Maybe the same concept holds true for paintings that sit for awhile as it does for fine wine - it gets better over time. I started this acrylic on canvas painting about five years ago. I knew the concept then, and that hadn't changed over time, but the direction of the paintings has. The love/hate ping-pong went back and forth for awhile, and then I had a creative block as to where the elements of the design should be placed. Then, suddenly during the pandemic lock-down, I had an epiphany (thankfully) and got right to work painting. This is by far, the largest canvas I've ever painted on - 2 feet by 4 feet.

I'm back to creating images I see in my mind for different occasions and holidays. My new Valentine's Day card design has family relation specific names on the heart held by my cute, little, stylish brunette. You can see a few examples below. You can find these, and other Valentine's Day cards on my Greeting Card Universe store. Click here to go to my store.

Sometimes, I start a project, stop for any number of reasons, then revisit it again. And most times, fresh eyes gives a new perspective on what the next step will be. I'm happy to say, my pastel painting of a dearly departed pit bull embraced by angels, is now on RedBubble and available on a variety of products. Click on this link to see all of the products available - www.redbubble.com/people/laurajholman/works/40520757-pit-bull-with-angels?asc=u&c=5281-pastels

After sitting on my canvas for what seems like eternity... I'm finally in the process of completing this painting. Acrylic on canvas. It's a large narrow sized painting. I'll post a photo when completed. Follow me on IG at holmanart.

Time is a weird thing. Sometimes it drags, other times it speeds by. I truly wish I could spend every day creating, but I wear so many hats in my daily life that it's hard to find time to be in a creative bubble.
This pastel has been in the making for a long time, but finally it's done. It was a very emotional piece for me to create. The tree was inspired by a tree I saw in Carmel, CA many years ago. I used reference that I drew from for the dog, and the rest came from a vision in my mind.

I love it when I'm asked to do custom work. I was just contacted by a customer through my Zazzle store to customize the name on a ribbon of a piece of art I've created for this Christmas season. The wonderful thing about Zazzle is the ability for customers to customize products. That's why creating for Zazzle can be fun if you keep customizing in mind when designing. In the case of this art, the position of the ribbon I designed did not lend itself to customer customization. It had to be done by me. I created the original lettering by hand, then scanned it and placed it in position in Photoshop. Files were made at that point to upload, and then a link was generated after the product was made for the customer to purchase the product. The original ribbon text was hand lettered with "Sonoma County." Those products can be found on my Zazzle store. See my other post for details.

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Seriously, where does the time go? July was my last entry. If I think back to what I've been doing, I would have to say I was majorly sweating through the summer months.It was too hot to think, let alone paint.

Watercolor is one of my favorite mediums. It's best to let it do its thing. Fighting with it's natural ability to wander on paper is probably setting oneself up for a frustrating experience. I've recently completed a watercolor for a Sonoma County Christmas card, and had fun painting a loose watercolor fashion illustration.

Part of the fun of painting is to experiment and have fun. Which is what the creative process should be about primarily. The wine and grapes art will be on my Zazzle store and card stores in the coming week. I'll come back then to link to the products.

I'm on so many sites that I find it sometimes difficult to keep up with all the changes, and posting my art. Redbubble is one site I've been on for years. Something like 6 years. Is that at all possible?

Anyway... I didn't get the chance yet to finish the last piece of art I posted. Sometimes I let works in progress sit for awhile, and let them take on the path they need to go at a later date.

In the meantime, something got me back on RB, and I'm glad I checked out the site again. I heard they were offering art on more products and that they were heading into more of a Zazzle type marketplace. I think the upside is quality over quantity, and I was so happy to see all the wonderful new products RB has to offer without being overwhelming. I was especially enamored with their dresses. One is a tee shirt type dress, the other A Line style. One of my older illustrations looked great on both.
​Check them out and click on the photo to be magically taken to the RB site where you can see them up close.

Time goes way too fast. That's why whatever you're thinking of doing, don't put it off. Do it now. My latest WIP is in watercolor and I'm getting back into more of what I love best - fashion inspired art and my love for animals. Yes, there will be an animal in this one. Can you guess what it will be? Hope to finish this one soon. 

It's that time again for the Twitter Art Exhibit. This year, the exhibit will be in NYC in March. After thinking about it for what seemed like weeks, I decided to create a watercolor and gouache landscape inspired by a friend's photo of his porch view in Palm Springs, CA. I don't usually paint still life or landscapes, but I decided to challenge myself for the exhibit. I ruled the lines of where to crop ( you can see them faintly in the photo ), but I bleed the image over the line as I paint, so when I cut it out to the specified exhibit size ( post card size ), the color will go right to the edges.