Faces and details on the mural

These faces are one inch high. It's been a challenge to get the likenesses of the restaurant's owners in such a small space. Two grandchildren and a daughter to go. What was I thinking?
My daughter took this picture of me while I was painting. I thought it turned out well. Today I made up a balcony and tried to make it look like carved stone. And I started in on the people in the gondolas.
I now have 24 and a half hours in on this. I have some (vain) hope I can be done and happy with it by the end of the weekend.
This evening I got the contract for the portrait studio to look over and sign. Had a great conversation with the woman who brought it to me. I find myself looking forward to the whole experience... in between the moments of abject terror.
Tonight Karen and I went to see Love In The Time Of Cholera. Beautiful and meaningful, if one suspends the need for plausibility. Morgan saw Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. Then we went to Taco Cabana for margaritas. Nice. I have a funny, sweet family. Have a good weekend, Ya'll.

Mural Progress

Six hours on the scaffold today. Turned the gondola on the right so that it's directed into the opening, painted arches and walls and brick and geraniums and a lemon tree and lettered the tiny sign with "Bellacino's".
My feet hurt but I'm happy with the progress. More hours tomorrow!

All Sorts of NEWS

Well, well. Life's direction can turn on a dime. These particular changes fall in the category of 'be careful what you wish for, as it will surely come to be'. I submitted a proposal to the City of San Antonio in mid-October for the lease of a space to open a portrait art studio in La Villita (the artsy, historic area in downtown San Antonio adjacent to the Riverwalk). Friday was a day to remember. I was getting ready to go to Justin's for the reception for my show with Donna and Kim when I got a call saying my proposal was accepted. Omigosh! Fifteen minutes later I got a call from a woman who wanted a mural for her new restaurant, deciding that I was the one to do it. So I went to my reception with two new projects swimming in my head.


I won't get possession of the shop until late December, so that relieves me of the dreaded rush to get it up and operational in time to be profitable before Christmas. But it's still happening pretty fast. I started the mural on Sunday, so have been painting on it each day since. I'll post the latest image from that. It's an arched space framed by bricks, on a wall above a four foot wainscotting and ledge. Nine feet across, five feet high, so I'm working on a scaffold. I'll post more photos as I go.


The novel has slowed up considerably. I'm pretty darned sure I won't have 50000 words written by November 30th. But I like my premise and I'm inching along on it. In the midst of all this, my desktop computer threw its little electronic hands in the air and died. So I'm working on my laptop without the benefit of many a needed file and program, waiting for a bright young fellow named Cody to build me a new machine.
The mural will be a Venice canal with three gondolas. The center gondola will be carrying the members of the family opening the restaurant, the gondolier being the co-manager son. The mom is the other manager. I'm admiring this family's ability to work hard. They impress me. So far I have a bit of brick wall and the water and the scene at the end of the canal. There will be a little cafe on the left past the bridge. Bellacino's is the name of the restaurant and the name will be on the little white sign on the pink building. The foreground gondola will have produce as cargo. At least, that's the plan.
Nighty night, all.

I'll be back....

Ok, I'm staggering under the load of all the things I'm doing right now and will try to get back to blogging as soon as I can take a deep breath. Thanks for coming by..Leave me a comment and I'll respond specifically, ok?

Another Eleventh Hour post

Today has been a wild mix of airport runs, errands, the death of a cell phone and purchase of another, making dinner, adjusting my nephew, Amazing Race (didn't see the end because it interfered with...) The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard on PBS, and finally seeing Joni Mitchell on Tivo from this morning's CBS Sunday Morning. In between I talked with my parents in Idaho, and my friend Karen about the novel's start and tried to figure out my new phone. It does email and instant messaging, and I still don't know my way around it, even after studying up. Didn't actually work on the novel today, so tomorrow will be tough catching up. Tomorrow is also the day to enter work in the portrait show at the Coppini, but I'm ill prepared, having just hung the show at Justin's.
No photo to add to today's post right now. I'll have to see what I can do tomorrow.
Nighty night, All.

November 3, Saturday

I spent the day at the River Art Gallery selling art to happy people visiting San Antonio from all over the country. I got to work with two very nice women, Abigail and Alice, and I got to work on my novel just a little. I'm still about 1600 words behind, but I'm going to try to put a dent in that number before going to bed. 50,000 words divvied up between the thirty days of November is 1667 words a day. About two and a half pages in Microsoft Word in 12 pt. type. Completely possible, right? That's what I keep telling myself.
Ok, it's back to work.....

