One Down...a bunch more to go! "Lantern Light"

LANTERN LIGHT

10x10

oil on gallery wrapped canvas

CAROL CHRETIEN

***

So...finally have some work that is dry enough on their first passes to paint! Started with this one because it was the closest to being done and I needed to have something to post on DAILY PAINTER's GALLERY for Saturday.

That was democratic I think. I understand we have 5 days of RAIN coming so drying time is very slow.

I am thrilled to have things to keep working on for the next wet week!

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I have been wanting to paint the lantern and I needed a cat subject so I thought "Siamese" would go nicely here with their dark face and dramatic blue of the eyes against the warm background.  Here you have it.

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Cliche' ??? I don't know but I do know I am happy with it.

so if you want to help YOUR FAVORITE RESCUE...make the purchase...it is 100% donation right to the rescue.

100.00

just email me to purchase

carolchretien@aol.com

this painting will post tomorrow on the WEB for sale.

***

and as ever, thanks for your time and attention!

Carol

Preview...WORK ON THE EASEL- WET PAINT

WET PAINT

works in progress...

The brushes have been busy!

New Original Oils

Here are a few of the pieces that I have been working on in the Studio.

They are keeping me out of trouble, I think. LOL!

Titles are in progress too! :o)

Moonlight Serenade

collage mixed media

oil over paper on canvas

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Circles of Life

oil on Ampersand Panel

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Lantern Light

oil on canvas

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Boston Bakery

oil on canvas

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Should be finishing up a few this week...it has been so humid that the paint dries slowly between sessions...The method behind the madness is to have a few going at once but I got a little carried away with inspiration since painting Emmi (see previous blog post) and there are 17 unfinished pieces around the studio waiting for their turn for the big finish!

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All work posted for sale will go 100% to help a rescue do their work.

original paintings may be reserved

email me: carolchretien@aol.com for any questions.

***

visit my website to help

BEAGLE RESCUE LEAGUE

with their

LAB TO LEASH

project

purchase a Print and it all goes to the challenge:

CAROL CHRETIEN ORIGINALS

It's ALL Good...on the easel....

New Work On the Easel 

"Watching Me...Watching You, Again"

When I get stuck ....as I did last week...no painting, no inspiration, I turn to Emmi

She always comes through for me.

I have a million images of her and she is so alive in my heart.

This painting came forward and presented itself to me,

A gift from my sweetie...maybe it will be offered for sale to help others,

maybe I will keep it...it is all good.

Leo walked into the studio and said..."It's my Emmi"

yes, yes indeed.

***

Yesterday it came together...before I started painting in the morning,  it was a horror.

I hated what I was pushing around on that canvas...then I started to paint.

She appeared and won me over.

***

That is the magic of art...it does not always go in the direction you think it will.

Oh...there are parameters but something dead and mechanical is not my way.

I can't just draw something out and follow it like a plan.

I have to have the alchemy or mystery of what will join me on the canvas. It can't be simply a formula...do this, put that here...it has to have some magic to it.

So Thursday I half heartedly grabbed a canvas ...looked through a bunch of Emmi images to stoke the fire and then I just started in.

Reached the snag...hit the wall...looked at 2 days of painting and thought

"well this looks like crap...it is not speaking to me at all"

Then ...yesterday we turned the corner and there was the magic.

Today?

The Muse came into the studio and I started 6 ...YES, six new pieces. 5 of them I feel will make the grade...1 is iffy. And they are all different.

I am renewed. I am gratified. I feel blessed.

Maybe they will help homeless animals.

We'll see.

It is not, after all, all up to me.

***

Living like I really mean it,

Carol

peace & cheers!

BEAGLES ~ Rescue Effort for 36 puppies!

You Can Help!

TAKE ME HOME

(and other beagle prints now available)

Link:   Lab to Leash ~ Prints to help Puppies

THE PUPPY PROJECT

There is a wonderful effort by

BEAGLE RESCUE LEAGUE, INC

rescuing 36 four month old beagle puppies from

a research lab. 

All the details to make this CHALLENGE a success are in the link below:

http://beaglerescueleague.chipin.com/puppy-project-5000-challenge

You can help by making a donation to help support the rehoming of these pups. They all deserve a chance at a real life with real love and their own families.

