Taking a break...

When I painted this a few years ago, I knew how many women face this battle, but never knew how close to home it would be. I auctioned it off and donated the money to Susan G. Komen for a Cure (the charity chosen by my wonderful collector) and at it felt good knowing I helped the cause a little. Then maybe a year later I received an email from the Komen organization letting people know that you could submit your art to be in the calendar. I had the perfect piece! I submitted and the voting began. I was happy to hear that mine was one of the twelve that was chosen to be in the 2016 Susan Komen For A Cure calendar but had know idea that it would hit this close to home.

When submitted you were asked to tell your story. Nowadays, nearly everyone has been affected by breast cancer in some way, and I was no different. But I was not a survivor, I was a supporter, which today could not be more true. At the time, my story was that my grandma had past from cancer and that I had been told I had a lump that needs to be biopsied. Fast forward to today, after I received the calendars and brought a few up for my mom to see and to hand out, we had no idea the she would be added to my breast cancer "story".  We hadn't even been to the Dr. to have a biopsy of the growth on her skin on her breast bone area, yet. So we knew nothing, nothing at all. But she looked at the calendar strangely, saying how coincidental and amazing that my painting was in it.

I told her to stop it and that she'd be ok. It was probably nothing. But I was worried too. They biopsied the area and the Dr. said it was most likely skin cancer. To our surprise it came back as breast cancer and so the journey begins. She's scheduled for a mastectomy by the end of the month. Tomorrow is the PET scan then a bone scan. There was a dark area on her sternum. I'm going to be strong for her. She's not only my mom, she really is my best friend. I moved to this tiny town 15 years ago to be close to her and live 5 minutes away. We talk several times a day, she's my person.

I'm taking a break from Leslie Saeta's 30 paintings in 30 days challenge because I'm taking her to town several times a week which takes the full day. We live and hour from civilization and now, with roadwork, and an unbelievably ridiculous 45 minute wait, it's more like 2 hours and that's just one way! I'm thinking she'll have to move down there and I might have to go with. So you can understand how painting one painting everyday is not really possible. I do however need to keep painting for me. My art has always been therapy for me and my anxiety, panic attacks, and mild depression, but today it's therapy to keep my mind off what's happening and to recharge myself to be the supporter I'm meant to be. I know now that as hard as I've tried to move away from this tiny town, something keeps me here. I actually moved away in 2010 but here I am again. This is the reason. This is my purpose.

Sorry to be so serious on my art blog. Art is a very personal thing though and it's hard to disconnect what's going on in my life and my art. My art has always been a reflection of my emotions brought on by my life's journey and now more than ever it will be here for me. There I go again, getting all serious! Hopefully my next post will have a new painting to share. I actually am inspired strangely enough.

Some more lemons...

I need to retake the photo

I'm finishing my paintings at night and then taking the photo, so it's dark and they're blurry. This one is actually grainy. I'm happy with how these lemons turned out though. I've always found painting lemons to be difficult because of the color but I think I finally figured it out. This photo unfortunately doesn't show the color very good either. Just another part of the challenge, taking good photos of the artwork! 

I'll retake with my good camera a little later. 

Today, is a big day, and not in a good way. I'm going with my mom to the breast cancer Dr. to see what kind it is and maybe find out what the treatment might be. We found out she had breast cancer couple weeks ago and it's just now starting to sink in. This is going to be a hard day for sure. Please send good thoughts! 

click to see available work

worked more on these...

I woke up this morning and looked at these two paintings on my easel and couldn't resist the urge to pick up my palette knife and to give them some more pizazz! I'm much happier with them now, I hope you like them too! The color is off on these. The background isn't so blue. 

Lemons and Roses

Lemons 1 - 8x8 oil

$95

Lemons 2 oil-8x8 

$95

Day 7 6x6 - Rose $50

Cherries...

6x6 inch oil $50

Painting away...

8x8 inch oil $125

I changed it up a little by adding pink flowers instead of the purple garlic flowers (I think that's what they were), anyway, I thought they would blend in too much. But looking at it now they might have worked too. Wouldn't you just love a little house like this? I sure would. What color would you paint it? 

working on a commission today...

Here's what's on my large easel right now and I've been working on it along with the challenge pieces. Today, it will represent my painting for day 4. I spent the morning dropping off a few paintings at a new restaurant that's having it's grand opening this weekend. I hope they get the artwork up in time! This 24x24 oil is a larger version of one I did a couple week ago. My client wanted the same painting just a lot larger. I think it looks great large (besides my bad phone photo). Tomorrow, I'm trying to decide whether to paint a sunset or a great little house from over on the coast. There's this adorable Victorian town called Ferndale. It's my perfect place, if that's possible. There's all these cute little houses and some grand ones too, farms with cows and chickens, green rolling hills, and the best part is the beach is just down the road. I would totally live there if I could. Anyway, I got some great shots of some houses (well, my mom took them for me when she was over there at the horse races), and I want to paint a few of them for this challenge. 

painting for the day...

8x8 $145

This oil painting was painted plein air. It's amazing how many colors I'm seeing now that I'm painting outside. It's perfect weather, except a little off and on wind. At least I can hear it coming and brace for it! I may have to take this photo again when it's dry because some of the variances aren't showing. 

I painted this one with both a brush and palette knife. I think I prefer both. The gerber a daisies were from my bouquet from earlier and I think I might be able to get just one more painting out of it, and then they're done. Thanks for viewing! 

Jen

Pink Roses Day 2

Pink Roses Palette Knife Painting

Rosy Posy

This little pink rose painting was inspired by the beautiful bouquet I picked up at Trader Joe's the other day. They didn't last very long though…I always recut them and use the powder but they always die on me. Anyway, they stayed alive long enough to paint these. I used a palette knife for the whole painting this time with lots of thick paint and texture! The sides are 1 1/2 inch and painted. Tomorrow, I plan on painting the pink gerbera daisies that came in the bunch. They'll be a challenge for sure! 

I'm doing the challenge again!

6x6 inch oil on canvas $59 

It's September at that means time for Leslie Saeta's 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge! It's so much fun to join along with so many wonderful painters! I love seeing what everyone comes up with.
I posted a question on Facebook about what I should paint. It was more me thinking out loud, but I got some good feedback. Seems most of you like seeing my fancy ladies and flowers. I have the hardest time painting one theme, as you can see. So…I figured as long as I get some kind of consistency in the paint application, size of canvas, and try to stick to a limited palette, that might do the trick. That way I can paint anything and it will still stand out as a "Beaudet". lol That's the idea anyway…we'll see if that holds true.