Michelle Wrighton Fine Art and Photography

I posted a couple of cat ACEO’s (original Art Cards) on Ebay yesterday. I decided to try the Aussie ebay site for a change, I usually list ACEO’s on the US ebay site as ACEO’s are much more well known there (A search on Ebay.com.au for the term ACEO reveals all of 92 items today compared to several thousand on the US site). ACEO’s are not very well known over here in Australia though, so it is a bit of a gamble at best. More and more Aussie artists are now creating them though, so hopefully they will become well collected in the future.

I have also removed my Ebay Art Store as it is not proving to be worth the cost or effort, largely due to all the messing around Ebay has been doing recently. I might consider re-opening it in the future, but until I can have a really good number of items in the store it seems pointless to keep paying Ebay for low views!

Marmelade and White Kitten
Click to view on Ebay

Marmelade and White Kitten

White Persian ACEO

White Persian (Closeup view)

ACEO’s are a sub-group of Small Format Art that I also love creating. ACEO is an acronym for “Art Cards, Editions & Originals” – collectable little artwork gems only 2.5″ x 3.5″ in size. Size is the only guideline for artwork to be defined as an ACEO – they can be created in any al all mediums including collaged items, as long as they meet the size requirement, which is the size of a standard sports trading card.

ACEO’s can be framed and displayed on your office desk or walls or kept in a collection in Trading Card Albums/boxes as a mini art gallery for your coffe table.

Here are a few of the ACEO’s I have created:

“Purple Fudge” acrylic Abstract on mattboard

“Frog On A Log” Prismacolor Pencils on mattboard

“Lost in Thought” Prismacolor Pencils on mattboard

More ACEO’s can be viewed in the ACEO gallery on my website

Michelle

I thoroughly enjoyed creating this acrylic painting of an incoming storm over the ocean, blues and greens and water in general seem to be playing a big part of creativity in the last week or two. Maybe its my subconsious trying to tell me to be flexible and flow with things at the moment.

Storm Coming, 5″x7″ acrylic on canvas board

I’ve been experimenting with a new Abstract series based on this concept, this first one, ‘Blue Flow’ is ACEO sized (2.5″ x 3.5″) acrylic on mattboard.

Viewed as Portrait format:

Viewed as Landscape format:

And the first one, as yet untitled, 3.5″ x 5″ acrylic on canvas:

Viewed in Portrait format:

Viewed in Landscape format:

The scanned digital images of these are rather disappointing as they have lost much of the vibrancy and depth of the originals. I havn’t varnished them yet, so will do so and see if I can get better images.

Michelle

I’ve managed to do the next two of the “In The Night” ACEO series, #2 is a chestnut stallion “Trojan In The Night” and #3 is another cat (yes I have a real big thing for cats at the moment:) “Boo In The Night”.

Here are a couple more, “Kaiser” A German Shepherd Dog. I’m really pleased how this turned out, especially as the eyes are only about 3mm in size!

A Pink and Grey Galah (a common Australian native bird). I tried a looser more painterly approach with this one, which was created as part of an International Artists swap.

And a Gibbon (a primate) – when I saw the reference photo for this one I couldn’t resist the priceless look on his face. I havn’t quite decided what to do with this one, but need to come up with a suitable title first.

As well as getting these ACEO’s done, I’ve also been able to get everything uploaded to the new gallery on my website, it looks much better now, and should be fairly easy for people to navigate.

And now its back to work:)

I am so glad that I found the world of miniatures, the last couple of weeks have been so busy that ACEO size art is the only art work that I can get finished (LOL not that ACEO’s are really that quick, most of them are taking me two hours or so, but compared to larger works they are quick).

I’m sure that things will settle down (time wise at least) when the kids go back to school next week and I will have some decent ‘art time’ and get back to my commission work (and go back to providing some informative blog entries about the animals in my art).

I’m also in the process of changing the gallery on my website, the new one is easier to maintain and looks a lot nicer as well. Hopefully that will be made live sometime next week.

In the meantime, here are my newest ACEO’s:

‘Cob’, Rottweiler dog

Jedi In The Night, torti cat. This is probably my favourite ACEO that I have done so far, and is the first of my “In the Night” series. I like this one so much that I’m not sure if I actually want to list it on Ebay!

“Shakespeare’s Whiskers”, Tuxedo cat

“A Giraffe Called Azizi”. This one was created as part of a group swap with other artists around the world and is now on its way to its new home in the USA. “Azizi” is a Swahili name and Kiswahili word that means “a treasure, excellent; precious one.” LOL – I hope the artist who get’s this one thinks so:)

And last but not least is “Surprised Miss Marmalade”, a cute maralade and white kitten with a very surprised look on her face.

Bye for now and Happy Australia Day for any aussies who read this blog!

Michelle

Well, I didn’t get a chance to list the last challenge (SNOW) before the deadline, but I managed to create a new challenge piece and list it during the specified time this week as part of a ‘theme week’ for a group of ACEO artists that I belong to on Ebay.

