Saturday, February 17

Painting the Night




"What counts is not the number of hours you put in, but how much you put in the hours"
...Unknown Author


I love to paint the night. It seems to be a consistent recurring theme in my paintings. Although I tend to "jump around" from painting the human figure, fantasy themes, landscapes, flowers, birds, etc and even change up styles realism, surrealism, abstract... I still find there are certain themes, such as night scenes, that keep recurring in my paintings.


I know I say that as though I have no control over what I choose to paint and really most of the time I don't really feel as though I do. An idea forms in my imagination and suddenly I am scrambling to get it down on paper with sketches, notes, anything that will help me work through it. Sometimes that's the end of it. And sometimes it gets a hold on me that just won't let go. That's usually when I feel my best work is accomplished. Most of my artwork, both paintings, sculptures and dolls, have their own story. It plays like a mini movie in my head complete with its own soundtrack. But I rarely tell the story myself. Instead I prefer the viewer discover their own if any. Sometimes I wonder, does anyone ever see any of my art the same as I do? Probably not. It feels like magic while I am painting (or sculpting or making a doll) and actually I do feel it is a borrowed gift from The Creator. When an artwork is finished, I tend to be much more critical of my own work. I believe that to be because I know... if a viewer finds something good in my work it is from The Creator but all the mistakes, well they are purely mine. And I try to own my mistakes too. I always try to post at least most of my paintings on my website. Even if I decide I don't really like them that much. Well, at least for a little while. I even add in small paintings I do as studies but now I am thinking that since I have this blog, I will post them here instead.

I receive more requests for prints of the painting above than any other I have created. Although I am satisfied with the painting I don't really feel it is my best but it usually attracts the most interest for some reason. The photo isn't that great but I am working on that. I painted this paticular painting several years ago but I have never offered the original for sale before now. I hope to be able to offer prints of this painting online soon.

Thursday, February 8

New Painting & New Store

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."
--- Ralph Waldo Emerson




I just added this painting to the figurative gallery on my website. It is titled "The Third Sorrow". Its an 18"x24" oil on hand stretched canvas.
This one has a lot of emotional meaning for me and because of that it took me several months to complete. I usually work on several paintings at once but not this time. I guess I was a little obsessive so instead of other paintings I have been working on a few sculptural object art pieces and several dolls during the paintings drying time. Those will be added soon also, once I get the "final touches" added. They just don't feel quite finished yet. It used to be I could complete several paintings a week but I now have an inner ear disorder and chronic back pain that slows me down quite a bit. Its a bummer to try to live with but still, I refuse to give up my art!
Also, I opened a store with cafepress.com. So far, I have only added a few products/gifts featuring some of my watercolors. I prefer oils, acrylics and pastels but sometimes I use watercolors to work on "studies" of a subject. I am not usually very satisfied with them as a painting but I thought they would make decent designs for gifts, t-shirts, etc. Check it out at http://www.cafepress.com/benitasweeney
Peace and happiness

Thursday, February 1

My Website

It is snowing in Alabama! We don't get much snow here so thats all there is on the news right now. lol Everything shuts down here when it snows so I'm sure they will be closing roads and schools today. It is absolutely beautiful.

I finally have my website up and running. Well, it's almost finished anyway. I have some of my artwork on there now and I will be adding more soon. I just simply don't have time for everything I need to do. I would much rather be painting and sculpting! You can see my webpage at http://www.benitasweeney.com .

I switched to SiteKreator because it is so much easier for me to manage. I just simply don't have the time to work on creating webpages and this is a great solution for me. For anyone else interested, they give you 10mb free and you can purchase a larger account if you need more. It is pretty easy to set up. So far I recommend it. I have added them to my links for artists if you would like to check them out yourself.
Peace and happiness