ALL my work until the end of the year supports rescue. 100% goes to a rescue no matter if the work is an original oil or a print.

Please consider a print (link above) and all sales will go directly to the challenge listed above. This is a direct to you sale from my site. If you have any questions please just contact me regarding the prints. carolchretien@aol.com to email me.

Go directly to the link to the challenge to donate funds.

The BEAGLE RESCUE LEAGUE main page is also found below
you can follow them on Facebook:

http://www.beaglerescueleague.org/



Call of the Wild...prints now available

Both original oil paintings have SOLD but they are

now offered as Art Prints.

Huntress Moon

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King of Cats

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Now available in Prints on my Website:

www.carolchretien.com

Visit the Galleries

***

the service is a "direct to you" purchase

you can order right from the site.

Zoom feature available to see the detail before you purchase.

The sale will go to rescue as a 100% donation

to help homeless animals.

Please note: the first 3 prints sold of "King of Cats" will benefit

BIG CAT RESCUE of TAMPA BAY

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There are a variety of subjects in Prints now on the site.

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NEW ORIGINAL ART is also available on my site.

email me to purchase or with any questions

carolchretien@aol.com

any time!

***

As always, thanks for viewing my work

and following my journey of using my art to help charities.

Helping homeless animals is my passion.

New Work on the Easel...

New pieces on the easel:

The first is on masonite...new experience for me...not sure if I like the support of hard board vs canvas.

I seem to be a canvas person.  But it is interesting painting on this surface.

may try out a couple more.

***

The second is the Lion I started last week. This painting was reserved as soon as I posted the Work in Progress that means that there was a request to purchase and they have first option when it is done.

That painting will be made available in Print on my website when finished.

House for Rent

8x10

oil on masonite panel

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King of Cats

12x12

oil on gallery wrapped canvas

(reserved for sale)

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I have several in progress floral paintings 5x7 postcard sized oils currently in the works as well.

ALL MY ARTWORK SALES UNTIL THE END OF THIS YEAR ARE

100% DONATIONS TO CHARITY

with all proceeds going to help homeless animals

in non-profit rescues.

Thanks for looking.

Email me with any questions or to purchase paintings

carolchretien@aol.com

or for PRINTS or AVAILABLE PAINTINGS

http://www.carolchretien.com/

Apologies!

So sorry I did post the in progress pic on the previous post!
This is the finished painting! 
You might notice the window signs in the previous post missing ...NOW they are open for business! LOL

Bar & Grille ...a new painting

About the Painting:

I have been working on some new city scenes and this painting below is the first of a series that I have completed and is now available.

One of my favorite subjects to paint has always been old brick buildings and reminders of days gone by. I haven't had the opportunity to do many over the last few years because of the focus on animals and doing portraits and commissions.

Coming back to painting after the hiatus has given me a chance to refocus and refresh my efforts.  I am just loving all the different topics that have been inspiring me.

Hope you like it.

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(Detail View) 

BAR & GRILLE

BAR & GRILLE

10x10

oil on gallery wrapped canvas

CAROL CHRETIEN

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100.00

Listing this painting for

Willing Hearts Dalmatian Rescue

with 100% going to the org.

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Willing Hearts is a non-profit that has volunteers who foster all the dogs they help.

Mainly Dalmatians of course,  but they do help mixed breed dogs and puppies in need when the need presents itself.

Rehab and Rehome to the forever home is the objective.

They help the whole NE region

please view their site for details. If you live in one of the states they serve, see who is available for adoption!

share their news

http://www.whdr.org/

***

Thanks for looking and if you would like to reserve this painting before it is listed tomorrow on Art Helping Animals and Daily Painters Gallery...

email me to purchase:

carolchretien@aol.com

When the Muse Takes Over...

You never know what will present itself!

DETAIL VIEW

UNTITLED WORK IN PROGRESS

CAROL CHRETIEN

***

Sometimes you struggle. Sometimes you work for what seems like days...

then you have those times every Artist knows where you hold the brushes and 

something else just seems to take over.

