I hope you had a great Christmas 2016 & New Years 2017 celebration!
(a little decorations in the studio for Xmas 2016, with some orders ready to go)
A few years back I started a little tradition of recapping my art endeavours from the holiday season onto my blog. It began as a result of the lack of blog entries posted during the months of Nov/Dec while I was working on top secret gifts for folks. So every year now I like to put together one larger post after Christmas highlighting the events of the past two months or so. So here we go for 2016’s edition…
November & December have always been my busiest painting months of the whole year. This season started off a little slower than usual, but seemed to explode a bit near the end lol! A typical Christmas painting season for me usually consists of completing a variety of painting orders, some sketch orders, and attending the annual Canine Xmas Market at Sit Happens where I have a display set up as well as doing on site pet sketching (you can check out a video clip of that HERE).
(table set up at DogFest 2016)
For the 2016 holiday season I was invited to two additional dog related Christmas markets, my sketches seemed to snowball more than any other year, I released 8 new Pet Art Card designs, introduced my brand new Wrapping Paper, and on top of this all my largest painting order to date (non Christmas related, lol… post on that coming soon, but you can see a peek HERE) happened to wrap up all around the same time!! It was a bit intense at times, but overall a great holiday season for sure. Here are some photos of what I got up to:
(final 5 pet portrait paintings ready for pick up before Xmas, plus festive lights on studio easel for fun 😀 )
(set of two cat paintings ready to head under their Christmas tree)
(collage of approx half of the sketch orders completed for Xmas 2016)
(there’s just something about this one, my fave – ‘Jessie James’ 5×7 watercolour)
(my 8 new Pet Art Cards released in 2016)
(progress pic for client)
In the end, this year for Christmas I completed 9 acrylic on canvas paintings, 90 pet sketches, and started three ‘belated’ style orders. Sometimes I get painting orders that trickle in after my October cut off, and they’re scheduled to be completed after the holidays. But since they are intended as belated Xmas gifts, a fun option for these is to offer “sneak peek” pictures of the pieces in progress to share with the recipient (the last photo above is an example).
One of my favourite parts of this season is receiving fun notes & photos from clients or gift recipients! I was sent some photos of sketch ornaments on their Christmas trees, and it’s always fun to see them in their different homes:
(Lola, Aiden, and Leroy ornaments in their trees)
Big thanks to all my clients and supporters for following along with my art happenings during the holidays and throughout the year. Your commissions, shares, and referrals help me to keep doing what I do, and for that I’m always so grateful. Hope your 2016 was great, and that 2017 has wonderful things in store for you too!
