Brush Fetish

I love a one brush day.  I'm talking painting now.  If I get done painting for the day and I go to wash up my brushes and realize there is only one dirty brush I know it was a spectacular painting day.  I do have to find the right brush to begin with but after that it's really cool not thinking, only painting. I hate going through my paint box looking for another brush because the one I'm using isn't working.  On difficult painting days I'll find I have 6 or 7 brushes to clean.

Brushes are beautiful things, I have at least 100. This isn't all of them just the ones I grabbed out of my paint box.

I can't control myself when I get around brushes. I either have to be strong and walk on by or break down and buy another brush.  Art Supply Warehouse here in Westminster, CA is my favorite place to feed my brush addiction.  They have a Escoda Grafilo #16 Bright for a discounted price of 96.46 I really can't live without.  Last year Art Warehouse had a Black Friday sale after Thanksgiving and these beautiful brushes were half off. I have all the other sizes of brights that the store carries.

The Art Supply Warehouse is one of the last places around here where the artist can go and find anything they need for any project.  They have a whole aisle of brushes and the Escoda's are in a special case.  I think the case makes me want the brushes more. The store is always full of people wandering around looking at stuff and thinking about art. I feel so at home there with my brush addiction. So cool.

If you can't visit The Art Supply Warehouse in person they have an online store.
http://www.artsupplywarehouse.com/index.php

Here is where they are and all the neat stuff they offer.  If you like their store on facebook you will get interesting links and pictures.

Art Supply Warehouse

6672 Westminster Blvd.

Westminster, CA 92683

Phone: 714-891-3626

Fax: 714-895-6701

Add us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Add us on Myspace

See our events at CATALYST

See our awesome Yelp reviews

Please follow my blog. 

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.

New Paintings Coming Soon

I picked up the digital copies of my newest painting from the photographer today. He did a great job and worked quick. I took him two other paintings that had never been photographed and he finished digital files for those. I sent the files to my son Dan so he could cut them up and get them ready for the website and the Etsy store. I will be posting new paintings soon.

I did get 3 hours of painting in today. Stuff always happens at work, like working, and I don't have as much time to paint as I would like. Over the weekend I painted the new canvas completely with the first underpainting.  Today I started over with the second complete coat to start refining details, painting highlights and darks.  Here is one of my cellphone photos of "Cougar Ledge" with the first underpainting of the rocks.  This is pretty much how all my paintings start out.

This painting came a long way from this first picture. 100 hours of detail went into this painting after the picture was taken. I can't wait to premier the finished painting in a day or two.  Tomorrow I will post one of the other paintings I picked up today.  Hope to see you all back tomorrow.  Very Excited.

Thanks for reading.

Please click the FOLLOW button above so I know you are out there. 

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.

New Date for Blog Radio

Well the blog radio show didn't happen today as planned.  The host was ill. The show is rescheduled for next Monday September 24 at 6 pm EST.  My friend Greg called me and disguised his voice like he was from the radio show and fooled me into thinking someone else was going to do the interview.  Funny.

The last of my business tax clients came in today and picked up their tax returns so I could file them by the deadline.  Now I am free to paint tomorrow.  I have big windows at the office and great overhead lighting, it's a wonderful space to paint and there is air conditioning.

I hope my work is ready to pick up from the photographer tomorrow. I am really excited to premier the new painting, "Cougar Ledge." He may also have the transparencies turned into digital images so I'll be able to post those soon too.  Well off to bed.

Thanks for reading.

Please click the FOLLOW button above so I know you are out there.

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.

Keep Going

Saturday I painted 7 hours and today, Sunday, an additional 5 so I have a good start on the new painting.  If you look at my Etsy site you'll see I've painted many different animals, felines, primates, canines, birds and the lone elephant.  I wanted to paint something totally different this time.  So I decided to paint a desert tortoise.  Actually I'm splitting my painting time between the tortoise and the little bobcat "Chloe" for Forever Wild Animal Sanctuary.

