Getting back on track

Well, after my holiday of a week away, I was just settling back in to a work schedule when we received a call that a family member from another state passed on. Back into the car we went, and returned home last night ( Saturday). Today I accomplished not much but getting my taxes finished up and e-filed.
Starting on Monday, the 30th March, I hope to get myself back into my regular schedule of work, marketing, blogging and all that goes along with all of this.

Be Back Soon !

See you back here on March 21, 2009.

Commission Art

Although most of my art is for my website or galleries, I do paint commission pieces in the form of murals or paintings.

One that I recently finished was from a fellow scuba diver in California, who found me on ScubaBoard.com. Jennifer contacted me about doing a painting of a "Cabby", or cabezone, a fish from the scorpionfish family. She sent me images from her personal underwater library of the cabby and oil rigs that she wanted included into the painting.

After emailing back and forth to decide on size, etc, she gave me complete artistic license .
I started out making numerous sketches to help me decide how I wanted the final painting to look. On an unstretched piece of canvas, I started with blues and whites to get the feel of the sun streaming down on the skeletal structure of the oil rigs through the ocean. I then used the great photo she had of the cabby as reference and placed him to the front of the picture to represent the ledge he was sitting on. Much adjusting of color was made to the piece to get the feeling I sought after for this cabezone. After adding muscles, anemones and brittle stars, I signed the piece to call it finished.

Most commissions can be done in about two months. If you are interested in a custom piece, email me at dvrbon@wi.rr.com

New pricing / Paypal

I will be out of the studio from March 13 until March 21.
On my return, I will be putting Paypal buttons on my website to make it easier for you to "click and pay", instead of emailing me with your information all the time. I would still love to talk with you if you want to email or call me though.

I have also changed prices on my mini prints to keep up with the President's stimulus package.

New friends links

In my scuba diving and internet travels, I meet many wonderful people. Whenever possible I like to link them to my website.
Here are a few of my newest friends:

http://www.naturalseaglass.com/ Seaglass jewelry and other finds by Lisl Armstrong

http://www.jewelrybydaniellerenee.com/ Beautifully made jewelry to be featured in OCEAN magazine, April 2009

http://www.scubadivergirls.wordpress.com/ A fun group of women divers/ instructors in California

http://www.gordonisimo.com/ Scuba Mike and diving in the Canary Islands

Our World Underwater 2009

Our World Underwater 2009, was held at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL , Friday, Feb 20 through Sunday, Feb. 22.

What a whirlwind of activity!

In depth seminars and workshops ranging from camera equipment to learning visual cylinder inspection, started on Friday at 8am and ran throughout the weekend. Presenters were some of the dive industries most noted figures: Stan Waterman, Richie Kohler, Annie Crawley, Bob Sheridan, and the list goes on and on. Friday evening, all day Saturday and Sunday, the exhibit hall opened its doors to about 20,000 visitors walking the aisles to see 200 + exhibitors. Booths consisted of dive travel destinations, camera equipment, SUDS, a kids painting fair with Rogest, dive shops, dive equipment, marine artwork (my booth included) , the Tim Early Foundation, PADI, DAN,DEMA, Diveheart and many more than can be listed here. Dive Buddy stickers were placed with several of the exhibitors and handed out to passing visitors, Divebuddy.com member, Robert Silva, talked with visitors at his booth about his upcoming world record attempt to do the longest freshwater dive.
Friday and Saturday evenings were the scene of exciting film festivals with emcees Michel Gilbert and Nancy McGee, and President of OWU, Pat Hammer, gave out the annual OWU Achievement award to artist and environmental educator, Ron Steven, aka Rogest.
OWU was the brainchild of president, Pat Hammer and started out 39 years ago in the gymnasium of a local high school. It has grown to be the Midwest’s largest consumer dive show. Since 2010 will be the 40th anniversary, plans for the “biggest party ever” are already in progress.
Keep the weekend of Feb. 19-21, 2010 open and join in a great weekend winter getaway and pick up on great travel and dive equipment specials and help Our World Underwater celebrate their 40th milestone.

What inspires me to paint

As a child I always loved to draw, but had no opportunity to have any art classes until my Senior year in high school. (the Parochial schools I went to did not believe in art classes). Taking this one class was enough to give me some insight into wanting to paint and do pastels.

I grew up given the ideals that an artist is NOT a real job, so I pursued other avenues of employment, but kept drawing and filling sketchbooks for years. While raising kids, I worked as a visual merchandiser/window dresser for large department stores and the last seven years as a floral designer.This was enough to keep the creative juices flowing through my veins, but being an artist was still the main thought in the back of my head.

In 1991, I took up the recreational sport of scuba diving. Armed with an underwater camera, I take thousands of photographs to use as reference for my drawings/ paintings.
I quit my "real job" almost two years ago now, and have dedicated my days to painting mostly underwater scenes and creatures, although I also paint landscapes from my cruise to Alaska, a trip to Glacier Natl Park and Yellowstone and my own state of Wisconsin.

When I used to paint murals for clients, they would tell me that while they were describing to me what they would want painted, I would get this "look" on my face as they were talking. I would be "painting" the mural in my head at that exact moment, and could then come in, sometimes without even a sketch, and start laying paint without hesitation.

Inspiration to me is looking at something and feeling it "trigger" inside. It is an unconscious burst of creativity that I get when I see an object, landscape or sea critter.
It is a stimulation or idea that encourages me to do a painting.