Yorkshire Terrier

Here is a photo of my latest commission of a a cute little Yorkie. I just love this breed so adorable.
I had fun painting this and I hope my client will enjoy it as much as I did painting it.

Wine Tasting and Auction for a Custom Original Pet Painting!

You are invited to the Guardian Angels Animal Haven Inc. Rescue and Sanctuary for a blissful mid-week interlude hosted by Hacienda de las Rosas Winery at Plaza del Pasado in beautiful Old Town San Diego.

Location: Hacienda de las Rosas Winery, Juan St. in Old Town, San Diego, CA 92101
When: Wednesday, November 19 at 5:30PM
Phone: 858-531-7091
Cost: $35.00 per person

$35.00 donation includes:
-Five generous wine tastings (red and white)
-Appetizers
-Souvenir glass

On-site massage by the lovely ladies at To the Point Acupuncture

Art showing and auction by Deirdre O'Byrne who has a passion for bright colorful watercolors. Her speciality is Portraiture, especially of Animals and Children.

Maximum capacity is 60 people so space is limited. so RSVP if you can join us.

Sip, eat, smile, enjoy and maybe you could be the BIG WINNER of your very own custom pet portrait original painting by Deirdre O'Byrne.

Art Reception at The San Diego Hospice

Art, Wine and Cheese Opening Reception at
The San Diego Hospice this Sunday, Nov 9th.

Ten of O'Byrnes Oil and Watercolor Paintings are on show for 2 months.

Nov 1st to Jan 2nd at The San Diego Hospice

Directions: 163 South towards downtown. Exit Washington St. West. Right on 3rd Ave. Right on Lewis, Left on 3rd Ave. End at 4311 Third Ave. San Diego, CA 92103

Finally back!

I must apologize for the delay in blogging so I'll make up for it now and in the future ;)

I do have some great news my name was in the San Diego Union Tribune yesterday as one of the San Diego Resident Artists who was juried into San Diego's 28th International Show. I am so honored to be in this show and even more so to have won the "Presidents Prize".

It has been a very challenging year, some great times, some extremely sad times. Sadly I lost my best friend Jim last month. I still can't believe it, I'll miss our weekly conversations. He was, and is very dear to me and he will be missed enormously. He was the kindest, sincere, most fun guy I've had the pleasure of having in my life and I am thankful for all our good times together over the past 12 years. He will always have a piece of my heart.

Brown Eyes Juried into August Show-Reception

My painting of Brown Eyes was juried into next months show at San Diego Watercolor Society. You are welcome to the come to the reception this Friday, I unfortunately cannot attend as I am moving this weekend. Enjoy the show, drinks and apps. if you can make it ;-)

SDWS Watercolor Exhibition Reception this Friday Evening

This Friday, August 1, from 5pm to 8pm, please join us for the opening reception of "Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight", an exhibition of original watercolors, juried by Sharon Hinckley. Reception and show are located in The San Diego Watercolor Society gallery at 2825 Dewey Road, Suite 105, at Liberty Station on Point Loma.

No charge for admission.

Show runs from July 30 through August 29. Gallery hours are Wednesday - Sunday, 11am - 5pm.

Won 2 Cash Prizes for 2 Paintings!

Absolutely Delighted and honored to have one 2 prizes last night at Sophie's Gallery.
"Roller Coaster" received 3rd place and "Blue Eyes " received the "Peoples Choice" Prize so I am very happy to say the least. Thank you to those of you who voted for my painting.
Also my painting was published in the Union Tribune on Thursday July 10th to showcase the event.

Four of my original watercolors were juried in to Sophie's Gallery in El Cajon. I have just been informed that Rollercoaster my abstract painting shown above has won an award in The Second Annual Alley Cat Art Show which will be presented at the Artist's Reception this Friday, July 11 at Sophie's Gallery.

The Reception is from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Awards will be presented at around 5 p.m.
Titles of my paintings on display are "Simba", "Finding SeaShells", "Irishman" and "Rollercoaster".

Victory Kiss, USS Midway Plein Air Painting

San Diego Watercolor Society goes Red, White & Blue!
The San Diego Watercolor Society presents an exhibition of original watercolor paintings entitled “Red, White & Blue.” Approximately 100 paintings created by SDWS members are on display and for sale. SDWS gallery is located in the Liberty Station NTC Promenade, in Point Loma. Gallery hours are 11:00 AM – 3:00 PM Wednesday through Sunday and admission is free.

