Topiary Cats: Lighthouse 4

Here is another Topiary Cat Lighthouse.

9x12 oil

This painting was fun to do and not fun to photograph!

Topiary Cats: Lighthouse 3

I guess I am doing an unintentional series that develops as it goes... 

This is a bit unusual for the Topiary Cats, usually I spend a ton of time planning the whole thing from start to finish.

Here is Lighthouse 3, 9x12 oil

This one was fun to do.

I got to use colors I don't normally use from my ridiculous paint collection, and techniques I haven't used for a while.

This painting started as a grisaille:

I pulled out my Vasari Green Earths (except for my old tube of Mesa Verde which I should dig up) and also my Vasari earth reds and Ultramarine.

And my Old Holland Rose Dore extra, which is basically an exact match to the real thing.

I did a chart in 2013 which--- astoundingly--- I can't find on this blog but it is still over at Wet Canvas.

And in case anyone is wondering how many brushes I have bought this week to cope with life the answer is 4... Rosemary Ultimates.

Lighthouse 2

This painting has been on my easel since November.

Total painting time about 15 hours, and lots of waiting for layers to dry.

14x18 oil

Lighthouse 1

Here's a Topiary Cat... started in December and it took too long to finish.

It was a fun painting to do and there are things I want to explore more with the concept, so I'll do more of these.

And hopefully finish them sooner... I do have a lot happening in my studio and I'm trying to finish stuff instead of starting too many projects.

9x12 oil

Prints Launched EARLY!

My goal for launching prints was Oct 1st... but today I had time to just plow through the huge last batch of image editing and setup, and a million other things..,.. so I decided to take that scary plunge and just do it.

So my prints are available and live now!

Jessica Prior - Official Art Shop | Fine Art America

This has been ELEVEN YEARS coming, since I painted the first Topiary Cats back in 2013.

I am so proud of myself for still painting through all those years... 15 years plein airing now.... I knew I needed to be ready to go when Daya was in college. Technically and from a useable inventory perspective. 

I never wanted to have to catch up and resume painting after a long pause, it would be too much catching up. I could never get those years of practice and study back. And it's not just having a good product, being able to paint well and everything that has gone into making paintings- there is back-end tech too. Which I have also been slowly setting up- calibrated graphics monitor, even my website.

I was going to switch over my website to FASO a few years ago and I'm so glad I didn't after all.

What I have works, it's fine. Somehow I thought I couldn't do prints yet because of... well, insert reason here... and none of those reasons were actually true. 

Mostly I have been overwhelmed by knowing about all the things I don't know. 

It's been a bit paralyzing.

It's been an enormous amount of work, time, and money and I hope honestly that I can get some income from all this work.  A friend recently told me it's time for me to get paid. She's right.

And I really, really want people to have and love the Topiary Cats; they need to be out in the world.

Weirdly, I am terribly scared to launch as well as being excited.

It's amazing how much fear there is.

I have irrational fears that people are going to hate my prints once they get them, even though I know that isn't true. My Pratt friend Mark has been wonderful and helpful, so has my art friend Francis.

If Fine Art America is good enough for Mark, it's good enough for me.

I'm scared I did something wrong during the ENORMOUS amount of prep work I have done this month.... and it has been a LOT.  I want to crawl into a hole thinking about it.

But the good news is the updates won't be so terrible, now that everything is established.

And there's more to come but this is a good start.

First Topiary Cats- Live

Oh my god the first batch of Topiary Cats is uploaded to Fine Art America.......

I have so, so much work to do....

But wow, it's really starting.

I can't believe it.

Daya said she's proud of me.... what an amazing feeling that is.

Children want their parents to be proud of them.... but wow when your kid is proud of you... that's amazing.

This is a stupid amount of work.

I need to be ready by Oct 1st and every time I cross something off my list, 5 more things appear.

I have decided……

…. That I am going to figure out how to paint from a kayak this season.

it is going to happen.

I cannot use oils, I don;’t think the setup would work at all, and pastels should not go anywhere near water.

But watercolor could work!

I got a small Winsor Newton set…. And I’m going to figure out a kayak setup.

Topiary Cats: Gifts of Abundance

Finally, my latest Topiary Cat series is complete.
I have been working on this since May.

All the paintings were planned digitally in Procreate, and painted in pastel on Richeson sanded paper.

They take a long time and a lot goes into them.
It was my goal to finish this before the year end, and it feels really good to put them out in the world after 8 months and a couple hundred hours of work.

