New Small Paintings

In preparation for my second art show, I've decided to make some new paintings.  Some of these are slightly different because I painted them free-hand.  No imprints, no copies.  All from my big head and on the canvas with my left hand. 
Check 'em out:

Painting 1

Painting 2

Painting 3

Painting 4

Painting 5

Painting 6

Painting 7

Paintings 1, 2 and 5 are all done free-hand.  And yes, those are the titles under the paintings. :)  These paintings are fairly small (8.5x11, depending which way you hang them) and they are completely affordable.  They average between $50-$60 each.  Not bad for a framed original painting, huh?

Okay, I'm off.  Gotta work at the pet resort today and do a million other things to prepare for our big trip to Michigan!

Peacing out,
Nikki

Check out my official website at www.grandirstudio.com.

A Practical Piece of Art

I'm finally working on my paintings today, and I'm happy to report I'm doing something a little different than my regular wall paintings.  I'm creating functional, one-of-a-kind pieces of artwork... and I plan on selling them at $25.00 a piece. :)

Let me explain myself a little bit... after attending my first show in Ohio, I decided it would behoove me to create some pieces that can easily be sold to make up my booth fees and travel expenses in case my wall paintings aren't selling.  But certain questions remained: what sells easily and doesn't cost too much to make?  And more importantly, what could I create that would "go" with my other pieces of artwork?   

I decided I would use reusable tote bags with my original paintings on them.  I settled on the totes because I'm all about reusing real bags rather than throwing away plastic bags.  Plus, the natural canvas tote bags are ideal for the back drop of all my paintings! 

I went online and ordered my canvas bags and got them in the mail yesterday.  Here is what I'm working on today:

Both sides of the tote bags will be painted, so you can be sure you will see something from all angles when you use it!  At $25.00 each for a functional piece of original artwork, you can't go wrong.  The material is thinner than the grocery bag totes (think the canvas Trader Joe's bags), so I wouldn't recommend throwing a gallon of milk in these bags.  I think of them being a beach/pool/purse/workout-clothes kind of bag.

I'm really enjoying painting on the bags.  I plan on using one myself!  I'm putting a twist on my more popular paintings on these bags, and it's fun to play around with some fresh ideas on my new medium.

What woman wouldn't want one?!

Peacing out,
Nikki

The Never Ending To-Do List

Hi all!  Sorry I've been MIA for a while.  I've been busy playing catch up with all of my house chores and work ever since my art show from last weekend.  It's really no excuse... but I'm using it!

In terms of my work, I haven't painted in a few days.  I'm starting to get a little cranky, too.  I plan on starting some of my less expensive pieces tomorrow.  Today I have to run out and purchase some art supplies and food.  I did manage, however, to hang up my massive painting in my dining room to keep it off the floor.  That's progress!

This past week I've been focusing on our house.  Our wedding day is rapidly approaching, and Steve and I are slowly letting the reality of the situation settle in.  We have about 100 days until our wedding and there is SO MUCH TO DO around our house.  We made the list last night and it was not pretty.  Money was adding up quickly and all of the items on the list were necessary and not extravagant AT ALL.

On a positive side note, I completed my wedding registry!  It's up online on our wedding website!

That being said, I'd like to welcome you to my world for a moment and take you on a pictorial tour of our house and share alllllllllllllllll of the thing$ we $till need to complete.  And just a warning: as my friend Julie would always say to me when we stopped over at her house on a whim-- DON'T JUDGE ME!  Our house still needs quite a bit of work done.

Let's start outside.

Here is what our house/deck/porch looks like today.  As you can see, it is ready for it$ roof.  That will run u$ a few grand I'm sure.  We also need a little more exterior paint to finish up the back of the house.

Steve started putting the railing up, and I love it!  And what makes it even better is that it i$ extremely affordable.

We finally have some deck board$ at the front of our door.  It really makes a huge difference from the unstable platform we had situated there for the longest time.  I was always afraid I was going to trip and fall over it.  We plan on finishing the entire deck for our wedding... the board$ will run us at least $1,000.

 Let's step inside, shall we?  Here is our living room.

