Persistence Pays Off!

I am very excited to announce, that one of my artworks has been chosen as set design.  Netflix has a soon to be released, new series call "Southern Comfort".

 The producers chose my horse painting on wood planks, to display in their ranch house set.  I am thrilled that it will be visible in many episodes of the new series.

This is not my first experience with television.  You may have seen these seascapes on Hawaii Five-O or Magnum PI.

or, perhaps the still life below, in the  academy award nominated movie, "Joker".

 

People have asked, "How do you do this?"  I always give the same answer......persistence!  Since 2009, I have been on Etsy, and that is where I get 99% of my sales.  EVERY DAY, all those years, I have posted new items, advertised, and worked SEO, in an attempt to be found on the net. Some times my many, many hours of work pays off!

Carol Schiff

www.CarolASchiff.com

www.CarolSchiffStudio.com

The Black Hat, Original Oil on Canvas 8x10 Portrait of Woman

$175

This is quite a departure from the 50-stroke paintings I've been doing. I don't know what got into me, but I really enjoyed this one. It has a vintage look but with a timeless feel. We need a little glamour now and then.

Carmen

Everybody Loves Chocolate!

You are probably asking yourself right now, "Am I on the right blog?".............and the answer is YES.
Last fall I was contracted to paint three fruit and candy designs to be used on the candy bags for these delicious chocolate covered fruit flavored candies.  I was so pleased to receive these samples in the mail.  Unfortunately for me, they are only being distributed on the west coast at this time, and I live 3,000 miles away on the east coast, so I will not be walking into my local Home Goods store and see them on the shelf.

It was a fabulous experience for me and I still get excited when I see MY work on the bags.  They even gave me credit as each and every bag reads "Artwork by Carol Schiff" followed with my website address!  How cool is that.

Now I have to decide whether to keep these bags or to eat the candy and maybe have the bags preserved in a frame.  My husband votes to eat the candy.  How do you vote?

CAROL SCHIFF

Seascape painting, Daily Painting, "Atlantic Sunrise" 20x24", Oil Seascape

20x24" Oil Seascape on Stretched Canvas

www.CarolSchiffStudio.blogspot.com

The Joy of Being an Artist

Way back last year, I received an e-mail from young boy in Cleveland who was working on an art project.  His assignment was to interview an artist and do a powerpoint presentation.  He asked me a few general questions about my art.  This phone painting is what interested him.

8x10" oil
SOLD

I am sure many of you receive the same type of requests.  I have had several, from young students.  I always reply, trying to  answer their inquiries, without doing ALL the work for their report.  Occasionally, I will get a "thank you" in return, often nothing.

This young boy from Cleveland, Jake, is not the usual.  We had several exchanges.  He was always extremely polite , and always promised to send me reports.  And he did!  He sent me an outline of his presentation, then I got a video of him giving it.  My favorite question from his audience was "is she still alive?", which he answered with a resounding "yes"...Whew!

My children and grandchildren were excited and thrilled to see all this activity about me in Cleveland.

After a few weeks, he sent me his grade (he aced it) on the project, and I though we were through.  But no....  He also has to do a painting that emulates my work.

Jake's painting

This is my second update on his painting in progress.  Note the picture of my phone, there on the table.

And here  is the finished piece!  Didn't he do well!!?!!

I am thrilled, each time I hear from him.  This has been such an  exciting experience for me and hopefully for him too.  I now understand why people choose to teach, and, what a wonderful teacher he has.  He or she has set him on a road that will stay with him for life. What a fantastic project for a young mind.   Bravo!!

So, for me, painting has been so much more than just painting.  Today, I have a new energy and desire to get back to the easel....how lucky am I?  Thank you Jake!

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www.CarolSchiffStudio.blogspot.com

Vegetable Still Life, Red Pepper Painting, "Big Red" by Carol Schiff, 20x24x1.5" Oil

It has been some time since I have painted a vegetable still life, so I decided to try one this week.  In the past I painted every fruit and vegetable you could imagine, but they were small pieces, usually 6x8" or smaller.

Purchase here
879. + shipping

 This one is actually 20x24" and painted with a combination of palette knife and brush.  You will notice with this next image below, that the the background is actually more gray green than the blue shade above.  I must have taken 20 photos of this, trying to get the colors correct, but in the end I had to choose between the bluish background and the front end of the pepper turning a garish orange mustard hue. Yuck!  At any rate, the photo below seems quite accurate in both places.

