Nov 15, 2010

Blog move is official... now!

Ok friends, my blog is officially moved here:

http://carmenmedlinart.wordpress.com

All new updates will be found there from now on! Also, all of my entries from this Blogspot blog are there, too. :)

Nov 3, 2010

Lavender Lilly

Yeehaw, new art to share! I'm sitting here watching Murder, She Wrote with my Hubs and just listed this little pretty in my Etsy shop:

Lavender Lilly ACEO
Finally I'm getting back into the painting groove. Had a lot of commissions lately, which is great -- but am starting to find some time to work on my own stuff, too. I think winter here in South Dakota is going to be a shock for this former Californian! It is so cold out right now, and it's only November! We've had a lot of adventures out here so far. So much to see and do around the Black Hills area, like Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse monument, a woolly mammoth dig site, Cosmos Mystery Area, cool towns like Deadwood and Hill City... super neat! We have a lot of things on our list to go see. One of my favorite places that we drive through is Wind Cave National Park...lots and lots of Bison. I should post pictures here of those. The little young ones are so cute! As are the prairie dogs that pop up all over.
The other day when we were driving home at night, there was a huge fluffy owl sitting right in the middle of the road. He didn't care at all that a car was coming and didn't move a muscle. Silly owl, lol! Luckily we didn't hit him. The wildlife around here is great, even if not too smart about getting in the roads sometimes.

Oct 29, 2010

My art is now available as rubber stamps!!

Yep, finally I can tell you all my new licensor... it is Susana's Custom Art and Card Design! We've been working together for some months to create an absolutely adorable line of stamps. They are just beautifully made, they did a great job making them. There will be lots of exclusive designs made for SCACD so go check them out!!

Carmen Medlin for SCACD

And happy stamping..... ;)

Oct 7, 2010

Things in the Works

Long time no see! Life has been a constant whirlwind since the wedding, and my husband and I have moved across the country (half of it anyway) to the Black Hills of South Dakota! It's so gorgeous out here. We found a place in the forest where there are plenty of critters. There are also a lot more color-changing trees here than I'm used to... so many birches and poplars showing their beautiful Fall foliage. Although our forest is primarily Ponderosa pine. Happiness. Nicely, I also have a dedicated art studio room at our new place too! First time I've ever had one of those. Of course, if we had kids at this house it would likely turn into a nursery, heheh.
This year has been something of a long rest from the art business, with an occasional painting or two showing up -- but I'm happy to say things are stirring up again and I am anxious to paint in earnest. I have a very exciting new licensing contract that I will be able to announce soon, which has been refreshing and fun to create for. I hope you all will enjoy the fun too! :)
Once again I'm thinking of moving my blog, but I'll be moving it directly onto my website. Thus, not hard to find, heheh. When that is all set up I'll announce it here. Since my name has changed and all, I've decided I want to use my married name for art after all and not do the hyphen thing... it's what feels best and most settled to me on the inside. Hence, lots of things are changing. Such as my website proper! My carmenkeys domain is still there, it just has a link to my new domain, which is (suprise) www.carmenmedlin.com so people can get used to it. I'm trying to make it as easy as I can for folks to find me by my old name. Also I'm working on migrating my Etsy shop over to the new one, and I'll let you know when that is done, too.
Lastly, here is a little deer that was in our yard:

So cute!!!

Jun 23, 2010

Married!

So the big day was Sunday, June 20! I'm now Mrs. Medlin. :) The ceremony was lovely, our friends worked so hard to make it a beautiful day. We had a good time with my immediate family, too (it was a small gathering) and my kitty Kiba was finally able to move down here with me! He's hanging out with me in the office right now, staring at me as I type. He's gradually becoming acclimatized to the place, and not too much fur flying between him and our other cat, Sparkie. Though Sparkie is very jealous and is demanding extra pets for bringing this orange beast here.
My computer is still being fixed, so I'm still typing on David's computer. I have so much to do regarding website banner changes and such! I hope my laptop is recovered soon. Like I mentioned before in the comments, I decided on going with a hyphenated last name just for the art business so people can still find me. In everyday life no hyphen though. :)
I'm also in finding a second JOB mode... never my favorite to job hunt. The economy's been difficult this year and hard on my art business. I still have hopes of making it full time again though. A family business, by golly! I am not giving up. I'd love nothing more than for David and me to be home together, both doing the art business full time. God willing, it will happen.
Well goodnight all, I might just have it in me to make some cookies this evening!