National Novel Writing Month kickoff

But will I participate this year? I did participate for the first time two years ago, and learned so much about myself writing those 50,000 words over the course of November. Last year I had good intentions and started off all right and then let life nudge me off the path. I've been reluctant to state any intentions for this year. But here it is. Two hours are left of November 1st. If you fall behind the 1667 words a day quota, it's tricky to try to catch up. So, ok, I'm going over to the NaNoWriMo site and sign in. I'm going to give it a shot. I could use a little self knowledge right about now. Several aspects of my life are in limbo, so doing something positive and incremental should be helpful. Painting always helps in that way, too. So: painting and writing. Writing and painting. That's the plan.

Second and last day of Artisans Fair

Well, I'm bushed. I forgot my visor and my apron today so my nose is burnt and I had to scrub oil paint out of my clothes when I got home. But, again, I loved the questions the kids asked today. If I could spend the next year just painting those eight and nine-year-old faces, I'd be in heaven. I promised I'd post the finished painting of the dogs on my blog so the kids could see them done. I'll try to finish them up by the weekend. In the meantime, here's how the second one looks at the moment.
Tomorrow we hang our show at Justin's On Main. I'll put the reception information here again. Do try to come next Friday! Good eats and good art. Can't beat that.

Three Points of View
Three painters, three ways of looking at the world.
Paintings by
Susan Carlin, Donna Bland and Kim Roberti
Please Come to the Reception
November 9, 2007
Friday 5:00– 8:30 p.m.

Justin’s On Main
2512 N. Main Avenue
San Antonio, Texas

Refreshments, Art
and Scintillating Company

The Show will be in place all of November 2007

First day of Artisans Fair

This is the second year I've participated in Artisans Fair. This year I'm there for both days. I'm making a rough guess, but over the two days I get to talk with about 700 third graders, 30 at a time. For eighteen minutes with each group I paint and talk and answer questions. The questions were great. I loved all those wonderful, young faces asking them, too.
Last year I set up a still life consisting of a teddy bear, a basketball and a toy car and painted that. This year I'm painting dogs. One per day. Today was Jack, my brother's dog, . You'd think Jack was my mom's dog, though. He spends a lot of time on her lap. So when this is done, I'll send it to her. The photos above are of what it looked like at 30 minutes, and then at 3 hours. I think I painted less than an hour of those three hours, though. Mostly I talked and answered questions. The most interesting question: Was there ever a painting you regretted painting? Wow. I'll have to think about that one. Mostly the kids wanted to know how long it takes to paint a painting and what painting was my favorite and when did I start painting.
Tomorrow I 'm going to paint a different dog; I think it's a Jack Russell. I'll work on both of them more afterward and post the finishes here soon. Thanks, Third Graders of SCUCID!

Halfway through the demo

This is a photo taken as we were returning from a 10 minute break about thirty minutes into the painting. I'm glad Carol sent me this, so you could see HER!
Thank you, Jo, for your suggestion about answering some "why" questions while I'm demonstrating. The reasoning behind. I like that, too. I'll put some thought into my whys and see how I can weave them into my presentation. Thanks!

Demo today at Coppini Academy

Well, that was fun. What a difference between the Fredericksburg group and this one, though. F'burg folks asked lots of questions and there was a lot of laughing and clear interest. My home folks here were more subdued and reserved for some reason. But I got several thank yous afterwards which seemed happy and sincere.
Carol Hatch offered to be the model and did a nice job of it. This was just a 50-60 minute oil sketch, but I like it. If she decides she wants it I'll refine it more from the photos I took there.

I have a question- I like to do demos. When you go to a demo, what do you want the artist to talk about and show? I'd like to work up a program to offer to groups of non-artists, too, so any ideas about what to address? I have my own ideas, but would love to hear yours. Thanks!
I got to use my new palette today and liked it a lot. Here it is in its virgin state:
I also got the "Artist of the Month" award today with my "Evening Comfort" painting. Felt good.
Tomorrow I'm going back to work on the commission of the bathing beauty at Lake Michigan.

Tiny Dancer... maybe done?

Thank you, Karen, for the title suggestion. Love it.
This one was fun.
Oil 16"x20" on canvas panel.
Now, off to Coppini to do the portrait demo......!

Demo and new painting starts

I got a call yesterday from Donna B. asking if I'd demo for the Coppini membership on Sunday (tomorrow). I'd been telling everyone to go to the meeting because John Michael Carter was going to demo. Well, his workshop didn't get enough takers, so he's not coming. Let me tell you, tomorrow people will be expecting to see a much more accomplished painter and it'll be lil' ol' me. But heck, I'll do the best I can. Anyone want to come? 2:00 at Coppini Academy, 115 Melrose Place.

