Recent Projects and CloseOut of Marketing Venues

This is one of my daily news drawings. It was inspired by a photo in the Washington Post on 4/1/2015. It was drawn on April 1st using Inktense water color pencils and water. The substrate is a page in a 5x7" Mixed Media sketchbook.

Chillin' mixed media collage ACEO

available this week on ebay: 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/231521685042?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

I used the the previous sketch to create a mixed media collage ACEO format artwork.  I used decorative papers, acrylic matte medium, permanent markers and Inktense water color pencils.

Froggy With a Chance of Rain

mixed media collage ACEO

available this week on ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/231521692834?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Inspired by the theme I did another ACEO using the same substrate and mediums as the previous one.

Other projects I've been putting time into this week... 

I'm updateing my CV and resume to update applications for adjunct teaching positions I posted in the California Community College teaching register and with local colleges.

And I've been saving records of artworks I've offered for sale within several internet art marketing websites.  I'm doing this because I'll be closing accounts in two of the sites I've placed my work in.  Both the sites charge a hundred dollars or more a year just for the privilege of selling my work within their sites.  My website does just as much for me and it's a third of the price! Now the money would have been worth it if the sites did more than simply let me sell through them, some occasional marketing on my behalf would have justified the expense. But these sites require that I do all the work and for their lack of effort if my poor marketing skills happen to incur a sale via the site I get to pay them a percentage of the sale! And I've had zero sales from either of the sites in two years...so for two years I've paid a more than two hundred bucks to two websites that have had absolutely no return on the expense...Time to cut off the dead weight!!! SSssoooooo...

Abstract 32007

one of the artworks that can be purchased at 50% off

Get 50% off 

anything and everything in my Artfire storefront by typing CLOSEOUT into the coupon code on checkout!

I'm eliminating dead weight from my marketing venues...by that I mean all marketing venues that have shown no return for the costs involved. My ArtFire account is the first internet storefront that I'm closing. There are only a few weeks left in my ArtFire account so I'm offering a closeout sale on everything in my Artfire studio; everything will be offered for 50% off from today until the date the account closes (I believe it's on April 20th but it may be sooner).

Visit my Artfire page:

http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/home/Phare-Camp

If you desire any of the artworks in my Artfire shop simply type the coupon code CLOSEOUT into the coupon code field upon checkout and all items in your cart will discounted.

A few other examples of the offerings within this site:

2nd Saturday Artwalk

If you're out and about for the 2nd Saturday Artwalk come by say Hi and sling some paint onto the canvas I'll have in progress here!!! Find out just how much fun painting to live music is!!!

2ndSat.ArtWalk:

final

ALLEY ARTS FESTIVAL 2009

Last one of the 2009 Season

Host: KLSCstudio, Doolittle Properties, and Bridge To Art

Type: Music/Arts - Concert

Price: FREE

Date: Saturday, September 12, 2009

Time: 5:05pm - 10:05pm

Location: In the Alley behind 1812

Street: I Street

City:: Sacramento, CA

Description

Come check the final 2ndSat. ALLEY ARTS FESTIAL w/a Great Live Music Show and Artist Pavillion tonight, Sept. 12th with the SoulShakers (BluesRock), Jambination (East Indian, World) and Todd Morgan & The Emblems (Swing, DooWop) (6-10PM) in the Alley behind 1812 I Street in Sacramento, CA 95811
www.myspace.com/toddmorganandtheemblems
http://www.myspace.com/jambination
http://profile.bandpump.com/soulshakers

Alley Arts Festival

Poetry and Jazz
22 x 28" Acrylic Painting on canvas board
publicly painted last night at the Alley Arts Festival.

Alley Arts Festival last night was too much coolness! It was way too much fun slinging paint around while beat poets and jazz musicians grooved not 20 feet away from me. One of the musicians told me I inspired her performance. I had about as much fun last night as one can have in public without chemical enhancements...

In other news, I turned 50 last week -- I survived a whole half a century!!! To celebrate this momentous milestone I'm going to give a 50% discount on all sales of my artwork for the rest of the month of June to anyone who asks for it. Just send me an email with "Happy Birthday Sale" in the subject line. Tell me the title of the work you want and your name in the email. I will then send you a private URL where you can purchase the artwork at 50% of the listed price.

Here are some links to sites that feature my artworks:

My Web Site: http://www.imp-s.com/

Web Portfolio: http://www.absolutearts.com/pharecamp/

My Etsy Shop: http://www.PhareCamp.etsy.com

Zen 5

Zen V
30" x 40" acrylic painting on stretched canvas

This is the painting I did last night at the "Alley Arts Festival." I will be doing a Zen paintinge every 2nd Saturday at the "Alley Arts Festival" until September. In Sacramento the 2nd Saturday of each month is when the local art galleries have their public receptions. "Alley Arts" will have artists booths, music and a beer garden during the warm spring and summer months. In the winter it will be something else, somewhere else. I like the ambiance of this venue and it is soooooo awesome painting to live music!!!!

This is a scan of the 0.5" x 1.5" piece of Zen I pulled from the Zen Jar for last night's painting. As you can see I squashed it to fit within the dimensions of the canvas. I did have quite the audience while I was painting this. The best compliment came from a little boy who excitedly returned again and again and said "this makes me want to paint!" The second best compliment came from a guy who said, "I don't even like abstract but this makes me want to lie in bed and look at it hanging on my wall."

Ignorance
10 x 15" 3 color woodcut printed with acrylic paint on Japanese calligraphy paper.

Ignorance
it enslaves
it victimizes
it is without voice
it is without vision

Sold one of the above prints last night too. Woo Hoo!!! Thank you Brandon!

It was a totally fun night last night and I so look forward to more painting fun each month at the Alley Arts Festival in downtown Sacramento. My friend and mentor Rachel Stonecipher brought iced tea and kept me company while I painted. My awesome hubby Jeff helped me break down and pack up (that easy pop-up canopy aint so easy [especially for a shorty like me]). And the latin jazz really grooved! I told Jeff that I was going to have to hire a band every week to paint too...

Thank you Kevin Santos-Coy for organizing this totally cool publicly accessible arts venue!

IF: Enough

This is my entry for Illustration Friday.

The theme this week is Enough. Enough said.

IF: Foggy - July Nights in Tennesse

I've been vacationing in Clarksville Tennessee; visiting my son Chris and his family. I had a vision for last week's Illustration Friday Theme but I lacked tools to execute it. Finally went to a store called Hobby Lobby in downtown Clarksville where I picked up a small box of some hard pastels. Anyway the image I had in my mind was what I was seeing each night last week from my Son's back porch. It was a treat to watch the moon fill out and light up the mist hanging above a distant meadow. It was a perfect Illustration Friday for the theme Foggy. My original idea was to make this as a collage in various papers but since my supplies were limited I decided to get my vision down on paper and perhaps when I'm back home in my studio with my multitude of paper scraps I'll make a collage of this vision in torn mulberry papers and tissue.

Life Outside the Studio Window

I've started a new blog: Life Outside the Studio Window at http://studiowindow.blogspot.com/

It's all about the distractions that slow the making art. Of course it may just become one of those distractions...It's mostly about the backyard outside my deck studio. I try to make art out there but am so easily distracted by the goings on in the back yard full of wild bunnies, chickens, an irascible goose, occasional hungry hawks, migrating ducks and other wild birds that visit my feeders, creek and birdbath.

I hope others are as joyfully distracted by this blog as I am by the environment that inspired it.