Colorado Dreaming, again.

I found out after I had sold and shipped this painting to it's new owner back east, that my daughter loved it and wished it was hers.
I couldn't get it back, so I added it's image to my Imagekind store inventory and ordered the 16" x 16" canvas giglee version.
Imagekind did a terrific job with the print and today I gave her the painting giglee for her birthday.
She loves it!
Yay!

If you'd like to hang this sweet little vintage VW microbus cruising through autumn's splendor on your wall too, click here to find it in my Imagekind store.

Canvas or paper prints are available in lots of sizes.

Discount coupons for saving money and/or free shipping can often be found by Googling Imagekind Coupons or you can use this link- Imagekind Coupons.
If a current coupon is available, use the discount code at checkout.

Also, if you order the wrapped canvas print like I did, make sure that you specify what kind of border you want on the wrapped sides.
It looks great with the black border which is what I ordered.

Thanks for visiting!

click image to enlarge



"California Dreamin'..." 2006
24" x 36" x 3/4"
acrylic on canvas

SOLD

Scolnik collection, Washington, DC

I am a huge fan of old VW micro-buses and they frequently show up in my work. 

"California Dreamin'..." is a painting made up of 24 separate 6" x 6" ocean and beach paintings on one canvas. There's a classic old VW van starring in one of the mini paintings.  It was a fun painting to do. I divided the canvas into 24 squares, then played at the beach in each one. Some simple, some more detailed, together a fun mix.

Once again, to keep this blog visually interesting, I am featuring a painting from my archives. I haven't painted for a week. I try to post at least once a week, so, if I don't have any new paintings to share, I'll find an old favorite to feature.

I have been called away from my studio for the last week by the arrival of cooler temperatures and a deadline. November 8th, the city of Tucson is once again providing it's free Bulky Trash pick-up. I have a huge amount of tree trimming to do, and must take advantage of the time and energy saved by this service. It is soooo much easier to drag whole branches to the curb, without having to break them down into bite size chunks.

I had about 2 hours into a new VW van Daily Painting, when it hit me that I was burnin' daylight by not getting outside and getting the trimming started. Once that thought had crossed my mind, that was it. My OCD kicked in and I couldn't give "Rusty '59" my undivided attention anymore. Might as well get the chores done.

Tucson gives us a two week notice of the pick-up and while that might sound like plenty of time, I always seem to cut it close (pun alert) with the serious tree trimming I need to do in that timeframe. Now that I'm a wee bit older, it seems to take me a wee bit longer to get it all done. I even have to climb one of the trees I trim, although I kinda like that part. I get up in that tree and sit there looking around for a while, taking in the view, and then, I thank my higher power for letting me still be able to climb trees at my age. Yep, I like that part.

"Rusty '59"
~a work in progress
6" x 6" x 1/4"
acrylic on canvas board

I've finished the first week of yard-work, I'm half way done, so, it's just for one more week, that the "Rusty '59" will have to keep on rusting. I'm looking forward to getting back to that little canvas.

Instead of painting each morning, I'll be donning my gardening gloves and getting to task outside. Thank goodness I love to garden. Play in the dirt. It feeds my soul. It centers me. It's all good.

Having made it through another hot summer here in the desert southwest, I'm looking forward to the next 5 months or so of our beautifully mild temps. Coffee and breakfast on the patio weather! Lunch on the patio weather! Heck, dinner and dancing on the patio weather! Yippee! And the yard-work will be done! Trees trimmed, gardens planted! Double Yippee!!

Now, on an entirely different note, here's a helpful hint for you other artists using small canvases.

The 6" x 6" canvas covered boards like the one I'm using on "Rusty '59", are only about 1/4" thick and quite lightweight. It's hard to keep them in place while pushing paint around on them, so I've come up with a simple way to keep them from moving while I paint.

Reusable adhesive putty, found in just about any store for around $3. Great stuff!

See how I use it on my newest blog page, 
HOW TO KEEP REALLY SMALL CANVASES IN PLACE WHILE PAINTING.

click image to enlarge

"Colorado Dreaming" 2010
ACRYLIC ON 8" X 8" X 1.5" GALLERY STRETCHED CANVAS 

SOLD
Gelson collection, Baltimore, MD
 
My very first Daily Painting. Done in a day and a half. Yippee!  

For your viewing pleasure, this brand new Daily Painting combines my love of Colorado and fall's changing leaves, with my longtime affection for old VW micro buses.  