Yesterday I drove up to New Braunfels to collect my friend Diane Manousos and we went downtown San Antonio to go to Herweck's big annual art sale/product show. I think I showed remarkable restraint. I got some of Ampersand's Claybords as surfaces for oil paintings. They're very smooth, so I'm curious about them. Also a a couple of Pastelbords and Art Spectrum's Colorfix sanded pastel papers. I ordered a package of the color I prefer, too. Pastel pencils, always. And I couldn't resist a case of new synthetic brushes. Short handled, but I do have to admit that I rarely move back to the end of a long-handled brush, anyway. I also got a wooden handheld paint palette and I've been applying several coats of waterbased polyurethane on it, hoping it'll be ready for tomorrow's demo. Diane gave me one of her Rembrandt white oils and I stopped and used her coupon for a new cobalt blue at Hobby Lobby on the way home. I get so excited over new supplies.

I've started a couple of new paintings and moved forward on another. The ballerina might work out for an entry to the portrait show at Coppini in a couple of weeks. The woman on the grass is a commission I'm doing from a black and white photo. May still have to shorten her forshortened legs... The woman and dog is something I've dawdled on, but think will be cute as heck when I'm done.

Mark Your Calendars!

Please come to our SHOW in November!

Three Points of View
Three painters, three ways of looking at the world.
Paintings by
Susan Carlin, Donna Bland and Kim Roberti
All of November 2007 at
Justin’s On Main
2512 N. Main Avenue
San Antonio, Texas

Please Come to the Reception
November 9, 2007
Friday 5:00– 8:30 p.m.

Refreshments, Art
and Scintillating Company

AFTERNOON TEA, 11 x 14 oil still life.

This was such a pleasure to paint. Karen's dishes, a napkin, knife and apple. Love that fat little teapot.

Alamo painting, "Remember", Auctioned at Gala

This is Bill Sartor, the nice man who won the painting I donated to the Daughters of the Republic of Texas for their Gala which was held on Saturday. I got to meet him and his wife, Barbara, before the dinner and the auction and then see them again afterward. I'm so glad the Sartors won. They were so delighted! So was I.

Karen went with me to the Gala and boy, did we sparkle up for the occasion! I teetered around on silly shoes all night and was really glad to step out of them in the car. We had a wonderful dinner, terrific entertainment and got to hear the author of The Gates Of The Alamo speak, and hear the director of the movie The Alamo speak, as well.

I signed posters and talked with a lot of other sparkly people. Good evening all around.

Demo portrait of Steve Talley

Boy, there's nothing that forces you to "stay loose" like too short a time to complete a painting. This is the very loose result of the demonstration for Die Kunstler last night. An hour of talking more than I painted, I'm afraid. Steve's a good looking fellow, so don't hold this portrait against him. He was a very good sport to sit for me last night. Here's a link to his website: http://www.cstalley.com/

Thanks, Steve!

Two demos this week .... and an award!

This has been a fun week. Two demos, two classes, two awards, and a new commission.
The first demo was set up by one of my students this summer, an art teacher at Brauchle Elementary School. They have an annual "Art Walk" evening where artists of all sorts are invited to come and demonstrate their work. I loved painting and talking with all the great kids and their parents.
The second demo was for Die Kunstler, an art league in Fredericksburg. ('Die Kunstler Von Fredericksburg' means The Artists Of Fredericksburg.) That was tonight. Oh my! Were they fun! Forty-five artists watching me do a quick oil portrait. No pressure. The president, Steve Talley, was gracious enough to sit for me. Nine artists signed up for a portrait workshop with me.... now we just need to find a place to have it!
I called on the way back from Fredericksburg to find I'd won "Second Place Oil" at Coppini with my painting of the little girl holding her dad's hand. That made me feel nice... and bit richer. It's the first oil of mine which has been accepted into a show, so it's nice that it won something.
The portrait commission is from a woman my age here in San Antonio who's having a painting done of herself at 18 in a bathing suit. Lake Michigan in the background. Very sweet, actually. The photo is black and white, but I'm told the suit should be baby blue. That'll be fun.
The DRT Gala is Saturday evening and I still need to buy shoes to go with my outfit. I'll be signing Alamo posters that night. It should be a wonderful evening. I can't wait to see what the painting goes for in the auction!
Sunday I'm volunteering at the River Art Show in La Villita. Last year I had a booth at the show, but this year the Gala prevented participating. I'll just go and help the other artists on Sunday. My friend Mary Shepard has a booth again this year. I love her work.
Nighty night, All.

