Storing Acrylic Paints by Tracy Haines

If you paint in acrylics and are tired of wasting paint because of the fast dry time, try this!


A short video on storing acrylic paints:

This painting has SOLD

Birds, Bird Paintings, Original Art, Holiday Art Show, Oil paintings, Tracy Haines, fine art, Gift ideas

Below are a few more of the bird paintings I will have on hand for the Holiday Show Dec 5th.
I hope you stop by. Location:  1597 W. Nevada Place, Denver 80223.  I will be there Saturday only from 10-4pm

I am listing these for purchase for those who are interested but cannot make the show.

These come mounted to a black plaque and ready to hang on the wall. ( See the example at the bottom of this page.)

Thank you for looking.

" Poised and Ready" 6x6 oil

Shipping or Pick up

Local Pick up $55.00 USD Shipping $70.00 USD

"What's Going on over There?" 6x6 oil

Shipping or Pick up

Local Pick up $55.00 USD Shipping $70.00 USD

"Good Morning" 6x6 oil

Shipping or Pick up

Local Pick up $55.00 USD Shipping $70.00 USD

"Come on Now" 6x6 oil

Shipping or Pick up

Local Pick up $55.00 USD Shipping $70.00 USD

Benefits of painting daily, oil paintings, #30paintingsin30days, Ken Caryl Valley, Colorado,

I'm halfway through the #30paintingsin30days challenge.  It's not easy; it's a bit harder than I expected.  However,  I've learned a lot in doing this and thought I'd share some of what's helped.

Top 8 benefits of painting every day

1) It gets the juices flowing. 
  Every artist gets in the occasional, miserable rut.  Burn out strikes and the last thing you want to do is get into the studio. I've found that the mere act of laying out the paints, dragging the brush across the canvas,  laying down a base coat of color , is often all it takes to get the inspiration and excitement back.  Ideas flow and pretty soon you can't wait to get to the next painting.  You're out of the rut.

2) Drawing skills improve
It's amazing how much easier it is to lay in a quick and accurate sketch  after several consecutive days of work.  I've found that if a week or so goes by, that initial process is much more arduous, stressful and un-fun.

3) Organizational skills improve
Knowing the time needed to complete, photograph and load up ( to eBay, blog, facebook, instagram and the 30 in 30 site) a piece of art,  one needs to organize not just  the studio and office space, but also  the day and week in general.  Life does not stop when one takes on a daily painting challenge.

4) Self discipline kicks in
No more excuses. No more laziness.  You committed to the project; you just need to get it done.

5) Joy and happiness escalate
Every artist will relate to this.  The artist MUST paint.  She's miserable if she doesn't. He's grouchy if too much time away from the studio passes.    It's interesting.  I find that if I do a lousy painting I'm in a lousy mood.  When I do a piece that works out well, I'm on a near high.  However,  if I put off painting for any length of time, for any reason at all , I'm in a much worse frame of mind than when I paint and have a lousy result. In this way, joy and happiness really do escalate!

6) Business improves
You are not going to sell what you do not paint.

7) One learns new techniques
Particularly when doing daily paintings of smaller works, it's easier to try out new techniques, new subjects, a different palette or perhaps a different support.  Because the piece is small, there is less of a risk of wasting paint or other supplies. When you stretch yourself, you grow, and it's much easier to do this when painting small and often.


8) Overall artistic growth happens
Try it and see. Log your first painting and check it against the 30th.

A Valley Day, 5x7 oil on canvas panel.  Bidding in progress now on eBay!
bid here

50% of proceeds from the month of September go to Extended Hands of Hope Colorado!

Thanks for your support!

still life paintings, small art, #30paintingsin30days, oil paintings, Tracy Haines, daily paintings

Diet Root Beer,  6x6 oil on Gessobord
Bid here!

This is day 13 of the #30paintingsin30days challenge.  I like this challenge for many reasons.  
Tomorrow, I think I will post some of the benefits of taking a project like this on!