" An artist must find peace with selfishly, sometimes, letting the fences go unmended." ~Jenna Millward Corkill ©

I once asked my friend and painter, Carl Rice Embrey, how he found time to paint. First of all, he's definitely not producing a painting a day. His masterpieces sometimes take 800 hours. I can't even wrap my head around that! For one thing, my AAADD* would never let me work on a single canvas for 80 hours, let alone 800. My head would explode! But, thank goodness, Carl can do it.

His beautiful paintings regularly sell for 5 figures. He paints rural Texas, especially in and around a little town called Hamilton. His detail is phenomenal, his paintings are amazing!

Carl told me you have to stop worrying about mending the fences. I guess what this old Texan was saying is you have to be OK with letting the chores go sometimes, to indulge your artistic nature.

 I follow a few artist's blogs that astound me with their ability to produce a painting a day. 

A painting a day! Really? How do they do it?

For one thing, they're making time to paint, and the lucky ones, who can finish a painting in just a few hours, don't struggle at all with a painting a day. For others who, like me, don't paint as quickly, we sometimes have to let a few chores, a few fences go unmended,  if we want to get a painting done start to finish in one day.

So a few days ago, I challenged myself to try a one day painting. Get in there and stay in there 'til done. "Colorado Dreaming" was the result of this challenge. OK, it took a wee bit more than a day (an extra hour on day two), but it was fun, and I finished.

So, I'm thinking this painting a day idea might be a way for me to learn how to balance studio with home. An exercise of sorts on being a bit selfish for painting's sake, on being OK with letting a few chores go unattended for a day. Finding a balance. A way to give my painting my undivided attention on a regular basis. I don't expect that I'll be finishing a painting a day, but I'm sure I'll be painting more. And who knows, I might surprise myself.

Wish me luck!

AAADD* - Age Acquired Attention Deficit Disorder :O)

click on photos to enlarge

'view from a vw' 2010
ACRYLIC ON 40" X 23" PANEL
SOLD
private collection, Tucson, Az

i occasionally work with a local faux artist, janie mccourt, when one of her clients needs a custom artpiece... she came to me with a couple of photos and an idea... her client was having a custom shadowbox made to hide their wall mounted tv when they weren't watching it... they needed a two panel painting that would slide open when they wanted to watch tv... when closed, it would look like a framed artwork... i haven't seen the shadowbox, but i understand it's pretty neat... janie supplied the canvas supports for the painting, 2 custom sized somewhat rigid 20" x 23" panels... the main reference photo was one the client had taken of a favorite spot in our beautiful desert... combined with another photo of theirs they'd taken of a glowing tucson sunrise.

"sure", i said.... "two days?" ...."no problem."

what the heck was i thinking!!??.....obviously a momentary lapse of reason on my part... i've rarely painted anything in two days, (except for my more abstract adventures)... and i'd only done a handful of paintings in 2009...this was a pretty big canvas too.

janie and her clients were quite accommodating with my request for a bit more time...and a mere week later, a 'view from a vw' was delivered... yep, that's what i'm calling it, 'cause there was this one rock that kept looking like a vw microbus no matter what i did to it...of course, once i saw it as a microbus, that was it (have i mentioned my OCD)... i kept trying to make it look like just a rock (whatever that is?) until i finally decided to embrace that rock's 'microbus' resemblance and be ok with it... ....now, go on......look at it again...you see it too ... it's that whimsical westfalia rock....don't ya love it! ( it also looks a bit like a hedgehog, or a silverstream trailer, but i went with vw microbus 'cause i'm a bit obsessed with them)... i could have completely changed it's shape, but the client wanted that spot painted and that spot has that rock, and that rock is what it is, so. :O)

reference photos

on my last blogpost, i mentioned this 'new' style i'm currently playing with... Indian Yellow/Thio Violet washed over painted sketch......used it again with this painting and i know it probably had something to do with the extra time needed.... i could have probably finished a few days earlier if i had done this in one of my more familiar styles, but then, what fun would that be?..... i actually was able to discover some neat new canvas magic playing with this.

clockwise from top left are a few 'work in progress' shots.

black and white painted sketch.... Indian Yellow/Thio Violet wash...and a few showing the sky and mountain colors going on... i let bits of the warm underpainting show on the edges of stuff here and there.

an alternate title i considered was "ocoti!!o" because of that 'in your face' fellow in the foreground... client's wanted it included to sort of camouflage the seam between the two panels when closed.

if you have a photo of a favorite spot that you want painted, you can contact me at jennacorkill@cox.net ....i also do house portraits....and people portraits...and pet portraits.... and.... well, you get the idea.