The Start of a New Journey

My Dear Friends and Family,

This is probably one of the most important letters I will write to you. I wish to invite you to join me on a new journey that I will be taking with my art career. This new direction has taken me many months of contemplation, planning and preparation, but I am now ready to begin and share this new series of art that I will be working on.

For the next two years I have decided to go in the direction of painting sacred art. I have come up with a series of 10-12 paintings that I feel will be deeply felt by many people. You are all very special to me, and I would like to share every step of this journey with you. The idea came to me over the summer when I was sincerely thinking about how I could create something that would be extremely powerful, meaningful, and arouse profound emotion in the viewer who looks at it. I believe that this series will do just that.

Most Christians believe that when we die we will meet Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, for the very first time. This event is a hallowed and tender moment, and one that would be brought with a variety of different emotions by different people. That is what I would like to paint - the unique reactions that can be felt when each of us come face to face with the Savior. I think some people would be overjoyed at meeting Him, some would fall on their knees and ask forgiveness for what they had done in their life. I have very clear image in my mind of a man who has his back turned from Him, and though Christ’s hands are stretched out to this man, the man is angry and cannot look at Jesus, as if to say ‘Where were you when I needed you?’ There is another in my mind of a little baby in the arms of the Savior, and this painting will symbolize those little ones who were stillborn, miscarried, or died as infants, and have returned back to the arms of safety, peace and love. The focus of each painting will not be on the Savior, but on the emotions and the worth of each individual I paint. You may see Christ's hands or His feet, but the focus will be on the one who had completed their life. The worth of a human soul is so precious in the sight of God, and that is something I wanted to express in this art series: how very special each and every soul is to Jesus Christ, who had died for each one of us.

 The last painting in this series, that is probably the most important, is a picture of Christ’s hands being held out to you, and the viewer will feel as if they are in His presence. This is where the viewer would stop and think the most important question: ‘How would I react when I meet Him, And will I be ready?’

This project is something very special and very personal to me. I feel now that it is one of the reasons why I am alive and why I have the gift that I do. I have never felt more passionate or driven about completing any other work. Every time I think about this project I feel a fire inside me that burns so bright, and I feel so excited that it’s impossible to let this alone. I need to make this series to give to the world, and send the message that the people we have known on this earth and have passed on are safe, they are loved, and as Christians we know where we are going, and we need not ever be afraid in this life or in the life to come. The next two years you will receive emails every so often from me about the process of each new painting, and I will take you down the path that I had gone in the making of every piece in this series. I want this new project will be able to touch as many people as possible, especially those who are mourning the loss of someone that they love dearly. This is something that needs to be shared, and hopefully it can lead others in the direction of peace and comfort, knowing that we are all children of an endlessly loving and eternal God.

One small note: Those of you who know me well are aware that I will be expecting my second child near the end of March. How can I possibly be able to accomplish such a large body of work with a second baby? I have asked myself and God that question as well. Why now? Why not when I was baby-less, or later on when my children are older and I have more time? I believe God has given me a pretty clear answer to that. He knows where my art has come and the portraits I've done to gain the experience needed to take on the project. He sees the responsibility I have, and challenges me to exercise the right amount of balance between my children, my home and my artwork. He has provided an inconvenient time (but not TOO inconvenient) for me to properly prepare before baby, and then practice patience and discipline after baby. He lastly wants me to exercise a little bit of faith in Him, that anything is possible with God....So I basically told him "You provide the way, and I will provide the work." We agreed, and so this project begins!

I cannot wait to begin this new journey with you. Perhaps through this we might all come a little closer to the one who made the greatest sacrifice for each and every one of us, and remember the people we so dearly love who are in His rest.

Love Always,
Laura

New Canaan LDS Chapel / A Watercolor Brick Tutorial

Hi Folks!

Someone asked if I could paint for them our church - the New Canaan, Connecticut LDS Chapel, so they could give the painting as a gift to a former bishop who served at the church. This is special to me because he used to be my bishop too when I was in High School, so I tried to put my love into this painting. This chapel is the same one I was blessed in as a newborn, ran laps around when I was a child after church, decided to be baptized when I was 8, met my future husband there for the first time when I was 14 at a youth conference, and now here I am as a grown woman still attending this same chapel with my own family. What a nice experience to paint a building filled with memories!

