A Day at Garfield Park - SOLD

Pin It

"A Day at Garfield Park"

Oil, 11" x 14" 

$700.00

Sold.

Click here to buy a print of this painting.

I spent all day in my 100% finished Carriage House Studio today. It was amazing ... as it is a wonderful place to paint. I have a big screen for photo references, great music and all my supplies located in one place! I finished this one today. Garfield Park is a local park here in south Pasadena and one of my favorite landmarks!

Don't forget if you enroll in my November 3 - 6th workshop which will be held in Balboa, Newport Beach, CA you will also get a free 90-minute Marketing Consultation. I had to change the dates (conflict with one of my kids college events) so this is my way of making up for the date change! For more information about he workshop, click here. By the way, both of my upcoming workshops with Dreama, which are this September and next February, are sold out!

Check out my upcoming palette knife painting workshops at http://www.saetastudio.com/Leslie_Saeta_fine_Art/Workshops.html.

Behind the Picket Fence

Pin It

"Behind the Picket Fence"

Oil, 8" x 10" on canvas panel, framed.

Available at SoPas Gallery.

Ahhh ... another day when I fully intended to head up to my studio to paint ... and I just couldn't seem to get away from my computer.  I have been uploading new images to my store at imagekind.com which offers prints of my artwork. It is a tedious process but I do think it is an integral part of  the "Selling Art While You are Sleeping" concept, which was the discussion for our "Artists Helping Artists" blog talk radio show today. If you missed the show, you can listen to it here. I think it was on of our better shows. Lots of great ideas and input. So thanks to all of you that participated! And ... I sold five large prints on imagekind today so my hours at the computer were worth it!

Jacarandas in Bloom

Pin It

"Jacarandas in Bloom"

Oil, 11" x 14" framed.

$950.00 at SoPas Gallery.

As I drive around town there are "hints" that the jacaranda trees will be in full bloom soon. the trees are slowly showing signs of purple and I know within a few weeks they will be in full bloom. There are a few streets in South Pasadena that offer a sky of purple blossoms. When my oldest was in high school and I would take him to morning swim practice (at 4:30 am!) we would marvel at how the streets were covered in purple blossoms. The jacaranda trees are messy, but the beauty they offer all of us makes it all worth it!

Home Away From Home

Pin It

"Association Asks For Use of Arroyo Seco Field",

Oil, 8" x 16"on museum quality canvas panel 

$950.00 framed, available at SoPas Gallery

This Painting is featured in my "Headlines" Show at SoPas Gallery. It was inspired by a headline that appeared in the South Pasadena review on November 21, 1945. You can read the article below and I have to say this is my favorite painting in the show. My husband and I spent hundreds of  hours down in the arroyo attending our boys soccer and baseball games. I love baseball and I love this field!

A Surreal Day ... and a great blogging story! - SOLD

Pin It

"Fair Oaks Pharmacy"

Featured in my "Headlines" Show

Oil, 8" x 16" framed, $950.00

Sold.

Today I had the chance to meet my best friend ... for the first time ever.  Although it was completely unexpected, the biggest benefit (BY FAR) from blogging this past year has been meeting (via the internet) so many wonderful new artist friends.
About ten months ago I received an email from an artist, Dreama Tolle Perry, in Paris, Kentucky. Her email asked permission to use some of my paintings for an exercise in one of her workshops. I said of course ... and then went to her blog and website and discovered her incredible talent and gift as an artist. Over the months we began to communicate more regularly. Every few weeks we would email. Then we began to talk occasionally on the phone. Then we started emailing and sharing art marketing ideas and communicating more frequently. Now we instant message every day, talk at least every other day and brainstorm and collaborate on idea after idea after idea. We use each other as a sounding board and for motivation and now share a talk radio show. We have so many plans and ideas for the future that we will be busy forever! Dreama makes me laugh and in fact on two occasions she has made me cry (from laughing so hard!).
Today, I finally got to meet my new best friend in person. Dreama and her wonderful husband were in Southern California visiting family and we spent the day together. It was amazing. It was so wonderful to finally be able to hug her and just sit and laugh and talk ... and brainstorm. It felt as if we had known each other for twenty years.
Another wonderful artist, Julie Hill, joined us for lunch. I met Julie from blogging and we shortly figured out that we lived seven houses apart from each other. How amazing is that? I am spoiled as I get to see Julie all of the time.
If you are not familiar with Dreama and Julie's art, please check it out. And take some time to really get to know your blogging friends.
Finally, here's the small print ... the Lakers did REALLY well tonight. They beat Oklahoma by 25 points. So all of my paintings on my website are 25% off until the next game. Unfortunately only paintings on my website are included (not those currently showing at a gallery), Happy shopping. Don't miss out!

