Happy New Year!

Posted on December 31, 2013 by janellmithani

I wish all of you a wonderful New Year! 2013 was AWESOME and I have enjoyed meeting and getting to know my blogger friends. It still amazes me how many people I have met from all over the world through blogging. I have felt a great sense of community here in “bloggerland” and I look forward to sharing all of your news, artwork, photographs, poems, stories and wonderful camaraderie in the new year. It has been so great to follow along with other bloggers and artists as they share their motivations and thoughts, their daily ups and downs and how and why they produce AMAZING work! Cheers to all of you and I wish you a wonderful, safe and prosperous New Year!

Have a wonderful creative day, Janell

New Gallery Representation at Xanadu Gallery

Posted on December 14, 2013 by janellmithani

In the midst of all our holiday celebrations, I submitted my portfolio to Xanadu Gallery of Scottsdale, Arizona. My art was accepted to their online gallery! Yippee! I am so thrilled to be associated with this wonderful gallery. And they notified me and had my page set up within 24 hours. (Even though their submission guidelines said two weeks.) It was really nice of them to be so prompt, it kept me from worrying and wondering for two weeks. 🙂

You can check out my page at http://www.xanadugallery.com/2013/Artists/ArtistPage.php?ArtistID=4361

I am still in the process of loading my art to the site and I LOVE how the purchase button is all set up. It takes you to a shopping cart that gives you payment options. I haven’t had the time to figure out how to set this up on my Artspan website. It’s so nice to have it all done for me.

Painting Serenity in a Daffodil Meadow by Janell Mithani

Serenity in a Daffodil Meadow, Acrylic on canvas, 16″ x 20″

I met Jason Horejs, the owner of the gallery a few years ago at a workshop he taught for artists. His workshop was really helpful and he was so nice and gracious to all the artists that attended. He has written some great books to help artists with the business side of their art. Here is a link to the landing page with his books https://squareup.com/market/xanadu-gallery. He also writes a blog http://www.reddotblog.com/wordpress/ which is a great marketing resource for artists.

If you are an artist and you are interested in submitting your portfolio, here is the link: http://www.xanadugallery.com/Studios/Join.asp

Have a wonderful creative day, Janell

A Caribou Painting – Because I love Reindeer!

Posted on December 5, 2013 by janellmithani

November and December are busy months. We have eight family members that have birthdays between November 1st and Christmas. I always say I am going to get ready for Christmas early, but by the time I get done with Halloween, Thanksgiving, and all our birthdays, it is the middle of December. And when it comes to sending out Holiday cards… well, I always have great intentions, but usually get about five sent out.

But I LOVE getting holiday cards! I look forward to hearing from friends and family so I want to send out cards and keep in touch. I am just like my grandmother, I count all the cards I receive every year and I hang them up and display them as soon as they come in the mail.

Well, this year I have a plan. I decided to take a break from creating my regular body of work and create a painting just for me. I have always loved Caribou (I fondly think of them as gentle reindeer) and I really miss the snow from my childhood now that I live in Southern California. So I painted “Gentle Reindeer” to hang in our home during the holidays. It reminds me of the wonderful snow filled days I spent as a child. I grew up in a small town of about 80 families. The sledding hill was right next to our house and my mom made the best hot chocolate for all of the kids in the neighborhood. My sister and I would stay out all day sledding and playing in the snow.

Once I finished the painting I realized I could photograph it, add some text, and make it into our Christmas card. (And I could even share it here with all my blogger friends.)

Yippee! I have the painting and the layout for the card finished and now, all I have to do is get the cards printed. Which I am doing today, right now, this very moment…

I wish you a wonderful holiday season and a spectacular new year. Thank you again for taking the time to stop by my blog during this busy time of year. I so appreciate it. Have a wonderful, creative day — Janell

Sunflower Painting

Posted on November 21, 2013 by janellmithani

It has been a really busy month, but I was able to get out to the studio to work on a painting yesterday. I love sunflowers and I have photographed them a lot, so I thought it was time to start working on a sunflower painting. I used three of my photographs as a reference.