Print of Alamo painting, "Remember" available

I had really nice 16" x 20" prints made of this painting (on good matte finish cover stock with a lithographic printing process) and will happily send one to you! I'll put a PayPal button on this post for anyone who wants to use their credit card, or you can mail me check. $20. plus $4. shipping. (Mailed in a sturdy tube.)

FYI: This image is of the painting, so you can see the light catching the palette knife strokes in the upper right corner. That isn't visible on the prints, of course.

The figures of the women in the painting are Adina De Zavala and Clara Driscoll, the two most passionate and dedicated of those who managed to save the Alamo. Here are some articles about them. Fascinating! http://www.tamu.edu/ccbn/dewitt/adp/history/bios/zavala/zavala.html

http://www.texianlegacy.com/eckhardt.html

My Alamo painting on TV

As a portrait artist in San Antonio, this project was a bit off my beaten track, but very rewarding.
This morning the painting of the Alamo I did for the Daughters of the Republic of Texas' 2007 Gala was on KENS TV (CBS) on the local "Great Day S.A." show. Until yesterday I was supposed to have been on the show with the painting and the spokeswoman for DRT, Joan Headley, but they had to shorten the segment to make room for something that had been added to the show. I didn't know whether to feel sad or relieved. The painting looked GREAT on its easel there, though, and Joan said some terrific things about me and the painting, and it was very flattering to be on the same bill as the director of the movie "Alamo" and the author Steven Harrigan, who wrote "The Gates of the Alamo," San Antonio's 'one book, one San Antonio' this year.

My class was last night. Everyone's working on portraiture. I'm so proud of their efforts.

Tonight is the first meeting of the Austin Pastel Society after our summer break. I'm driving up with Sherrie Allyn, another member, and am looking forward to seeing everyone again. Jeannette Cuevas is doing the demonstration tonight. Should be good.

Oh! The daughter who commissioned the painting of her dad, sister and herself came on Tuesday and declared it wonderful. I even got a big hug. So now it dries until Saturday when I'll varnish it. She's going to have prints made for her sister and dad, so she can keep the original.

Possible finish of Dad N' Daughters

I got up at 3 a.m. and worked on this until 7:30 or so. I think it might be done. I've sent the image on to the client and will have a final session with her making any last minute revisions.

Went back to bed at 7:30 and woke again a couple of minutes ago. Today I need to frame the wedding painting in order to enter it in the Coppini Show. I found a great frame on sale at Hobby Lobby yesterday- just right for that painting. I'll try to remember to take a photo later.

Now back to my coffee and taped CBS Sunday Morning.

More "Dad N' Daughters "

I got to work on this only a couple of hours today, but am pleased with warming the dad's expression some, using a different photo for help with that. Still a lot of work to do on the clothing and background, but am hoping to finish up tomorrow sometime.

Hey, Ya'll! I need a title for the wedding painting. I was thinking of "Dreamer," but wanted to use the Spanish word. I think it's Sonador, but also found Tarabilla in the Spanish-to-English online dictionary. Looked like Sonador was the male version, and the female was Tarabilla. Does anyone know?

Tomorrow I'll be entering the wedding painting, plus two others, an oil portrait of a little girl holding her dad's finger- 'Holding On', and a pastel of a yucca plant landscape- 'Desert Dancers' in Coppini's Fall Exhibition, so need a title SOON!

Have a nice Saturday night, All.

Progress on Dad N' Daughters

Great day. I love spending time with Donna and Mary. Today we were out at Mary's gorgeous place in the Texas Hill Country. She and her husband Lee had really put in some effort on the garden around the house, especially the area that the studio looks out over. Hummingbirds, cardinals, a blooming bird of paradise which is blooming for the first time in the 20 years she's had it, purple dahlias so beautiful it made you gasp, pink roses so lush, a dinner plate hibiscus a foot in diameter.... wonderful. Then we talked. And talked. And told what's new in the last month, spoke of spiritual ideas, entreprenurial ideas, paint colors, family happenings. It's always good. Oh yeah, and we painted. I got quite a bit done on this painting. Still tons more to do.

Then I came home to treat a patient and then get the studio ready for my evening class. I'm impressed by how hard these folks work to learn. I respect that a lot. They each moved forward in some obvious way. Very exciting for me.

