Finally...new series intro for April...and my 100th piece of daily art for 2018!

I know, I know...it's day 10 of the month...but here is the info behind the series.

It took me a while to come up with the idea for the theme.  For starters, I always like to look and see what I have done during the same month previous years, just for reference;

So far this year, I have been revisiting some themes that I have done in the past.  Many times it feels like I am just getting into the groove, maybe even figuring something out- and then I stop and move on to the next series.  Many times I am ready for something new, sometimes I do want to keep making a few more pieces.  When I was trying to decide my theme for this month in the back of my mind, I was thinking- 'what, if anything, do I want to revisit?'

Another consideration is that for the past couple of years, my April series has been the series that I pull work for the show that Bludworth and I put on at CGMS in May, with the exception of the first show in 2015 where I pulled from my May 'Mermaid' series and just hustled to get the work done for the show.

When I plan my work I don't think about what will sell.  Maybe I should.  Yikes.  I just make what I want to make and hope that later someone may like it and want to buy it....but if they don't at the end of the day I made the heART that I wanted to make, and I am fine with that.  However, when you do work for a show you do feel a sense of internal success or failure based off how many 'red stickers' you see up on those walls at the opening.  Like it or not- it IS a thing.  I don't want it to be...but...it is.

Thinking back on the previous bodies of work for the CGMS show, I always strive to go with a beach or ocean related theme because I know it will pair well with my colleague's work.  Our color palettes always mesh, we're both into vibrant colors, so that is never an issue.  In the past, my mermaid themes have done pretty well at the gallery and just selling them myself.  Truth be told, I can't swim and I am deathly afraid of ocean critters.  So you won't dare catch me in the water unless it is crystal clear and basically no deeper than my waist...but I do love to be right there by the water, watching the waves, and people watching.

Back on the topic of 'success and sales', I did have one series that I didn't feel was as commercially successful, my #BirdsOfParadiseJLG series.  I focused on tropical foliage and bikini clad ladies, and even created some extra pieces- cute little bikini watercolors, fun tropical drink paintings and some small square foliage paintings.  

Well...I still have a ton of those.   I came back from the gallery with most of those pieces, and lemme tell you- storing a month plus worth of stretched canvas paintings is tough.  Some of them I painted over.  Some I sold later, some I gifted. I still like the work.  Heck, I might bring some out of the vault for this show- the colors will go well with what I am doing now...and I like those pieces.

​With all of that in mind...I decided that this would be a good series for me to revisit, at least a little.  I started to think about what I wanted my focus to be this go'round.  For starters, I do love a good tropical print.  I mean, this is probably one of my favorite dresses, I just keep accessorizing it differently;

​I decided I would look again at the palm/tropical leaf motif, but maybe go more with pinks and lime greens.

And Lord knows, I do love and some big ol' glasses.

A sure, maybe a big hat.  

...and I just started making the work.  Working with the palm leaf, even made some stencils...started to think about patterns and fabric design...then resort fashion...and...it's all still coming together but thanks to my girl Jen Moff the series has a name, and here it is;

Here are the first 10 pieces in the series;
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...and that last piece is daily piece #100 for 2018!!! Yayyy!
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