I am just about finished, I just have a few more details. As with all my paintings, I have this “sitting” period when I have it “sit” on my easel for a couple of days. This is so I can walk by it a bunch of times and get a fresh look to determine the final details and any changes I want to make. I love the heavy texture and of course, the green background. You know, this Irish girl loves her green! 🙂

Here is a close up of the corner where you can see I continued the painting around the edges as I used a gallery wrapped canvas. I like this style of canvas best because the back of the canvas is double wrapped with wood for a nice clean look.

I will post the final painting soon.

Have a wonderful creative day, Janell

A New Painting – Sisters

Posted on October 2, 2013 by janellmithani

A few months ago I posted about how I was thinking of adding these two little girls to a painting. I had created a sketch from a picture of my sister and I when we were children. Well, before I got a chance to start working on adding us in, I received a couple of inquiries about the painting. So, I decided to create a new painting with the two girls and give it to my sister for her birthday. SistersforBlog

While I was painting, I had a lot of time reminiscing about all the fun walks my sister and I shared while we were looking for wild flowers. We were fortunate to grow up in a small mill town called Hilt, located in Northern California. We spent a good amount of time roaming around the countryside. We had the best swimming hole!

Have a wonderful creative day, Janell

New painting: Serenity in the Daffodil Meadow

Posted on July 14, 2013 by janellmithani

I finished a painting this weekend. Another one for my cottage series… Serenity in the Daffodil Meadow. This reminds me of my childhood. My sister and I grew up in a small mountain town in Northern California named Hilt. One of our favorite things to do during the summer months was go for long walks in the woods and meadows and look for wild flowers. Oh, it was such fun!

I even came up with the name Jasmine for my daughter on one of these walks. Well, I was going to name her Jasmine Wildflower. Wildflower didn’t quite get into her name 20 years later, but she knows she is and always will be my Wildflower.

The painting is Acrylic on canvas, 16″ x 20.”

Have a wonderful creative day, Janell

Red, White and Blue Rocker

Posted on July 4, 2013 by janellmithani

Happy 4th of July!

I created this piece a few years ago and ran across it on my computer the other day.

The color’s seem to fit with today’s US holiday! Fire up that barbecue and have a rockin’ 4th of July celebration!

Have a wonderful creative (and festive) day, Janell

Mother and Daughter in the Wind – A Tree Painting

Posted on May 8, 2013 by janellmithani

Here is a painting that I finished recently. I was thinking of my daughter and that Mother’s Day will be here soon.

Mother and Daughter in the Wind painting by Janell Mithani

Mother and Daughter in the Wind, 8″ x 10″, Acrylic on canvas

I love trees and how they blow in the wind and how leaves sometimes just blow off in a group from a tree in a wind gust. I have been thinking of this painting for a while…how trees and people connect and how things in nature become representational of emotions we feel for each other. I have a feeling this is going to turn into a series as I am itching to do another one already. 🙂

I have been working on a new website dedicated to just my paintings. It is coming together and it is almost finished. I am so excited about it! I will post a link when I get it done.

Have a wonderful creative day, Janell

Happy Earth Day!

Posted on April 22, 2013 by janellmithani

A few years ago I joined a neighborhood fruit and vegetable swap group. We meet once a month at the local park to “swap” all of our excess fruit and vegetables from our gardens. If you have too many tomatoes, your neighbor may have too many cucumbers and you can swap. This has also been a great opportunity to meet my neighbors and make some new friends. We also have a lot of neighbors who have their own chickens and even a few goats and a bee keeper.

I just love all of the “imperfections” of the natural looking fruits and vegetables and I have photographed many of them in my studio before they were eaten. This is the logo I created from some of my pictures, stands for Residential In-season Produce Exchange.

To see more of my photographs, check out my Home Grown Gallery under my Portfolio page or click here.

Well, I am off to plant some seeds. Have a wonderful creative day, Janell

A Visit to a Ghost Town

Posted on March 25, 2013 by janellmithani

Last week we checked out this little ghost town in Southern California. I had fun taking pictures and just fell in love with the little slumped shack… I think it will be appearing in one of my paintings soon.