Announcing Newest Work

I just wanted to take a moment to announce some of my latest work that I have posted. This is in photography. To see more, click on the following link.

Margo Schwirian See Me/Exposure 2013  (Photography)

Thank you for taking a moment to view it.

Some Past Experiments

Hello everyone,

Today, I thought that I would share some past experiments in my art with you. You know, those paintings or drawings that you put aside and walked around for a few years. Some of them you finally decide are finished, and some you are still scratching your head over.

Experiment 1

No title yet
Started this one in class

Painted this one a few years ago in my watercolor painting class and I am still scratching my head over it. There are things about it that I really like and someday I hope to finish it.






Experiment 2

Painted this one when I was creeped out from watching all the news on TV. I now do my utter best not to bother watching the news.

No title - probably won't ever have one
Started this one in class

Painted on my own
based on photo

Experiment 3

Wanted to try an abstract painting. I had never really bothered trying to paint one.





Experiment 4

Painted in class from photo
provided by art teacher

My art teacher suggested that I paint chile peppers because I had no clue what I should paint.










Experiment 5

Drew this because I wanted to experiment with ink.

No title - did this on my own
based on a photo

Experiment 6

No title - wanted to experiment
with capturing a more graphic
look, and hoped to capture a
sense of movement.

This was also based on a photo

Hope you have enjoyed a little time travel to the past. If you would like, on March 31 you can vote on the Fine Art America contest called Baseball. You have to click through the different paintings to find mine called Sports. The contest is just for fun. There is no prize other than congratulations, yours got picked! Vote for the one that you like - may or may not be mine.

Thanks for dropping by, and have a great week!

Really Short and Sweet

If you liked my post last week, you are really going to like my post this week. This is my latest painting I am working on, and if you want to see the finished product, you are going to have to come back and check it out next week. Sorry, it doesn't have a title yet.

UPDATE

This is what I call the steeping stage. I walk past the painting umpteen jillion times trying to decide what else it needs. Enjoy - the painting and the week.

Superfun to be Supergirl

LATEST UPDATE

I am still at it! I call this the "noodling stage." It is that stage where I keep trying to figure out what else my painting needs. Sometimes I go into the noodle stage too far and end up with a piece that might end up in a collage. So here it is, the next stage of Superfun to be Supergirl.

Superfun to be Supergirl

I guess that you guys will have to decide.

Sports Plush Baseball Sports Margo's Art by Margo Schwirian

If you all thought that last week's post was short and sweet, you are going to be absolutely delighted with this week's post.

To begin with, I finally made it back to a watercolor class that I used to go to. We were studying how to add abstract elements to realism so that you have a mixture of the two.  The example for style that my art teacher gave, was from work by JeannieMcGuire.

I had a photo of my grandkids from a Little League (or do they call it more like Toddler League at this age?) practice that I had taken, so for a lark, I tried it out. I was pleased with the outcome and even more pleased when I discovered that I could add the painting to a baseball through Cafe Press for my Cafe Press Shop.

The Painting: Sports

See:  Sports Plush Baseball Sports Margo's Art by Margo Schwirian

This was one of those paintings that I really enjoyed doing. It just strengthened my realization that I truly do enjoy painting people. And so, that is pretty much all for the excitement this week. Thanks for staying tuned.

Just a Little Something

Thought I would take a minute to say hello to everyone. I have some disappointing news. I promised you all that I would give you an update on the Valentine T-shirts, but I didn't get a chance to see them. So I guess that all of us will have to wonder for a little longer how they really turned out.

I took a short break from painting, but worked on drawing. Took some time to experiment with some gadgets on my camera, and spent some refreshing time at the beach. It was cold, but lovely. There is really not much to share right now so I will give you a peak at how glassy calm the ocean was, and how happy the sea gulls were to get some left over french fries.

The ocean was calm and rather tame.

This was about the largest wave to be seen.