#1 Gifts of Seedlings

#2 Gifts of Reflection

#3 Gifts of Entourage

#4 Gifts of Silence

#5 Gifts of the Unknown

#6 Gifts of Contrast

#7 Gifts of Receiving

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I am very happy with this series, but it's still always a bit nerve-wracking to put yourself out there.

These are personal and 100% my own imaginary images- it's a little different than my other work which is usually based on life.  So much goes into these Topiary Cats and I'm really proud of myself for getting them done.

Topiary Cats: Fearless

Drawing America is having a contest this month and the prizes are gift cards to Jerry’s.

I want art supply financing!

And I would like for paintings to pay for paintings.

The big prize is a $200 gift card and there is a guest artist judge who decides.

The theme is Fearless.

I did some topiary cats.

9x12 oil

Topiary Cat Garden

Here is a painting I started in the Reuters Summit Room back in April 2019.... seems like so many years ago.

Since I did not make it out today because I just could not get my proverbial shit together, I joined Leah's beginning drawing class just to have some company and dedicated art time, and I finished this painting.

8x10 oil

Topiary Cat Meditation Garden

I started this painting this past Sunday with Cas, we both needed motivation to paint so we had an artist date.

Tonight in the Reuters group I finished it, about 4 hours total.

6x8 oil

Start Week 6

Yesterday started Week 6.
It's still April. Long month.

My local grocery store has plenty of toilet paper, but the larger stores like Target do not.

Egg prices have come down slightly but are still way too high.

******
LaGuardia Dance had a meeting last night for parents, students too if they wanted to show up, and some of the teachers.

So many people had the same story.
Many of the kids have lost motivation.
These are kids who are used to being in the dance studio for 20-30 hours a week, and now... nothing.
These kids are incredibly motivated and driven, dance is their reason for getting out of bed in the morning and now many of them (including mine) just don't anymore.

Especially since the announcement no school since September, I have noticed a definite loss of motivation with Daya. It's hugely impacted the kids.
The parents who spoke were saying exactly what has been going on here, there is a comfort in that but it's still terrible.

The teachers give online dance classes but they are not mandatory and cannot be.
Most kids don't have the space and the floor type is really important too.

Daya has enough space in her to practice some stuff but it's not nearly the equivalent of being in the studio.

******
Here is a painting that I did in the Reuters East Coast sessions over the past few weeks.
Just to do... something, really.

6x8 pastel on black Richeson.

I'm  not feeling very productive artistically.
I'm just not up to it mentally.

*******
Well... I did it.... since I finished Shadow of the Tomb Raider (at 100% completion!... Daya is still working on it).........

This week I also succumbed to getting Fallout 76, my friend Audra is extremely happy about it. She's been trying to get me on this game since it came out. She even made me a room in her house with three (topiary!) cats because I have three cats.

Pebbles is in the game, but as a boy-cat.
There is a Pebbles lamp, plush, poster, and probably more stuff I haven't seen yet.
Who knew.... Pebbles really is invasive like that,  She does just impose herself everywhere, so I'm not surprised she's in Fallout 76 too.

United

United
6x8 pastel on Uart Dark 400

Isolated

Isolated
6x8 pastel on Uart Dark 400

Heal

Heal
6x8 pastel on Uart Dark 400

Mask

6x8 pastel on Uart Dark 400
For all the Photoshop geeks out there.

Muse

6x8 pastel on Uart Dark 400.
I'm sending all my 600 grit to Tammy.

It was so nice to go back to 400 grit.

TRUE STORY: I was only using the 600 grit because I pulled it out first but was too lazy to keep looking for different paper.

Passion

Passion
6x8 pastel on Uart 600

******
I have been extremely stressed but still doing ok.
Stores are open and people are calm and polite to each other.

Hopefully I have everything we need.

Schools are closed until April 20 (tentative) and Daya is devastated about that.
But she has to learn to pull herself together and make the best of hard times.
Everyone is heartbroken over this.

They start online learning next week.

Unshaken

Art Students League is running daily prompts, so I'm doing a series of Topiary Cats.

Unshaken
6x8 pastel on Uart 600

(I need to use my 600 paper, it's not my favorite, I much prefer the 400 grit.)

Tiara & Topiary Cat

There was a package in the mail waiting for me when I got home from painting on  Saturday.
Beth sent me a tiara!! It was supposed to be for her birthday party but the shipment was late.

I found the perfect place for my awesome tiara:

Daya needs original art for her school locker.
She wanted a Topiary Cat and a pointe shoe.

This is an ACEO card on Brisol, which I primed with Golden's pastel primer for some grit.  I used pastel pencils because it is so small.

ACEO (2.5 x 3.5") pastel
I could not get a good photograph, and pastels are usually easier to photo than oils.