Thank you for viewing my blog today.  I hope you enjoy this vegetable still life painting.  Give it a pin!


www.CarolSchiffStudio.etsy.com
www.CarolSchiffStudio.blogspot.com

Big Sky Palette Knife Painting, Small Oil Painting, Daily Painting, 6x8" Oil on panel

I have been working, working, working, on my Etsy site, turning me into a computer operator!  Day after day, sitting at the computer for hours at a time.

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Finally, I just couldn't take it anymore.  I had to get back into the studio!
I had so much fun with this piece!  It seems like forever, since I had a palette knife in my hand.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed painting it, and thanks for stopping bye today.

Have a great day!

Carol Schiff

www.CarolASchiff.com

www.CarolschiffStudio.etsy.com

But Cereusly, Original Oil Painting on Panel 8x8 Flower Art

Buy on Etsy

I have called these flowers Dragonflower, Cereus, Night-Blooming Cereus, and I still am not sure of the proper name. I welcome any enlightenment anyone can give me. All I know is, it's very hard to catch it blooming, and I was happy to get a good picture of it.

Carmen

Artichoke Giclee' Canvas Print, Still Life Giclee Canvas Print, Artichokes of Roma by Carol Schiff, daily painting

I have been very busy adding giclee' prints to my Etsy site.  It has given me an opportunity to review some of my sold paintings.  I have enjoyed visiting with these "old friends" and though I would post a few.

Today  I wanted to show you this painting from a trip I took to Roma a few years ago.  I rented an apartment in Campo di Fiori, which is historical piazza.  One morning, I was surprised to see the piazza had been turned into a farmer's market for the day.  These were real farmers selling their fresh, beautiful produce.  I took lots of photos and when I returned home this was the first painting I created.

purchase here
50+ with free shipping

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The painting has sold, but I am happy to offer it as a giclee' canvas print in numerous sizes. If you look closely, you may be able to see a few Italian words that I hid in the painting.

The giclee's are high quality canvas and inks, professionally printed, gallery wrapped and finished with a semi-gloss protective coating.  They come to you ready to hang.  This piece is available from 8x10x1.5" to over 24x36x1.5".

Happy Day!

www.CarolSchiffStudio.etsy.com

Seascape Oil Painting, Coastal Painting, Daily Painting, Small Oil Painting, 12x16"

My favorite path to the sea, during my stay in Florida last winter.  Heaven!!

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The frame is not included, but shown only as an example.

This is a 12x16x.75 original oil painting, with some texture in areas.

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Carol Schiff
www.CarolASchiff.com
www.ArtPal.com/carolaschiff

February Challenge - An Artwork Inspired by a Song or Poem

For our February challenge The Pieces of 8 were to create either a work of art based on a song or poem...or even a song or poem based on a work of art. How one meets the challenge is an individual choice. Here's how some of our members responded.

Carol's response to the challenge.



"A Call From Mother" by Carol Schiff
16x20" Oil on Canvas

A Pirate Looks at Forty

Jimmy Buffett

Mother, mother ocean, I have heard you call
Wanted to sail upon your waters since I was three feet tall
You've seen it all, you've seen it all
Watched the men who rode you switch from sails to steam
And in your belly you hold the treasures few have ever seen
Most of them dream, most of them dream

Yes I am a pirate, two hundred years too late
The cannons don't thunder, there's nothing to plunder
I'm an over-forty victim of fate
Arriving too late, arriving too late
I've done a bit of smuggling, I've run my share of grass
I made enough money to buy Miami, but I pissed it away so fast
Never meant to last, never meant to last

And I have been drunk now for over two weeks
I passed out and I rallied and I sprung a few leaks
But I got stop wishing, got to go fishing, down to rock bottom again
Just a few friends, just a few friends

I go for younger women, lived with several a while
Though I ran them away, they'd come back one day
Still could manage to smile
Just takes a while, just takes a while

Mother, mother ocean, after all the years I've found
My occupational hazard being my occupation's just not around
I feel like I've drowned, gonna head uptown
I feel like I've drowned, gonna head uptown

Songwriters: Jimmy Buffett

A Pirate Looks at Forty lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

www.CarolASchiff.com  www.CarolSchiffStudio.etsy.com

******

Carmen's response to the challenge.

 "Moon Over Miami"

 

 Moon over Miami,

Shine on my love and me,

So we can stroll beside the roll

of the rolling sea. 

Carmen Beecher

www.carmenbeecher.etsy.com

www.carmenbeecher.com

*****

Kathy's response to the challenge.