Thought those of you who still go to this chapel, or have attended, might like to see pictures of the past just for fun. ^_^

This is the chapel in 1985 when I was blessed as a baby. Those are my late great grandparents, and my aunt and uncle.

This is the primary room when I was 8 years old and going to be baptized in 1992. That's my dad and my younger brother.

I'll be the first to admit it: I don't think that I'm the most gifted when it comes to rendering architecture. That being said though, for a building that is covered with bricks, I think this one turned out better than I had hoped! There was a while there where I honestly got nervous because I have not had much experience with the glazing technique (where you put down one color, then when it dries you put on a second different color on top, creating a whole new color), but when I started laying down the bricks, the chapel suddenly began to take its true shape!

 This was my first glaze, with purples, pinks, reds and yellows, which would go well for the final color on top....you can also understand how I might have been a little nervous?

the final product!

If you look close, you can see that there's a light on in one of the windows. That is the bishop's office, and since this is going to a former bishop, it gives a little nod to him and all the hard work that he had done in serving the people in our area. A bishop of our church is a calling given to an individual who serves around 5 years. This is a completely volunteer position, and one that the person serving as bishop does entirely out of love for his fellow man.

Our bishop was always there for us.

A few of you may want to know "How did you paint all those bricks??" I didn't know at first either! I am a studious artist and wanted to get it right, so I scoured my watercolor books and the internet for information on painting buildings, glazing, and specifically painting bricks in watercolor. After a while I realized there really isn't one "right way" to do it. Some people paint every brick and some only paint a few for people to get the idea. Some put the color of the brick on top and that's it, and some put the shadows in each brick and the mortar in between. In my mind I told myself that I am NOT going to paint every brick, I am going to try to paint loose, easy and suggestive this time...But I think because I am such a detailed person, I was unable to paint loose and ended up painting all those bricks anyway. It's ok though, it looks great.

This next part is just for all the watercolor nerds...Because there really isn't that much on the internet about laying down bricks in watercolor, I'd like to give you my step by step watercolor brick tutorial, based on my findings and experimentation!

STEP 1: after you have your glazed dry colors, take your brush and dip it in water, then lift the paint out line by line to create the mortar. This will be a guideline for how big you want your bricks to look.

STEP 2: Next, lift out more paint to create the vertical lines to space out how long you want each brick to be.

 

STEP 3: mix three different colors of bricks before hand. I created (1) a purple using burnt sienna, ultramarine blue, quinocridone rose, cadmium red and paynes grey. (2) a reddish brown which was cadmium red, burnt sienna, and a little bit of paynes grey.  and (3) a yellow which was yellow ochre and burnt sienna. Lay your first color down in random places. This was the purple:

STEP 4: lay your second color down, this was the reddish brown:

STEP 5: lay your last color down. You can also leave some spaces of the original glazed background to make a fourth color, like I did:

 TADA! Bricks! Looks pretty good! The cool thing is I used those same 3 colors throughout the entire building, but the colors look different because of the different color glazes I had put on underneath the bricks, making some look darker than others.

To end, this has been a fun painting adventure for me, and I am grateful to have been asked to paint this particular commission. I love church!!

Laura D'Onofrio

Happy Birthday!!

Happy birthday to my beautiful Megan Greenleaf, who just turned 3!

This is my first mural, and it was SO HARD to do! With my pregnant belly, standing on a stool all day, annoying acrylic drying too fast, blood draining from my arms, it was a time of reflecting how much more I really enjoy painting with watercolors sitting down with a table in front of me.

Aside from the complaining, the "Sea Maiden" looks pretty good, I sketched it all myself. The tail reminds me of an Arum Lilly. It's even better in person but I just couldn't seem to get a clear enough photo.

The mural is up in Megan's grandparent's "baby room," where a mural for each of their grand kids will be made.

"Brotherly Love"

My friends Lillian and Jamie both are the photographers of a company called "The portrait parties," in which they plan party dates to snap pictures of families and children. There was a photograph of Lillian's children that Jamie had taken during one of the parties, and when they showed it to me I begged them permission to paint this gorgeous photograph. They gladly agreed!

I haven't had many commissions to paint, but as an artist I can't just wait around for the next person ask me. I have to (and want to)be constantly perfecting and practicing my art, and I especially need portraits to practice on for when I actually do get commissioned, since that is the subject I'd like to focus more on in my future. With each painting I get better, and I'd like to think that I did nail this particular one really well.

