Small things.

I bought a few mini canvases and mini easels thinking I'd do some tiny paintings for kids. I did my first 2 today, using some reference photos I had saved for my regular paintings. The one with the cow is a scene from near Brett's father's home in Bend Oregon, and the other one is a scene I shot in Ireland many years ago. They're so small! 2"x2" and 2"x2.75".


Later in the day Brett and I took Watson down to Alki Beach to scout out what stores and restaurants carry artwork, since I want to start showing my work in the Northwest finally. It was a beautiful day so Alki Beach was packed with characters, including this little fella, Pancho.

Birds, baby.

In the spirit of cuteness I painted this piece for a baby shower that I went to today. Birds have been pretty popular for a while. Maybe they're over-done but I still think they're adorable. Before I moved out west I had 15 little birds, which I would never recommend to anyone, but I sometimes miss their morning concerts.

This little work of baby art is called "First Chirp", and is acrylic on canvas. I painted a black and white border on the edges since I've heard black and white is attractive to baby eyes.

Buffalo down

I worked on this "Tree of Life" mini chair today, for one of my favorite Seattle families. My first "major" children's room mural was for an adorable little girl who now has a baby sister (see the Africa safari mural on my website for those pics). I painted a chair for this cutie-pie last year, and now the little one is getting her own. The two chairs have different seat artwork, but similar styling elements
so that they'll go together (ie checks and polka dots on edges, sanding corners down to original red paint- all still to come). I included the family's yellow lab and their aunt's cat. The cat is only 1.5" head to tail! I remember when painting that small was easy and now it's almost impossible.
Meanwhile, Watson held an anti-Earth Day celebration by de-horning his buffalo. That's the first toy his daddy bought for him, so it's pretty sentimental to us.

Sticks and Boats

I was working on this little number today while Watson took a rare afternoon nap. As soon as we came home from a pre-dinner walk, Watson went bananas, running around the yard like a greyhound. I let him do his thing, because the more tired he gets, the better! As soon as he plopped down he started chewing on a stick and got a piece of it lodged in between his teeth across the roof of his mouth. He was freaking out, and I tried so hard to dig it out with no luck. I started running around door to door frantically looking for an available dog-friendly neighbor. A heroic neighbor came to the rescue and quickly dislodged the bloody stick. Oddly enough, Watson got a big scrape next to his eye yesterday and that same man was the one to clean it with hydrogen peroxide. I feel very lucky to have awesome neighbors.

Tulips!

A couple of weeks ago when I was listing paintings on my etsy shop I noticed for the first time how somber my paintings look as a group. I love these paintings, and the colors truly are rich and beautiful, but many of the scenes are from fall and winter in Portland Oregon, which can be a little gray. Now that spring is popping off here in Seattle I've been craving color and joy. The artwork I'm drawn to lately
is lively, happy and saturated with color. I decided it's time to take part in the spring celebration and do a some quick little paintings of pretty things. Here's one of my first impasto pieces based on some tulips in our front yard.

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This time last year.

Here's what I was doing this time last year to try to get more local business (with some success). That plank was a terrible idea. What was I thinking?

Time to relax

This is what happens when we walk to the dog park and back. If only it lasted longer!

I painted this little impasto piece last night, which got me thinking about doing a series of little patriotic works. This one is called "Red, White and Youth".

One more thing- My store!

I almost forgot that the point of starting this blog right now is for people who are interested in my artwork to learn a little more about what I do and the process of creating each piece. Visit my esty store at www.juliecostanzo.etsy.com. New impasto pieces (small, inexpensive, and awesome) will be added soon once they dry a little more.

BLOGGING!

I just created my blog! I feel like a geek, but I look at other people's blogs and don't think they're geeky... I can't wait to get into it and add some photos of artwork that I'm working on right now. I'm really into painting with the palette knife for the first time ever. They're a blast. I also decided that since I'm a Seattle artist, I should probably do some Seattle scenes. I'm very excited about this first one from Lincoln Park (facing the Fauntleroy Ferry). The top half is almost finished, but the bottom is just blocked-in color.
I'm excited to paint today but it's absolutely gorgeous out so I'll have to put in some dog-park time and yard work first!