Bubblegum

The painting shared in my previous post is finished. It’s called “Bubblegum Pop,” which is a style of music as well as what occurs when someone blows too big a bubble. (As usual, click the thumbnail to enlarge.) I may paint another version down the road, one that’s a little more… spontaneous? Brighter? Fresher? The right word will come. Or maybe I’ll do a drawing; I thought of using my Prismacolor markers, but they’re still in Florida. (I couldn’t pack all my art supplies in the car and still have room for an art show.)

Acrylic, 9″ x 12″

I’m adjusting to my new studio space (aka the card table in the corner). This week, the painting table will become the proverbial drawing board as I set up for the next project–once again resuming John Churchmouse illustrations. (Poor mousie–he’s been on and off the drawing board and the writing desk umpteen times since the idea came to me in 2011. But his day will come! This could be the year!)

Pre-Thanksgiving Morsels

Instead of turkey, how would you like lamb chops and frog legs for Thanksgiving this year? Oh. Not so enthused? How about the meal menagerie before instead of for Thanksgiving? Take it or leave it–that’s what I’m serving today.

First on the menu, some lamb–a snapshot (yes, it was taken with a camera) of a scene from my latest commission, The Littlest Sheep. Our protagonist, alone, struggles against the wind and rain to climb the mountain.

LS_climb

Second menu item: frog legs. The first leg is that the autumn issue (37:3) of Frogpond (The Haiku Society of Ameria’s literary/poetry journal) arrived the other day, and page 40 is garnished with my first professionally published short poem:

H_FP37.3

(This is the one that rocked the poetry reading opening night of the haiku conference I attended this summer.) The second frog leg is that today I received an email accepting a haiku for the next issue, too.

Have a joyous and blessed Thanksgiving!

Gallery & Goats

Good news from a budding artist-entrepreneur: I’ve just been approved to sell work on Artfinder.com. Artfinder is a gallery/sales hub that links fine artists with international customers including businesses and collectors. I think it will be a good venue for dispersing the nudes I’ve amassed from years of figure studies. Eventually I hope to design a sales gallery directly on Draws the Eventide, too.

Here is the link to my AF shop (also listed on my contact page):

http://www.artfinder.com/genevieve-bergeson (2023 update: I deleted my Artfinder account a few years ago due to lack of activity & sales. Link will no longer work.)

It also delights me to announce that the illustrations for Do You Have a Pebble in Your Pocket? have been digitized and therefore are truly finally complete. The author does not have set publishing plans, but meanwhile, enjoy this preview. (The left piece has now appeared in three main stages in this log: sketch, wash, and final painting.)

An Artist in Retrospect

I’m sure a number of people think Racing Pajamas is my first book. In some respects this is correct. Yet a few weeks ago, I realized… *pause for effect and grammatically incorrect use of ellipses*

…I’ve been creating books my entire life.

Not just writing stories. Not just drawing pictures. Actually making books.

Certainly there were the fill-in-the-blank “About Me” books from kindergarten. (The teacher gave everyone blank, white books and had pasted sentences like “My name is … My hair is … My eyes are … I like to …” The students finished the sentences and drew the pictures and covers.) In first grade, my class received such white books again, this time completely blank; I wrote and illustrated a trip to the zoo.

Then there was the Eastbury Elementary publishing center. Every year it printed an anthology of student writings (poetry, narratives, etc.), and every student had a contribution. But the really special thing was that we could get our own stories bound individually. Now and then, the teacher would send students, usually two at a time, to the publishing center with a story we each had written. We chose a binding/cover pattern, a title font (which was printed on a white sticker), and a “This book belongs to” sticker. Later, we received our books, each paragraph on its own white page, waiting for our illustrations.

Now for a special treat–here’s mine from second grade: The Wolf Named Acorn.

It’s great fun for me to read this again (and chuckle at the childlike things I came up with, like red wolves hunting zebras and antelope). It’s also neat to note my artistic decisions and development even then. For instance, look for these as you read:

  • A wolf ear poking out from somewhere on almost every page
  • Aerial perspective (bird’s-eye view)
  • The Protestant birthday cake (orange on St. Patrick’s Day–for some reason, this one really tickles me.)

What else do you notice? Leave a comment–I’d love to know what you see, too!

Moments of Gratitude

As it is the back end of August and the summer, I’ve been reflecting on my progress. Some projects did not move as quickly or as easily as I would have liked, and it was tempting to get frustrated. But the other day, before working on anything, I sat down and wrote a list of things I had accomplished and was grateful for this summer. No matter whether it was something only started or an event unrelated to my projects, it  went on the list. Acknowledging the good, the building blocks, the stepping stones–it truly lightens loads, kindles inspiration, and revives desire. That in turn hastens progress and fruition.

I am grateful to say that the illustrations for Do You Have a Pebble in Your Pocket will be completed this week! My concurrent book projects are moving along, too, from thumbnails to full-sized rough drafts; when Pebble wraps up, they’ll pick up the pace. Additionally, I am grateful that one of my haiku was accepted for publication! I am also glad for some short, quick projects (comparatively speaking) requested of me now and for the future, including a little graphic design job I launched into this very afternoon.

Now I invite you to your own private moments of gratitude.