Vegetable Medley On It's Way to New Orleans

I learned a valuable lesson this week that I want to share with you. My painting 'Vegetable Medley' was juried into the Louisiana Watercolor Society Exhibition in New Orleans and it's time to ship it. It is on a full sheet of watercolor paper, 30 x 22, has a 3 1/2 inch mat and a 2 1/2 inch frame. making it 42 x 34. Therefore, it is to big for my 42 x 35 box. Not only was I going to have to buy a bigger box it was going to cost $140-150 to ship it one-way and I have to pay for return shipping too. The 42 x 35 box shipping rate is only $45. Now that's a huge difference! I had just about decided to not send it and take the penalty of not being in the show for 2 more years. Then I started thinking of getting a smaller frame but it's a custom size so no time for that. Then it dawned on me that I had a metal frame that I had taken off a painting because it had a dent in it. And then I thought "was that painting by any chance 'Vegetable Medley'?" I went to my storage room and brought it home and viola`it fits!! I think it's 1 1/4" wide. Now the painting will fit in my 42 x 35 box and only cost $45 to ship! I'm soooo excited! The moral of this story is 'check to see how much it will cost to ship a painting before you put a wide mat and frame on it'. Just a few inches difference almost cost me $200. Ummmm! Now what art supplies can I buy with that money! Now I will have a chance to win an award too!

Stages of new painting 'Appletini'

'Appletini' came about when I was trying to think of something unique to paint. I was thinking of different types of drinks but lots of people paint those. So I thought why not put slices of fruit in martini glasses and viola! I love using the text fabric in my paintings because it adds a French flair and a linear design.

"Good to the Core" is a painting that I started in July 2013 after attending Chris Krupinski's workshop. I had it almost finished and then quit working on it because I was a little disappointed in it. But I finally finished it a few weeks ago and then entered it in a competition. I found out yesterday that it was juried into the American Women Artists 17th Annual National Juried Competition at the Addison Art Gallery in Orleans, MA on Cape Cod. I was shocked because I also entered the cherry painting and thought if anything was accepted it would be the cherries. Just goes to show that you just never know! I thought you would enjoy seeing some of the stages. Again, some are missing because I forgot to take a picture every time I painted. I hope you enjoy them.

Stages of New Painting

This is one of my latest paintings. I was able to capture the interplay between realistic image and it's naturally occurring abstractions making it very intriguing. I hope you enjoy the different stages. A few were skipped because I forgot to take pictures. Oooops! I need a name! Send me a name, I'll select the ones I like and then have a vote on Facebook. If you haven't 'liked' Marsha Chandler Fine Art on Facebook, please do so. If the name you give, wins, you well receive a free print!! Tell your friends

Too Hot to Handle

I hope everyone affected by the snow made it safely through! It was pretty though! I got stranded with my 7 month old Grandbaby and had to leave my car but luckily a relative of sorts was behind me in a four wheel drive so she took us to my daughter and we made it safely to her house. I've had 'Too Hot to Handle'finished for quite awhile but I wasn't quite satisfied with it so I made some changes. I put more folds in the cloth therefore changing the design on the cloth and changed the background to more blue than black. I like it better but what's your opinion. This is the second blog with the stages but I wanted to post them again with the final version. I've entered it and 'Keen on Jelly Beans' in the Transparent Watercolor Society Exhibition so I'm anxiously waiting to see if one of them gets in. This is my first time enter the TWSA. I hope you enjoy the different stages of 'Too Hot to Handle". Some of the pictures were taken with my phone and the lighting is different in them.

New Year, New Paintings

'Keen on Jelly Beans' 22" x 25"i> Here it is already the middle of January and I'm just now writing a new blog. I don't know what I have to do to be consistent doing this. I think it's because ALL I want to do is paint but I know if I want to succeed I have to do much more than that. Surprise News! I will be having a workshop at The Art Loft in Dahlongea in August! Details have not been finalized so I will let you know those as soon as they are. I am so excited about it!! I have several new paintings that are finished or almost finished. These are some I've been working on for quite some time. I've put them aside waiting for new ideas to pop in my head and now I'm getting them finished so I can paint more new ones. Is this too many images to see at once. Maybe I should start posting images as I'm working on the painting so I won't have so many in one blog. I quit working on this one because I couldn't decide what color to make the jelly bean on top. I finally just made it disappear. It's fun to be a magician! Hope you enjoy seeing this painting as it progresses! Stay tuned! I will post another one in a few days!

Funny How Time Slips Away

I've made an early New Year's resolution, that I will post on my blog at least once a week so here I am again. I've been creating a painting for a Christmas card for the past 6 years and I just started this year's yesterday.I always wait until the last minute. Every year I say that I will get it done early but I never do. Time just seems to slip away. Maybe next year. The attached painting is the very first one that I painted and I was doing landscapes then. Here is a little information on how my creative process in case you ever wondered how I come up with my paintings. I love to paint reflections and shiny things and I love vintage. I also like to feel challenged which is a detriment when I need to get a painting finished in a hurry. For my Christmas painting, I decided I wanted to paint candy since my other candy paintings have been so popular. I spent most of a day looking for vintage candy and containers and then another day taking lots and lots of pictures from different angles and perspectives while changing the placement of the objects. After downloading the pictures, I study them for hours. There just doesn't seem to be a fast way for me to paint in my style or at least I haven't found it. But still life painting is my absolute favorite thing. Marsha