I've been VERY busy around here. Here's the proof:

Thanks so much to everyone who commissioned me for the holidays! 


Now, a much deserved break :) Well, more like I can finally get to some paintings I commissioned myself to do for Christmas! (Let's be honest here, ha!)

Stay tuned, friends!

The way this portrait business started was something like this:

My senior art show in college, I chose to paint portraits of people who had impacted me in some way in my life. There were 16 total. Nearly all of them sold at the show, which should have been a tip right then to make this a business.
But people started asking, "Can you paint my dog?"  "Would you paint my cat?"
And what did I say?? "OF COURSE!"
Thus, Blue Giraffe Art Works was born. And I haven't looked back since :)

One thing people always ask at shows/fairs is, "But what if it doesn't match my decor?" And I have two answers. One is that when you order you're given an option to choose a color palette. For example, if you have blues and greens in your house, I'll work with just those colors. My second answer is that it doesn't matter! This style of art is meant to be bright and colorful. It's not meant to blend in with the existing color palette of a room (though it can, if you desire it to be). For example, here is how my mom displays her portraits on her mantle above the fireplace in the living room:

Looks good! Even though the colors don't directly match her living room (i.e. the brick wall, the chair), the paintings still add a pop of color and draw attention to that space on the wall. These portraits serve as our family portrait- so much better than an Olan Mills studio shot, don't you think! And look how great they are framed!

So if you have any hesitation about ordering because of decor issues, I hope this article helped. Of course you can always Contact Me with questions or concerns and I'll be happy to help you!

I've had many people ask about my portraits- the process, if they're actually painted, etc., so I wanted to do a "step-by-step" of a portrait being painted. To be clear, each portrait is hand drawn first, then painted in by hand. There is no digital coloring at all- it's simply REAL painting! With technology these days, people have a hard time believing artists still actually use just paint in their work. Flip open any magazine to the back and you'll find an ad for "popping your face" with a grid of the digital photo in four different colors. This is totally a cheap take on what Andy Warhol did, though most people don't really know or appreciate exactly what he did/was to the history of art. If you're not sure who Warhol is, Google him NOW! You'll learn a lot about printmaking, which is a major form of art that we owe a lot of creative credit to (wedding invites, banners, t-shirts, fabrics, purses, etc.), as well as have a better appreciation for art. These "pop art" ads look something like this: 

They're overpriced, really cheap/crappy, and just an insult to artists who create these by hand (sorry). If you really enjoy something like this, consider commissioning an artist to do it. It's not that expensive, you'll get a priceless treasure that was created by hand using someone's brain and skills, and it will look 10x better, last 10x longer, and have 10x more meaning. I PROMISE. 


[Please note that I'm not referring to photos stretched onto canvas (as in a printed photo on canvas that has not been manipulated). Those are awesome! I've done that myself....several times. Just make sure you look around and buy something that is good quality and not overpriced. Some places I really enjoy are imagekind and Canvas On Demand.]

So back to my original plan for this post....
What follows is a step by step of a hand painted portrait. Total work time is about 8 hours on this one. It's an 8x10" deep-edged, stretched canvas. Enjoy!

Many people ask how I add the colors in. Before I sketch I find all the shadows and highlights. This helps me to place the colors where they should be and decide how many values I should use. The color palettes just come naturally now because I've done SO MANY of these portraits. When people order a portrait they get to choose a color palette (if they want), and that usually helps me determine what colors I'll use in the painting.

So hopefully you've learned a little bit (about Warhol, printmaking, crappy Pop Art, and what I do)!

Meet Erin & David, a most beautiful couple. They were married in July of last year and just welcomed their first child, Giovanni, just 2 days ago!

These graphite drawings are super fun :)

There is no love like the love between a girl and her cat!
This painting was really fun and simple- I haven't painted many cats recently and this one was surely a character.
It's an acrylic painting on a 16x16" canvas.

Original Photo:

Loveable Portrait!

I think it's safe to say that this cat KNOWS he's loved and adored!

