Finished my Bast-cat goddess painting + new merchandise

So i have finally finished my cat goddess painting that i had dug up from a pile of unfinished paintings a few weeks back. I did alot of revamping on it...and just last night I varnished it and took pictures, so here you go:

(Please click to full view)

Title: Bast, Keeper of the Meadow
14" x 14" Original acrylic painting
by Chelsea Rose

This peice turned into a portrait of sorts of Bast (or Bastet)- the Egyptian warrior cat goddess, goddess of the sun, protector of the land.

...I struggled a lot with this painting in the beginning and i believe thats why it ended up behind my art table, collecting dust for a few months along with other various unfinished projects of mine.

My process in creation of this painting was as follows: I used a small art projector to transfer my original pen and ink illustration of the cat spirit onto a 14" by 14" canvas. I painted the outlines and then began to introduce colors. Part of the difficulty creating this piece was trying to figure out how to most elegantly use all the empty space on the top an the bottom. My first attempts were very unsatisfying and it seemed no matter which way i reworked it, i wasn't happy. here is a picture that has a glimpse of the painting when it was in its yucky faze:

(Please click to Full View)

can you spot it? its to the right of the easel. As you can see the top and the bottom are completely different then what they are now. It was at this stage that i gave up.
I find that sometimes, if i put something away for long enough by the time i come back to it i will have a fresh point of view/different perspective allowing for newideas/problem solving. So when i pulled it back out 6 months later i ended up completely whiting out the top and the bottom and reworked them from scratch. Almost instantly all the blocked creative energy began to flow and it only took me a few weeks to get the entire painting finished.

....I am now ready for my next painting. Unfortunately i am completely out of blank canvas and too strapped for cash to be able to run over to the art store and buy some. So i am thinking about re purposing some of my old canvas paintings from school. I will just sand them down a bit, reapply gesso and add a nice layer of neutral gray and they should be ready to paint anew. It might be hard to let go of some of these old paintings.... but I am trying to be thrifty, as much as i possibly can.

In the meantime, i have plenty of new merchandise to list in our online shop.

(please click to full view)
I found these frames the other day and realized they would work well with a few of my illustration prints. Now that i have taken product pictures, i just need to get off my lazy fanny and load them up in our online shop. Till then, feel free to email me in order to reserve: chelsea@lucidopticlab.com

Tomorrow I am expecting to receive my snazaroo face paint that i ordered from ArtSupplyWarehouse.com. I am trying new things to see if perhaps they could spice up my art booth/bring more of an audience when i do the various art fairs in town. I have always loved body and face painting....so it would be very awesome if i had a positive response doing it/ could make some extra dollars. This may end up being yet another creative freelance job prospect. So once i receive the paint i will be experimenting like crazy and taking lots of pictures...so stay tuned!

Much love!
-Chelsea Rose