Red Poppies Three hot off the Easel!

I have recently finished this 14 x 11 acrylic on Canvas! It was a fun and challenging piece to do!  Poppies have such papery, translucent petals that need to glow!  I love the deep background shadows too with some of the foliage barely visible.  It is interesting how sunlight makes some greens appear almost turquoise.  I also love the little pop of lime green in the centers.

I did a smaller poppy painting for a collaboration with another artist and have been wanting to do a larger piece.   This one is only a 5 x 7 piece.

 I do a lot of florals and have many for sale on Daily Paintworks, Etsy and Fine Art America!

Yes, I am a geek! A day at Scare-a-con Horror and pop culture convention!

I must admit I was needing a con fix.  I read in the local paper about a convention called Scare-a-con just 20 minutes away.   I have been to some pretty big Sci Fi conventions and this looked like a small convention with some pretty good guests so heck - I'm in!   It was very intimate and everyone was so nice.

There were some great panels with Dee Wallace and Eric Roberts and 3 folks from the walking dead.  I have to admit I have never seen that show, but it is quite the phenomenon.  My sister, husband and I opted for the photo op with the Walking Dead folks.  From left to right, my husband, Madison Lintz, my sister, me, Lew Temple and Vincent Ward.  Lew was the nicest guy.  He shook hands and thanked everyone in line for the photo op.  He became my buddy!!!

Dee Wallace gave a great talk and had some great stories from filming ET, Cujo and many more films.  We stopped by her table for an autograph and she gave us a free photo op as well.  Such a nice lady with a beautiful smile on her face all the time.

This was such a peasant experience - lots of fun stuff to purchase and parties that I did not attend.  Very affordable and it quieted my con fix for awhile anyway :)

Zazzle products rock! Check out these watches.

 Zazzle has some very cool new products!  The watches have been around for a year or so, but they are newer to me.  I love making them.  There are watches suitable for men, ladies and children.  The pig above is a fun kid's watch.  It is so adorable!!!  You can purchase the piggy watch here: http://www.zazzle.com/pink_pig_wrist_watches-256299810901935454

This is a large watch featuring my purple iris painting.  This watch has a large face to really show off the art.  There are some very pretty smaller face choices too.  You get to choose the band/face for each watch face art selection.  Very cool!!!  Check them out.  Find the iris watch here:  http://www.zazzle.com/purple_iris_watch-256712483044071615

Check all my watch designs here!  http://www.zazzle.com/artbylmr/watches  With Zazzle, always look at the page to see it there is any sale going on.  Use the coupon code provided to save some scratch!!

Old Canoe is an award winning painting with 2 Ribbons!

Here I am with my painting 'Old Canoe' at the Regional Art show at the Rome Art and Community Center (Rome , NY that is :))  I was surprised to see that I won two awards since I did not get a call.  I was at the center and took a sneak peek at the show and was thrilled!  Of course, I went to the opening that night to get my certificates.  I'll get the ribbons at the end of the show!

I got a Place award and a special award from the Jervis Library.  These special awards are the best, because, to the person choosing them, this piece was the 'Best of Show'!  Thanks so much to the judges!

Old Fashioned Christmas - vintage decorations are the best!

Here is a little 5 x7 that I did in acrylic on Ampersand gessobord.  I love to decorate for Christmas and these are two pieces near and dear to my heart.  The Santa Post office is a bank that I had when I was a kid.  I recently found it in the attic at my Mom's house.  Now it is part of my way to big collection of decorations.  The tree was given to me and my husband by his Aunt Helen shortly after we were married.  She fired ceramics in her basement and loved making pieces for the family.  These lighted trees were popular in the 70's and I am lucky to have this one plus a white one with all blue lights that Helen also made for us.

I took this photo as I was taking down my decorations  last Christmas and wanted to paint it before I lost the image which happens too often, but that is another story.  I think this will be my Christmas card this year :)

This piece is available on Daily Paintworks:  http://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/lynne-reichhart/old-fashioned-christmas/238222

Do you have any favorite holiday decoratios??

Confessions of an old school Musicholic! Vinyl rules!

I know this is an primarily and art blog, but music is my 2nd love after art!  In my high school days I used to stay up until all hours listening to my favorite radio stations, often drawing and painting at the same time.  I had piles of cassette tapes from recording my fav songs and DJ's from the radio.

As you can see above, I still have all my vinyl albums that I collected growing up and beyond.  I used to go to Woolworths and get a record album for $3.99.   I can't bring myself to part with my collection and I still play them on occasion.  10 years ago or so I started to catalog all the records and what they are worth. Some are pretty rare, but they are all priceless to me!

I also have a nice collection of 45 rpm records.  When I was making the big bucks before I retired to pursue art  we got a jukebox so I could play my singles.  I love playing the old songs and singing along.  Songs like ' The Night Chicago Died' and 'Treat Her Like a Lady'.

Next week I'll be back to art because YAY- I just won a couple of awards for one of my paintings.

Anyone else out there still listen to their vinyl - I'd love to read your comments.

History of a Rock concert goer - prices sure have changed!

I have saved my concert tickets for as long as I can remember.  I put them in this 30 year old photo album that has ended up being a history of ticket prices as well as wonderful memories.  Check out Paul McCartney for only $34 in 1989.  This is a random page from the album.  I think the most interesting is The Rolling Stones in 1981 for only $15 (not shown).  That also included Journey and George Thorogood!

I remember my first concert was Orleans and Melissa Manchester at a local venue.  My Mom had to take me because I wasn't old enough to drive.  Poor Mom ended up taking me to many shows near and far.  I lived on the Canadian border so I heard and loved a lot of Canadian music.  She crossed the border to take me and a girlfriend to many a show not to mention the treks to Canadian record stores to purchase favs not available in the US.   Ottawa and Toronto get lots of big US names too!

I still love going to concerts.  The most recent was Justin Hayward from the Moody Blues just a couple weeks ago.  I must admit that I am seeing the acts that are no longer in the big arenas anymore, but they are still rockin' after all these years as am I :)