My time for art has been short since September. I've been traveling and also inventorying my Mom's household. She was a graduate of Moore Institute of art, mother of 9, and a talented artist and art teacher. Right now I'm inventorying her overflowing art bin that she gave me three years ago and was so full I never even tried to open it. Here's a look at just her silk screens completed between 1980 and 1986 when she decided to take some serigraphy courses at my old alma matter GWU.

While excavating, I found some prints that only had two pulls (most of hers had at least 15 and some up to 26). It was obvious she didn't finish. But they were printed perfectly and I found them inspiring. So instead of finishing my planned ode to Tchaikovsky's "Dance of the Young Cygnets" that I started for this challenge, I decided to turn on some Mozart...a favorite for both of us ... and watercolor on top of her silk screen. I should have known the oil based silkscreen ink would reject the watercolors! So, I pulled out some art markers and just let the music and Mom's original guide me.

On the left above is one of 13 similar prints I found. On the right is my marker effort on top of another of the same print after about 45 minutes. I wasn't sure if the circle towards the top left was intended to be the sun or a flower. But the music was playing and my markers were dancing away to it. It sort of looks like both. (I highly recommend something fast like markers for Mozart's music! If watercolor would have worked, I probably wouldn't have been able to keep up.) Below is the finished combination - "Me and My Mom on Mozart."  (Click on any image to enlarge it.)

*****

Donna's response to the challenge.

I have an old poster in my bedroom of Madame Butterfly.  She has survived many moves and style changes because I love this opera so much.   I see her every morning.  Her back is to me and she is gazing out thinking of all she gave up but  knowing in her heart that Pinkerton loves her and will return, sigh.  I am so used to her I didn't realize how powerfully the aria "un bel di vedremo" affects me and anyone else who has heard it until I saw a Gauguin painting which reminded me of my poster and that aria.  This young girl is sitting looking into the distance, alone amid a group of women. I can't help but wonder if her heart is breaking waiting for her American sailor to return.

Siesta after Gauguin

Donnavinesart.etsy.com
donnavinesart.blogspot.com


**********

Fay's response to the challenge.

Sunflowers 1877  Vincent Van Gogh
Metropolitan Museum of Art

For this challenge, I have reverted to my most insistent creative instinct. I have reversed the February challenge and written a poem based on a  painting.

Twin Towers 

Who can blame the sunflower?

Its energy, its inspiration,

its color, its form.

The way it reflects cultures.

Inspires painters, photographers.

Monet, Gaugin, O’Keefe. More.

In Sunflowers, 1877,

Van Gogh captured essence

with only two blooms.

Made beautiful the simple,

the imperfect, the spent.

Revealed the past is

always present in the future.

An image comes back.

Simply. High in the Alps,

my friends, my husband, me,

each in turn, set one foot on either side

of a low stone which still separates

Switzerland from Germany.

A field of Swiss cows,

their brass bells, their low bleating,

broadcast their heavy pleasure.

An endless field of sunflowers,

each head turning (gira sole)

to follow the sun.

How could we blame that field, that lullaby,

that feeling of a world at peace?

How could we blame that moment in time

for what was to follow?

Just another beautiful September day.

That is, until it wasn’t.

 Fay Picardi

 

My Still Life Painting in the Movies!

How lucky can I be?

One of my paintings was recently purchased for set design in a new movie!  The Warner Brothers movie, is being filmed in Harlem, Manhattan and the Bronx., and stars Joaquin Phoenix and Robert De Niro.  The title is "Romeo".

The painting is one I completed in a workshop a few years back.

I am thrilled, and only hope it doesn't end up on the cutting room floor.

The movie is due to be released in October, 2019.

Carol Schiff
www.CarolASchiff.com
www.CarolSchiffStuio.etsy.com

Twenty-Minute Challenge, Small Paintings

Donna Vines introduced me to artist Mary Gilkerson's 20-minute challenge, which means doing a small painting in just 20 minutes. Here is my first attempt, a scene in Florence, Italy. I learned from this one that the subject was a bit too complex for a 20-minute execution!

This was my second attempt, and it went much easier. No buildings or people!

I was more deliberate with this last one, and stopped panicking over the time ticking by.

If you want to paint more loosely, this is a great exercise. One important tip: mix up your paint before you set the time.

Below is a page from my sketch journal, starting with my gym class the other day. Jean Thomas's class really inspired me to sketch more about everyday happenings.

