My blog, that is.
 
Hello dear followers!

I just want to post a reminder that my blog has moved to a new location. Same blog, new residence. It's still called the MW Grant Art blog but is now located within my new website, MW GRANT ART.

So please come on over to the new location and click on the follow button in the lower right hand corner of any page. I hate to lose track of you! I've just put up a new post about my recent pastel workshop in Italy. Lots of photos and very few words ... just the way we like it!

To jump straight to the new location of my blog just click here. See you there!

With thanks and fondness,

Michelle

Moving! My blog, that is.

 M.W. Grant Art website has been launched!!! Thrilled! Stoked! Yay!

And it shore is purdy. Please visit! You'll find available paintings there, sold paintings, links to purchase originals and even prints (that's a new thing!) and something especially noteworthy .... that the website now houses this blog. Yep, this here blog is moseying on down the road to the new M.W. Grant Art website location.

I'll leave this blog up with all previous posts intact, but I won't be blogging from here anymore. The blog's content will be the same, it's just that it's been relocated. Please transition with me to the new website and please, please, please click on the "follow" button in the lower right corner of any page so that you will continue to get notifications of blogs posts as you do now. I don't want to lose you!

You can read about my journey as an artist and a late bloomer on my "About" page and you'll also see what's coming up for me next week. Hint: arrivederci!

So please follow me to ....   www.mwgrantart.com

See you there!

       Michelle

Day at the Beach

Surfer series and more!

I've been riding the wave of surfer paintings lately, rolling out one after the other. These and the other beach paintings you see here will be contenders for my 2016 beach calendar. At this rate I may have about 20 paintings to choose the 12 favorites, but the surfers are taking over! Feedback welcomed ... which ones would you like to see in the calendar?

All of these paintings are available for purchase in my gallery on Dailypaintworks.com.
Small, affordable and easily shipped!

Thanks for looking .....

Off the Top, 9 x 12

Toes on the Nose, 8 x 10

Orange Sundress, 9 x 12

Aqua, 9 x 11

Not Starving, 6 x 8

Tahitian Delight, 8 x 10

Chat Time, 8 x 10

Here's whatcha do when all else fails .....

When the painting isn't going well 

and you're feeling discouraged 

and inadequate ....

STOP .... 

working on that crappy painting ....

and paint your beautiful daughter instead ....

and everything will be ....

just fine.

Well Heeled #2

I'm trying out my first auction on Daily Paintworks and it's kind of fun to watch! This pastel painting titled Well Heeled #2, is first up. I know it looks very much like the one I posted below in my January 26 blog post, but it's actually a different painting.

I spied this well heeled couple in the NYC Meatpacking District one day and the poor unsuspecting characters had no idea they would end up being the favorite subjects of three of my paintings. That's right, I've painted them three times! I loved her flowy melon scarf and leopard coat and his styled, man-chic look. And such attitude! I'm thinking I should have a naming contest ... something along the lines of Mr. and Mrs. Thurston Howell III.

Well Heeled #2, 9" x 12", unframed

This well heeled couple would love to jump onto your wall. There are a few bids going on now and a little less than four days left in the auction. Click here to go directly to the auction.

The paintings in my Daily Paintworks gallery are very affordable because most of them are small and sold unframed. Most are offered with a "click to buy" button, however ... this auction stuff is fun so I may switch them all to auctions. In any case, please visit my gallery and browse around. I'm adding new paintings all the time ... and if you're interested in beach paintings, I will be listing almost all of the 12 beach paintings with figures to be featured in my 2016 beach calendar, available in the fall.

Thanks for stopping by!

P.S.  Bragging note: I DID get a painting accepted into the Austin Pastel Society Juried Exhibition! See post below ... it's the painting called Blue Morning. I'm honored to have it hang alongside the 50 other accepted pastel paintings in the Corridor of Art in downtown Austin from March 2 - May 1. 

Fingers Crossed ...

Sheesh. You'd think I could show you something besides the same ol', same ol' paintings. I really have done others lately. But I wanted to say that I've just entered these three paintings in the annual juried exhibition for the Austin Pastel Society. Fingers crossed that I get one of them juried in.

Someday, when I am a more seasoned artist with a few prizes under my belt, I'll stop squealing like a 3rd grader about simply entering a competition. Here's to the day when I really have something to squeal about!

Thanks for taking a look ....

Well Heeled
12 x 16 image
$350

Golden
17 x 13
NFS

Blue Morning
7.5 x 9.5
NFS

2016 calendar, anyone?

After a recent vacation in Hermosa Beach, a southern California beach town where my family lived in the 60s and where I spent the happiest years of my youth, an entire new world of painting subjects rolled up on my shore. I never really had an interest in painting seascapes or beach scenes, never even thought I was capable of it. I've become a figure painter for the most part. That's what I'm passionate about.