The Sea Gulls came in for french fries breakfast.

As you can see, I wasn't going for a photography award. Sorry for the short post, but there isn't a tremendous amount to say this week.

Check out my Fine Art website:  Margo Schwirian Artist Website

Today, Do I Paint or Do I Market?

Today I am trying to decide, do I paint or do I market. That may sound like a really easy question to answer, but is it? I feel like I have so much to learn still in both of those areas. I still don't understand what a hash-tag is, or when and why you use one. I feel like I am trying to be a juggling act between painting, working a job, trying to learn how to market my own work, and my kitchen that keeps yelling out, "the dishwasher is almost empty and you have tons of rinsed dishes that need to be washed" (some exaggeration) - then there are the clothes that could stand to be washed or put away. Then there is some music that I need to make sure that I know. And, I'm sitting here trying to figure out how productive it would be to try to paint, and watch Lynda.com at the same time if I buy a month's worth of viewing time. She's got some great "how to" videos.

So, I guess the first thing on the list after this post will be the dishes because I have recently washed some clothes, and I can crank up the music so that I can hear it, while doing the dishes so that I will be prepared for that event. I would also like to finish the free video that Lynda.com provided. I am halfway through an 11 hr training video for the latest version of an older program that I have. You might say, "Why waste your time on it if your version is the older version?" I guess the answer is, I still get insights from the newer version, and right now my schedule and budget don't have room for the one month deal - but it is on the back burner, simmering.

It isn't Valentine's Day yet so I can't report on how well the Valentine T-shirts rated with the grandkids - you know, the T-shirts that have a cat on them. If you want to know the story on that, you are going to just have to read last week's post: Valentine's Day Is Coming.

Hope you got a chance to view Brian Neher's You Tube video last week. He has a great contest coming up soon. Actually, entries are already being accepted.

Hoping to work on my square oil painting that I started last week using leftover paint and a paper towel (for the paintbrush).  I'll try to share it next week.

If you belong to Facebook and would like to see some interesting art "info" as well as upcoming workshops in different areas of the country, click on my Facebook banner in the upper right-hand corner of this page and "Like" my Facebook Fine Art page:

www.facebook.com/MargoSchwirianFineArt

UPDATE:  Kitchen - MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!, Painting - composition partially solved and some rendering accomplished

Valentine's Day Is Coming

  

Today, I got a chance to do something rather fun. You see, Valentine's Day is coming up and I always used to give my kids a Valentine card. Then they grew up. Then, grand-kids came along. So lately, I have been trying to think of a fun idea that my grand-kids would like and also something practical that wouldn't make more work for their parents and might even be of some help in some way. And so, the T-shirt! You see I painted their cat into some of my paintings. He was actually watching the dog instead of a lobster and the expression was so amusing that I grabbed my camera and the rest was history. Only now, I decided that I wanted to give them a very special way to remember their cat (the cat is getting up there in cat-age years). So, I went to Cafe Press and invented my grand-kids T-shirts. Here I will share the special Valentine invention called Dinner T-shirt (because Dinner was the name of the painting).

Dinner T-Shirt "Dinner" Margo's Art by Margo Schwirian

Dinner T-Shirt "Dinner" Margo's Art by Margo Schwirian

This is one of the fun things about Cafe Press. If you don't want to open a store with them, then you can simply go in and make a one of a kind item and send it as a gift. I was able to order them each their favorite color. I am having to let go of my inclination towards color harmony in order to give them their favorite cat and their favorite color T-shirt together all in one. I would probably never choose to combine burnt sienna with purple or scarlet red unless I was able to make up a transitioning combination of the two. At any rate, I will now see if I can somehow show you the two T-shirts.

Well, this is the best I can do at this point. Hope you have enjoyed this and learned something new. By the way, if you are an artist, you might enjoy watching a new You Tube video by Brian Neher that gives some great tips about mixing possible flesh tones for portraits:  Link