New Art

I've got a new monochromatic animal started! Meet the snow leopard! She is being painted in light blue violet on 12x24 canvas.

The recent show at the Grapevine, Texas Main Street Fest was a great weekend! Thank you to everyone who came out to see me! I began painting the snow leopard at the fest and I hope to get her done soon. I also painted and sold this pretty kitty...

She's done in a combination of ink wash and watercolors.

I hope everyone is having a great week!

I'm here!

I'm going to try, AGAIN, to be better about this blog and keep it more up to date. As usual there is lots going on, sometimes too much! I've completed more of the monochromatic wildlife series! Here is the finished sea turtle, titled "Turtoise" by my husband.

My involvement with the 78 Tarot project continues with the completion of our third deck Carnival! This time around I was happy to paint the Page of Pentacles! The Kickstarter actually ends i the next day or two, we have already been fully funded and unlocked several stretch goals! Go here to be a part of it!

My most recent painting was a practice in beating back the blues. I like it quite a bit! It's a 5x7 ink and acrylic painting.

There is much more coming up, but I don't want to throw it all out at once. Please check back soon. I promise to update more often!

Long Time No Post

This week is a busy week! Art Conspiracy is holding it's famous charity auction this Saturday the 14th and I am one of the contributing artists! I had such a blast lat year that I was more than happy to submit again this year! Come on out and support us! All proceeds go to the Dallas area non profit MAP - Making Art with a Purpose! For more details head on over to ArtCon's website here. 

Here is my prepared board, but I can't show you the final painting until the 14th! It's super cute, though!

Saturday the 15th through the 20th, I have another painting going up for auction at the 78 Tarot Club. It's a monthly themed auction that is tarot related. This month is the "Twinkling Twenties"!

She is a flapper Fool, stepping blindly out onto the stage to start her adventure!

The 78 Tarot Project

I am honored to be a part of a global art collaboration 78 Tarot, where 78 artists from around the world have each illustrated a single card of a tarot deck. We have all of the cards finished and are in the midst of fundraising on kickstarter. If you would like to learn more and see the deck be created visit us here:
78 Tarot

If you would like to help fund the decks creation please see our kickstarter page here:
Kickstarter

We are offering discounted limited edition decks plus all kinds of perks and prizes, including original art and prints donated by the artists!! 

Here is my contribution, the 8 of Wands

Monochromatic Series Update

I have begun five new paintings in my monochromatic wildlife series! I have not yet decided how many paintings the series will contain. As long as I am inspired I will keep going. The monochromatic series are painted entirely using only one color plus black and white for shading and tinting.

Please keep in mind these paintings are not complete. If you would like to follow the step by step completion of these, please like my Face Book page here ArtbyAnastasia

 
Here is the bear. He is being painted using burnt umber on a 36x48 canvas.

the elephant using green gold on 40x60 canvas

the lion using yellow oxide on 24x30 canvas

the snake using bronze yellow on 8x24 canvas

This is the turtle using cobalt turqoise on 30x30 canvas

In the Buff

"In the Buff" is the fourth painting in a series of monochromatic animal paintings I am working on.

The entire piece is made using only ONE color, which is Burnt Sienna, plus varying amounts of black and white to shade and tint. There is not any part that does not have the Burnt Sienna mixed in, so no solid blacks or whites exist.

This is painted on stretched canvas 22x28" using liquitex acrylic paint.

Sorry, but this is a photo of the canvas. I am going to have to get it professionally scanned at a later date.

Original for sale $450

Adventures in Framing

I want to share a scenario that happened yesterday that will hopefully have an educational effect for some people. I am not trying to poke fun at any one, but I run into this problem on a regular enough basis that I believe it should be addressed.

My day job is at a custom frame shop. All day I help people pick out matting and frames. Most people have interesting stories that go with their art, but some people are woefully uneducated about what they have. That is not necessarily a bad thing, you don't have to know everything about a piece of art or photograph to appreciate the beauty of it and want it to look nice in your home, just use some common sense.

A customer, a very nice lady, came in the other day with a beautiful canvas print. It is a very nice, high quality giclee print with painting done over the top of the print to add brush strokes and dimension. This is commonly done and most of the higher end fine art printers offer this over painting as an option. Usually on staff artists will do the over painting, but sometimes the artist themselves will do it too. (Commonly not, as they are busy working on their next masterpiece.) Anywhoo, through conversation I compliment the quality of the print and the customer interrupts me with this.

"Oh, no. We paid nine thousand dollars for this. It's signed and numbered, we didn't pay that much for a print."

I stopped and stared at her, a bit dumbfounded. I started to explain to her that the very fact it was numbered meant that it, in fact, was a print. But she continued on about how awesome it was and how happy they were and how much they loved it and I couldn't bring myself to burst her bubble.

It's an unfortunate part of the framing business that people bring in all kinds of things that they are completely misinformed about. Sometimes things end up being more valuable than a person thinks but usually not. We are not art appraisers, but we love our business and usually know a thing or two.

I mostly just want to end with a few general rules of thumb.

1. If it is numbered it is a print. It does not matter if you can see and feel brushstrokes. No artist sits down and paints 500 editions of the same painting. Yes, some prints will go for thousands of dollars. Print prices are usually (not always!) About 10-40% of the price as the original. If you find a painting you love and the original has a $90 thousand price tag. You can expect to pay $9 thousand for a print.

2. If your ancient antique sword is made of stainless steel, I'm sorry, you were lied too. Stainless steel weapons have only been around for about 60 years.

3. Movie posters have a bunch of fine print on the bottom. In that fine print you will find the year the poster was printed. If the autograph of a person who died in 1973 is on a poster with a date of 1992 you have been scammed.

Like I said. I'm not trying to poke fun, I'm seriously trying to give people a heads up on some of the more common issues I see in my adventures of framing.