Paintings & Progress

Like everything else at this particular (and strange!) moment in human history, my upcoming art show is in a holding pattern. The original plan went like this: I’d hang my artwork somewhere at the end of May/beginning of June, then take it down (making way for the next artist) around September 1.

But you know what they say about the best laid plans….

Sometimes a pandemic intervenes.

And so I’m currently playing a game of will-they-won’t-they with my art show venue. They might open up on May 29, allowing me to hang my artwork… or they might not. And I can’t blame them. In the surreality of this pandemic and all its spin-off effects, I can sympathize with anyone’s erring on the side of caution.

But in the meantime, I’m painting in good faith–and hope. Because whenever those venue doors do open, I want to be ready with all 25 paintings. It’s taken a lot of prayer, beaucoup paint and time, and a serious workout for my brushes, but the past five weeks have seen me knocking out paintings 19-24 (no minor miracle, given that it usually takes me 4-6 weeks to finished one piece):

Painting & Palate Cleanses

No doubt about it: I’ve been neglecting my blog. I’m a tad appalled that it’s been one two three four months since I posted anything new.

But life off-screen has been a bit busier. There was Thanksgiving and Christmas and all the associated weeks of travel. My wonderful brother’s graduation. A trip down to the family ranch in Texas to celebrate my other wonderful brother’s engagement to a wonderful girl. A move into a new apartment (complete with sunroom/painting studio for me–squeal!) A slew of freelance editing and writing projects.

But perhaps the busiest bee in my hive is this: come June, I will have a gallery show in Rockville, Maryland–my very first. And I’m in a race to the finish line as I try to whip up 12 paintings in the space between December and the end of May. No small feat, given the fact that it usually takes me 6 weeks or so to polish off just one.

No one is more surprised than I am, but despite the constant, quietly humming anxiety of oh-my-gosh-what-if-I-don’t-get-this-done at the back of my brain… I’ve actually been enjoying this intensely packed painting time. It’s meant halving my writing hours, which makes me a bit sad. But it’s also provided a much-needed palate cleanse for my writing mind, allowing me to come back to my keyboard more clear-minded and focused because I took time to step away.

And I’ve even managed to knock out a few paintings along the way, three of which make up a surf/space series for which I have to thank my brother Hunter for inspiration.

(Almost) four down… eight to go!

*Cue nail-biting here*

Like what you’ve read? Follow my blog via email or WordPress (on the sidebar), or shoot me an email (using the footer).

Summertime & Society6 Style

2019 has been the year of launching new projects. In February, I opened the Etsy shop I’d been contemplating for months. In March, I re-started the first draft of NIGHT GARDEN, a novel I hadn’t touched since 2015.

And this summer, I kicked my Society6 shop into gear.

Society6 is, in my (slightly-biased) opinion, one of the coolest online shopping venues around. Artists can upload their original work, then see it transformed into all manner of lifestyle goods ranging from blankets to bar stools, cellphone cases to coffee mugs, shower curtains to stationary.

I was super excited to see what I could do with my paintings. But I was nervous, too. What if my work didn’t showcase well?

But thanks to my most faithful patroness (merci, Mom!), I recently got to road-test some products. The trio of beach towels she’d ordered accompanied me on a father/son/daughter surf session at one of my favorite beaches in the world–North Packery, in my hometown of Corpus Christi, Texas.

• 

  Packery Channel Jetties

• 

  A Trio of Towels for the Thassalophile

• 

  DEVIL DOWN BELOW, painting & towel

• 

  WATERMAN’S FOLLY, painting & towel

• 

  ADRIFT, painting & towel

I can now report that the towels held up valiantly to the abuse of sand, sun, and saltwater. And Society6 did an excellent job ensuring every color was vibrant, every detail crisp. A pretty impressive feat, considering that it involved converting 11″ x 14″ paintings into 74” x 37” towels.

Grand Opening: Etsy Shop!

They say a picture’s worth a thousand words. To that end, this writer’s finally putting her paintings where her mouth is.

After months of talking about launching an Etsy shop, LMPeltierDesigns has gone live at last!

So if there’s a spot on your wall looking for its perfect match painting, I may have just the one sitting in my shop. Think of me as the Yente of wall art.

Watercolor is my medium of choice, because as a surfer/swimmer/life-long-aquaphile, it just seemed right. As for my subject-matter, it skews toward snapshots of the wild world. I aim for detailed, dynamic portraits of creatures great and small–a way to bring a little of the fierce, exotic loveliness of nature indoors.

Current series include:

Alaska series:

Alaska 1: Sushi for Dinner

My undersea collection:

Devil Down Below

Best.Mail.Week.Ever

This has been an exciting week in terms of mail deliveries. First, I received my favorite of all types of packages–a copy of my newly-published book.

Then, as if that wasn’t enough fun for one week, I had these little babies land in my box next:

• 

• 

• 

• 

As some of you know, I’m in the final stages of launching an Etsy shop to purvey my wildlife paintings. These handy-dandy business cards represent one of the last pieces in the shop-opening puzzle.

If Making a Snow Penguin is Wrong, Then I Don’t Wanna Be Right

Today, I had a ton to do:

• 1.5 hours of setting up my Etsy shop
• 4 hours of painting
• 7 hours of writing

So naturally, I took time out of my busy schedule to make a rather misshapen snow penguin named Hugo, after Victor Hugo of Hunchback of Notre Dame fame. (See aforementioned note re: misshapen-ness.)

To be clear: procrastination is always bad. Unless it involves a snow penguin. Then it’s very, very right.

Like what you’ve read? Follow my blog via email or WordPress (on the sidebar), or shoot me an email (using the footer).

2019: New Year, New Skills

This holiday season brought a lot of firsts for me, art-wise.

Back in 2015, my brother Jared helped me stumble onto wildlife painting–a passion I didn’t know I had–when he requested a painting of an Alaskan black bear:

Sushi for Dinner, 2015

I should’ve realized I would love wildlife as a subject matter, since my father fostered within me his love of the wild. But self-awareness is totally over-rated, right?

Fast-forward to 2018, and I’m turning my attention to a Christmas present for my other brother, Hunter. This project marked three firsts, two of which I’d heartily recommend. One not so much….