60/60 Challenge

I have posted in the last week or so about starting a challenge headed by my friend, Adele Earnshaw. I thought that I had a lot of time to prepare, but it starts tomorrow. The challenge is for 27 selected artists to paint 60 paintings in 60 days from life. I have a still life table set up in my studio and will take this challenge head on. Many of you know that I am a sloooow painter, so to keep my paintings loose and quick will be a my biggest worry. I will be working in pencil, oil, and pastel.
This has been a challenging month, my husband was thrown from his horse and hurt and when he got back on his feet, I was thrown down by one of the worst flu bugs I have ever had. I am still in bed for much of the day and hope to be back to working full days very soon.
I will be posting my daily paintings on my new blog at  http://victoriawilsonschultz.blogspot.com/ . If you are interested in watching the progress. If you are on facebook, you can also see all works that are posted daily by all 27 artists. The page is at https://www.facebook.com/groups/148238635281295/.
I am sure that you will be able to see some amazing works and all will of course be for sale.

Snow-mageddon

We just got slammed by a snow storm (this is a good thing, by the way) and I wanted to go out and take some pictures. We let the dogs out to play and did they ever!!! Bella thrives in this weather, but the corgis have problems with deep snow. The pictures are the proof...

 It IS leap day after all!

 Snow plow!

This is the last thing a husband sees before he throws a snowball at a 2000 dollar camera.

Another life...

I am working on a new painting and tired of the same old stuff on TV. I am about to turn off the TV and go to my Ipod when I see that the movie Tex is on Starz. It is the first movie I was ever in and I had a brief and not so brilliant appearance in it. I am in the movie no less than 20 times, but this is my only "face" shot...
I am shocked that I was ever that young looking! Please notice the "Farrah Fawcett" wings that ruled the 70's.

Before and After

It is no secret that artists have a tendency to be disorganized and a bit, shall we say, scattered. I went to the extreme in the last few months trying to meet deadlines. So, I am letting you into my studio at it's worst, something that makes me extremely uncomfortable. After all, I am creative, organized, meet all my deadlines, and never, ever forget to return a phone call, right? Yeah, right. Well, here is how my studio looked yesterday.

 The floor is littered dog toys (remember, we have a puppy). receipts, paint brushes, and oil rags. Disgraceful!

 My "office" is a walk in closet. My wonderful husband created shelves and a desktop for my books, reference photos, and art supplies. Handy in that I can shut the door and lose the look of all that clutter. Notice, that I also have to share my space with fur.

 The cabinet to the left of my easel was made by a dear friend, Daniel, and holds the thousands of pastels that I have. I have them separated by color in each drawer. If you are a pastelist and looking for the perfect way to keep  your pastels safe, contact me and I will pass on his number. To the right of the easel is a taboret my husband made to keep my paints and pastels on. Also notice the flat screen TV that was a gift from him with a new surround system. blue ray, and iPod docking station. I am sooooo spoiled.

 Voila! It took all day, and a lot of elbow grease, but the studio is now functional again. My reference is filed, my receipts are in their proper place, my brushes organized and put away, the palette clean and ready for the next painting, dog toys put away, floors swept and mopped, Borco installed on the easel, and the lights re-installed.

 All I can say is thank goodness for Crate and Barrel and Target for storage.

Zoe gives her approval.

You might notice that I have a number of pelts in my studio. Do not be put off by this, I have collected these over the years from estate sales, antique markets, Native American friends, and the skulls, bones and antlers are collected from my property or from friends. I use these for study and education to better understand the animals that I paint.  I do not support the fur market and will not buy furs or pelts that promote the killing of animals for their pelts.

The Dance

Another practice painting. Not one of my favorites, I think I "noodled" this one too much. It seems to be my friend's favorite, so maybe I am being too picky. 

I used an Ampersand gesso board for this one. I sketched out the initial drawing with a charcoal pencil and the rest with the oil paint itself.

"The Dance"  Oil 5x7