This is prime lupine season now, and after two days of rain, I have been eager to get out and paint. Today was the day. I spent a couple of hours blocking in and adjusting shape relationships on a 12x24, above. Tomorrow morning I'll go out again and hopefully finish up. The weather forecasters are cautiously offering, as they do here, with a dollop of disclaimer and a dash of uncertainty, that it will be sunny again.
The panel is Ampersand Hardbord to which I've applied a coat of Golden's GAC 100 followed by a coat of Golden Acrylic Gesso and then toned with yellow ochre acrylic paint. The yellow gives the piece a nice, sunny feeling. If you are able to zoom in on the image, you'll note that my brush strokes barely cover it. I'll need to go in and add more paint; some collectors like to buy their paintings by the pound, and not by the how effectively a teaspoon of paint has been used to paint three acres of canvas. Also, the lupines are still subtle, but I'll hit those a little harder in the next go-round.
I want to update my readers on a new development at Lulu.com. As I mentioned in a post of only a few days ago, I have had good luck with Lulu. But no sooner than I hit the "enter" button than did Lulu announce that they are abandoning digital video and audio content. This includes the mini-videos I have for sale. As of September 19th, they will no longer be available through Lulu. So if you've been thinking about getting the videos, now is the time! (You can, of course, still get my full-length video demonstrations from Northlightshop.com.)
For the mini-videos, we'd like to stick with Lulu, since it has an easy ordering system, and I've already gone through the learning curve. Doing so, however, will require another learning curve, how to create an e-book in ePub format. Although it's called a book, it can also serve up video. There are some other options, too, but they will require research and coffee. In the meantime, I'd love to hear from any of you who have suggestions. Basically, I want to upload a video to a third party who will handle sales and allow the customer to download it. Fire away!
