A little bit of everything newsletter

Feeding America

 

I recently ran a special sale to benefit Feeding America and the Food Bank for New York.  I was happy to be able to raise almost $600!  Two of my small, abstract seascapes were sold to an old friend from high school (he kindly sent me a pic of the two hanging in his home), and the other was sold to a woman in Texas.  The deal was, if the buyer made a donation directly to the non-profit, I would send them their chosen painting.

#artistsupportpledgechs

I am currently participating in the Instagram campaign#artistsupportpledge and the local #artistsupportpledgechs.  I’ve been posting works for up to $200, and once I reach $1000 in sales, I pledge to buy $200 worth of work from a participating artist.  Anyone can buy my work.  Many artists have lost their income because of COVID19.  Many gallery openings, classes and art shows have been cancelled, leaving artists with no resources aside from the internet to sell work.  I have posted 10 paintings on paper, all under $200, and will continue to post through the duration of the campaign.

The pieces for sale through #artistsupport pledge are found on Instagram at lindadeliafineart, or any art can be purchased through my website: lindadelia.com.

Social Distance

On April 23, 2020, my painting, Social Distance, was included in an article in the Post & Courier about all kinds of artists making art during COVID19 Quarantine.  I painted this intentionally to hold a memory of this weird time in my life.  The colors were painted on first, representing the different people with different feelings and thoughts about the pandemic.  The white paths were painted over the color to create the distance we were required to put between ourselves and our loved ones.  

Rosewood Arts Festival Oct 5

I’m excited to announce I will be setting up a tent full of abstract paintings at the Rosewood Arts Festival in Columbia, SC on Oct 5, 2019!  If you are in the area, please stop by!  I will have work from very small to 24″x30″ available for purchase.

Lulu in the Garden of Peace

This is Lulu.  I finished per portrait just in time for her Grandma’s birthday!  Lulu is 2, and she and her Mommy go to this garden every day to escape the chaos of our world today.  Lulu is learning to count and helps her Mommy remember what is important in life.  As I mentioned, I have been doing abstract painting for about 8 months, and am deliberately letting that genre of painting flow over into my portrait work, as you can see in the background.  I still love doing both, and hope you will think about contacting me to do a portrait of the cute child in your life for either your own home, or for the home of someone you love.

Dual Personality Painter

You may have noticed that I have been branching out into a new form of painting in the past year.

I decided to stretch myself and try abstract painting!  It’s not actually very easy to do, even though it may look like a bunch of paint splatters.

With portrait or still life painting, you know what your subject is supposed to look like.  With abstract, you can either map out a composition, or just paint intuitively.  I’ve done both in my abstract journey.  It is a freeing form of expression, and is still like solving a puzzle, which is how I look at all painting.  Is the composition balanced?  Is there any tension in it, which for abstract work seems to work best.  It’s best to not have things too symmetrical.  Color values, light to dark are used to create interest.  Is there a looseness about it, or is it too tight?

I haven’t given up on painting children’s portraits, in fact I’m working on one now which is a surprise.  But I hope that both forms of painting will cross-pollenate each other, creating a more interesting product.

A Dog and His Girl

Dog and girl

In November, on a bright, unusually warm day, I visited Isle of Palms with my colleague and her children, in order to take photos to work off of for a series I’m working on about children and their environment.  We were happily snapping away when a big dog (I think it’s a Neopolitan Mastiff) and his little girl in a bright orangy swimsuit passed by.  I asked the mom of the little girl if I could take her photo, and she graciously agreed.

So I finally got around to painting this charming scene.  The dog was a challenge, since I’ve never painted the body of a dog before.  This painting and Curiosity were accepted to the North Charleston Arts Fest show at the N. Charleston Colliseum last week.

The 7 month journey

I spent 7 months in 2017 painting a commission for a Christmas present for a military family, him a career Army officer, her the other half of the partnership holding down the home fort while he served in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, and stints in the field for months  at a time.  It was a complicated project, because adults have more character in their faces than kids, so I am learning to paint those identifying marks and shadows.   I wanted Danny to recognize the decorations on his uniform, so that was one day’s session with a tiny brush.  I have a special place in my heart for this couple, so I wanted them to recognize themselves and the love I put into the painting.  They seemed surprised when they were presented with the work, hopefully because it was what they least expected, but also because they understood what a special project this was for me.  Anna and Danny are now on the front page of my website.  Please contact me if you might like to have me paint someone special in your life.

Anna & Danny

Anna & Danny

 

Back to the Garden show – April 8

Not to get too political, but I am becoming fearful for our children and their children, and the world we are leaving them in the wake of changes to environmental laws of late.  Will they have clean air to breathe? Will they be able to swim in the ocean and see beautiful sea creatures or will there be a brown cesspool covering much of the earth? Will there be bees to pollinate and butterflies flittering in the summer sun to delight them?  I try to capture children’s fun in the natural world as we know it today, even in the face of the loss of species, calcification of coral reefs, decrease in bee population.

Many fellow artists have the same concerns and are expressing them in different forms at the upcoming show at Fabulon, 1017 Wappoo Rd in Charleston, opening April 8.  (For more details, go to fabulon.com)  I have 4 pieces being exhibited in this show, including Surfer Girl and Is it safe to go in the water (seen under “portraits”).

 

 

Enter to win a small painting!

Check out my facebook page for info about entering to win my small painting “Fingerpainting”.  If you sign up for my newsletter and like my page, you will be entered into the drawing.  Hurry, offer ends Oct 20, drawing on Oct 21.Fingerpaint for cover

A little bit of everything…an artist’s musings

Brad and Brad

I have launched a twice-monthly blog/email with the above title, look for it on facebook to subscribe and see what I am up to.  The latest is about the painting pictured here with its subjects, Brad and his son, Bradley.  I am currently starting a new portrait for my most loyal collector, featuring her grandchild #12 out of 13.

Month of Alanna/Allana

Alanna at 3Allana L

Just finished my second commission this month of girls named Alanna/Allana.

The first was painted for a former grade school and high school classmate; he asked me to paint his grandchild as a special surprise Christmas present for his son and daughter-in-law.  That would be Alanna at 3.  Such a cheerful little girl to paint, with a charming smile and sparkly eyes.  I could tell from the photo that she is a spirited child.

The one I finished today is Allana L, the 12th in a series of Gloria’s grandchildren, a beautiful young woman with soulful eyes.  Gloria has two more grandkids for me to paint, and I think she is hoping there will be another one coming along after that.

I love doing commissions!

Featured today in Artsy Shark!

Featured today in Artsy Shark!

Great Christmas news, my portrait of my great niece, Mia, was chosen to be featured in today’s Artsy Shark!  Here is the link  http://bit.ly/1NNCSLE.  Mia at 6

Spray!

Spray

Cami was helping her Dad and sister wash the car, and got in on the fun by getting sprayed.  Black and white is something new for me, especially since I don’t actually use black in my paintings.  So the black came out kind of purplish, and I decided to use some yellow in the background to make this portrait pop.  This painting will be one of three “black and white” predominant pieces that will be the center of my upcoming show at the North Charleston Convention Center from 11/5 – 11/28/15.  I will be hanging 23 – 24 pieces for the show.

Bug Whisperer

Bug whispererMy great nephew is one of my favorite subjects.  He’s a very curious 6 year old, and he LOVES bugs!  His grandma took him to a butterfly garden recently and he was thrilled to meet this butterfly up close and personal.  Shortly after that, he and some of his friends devised a way to house a water spider in a special habitat that they put together.