Monarchs Emerging - Acrylic Quadtych

Has it really been almost a month since I last blogged?? I cannot believe it, where am I....what have I been doing....why did I wait, am I still alive?? All good questions, I've just been here, in the studio, alive, painting away and maybe, I don't know , carried away too because I was shocked to see how long it has been since I last posted. I'll have to pay a lot more attention next time.

Some people have wardrobe malfunctions, technical problems, you name it, depending of course on what profession they happen to be in. Me, I've had a camera man problem. In other words, the guy behind the camera, the one that usually takes my painting photos (aka Chris) has been really busy these days and so we just got down to work today, taking some photos of paintings that have been waiting very patiently to be photographed.

This is one of my latest paintings......"Monarchs Emerging" paying tribute to my favorite butterflies, perched on an apple blossom tree.

This piece is made up of 4 canvases, each 1 1/2" deep and measuring a total of 18"h x 25" w. Two canvases that measure 8"h x 8" w and 2 that measure 6"h x 4" w.

I've also just learned about the concept of measuring my paintings to include the negative space. Not just what the pieces measure if you just push them together but measuring them as they are displayed, with the exact amount of space inbetween each panel and the whole display being taken into consideration for the total measurment. I must have seemed dim as this concept was explained to me because it took me quite a while to get it, the measuring stick and I have never been great friends.....give me a ruler and I can miss measure quite a lot of things, draw a straight line.......are you kidding, can others really achieve that with a straight ruler?? Anyway, all kidding aside, Celebrations Gallery put me onto the concept of measuring properly ,who knew, you learn something new everyday if you pay attention.

I hope you like this piece. It has to be one of my favorites. Although, anything I paint with this species of butterfly is a favorite, also, any painting that any other artist paints with the beautiful Monarch always captures my attention as well so, maybe I need to GET REAL, I just plain old, love painting these butterflies!! I am however , really getting into the concept of using multiple canvases of different sizes in my work. I think this is a very sculptural look on the wall, something I'm really enjoying exploring. It is very creative, challenging and most of all, fun to lay out the designs on pieces like this.

I'm in the process of closing my Ruby Lane shop and will instead be hosting my canvas work on ETSY.... www.artfulcreations.etsy.com . This piece and others to come soon will all be listed there. That may be another reason I've been MIA the last few weeks, opening a new shop seems to take forever, which I never seem to realize before I start doing it. It is still not done but as some what of an optimist, I will refer to it as a work in progress.