Jun 16, 2010

Computer Doom

Well sadly, my computer has had a royal meltdown, and David is now in the process of fixing it (ie, completely re-formatting it)! Thus, progress on the Zazzle shop and pretty much everything else art businessy has been temporarily halted. I suppose it could have had worse timing, as this weekend is our wedding ceremony and as such, I am quite a busy girl anyway. Almost time!! I am trying to clean this house for my parents' sakes, heheh.
Once the computer is back in business, I think it would be fun to post some sketches. I hear ice cream calling me from the freezer...

Jun 7, 2010

Thoughts of a Monday

Howdy! I'm working on the Zazzle store today... It was that or tackle the upstairs bathroom of doom (OH how it needs cleaning), and surprise, the store won. Not much of a contest there, hee hee.
Yesterday we met with the wedding photographer (also a good friend) and took some lovely pictures! I can't wait to get them back. I'm feeling blessed by how people are pulling together to make the ceremony nice. Without them it would not have been anything like this.
It's a scorching day in Fresno-town and I'm hiding indoors with all of the blinds drawn to try and keep the heat out. Iced tea abounds. Later I will attempt making cookies with no eggs. I've read that applesauce might work as a substitute, and that I have plenty of.
1:28pm
I love my man, among many other reasons, because he'll play Lincoln Logs with me, build little corrals and cabins and barns, and play with the little plastic farmer and cow with voices and everything. It's good for a My Little Pony and various other toys-loving freak like me to find another toy-loving freak. Viva inner childhood. That is all. :)

Jun 4, 2010

Thoughts of a Thursday

So I decided to open up a Zazzle store! Still working on it. Probably will be for awhile, so many things to choose from!
Today, besides working, has been a low-key one of watching old X-Files episodes and the first X-Men. Haha, both X I just realized. My fiance and I have decided to watch all of the X-Files seasons in order. I love that show!! Oh yes, and I've been re-creating various website headers, banners, etc. to update my new soon-to-be married name, which I'm going to hyphenate for the art business for now. So they'll be popping up here, there, everywhere...
Back to X-Men and perhaps some sketching.

Jun 3, 2010

By golly, I'm partially moved

Well here I am in sunny Fresno! Phase 1 of moving complete. I have managed to thus far paint a couple of mermaid ACEOs…

Heart of the Sea On auction HERE

Yellow Mermaid On auction HERE

It’s crazy the difference in weather between here and Shasta Lake. It was rainy and gloomy and cold up north, but here it is sunny and hot! Life is even busier too, I’m afraid, what with the wedding ceremony soon and all. But it should be fun! Now I must catch up on an inbox full of emails and figure out a lot of stuff about life…

May 26, 2010

Random things

5/25/10
4:03pm
I’m SO overwhelmed right now. I only have 3 days left to pack!! Hot chocolate, come rescue me.
Yowza! There was some really loud thunder just now, and it’s pouring buckets outside. What a weird spring! It goes from sunny and hot to cold and thunderstormy in the space of a day. Lucky and Belle are hovering around me, they hate thunder. Kiba cat is hiding under the bed.
5/26/10
Whew. Overwhelm averted, packing DONE! Now I can get back to some semblance of normalcy, eh? It sure looks sparse in here. My cat is very disturbed by all of this, and is still hiding under the bed. Poor monster, kitties do hate change and things like moving. Sadly I won’t be able to get him moved until a little later; he’ll be staying with my Pa (whom he loves, thankfully). I’m kind of moving in stages.
I haven’t any art to share today, as I’ve been so busy with the packing but perhaps I can get an ACEO or two done in the next couple of days? Oh I hope so! Time to go unwind.

