I am so fortunate, that I have a way to express myself with various sizes of animal art all the way from the delightful little ACEO's up to monster-size canvases.  Being nominated to win  ACA awards for several differing categories and sizes of art is very humbling and means alot to me.  Winning an award could mean that I can help even more animals with my art. If it inspires confidence in my work, that in itself, is priceless.  I absolutely live for using my art to contribute to animal rescue work.  Not only by using it to support my own sanctuary, but using it to donate to other rescue work on behalf of animals.

I feel very blessed today.  Thank you.

When I went to EBSQ for the first time and saw dog art that done in small-format, I was not yet aware of things like ACEO and OSWOA. I just knew I was seeing some of the most wonderful small paintings of dogs I had ever seen, art obviously done by people who share their lives and hearts with dogs... I could really tell that this was so. It was "Art with Heart", most definitely!  I tracked down some of that art to its source.... eBay ACEO listings, and I was hooked! I started doing ACEO's and OSWOA's of horses and dogs. This after doing canvases for galleries as large as 50 by 65 inches! Quite a change for me.

It also gave me a new respect for the "small but important painting" concept.  And I learned a few things about what is and is not a miniature, and about off-eBay invitationals for miniature art (the kind where the paintings are examined under a manifying glass to see the quantity of brushstrokes).  

I am doing small paintings, still.  Not so many ACEO's now, because I need some minor eye surgery to help dry-eye syndrome, and new glasses. 

As for what does not constitute a miniature, one painting I am working on is of a baby bird, and is only about 3x3 inches. This is a tiny painting, but it is not a 'miniature' per se.... because the baby bird really is that size as depicted in this art.  So I will list it on eBay as  Small Format Art (SFA, an eBay group and designation I belong to) not as a miniature.

I do like that ACEO and OSWOA (and other post card size art and 3x5" art etc) are made to be sleevable for display albums. And they are wonderful for framing and hanging as a group.

My first serious oil painting was a landscape, and I had alot of menotrship as a landscape painter by the likes of  California "Eucalyptus School" Master, Karl Albert (who painted with Edgar Payne!) and workshops with my lifetime watercolor painting goddess, Nita Engle.  I taught myself to paint animals. I am about to do some bigger (but not too big) canvases of landscapes and seascapes, because I really feel like it.

It is a brand new experience for me, to belong to any kind of group at all, really. I have been exceedingly lone she-wolfish my entire life, always feeling like I'd put my foot in my mouth if turned loose with other humans. Know what I mean? I do believe the artist in me makes me a little out of touch with reality, all that inward imagery is a distraction. But, I was so extremely thrilled to be invited to join "Art for Critters", some nice person nominated me, and I accepted. I did it for two reasons, one was because the person who wrote and invited me had dazzled me already with his art (David Coalburn) and, secondly, the cause they support, donating part of the net profit off art sales to animal charities, is exactly what I believe to be the whole purpose of my art. If you want to see more about "Art for Critters" on ebay, you can search 'a4c'. And they have a website of course, art4critters.com.  My other membership came about so suddenly it makes my head spin, I went and checked on what OSWOA was, having seen it mentioned by someone, and wow,  I couldn't sign up fast enough. The group is called The OSWOA Art Movement,  OSWOA standing for Original Small Works of Art.  The OSWOA group is new and exciting, and already an OSWOA has made it to ebay Pulse! Just as ACEO is art that is sleevable for display albums, OSWOA must be as well, it is a requirement, and it must be original art. The other specific requirement is that it be 4x6" / 6x4" (depending on whether it is vertical or horizontal, of course)  This has given me a way to do art a bit bigger than the ACEOs I often do. Once in a while, my eyes need a break!  (I did sign up for the ACEO group too) And I truly adore the idea of art in 4x6" in a display album, to sit and hold  and admire!I should point out though, I have spent my whole artlife painting really big paintings, too. The biggest one I have ever done is 65" x 50".

The best part of all, about all of this, is that I can list art that is any size, either OSWOA, ACEO etc, and also put a4c in the title  and have a percentage of anything I sell go to animal charities.  It is so completely perfect for me.

You probably know the saying about how, if you go with the flow of your life, you harness the power of a mighty river! It is making sense to me now. I do feel almost propelled along a path these days, as what was a bread and butter steady paycheck, the nine-year Homehealth and Hospice-care job, ended 5 months ago and everything has indicated since then that going back to that work is not what I should do, sort of the "that was then, this is now" type thing. I have been concentrating on ebay and my art. I worked at it all along but was too fatigued from Hospice care of my patient that I could not produce much art. I was more than burnt out, I was fried to a crispy little shred. Ironically, right before that job ended, I had very deliberately made the decision to leave the sedona gallery my paintings were in. It was one more stress factor I needed to do away with.  Doing my art for ebay is the most liberating, exhilarating passage I have ever had as an artist! "Freedom" doesn't even begin to sum up the concept!