Paintings of France, Italy and Beyond

“How long did it take you to paint that?”

I think any artist who has been painting for a while has to have heard that question a million times. I always find it a little hard to answer, because the question seems to imply a kind of value judgement, such as “paintings that take longer are worth more” (which isn’t always the case.) But if I were to answer the question in regards to the painting below, I’d have to say that it’s taken about 3 months. More aptly put, 1 trimester.

Yes, that’s right…Back in early November we received some surprising and life-changing news. Turns out we’re expecting our first born, due in July of 2010! Having been married for 15 years with no expectations of having children, let’s just say we were happily surprised!

What it has meant for me professionally (at least in the short run) is that my painting came to a screeching halt for the rest of the last quarter and the early part of 2010. Not only did I feel oil painting (with solvents) to be not good for the developing fetus, but frankly I was so constantly nauseated and exhausted that I had no  problem staying out of the studio altogether. Heck, even sitting at the computer for any amount of time gave me some serious vertigo, so I had no choice but to unplug for much of last quarter as well.

What it will mean for me in the future is a little unknown. I’ll still be an artist, but this one’s certainly a game-changer, at least in terms of the way I’ll play it. For sure there will be more periods of absenteeism once the baby makes her big debut. For now, I’m in my 2nd trimester and have both better stamina and the blessing of my obstetrician to get back to work, so I am finally tip-toeing back into the studio to have a  go at painting again. Here’s my first attempt, after a “pregnant pause”; a painting of lovely Lake Como:

“Gilded Afternoon, Lake Como”
Oil on linen, 24″x20″

So…since it took me all these months to finish, do you think I can charge more? Nah….I’ll just price it as per usual. Mama needs a new nursery! Click here for all the details.

Jennifer Young; Vibrant Landscapes
Oil Paintings and Art Prints Online
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Still here…though life has taken me on a series of little joy rides lately and sadly required time off from the studio, and out of the field as well. In the meantime, I have at least begun to work on my website again in the wee hours, and I’ve made some changes I’ve long intended to make.

I’ve cleaned up some code and have big plans for my site that are yet to come (as in a complete redesign!) But meanwhile, one of the immediate visible changes I’ve made was to add a plein air paintings section to my website. Here, finally, are the series of plein air paintings I’ve worked on over the last while, now in one place instead of scattered about on my blog and on a select few pages on my main site.

The other thing I’ve worked with over the last couple of weeks is experimenting with different online shopping carts– to the point of tearing out great swaths of hair. In the end, none of the “reasonably priced”, “easy to use” (read: hosted) shopping carts that I tested really worked for me, though there were  a few interesting options that I might have considered if I did not already have such an extensive website. One of the more interesting ones that seems to be used by a number of artists and creatives is Big Cartel.  It is a hosted cart, meaning that purchases would need to be made “off site”, away from the user’s website. If you’re an artist looking for such a solution, it might be worth a peek. From what I saw of it, it is attractive and fairly easy to use. One drawback, however, is that there is a product limit of 100, which is not much considering that if you would like to offer several options for one item (for instance, matted, framed, or unframed) they’d have to be listed as three separate products. Of course, there are many other possible e-commerce solutions as well (for artists and craftspeople, Etsy also comes to mind.) But all of the cheaper solutions tend to require that you upload all of your products to their site. Makes sense, I suppose. But for me it would be too time consuming and frankly pretty redundant, as I already have my paintings uploaded to both my site and blog.

In the end, it seemed just as easy to tear my hair out adding one-option  Paypal Buttons to my exisiting site. It ain’t fancy, but it’s a start. This update is made a little easier using WebAssist’s Paypal Extension for Dreamweaver.  My strategy is to start out by populating my site with shopping cart buttons for my smaller offerings, and then gradually work on adding them to all of my available paintings pages as time permits, with the hopes of making the site more online shopping-friendly. Only time will tell if it is a strategy that is worth the extra effort involved, but hopefully I’ll gather some clues so that I’ll know whether a more robust solution is worthwhile when it comes time to give my site a major overhaul. I’m still in the testing/updating stage for the simple shopping cart that exists now, but so far so good. Oh, and to kick off the cart, I’m offering free one-way shipping in the Continental U.S. for a limited time. :-). 

Jennifer Young; Vibrant Landscapes
Oil Paintings and Art Prints Online
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There’s been a lot happening around here so unfortunately the blog neglect has continued! I do hope to ramp up to more regular posting (and painting!) by early next week. Meanwhile, here are two new little Key West pieces I’ve done for a small works holiday invitational that opens at the Miller Gallery on November 20th in Cincinnati.

“The Shady Side”
Oil on Canvas, 6×8″

“Towering Bougainvilla”
Oil on Canvas, 6×8″

I am so honored to show my work in such a lovely looking gallery alongside artists of such fine caliber. Check them out!

Jennifer Young; Vibrant Landscapes
Oil Paintings and Art Prints Online
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I’ll be traveling the next couple of weeks and I have a million things to do to get ready. But the weather has been so beautiful that in spite of my chores, I can’t resist going outside. I returned to the James River site near Tredegar to do another piece under the railroad bridge, this time in early morning:

“Coexistence”
Oil on Linen, 12×12″
Contact me for more purchasing info!

Unlike the painting posted the other day, there were no “bathers” this time (none of the human variety, at least). But there’s still something about this place that really appeals to me. I think it’s the contrast I enjoy –this juxtaposition of the urban structures and natural forms, coexisting, at least for that moment, peacefully and rather beautifully.

I’ll be leaving this weekend for our annual beach trip to the OBX (Hatteras Island) then home for a couple of days, and off again to Paint Annapolis. I’ll bring my laptop with me and certainly I plan to paint throughout that time. I do hope to keep posting here and there, at least during the beach portion. With travel, I never know what kind of resources I’ll be dealing with though, so we will see. Oh, and there is this thing called “relaxing”, which I’ve heard is a rather nice past-time. I just might give that a try at the beach too!

Jennifer Young; Vibrant Landscapes
Oil Paintings and Art Prints Online
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Well, I think I am back from my “blog break” now. I even took a brief painting break as well to get some much needed rest and physical therapy for my neck/shoulder/arm troubles. But since I’m, also feeling the need to excercise my “plein air painting muscles” for the upcoming Paint Annapolis event, I’m trying to ease back into outdoor painting again.  Here’s a happy little vignette I did this week at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden:

“Garden Companions”
Oil on board, 12×8″
Click here for purchasing info.

The botanical garden is really gorgeous right now and full of summer blooms. Even so, I had to forgo a lot of really good potential painting opportunities in order to find a spot of shade. The August sun and my fair complexion do not get along for any length of time, so shade is a real must. My painting umbrella does little more than shade my canvas and easel, leaving the rest of me high and dry (or hot and bothered, or whatever!)

I finally managed to tuck myself into a little corner to paint this potted urn surrounded by purple cone-flower, perennial grasses and towering hibiscus. Is it a landscape or a still life? Your call. Any way, it’s rather wild and impressionistic. Guess I was happy to be painting again. :-) I’ll upload it to the website this weekend, but meanwhile contact me for purchasing inquiries. (Note: It is done. See the link above!)

Jennifer Young; Vibrant Landscapes
Oil Paintings and Art Prints Online
My Website
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