Finished Oil Painted Wall Mural Commission!

Welcome to the weekend! It's wonderful to have a day or two off after working so many days in a row for the gallery and traveling. Plus I am getting SUPER EXCITED for all the holiday fun coming up! Ive already started shopping and thinking about decorations. I am trying my best to hold off as long as I can though I do admit that I am listening to some Christmas Music Playlists while I write today's blog....shhhh don't tell anybody.

This past Thursday I spent as usual at my gramcrackers house for dinner. As I have recently talked about in the blogs, she has had me painting a rather large mural on one of her living room walls. Last year for Christmas I gave her a wood burned piece of art from Cloud Nine Studios - Feather and birds

 (Click for more on this piece)

My grandmother loved it so much she wanted me to paint a more realistic copy of the piece on her wall. It's been months and months but I finally finished the piece! When I began I knew it would take quite some time. Mostly because I could only get over to my grandmother's house once a week for dinner for a few hours and by the time we caught up and ate I only had an hour or two for painting. 

She was incredibly patient and it was so nice to see it come alive a little but at a time each week. Many times she would be impressed with simply the under layer of the painting. It was exciting as the artist knowing how I could make it come over more alive when it was finished.

I have painted on walls a few times before this but mostly I have only worked on movable surfaces previous to this mural. It was interesting to figure out how to move my brush in ways I was uncomfortable with to hit spots I may have missed or wanted to fix when the paint was wet near my hand. Normally I am able to rotate my surface it I need to but with the painting being on the wall, I had to learn to adapt.

I am typically I pretty clean and organized painter. I don't use a ton of paint on my brushes and I tend to be able to wear whatever I like because I am very aware of were all my paint is. At times I thought I should have changed from my nice gallery clothes but chose to stay in whatever it was that I was wearing so I was extra careful not to get paint on parts of the walls I didn't want to or drop anything on the carpet! Oil paint is almost impossible to get out of things without ruining the original surfaces with chemicals/mineralspirits.

We added a Leo symbol above the feather to represent my Papa who passed. To my grandmother, the feather is symbolic of his spirit leaving the physical world and evolving into the the next. Each one of the three birds is an representation of the transformation. The first on the left is blurry and undefined, the seconded with a few details, and the final very defined and bold.

In the end, I am extremely happy and proud of how it has turned out. I tried to take some photos along the way and don't have the best finished product images. When I finished it was late and the lighting is difficult to photograph with. But here you have it! 

Thanks for stopping by today's blog! I hope you enjoyed the images of my process and journey through the feather mural! It was a great experience that taught me many new things and also gave me confidence in areas I might have been lacking. Hopefully I can show better pictures of the final piece soon! Let me hear you thoughts in the comments below! 

Until Tomorrow - Dream Away

Samantha Menzo

Cloud Nine Studios

Etsy Featured Item of the Day:

Feather Bracelet by - LeChaim

Song of the Day:

Seal - Fly like an Eagle

Color of the Day:

Garden Oasis 699 Paint

Catching up and getting back into the swing of things!

Hello HELLO! It has been quite sometime since I have been able to last post! So today I want to just catch you all up so we can have a lovely Dream Scheme Friday tomorrow! I have been working super hard for my wonderful job at Habatat Galleries. It's a glass art gallery that has stunning work from all over the world. I have been with Habatat for over a year now. 

Every November, the Navy Pier in Chicago holds a Fine Art Fair called SOFA. Our gallery travels there to display and sell our work and our space is always HUGE! It's the most work I have ever done and it's non-stop for a week straight. 

As much as it is demanding both mentally and physically, it's also very rewarding. Chicago is a great city and although there is practically no time outside of working, it's still hard to deny that you are in such an alive place! 

Fine Dinning with my love. My favorite part of the trip!

Artist & Staff party at Howl at the Moon in Chicago

This year I was fortunate enough to have my boyfriend George with me. He came to help work the set up and take down of the show and we were able to have a few wonderful meals and nights to ourselves in between the yawning and napping. Below are some pictures of the show's set up and take down along with some of our galleries work and booth talk clips.

 Latchezar Boyadjiev - Habatat Artist

 Emily Brock Piece "Green" Close up - Habatat Artist

Owner Corey Hampson before set up began!