May 24, 2010

I say, it's Monday!

2:15pm
Paying bills – Yeehaw! It always makes me feel like a “grownup” when I pay bills, heheh. Probably about the only time I feel like that… Have to go to the post office today and ship off some art. I’m thankful for the sale, things have been slow! At this moment, every dog in the neighborhood has simultaneously decided to howl. Do they have some kind of howling sixth sense? Or maybe they just heard something that humans can’t hear and want to howl about it together. Either way, they’re probably having fun.
4:50pm
I’m back home and starting to feel the overwhelm again! Does anyone else feel a paralysis creeping on when there is too much to do? When I stopped by the store today I picked up a little bitty notebook that I plan on carrying everywhere with me… I often remember things I have to do or need when I’m doing something else and then promptly forget them seconds later. So I thought maybe this would make my life a little easier. Just as long as I *remember* to bring the notebook along, heh. I’ve often thought maybe a little digital voice recorder would be useful that way.
Anyhow, yesterday was a birthday party for my Pa and youngest brother. Pretty low key, we just all hung out together with my mom and ate delicious things. I made cake. My Pa barbecued. It was fun! Here is the finished Lucky dog portrait:

He is sitting next to the Belle portrait now. Never did share the Belle portrait on my blog, but it was from Christmas:

This upcoming weekend I’ll be starting the moving process as my wedding approaches. Agggh! Too much to do! Guess I’d better go do some of it before my dearest fiancĂ© is home from work and we can play some long-distance Scrabble. I am glad for internet Scrabble. And for webcams to be able to see snuggly fiancĂ©’s face.

May 20, 2010

So I decided to make a Sale page

I decided to put a Sale section in my Etsy shop where I can put stuff/ maybe rotate things for significantly less of a price from time to time. Woohoo! Sooooo.... here it is:
Super neat, it's Carmen's Etsy Sale Page!
Sadly, due to the rental of a very lame movie, I have missed my beloved Fringe. I'll have to catch up with it on Hulu tomorrow I suppose.

So it is Thursday

Howdy! It’s been a slow, quiet day here in the forest even though I have a gazillion things to do and my brain is swiss cheese and shuts down when it thinks about the gazillion things to do. At least one thing I am getting done today is a sketch for my Pa’s birthday… well it’s going to be a painting, but I thought I’d show a little WIP sketch. Of the family dog, Lucky. He’s the only family dog I haven’t painted for him yet, so hopefully he’ll enjoy it. Sorry for the blurry quality, I took this with the little internal webcam on my laptop!

Other than that, a good friend of mine is getting married not long after I am, and we are putting together a kind of coloring book for the kids to color in at her reception. I thought it was a very cute idea! Here’s a peek at the sort of thing I’m doing with that:

I call these little kitties Ralph and Sylvia, hee hee… I do want to do more with them.
I must admit, it’s been really difficult getting back into doing my artwork on a regular basis. I feel like I’m all over the map stylewise and having a difficult time settling into something. I don’t know if it’s all the crazyness with getting married/moving house/family drama or what. I’ve never been too great with chaos! Not without a lot of concentration, and I guess mine has been pulled in too many directions this year. Trying not to stress too much about it. I’m moving soon to a much bigger city (goodbye little forest – sniff!!) so that could be good for local art business. I may need to take another job too, in addition to my typing/editing for Army chaplains who are going to school gig I seem to have fallen into, heheh. I do generally enjoy the typing.
My mom informed me that she found a bunch of Serendipity books in the used book section of the library and she snagged them for me. I love my mom! I loved those so much when I was a kid. I especially loved that Glitterby Baby was dedicated to all the children in my own hometown! I thought that was super cool. Plus, it has a Pegasus in it. And those are super cool.
I know I do this from time to time and then forget, but I’ve thought about what the purpose of this blog is supposed to be… and I personally become fascinated with artists who just share the minutiae of their daily lives. And, the people who collect my art are a very creative, enjoyable bunch that I identify with a lot – so if I enjoy artist bloggers who share about their daily lives, perhaps people who like my artwork would enjoy the same. I guess I’ve always been a little afraid that I would bore people with that. Maybe some might find it boring, but heck, I think I’m going to just go for it. Minutiae of daily life, here I come!! Plus it will be something to post, heheh.