Notice the black board in place of the window to the right in the picture above?  That was where there used to be glass, until on a very windy day the window decided to blow in and shatter all over our hardwood floor.  Scared Camper to death.  The windows on this house are awful.  There are no screens so you can't open them for fresh air, and even if you did open them the chances of you closing them back up are slim to none.  We finally ordered window$ (thank GOD!) and they will be coming 4th of July weekend.  That is one expensive item we can check off our list.

This is our dining room/office area.  This is my least favorite room in the house (aside from the basement).  As you can see in the picture, we have a cat bed that the cat doesn't even sleep in, a computer desk area that is ugly and not functioning very well for us (I plan on fixing that this coming week), and two oversized antique trunks that are just holding our crap.  My dining room needs a makeover.  I did paint this very cute bookshelf in our dining room that I got on Craigslist for $5.  I love it!

Oh, and here is a quick peak of our half bathroom that is off the dining room.

I really didn't mean to get the toilet in like that.  I was trying to show the tile work Steve did in the bathroom.  Isn't it lovely!?  And yes, we still need a $ink and faucet.  We've added that to our list.

Our kitchen is looking much better ever since I finally finished painting it!  The empty space between the cabinets is waiting for this to go in there:

But at $549 at Ikea, it is going to have to wait.  We also plan on putting a nice tile back $plash on the back of the wall along the countertop, but that is going to wait, too. :)  So, for now, the kitchen is relatively good to go. 

Let's move on to the second floor.

This is the first bedroom at the top of the stairs.  The boarded up window marks the first time a window blew in and shattered on the floor.  Aside from the furniture and paint this room needs, it is in decent shape.  Not too bad here!

Moving on...

Here is our master bedroom and master closet.  This is my favorite room in the house.  We only need to hang up a mirror in here.  Easy enough, right!?  Second floor isn't bad at all.

Now, I wasn't going to show you this, but in order to get my point across I felt it was necessary.  Brace yourself... here is our basement.

Our basement looks like it was used to film Silence of the Lambs.  I mean, straight from a horror flick.  If we had a moth problem in this house, I would seriously freak out.  I go down there from time to time scoop Moo Moo's litter box, and I'm afraid I am going to find Buffalo Bill hanging out in his weird flesh lady suit.  Hate it!  So, as you can see, the floor is dirt.  Just plain Earth.  We need to cement this baby up.  The moisture problem in our house is out of this world because of the basement.  The cement for our ba$ement is on our to-do list.

That's about it for the pictorial tour of our house.  I can't forget to mention the $oil and gra$$ seed we need for some of the balding areas in our yard.  Add that to the list, too. 

Wasn't I right when I said our to-do list didn't have any extravagant items!?  All very necessary, and all add up to about $7,100 (our guesstimate).  My head is ready to explode... is yours?  It is times like this I wish I was a dog.

Yeah, she has so much to worry about, huh?

I'll catch up with you all later.  Time to get to work and attack this to-do list. 

Have a nice rest-of-the-weekend!
Nikki

Sneak Peak

Happy Wednesday!

I don't know about you, but this week is flyin' for me.  Probably because I have a million things to do in preparation for the Shaker Heights Arts Festival in TWO DAYS!!!!!!!!  I probably won't be blogging until Friday or even Saturday to let you all know how it is going.  My friend Julie said I should Twitter from the festival... good suggestion, but I know my brain wouldn't be able to handle all of that. :)

I've gotten all of my inventory together, completed my finishing touches, and now I'm ready to pack-- the part I've been dreading the most.  Anywho, here is a sneak peak of what my life is looking like today.



My art studio, in the midst of me touching up the frames



Our guest bedroom has become my temporary storage

I love how the frame turned out for my huge painting.  I'm glad I went with black.

The thing I'm most proud of is my painting rack that Steve made for me.  It's going to hold my $99 and under paintings.  I painted it and put some nice finishing touches on it.  Check it out!



I'm so happy how it turned out!  I used burlap for the material and upholstery nails to "fancy it up."



Here it is in action! 

