haddon Sundblom.

I eventually would like to do series paintings for my other favorite holiday too- Halloween, and some classic fairy tales like Snow White and Hansel and Gretel.   One thing at a time I guess.


Yesterday I finished reading The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen.  Loved it!  It was also nice to have a cameo of Claire and Bay from Sarah's first book, Garden Spells, which has the honor of being my first Nook Book purchase before my deployment, and which I got a bunch of my fellow soldiers to read after a generous donation made by Sarah herself last year for our company book club.  I hope many more soldiers overseas have enjoyed them as much as we did as we donated them to the camp MWR before heading home. Hmm, maybe I could do some paintings inspired by some of my favorite books.  This is why I have such a hard time getting projects done- always so excited to start the next one!  Yes, one thing at a time.  :/

putting on my game face

So, I have some up with my New Year's resolution early.  Next year I will gather up my courage and participate in at least one art festival. If nothing else, there is the fair in my home town that I never missed as a kid.  If none other, I will definitely be there, especially since it falls on my Mom's birthday weekend and I had planned on being up there anyway.  This is a big step for me since the first and last time I participated in any type of art show it was a complete disaster- horrible turn out and stuck all night with the worst violinists ever!
Since my main focus has become doing custom portraits, I really don't have much in the way of original paintings to offer.  I have through June to build up my print inventory and some more paintings.
I have been doing some hefty research and found a great site to find lots of venues throughout the year.  Flourish canopies are the best I've seen so far that offer what I really envision as a professional, functional, and appealing booth to display my art.
Now that I am back to work full time, I look back at the month I had to work on my art, wanting to work on my art, but was still struggling with the whole reintegration after my year overseas.  I am only just now really getting myself back into the swing of day to day life, and find myself without the amount of time I really need to focus on painting.  2012 is going to be a rough year, but I am determined to come through it as more the the artist I've always wanted to be.  Being committed full time to my art is currently just a dream, but I am hopeful that the effort I put in over the next year gets me that much closer to the dream becoming reality.