Martin Janecky during a demo at Ingite Studios - Habatat Artist

Now that I am back, I have to get back into the swing of things. Starting is always the hardest. While I was away I gathered up two more commissions that will be wood burned family tree gifts for family members from someone I know for Christmas. I also still need to finish the Rick and Morty Mug commission I started a few weeks back. Getting back into the studio to start the ball rolling again is a struggle.

I find myself avoiding the room completely and trying to do other things first.....it is so much easier to be productive in the studio if a keep a good pace going and spend even a little time in there everyday. If a huge break occur I get thrown off.

Also I have started extensive research and sketching on a planning a new series. I don't want to get too far into telling you about it yet but I will say that it should be a 12 painting series when it's finished and it's ALL I can think about. Which is also why completing the commissions I am getting even harder. All I want to do is work on this series....but Christmas is coming and I know that my commission work load will only get worse and I should be thankful for more time to actually plan out what I want instead of jumping right in and losing steam like I tend to do. 

Anyway! I am glad to be back and writing the blogs again. Is there anything you are interested in me writing about? An art topic, something about my art business or maybe more about my job at the gallery? Let me know in the comments below and always remember if you like the blogs you can subscribe with the blue button at the top right of the page! Much Love!

Until Tomorrow - Dream Away

Samantha Menzo

Cloud Nine Studios

Etsy Featured Item of the Day:

Fantastic Mrs Fox brooch by - gabiReith

Song of the Day:

Missy Elliott - WTF (Where They From) ft. Pharrell Williams

Color of the Day:

Benjamin Moore Carribean Blue Water

Catching up! My first Art Fair and inside Cloud Nine Studios!

              Hello Everyone! What a busy little bee I have been lately. I am grateful to have a second to breathe now and catch you all up on how my first art fair went! The Fair was from Friday-Sunday. Friday morning was set up from 9am-11am but when I got there they were still mopping the event space! We ended up only having about an hour and a half for set up which made me STRESS big time. When the event started it was like a ghost town. Friday I went home with $6 in sales. 

I felt very defeated.

Saturday came and I showed up with a positive attitude ready to hustle my stuff! I rearranged my booth a little to help the flow of traffic enter easier and I lowered my prices to see if it made some difference. Thankfully, the amount of people walking around was amazing! I was starting to see which things people were consistently drawn to in my booth and what was selling and not. I left Saturday with breaking even for the fair. I was happy with my decisions and feeling more confident about my work and space. 

Sunday rolled around and going into the day I was already even for the weekend. So anything that I sold was profit. This made it a little easier for me to let go of pieces for an even lower price. At first I was stubborn in my pricing but then I realized I can just make more of them and the more I sold the better I would feel about my first show. The traffic was a little slower again on Sunday but I end up about $100 plus for the weekend. 

(Mikaela and her homemade dog treats)

For my first fair I am extremely proud. My goal was to at least break even and get some great experience and advertising and I ended up in sales. I now know what people are interested in and what works for displaying my pieces and what doesn't work. Selling online is very different then selling in person. I had used a lot of strategies that I would for selling online at first at the fair and quickly realized the differences!

I was able to meet some great artists and people walking through. I handed out a TON of businesses cards and have some possible commissions that I am hoping will follow up! I am so grateful for all the help that my boyfriend George was able to do for me. I am so lucky to have someone who fully supports me and is always there if I need him. Also a HUGE thank you to my room mate Jessica for taking time out of her day off the help me set up! She really kept me in check when I wanted to break down before it even all started. 

My goal this week is to update my Etsy shop and list everything that I photographed before the show so if people decide to find me from my business card that everything is looking up to date and professional! I have a lot of work ahead of me but I feel only good vibes from the whole experience.....except for the parking ticket I got trying to unload my car! Oops. Oh well! 

Click here for my ETSY SHOP!

I should be back on schedule for the blogs now! Be sure to check out my Etsy for all the new items and updates! Also be sure to click the subscribe button on the top right of this page if you liked this blog and want more!

Until Tomorrow - Dream Away

Samantha Menzo

Cloud Nine Studios

Etsy Featured Item of the Day:

Recycled Sweater Coat- 2XL by - LauraAnnLyon

Song of the Day:

U2 - Beautiful Day

Color of the Day:

Little Angel