These two cuties are brother and sister. Even though this is technically black and white, I made the daughter's eyes a bit more blue, making them pop. Also to keep it a little fun I tinted the background a bluish purple. A black and white painting doesn't have to be completely colorless, does it?

There is so much love in this picture, and while I was in "the zone" as I'd like to put it, I was playing nothing but happy, bubbly, uplifting music with every stroke, to keep that sweet, happy feeling in myself and what I was expressing on paper. Since music is every bit as important to me as my paints, there was one song I had discovered on pandora.com while painting that captured my feelings during this painting session. It was called "In the Mirror" by Yanni. Have a listen.


Thank you Jamie and Lillian for this opportunity, maybe we can do another one of your photos in the future.

Here's a closeup on this little girl's eye...Don't get lost in it!!

Samuel

Samuel turned 1 year old, and his mama wanted to remember those chubby cute moments of her little boy. Portraits are down right hard, and this one seemed to be one of the harder ones I painted. Three reasons:

1- Sweaters are hard to paint! Nobody choose the photo with the sweater for photo reference! I'm just kidding. I thought the sweater turned out alright.

2- If it's a chubby little person, I have to paint him chubby but not TOO chubby to where people look and say "that kid is fat!" Samuel has cheeks that are absolute chub city, and you can't help yourself but squeeze them! This painting is actually my second attempt - The first time I penciled his face so wide it looked too fat. And we don't want fat, we want the chubs! I ripped it up and started over. This second attempt isn't so bad now.

3- Samuel is smiling, but he's only half smiling. In one stroke I could change a frown to a smile, so I had to paint carefully. His mouth needed to register as a smile and not a somber look. 

This whole painting was a new adventure. I threw a lot of salt into his background to give a nice textured look. Also Samuel seems to pull off young and old at the same time - his mother combed his hair back and he's looking off into the distance. It's definitely different. Thoughts anyone?

-Laura

A Landmark of Prints

Hello Friends and Family,

Normally I don't send emails so close together, but this is information is a landmark in my career, and I wish to share it with all of you.

For the first time ever I am creating prints of my art. I brought two paintings to the printers on Friday: my "Mailboxes" and "Chickens" paintings. I want to keep both of these prints as original looking as possible. The "Mailboxes" will be printed on canvas, with a small white edging, and it will not need to be stretched. It can be framed, as is, in a standard 20x24 frame, which is really great. The "Chickens" painting will be printed on watercolor paper, which has a slight tooth to it.

With every print, I will hand sign it (you can even tell me what you'd like to have written if you want), they will be numbered, and it will also come with a certificate of authenticity. There will only be twenty first editions of each painting.

If you are interested in buying one of these prints, you would be a really lucky person, because these are the very first prints I've ever done, and they are first editions! If by some crazy chance I get famous, or when I eventually die, these original prints will be a lot more valuable than what you originally paid for. So in 20 years from now when everyone knows my name (haha), you will hold your bubbly while your guests ask "Isn't that one of the D'Onofrio's?" and you will respond "Why yes, yes it is," and take a triumphant sip.

I talked a lot with the printers- "Still River Editions" in Danbury. They are fabulous and professional artists, taking great detail in their work. The best part in this is not only do they print, but they can professionally package and ship the prints to you. That saves a HUGE load of worry for me! I finally found out shipping costs, which is a flat rate (for those who are not located in the Connecticut, New York and Massachusetts area, or that I cannot hand to personally). The cost is $30 for packaging, shipping, tracking and insurance on the print in case of damage. The printers can also email you a confirmation code so you can track your package.

Here are the final prices after speaking with the printers, and add $30 shipping if I need to ship it out to you:

"Chickens"- size 18x24, $102
"Mailboxes" size 20x24, $115

If you would like a print, simply email me and I'll tell you the information I need to have a print sent to you.

Thank you for your interest in my artwork. I sincerely appreciate you, and I'm so excited to be able to take this next big step by making prints for you.