Now that class is over, we're having berry margaritas and telling about our days. Thought I'd take a moment and post this progress.

Sweet dreams, ya'll.

Second progress of Dad N' Daughters

I got to paint a little bit today and just deepened some values and modeled the faces some. Thought I'd post the progress. Tomorrow is my always-wonderful, once-a-month painting day with Donna Good and Mary Shepard, so I'm hoping to have lots of progress to show tomorrow night. Tomorrow evening is the second meeting of my painting class here at my home studio, too. We have a fourth person joining us this time. Today I had my Tuesday class here, too. Love that commute: One step through a door.
Tonight it's Biggest Loser and time with family.

I love painting. Does it show?

New start... Daughter bookends

This is a slap n' dash oil sketch I did this evening to get me started on this fun commission. I'm trying to change the women's clothing to the colors they're wearing in a different photo. We'll see how it works out. If it isn't believable further down the line I'll change it to their original clothes. I've done two other smaller portraits for the woman on the viewer's right. Now she's commissioning this one of her dad and sister and herself. I'll post the progress shots as I go.

Nighty night, All.

No Really. I'm finished.

Ok, I'm going to stop now. I thought I'd finished at 2:15 when it dawned on me I needed to be at the Coppini to watch my friend Kim Roberti do a demo for the membership meeting. (I broke a few traffic laws to get there.) But when I came home I had an email from a good friend and sister artist, Jo Castillo, who made a suggestion about the leaves of the little bouquets the women were carrying. Bless you, Jo! I quickly made some additions and have declared the thing DONE. These photos really punch up the blue. The dress isn't really quite so blue, I promise you.

Next painting is a commissioned one of a Dad flanked by his two grown daughters. I'll be diving in tomorrow.

Have a nice Sunday evening, ya'll. It's the finale of The 4400 for me, and we'll tape the Mystery movie on PBS tonight... an Inspector Lynley story. Already started on a glass of wine, and the chicken stirfry is almost done. Lovely.

Close to Finished

Ok, it's 1 a.m. I've been painting another 10 hours in a row. I'm inclined to think this might be done. I'll look at it again in the morning. I've suffered enough over the silly basket and ribbons. Of course, now I look over and see that the ribbons behind the basket should come down below it, as well. Sigh. I'll have to deal with that in the morning. This thing has to be dry, varnished and framed in a week, so I can't paint any more past tomorrow morning.

'Night All.

Many Hours later...

I've worked on this painting maybe 10 hours today. There's still so much to do. I'm feeling better about some little pockets of it. Of course, I took these photos under fluorescent lights, so the colors are wacky.
Last night was the first painting class at my home studio. Just three students, but we agreed there was room for a fourth. One of the students mentioned it to a friend of hers and now she'll be joining us next Wednesday evening. Funny thing, too- All four want to work on portraiture! Could I be any luckier? The first class went very well, I thought. Two worked in pastel, one in oil.
Ok, off to bed now. Thank you all for your kind comments.

Stroll on the Riverwalk

Karen and I saw a great one-woman play by Marga Gomez last night and then went on downtown to walk along the Riverwalk, then sat and had margaritas and watched the tourists and talked. I felt a little touristy myself and took a couple of pictures of the Alamo. After doing the painting of the Alamo for the Daughters of the Republic of Texas last month, it was interesting to see it up close and with all the dramatic night lighting. I'm looking forward to their Gala on October 6th and watching the painting being bidded on during the auction. I'm starting to fret over what one wears to a Gala, though. Help!

New Studio... in progress.

I've been working on my studio, trying to organize all the flotsam which survived the big clean-out. I'll have to keep on culling out the unnecessary to make room for the must-haves, though. I'm starting to give a new evening class on Wednesday. I'll just have three students since that's as many as will fit right now. I've called an electrician to install the additional lighting the room needs and I hope it'll be in by Wednesday. Karen gifted me with a great new Verilux lamp when I got home on Thursday night. Thanks, Karen! The thing in the corner may look like a coffee table, but its new life will be as a portrait platform. When I have a sitter, I'll take the finished paintings off, and put a chair on top and draping behind. Thanks Donna B. for suggesting its new use!Of course I'm not going to show the near wall with all the stuff jumbled against it, waiting for order to be created. When it's done, I'll show you. Promise.

I spent much of this morning assembling the new drying rack. I'm so excited to have it for the all the new paintings I'll be doing to list on eBay again. It's been a long time, but I'm getting jazzed about starting that up again.