All college applications require you to write an essay that somewhat explains why you want to study whatever it is you want to study. Being 17 at the time, my adventure into my artistic path was limited to 4 high school art classes, mostly painting after the state-required beginner's art course. I wrote about my art teacher of my sophmore year, how she'd opened my eyes to all kinds of art mediums like jewelry, metal working, printmaking and acrylic painting. The essay was enough to get me into Houston Baptist as an art major with a very small scholarship. I had no idea at the time what events, people and circumstances were yet to influence me. Sophmore year of college, at the ripe age of 19, I met the man who would grow me into a personal style, inspire me to think outside the box, and motivate to make my art my life's work. His name was Virgil Grotfeldt.

How this amazing man ended up at HBU was surely a work of God's doing. He came out of Illinois, received his Masters in Philidephia, and his teaching career eventually led him to Houston. His artwork was very imaginative; very spiritual and almost unearthly. I remember him telling us that he never planned a painting- he let the medium and brush do the work. When you're a young artist, you go through all the traditional trainings and methods, and it's important to meet the criteria, to have the technique, to understand balance and form and color. Grotfeldt thought of these things instinctively, it seemed. His brain, his eyes, his hands just poured out creative beauty. All art majors had upper level studio hours that were required. These studio hours were some of my most difficult, most beautiful, most enjoyed and now most missed. Grotfeldt was always there, a cup of strong coffee in his hand, a pack of cigarettes in his breast pocket, and plenty of stories to tell. One time my entire two hours of studio time was nothing more than me sitting on my stool listening to him theorize the real activites of machines, computers and the government. While I sometimes thought his thinking was way out there, I couldn't get enough of it. He always made me smile; always taught me something about the world I'd have never learned otherwise. He always had this look of learned patience and humbleness, which I can still see in his eyes even in the picture above.

Grotfeldt transformed me. He made me find my artist within. At my senior art exhibition, the only reason I made it through my speech was because he was standing right next to me, like a proud father, listening and silently supportive. While I have disappointments and regrets about some of my time at HBU, I know that if I'd not gone there, I never would've met this amazing person and would not be who I am now as an artist. February 24, 2009 was a sad day for many of us who studied or worked with Grotfeldt. But in my heart, and I'm sure in the hearts of others he touched, Grotfeldt stills mentors me, still guides me, and still makes me smile. I can't wait to see him again some day.

If you want to read some more about him, here are some very interesting articles and tributes to him:
º A small collection owned by Holly Johnson Gallery
º A news article from the day he died
º His best friend, Waldo Bien, on working with Grotfeldt
º A write-up from HBU

Meet the cutest sparkle, Devon:

My friends will vouch that they are often the subjects of my art... sorry guys, ha!
There's something about returning to your fundamentals to cure artists' block. I've never been a doodle-er or even one to choose graphite or charcoal over paints, but I guess I just had a wild hair last night. It helps of course that my subject is a freckly, red-headed beauty of a woman.

Meet Jillian:

She's a looker, ain't she??
I ask, how could I possibly resist?
And now the drawing:

Finished a slew of paintings for a sweet woman named Traci!

The dogs:

The husband:

The beautiful daughter:

She also purchased these two guys, two of my favorite paintings!

One of my bestest friends in high school and I used to be inseparable.  We worked together, were at school together, got into trouble together, even skipped school together (1 time, mom, I swear!!).  When I would be over at her house, I would always wander into her dad's office and look at a series of black and white photos of her mother taken in the 70s.  Her angular jaw, the curve of her body as she sat, the casual placement of her hand, and even the totally cool furniture in the photograph...all of it just drew me in repeatedly.  I would tell myself, "someday I'm going to paint that."  I finally summoned enough courage to ask to take the photos home and sketch from them.  I worked on this painting almost all of my junior year in college (yes, it took me that long to feel like I had enough practice and could actually make it into the painting I'd imagined), and I felt so accomplished once I'd finished it.  Even though it's been three years, I still take time to stare at it, see into those deep eyes, sweep across her movement and imagine the story the painting tells.  This painting, in my opinion, represents when I found my "style" and really felt the power behind painting.