Heart

I threw out a little challenge to other members of my local art group to come up with a heart for Valentine's Day.  The time limit was very short - I only considered the option on the drive home about 36 hours ago but a couple of people in the group joined in.

Unfortunately, the Arts Northeast blog won't let me post pictures tonight for some reason, so I'll show you what I created and hopefully the gremlins in the system will allow me to post on the ANE blog later.

This started out with a sheet of watercolour paper that I had gessoed tissue onto and let dry.  The resulting texture, with some additional string gel made a perfect surface that reminded me almost of veins and arteries running through the heart. A tiny bit of silver leaf finished it off.  Its about 5 x 7" and acrylic as I wanted quick dry time. 

I hope your V-Day was full of love.

Laid back

Sometimes you just have to relax and goof around.  This is Jessie’s motto for life.  There are no pretentions, no trying to impress, its all about enjoying life and having a good time.  What you see is what you get and if you don’t like it, she doesn’t understand why and tries to persuade you otherwise.  We could all take a page from a dog’s approach to life and just go with the flow instead of fighting it every step of the way.

This was a loose sketch done in pastel on newsprint.  It was good to get loose and just let colour and shape guide my hand.  A piece of paper that’s big enough, forgiving enough and with no expectation of outcome.  I think I’m getting the canine insight into life already!

On another note, you may notice that my Etsy store widget is missing from my blog.  After a number of years of selling on Etsy, I have closed my shop.  I’ve found that Etsy no longer meets my needs.  The sellers are too numerous and its looking more like a shop browser’s paradise and difficult for a fine art collector to sift through the craft to local original art.  So I’m moving my small pieces for sale through my website at the moment and may try them on another small painting site in the future.  But for now you can find them on www.jeanettejobson.com

What has your experience  been with Etsy?  Have sales slowed over the last year?  Is there more craft than quality? Are fees an issue on Etsy or on other sites selling small pieces of fine art?  Where do you sell your small pieces?  Any input is always valuable.