A Good Day

Pin It

"A Good Day"

Oil, 6" x 6" on canvas panel.

$200.00 unframed.

Today was a good day. I got a call from a friend who is in the restaurant business. She and her husband would like me to display (and sell) my art on a new wall they are building in one of their restaurants. The wall will have custom lighting and the art will look great. The art will be featured in the restaurant for a year and I will change it frequently. I expect this will be a great place for me to display my daily paintings!

Some of you have asked about my upcoming "Headlines" show and why I have been spending so much time in the library doing research for my paintings. The show will feature 20 - 25 paintings and all will be titled after headlines that I found in our local newspaper. The headlines are all from the 1920's, 1930's and 1940's.  The paintings will depict a scene from the headline, but in today's world. For example, one of the headlines I DID NOT use was "Man Pleased With Broken Legs, Neck Saved". Hmmm ... I am not kidding ... that was a front page headline in 1935! The painting would have to be something that depicts this headline but in South Pasadena today. So ... by now it should be obvious why I had to pick the headlines carefully and why this example was not picked!

The research was fun, interesting and also pretty emotional. I learned a lot about our town and was amazed that the headlines over the years are still about the same old thing ... fighting the freeway, local elections and human interest stories. Sadly, the headlines in the early 1940's frequently featured a story about a son, brother or father who was either killed or missing in WWII.  The paper is published weekly and every week there was a new story. So sad and so tragic.
So, the headlines have all been selected and I am painting away. When the show opens in the gallery, the original article (and headline) will be placed next to each painting. It has been a lot of work but I think it will be worth it! The show will be at the SouthPas Gallery from April 28 - May 29, 2010. I will keep you updated!

Downtown South Pas

Pin It

"Downtown South Pas

Oil on canvas.

We had another amazing day at the lake today. All 14 of the grand kids (three of which are my kids) went out on the speed boat and had a blast inner tubing. Tonight we had a photographer come to the house and take family photos - I can't wait to see the one of the 25 of us - my parents, my four siblings, their spouses and the 14 grand kids.
We all have a family but I am not quite sure why I got so lucky with mine. My brothers and sisters are like best friends and the 14 cousins run around like brothers and sisters. (Actually they get along better than brothers and sisters.) Anyway, we are having a wonderful time and I really hope we schedule this again next year.
Tomorrow I will get back to painting. I have my "mini pie cutters" ready and my two students will be up early to join me for painting!

Fair Oaks and Mission

Pin It

"Fair Oaks and Mission"

Oil, 11" x 14" on canvas panel

Sold.

This painting is one of the landmarks here in South Pasadena. It is a cute little pharmacy that has an old fashioned soda fountain ... also the home of my oldest son's first solid food ... ice cream! Oh ... what a terrible mother I was back then ... but no worries ... he turned out ok. I finished the six additional paintings for the show and this is one of them. Now they are drying before I start framing ...

Near the Rialto

Pin It

Near the Rialto, Oil 6" x 8"

I did this quick little study in preparation for a larger painting. I am painting much larger pieces this month as I get ready for the show at Gale's restaurant in July. Having fun but it is exhausting!

Clint Watson featured Marian Fortunati and "yours truly" in his newsletter today. Click here to read!

Hope in South Pasadena

Pin It

Hope Street Oil, 6" x 8"

This painting is for sale.

I just finished these two paintings. Both of these paintings are South Pasadena locations and I need to thank Laurie Allee and http://southpasadena.blogspot.com/ for the wonderful photos which served as the inspiration for these paintings. Laurie hosts this wonderful blog and posts a new South Pasadena photo every night. She was very gracious to agree to let me use her photos for my paintings!