Long time no see

We braved the 15 degree weather to visit ZooMontana while we were back in Billings in December.  It was gorgeous!

Hi friends!  Many apologies for disappearing for a couple of months...it's amazing how busy life can get around the holidays.  Proctor Art Gallery in Tacoma, WA had a lovely miniature show for the month of December, so that gave me a chance to try painting some smaller subjects:)  I finished up my first commission for some absolutely amazing clients, and that was both a challenging and incredibly rewarding experience.  I also dropped off some more paintings at Freshwater in Dillon, MT, and two of them found a home surprisingly quickly.

And, since 2010 was the inaugural year of my business license, I got to experience the added joy of learning how to do business taxes;)

I left the Proctor Art Gallery in January - my husband & I may be moving soon, so I unfortunately can't commit to a full year's work schedule at the gallery.  I was sad to bid PAG a fond farewell, since it's filled with such lovely people...but I'm really thankful for having had the opportunity to show my work there this past year.  Hanging my work at PAG was my first experience with showing at a gallery, and they've really opened up a lot of doors for me.

I'm a nostalgic person to my very core, so I feel like I ought to do a recap of 2010. :)  It brought wonderful things...I was represented by a gallery for the first time, and the group of artists at PAG gave me an incredible wealth of experience and knowledge to draw from.  Since PAG required that fresh paintings be brought in each month, I pushed myself harder and produced some paintings that I'm really proud of.  I was also asked to give a painting demonstration to an art club, and that gave me an opportunity to not only work on my fear of speaking in front of large groups, but also my fear of creating an entire painting in front of a crowd. :)

I also started to branch out with my art in 2010.  I stopped working exclusively with landscapes and started to paint animals.  I stepped away from realism a bit by exploring texture and color in different ways, and that new freedom felt like a breath of fresh air.  In August, Freshwater Studio & Gallery added me to their beautiful gallery, and that has been such an amazing experience.  The minute I first stepped into Freshwater, I felt like my paintings were at home.  They've really helped to encourage me to push my animal paintings forward.

As I mentioned above, I received my first commission in 2010.  My clients hired me to create a 24" x 36" painting as a surprise Christmas present for their daughter and son-in-law, who had previously bought one of my paintings at PAG.  The painting was of a sunset on the Oregon coast, and I painted my clients' kids and their dog into the scene.

All in all, it was a pretty amazing year!  I'm so thankful for all of you who have been continuing to read my blog and follow my journey. :)

I'm looking forward to 2011!