Much Love,
Laura D'Onofrio

"Sabrina and Csoki"

Just when you think you've mastered a skill, you get presented with new challenges. When presented with the photograph I was going to paint, I knew it was going to be a tough one because there were two firsts for me: I've never painted a dog, and I've never painted a sweater. Both needed to be in detail to pull off this painting. I think they turned out pretty good for two firsts though, don't you think? The funny thing about this commission was that it was originally going to be an 8x10 black and white gift from my photography friend, Christine Simmons, to her client. 8x10 paintings are not fun to paint because you have to paint the tiniest of strokes. So I decided to do the client and me a favor and paint an 11x14. I was all set to paint black and white, but when I received the photo reference from my friend who had taken them, it was in color! So I just shrugged and opted for a color painting. It looks better in color anyway. Sabrina and Csoki were my muses in this piece. Csoki, the dog, is another name for "Chocolate/ hugs" in Hungarian. He looks pretty cute, right? :)

-Laura

Don't You Know the Sky is Falling? - Prints Available

My good friend, Annie, loves to raise chickens as pets. She can feed them by hand and take their eggs while they are roaming around her yard. Their names are always interesting: Geegeet, Peaches, Henny Penny, Bonnie...I also had a great opportunity to take care of the chickens and their hen house for a week while Annie and her family were on vacation. One of the chickens would let me stoke her for as long as I'd like. It was a really wonderful experience. Megan was afraid of the chickens at first (they were almost her size!), but I showed her that she could chase them. Once she learned that, she wasn't so afraid of them anymore.

Annie suggested to me one day that chickens would be so much fun to paint. I agreed completely, and together we found a photograph that would be excellent to do. This was the final result, and can I say they were TONS of fun to paint.

The background was completely grass, so I thought instead of painting each strand of grass (as I tried and failed to do with Megan's daffodil painting), I thought I'd get a bit more impressionistic. I think it turned out fabulous, don't you? There's green, but there's also blue and purples in the grass to show the warm and the cool spots, as well as some salt added to give some neat texture. Now the focal point is nowhere but those chickens.

Notice the black and white chicken. I wasn't sure if this chicken was black with white spots or white with black spots. So I thought the easiest thing to do was cover the white areas with misket (a glue solution), paint the whole chicken black, then remove the misket to have the chicken be truly black and white. Feathers are also really important in this painting, and I tried spending a lot of time working on feather details. The photograph doesn't do it justice. You might have to head on over to Annie's for a closer look!

PS- The music on my iPod while painting was Jenny Oaks Baker, a professional violinist. She really got me into the spirit of painting life on the farm.

A Tale of Two Colors - "Letting Go"

What I've been up to lately has been quite a lot of things, but in the art department, I've been teaching my very first watercolor class! We have been learning the rules of watercolor, and experimenting with different ideas, such as textures in a painting, silhouettes, and creating a painting using only two colors. I decided to join in on the two color project my students were painting.

The idea is that two colors can create a number of outcomes, not just two. If you mix the two colors together, you'll get a third, if you add more water to the color it will become lighter, and if you increase the pigment you will get a darker hue. 

Believe it or not, this painting is composed of only two colors: Paynes Grey and Alizarian Crimson! The sky is so light with a lot of water, and the tree is so dark that it's definitely the focal point of the painting. Notice how the hills are lighter if they are farther away, and darker if they are closer. The leafy tree next to the leafless one was done by having fun with the water, letting it dry slowly and mixing while the water is wet. I just let the water go where it wanted to, and it created a lovely result! Look at the edges of the rocks how the color blooms off against the water! I loved it, so I kept it. I tell my students that when the painting looks just right, don't touch it! Drop your brush and let it alone until it's dry. 

I call this painting "Letting Go," for two reasons. First- the tree has prematurely let go of it's leaves. And second, if you let the water in your watercolor go, you'll get some really fun results, like in this painting. The picture was taken by, once again, my good friend Christine Simmons. We were on a canoeing adventure at Camp Liahona in New York State. It was a beautiful, warm summer morning with an overcast to keep the heat at bay. I wonder why the tree was leafless in the middle of July?

Hope everyone has a very Happy Halloween!

<3,

Laura

The Unforgiving Art

This painting feels like one big mistake. As I painted the background, I felt like it was getting too muddy, and the daffodil stems and leaves all felt far too organized and I couldn't seem to get the colors quite right. Nevertheless I thought perhaps it would look better once Megan was painted in. When I was getting closer and closer to the end, a terrible thing happened. My painting hand had brushed up against phthalocyanine blue - a very staining color, and that part of the hand landed right in the middle of my daughter's forehead!! *GASP!!* I scrubbed, and tried to lift it out, but try as I might the dirty deed was done. My painting was ruined.
Sure, I could see this as a tragedy. But frankly, I wasn't liking how it was turning out anyway. I'm putting this on my blog to show that mistakes are learning experiences.

closeup of the phthalo blue accident.

