Tomorrow! Last minute show!

Hey! Tomorrow I'll be vending at the KPSU 15 Year Anniversary Bash:

Pioneer Courthouse Square
701 SW 6th Avenue
Portland, OR 97205

Saturday, June 27th, 2009 - 10am - 10pm

I would've told you earlier, but I was just asked last night to share a booth. So come on downtown & join the fun! Be sure to stop by and say hi while you're there ;)

It's my 3 Year Etsyversary!!!

"Waiting,"2006 by Lea Keohane. All Rights Reserved.

"Waiting" was the very first thing I sold on Etsy, 3 days after I opened up shop 3 years ago. I have learned so much since then, about myself, about running a business, about selling art--more than I could possibly share in this one blog post. And I will always have more to learn--I love that! My ultimate goal is to sell nearly all of my work online and have LeaKArts be my primary source of income. For now, all I can do is keep working on it! I am so thankful to each and every one of you who has supported me, by purchasing my artwork, by showing me the ropes, by offering me part time gigs to help pay the rent, by being incredibly thoughtful, supportive, and just plain awesome. Thank you!

So, my actual Etsyversary is Tuesday, June 23rd, but all week (through Sunday the 28th) I will be sending a free gift with every purchase! Plus, for blogspot readers ONLY, I will be offering free shipping on all orders over $20. Just put the word "blog" in the notes to seller section during checkout and I will send you an adjusted invoice. This is a great time to buy a larger piece if you've had your eye on one, as the shipping can be spendy!

4 Generations

Where have I been lately?!? Heehee :) Lost in a whirlwind of the end of the school year, 4 days with my mom and grandma visiting, and trying to get settled into summer when day camp hasn't quite started yet. Touristy visits to the Rose Garden (above) and cruising down the Williamette on the Portland Spirit, piles of Indigo's artwork still in my doorway from the last day of school, play dates, shipping packages between it all. Even as I type this, at 7:28 am, Indigo's friend is talking to me about swimming while she waits for Indigo to get dressed and come out to play. Summer is definitely chaos around here. Fun chaos, but chaos nonetheless. I am yearning for this weekend, when Indigo will be at her dad's and I can sleep through the night and have a couple of days of quiet all to myself. A couple of days to re-center myself, focus, and breathe in a few moments of Solstice.

Custom painting in progress

A couple of months ago my friend John requested a custom painting of giraffes. This is a brief post, but I thought it would be fun to share a bit of my process with you! My process with custom work is a bit different than for my personal work, so in the future I plan on making a video showing you how I usually approach a painting. Hopefully soon, but no promises :)

Normally when I start a painting, I grab a sharpie and start drawing directly on the canvas in permanent ink. This is because I love working intuitively and I love the challenge of incorporating any "mistakes" that I make. When I am doing a custom piece for someone, however, I like to sketch it first in charcoal so that I can plan it out and get it just right.

Blocking out some large areas of color.

Copyright 2009 by Lea Keohane. All Rights Reserved.

The finished piece!

Maoiliosa.etsy.com

I have been meaning to write this post ever since I received this beautiful washi wall scroll in the mail from my even more beautiful friend Melissa of maoiliosa.etsy.com. My photos don't give it justice at all, but I wanted to show her a photo of it in it's happy new home right next to my desk :) Thank you Melissa!

New Portrait of the Buckman Elementary School Chorus

"Buckman Chorus" by Lea Keohane, 2009. All Rights Reserved.

Every year the parents of the children in the Buckman Chorus like to present Regina Pirruccello, head of the chorus as well as drama/music teacher at Buckman, with a really nice gift. This year I was deeply honored when they approached me to do a portrait of Regina with the children in the chorus. There are 90 children involved, so it was impossible with only a week's time to include all of them, but I really wanted Regina to be the highlight of the portrait anyway. Ellen Regal, another Buckman parent as well as a photographer, was kind enough to let me use her photographs of the chorus as a reference. The final portrait comes from a composite of about 5 of her photos altogether.

If you are interested in having me do a portrait for you, send me an email at leak@leakarts.com. You can view for examples of my portraiture (including pet portraits!) here.