Its great to see all the different ideas other artists come up with relating to the same theme – if you would like to have a look, just search Ebay for “ACEO Theme Week” or the theme title which is ‘Baby its cold Outside’. LOL this was a bit of a stretch for me as its the middle of summer over here in Western Australia:)

Nevertheless, this polar bear is the piece I came up with, I’m quite happy with this guy, although it has scanned with more yellow than there really is in the original.

Click here to view on Ebay

And this one is ‘Prudence’ the Persian cat.

I think I will hold off on starting my personal ACEO challenge until the kids start back at school in a couple of weeks, there just dosn’t seem to be enough hours in the day to do everything that needs doing!

Cheers

Michelle

I finally have a chance to add an entry this week!

This is my latest ACEO of a green tree frog, titled “Frog on A Log” (ACEO #15), which I will be listing on Ebay either later today or tomorrow. This will be the only opportunity to own this cute little frog because if he dosn’t sell, my hubby has claimed him!

This photo is a cropped enlarged version showing some of the detail.

and another landscape “Snow Covered Mountain”

The first lot of ACEO’s I have ever offered for sale (including the Golden Retriever, Siamese Kitten, the pelican, frangipani and Teddy bear) will be ending on Ebay in the next few hours, if you collect ACEO’s have a look as some of them don’t have any bids.

Click here to view current Ebay auctions.

Because of the cost of listing items on Ebay, it seems that many artists don’t re-list items that don’t sell at auction, but list them in their Ebay Stores at a much higher retail price. This makes sense to me – apart from the cost of Ebay fees, I think way to many artists undervalue their work – and is something I am considering on doing with my own Ebay store – I’d love to hear your opinion (as an artist or art collector) on having a policy like this.

If I am lucky I can run to my studio and grab a couple of hours to myself, and hopefully create a masterpiece!

Bye for now

Michelle

I am just loving these Art Card’s, it’s true, they really are little gems! And for me at the moment they are particularly good as with my three darling children on school holidays I can still manage to complete some art as it it possible to get a couple finished on a good day!

I’m finding that they are more of a challenge than I originally anticipated – at least as far as my normal very detailed and realistic style. But the good thing about having such a tiny space to work with is that you really need to think before you act and make each pencil/paint brush mark count:)

This little bunny rabbit is ‘Nibbles’ ACEO #12. Prismacolor Artists pencils on matt board. This ACEO is currently for auction on Ebay, but if he dosn’t sell I will put him in my Ebay Store at retail price…actually that’s what I’m planning on doing with my Ebay art auctions, start them at a lower price on auction and then if they don’t sell I will put them in my Ebay store at the normal retail price. LOL – unless my kids claim them first:)

This little cute chestnut foal is ‘Toby’, I havn’t listed him on Ebay yet because I need to find my original reference as I can’t remember what breed of horse he is. I am really pleased with the way this little fella turned out, unfortunately it lost some of the vibrancy in the colours when I scanned it so I will have to try a digi pic to see if that is better. ‘Toby’ has also been done in Prismacolor colour pencils on acid free mattboard.

I’ve added a few more birds and cat ACEO’s and several pieces of handcrafted sterling silver and gemstone jewellery to my Ebay listings as well, so if you’d like to take a look, please click here.

Now I must run and get dinner sorted out for my hungry family!

Michelle

Well I’ve gone and done it, it’s taken me most of last night and today but I have successfully managed to create and Ebay Store for myself! I can’t believe it has taken so long but I have added a couple of pieces of jewellery and have finally posted some auctions for the first lot of ACEO’s that I have ever offered for sale.

Amongst this first lot is the ones shown below – Bronson, the Golden Retriever, Tao the Siamese kitten, Percival Pelican, River Reflections as well as a Fluffy Teddy bear and a frangipani. I have a few more to add in the next couple of days and a rather large quantity of jewellery to add to the store. That will be an ongoing project for a while seeing as I have yet to take photos of most of it!

If you would like to see the ACEO’s and art jewellery in my Ebay Store PLEASE CLICK HERE

Cheers

Michelle

It really is no wonder that these ACEO’s are taking the art world by storm, they are so much fun to do and I am finding them quite addictive:)

I will admit that it is really difficult to get a lot of detail into a painting that is a maximum size of 2.5 by 3.5 inches (the same size as normal trading cards), I’m finding that they are a really good oportunity for me to experiment with a looser, less photorealistic style.

Here are a few that I have done this week, I might try listing some of them on ebay.com.au and the new art auction at the Art-Cards.Org site (I’ll post an update when they are listed for auction).

The first one is a lovely golden retriever ACEO portrait:

A sweet little Siamese Kitten:

A bird this time, a Pink Flamingo:

and something different for me, a landscape – impressionistic in style?

I do have a few more but I will post them on the new ACEO gallery that I am setting up on my website Pencil Portraits as soon as I sort out an image size problem that I seem to be having.

I’m contemplating opening an Ebay store for my ACEO’s, small format art and art jewellery…if I can find enough hours in the day! I’d love to hear if you think this is a good idea or not (what can I say, I’m a Libran and making a decision takes forever!)

Ciao for now!

Michelle