Thankfully I've been in the giving spirit recently. I didn't want yet another painting to go into the file of regects under my bed. So I decided to give this painting to a U.S Marine troop in Afghanistan. I thought that despite the major flaw, if anybody would enjoy looking at a picture of careless green daffodil bliss, it would be the soldiers in the greenless desert. I chose a special troop that is in need of letters, and I wrote this message to them on the back of the painting:

Giving my painting to people who will enjoy it makes me feel a like all this work wasn't such a waste after all.

Sincerely,

Laura D'Onofrio

Connecticut Watercolor Society

I decided to enter my art to the Connecticut Watercolor Society Exhibition this past month. It was being held at the Silpe Gallery at the University of Hartford. This is the first time I've ever entered a painting into the CWS, and if two get accepted then I can become a member. Not only did my portrait of Megan get in, I recieved a phone call from the CWS. I wondered if everything was alright, and they said that my portrait of Megan won an award! They asked if I would be attending the opening reception to recieve the award, and I said yes I would. I was so excited! My first award! It's the Esther Fay Memorial Award. There were over a hundred entries submitted, 85 made the show, and 11 recieved awards. Since it was of Megan, we brought our model along with us. Just thought I'd share the news! I'm so proud! Here are some photos of the event:

Megan and I with our award winning painting

pretty cool!

Megan enjoys the cool breeze rising from the vents...

Receiving the Esther Fay Memorial Award

WAHOO!

See you soon,

-Laura D'Onofrio

Black and White Painting of My Daughter

Who needs oil painting portraits when watercolors are SO much cooler? I've taken on the challenge of portraiture, and like I've always said, the more paintings I create the better they get.  This is the first in a series of three examples - a black and white portrait, a color portrait and a full family portrait. I am using my own family as an example, with the photograph reference and permission given by my good friend and amazing photographer - Christine Simmons (www.christinesimmons.com). I'm so grateful for her generosity and her helping me to expand my art creativity.

This portrait is an example of a black and white watercolor painting option. Black and White gives a feel of a raw beauty that color cannot fully portray. The very first black and white I had done was of the engaged couple in the snow, using only Paynes Grey. I realized that this was limiting, and I needed to have more of a variety in my color options. This painting was done using the colors Paynes Grey and Burnt Sienna. As I start to feel more comfortable painting black and whites, I'm sure I'll be expanding out to other colors.

Displayed is my daughter, Megan, at one year old. Holding her hands is my husband, James. The photo reference was taken on a snowy day at Waveny Park in New Canaan, CT. I had asked Christine for a photo shoot in snow because I always found snow to be so beautiful. This painting is the most real I've ever made, and anyone who looks at it has commented that they thought it was a photograph.

I am so excited with the paintings to come, and I give thanks to God for giving me this talent.

Sincerely,

Laura D'Onofrio
 

Darold Dreamboat

I was looking through some old paintings and discovered a piece that was unfinished. It was a few years ago when my mom was on the phone with me and said "Nobody is going to buy these cars, Laura. Paint something else!" So I did go on to other things, but this car was put away, incomplete. Another reason why I did not finish him was because all of my other car paintings, I discovered, were facing to the left! For some reason I guess I favored left facing cars, and it wasn't until I was halfway done with this fourth piece that I realized the sad error. Well I took one look at him a few days ago and saw he still had some potential in him. I've decided to accept my car-to-the-left error, and maybe hope that whoever buys my car series will appreciate it, as if they were all lined up in a car show. This will be my fourth and last car in the series that I will paint at my own free will, unless someone wants to commission me to paint more.

Lastly, because my cars have not sold at the galleries despite their clever personalities, in completing this painting it came to my attention that I never actually named them! Sure, I always say they are like old men that tell a story of their lives, but they are nameless!! Only "1946 Chevrolet," and "Old Chevy Bus" and "Old Plymouth." How horrible! I hadn't known! These were all the things this last car spoke to me when I was painting him: "We have no names, We're all left facing, and yes I too have value!" How insensitive I am. So from this moment on, I am officially changing the names of my car paintings. The smaller paintings are the previous cars I had created in the past, and I would like to introduce to you my new main man, Darold, who hold center stage at the bottom.