My painting which I painted on the USS Midway looking south towards Coronado was juried into this months show which runs until July 31st. Title "Victory Kiss" This wonderful statue of the sailor and the nurse kissing was the main subject of my painting as seen above.

I just received some GREAT news. My painting of "Whiskers" shown here was juried into the 28th International Watercolor Exhibition which will take place in October at The San Diego Watercolor Society. I am so honored to have a painting chosen for this great event especially as famous artists from around the States and abroad entered the competition. I'll let you know more details closer to the event.

"Granpa" juried into The June Show as SDWS

My painting of "Granpa" was juried into this months San Diego Watercolor Show which runs for the month of June. SDWS 2825 Dewey Rd # 105 San Diego, CA 92106 (619) 876-4550

Solona Beach Plein Air Painting

The Fiesta Del Sol Festival was a great success and it was nice to meet new people and share my artwork with them. It was a great 2 day event with wonderful live music and some very interesting vendor booths. I sold 6 original paintings along with signed prints and greeting cards.
Here is one of my latest local scenes painted on location in Solona Beach.

Baby Dove

Here is a cute photo of the baby dove, a rare view without the Mother sitting on top of her!
The nest is outside the living room and its been constantly occupied, a happening nest!

Brown Eyes

I met this cute little girl while I was painting in Balboa Park and I asked her Dad if I could take her photo and he said yes...so cute, she was asking about my painting in Spanish and of course I haven't learnt the language yet...its on my to do list. She was so adorable so I had to paint her. I've always thought it would be so much fun to have a daughter ;-) well at least I get to paint kids whenever I feel like it ;-)

USS Midway

Headed to the USS Midway on Sunday morning to meet some fellow watercolor painters. I've always wanted to see it so it was a fantastic morning. Thats me in the cockpit with my flight mate! I painted the view from the upper deck looking down on the statue of the Victory Kiss.
It was great to be outdoors painting and what a view.
Groups of school kids were packing up care packages for the boys in Iraq, tons of kids and tons of gifts all done to live music. What a great day!

Custom Dog Paintings by O'Byrne

The perfect personalized gift, touches hearts and lasts a lifetime. Now accepting a limited number of commissions for 2008. Book your month now so you won't be disappointed!

Woof Stock 2008

Woof Stock was a great success. A lot of wonderful people with their sweet dogs visited my booth and signed up for custom watercolor paintings of their loved ones. It was a wonderful event with dog games and competitions. The weather was perfect.

Today the Lucky Winners from the Woof Stock Drawing were announced via email for the prize of a Custom O'Byrne Pet Painting. They have 2 weeks to claim their prize. Otherwise another winner will be announced!

New Neigbors- Twins!!!

I've been keeping an eye on my neighbors since they are two feet away from my studio window. The Parents are very protective of their kids, especially as there is a mocking neighbor nearby. I was watering the flowers today and I spotted Mom with her kids, so I had to take a photo! ok you know who I'm talking about, its the O'Bird family, aren't they precious ;-) Mom if you are reading this all birds are beautiful even the pigeons and black birds! they just have different personalities! My mother loves birds except for the latter so I have to give her a hard time and any of you who feel the same :-) that includes me as I was ready to buy a bebe gun for the Mocking Bird, ok I know bebe is a fashion label, as I worked on that account, just not sure how to spell beebee gun?? so many ways! So I purchased an fake Owl to scare the Mocking bird away...hey it worked for a week and I was thrilled... now he's back... Plan B... still TBD....if you have any other ideas please let me know. Thankfully these babies are safe as he didn't eat these eggs ;-)

Framing Day-Abstract

This week I started working on preparing paintings and prints for my upcoming shows.
I framed this painting of an abstract which I call "Roller Coaster". It reminds me of all the feelings and the wild colors of everything flashing by you as you scream with excitement and exhilaration. Wind whipping at your face and hair, not knowing whats going to happen next, all very exciting and uplifting!

