Coffee anyone? Hot off the Easel! While eating lunch at Marie Catrib's in downtown GR one day we found ourselves putting together our next painting. These adorable matching coffee cups were served with our lunch.

Great times with great friends! One of us does not drink coffee...can you guess who?

This painting will go fast! Each panel is 6 x 8 with a total size of 18 x 8. 175.00

Peaches Bed and Breakfast

http://www.peaches-inn.com

Our Venue for ArtPrize

Check out our venue where we will be showing at ArtPrize this September...Peaches Bed and Breakfast in Grand Rapids.

We have been accepted to Artprize Grand Rapids.

The world's largest art prize

ArtPrize is a radically open competition. Open to any artist in the world who can find space. Open to anybody in the city who wants to create a venue. Open to a vote from anyone who attends.

Read more about it at www.artprize.org

Check out our profile http://www.artprize.org/artist/id/357

This is all I have to say

Persistance and hope...never give up and talk talk talk.

We are back

Yes we look like we have been MIA, but not really...in the background we have been very busy painting and expanding to the West Coast! We were pleased to find some new venues and exciting new opportunities there. Look for new updates in the near future on new gallery openings.

So to catch up...we have some new art to show you. As you can see from our painting we were inspired by the wine country. A sip of wine can help relax after a day of adventure. We found that our love of colors can be found anywhere. This bottle in particular is an unusually bright aqua color that you do not see very often and we found most interesting. So Cheers!

What is Art?

What is Art? Who is an Artist? Click on the link (the title) to find out what a few animals have to say. This is great! I found this on the Art News Blog.

Let's Catch Up

Well, I have flunked blogging recently. While painting for an exhibit and juggling all it takes to be an artist and a business at the same time, I have not communicated very well what is going on with us. Seems like I get overloaded and in the future I must make more of a mental timeline to organize everything. Maybe in my case, a standard size paper trail might help me keep up and stop with all the post-a-notes!!! With that said, I am going to do better from this day forward. That is scary writing that right there, makes it oh so official, but it needs to improve soooo I just slapped my hand...moving right along then.

We have chosen a series about water, it started with the three, brightly, colored umbrellas with the ocean breaking behind it. We wanted to continue with a water theme in our next painting and liked a photo that explored the idea of diversity, comparison and blending and also depicts a little about our own story of three artists working alone and together to create one painting...more on this subject in another blog. Anyway, there is a simple, common thread for us and that is... we all love the ocean, lakes, whatever, we love water. The beach in our painting is in Southern California, Laguna Beach, to be exact. For anyone who has not been there, it city nestled in the hills which spills down to the edge of the coast full of creative juices from artists, galleries, Pageant of the Masters, art festivals, like the Sawdust Festival, Laguna Art Museum, fine restaurants, boutiques, surfers, beach volleyball, TV shows filmed there and many events all year round. It is a lively community and generally fun place with lots of choices. It holds a very special place in my heart since I used to live many years ago and was married there. Our water theme above comes from a very familiar place.

And yes, I promise to follow up with more paintings and would enjoy any of your comments or questions. I am encouraging everyone to sign up to receive our latest news and talk to us. Especially these days, we need a little more happiness, smiles and hope... art can do all that and more. So pass it on...

Hanging Out

This new painting has a young fan who named it...she saw it in a very clear and simple way. Maybe there is more than what is in front of the eye, could it be three different artists painting and seeing things differently? But wait, I see all kinds of colored grapes, but they are all just grapes. The vines that weave through the paintings might possibly be connecting it together in some way. I like stories that go along with paintings and gives a little peek into their internal secrets. Diversity is what makes things more interesting. You really can be creative in a collaborative setting when you honor and embrace diversity not fight it. Is it that all the grapes are hanging or hanging out together?

Personal Sanctuary

"Everyone needs a sanctuary to gather thoughts and apply personal tools. It's in a sanctuary where a sense of self is daily repaired and polished. Things begin to make sense in a sanctuary. Even for the most limited among us, a sanctuary is where progress is made and work gets done."
Robert Genn

Helen's Rose...Reach for the sky

Here is a pic of one of our latest paintings. It is a rose from California...around Napa Valley. One of the fun things we get to do after we finish a painting is name it. We have not decided on anything yet so any suggestions are welcome. I personally love this painting because I have memories that go along with it. What does it make you think of when you see it? How does it make you feel?