Meantime,  please consider helping in the fundraiser for Extended Hands of Hope- the non profit anti- sex trafficking organization I have been posting about.
You help when you bid for these pieces on eBay;  50% of proceeds during September will go to that group.

flowers, floral paintings, red flowers, daily paintings, Tracy Haines, fine art,

Day # 11 in the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge


And what a challenge this is, trying to paint a new piece every single day.  House is a bit more of a mess than usual and hubby and kid are getting by on left overs and take out. 

Sometimes, painting is the easy part.  It's more work and time consuming than one thinks, to do all the follow up stuff required.  I posted about this a few days ago on this blog, if you wonder about what actually does go into all of this.

"Christies", 6x8 oil/linen canvas

Bidding begins at a mere $ 25.00

Bid on eBay

As I have said ( and I hope folks aren't tired of hearing the same thing over and over, but this is a good cause), 50% of my proceeds from sales on the #30paintingsin30days challenge will go to support #ExtendedHandsofHope Colorado!

This non profit group helps severely traumatized young girls rescued from sex trafficking.

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog.  With so many blogs out there, I really do appreciate your interest.

#30paintingsin30days, floral paintings, Botanic Gardens, oil paintings, Tracy Haines

Day # 8 of the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge! 

Today's painting was done en plein air at Denver's Botanic Gardens.  What a gorgeous day it was- perfect weather and unending material from which to paint.  It was amazing to see so many other artists out there today. Several groups were there including Plein Air Artists Colorado, Golden Triangle Plein air, and a class from the Art Students League. Seemed like about 40-50 painters and lots of curious onlookers!

Botanic Gardens is a 10x10" oil on 1" stretched canvas.

It is sold unframed and is up for bidding on eBay now until 9/15/15.
 Bid Here: eBay bidding for this piece

Below is an edited black and white version.  I like to drop my painting into photo editor to check the reading of the values; especially when I use bright colors, which can be deceiving.  The values MUST read, and be interesting, or the painting does not work, regardless of how nice the color might be.

50% of proceeds from the 30 in 30 challenge this month, September 2015, got to Extended hands of Hope. Pass the work and please bid! 

If you are interested in my Ladies Fall Artists' Retreat, please see post from August 31 for details.

paintings of flowers, oil paintings,original art,#30paintingsin30ays,Colorado, Ken Caryl

Day # 7 of the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge!

This is also a fundraiser for  Extended Hands of Hope, a non-profit organization that helps underaged victims of sex trafficking who have endured tremendous abuse. Please lend your support by bidding for this piece on eBay.  A full 50% of proceeds from the 30 in 30 challenge go to this organization.

Ken Caryl Flowers
9 3/4 x 12 oil on 1/4" board
Sold Unframed
Bidding starts at $ 25.00 Bidding ends 9/14/15 around 5:45 mountin time.
Bid here

pastel paintings daily paintings #30paintingsin30days Colorado landscapes

Reflections on a Pond ll,  7x7 pastel on watercolor paper by Tracy Haines, $ 55.00, unframed

Day # 2 of the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge!

This is a 7x7 study in pastel on H20 Color paper.
It is sold unframed and must be mounted behind glass when framed.

This piece is available for purchase via paypal on my website:

http://tracyhaines.fineartstudioonline.com

oil paintings Colorado mountains and streams snow Breckenridge fine art

                                                       Winter at Matthew Winters Park
                                            16x20 oil on stretched canvas by Tracy Haines
                                                       $400.00 Framed  (gold plein air frame)

local pick up or shipping

Shipping within USA $430.00 USD local pick up $400.00 USD

Winter at MWP above was completed in the studio after I had done a plein air study on location.  I love doing winter scenes, partly because I just love to paint with blue!

Well, my studio re-organization project is coming along nicely.  On a whim,  I decided to paint two of the walls with a warm, neutral gray.  I think I like it, but will live with the color for a bit before putting things back in place.  Want to make sure it does not leave the studio too dark.

