This is Edgar, who I ruined and then rescued while he reminded me how hard it is to paint with black. He also started out facing the viewer but looking over his shoulder, which created an illusion of his chest and wing swapping back and forth. But I totally ruined him when I tried to to finish the piece with pen and ink details. There was so much paint and colored pencil and fixative on the surface, the pen kept skipping and splattering. I wound up wiping away as much as I could and made a big mess. Then I started again in the morning with a wash of Paynes Grey (one of my secret weapons) and my trusty silver colored pencil. This time, I took the opportunity to change his position so his whole body is in profile. Maybe it came out not as beautiful as it once was, but I think it's better.

Phew!

This is Juno, a new mixed media piece on paper that is twice the size as what I've been working with lately. I'm about to enter her in a juried exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. The prospectus doesn't say the sitter has to be human, and when questioned about my subject matter, I'm known to say I paint people who happen to be birds. Wish me luck!

In other news, the Provincetown Art Association Museum is going to carry my greeting cards in their gift shop. I dropped off 100 cards on Tuesday as an opening order so they can see which ones sell the best before they get more. They bought the birds to sell individually as well as the collage series, which they may make into boxed sets. Looks like I'm in the greeting card business.

Being trapped inside because of the weather and not having a gig to go to, I'm getting a lot of work done. I finished this seagull, who is titled Gabriel, yesterday. I'd thought it was finished months ago but the beak was way too small. That's the danger of having pieces still in the studio, they might get a huge makeover.

The second piece is Gaspar, who may or may not be named after a notorious pirate instead of one of the Three Wise Men, wasn't immune to my makeover impulse and went through big changes too. My birds are only safe if someone else owns them, but I can always print up a giclee and totally rework that too.

 

 Here I am in one of the two fabulous hats I bought from the woman whose table was next to mine for the craft fair. The other one is a black pussy hat which she knitted for me and I sewed two mother-of-pearl buttons on it that look like cat eyes. The last weekend was a rollercoaster but I beat my goal for the six weeks by $48! The cardinal was the best seller in each category, followed by the yellow barbet, which is on my banner, and the emu. My favorite moment was on the last day when this boy who was barely tall enough to see what was on the table fell in love with the emu giclee and his father bought one for him to hang on his bedroom wall. And if that's not enough good news, I just heard from the Provincetown Art Association Museum that Titiana, my piece that I wrote about several weeks ago being accepted in their juried exhibit, just sold. Yay! How’s that for a great way to start 2024?

 

When I painted the cardinal a couple of months ago, I intended to use it as my Christmas card this year. But I posted him on social media and sold 45 cards and the original in two days. Then the bottom right image also sold and with the new owner's permission, I decided it would be prefect for this year's card. Once they arrived and were so beautiful, I made a series of with these three other cards as well. They are already on the Shop page at www.maureenmccarron.com but I am not taking them to the craft fair, because that is strictly for the birds.

This is Ganymede. You may recall my dilemma about a painting I worked on in August and that I preferred it when it was about halfway finished to the final results. In fact, I disliked it enough that I put away where I don't have to see it. Then a few weeks ago, I decided to give the gannet another try. I struggled almost as much with this version as I had with the first, but I do like this new one a lot.

What's that saying about don't quit before the miracle? Or is try, try again more appropriate?

 Here's what my table at the Crown and Anchor craft fair looked like this past weekend. I have two sizes of giclees, the blank greeting cards, the mugs, and some original paintings. Everything is available on this website. Fingers crossed that I have enough to get me through until Christmas.

The woman with the table next to mine knits hats and she made a black wool pussy hat for me so I could add two round abalone shell buttons that will look like eyes and shaping the ears a bit. That's on the to do list for tomorrow. I also have three new pieces going at the moment and would like to finish one of them this week. Stay tuned, I might show it to you next time I blog.