Surprises

Life is full of surprises! Success is what you make it and I feel the best way to be successful is to put aside your emotions and always handle things in the most professional way. We all know artists are very emotional people not to mention sometimes a little crazy but if we artists want to be successful we must put aside jealousy, anger, and self pity and concentrate on our artistic growth along with our personal growth. Harley Brown's Eternal Truths for Every Artist covers just this subject. I hope to soon post a section of our latest painting, I am very excited about this one. Seems like every new painting is my new favoite one but this one might just hold the title for a long time.

Tuscan Landscape

Here is a pic of a painting that we started last year. As with most paintings there is a story...this one is no exception. I hope you like it. The total size is 48 x 48 oil on cradled panels.

Lying Under the Umbrella

Well... this is the latest painting called "Puerto Escondido". It is one of my favorite places to go and relax. You definitely need the umbrellas because the sun is so strong there the sand gets so hot you have to run to the water! We have more paintings in store and we are busy painting in our studios. I just love when the paintings come to life and this is one of my new favorites...hmmm where have I heard that before?

Busy is Good

No lie... we are all busy, but would like to share what we have just finished. I mounted the panels and hung them on the vitual wall to check them out. Very fresh in all terms of the word.

Its been a while

It has been a while since we have posted anything.  Our excuse is we have been busy...and in the art world busy is very good.  We just finished a successful exhibit at Saint Mary's Hospital and are now working on setting up a "permanent" gallery where our work will be on display except when some pieces will be away at another exhibit.  

I spent the week in Napa Valley taking hundreds of photos and showing our work.  What a fabulous place!  The sun was bright and warm...the fruits and vegetables were fresh.  And I can't forget the wine.  I have never seen so many wineries nor have I drank so much wine.  The people were friendly, generous, and laid back.  Definitely a place full of beauty.  I hope to soon post some new paintings from Napa.

Squidoo

One of the hardest things to do is market your art...especially online. The internet is a great way to reach a lot of people but you really have to get yourself out there. There are many ways to link up to high traffic sites. Have you ever been on one site and then by following links you have ended up on many other sites. Sometimes I end up on a site reading and learning about a subject that is the completely different then what I started out looking at. Well that is kind of the way it works...get your link out there. Here is a site my mom turned me on to.

This is a pretty cool website/referral thingy. It was easy to set up. It is suppose to help get more people to your blog and/or your website. It is also something you can do for fun even if you don’t have something to promote or sell. Take a look around. Put Bold Strokes for art in the search on the site and you can see what I set up. Also, you can look at my mom’s by putting Linda Hiller in the search. Let me know if you have any questions.

http://www.squidoo.com/boldstrokesforart

Art Collecting

One of the biggest things I regret in my life is not learning more about art. I am just now (in my old age) studying the lives of some of the great artists. How interesting their lives were and how amazingly similiar their struggles were with their art. I find it really interesting to see how they overcame their insecurities and went on to become famous. I hope to start purchasing paintings by other artists. I love seeing the works of my artist friends hanging on my wall. What better gift to give a friend or relative then a piece of art you carefully painted or picked out just for them. It is the gift that keeps giving. They will look at that painting and think of you.

"Buying the work of emerging artists is cool—it's nice to know that you're supporting someone who is probably struggling and dreaming of quitting his or her day job—and there's more: the wonderful feeling of living with art. Each thing you own frames your personal history and becomes anchored to the chapter of your life in which you acquired it. Accumulation of good, affordable art is a big improvement over the typical clutter on apartment walls."

Jen Bekman

Left Turn in Thinking

Sometimes when I am painting I will be surprised by how my thoughts change about the subject matter or where I think the painting is heading. Originally I thought the individual petals of the hydrangea would be tedious, but in fact, I found them to be fast, fun and fresh. It was a choice to make them come to life without being exact. I liked the challenge of creating the depth with the light and dark contrasts of color in the composition. The shades of blue and purples brightened the day and the room which was dreary. Although I have learned art always holds some bit of the chance that sits right along side with my knowledge of basic technique. I happen to like that duality. Maybe that is the addiction to art that is so attractive and I am excited to see the other two pieces that complete the whole painting. No doubt there will be some more ahhh-ha moments then too.

How to price your art

Robert Genn's Ten Commandments of Art Pricing
· Thou shalt start out cheap.
· Thou shalt publish thy prices.
· Thou shalt raise thy prices regularly and a little.
· Thou shalt not lower thy prices.
· Thou shalt not have one price for Sam and another for Joe.
· Thou shalt not price by talent or time taken, but by size.
· Thou shalt not easily discount thy prices.
· Thou shalt lay control on thy agents and dealers.
· Thou shalt deal with those who will honour thee.
· Thou shalt end up expensive.