<3,
Laura

"Eloquent Eugene" - He has a way with words, come close and he'll tell you all about it.

"Mild Melvin" -  A little timid, yet very sweet with the ladies.

"Bucket Bob" - He kicked the bucket too soon.

And introducing "Darold Dreamboat." Isn't he a beauty? Competed against a Ford in his prime.

in case you all didn't know...

Young is out.

Experienced, mature and old are IN!

Portraits

I recall one of my professors saying in class that he loves it when an artist paints when he is starving. There is a difference in work, so I hear, when an artist paints because he wants to, versus painting because he has to. Perhaps you can tell the difference?
   
After a year of being commissioned to do a painting (a baby and a big move to CT later), I finally finished it. If you ask me the hours it took, I can’t tell you. But I can tell you that it was almost all done while Megan slept during the night. I grew A LOT in this painting, trying to figure out what colors for skin looked best, and getting it just right to where the person looks real. By the time I got to the third person, I was far more confident in my strokes and was able to complete him in half the time than on the first. I had never done a portrait of this magnitude, 22x27. But it was a complete joy to create, and I hope that I can be commissioned to do more portraits like this in the future. Painting people would be so wonderful to paint.

Next, I had a friend who recently got married. This friend had been one of my bridesmaids for my wedding, and I wanted to do something special for her. I told her that I would like to give her a gift if she could give me the name of her Photographer. Miyo Strong was very considerate in allowing me to use her photograph of one of their engagement pictures to paint a portrait for them as a wedding gift. After coming home from my waitressing job, I stayed up until two AM and completed this in a night. The paint was all one color: Paynes Grey, which is a great navy blue that is easier to erase than other watercolors. The snow that you see was a result of “misket,” a liquid rubber that I sprayed on with a toothbrush. Once it was dry I could paint over it, then when my paint was dry and the painting was finished, I could wipe the misket off, revealing the original white canvas. They look so beautiful in the snow.

I pray you all are doing well. I can’t wait for the snow to come in Connecticut – it’s getting cold!

Sincerely,
Laura D’Onofrio

art at the city lights gallery!

Hi guys!
My art has made it to a gallery again: City Lights Gallery in Bridgeport! They had a member's show, so I submitted my artwork for it. Five of them are up in the gallery - my 3 cars, the mailboxes, and my rose painting. The rose was actually being shown at the front window!! The gallery opening, however, was a rainy day, so I don't think many people got to see it from the outside, but I went out in the rain to take a picture for you. I apologize if it's blurry because I forgot to bring my camera, so I used my cell phone camera instead.


the art will be up until sometime in early September. There were a lot of beautiful pieces, including a quilt! Those are always some of my favorites when people decide to work with fabrics in art (I minored in clothing construction, that's why). Anyway, just thought I'de post.. I hope you all are doing well, especially during this difficult recession

-Laura

The Desire to Create

For those of you who don't know, I have a little one now - Megan! She is my greatest creation, although I do not take much credit in creating her. Art has been slow moving because Megan consumes all my day time, and I only work at night. For those of you who are mothers, we know we only get one shot at teaching our children, and that time is now. Megan takes presidence over all of my art. However, I am progressing on a new painting of three teenage siblings that I can't wait to show you when it's finished. I had to put this one video in with my blog because this is the heart of my painting. One thing I know for sure is that God has given us talents so that we can uplift and edify others. Enjoy the video.
-Laura

Rose Painting and Moments Like These

Dear Friends and Family,

It’s been a really long time since I’ve sent an art newsletter, and I deeply apologize. However, I have some very good reasons! Lots of things have been happening in the past half a year, like moving (twice…actually it will be three times in the next few weeks), my husband’s internship and then master’s program in accounting, but most importantly, a baby! There have been some crazy changes going on with my pregnancy, one of which knocked me into bed for pretty much 9 weeks of morning sickness. I couldn’t do much of anything! Not even paint a picture. Thankfully I’m writing this in the middle of my second trimester, and I always like to keep the past in the past, so I’d rather not dwell on that. The good news is the baby is fine, healthy, and it’s going to be a little girl!!!!! I can’t tell you how excited I am! One thing I will have to get her is a kid’s painting easel so she can paint when I do, and will get some great art lessons (that is if she listens long enough!). Well, this is an art email, isn’t it? So let’s talk about art, and see some pictures!

