We stay busy year round! But admit it, there is something about Christmas that makes all of us think that NOW is the time to pick up that present or item we have been thinking about all year long! And my clients are no exception :-). NO problem! When they call me with the nudge of "OK, I need to call her this week!" I am perfectly happy with that! I work great with deadlines. I LOVE deadlines. I work
great in public, late into the night, first thing in the morning and everything in between. To be successful at art in any form, you HAVE to value your clients' needs and expectations. The funny thing is most clients will preface a deadline request with "I don't want to rush you" and rest assured, they do NOT! My normal reply is to laugh and assure them that deadlines work for me :-).
The pencil collage above (sorry for the blue cast) is the second one that I have completed for a client with her horses. I leave space around the images and add the names onto some area of the halters and as she adds more horses, she brings the portrait back and I add the new horse. I have done the same with people's dogs and it is a loving tribute to the many animals wh share or have shared one's life! People? Of course! A collage is a grouping of subjects that are relative to the message an artist is sending. Many chidren create them at school using magazine tear outs and they are a telling visual image of what that individual is thinking of him or herself :-). A collage may have a set of grandparents in the center and around them are their lives condensed into a number of visual images (a garden , the beach, a family tree, a job, travel, a funny episode, a hobby, etc.) TIme consuming for me BUT an heirloom that is enjoyed by the family for many years.
The pastel
of the horse is a good example of taking a busy photograph and reducing the subject to it's important essentials. The background is muted and soft, the subject is crisp and focused.....the perfect ingredients for a successful portrait of any subject!
I have just completed 3 weeks of straight shows so within a few days I will post additional images of completed portraits. A few of them are horses and their owners of course but several are clients returning to have a portrait created of that second or third child!
And maybe I'll post that 40 x 80 oil of the family which is very near completion. A long time in the "doing" but the end will be worth it...not quite there but there enough to see what I will be altering and changing!
Until next time!
Theresa
