Good Afternoon, Gents!

Several of you guys wanted a winter Cardinal, well here he is! And hot off he presses too. I just finished him.

I wanted to put a lot of snow in it, & I may still add some flakes, but it was seriously too complex for snow. Those pine needles about killed me. But they did turn out great.

And maybe all artists experience this, but you put so much into your work (or at least I do) that when it's done, I feel kinda empty. Almost worthless. I would say after almost every piece, I ask myself what am I doing? Even why? I honestly think I'm emotionally drained (or perhaps creatively or both), & this is probably pretty normal (at least it's normal for me).

Yet I will look at this piece tomorrow & know why I do it & want to do another. And then when things sell, it makes me want to do another. And interactions with people also inspire me to do another. But I would say that this emptiness is probably the worst part about all of this & if I could figure out how to do it, I'd get rid of the feeling altogether. For now, I just ignore it until it goes away, which it will eventually.

This piece took me a little over 28 hours to make, for those curious about such things. And I'm not sure if you can tell by the photo, but I layered the tree & branches so much that if you're looking at it in person, it looks like it's reaching up toward you. Being able to add texture is definily one of the things I love about working with oil pastels. With pencils, I can only deceive your eyes into thinking you see depth, but with oil pastel, I can actually create some depth by layering it. So, the image fools your eyes into seeing depth going away from you, while the layering gives you the impression of the piece coming towards you.

I won't lie to you, I absoluely enjoyed putting the barnch he's sitting on behind the pine needles. Probably the reason why I'm drained, because of all of that, but it was worth it. Kinda ridiculous. Something else that's ridiculous is if you look closely at his left foot, you'll see pine needles between his body & the branch, lol. Really? Was that necessary? Certainly a b!tch to do, but exhilarating to pull it off.

Another trick that I don't mind showing you (hopefully you don't mind listening) is that the strokes of the branch he is sitting on go perpendicular to the strokes on the tree so that your eye can distinguish the two. I also tried to vary the colors to make it easier. A lot of fun to do!

Last week, someone told me that my work looks real, but not real. I've heard that before. It must be all right, though, because people buy it. One owner said that someone came in & bought 4 greeting cards to put in frames for their daughter, who loves birds. The two newest places have said that people really like the birds. So, it always makes me laugh whenever I talk to someone who asks if all I draw are birds. Why would I change what I'm doing if it's working?

Last Mother's Day is when I took off in a couple of locations, because people came in & specifically requested things of mine from the owners. It set me apart from the other sellers, which was pretty cool. I'm anxious to see what happens this year (if anything). Typically, I've found that Mother's Day ends the first quarter slump, which I apparently didn't experience this year (strange). My best selling place sold out the Thursday before Mother's Day, so that definitely set me apart from the others. From now on, I'll have to check that location twice a week when it's a holiday week. And another location sold half my stock the week of Mother's Day, selling the most I've ever sold anywhere in one week so far. So, we'll see if that's it or if this is just the start for 2026.

There is a place that wants all their sellers to come get their things, so they can reorganize their space. I told them to shoot me an email & I'll come down & get everything, but negotiated for after Mother's Day. They have yet to email me, but did tell me a couple of weeks. However, I'm going to wait for them to email me, because I don't like giving up opportunities or surrendering position. Waiting for them might see further sales, which benefits them as well as me, so I'm not going to be proactive.

With this one done, I'm absolutely going to watch a movie this afternoon & possibly take the week off. I'm beat.

Happy Sunday!!