Linda Mahoney Art

That may not be the exact quote from John Lennon, but close enough. We expected to be back in Cloudcroft today, but that is not the way things have gone. We are moving up a wedding between my son and his fiance by several months and are waiting on the date. My sister is struggling with cancer and is not feeling well. I have a painting on the easel and am trying gilding for the first time. I'm using imitation for this first piece. I can't see using gold or silver until I am sure I can apply it competently. A botanical drawing of a rose that is almost completed is awaiting my return to Cloudcroft. I put it aside to complete the portrait I was commissioned to do. I'll post them here later. For now, I'm sharing an acrylic painting based on a quiet pool and stream I photographed in Tennessee a couple of years ago.

Have you missed me? I have been busy, busy, busy doing illustrations recently. It is fun, but a LOT of work and I have been putting in long hours. Part of that is my own tendency toward perfectionism. One of the most fun jobs I have been working on is a children's book about a frog who lives in the bayou of Louisiana and dreams of being a princess. I have made a new friend with the author and am stretching my skills back to illustration which is where I started as a professional artist many years ago. So many things have changed since then with the arrival of computers in the world of art and they continue to expand. The Photoshop images that were state of the art a few years ago are giving way to Vector images which can be resized without distortion. I still start all my illustrations with hand drawn images, and I am hoping there will always be a place for that. There is just something about the feel of the artist's hand in that artwork compared to digitally created work. Mayb...

(You can click on the photo for a larger version of the picture.) This colored pencil painting was actually finished a week ago, but I have been waiting for a decent day to get a photograph of it. I prefer to take photos of the artwork outdoors but ever since finishing it has been very dark and overcast or the wind has been blowing like crazy. Today there was nice light and less wind, so I took this outside and got a photo of it. Hope you enjoy! I'm already at work on redwing blackbirds with roses. I've managed to get some good shots of the Eastern bluebirds this past week, so they will be appearing soon, too. I was able to work outdoors on this painting several days and enjoyed the great natural light and pleasant weather. All the best! Linda

It is so frustrating to be "in the zone" working on a colored pencil painting and have the tip fall off the pencil. Then, you sharpen it only to have the tip fall off again - or worse - to remain in the sharpener clogging it. Sometimes that requires a screwdriver, a few expletives and an unwanted interruption in the work process. When colored pencils are dropped, the "lead" can break inside the pencil and no matter how many times you try sharpening them, the tip will continue to fall off. Well, I received a wonderful tip on resolving that problem from Audra Stevens, Product Information Specialist with Blick Art Materials. Here are her instructions: What you will want to do is put your pencils on a cookie sheet - preferably lined with wax paper or a silicone pad - and put the pencils in the cold oven. Heat the oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit and let them bake at that temperature for 2-5 minutes.Then let the oven completely cool down to room temperature before ...

I have been busy working away at the green jays with the wisteria and have the two birds pretty much done. W may be harder is figuring out how much of the background to include. I want to keep the rest of it quite a bit lighter to avoid having it compete with the birds. In the meantime, spring is knocking at the door. That brings some pleasant interruptions including an early morning visit to a friend's to take some photos of the birds that flock to their house. She keeps dry dog food available in big tubs outdoors and the birds love it. I got some photos of the cardinals, green jays, brown thrasher and Audubon's orioles. My corn plant is blooming! I've had this happen with 2 other corn plants ( Dracaena Massangeana ), but believe it is rather rare. The flowers take a while to develop and open, but when they do, it is very fragrant. I was disappointed at first, because the flower stalks (there are 2 on this plant!) had gotten quite large with no fragrance at all. Last ni...

I completed this colored pencil painting yesterday, photographed it and uploaded it, along with the cypress tree painting, as entries in the CPSA 2009 Int'l Exhibit. Last year was the first year they accepted digital entries, but I didn't enter last year. It was nice not having to deal with taking slide photos with the 35mm camera, but on the other hand, what I see on my computer monitor is not what I see when I look at the actual painting. Then, how do I know what the judges will see on their monitor? My colors look washed out to me on my monitor. Since the judges only get one impression of your work, that feels risky to me. If I had better techie skills I suppose I could calibrate my monitor, but alas that is not my forte. So I continue to muddle along. I used some of the Neocolor II crayons when working on this picture along with heat. I didn't discover that combo until I was almost finished. Now I am anxious to give that another try. I took over the glass topped range ...

I took a timeout from the colored pencil painting I am working on to do a painting of the sun rising above the clouds. In the past week, I have been plagued with the sudden onset of arthritis in my hands/wrists & feet/ankles. I would have blamed it on overuse of the hand with the prolonged use of scribbling with my pencils, but both hands hurt. I haven't been scribbling with my left hand, or my feet, for that matter, so that couldn't be the cause. My friend Alice told me it was because I just passed another birthday milestone. Probably right! I had a regular appointment to see my doctor yesterday anyway, so I bought a bottle of glucosamine-chondroitin and started taking it until I could meet with him. I knew that stuff would take 6 weeks or so to kick in - if it works for me. So, I have been scribbling and wincing at the same time. I started thinking maybe that is why I became more acquainted with collage recently. I figured I could do it with less stress to my hand and wr...

Oh my goodness, I was on Facebook cleaning up some of my email and ran across a person named Laetitia Mieral who has the cutest avatar. It looked like the wolf from Little Red Riding Hood. Ever curious and easily distracted, I sent an email asking her if the little avatar was an original painting she had created. She wrote back and told me that it is actually a papier mache figure she created and she sent me a link to her website. (You can click the name of this blog to get there.) It is just amazing to me that she can create all these fabulous figures from what started as strips of paper from the comics! Wow! You will love them. I can't read a bit of French, but she has her profile in English, so if you are foreign language limited like I am, there is hope. Check it out, I think you will love it!! All the best ~ Linda