So the art doesn't have to be hidden away until April.

Today I hung a display of 19 original pieces at the Ela Area Public Library in Lake Zurich, IL. There is a display wall intended for artwork, and I am artist of the month for December. 

Keeping It Simple

In an attempt to offer a more more broad selection of original art sizes and price points, I've decided to produce smaller, simpler works. My thinking is to create original art for smaller spaces, and smaller budgets. This being the case, I have to still maintain a high standard of detail and accuracy, but with less going on in the composition. I also must work quickly without compromising attention to detail.
When working with an iris, speed is essential. This plant blooms and withers in no time. In less than one hour, I painted this iris bloom. It looked noticeably different at the beginning of the hour than it did at the end.

Small Iris, watercolor by Anne Gilna

I'm not thrilled with the color produced by my scanner. I'll go outside to take a photo of the piece when I can which will be more accurate.

The Art Fair Season Ends.

Yes, it's over. And it was a mixed bag, too. Sales ranged from excellent to dud-like, but all in all, I'll have a lot of paintings to work on over the off season. I also have decided to branch out slightly from my usual format, and will experiment with that idea over the long non-art fair season. That is all I have to offer on that subject until there is something to show for it in this space.

Speaking of goldfinches

While in my recent goldfinch groove, this painting was done over the summer. It was commissioned, which explains the unlikely scenario pictured here.

Four Yellow Birds, Watercolor and Colored Pencil.

This is the last goldfinch painting for a while...

...Unless someone MUST commission me to paint a goldfinch.
Until then, though, I'm through painting them until this one is sold.

At first I imagined this couple to be visiting the overly tall sunflowers in my garden. (Seriously, these plants, borrowed from a nearby unattended field a year ago, have turned into the monsters of the garden.) Then, after finishing the painting, I did actually see them on these sunflowers, for a moment, and then they took off.

Goldfinch, Revisited

I finished this painting two years ago. At the time, the male goldfinch was alone amongst the black-eyed susans. I was never completely satisfied with the design of this painting. There was too much white space in the composition, and his pose was not as dynamic as I would have liked. A few days ago, after much research, I added another goldfinch, presumably his previously unknown mate. The challenge was to have her fit within the existing design. She had to be placed behind the foliage, and had to be focused on something in the picture, and had to have a pose that was complementary to his as well as the stems, leaves, and blooms. So, here it is:

Eastern Goldfinches & Black-eyed Susans, Watercolor by Anne Gilna

Little Noisemaker

Just finished, in time for the Deer Path Art League show on Labor Day: the vocal little Carolina Wren, which I had been hearing around the neighborhood last year (but not this year for some reason) and wasn't able to see but I could identify it by its voice. Why do wrens have the ability to make so much noise, anyway? I have it perched on a Yellow Coneflower, which grows in my garden.

Carolina Wren & Yellow Coneflower, watercolor by Anne Gilna