Carmen

On my Way to Hollywood!, Daily Painting, Small Oil Painting

An unexpected, but exciting thing has happened!

Warner Brothers has purchased one of my paintings, for set design in their new movie "Romeo".

SOLD

The movie is filming now, in Brooklyn, starring Joaquin Phoenix.  I believe it is scheduled for release in the fall of 2019.

I have been so fortunate, as I am currently under contract with CBS, to use two seascapes, in their TV series PI Magnum and Hawaii Five-O.

SOLD

SOLD

  I know what you are thinking.........How did this happen?  How did they find you?

Well, both of these contacts were made through my site on Etsy.  I did nothing to attract these offers, other than regularly post on Etsy and maintain a presence online.  It can happen to you too!

Good luck!!

Carol Schiff
www.CarolASchiff.com
www.CarolSchiffStudio.etsy.com

Rural Landscape Painting, Autumn Painting,Daily Painting, Palette Knife Painting, 11x14" Oil

A scene that is found everywhere, in my new state, North Carolina.  Maybe not everywhere, but, everywhere around here in the Asheville area.

We are just getting hints of fall.  A maple will have one red branch, while the rest of the tree is still green.  But I can sense that it WANTS to be red!

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This is my first autumn as a resident in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and I am excited!

Hope your day is colorful, too!

Carol
www.CarolASchiff.com
www.CarolSchiffStudio.etsy.com

Fish Painting, Angelfish Painting, Textured Painting,SOLD

Sometime ago, I visited Key Largo, which inspired a series of paintings, I called my Coral Reef Series.  One of  favorites of the series is called "Angels on Parade".

My client, who purchased this painting, also commissioned a companion piece.  Below is the second painting.

The client was very pleased with the pair of artworks.

Thanks for reading my blog today!

Carol Schiff
www.CarolASchiff.com
www.CarolSchiffStudio.etsy.com
www.CarolSchiffStudio.blogspot.com

Island Marketplace, Large Figurative Painting, 52x26x1.5" Original Painting

I consider myself to be a daily painter.  As a daily painter, most of my work is small, many times just 6x8".

 My painting today is a different story at 52" x 26".  Not my largest painting ever...but right up there.

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I enjoy painting large, but it does present other issues.  Framing or no frame?  Such a large piece means a large investment in framing....a frame your client may or may not approve.

Where do I store it?  Not everyone has the luxury of a spacious studio.  I am one of those people.  Since downsizing, I have even less space to store unsold artwork.

The logistics of painting such a large piece, is not to be ignored.  My aging knees protest at the thought of climbing up and down a step stool to paint.

So, this piece may continue to be one of my rare, larger efforts.

Thanks for reading my blog today.

Carol Schiff

www.CarolASchiff.com

www.CarolSchiffStudio.etsy.com

www.CarolSchiffStudio.blogspot.com

Flower Painting, Daily Painting, Small Oil Painting, Expressionist Art, Print on Canvas

I went to Biltmore Gardens a few weeks ago, and the conservatory was bursting with tulips, daffodil, hyacinth and other spring favorites.  I was so inspired!

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This one one of three paintings I did with this color combination, a favorite of the Biltmore gardeners.

Living in Florida for 40 years, I'm am enjoying my first spring in the Blue Ridge Mountains, seeing many of the flowers I remember as a child.  I am excited to see even more as the season turns to summer.  Have my fingers crossed that I will find lilac in my neighborhood.

More to come.....thanks for ready my blog today.

Carol Schiff
www.CarolSchiffStudio.etsy.com
www.CarolSchiffStudio.blogspot.com

Christmas Palm, 12x12 Oil on Canvas by Carmen Beecher

 SOLD

Christmas Palms are so beautiful. I see a lot of them in public landscapes, but there are never any berries. I guess they are considered too messy and get trimmed off. In Elbow Cay in the Bahamas I saw a lot of them left on the trees and it gave such a lovely touch to the landscape. What other palms have such a striking fruit?

Sweet Orange Blossoms, 8x10 Oil on Canvas, Fruit Painting by Carmen Beecher

Have you ever walked through an orange grove when the trees are in bloom? It is the sweetest smell, rivaling any flower known for having a perfumed aroma. Nowadays I see the groves giving in to condos and housing developments, and it's a shame, because trees and fruit are much healthier than concrete block and pavement. I remember walking through orange groves as a kid and running into these fancy-looking spiders hanging between trees in their webs. It's a Spiney Orb Weaver spider, and it looks worse than it is.

Carmen