Procrastination

I was recently sick for almost a week and for some reason it seems to have killed my motivation. I'm fighting through it, reminding myself I have to keep up. I like to eat after all so I need to sell paintings! The first that I finished is for a show called "80 Square." Its a benefit in Murfreesboro Tennessee to support the local arts on March 19th. I'm mailing it out to them so that they can auction it off. The proceeds benefit the college and a local art scholarship. 

The second is a work in progress and I hope to finish it this evening or tomorrow. It goes with my series "A Walk In The Woods." All the pieces from this series are 5"x7" or 7"x5." I'm unsure why I chose this size but it will be my biggest series to date when it is completed and the subject is important to me. I have always felt the woods were tranquil and still. I wasn't quite so aware as to how much I loved them until I moved to Ann Arbor for two years and was without them. Sure the Ann Arbor area has places such as Kensington...but there is just something about pulling into a trail head and walking a path without seeing anyone else. Or for that matter, pulling off on the side of the road somewhere and going for a hike. The trees are welcoming to me and the colors found in the forest are endless. It was one of the reasons I felt doing different season scenes would benefit the series. 

U.P. 200

Yay! I finished another painting for my series! You can see it below with the rest of them.
I'm pretty proud of it and it brings my "A Walk In The Woods" series up to 5. Only 20 more to go! I have until June and that much time makes staying focused on this hard. Seems like I have forever and I have to remind myself that I don't!
I'm headed to Grand Marais for the afternoon tomorrow. Tan and I are going to watch the U.P. 200 come in. Its the Upper Peninsula's edition of the Iditarod. However, instead of traveling 1150 miles from Anchorage to Nome the teams will travel a little over 200 miles from Marquette to Grand Marais and back. I'm very excited as I've never seen a live sled dog race before. The closest I've come is the cartoon Balto.
I'm hoping to get some good pictures and possibly do a few paintings from it.

The Bug

Well, I've been sick for the past five days so I haven't done much other than slept, read and blown my nose.  Now that I'm finally getting over it however, I'm hoping to finish another painting either tonight or tomorrow! Gotta keep up! Hope everyone is healthy!

New and Improving

Hello out there!
My name is Sarah and I'm a watercolor artist from Northern Michigan. I decided to go into art during my senior year of high school and have been painting for almost 5 years now. My medium is watercolor and pen. I have work at The Wild Raisin Gallery in Fife Lake MI and at the Hanni Gallery in Harbor Springs MI. Until the end of May I am also displaying my work at the Silverleaf Vineyard and Winery in Suttons Bay. They have occasional tours and a tasting room with excellent selections. I highly recommend them!

So anywho, being a "starving artist" in Northern Michigan in such a depressed time has made my career quite a challenge. I have a show at the Traverse City Opera House in June but am having trouble finding places to display and sell my work. Heck, selling a piece lately has been almost unheard of! I'd like to put it out there that I'm open to commission work and have painted anything from houses to scenery, christmas portraits to still lives for people. Feel free to contact me about this! I'd love to hear from you!
Phone (248) 977-0732
Email: sparrowartist@gmail.com

I've started this blog to try and drum up some business and hopefully make some new friends. An artist's life can get kinda lonely when you're in your studio all winter! Maybe I'll see you out and about though. My wonderful parents got me a plein air painting kit for my birthday and I've been dying to get out there and use it! (assuming the temperatures ever get above 20 again!)