Moving Day

Hello I'm back at the blog writing.  It's tax season so I'll be writing when I am coherent and awake, maybe. See I'm already going tax crazy and it's only February 4th.  The reason I'm here tonight is to let you know the blog is permanently moving to www.lcurtin.com.

Dan has all the previous blogs moved to the new website and you should check it out.  The new website really is impressive!  I hope to see you all there and I promise to write.

Ps. my brother got a new computer and he should have my "How to Paint Cat Eyes" up soon.  I can't wait.

More to come

Laura

Christmas Past

Christmas time is full of nostalgia. Seven years ago when we moved into our house I bought new Christmas decorations, pretty flowers, butterflies, color coordinated bulbs all sized to fit a 8 foot tree.  It's a beautiful tree when it's all decked out, I wanted it to look like a fancy one at the mall or Pottery Barn.

I decorated my Christmas tree with my old Hallmark ornaments this year. I found them in storage in the same cardboard boxes I packed them in 12 years ago.  My Mom and I use to collect them.  We bought the movable ones that plug into the lights, with kids sliding down the banister and trains going around in circles. There is a radio with a cat that announces Santa and a dancing toy soldier that drove my husband crazy till I turned it off.  Just the sound of the tree when I plugged it in at night made me remember Christmas past.

My Mom bought me many "For Daughter" ones, hearts and "Mother" ones. She knew my love of animals and bought me cats and mice, dogs and birds. The first one she bought me was a Crayon box with little mice sleeping in it. I bought her "Mother" ones back, old cars and lots of Santas. We bought them together at after Christmas sales. I guess we stopped buying and collecting them for each other in 2000 because they are all dated and the latest date is 1999.

I stopped putting up my tree in 2000 when I was dating my husband and I wasn't at home much.  Dan, my son, was on his own and we all went to my Mom's house on Christmas day. After my Mom passed away in 2005 my sister offered me some of my Mom's ornaments but I don't remember if I took any or not.

Each ornament has it's own box and packing. It took hours to unpack them. The time was worth it when my Dan said the tree was the one from his childhood. I've spent the last two days repackaging these treasured ornaments into their individual boxes and remembering my Mom at Christmas. Good and bad, happy and sad, wishing she was here to celebrate the new babies in the family and maybe we would buy each other a "I Love You Mother" Christmas ornament.

I should have taken a picture of the tree when it was up. Darn it. I only took pictures of baby Dustin and Sandy my granddaughter.

I did have a nice Christmas with family, I hope you did too.


Thanks for reading

I am helping to support a great animal rescue center with portions of my sales from my Etsy sales site.  I am giving 10% of all sales to this fantastic animal rescue center.

Forever Wild Exotic Animal Sanctuary

http://foreverwildexotics.org/

PURCHASE 8x10 painting prints, holiday & birthday cards!

Visit my personal portfolio website.

http://www.LCurtin.com

Thank you for stopping by, hope to see you back soon.

Tax Lady

I don't think I'm going to get my Eagle painting done before tax season gets started in January.  I have two paintings going and I'm pretty darn sure I'm not going to get either one of them done.  This year went by so fast. The whole summer and fall devoted to making, selling and promoting art. Time really got away from me. I've been working so hard being an artist I didn't notice that I was working.

I put in 70+ hour weeks in my tax business, Hess Income Tax, from January till April 15th and then I have 8 months to do mostly as I please. Each year as the Holiday season rolls around I say to myself, "I can't believe it's almost tax season again."  As if I didn't just have 8 months doing what I want.

So here we are again, I'll put away my paints and easel, get out my dresses and nylons and become Laura Curtin, Tax Lady.  This will be my 33rd year of preparing tax returns for my clients, friends and family. The office has been open for 53 years with 48 of those in the same Westminster California location.  My clients are mostly referrals from other clients and the grown children of those and so on. I'm an Enrolled Agent licensed to practice before the IRS on behalf of clients and I keep up my education to give the clients the best tax advice I can.

 I have a great job and I love the 8 months painting but I wonder what it would be like to be 100% Laura Curtin, Artist.

Grumpy Faced Eagle under Construction

I'll be back soon. Have a wonderful Holiday season.



Thanks for reading

I am helping to support a great animal rescue center with portions of my sales from my Etsy sales site.  I am giving 10% of all sales to this fantastic animal rescue center.

Forever Wild Exotic Animal Sanctuary

http://foreverwildexotics.org/

PURCHASE 8x10 painting prints, holiday & birthday cards!

Visit my personal portfolio website.

http://www.LCurtin.com

Thank you for stopping by, hope to see you back soon.

How to Oil paint

How to Oil Paint? Practice. I know that's not what you wanted to read but you know it's true.

While practice is important and the best way to get better at anything, specific instruction is also very helpful. I've been painting a long time and the lessons I've taken from other artists were very important. I learned what I like to do and what I don't want to do when I paint. So, I'll make some outlines and videos for you to watch. I'll share what I've learned along the way. I've already started the first one, I mentioned it here before, "How to Paint Cat Eyes ." My brother is editing that one now and I will post it soon. I will do the best "How to Paint Whatever" videos possible.

My job besides painting is to write stuff, video tape things and come up with many ideas of what my friends and readers would like to know how to paint. I sure wish I was younger, only for the energy, well, maybe the younger part would be ok. I would love to be able to stay awake painting through the night or writing descriptive content. If perhaps you have that kind of energy now I hope you feel it and put it to good use.

So practice and instruction are two important parts of painting. Talent and vision are two parts you already possess, put together all of the parts and we are making art. Let's do that.

Thanks for reading

I am helping to support a great animal rescue center with portions of my sales from my Etsy sales site.  I am giving 10% of all sales to this fantastic animal rescue center.