May 11, 2010

She emerges with art!

Finally, finally I have some art to share. My last name is going to be changing soon :D so I am still figuring out all the logistics of that and unsure what to do with this blog! Since its url has my maiden name on it. Thoughts, anyone? Since my last name is changing, I thought I'd also change some other usernames that needed changing too, such as my Ebay username... it's now "yarmalade." Just so you know.
Anyhow, I'm all about the cute these days:

Owl Snuggles ACEO On auction HERE!


Flying Lessons ACEO On auction HERE!


Watermelon Picnic ACEO In my Etsy shop HERE

I hope my muse will settle on something and stay there for once. These cute type things have been brewing for a couple of months and I've started doing a bunch of vector work with it too. More on that later as I get better. :) For now, life is crazy busy as I get ready to move house and have a lot of change ahead of me.
I've looked back on the past year of artwork, and it looks like my inner artist just took a long vacation! I have not painted much this year... have hit a lot of pretty major blocks, knowing I need to evolve in some direction that flows instead of always fighting against the current. It got to the point where I absolutely hated drawing, even. Luckily these cute kinds of characters have made it enjoyable to draw again. Especially as my new married life approaches, I've felt some life coming back into the inner artist. I hope that continues to grow!

Mar 15, 2010

Mustard!

Well hi everyone, and thank you for all your well-wishes! I have a new little wildflower painting to share -- truly I am inspired by Spring coming soon with all of its smells and pretty things to see. It was warm today for the first time in rather awhile, so I took the opportunity to sit outside in the sun. I hope that trend continues!

Bee and Wild Mustard - 6x6" Watercolor
Available in my Etsy Shop

Yep, still on my flower kick. It might last awhile. I have so many photos I have taken of little wild things and little garden things that I really think I ought to make use of them, eh? I am uncertain, however, what to do with these website-wise. Perhaps when I have painted a good chunk more of them I'll make a separate website for this style. What do you think? Or is that complicating things too much.

Mar 5, 2010

Realism is Fun

By golly, I painted something. It's been awhile! Like I said in my last post, I'm trying some realism for a change. I've found it to be relaxing so far, just finding all of the interesting colors and shapes and values. Here's some nature for y'all:

Rose Hip - 5x7 Watercolor
It's HERE in my Etsy Shop!
Today was a cleaning the house kind of day, since my brain can't seem to settle down and focus on anything requiring concentration. For some reason cleaning and organizing my external environment helps me think better. The floor situation was getting dire anyway! *Blush*

Mar 4, 2010

Oldies but Goodies


Hi everyone! Sadly, the local gallery here that had a bunch of my artwork in it had to close -- but the good news is that all of those paintings (and a few prints) are now available to all of you. I've put everybody in my Etsy shop -- Click here to visit my shop! You might find some unexpected old friends in there.
Well, the big news is that I got engaged! :) Which is why I've been so scarce.
I have started painting some fine art lately, and I am enjoying it. It's been a very long time since I've really done any of that and I think I needed that kind of refreshment. Soon it shall be popping up here on the blog.
Spring is coming and it is about time to think about VEGETABLES again for the garden! I can't wait to start planting tomatoes. I'd really like to try some heirloom varieties, they have such beautiful colors and can get enormous. I had good luck last year with growing tomatoes in buckets, so I think I will do it again. Happy March, everyone!

Jan 2, 2010

Pinwheel Summer and Happy New Year

A new painting freshly dried:

Pinwheel Summer

Original available in my Etsy Shop

I've been feeling cold this winter, so had to paint something warm. The grass is always greener on the other side, eh? When it is summer and hot, I wish it were cold. Ah well. Also I must say, that my scanner didn't do this little girl justice -- much more subtlety going on in person.
Happy New Year, everybody! The end of 2009 momentous things have been happening in my life; hence my scarcity here. I feel good things coming in 2010 and a renewed sense of getting my art life in order. Looking forward to seeing where God takes me. Yeehaw!