After working all day on some detailed paintings that really have to have somewhat accurate angles and such I was about to stop for the day and then much to my surprise ....my hand reach for a canvas and all of a sudden there was a LION staring back at me.

This is what I mean by the Muse just doing her own thing. I had NO intention of painting this Lion today or any day in the near future. I have a bunch of in-progress paintings of Urban Scenes that I am ambitiously working my way through. I have been thinking about paintings with beaches and children playing...

BUT...today this majestic Lion...this King of the Cats decided he needed to appear here.

So there you have it. He is going to be quite wonderful...no thanks to me! 

I am just a cog in the wheel.

I am doing my job by showing up.

***

as with all my work this year...

it will eventually be offered at 100% donation to a rescue when ready to go.

***

you just never know...but isn't it nice to be able to still be surprised?

HA HA!

truly.

Karma, Drama, Dharma and the Dance...

Huntress Moon

by

CAROL CHRETIEN

PRINTS AVAILABLE

http://www.carolchretien.com/

to view and print on demand

all sales will be donated to rescues

***

So here's the thing...all my work in any form until the end of the year is being donated 100% to non-profit rescues. Rescue is where my heart lies.

If you know me or know my work or my passion that is not news.

The reason for this is that millions of pets are disposed of in this society on a disgustingly regular basis and yet we are such a "pet friendly" society. We spend billions on our pets. We have pets in almost every household. 

 And yet, and YET millions are put death every year.

 SPAY AND NEUTER, people!  can it be said enough?

***

So you have these dedicated volunteer rescues, and some of the well funded larger ones like Best Friends who really pack a punch in scope and education of the public...but it is the little guy, the grass roots efforts, the "regular"  people in the trenches...that I am compelled to pour my work into. 

And this need to paint and share it... is Soul Work for me. 

So I am already beyond gratified that ANY work I have done has been able to help even a little. 

Last year I was hardly able to give anything to rescues as I was sidelined. But now as I am back in training, while I still work on the old shoulder injury, I am able to create work again that helps. Blessings and joys I can't even describe. 

Painting is magical.

Piece of white canvas, a bunch of scruffy tubes of oil color and some brushes...

POW! A painting comes to life. Amazing to me! I still don't understand it myself.

But I do love the magic of art. And then...Alchemy! It becomes more than itself, more than just a pretty picture...it can actually transform to help others. It provides green energy to homeless animals or other charities.

***

While I was "deployed" from my old life and unemployed by the new nature of the "business of healing" and all kinds of internal Drama that ensued from that chapter of my life...You know the part of life where your story starts to sound like a bad country song?...the Karmic light started to shine again.

What do you do?

You shed the old skin and you shake the drama off your karma and you start the dance! I've been dancing and spinning and flying, ever since.

(Insert Snoopy Dancin' image here...you get the picture!)

***

That is where I find myself today. I am so thankful I have the Muse back in my corner, I am thankful that the old life is behind me, I know I have a chance to still do for others in a way that is practical and gives a little ease to bad situations and comes from my own hand. Offered lovingly.

I am an Artist.

We always wish we could do more. There is so much need. If everyone does their little part then it all comes together in a much bigger way than the parts of ourselves. 

That, to me, adds up to hopeful.

 And isn't it wonder-filled to begin from a hopeful place?

***

I am working on all kinds of new art with new enthusiasm and painting subjects and different things I have not done in years. So freeing and so much fun. 

Join in the Dance.

***

Stay Tuned!

Peace and cheers,

Carol   

High Seas ~ new work

High Seas

9x12

oil on canvas panel

CAROL CHRETIEN

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Rollers on a gray day at sea. Offering this wave study to assist

SAVE THE DALMATIANS

http://www.savethedals.org/

100.00

with

100% of the sale going straight to the rescue

the buyer may also claim the tax deduction to the rescue.

this non-profit rescue has been doing heroic work for

Dalmatians and others in CA for a long time.

SDAL was the first rescue I ever painted for.

If you are interested in helping this rescue please visit their site

for Dals to foster or to adopt.

***

If you would like to purchase this painting:

email me

carolchretien@aol.com

paypal is welcome

***

For all currently available work:

http://www.carolchretien.com/large-multi-view/New%20Work/1932521-8-165849/New%20Work.html