Forever Wild Exotic Animal Sanctuary

http://foreverwildexotics.org/

PURCHASE 8x10 painting prints, holiday & birthday cards!

Visit my personal portfolio website.

http://www.LCurtin.com

Thank you for stopping by, hope to see you back soon.

Taxes and Holidays

Hello!  I've been busy with my "other job," income taxes.  Today was the last day to file if you had an extension of time to get your taxes completed.  I like tax season and the extension deadlines because I get to be busy with work and see people I haven't seen in a year. I think it's funny that every year about November I say to myself, "Oh man, it's almost tax season again!" I work really hard for about 3 1/2 months and then I have a whole lot of time to paint.  I have no complaints about my job.

Saturday November 17 2012 I'm going to participate in a Holiday Boutique at the Elks Club in Huntington Beach, California from12 noon till 4 pm. The show benefits the Second Chance Pet Adoption.  I'm going to have a lot of artwork, Christmas cards, birthday cards and flower photos for sale.  10% of all my sales go to the Forever Wild Exotic Animal  Sanctuary.

http://www.zvents.com/huntington_beach_ca/events/show/283719185-holiday-boutique-to-benefit-second-chance-pet-adoptions

December 7th and 8th 2012 I will participate in a two day show in Tustin California. This show should be really festive, there will be a tree lighting ceremony, Santa, a pancake breakfast and raffel giveaways.

http://www.businessallianceoc.net/?page_id=369

Both of these holiday shows should be fun.

Fairy Granddaughter

Come visit me at the shows!

Thanks for reading

PURCHASE 8x10 painting prints, holiday & birthday cards!

I am helping to support a great animal rescue center with portions of my sales from my Etsy sales site.  I am giving 10% of all sales to this fantastic animal rescue center.

Forever Wild Exotic Animal Sanctuary

http://foreverwildexotics.org/

Visit my personal portfolio website:

http://www.LCurtin.com

Thank you for stopping by, hope to see you back soon.

Like a Circle in a Spiral Like a Wheel Within a Wheel

Last night I woke up at 1:10 and could not go back to sleep.  Kevin saw on the internet that if you can't sleep try stretching your toes out and then curling them back over and over until you fall asleep.  I've tried this before and it worked pretty well.  Last night not so much.  I never did go back to sleep.  I sleep walked through the my day today.

What makes the brain go round and round in circles at night. Worrying about things I have no possibility of fixing from bed. I should have just gotten up and exercised or painted or something. I could have gone outside and watched the sunrise.

I love seeing the sunrise. I'm up most mornings exercising by the time the sun comes out.  For many years I roller-skated outside on the streets in the early morning and I've seen a lot of beautiful sunrises.  I'm sure people thought I was crazy, I would skate down the street and sing "Oh what a beautiful morning."  I remember seeing sunrises because I stayed up all night on purpose. Some of those times were great, others not so much.

Sunrises and sunsets are wonderful painting subjects.  It's always hard to convey to the audience that it is morning or evening. Like the painting above, are the Langur Monkeys waking to the day or getting ready to sleep. You could find the childrens book "Langur Monkey's Day" and read the page to find out what time of day it is.  I sure don't remember.
http://www.amazon.com/Langur-Monkeys-Day-Amazing-Adventures/dp/159249143X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1349150821&sr=1-1&keywords=langur+monkeys+day

Tonight I will sleep. Tomorrow another sunrise.

Here is a website from the Mayo Clinic about staying asleep
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/insomnia/AN01611

Here is another one that has some really reasonable answers to staying asleep. http://www.greenhealthspot.com/2008/02/staying-asleep.html

PURCHASE 8x10 painting prints, holiday & birthday cards!

I am helping to support a great animal rescue center with portions of my sales from my Etsy sales site.  I am giving 10% of all sales to this fantastic animal rescue center.

Forever Wild Exotic Animal Sanctuary

http://foreverwildexotics.org/

Visit my personal portfolio website:

http://www.LCurtin.com

Thank you for stopping by, hope to see you back soon.

Photos That Fit the Pictures in my Head

I feel really fortunate when I can use my own photos to paint.  I'm not a big traveler and when we do go on a trip it's usually to one coast or another.  I got lucky taking photos of horses in a field when my husband and I stayed in San Luis Obispo, CA .  Kevin was napping and I went out with my camera to see if I could find some flowers.  There was a large group of horses way across a field.  I called and called to get their attention but they just ate grass.  I did take some photos with my zoom but the horses were so far away the photos were only ok.

I went around back of the hotel looking for flowers and came across this field.  It was nearly 7 pm and the sun was just going behind the mountain and the field was reverse lit. The dark shady area was in the back and the front of the field was very bright.

I took this picture then turned and noticed a mare with her two foals had come across the field to drink water from a stream near me.  When I moved around they got very skittish so I had to be still.

I took these photos and about 30 more and was able to use my own photos for a painting for a change.

I get a certain satisfaction having the painting come to me rather than how I usually have to chase the photos that fit the images in my head.

I did turn one of the foals around and changed the background some.  I took out old trees and bad fences.

Three Foals in a Field

The painting turned out similar to how I felt seeing the beautiful horses in that setting at the time.  

San Luis Obispo is a nice place to visit.  If you've never been there here is one of the city's websites. 

http://www.sanluisobispocounty.com/

Thanks for reading.

PURCHASE 8x10 painting prints, holiday & birthday cards!>

I am helping to support a great animal rescue center with portions of my sales from my Etsy sales site.  I am giving 10% of all sales to this fantastic animal rescue center.

Forever Wild Exotic Animal Sanctuary
http://foreverwildexotics.org/

Visit my personal portfolio website:
http://www.LCurtin.com

Thank you for stopping by, hope to see you back soon.