These past few months there have been several things that have stuck out in my mind. The first is I have my bachelor’s degree, and what do I have to show for it? I realized that a degree means nothing unless you do something about it. The next thing is I was in the temple recently, and I was talking to a random woman who works there. While talking to her she said she’s been contemplating this thought: “If you don’t reach your goal, you never really wanted it in the first place.” It reminded me of a painting that I had sitting in my closet. I wanted so badly to finish it, but once morning sickness hit me I never really got around to it. So this past week I decided to finish the piece that I started.

This rose was from a bouquet James gave me for Valentine’s Day. They were all white roses, and I took some pictures of them before they withered away. I wanted to show you the picture so you can compare it with the painting. I think the comparison is pretty cool – a photograph versus an artist’s perception.

Also, notice that a white rose is never truly white. White actually contains all of the colors of the spectrum put together. And pure white can only be used sparingly in art as highlights. Otherwise if you painted the rose all white, you’d have a white canvas! What colors are the shadows? What colors are the tips? Thought you might have some fun spotting all the colors in a white rose…I did when I painted it!

There was a friend of mine who has three children, and she had an idea that she suggested one time that I decided to try doodling it onto paper and giving it as a gift. She said there was a little girl on a toilet with a dog and a cat in the room. So…knowing that I have been doodling in all my classes since I could remember, I took to it and came up with this:

Then I attempted my hand at colored pencil, which probably isn’t my medium of choice and didn’t turn out as fabulous as I had hoped, but oh well. Sorry for the not-so-professional-photography on this one:

I thought it was cute. It’s an 8x10, so she could find any old frame for it. Unfortunately I haven’t heard from her since I stuck it in her mailbox. Hope she is doing well….That’s what I get for giving out art! I do it so many times now, no wonder they call it a starving artist! Well what good is an art talent if you can’t better the lives of others with it?
I’m sorry I don’t have much else to show you from 7 month’s time, other than a fun car study, and a red flowers study to get me back into oil painting….well sure, why not! I’ll give you a peek:

They were going to be larger paintings in the future, and I was trying to work out color options in my study. But if you have been with me for a while, cars have begun to get old. Do you think I should make some more flower paintings? Also, I don’t think I continued with these because shortly after I found myself pregnant, I banned myself from using oils because of the toxic paint thinner. I didn’t want to take any chances. I’m looking into trying out water-based oils and seeing where it takes me.
Oh! I almost forgot! I have up a pretty daring auction - an original piece of artwork of any subject you wanted, framed, signed and shipped to you for free. This is a one time thing and it was more of an experiment to see if anyone out there really wanted an artwork commission. I know a few of you will protest and tell me this might not be the best route to take. But when you're slightly strapped for money you'll end up doing some crazy things. This is one of them! If you are interested you are welcome to bid. But hurry because the auction ends in three days time:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=290248223196&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=019

Thanks for all your love and support! Remember to keep on dreaming and trying to reach your goals!

Sincerely,

Laura D’Onofrio

Lilly Pulitzer Commission

How bout it? My first real commission! My friend Suzanne asked me to do some sketches for her interview with a fashion company named Lilly Pulitzer. I was asked to sketch a car and its interior, and some rings, all having a Lilly Pulitzer design and/or logo on it, or in the words of Suzanne "to make it look Lillified." You can check out the posh fashion at: http://www.lillypulitzer.com/ I never considered my rendering skills would actually be put to use (I'm a painter not a sketcher), but nevertheless I did take drawing classes, didn't I? I knew how to make sketches, no problem. The trickiest part was I basically had to create them all in one day. 12.5 hours later, I was able to complete my assignment. I wish I had more time to make the lines darker, but for a 24 hour day it wasn't possible. Thankfully what I had done happened to be just perfect for Suzanne. I feel my work is truly satisfying when the consumer loves the completed product. Seeing her happy made all my efforts worth every minute. I realize my photographs of the sketches aren't very clear because they were sketches and I didn't use great lighting, but hopefully you'll be able to see them. I tried brightening the image on the computer so you can see it better....but as some of you know, the computer is definitely not a strength of mine. I'm a fine artist, not a graphic designer! haha!