I have been a bit under the weather all week with a re-root canal proceedure that has not gone as smoothly as in the past.
I'll spare you the details, but suffice it to say, I shall keep this post shorter than usual.

If you are in the Breckenridge area July 24-26, please stop by the Breckenridge Main Street Art Festival.

Until next week........

Art studios,organization,oil paintings,acrylic paintings, studio tips,Tracy Haines art, flowers,floral paintings

Why my studio ( and perhaps yours too) must remain in a state of perpetual organized messy chaos:

Try as I may, I cannot, for the life of me, KEEP my studio neat and clean.  I do actually clean and organize it fairly regularly, but it immediately and always reverts back to something similar to the shot posted above.  I have fought this for years, but- no longer!  I am going to embrace the mess instead.  I'm going to have a mind-set change.
After listening to yet another #Artist Helping Artist podcast on the subject I finally gained some insight into this.
Artists are visual people, through and through.  Out of sight, out of mind.  We need to see it to know that we have it in our possession. The overly organized artist that hasn't yet recognized this, has, you can bet, more frames on hand than she thinks she has, extra tubes of that particular paint color he thought he'd run out of, and so on.

Which leads me to the....

Studio Tip of the Week

Install open shelving in the studio.  Place wire baskets on the shelves and label everything. This "open" storage system is working much better for me than the old "neatly tucked away" system ever did.   

Open shelving and open baskets, installed and ready and waiting to be filled in an organized manner of some sort. ( it's on the To Do list, towards the bottom.....I'm getting there!)

A non-artist friend, a neat-nik,  ( you know who you are, JB) told me open wire baskets, though neat-looking, would look messy on the shelves once I filled them up. She's right, they do look a bit messy once filled with my stuff, but at least I always know what I have on hand and where it is.

So, learn to live with a bit more of a mess than you like-embrace it, and drop the guilt. It's your studio!

*************************************************

Playing around with a different palette the other day, and with a different style, I produced this piece, which I really ended up liking.  It's currently at a local boutique.  I am interested in hearing some feedback on it!

             Flowers, 20x20x1 1/2 acrylic on wrapped canvas
                                           $ 495.00

This painting and many others are now available as prints ( on paper, canvas, tote bags, pillows,etc).
Here is one example of a painting on a tote bag:

Prints from Fine Art America

Well that is it for now!  Thank you for reading! Until next week:

EnJOY your days, embrace your mess :)

Tracy Haines Original art acrylic paintings oil and pastel affordable works studio tips organization art for sale summer reading recommendations

The Summer Art Market was a success and is so much fun to do , despite the hard work.
It's always interesting to me to watch and listen to find out what art patrons like or don't care for as much.
This painting, which was done last minute- just a couple days before the show- was the most popular.
I would not have predicted this; quite a surprise to me.

The Garden, 30x30 acrylic

I am taking one of Alyson Stanfield's 6 week  marketing webinars.  One of the things I am learning is the importance of developing and maintaining an e-mail list and sending out regular newsletters.  I simply have not focused on this much in the past but finally created and mailed out my first one yesterday!  If you are interested in receiving it ( and it will go out only 4 times a year), please sign up.
Go to  this link to sign up ( and scroll to bottom of the page) :Newsletter Sign Up

To help get my newsletter off and running, I offered a free painting giveaway raffle for those signing up for the newsletter. 
Ann LaForte was the lucky winner of this little bird: ( and the birds were really a hit; they literally flew out of the booth!

It is fun and rewarding to give recipients a nicely packaged piece of art!  It takes so little effort and can make such a difference for someone.  One of my clients mentioned how much she enjoys the quotes that I stick on the back of some paintings or packaging materials.

Would you like a bird?