And finally, for my counter top table, I made a sign to display my business name.

I'll be sure to take pictures when I have my entire booth set up.  I didn't get around to it (big surprise) this week.  I really wanted to, but between working at the Pet Resort and finishing up my last minute things, I haven't had the time. 
The next few days are going to be hectic.  Tonight, Steve and I are going to my mom's to pick up her car.  She is nice enough to let us use it to go to the festival.  It's a Honda CRV and it will be able to haul all of my stuff to Ohio.  Tomorrow I'm going to get up early and pack, and then head off to work at the resort.  Friday is the big set up day!  We will be leaving home around 8:00am  to get to Shaker Heights, Ohio for my 11:00am set up time.  That will be an interesting two hours!  Saturday is my first official day, from 10:00am to 8:00pm.  I promise to blog somewhere in between all that chaos.

Wish me luck!  I'm so excited!  I can't wait to just get there already!
Peacing out,
Nikki

Just Shoot It

Two and a half weeks and counting until my first art show.  Yes, I'm counting down the days anxiously (I swear I won't do this every time I have a show!). 

Today I've been doing a lot of prep work on all of my finished paintings.  It's been tedious!  I've had to do some touch ups on my frames, and I'm quickly learning that they are as important as the paintings themselves.  They require a lot of attention, and are quite fragile.  So far so good (knock of wood!).  I'm on track and should have everything finished and ready for the 17th (set up day!). 

Part of my "to do" list is having a photo shoot of my older paintings from 2009 and newly stretched paintings.  It's a little risky, but I'm going to attempt to sell some of my 2009 paintings at Shaker Heights.  My style of painting was very different a couple of years back.  Here are some pictures of my "older" works.



Blue Pebbles, 11x14x1

 

Harriet, 9x12x1



Hip to be Square, 18x24x1



Lightning in Woods, 16x20x1



Maude, 9x12x1



Vietnam Flashback, 12x16x1



White Noise, 8x24x1



Neutral Horizon, 18x14x1



Paisley Islands, 11x14x1

Big difference from the paintings I'm making now, huh?  All of these paintings will be well under $100 and remain unframed.  I think I might sell a few of them, and they will look nice in my new print rack Steve made me!

I need to spiffy it up a bit, put some paint on it.  But other than that, it is good to go! 
As I've mentioned before, we've put up my new tent, but I don't want to share pictures just yet.  My plan is to take some new booth shots, so once I do that I will post pictures. 

Take it easy in this heat... just like Moo Moo is here.

Talk to you all soon,
Nikki

Massive Painting Reveal!!!

I'm finished!!!!  Well, finished with the painting portion of my massive painting.  I still need to stretch and staple it on a frame, and finish it off with a nice frame around it.  These projects have so many steps before you are actually done!
Anywho, without further ado (poet didn't know it), here it is:


I'm calling it "Water To Ice"



Closer image of the color changing from dark to light




A different angle

As sad as it sounds, it really does look so much better in person.  I think this painting will definitely draw people into my booth just to have a closer look at exactly what it is.  I needed something BIG to catch the eye.  This better work with dimensions of 50x36 and over 15 hours to complete!  It will probably take up a majority of my back wall of my booth, but I don't care.  I love it and I can't wait to show it off at my shows!  
That being said, I finally ordered my tent for my art booth.  It hurt... A LOT.  $1,200 later, I have an awesome tent on its way to my house! 

This is basically how it is going to look.  Yeah, I know, it's a lot of money for a tent, but I'm actually taking the plunge and investing in my booth space.  I purchased a Trimline Canopy, which are guaranteed to be weather-proof.  I'm not putting my paintings under an EZ-UP.  No thank you!  Those things are too unpredictable, and I would probably be a nervous wreck about the weather during an entire show duration.  I don't need that added stress.  So, I'm essentially paying out the butt to stay stress free.  I think it is worth it.
My first show is about a month away, and I'm feeling excited about it!  I just hope the excitement and enthusiasm stays with me! :)

Gotta run and clean the floors of my house... dog paw prints are EVERYWHERE!

Peacing out,
Nikki