Still Life at Barbaras Place

While I was house sitting I painted this still life with Barbaras home items, It was fun and I loved the way it turned out. Something soothing about dairy products and I must say the eggs, cheese, cream and butter are absolutely delicious in Ireland, i do miss these, but luckly I can buy my kerrygold butter here at Trader Joes and Ralphs!

Imagination

Sometimes its fun to just paint pictures from memory. I remember seeing a scene like this somewhere in a book or magazine so I tried to recapture the feeling of a snowing evening.

The Golf Swing!

I thought I'd paint a Golfer inspired by my friends Barbara and Jeremy who let me house sit for them and paint in their lovely patio surrounded by beautiful roses and flowers. I was there for 3 days in Oceanside and had a great time checking out the local scenery. I'm working on large piece of the view of their patio which I'll upload later. Barbara, Jeremy, my brother and Dad are all golfers so this one is for you ;-) Declan my older brother lives in Scotland where the game started and he is a avid player with a scratch handicap. I on the other hand love the driving range where you can whack the daylights out of the balls and then the putting green where at least you can see what you are aiming for, but forget about the part in between!! I'll stick with Tennis.

Collecting Sea Shells

Walking along La Jolla Shores with my friend Kimberly we saw so many interesting shells. We met 2 women with their kids who were so cute playing in the sand making sand castles. I asked them if I could take some photos of their kids for a painting which I'll do later. This painting was inspired from that day. "Finding Sea Shells" watercolor.

Lifeguard - what a life!!

Another fabulous day in La Jolla, I couldn't resist painting this Lifeguard, boy is that a nice job sitting in his little green hut with a spectacular view! I sat on the wall and painted this painting 7"x10" which will frame at 11x14 for ArtWalk. I will have a limited number of this size originals for a very special offer of $59 during ArtWalk which is April 26th and 27th. (Booth 511 at Date/India St)

Seal Beach

This past week was so much fun, I was painting in La Jolla when my friend Caroline called from New Zealand, next minute she says I can meet you in a couple of hours! Rudi her husband is a pilot for Singapore Airlines and he flies the LA Singapore route, a 16 hour flight, all business class! I've known them both for over 20 years and Caroline and myself were flight attendants back in the 80s. They used to live in Singapore and just recently moved to New Zealand where they now call home. They arrived in La Jolla right at Seal Beach and it was so great to catch up. We had a lovely meal at Georges above the Cove. Above is he painting I was working on.

Mar 24th-30th Entries juried into SDWS Show

"I love You Mom" Giraffe Mother & Child
Watercolor 36" x 24"

Last week I started getting ready for ArtWalk, there is a lot to do and time is flying by.
I also entered 2 paintings into the April Show at the San Diego Watercolor Society and just found out today that they were both juried in so I am delighted as it was a tough show with a lot of experts entering due to cash prizes. So my Giraffe Painting made it along with a small still life so I am extremely honored.




Hillcrest and Little Italy Paintings are 11x14 Framed Size

These 2 paintings belong to a series I'm working on for ArtWalk. I hope you can make it the weekend of April 26th and 27th. My booth number is 511 and I'm located just outside the Pensione Hotel close to the corner of Date & India Street. See my painting below... I'll be on the other side of the Pensione Hotel towards the city center :)

Commissioned Cat Portrait

Today I finished another Cat Portrait "Elsa"
Don't forget to let me know if you or any of your friends would like a Pet Portrait, just forward my blog to them and my email address is dobyrne@mac.com to order a commission ;-)
Have a great week!

Solona Beach Plein Air Painting

Painted a beach scene at sunset at Solona Beach. It was a beautiful day everyone in their swimsuits sunbathing and having picnics. Incredible weather for this time of year. I started painting in daylight and ended in sunset so it was a challenge!!!

Week 6- 3/17th- Simba Cat Portrait

Monday 17th - Went to Balboa Park to paint but must admit I got distracted by all the goings on with St Patricks Day. So headed to the notorious Davis Marketing Celebration on 5th Ave where we had a great re-union with Leslie and her present and past employees plus family and lots of friends. It was a great time! the parade went right by her building so talk about front row seating!!

Tues 18th - Computer Day and meeting with Web Designer Scott to revamp my website. Worked on Blog updates.

Wed 19th - Worked on excel spreadsheet for finances, paid bills, checked emails etc. Worked on commissions.

