Lotus Bubbles - Paperblog

This painting, “Lotus Bubbles,” goes along with my last painting, now sold, “Hope Bubbles Up.” That was the first Lotus painting I’ve done where I incorporated bubbles into the design. It was a purely impulsive thing I did just for fun, but now I’ve been exploring that whimsical theme more!

This painting shows a pair of blooming lotuses standing up straight with bubbles rising all around them. Huge, glossy green leaves fill the bottom of the painting.

Like my last painting, this one is also painted mostly with a palette knife and lots of cold wax medium, for thick texture.

Details like the outlines around the flowers and stems, and the bubbles, were then painted over this heavily textured surface with oil glazes.

The result is a visually rich experience when you look at the painting in person–a flat image from across the room, but with hills and valleys, ridges and lumps when you explore it up close. Surprising bits of color glow through other layers of color.

I’m in love with the vibrancy of this palette–so warm and sunny!

This is currently the only painting I have from my Lotus series–you can see a selection of my favorites here. I can proudly say that every single one of the originals I’ve ever made for this series has been sold to a happy collector!

This series has not been my primary focus over the past several years, as I’ve been expanding my Looking Up and Tree of Life series.

However, it is something I continue to come back to again and again, and I have no intention of abandoning this theme anytime soon. I’ve often thought of my Lotus paintings as a form of creative palate cleanser for me in between projects. “Oh, I’m tired–I need to do a Lotus painting!” There is something so sweet and joyful about creating these ones. I always have so much fun with them. I think that spirit of fun comes through in the paintings.

Next up on my easel is the largest Lotus painting I’ve done yet–36″ x 48″! It is taking me a while to finish because of the large size. Stay tuned for that one.

After my big Spring Sale, I’ve been packing and shipping the sold paintings every week, managing all the invoices, and getting the bonus gifts of greeting cards printed and shipped out to each buyer.

Sold artwork waiting to be sent to buyers, art studio of Cedar Lee

So now that I’m coming to the end of such a great sale, and with a few more unexpected sales since, I’ve finally gone through the process of taking inventory of what I have left.

This seemed like a good time to update my pricing structure to be more streamlined–something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. I now have only 7 prices total, ranging from $290 to $2,490 (with exceptions for custom or very large-scale pieces.) I have 1-3 of my commonly used canvas sizes assigned to each price point.

As I assigned each available piece to one of my new price points, it worked out in such a way that some of my paintings moved slightly up in price and some moved slightly down. So, if you’ve had your eye on a particular piece, make sure to check if the price has changed! You can see my currently available art here. You’ll notice that all I have now are several of the large-scale redwood forest paintings, and about 20 of my recently completed small Tree of Life paintings on 12″ x 16″ canvases.

My plans for the coming months, in addition to working on new Lotus paintings, include creating more paintings for my long-lost love, my Eclipse series! I have a big solo show coming up in 2017 with an eclipse theme, and as of yet no artwork for it. More news about that to come!

Oh, and in the meantime, I probably should not neglect my Looking Up series, as that is the theme I submitted to Portland Open Studios, which I am IN, in October, and I’ll have to have some new pieces to show people then. (I’m thinking…maybe some new ones with autumn leaves…) By the way, if you’re in the Portland area, it is worth looking into getting tickets to this awesome event that will be happening in artist’s studios all over the city. I will be in the good company of about 100 absurdly talented and diversely skilled local artists.

*Gulp* The pressure is on…As usual–ha!