"Chloe"

Between the 12 hours this weekend and the 3 during the week I have the canvas covered.  I didn't just sail away into Lala land and lose myself in the painting but I was able to keep focused and on task.  Sometimes that's what happens with a painting.  I think because the tortoise is something so different than my usual furry animal I am learning that I have to relearn how to paint every now and then.  I realize once again that my motto, "Keep Going!" is always relevant when I think the painting looks bad. The part of my brain that creates knows what it is doing and if I keep going all will be right.

Remember I have the blog radio show on Monday September 17th at 12pm PST 3 ET http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thepluggedradioshow/2012/09/17/the-plugged-radio-show-2

Thanks for reading.

Please click the FOLLOW button above so I know you are out there.

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.

Lost in Painting Land (I hope)

It's Saturday morning I'm planning on painting all day, unless it gets so hot I can't sit out in the sunroom. I usually don't notice the weather when I paint but it's been really hot and I don't have air conditioning out in my painting room.  I hope to get lost in my painting today, not noticing the heat, forgetting about food getting up out of my chair and realizing my back is frozen in place. Hmm.  If I struggling with a concept I'm highly aware if I'm hungry or hot or uncomfortable.  So, I hope today it's smooth sailing, paint wise. I'll let you know how it went.

This is Daisy, she is pretty good at getting my attention when I'm painting.

Please click the FOLLOW button above so I know you are out there.  

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.

Blog Spot Radio interview Monday September 17th at 3pm ET

I am going to be interviewed on blog radio Monday September 17, at 3pm ET.  Please listen and tell me what you think. This will be a first radio show appearance for me since I was 5. I hope I don't sound like a nervous artist.  I have another show set up for November with a different host and I will let you know the details as soon as I have them.

Here is the site to listen.

 http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thepluggedradioshow/2012/09/17/the-plugged-radio-show-2

Here I am being really happy.

Thanks for reading.

My new killer website is complete.  Thank you Dan.

PURCHASE 8x10 painting prints, holiday & birthday cards!


www.lcurtin.com

What do People think I'm saying

I've been painting 28 years. When I first painted wildlife I had time to promote my work. I entered art contests, joined wildlife groups, made contacts and participated in art shows.  It was hard work but I did make progress commercially.  After a while I spent more and more time working in my tax office and less time promoting art.  I didn't stop painting.  I always paint. I have paintings stacked up in closets, storage and in my family members homes.  Most of my pieces are professionally photographed. In the past the photographer took photos and I would order a copy negative, transparency, slides and prints.  Now the paintings are photographed, laser color corrected, and burned to a cd.

This is a transparency of a painting that is no longer available to me for digital photos.

A few weeks ago I was talking to my photographer and he told me he may go out of business. He isn't getting work he needs to keep the doors open. How terrible for him, his family and the artists that use his service. Today I called him to see if I could bring him negatives for digital copies and two paintings I've never had photographed.  I also wanted to pick up the Panda's I brought him last week and drop off the new painting I just finished. He told me he had to replace his sink and garbage disposal at home and wasn't sure he would have much time this week.  Next week his daughter is coming with the grand kids and he's not sure when he can get me the digital files.

It seemed like he was saying he has more important things in his life than photography and his business. I am going to conduct a serious search for a new photographer.  This one is going out of business.

What I want people to hear from me is; your business is important to me. I will work hard to provide great customer service. If you order anything from me I will get it out to you as soon as possible. If you have questions I will answer them timely.  I want my business to grow and only you can make that happen. 

Dan and I have been very active promoting my artwork.  We've built the Etsy store and we're developing an online presence with the help of social media. Dan is rebuilding my website so that it operates on all the different devices available at this time.  I'm writing blogs, posting on facebook, pinning photos and curating a online newspaper for artists. You get the idea. I'm new to this type of promotion and I'm sure I have volumes to learn before I ever sleep soundly again.   

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.