life is good.

Happy Thursday!!
Life has been great lately. I got an amazing new job, I have a solo art show this Saturday in South Philadelphia at a cute store called Nice Things Handmade and my mother will be coming this weekend for the show.
I created 24 8"x8" paintings, the show is called Color & Shelter. It is a collection of colorful villages around the world. I am very excited to show these pieces. This has been a year in the making. Will post pictures to follow.

working

Lazy bones. I've been that at updating my blog lately, I know. I've started a new series that could potentially turn into another solo show but I'm not going to disclose that until it's set in stone, but it's in the talks for now. 

This piece is from my Mexican culture series from April this year, it's entitled "Guadalajara Village" and it sold to the owner of the hair salon/art gallery where I had my show. This piece will be available on my Etsy shop as a Giclee print for $25-$30 soon. I had it priced at $80, low for an oil painting I know but it was a good price and I ended up selling 10 paintings out of 14. I am now working on a series that is an offshoot of this piece. A series of 15-20, 8x8 wood panel paintings focusing on colorful buildings from around the world. My first one is Stockholm, Sweden and that is the underline. The next one will probably be Rio Maggiore, Italy. 

red wine and mexican chocolate

Today it rained, which was the perfect opportunity for me to create some more pieces for my Etsy shop. I did add 3 new paintings so check them out. 

I ran to the store in the rain and purchased some Mexican chocolate made in Oaxaca. It's delicious, it has a spicy taste to it. I have been enjoying it with a glass of red wine. 

I spent most of the day in my studio, painting and watching films on Netflix. Yesterday I was pleasantly surprised of discovering a new artist that WHYY was interviewing on the radio. Her name is Dom La Nena, and her album is called Ela. Here is her video. Her music is amazing, she sings in Portugese. If you like worldly music, I would also recommend listening to Bomba Estereo. 

my favorite escape

This is my favorite place to escape to and spend all day creating new paintings, and to vent all the ideas from my head. I couldn't imagine what I would do without my studio space (and I am lucky enough to have it in our apartment). 

I am currently creating more small paintings for my Etsy shop, and will be starting my 6 piece series hopefully in a week. To anyone reading - where is your favorite escape? 

Etsy

Today has been such a beautiful day. I have been staying productive with finishing paintings and my Etsy store is finally up! Here is the link http://www.etsy.com/shop/BirchTea and I will be adding more paintings continuously but also for cheaper prices. I am also going to be selling a run of limited Giclee prints of my popular painting from my solo exhibit and pieces that did not sell during the show will be up there. I am working on a 6 piece series of colorful villages for my next project and they will be up for sale on there as well. 

I wish you all the best weekend! I will be working but enjoying it of course. 

mother's day

This past weekend was one of the best ones I have had in a long time. My mother Leena came to visit me from Saturday until this morning. We had so much fun! We ate a beautiful lunch outside at Bistrot La Minette which is close to where I live, and it's authentic French food. After, we walked around and looked at shops. I went in to Aids Thrift which is one of my favorite thrift stores (I have an unhealthy obsession with going there and scouting Mexican goods). Anyway, to my surprise Sean's mom Kate had gone to the thrift store near where they live in New Jersey called Village Thrift and picked up some really awesome Mexican things for us. The first set of 2 items are what I found for $7 and the rest is what I got from Kate. The last picture is of my mom and I after our lunch date. 

The perfect Friday

So today I had a haircut appointment at 3. I got it done, and then went food shopping for our taco night for dinner tonight and spent about one hour and 20 minutes at New Wave Cafe, the neighborhood bar on our corner for two beers to enjoy this warm day we have had. I really enjoyed just sitting at the bar alone, drinking slowly from each beer and feeling the warm breeze that was coming in though the entrance. If you live nearby the Philadelphia area, I highly suggest going to this place. I'll leave you with this lovely picture below. Happy weekend to you all!