At the moment I'm working on a piece that involves my niece, Grace, who is 6. I've always wanted to paint portraits of little kids, so this is a chance to test my skills I had received from college. Besides, both Grace and I are pretty excited about her being my muse. ^_^. Stay tuned for that painting, I'm hoping it will turn out as beautiful as I envision it! Hope you are doing well!

Sincerely,

Laura D'Onofrio

student art show and upcoming plans

I now have a new site on cafepress.com, where you can buy my art as a print. You can have a car on T-shirts, mugs, baby clothes, etc. it's also a heck of a lot cheaper then buying the original painting. Check it out:

http://www.cafepress.com/dadsoldvehicle

The art and music festival in September went alright. Unfortunately the festival wasn't advertised well enough, and on top of that it rained and snowed the day of the festival, so we were stuck inside. I suppose a lot of people thought the festival wasn't going on because of the weather, so we didn't have many people come. The only people who did come were college students to listen to the bands play. They weren't at all interested in my work. It's alright though, it was nice to meet new people.

Well, some of you may know it's James's and my last semester here at BYU-Idaho. Just two weeks to go! The Spori gallery was holding a student art show, and had asked for submissions. I had entered my cold rusty cars, and the funny thing was my Old Plymouth got into the show. I came by in the middle of the opening night to say hello to some of my friends who were in the BFA show, and I was surprised to find out that they had distributed awards, and I received honorable mention in watercolor for my old Plymouth! I suppose this is something significant to put on my resume. Here's a picture:


I had also entered an art talent award held by the art department and was surprised received $200! Looks like I'm not such a bad painter after all! (haha). My university has done so much for me, it is going to be very difficult when it comes time to say goodbye. We will be moving to Connecticut and staying with James's parents, and they are designating a spot for me in their downstairs for an art studio! MY VERY OWN STUDIO! I have such big plans for it, when everything is cleared out and I'm set up, I plan to paint my little heart out, like it was a highly demanding job or something. I will call it....Laura's inspiration point!

In my business professional arts class we had to write down the addresses of 100 galleries for our own future reference. I exhausted all of the galleries of Connecticut, and as I was entering New York galleries I think I was going cross eyed until I collapsed at 100. When I get back to Connecticut, I plan on contacting those galleries, visiting with them and showing them my work. Hopefully one will think I have some potential and sell my art! And concerning the production of work: I hope the more paintings I produce the better I will get at it. I know I have so much to improve on as an artist, and I want to find my own style, but I just am bursting at the seams to begin that voyage.

Finally, this will be the last I will be writing to you from this email. The end of the semester is coming, and so is the end of my BYU-Idaho account. Please update your address books to my new email address, where I will be sending you more updates:
juneflower7@gmail.com

Thanks so much for believing in me, everybody. I hope to wow you with future works from my easel as I finally begin my full time career in fine art.

Sincerely,
Laura D'Onofrio

Old Chevy Bus

Hi Guys!

A new painting is finally completed and framed, and you are the first to see. I've been preparing for an art and music festival that will be held this Saturday in Rexburg at the fairgrounds. It starts at 11:30am if anyone around here would like to say hello. I'm teaming up with a great printmaker and friend of mine, Miranda pabst. She'll be sharing a tent with me. Hopefully someone will buy our work so we can pay for college.
So this new painting, I've been trying to make more cars recently to kind of put together a car series to show galleries in the future....or maybe I'll just sell them at the festival. But what's interesting about this vehicle is I have no idea what year or make this chevrolet bus is. It looks a lot like a volkswagon bus, only it has a cool grill on it and the emblem of the chevrolet is dated before the bus came out! It's very confusing, so I have no choice but to call it the "old chevy bus," for lack of a better name. Here's the picture of the original vehicle:

and here is the picture of my painting that came from it:

It's a small 8.5x11 painting, nothing big because right now I'm trying to finish up school (which will be in december! yay!). But once I'm done with school I really do hope to dive into my art full throttle. I love painting old rusty cars, they have such character!

My old plymouth painting is getting custom framed for the show, and some of my paintings that I'm not able to afford to frame I'll probably be getting them shrink wrapped. I'll take some pictures for you of that really fun day. Wish me luck in selling my work!

Sincerely,

Laura D'Onofrio