But when I spent a week in Hermosa Beach ... riding bikes on the Strand, basking in the warm sand, body surfing the waves (okay ... getting knocked down by the waves that I body surfed in my youth) ... I stepped into my young girl's bronze skin again and was reminded of how much I loved it there, how much the beach is a part of me. And then there is that realization that if an artist paints the subjects she is most passionate about, that passion will show up in the painting and the work will be good.

And so I'm painting a series of beach paintings with the idea that I'll put together an artsy-beachy calendar for 2016. This is such a great idea which was suggested by artist extraordinaire, Rita Kirkman,  when she gave a talk to the Austin Pastel Society about how to best market our work. It's brilliant when you think about it ... every month a different painting will be featured on some one's wall for 12 months!

I hope to do about 16 paintings so that I have 12 good ones to choose from, have a 2016 calendar printed by September 2015 and have it ready for holiday sales.

Here are a few beach paintings I've done so far. And yup, I'm combining two favorites ... figures on the beach. Double passion!

Beach calendar, anyone? I'll put your name on my list!

Golden
13 x 17 pastel

Blue Morning
8 x 10 pastel

Paddling Out
8 x 10 pastel

Four More!

I delivered these four paintings today to the North Hills Gallery Member Exhibition for the Austin Pastel Society. A couple of older ones, a couple of recent ones ... all for sale!

Buzz
8x10 image, 11x14 framed
$150

Springtime
9x12 image, 11x14 framed
$150

Summer Snack
6x9 image, 9x12 framed
$100

Paddling Out
8x10 image, 11x14 framed
$150

All paintings will be available for purchase online at Daily Paintworks if not sold at the exhibit, which will run until November 30th. My Daily Paintworks gallery and shop will be open November 6th where you can see some of my other paintings. Please drop in and take a look .... I hope to add a painting a day until I run out!

Jist yur run-of-the-mill French truck stop

Four months later and I'm still writing about my artists' trip to France with Margaret Dyer. This will be the last of it I think, but I just had to shoot this little pictorial your way. Our hosts, Kippy and Jerome, called this a local "truck stop" but it shore ain't lookin' like any truck stop we have around these here parts in Texas. Welcome to Le Relais, near Fontaine-Fourches, France. It was a collectors paradise and truly a visual experience!

The vintage teddy bear collection was next to my place at the table. At first I was a little creeped out but soon enough they became my friends. One of them held my cell phone while I ate.

Our fabulous group of artists!

These were the most charming porridge bowls for children. They are hollow on the inside, you unscrew the little gold birdie, and fill the inside with hot water so that the porridge stays warm. I wanted one. Good thing the teddy bears were watching closely ... one of these might have found its way into my purse. ;-))

A beautiful collection of pitchers. Most of them seemed to be Majolica but I didn't dare pick one up to check.

These gorgeous enamel coffeepots were my favorite collection there! There were so many! This photo shows  about half of them.

Embroidered samplers galore!

Antique sewing machines and baskets.

There is a name for these precious figures. Kippy, help me out ... what is it?

Last but not least ... my dessert. A lovely little cherry clafouti. Délicieux!

AU REVOIR!

Las Portes et Fenetres de France

By God, I've done it again! I've neglected my poor little blog for three whole months!

Last I checked with myself, I was going to continue sharing my painting excursion to France with y'all. Oh well, as fabulous as it was I'm now onto the next exciting thing. But I did come across this draft that I had all ready to publish ... photos I took of doors and windows of France. They are all so beautiful and interesting .... worthy of a blog post.

Enjoy! Then I'll share some of my latest work. Thanks for stopping by! Au revoir!

  

We'll Always Have Paris

It was touch and go but we made it to Paris.

Despite the transit strike that was going on when we arrived in France, our artists group managed to make it into Paris by train one day. Jane and I had never been to Paris before, so we were going to be mighty disappointed if we were that close but couldn't go. It was a bucket list issue for us.

First we all walked over to the Musée d'Orsay where a few of us lunched in the exquisite restaurant before touring the museum.

(It's possible that you might be seeing the remains of some absinthe cocktails.)

Jane and I then went through the Impressionists wing of the Musée d'Orsay and because we were so awestruck we wandered through too slowly. So we didn't have time to view many of the other rooms in the museum before it was time to meet up with our group again. I think that means a trip back to Paris is necessary, n'est-ce pas? (Alas, we weren't allowed to take pictures.)

Then off we went across the Seine river and through the Tuileries Gardens to the Musée de L'Orangerie. Monet, Degas, Matisse ... oh my! Again, sorry I don't have pictures to show.

We crossed one of two bridges in Paris with the "love locks," the tradition of lovers writing their names on a padlock, locking it to the bridge and throwing the key into the Seine ... a symbol of their undying love.

The bridge is packed with locks on both sides ... you have to see it to believe it! Recently a portion of the railing collapsed from the weight of them.

As our day in Paris neared the end, we walked a different route back to the metro, through some elegant areas.

The window shopping was phenomenal.

Paris .... CHECK!