Moving

We will be moving to our new house next Friday. We have been packing up for several weeks. Our current home is a quite full of boxes and stuff! It made me a little sad to pack up my art supplies, since it means I won't be able to use them for a little while (whether or not I would have used them any way.) I tried to take the opportunity to thin them out though. I have such a hard time getting rid of art supplies- I always have so many ideas of something I want to do "sometime". I toughed up and gave away my oil and acrylic paints, as well as several random arts and crafts items.

I hope that by reducing the variety of creative implements I have, I will increase my use of them. I really would like to get some gouache paints again, and I figured it would be easier to justify buying them if I didn't have a bunch of other unused paints sitting around. After I gave those paints away though, I realized I have several canvases that I started painting but remain unfinished (see my almost first ever blog post). I will have to figure out if I should keep those too or not- only a couple are in close to finished condition. I will have to think about it for a little bit- I could maybe do some mixed media work over them if I felt like it, but most of my remaining supplies need to go on paper.

I went through a period last year where I was feeling like I should do more work on canvas. I was thinking how great it would be to not worry about framing for every piece. I thought I could use our garage for a studio, but it ended up not working very well at all. I have since come to terms with the fact that without my own large studio dedicated to painting, I am unlikely to get very far with canvas at this time. Also, I am very much more familiar with paper, as I have been working on it for so much longer, and paper can be a very beautiful thing.

I will now be putting my Etsy shops in vacation mode until a few days after our move is complete. I look forward to getting my stock listed in them again.. after we get our network set up again so I can actually access the internet from my own computer (I haven't been able to for several months). Well, I probably won't be posting here again, until after the move, but all this packing is making me and my puppies very tired :)

Treasury

I just got a treasury spot on Etsy. Click here to get a closer view at any of these beautiful photographs.

Work in Progress

Here is an image of a work in progress- a large-scale digital landscape painting. When printed out at full size, this will be 20x36". This is the first digital piece that I've attempted on this big of a scale. My husband and I are buying our first house this summer, and I hope this turns out well, so I can showcase it on our new livingroom wall!

Etsy Treasury

Thanks to RozzyToz for including one of my photos in this treasury, with so many other beautiful items.Click here to visit and look closer at any of the included items. Click here to visit RozzyToz's Etsy shop and view her lovely beaded jewelry and appetizer picks.

Puppy Love

I just started taking a socialization class with one of my dogs, Toby (the wonderful model for this portrait). I am really enjoying the class so far, and Toby is responding really well. Anyway, it inspired me to post some great dog art I found on Etsy.

This boxer by Chet Phillips of ChetArt.etsy.com even looks quite a bit like Toby :) I love the way it reminds me of a woodblock print even though it is digital art.

I also found these fantastic paper mache dog sculptures by Papier Dog at PapierDog.etsy.com - I love the way she uses color in her sculptures.

Cleo

Olive

Both these artists have many other items in their stores, so follow the links to see more!

*images used by permission*

To Italy

I just want to post a short note of empathy for those affected by the earthquake in Italy. My heart goes out to you.

Time flys by

Well, once again it's been a while since I've posted. I spent some time working with my husband and my friend, updating the webpage for our photography business, Thole Imagery. Its all together now, and we have a studio to shoot in, which is great! We are located in south Minneapolis, so it is convenient for most people in the Twin Cities metro area. We are also offering several new services this year, such as the old-fashioned hand colored look. Look for this service available for your own photos in the Thole Imagery Etsy shop next week!I also offer my digital portrait paintings through Thole Imagery as well- if you don't have a good picture to work from, come have a portrait session first!

I'm starting to add more things to my sarahthole.etsy.com shop also... I finally added the layered drawings that I blogged about here months ago! It's about time! I have tons more art ready to be listed. I have a ton of little abstract pieces I was hoping to frame first, but I might have to work on getting images of lots of them this weekend.