Thurs 20th & Friday 21st - Finished the painting of "Simba" the second cat portrait for Tina.

Computer Issues

Tom Lambotte the Mac Guru came to my rescue thanks for the referral from Leslie Davis. He worked on my mac mini and saved me 17 gigs of space as my hard drive was completely full. So all I need now is more memory for things to work better. He will install this for me this Friday. He also showed me some tricks with my email so delighted for the help. If you need any help with your Mac please call Tom at 858-342-8826.

3/17 Lake Poway Oil

Took a day trip out to Lake Poway to see the wild flowers and the lake with two painting buddies. This painting I need to fix. I will delete the 3 trees on the left and add a hill so your eye doesn't go off the page and make some other edits. I'll post the final one later.

We saw lots of species of birds and I loved the geese but boy were they cheeky and made a beeline for me setting up my easel. Heres a photo of Fred going in for attack. He came charging out of the water and waddling up the hill to attack me so I held my ground, nervous but my passion for art took over, and he made a huge racket of squawking and then attacked my shoes, thank goodness for two things: 1. I wasn't wearing flip flops, 2. and he has no teeth! hilarious! once he pecked at me a few times he realized i wasn't a threat so posed for a few photos! which will be my next painting, thanks Fred :)

3/16/08 Point Loma Cliffs

Another wonderful painting day in paradise. It was blustery windy day so had some layers on. Fabulous pounding waves hitting the rocks. I had a great view from above. With all this painting going on I'm discovering how San Diego has so many fabulous views so I'll be busy for a long time ;-)

Peñasquitos Ranch, San Diego

This week I painted 2 paintings out in Peñasquitos Ranch. We have had fabulous sunny days but boy once in the shade it really felt chilly especially when you are painting and not moving much. A hare ran by with his cute white tail fluffed up, some ducks nearby quacked away to each other...they were the only sounds to be heard. So it was really nice to enjoy the peace and quite... made the time stand still. I hope you get this feeling from these two oil paintings.

These belong to the series of Plein Air Paintings of San Diego which will be for sale at my upcoming ART WALK show in Little Italy on April 26th and 27th. The Invite will go out this week. Please send me your email address if you have not received invites in the past.

Email Address: dobyrne@mac.com.

Head Drawing Portraits

3.10.08 Head drawing from a live model of a young man in charcoal.
3.16.08 Head drawing from a live model of a woman with a pony tail in charcoal.

Great practice for my portrait commissions!

Elsa, Black & White Cat Portrait

Tina commissioned me to paint her black and white cat Elsa who sadly passed away but thankfully Tina had a great photo to paint her from and now she is remembered forever and gives joy to her family. Elsa is now in Kitty heaven surrounded by catnip and treats :-)

My Dads Portrait in Watercolor

Last week I finished a portrait of my Dad Kevin, from a photograph taken on my Christmas visit home to Dublin, Ireland. For me this captures him with his favorite cap. Its a surprise for him so it will be interesting to hear what he thinks about it. ;-)

Female Head Drawing

This is this weeks head drawing of a female model. I really enjoy drawing people from life, its so challenging, very good training and can be so rewarding when they work out to your liking!

Vista Roadside View in Oil

I had a wonderful morning in the countryside painting a mountain scene, didn't quite make it to the lake but did take some photos of horses and a donkey near by. Love those animals. It was so peaceful and relaxing away from phones, traffic and general man made noises!

3/5/08 Overflowing Emotions

Last night I heard a strange noise coming from pipes in the garage and a visiting friend said not to worry about it unless you see water, as it sounded like a clog in the pipe. So I went back to work on my painting. Later that evening I noticed the toilet was looking low so I flushed it and Whoooa OVERFLOW time. (ok not the smartest thing to have done ;-)
But it didn't just overflow in one toilet but both, the second toilet water started shooting out of the bottom by the floor, of course this was after midnight but thankfully Jorge my wonderful handyman and Mark the plumber told how to handle it until the AM.
They both arrived the next morning and it turned out to be much bigger deal, a burst pipe in the road! so we had to call in San Diego Waste Management to check it out with their snake camera and hi tech equipment. The great part was I was surrounded by men that day! very entertaining and as you can imagine a lot of toilet humor!

