Sell Yourself

When the occasion allows me to take small finished paintings to a location, I will do just that. If I can pull my car in close to the area I am going to paint at, I just simply unload my gear and park the car later. I try to travel as light as possible at a paint out as to make my trip to my location easy. I always take note cards for sale to every paint out just in case I run into art lovers that happen to stop by and admire my artwork. Besides a good conversation with my visitors I am also handing out my business cards and explaining the process of en plein air. The sale of note cards is always a good way for customers to not only have your paintings in print form, but the fact that they will be sending your cards to friends and family. There is a description of the paintings on the card and my web site address on the back side. I also promote my web site address with two small signs that I hang on the sides of my easel for those shy art lovers that like to watch from a distance. The signs that I made fit perfectly in the easel when I am not using it. The more you try to get your name out there the more people will remember you and your trade. I don't know how many times I've heard people say "rodriguezart.com" that's easy to remember. Now Let's Paint!

My note cards fit perfectly in my easel.

Painting at the Withlacoochee River while customers look through my browse box.

Here I am painting at Rainbow Springs March 5th with the Ocala Plein Air Painters.

16x20 acrylics on canvas.

Italian Mural

Here is the mural I painted recently. Unlike the last two murals that were painted on a smooth surface, this mural was painted on a wall that had a knock down surface. This texture is similar to Spanish-style stucco. It is a little harder to paint detail work, however I was in luck that the finished look was to have a very painterly style. The subject did not have very much detail so right after I chalked 1 foot square grids for an 4'x8' area, I proceeded to draw with a small brush. After drawing in the big shapes I dusted off the chalk grid as I painted in the same manner I use when painting outdoors "en plein air". I wanted the mural to fade out to the color of the wall so I feathered out the edges. Not all walls can be treated equal in the field of mural painting so muralists need to be prepared to paint on many types of surfaces. Now let's paint!

Here I snapped chalk lines every foot.

Here I drew the main shapes with a small brush.

Here I am filling in some minor details.

The finished mural.

New Years Eve

Just before Christmas I finished another wall mural that I will be posting up soon so stay tuned. I wanted to share with you my new years eve project. I was painting or should I say touching up our purple martin decoys. That's right I have a couple of fake purple martin birds perching on their houses. They were a little dull from being up there last year and needed a fresh coat of paint. Also, to add to the mix we play a cd in the back yard with the sounds of purple martins. My neighbors just love the sounds of purple martins on repeat. ;-) I am trying to raise the odds of attracting martins this spring. I sure hope this is the year, and trust me if we don't succeed it's not for lack of trying. Keep your fingers crossed.

Purple Martin decoy.

Besides having a passion for drawing, painting, and photography; I also have a passion for playing an acoustic guitar. I spent new years eve with my wife Terry and playing the guitar with my friend The Legendary Barbara Beam www.barbarabeam.com

Well most of the time I was trying to keep up with her, but all in all we had a good time. It was fun playing next to a warm heater surrounded by X-Mas lights that made the whole evening special. Happy New Years!

Having fun strumming.

Wildlife Habitat

It is known that bats tend to migrate south for the winter and return to their roosts during the spring season. My wife and I are so excited to know that more than half of our colony of bats decided to stay in their bat house for the winter this year. They are officially in hibernation mode. I took a sneak peek early one morning, around 6 am with a flash light. This is something I would not recommend due to possibly disturbing them during their nap, however I just had to know if they migrated or not. It's going to be a good year for bats next spring. Now if only I could get those purple martins to occupy their houses this spring. My wife and I would have fulfilled our backyard wildlife habitat goal. :-)

Our bat houses where approx. 200 bats roosted last summer.

Vacancy!