4x4x1 1/2 oil/canvas, sides painted black 

$ 45.00

Speaking of birds,  looking for a FANTASTIC read for a lazy summer day? I absolutely loved the book, Wesley the Owl by Stacey O'Brien

It is a true and heartwarming story about a girl and her owl.  You'll not only not be able to put the book down, but you will learn a lot about owls. I think it's a must read and it renewed my love and fascination with birds.

Studio Tip of the Week:

Print out a small thumbnail of each painting. Have several copies of each on hand.  Paste one in the upper corner of a page.  On that page document the painting's history (where the paintings have shown , when it sells or is donated, etc.)

Place these sheets in a binder.  I number each painting and file them by number, since names get forgotten or re-used.

The other thumbnails I place on the box in which the painting is stored, on a bullitin board to remind me which paintings are earmarked for upcoming shows or competitions, etc.  This system is really working well for me.  I hope it helps you.

Please consider clicking this link to " like" my facebook business page:

Tracy Haines Fine Art Facebook 

 I will start adding more painting giveaways from the facebook page in order to continue to grow my newsletter sign ups!

My goal this year is to become a better businesswoman.  I appreciate your support and thank you for reading this!

Have a wonderful Joy-filled week!

Abstract acrylic paintings studio tips good books, quotes, art festivals Tracy Haines art

Happy June!

It is summer and that means......... Summer Art Market time!

Be sure to stop by the 2015 SUMMER ART MARKET!!  June 13&14th , 9-5 Saturday and Sunday
2nd and Grant st in Denver, Colorado.  Please stop by booth #6 and say hi!

I am excited to showcase new work in a very different style this year.  I will have many large ( up to 36x48") mixed media and acrylic paintings in a more stylized landscape format and a few purely abstract works like the one below.

Fresh off the easel:

Lazy Summer Day
16x20 acrylic on stretched canvas
$ 395.00

I've a new and huge respect for abstract artists.  I had no idea how difficult the struggle in painting something without reference material as a guide.  This new endeavor has been challenging and very exciting.

Today's studio tip:

Make your workplace as inviting as possible; a place you look forward to spending time. Hours and hours of time ;)

My studio is located in my basement.  For good lighting, and after quite a bit of research, I ordered the natural spectrum fluorescent lights from Verilux Lighting Company.  I can paint any time of night or day with these.   Still, the studio feels basement-like and sometimes a bit dark, despite the lights.  To make it a comfortable place to spend time, it helps to light a candle ( kept a good and safe distance from things volatile, of course!) and put on music while working.  Keeping the studio clean and organized  helps.  I am slowly decluttering and adding small touches here and there to make the studio itself feel like a piece of art.  It's a work in progress and I will keep you updated.

Quote of the Day:

Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling. ~G.K. Chesterton

Current books on my bedside dresser:

Acrylic Solutions by Chris Cozen and Julie Prichard- excellent review of materials and techniques in abstract and acrylic art plus great images.

Burn Your Portfolio by Michael Janda-  fun read with tips on succeeding in business and life.

One Nation by Ben Carson, MD-  This presidential candidate gives a clear overview of his ideas for healing the political and many other divisions in our country.  His life story is fascinating.

Coming soon:

You Tube pastel demo

Enjoy your day!

Intro to How to paint in pastels video YouTube series art studio tips, art studio tours, art supplies pastel techniques

I am excited to launch a series of YouTube videos for beginners in pastel techniques!  This video below is a trailer introduction.  The series will be getting underway soon.

These will be free, short "how to" clips covering studio set-up, supplies, techniques and all things arts related.

If you are new to pastels, consider subscribing to my channel, Tracy Haines Fine Art and tune in!

Here is an older thumbnail pastel study I did. How in the world the snow is falling in this photo is a complete mystery to me........... wow.  If you are tech savvy and know how this might have happened, please leave me a comment.   Bizarre, althoughI must say, I kind of like the affect.

Visit my Etsy store, Tracy's Etsy Store, TracyHainesFineArt to see some of my other studies I am selling at a bargain price now.