"Toilet Issue" Translations

"An overflowing toilet, denotes your desires to fully express your emotions."

So obviously I must have some major desires to express myself, Yep see my life so far...to affect two toilets, a bath, a shower, the front lawn and a big pipe in the middle of the road!!!

The Volcano in Hawaii had issues today too...here is the local newspaper headline:
"Lava from Kilauea Volcano dribbled over a 20-foot sea cliff into the ocean today 3/5/08, forming clouds of acid-laden steam."

Week 3, Desert Scene-SOLD

During my First week I received a phone call from Tina out of the blue whom I met at one of my art shows a year ago. She called to commission me to paint 3 portraits of her cats, sadly Elsa passed away but thankfully Tina has her favorite photo which I'll use as a reference. The other two: Simba and Whiskers are doing fine. Tina decided to hand deliver the precious photo rather than mail it which I totally understand. So I worked on the first watercolor portrait of Elsa and completed it on 3/7. I won't upload a photo until Tina has seen the original.

My second week I sold a Guoache painting of a Desert Scene to Brian Shui, who is a very talented Chiropractor, also highly recommended for sports massage and general wellness. He can be reached at 619-688-3089 and his soothing office is located in Bankers Hill in San Diego. Above is a picture of the painting which he purchased as a gift for a friend and asked me write a personal note on the back which is always so nice.

The week of Big Waves!

This week has been great for big waves in San Diego. I painted another 2 plein air watercolors in La Jolla, my 2nd attempt at painting big waves, tricky business! but so much fun.

Above are 2 of this weeks paintings, The one of La Jolla Cove with the big wave was juried into The San Diego Watercolor Society and can be seen during the month of March along with another Italian painting of mine.

A lady from New York asked for my card and wanted to know if i give painting lessons and I said yes. So she'll contact me when she comes back. Excellent!

Another lady dropped by and recognized my from one of my shows, so we chatted a while and she will contact me for a dog portrait, her gorgeous dog is so sweet so it will be a pleasure to paint him.

I'm working on some portraits and will upload them when they are complete. Happy Sunday!

Ocean Beach Plein Air

Drove over to Ocean Beach and painted a watercolor of the Cafe on OB Pier with some huge waves crashing in. It was an amazing day, can't beat this wonderful fresh air. Hope you get out for a walk today wherever you are!

Barn painting in Oil

Full moon, that explains why today was a crazy day! ended up working on my other Barn Painting... (oil)

Head portrait drawing

Monday 2/18
7pm drove to Encinitas for head drawing from a live model. Its always good practice to draw from life.
So much fun, I love it ;)

Painting on Location in La Jolla

2/18/08 Monday morning out to paint on location in La Jolla near Seal Beach. It was a cold rainy morning so had to walk to get the ol'circulation going and get a hot coffee before I could set up. Just as well I did as then the sun came out. Found a good spot and started painting a watercolor of the scene. Shirley from Ontario said she loved it and would I sell it, so I said sure and gave her my card as I was not finished yet.

My second visitor was a squirrel, who promptly grabbed one of my paper towels and proceeded to chew on it and had the whole thing in his mouth! amazing! bulging cheeks, hilarious... but then I was quite concerned he might choke, suddenly he decided to spit it out, I guess he didn't like the taste of cadmium yellow!! whew

Plein Air- The Barn Painting

Feb 16th Saturday

Painted a watercolor in the Japanese Gardens at Balboa Park. Took on too much, tried to paint the waterfall, rocks and koi...so will need to go back to continue this painting, probably first day jitters! Beautiful sunny San Diego Day, had lunch there and walked around the park - fabulous!

Feb 17th Sunday
Painted an oil painting on location of a barn up in Vista. Another fabulous day in paradise.

Starting to get the word out!

A huge thanks to Leslie Davis (My Art Patron) for believing in me, my art and supporting my dream of marketing my fine art. I am getting many commissions for paintings of pets and people. Admittedly I need a steady income to pay the mortgage and those fun vacations but my nights and weekends are filled with creativity and doing what I love.

I really appreciate your support and feedback on my art and do let me know if any of your friends or family would like a commissioned original painting of their children or pets. Thanks for checking in and enjoy my blog. Reminder you get 20% commission for referrals!