Nov 30, 2009

Squirrely

I'm in a Christmasy mood...

Woodland Christmas

Available HERE in my Etsy Shop

Sorry I've been so absent in the blog world! There is a lot going on at present, and I've been very distracted. Pretty soon I'll be taking off to visit my relatives for a week and a half, so there will probably be ACEO cards showing up (since they're so small and portable whilst traveling). Hopefully I will get a good amount of painting done!
It is just about time for me to put up my little Christmas tree. I have to dig it out of the garage and my little box of ornaments. I love all the colored lights that are all over town this time of year. And hot chocolate! And eggnog!

Nov 17, 2009

A Rainy Day for an Art Post

New stuff has dried!

Mandolin Player


He Knows the Way


Argh, I still hate my scanner -- it totally washed out all of the subtle colors and shading out of this girl's white dress. Ah well, rest assured it looks a lot more interesting in person.
It is raining! It has looked like evening all day long, and I've been bundled in my gray little old man sweater. It is a day I wish I could curl up with a book and tea all day. Well, I can have the tea at any rate!

Nov 11, 2009

Vulnerability

This one's all dry...
Vulnerability


It is very cold and rainy up here on the foresty hill today... strangely, a few tomatoes still hang on to the withered plants pretending to ripen, but they look kind of mottled. Tomatoes in November??
Last week we had TWO birds smack into the front window of the house. One did not make it :( but the other I put in a box way up on the big wooden stepladder, and he was only stunned so eventually recovered. Poor birdies! I am not sure why they are flying into the window all of a sudden, perhaps they think the lily-ish pattern on the curtains makes it a real bush to land in.
This is *definitely* curling up and sketching weather. When I was little rainy days were my favorite days to draw, in my pajamas at the table in the dining room, where we had a giant window from floor to ceiling (just a window, not a sliding glass door). That, or I'd go out and roll in the mud in my best Sunday dresses (sorry, Mommy!).
*Proceeds to drawing*

Oct 31, 2009

Above All Else, Guard Your Heart

Above All Else, Guard Your Heart

...for it is the wellspring of life. (Proverbs 4:23)


These are fun, I tell you. It's been a long day, helping a friend of mine move house -- I think I got my exercise in for the day as her new place is up a gigantic flight of stairs! Over a horse stable, no less. It was actually a very cool place.
My brain has just wandered off somewhere, so that is all! It must have seen something shiny.

Oct 29, 2009

First Dance

My newest, hot off the drying rack!

First Dance

Available in my Etsy Shop

I'm fond of this one, I think because of the whimsical/stylized look. There is another similar girl that is still drying up on the shelf. Maybe this girl is going to the prom -- I never went to mine!
There are little sprouting green things coming up in the compost heap again, looks like squash. Surely there is a squash that will grow in the colder months? It's about time to tear out all the dead stuff at this point anyhow, so I suppose I could plant the new volunteers.
Brain turning off now. Goodnight!

Oct 26, 2009

Star Garden

Here's a rabbit for you.
Star Garden


I've two pieces in the oil paint stage to do today... and a sketch... and we'll see what else. Where's the chocolate cake?

Oct 24, 2009

Squirrels and Party Dresses

Good morn! Here is me, trying to break the habit of working into the wee hours by starting earlier. I have TWO paintings to show y'all today....

Phineas and Abigail

Available in my Etsy Shop HERE


Christmas Party - already sold, sorry!

The squirrels were fun. Phineas and Abigail are a couple of characters I've had in my head for awhile... Phineas has shown up a few times in illustrations but this is Abigail's first appearance outside my head. I have not quite yet settled on a style for them -- maybe this style will win out?
There is still a small, lone watermelon up in the garden patch that I ought to go pick. I wonder what winter vegetables I can plant? I'd like to have something going most of the year up there. Anyone have ideas? :)