Garden of the Gods oil landscape painting by Colorado artist Tracy Haines

Garden of the Gods l
16x20 oil

I had posted the "start" underpainting of this on the 20th.  I'm adding much more color these days- pushing the limits with oil.  I am trying to move in a more abstract direction, but, wow, it's not as easy a transition as I thought.

Great Tip!!  I just happened upon a podcast for artists called,
" Artists Helping Artists".  It's terrific; and good to listen to while painting in the studio. I highly recommend checking it out.

Why is original art so expensive by Tracy Haines

Spring Towards Rampart 8x10 oil/birch  Available for purchase

I am occasionally asked why original art is so expensive. Before becoming an artist, I wondered the same thing.

I would like to share a little bit of what I have learned.

In today's post, I will cover the cost of some essential materials used in a painting. In subsequent posts, we will look at the costs associated with learning to paint, setting up a studio, producing a single painting for sale, start to finish, then what is involved in trying to sell a painting.

The average oil painter uses a palette of a minimum of 6 colors plus white. This bare minimum usually consists of a warm and cool version of each of the primaries. 

A small 37ml tube of professional quality paint averages a price between $8.00 ( alizarin, a cool red) and $19.00 (Cobalt blue)

So, on average, most painters have spent $ 100.00 on paint alone. ( my current working palette has 15 colors plus white)

Decent quality canvases vary in price, but , to do 12 small, 9x12 paintings on an average quality cotton canvas, you can add another $ 80.00. Oil paints and canvases need to be purchased continually. 

To purchase 5 quality oil bristle brushes in different sizes ( again, a bare bones set up) , an investment of perhaps around $50 can be expected. This cost can be stretched out over a longer time, but brushes need to be replaced not infrequently. 

The painter also needs mineral spirits, paint medium and varnish. 

Then there is the initial cost of setting up a dedicated studio area including an easel. This will be covered in another post.

Cow painting original art Tracy Haines oil paintings animals farm

Tagged and Mad is a 5x7 oil on canvas panel.
This painting is on eBay now.  Click link below if you would like to bid on this
cow.
Click here to bid on eBay

Tracy Haines Colorful colorado landscapes fall aspen mountains

Towards Steamboat Springs ( EB 130) is an 8x10 oil on 1/4" masonite prepared with PVA sizing followed by 3 applications of gesso.

Painting pal Holly and I drove towards Cataract Lake to plein air paint. Took us forever to arrive though, because we wanted to stop to photograph the breathtaking scenes all along the way.  Have I mentioned what a blessing upon blessing it is to live in the great state of Colorado?

Painters Paradise.

I found this lovely scene on a drive in the early spring from Breckenridge towards Fairplay.
It just sold on eBay. It is a 16x20 oil painting. I can't get enough of the willows against snow. The warm orange- green of the background trees frames the focal point nicely.

Tracy haines Original fine art for sale affordable pastel oil acrylic paintings on canvas wall art impressionism expressionism colorful colorado trees flowers floral red green blue purple mountains streams skies sunsets

I ventured on a solo painting trip last fall.  Packed paints, dog and headed out in jeep.  I got up at dawn, drove from the cabin towards Buena Vista, then to a campsite on the Arkansas river.  I loved the first light.  Renoir ( Rennie) had a great time chasing off the cows that kept coming to see what I was painting.  This was the first of many paintings this day.  Great day!!!

Tracy haines Original fine art for sale affordable pastel oil acrylic paintings on canvas wall art impressionism expressionism colorful colorado trees flowers floral red green blue purple mountains streams skies sunsets

Easy Come
Easy Go
So swift, So transient,
the fallen snow.
It comes to rest so tenderly
on jagged rock
and fallen tree.


Cabin Fever is a 5x7
acrylic on 140lb watercolor paper.  This will be listed on eBay on 3/5/14. starting bids are very low, as I am new to eBay selling.  Search Cabin Fever EB14