My First Painting on eBay

Red Rose Study, 5"x7", Oil on gessobord

Click here to bid.

I finally did it!  I painted a little painting and listed it for auction on eBay.  I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time.  I started the bid at 99 cents to get the ball rolling.  I listed a shipping fee, but if I see you in my day-to-day, I will hand it to you and refund your shipping cost.

Ten percent of the selling price will be donated to the American Red Cross, which is responding to the tornadoes in the Midwest.

Freedom Art

I’ve been wondering if there is a way for my artwork to serve God and bless others.  In my nursing job, it’s easy to feel as though my work is for the Lord.  But with art… well, art is a “want”, not a “need.”  I wasn’t sure how God could use my skills. 

My question was answered when I was approached by my coworker, Ann Deweese.  She invited me to participate in an important opportunity to help young women who have been enslaved by human trafficking and the sex trade. 

Her daughter Sarah is involved in the Red Light Campaign, which is a student led campaign to end sex trafficking.  It is happening on IU’s campus during the month of February.  Among many other events, the team is hosting a formal art auction on February 18^th, 2012, in Alumni Hall.  Here is the link with more information about “A Night for Freedom”: https://www.facebook.com/events/365863970090894/

All of the proceeds will go to Rapha House, a safehouse in Cambodia for girls rescued from the sex trade.

My job was to create a painting that represents “freedom.”  This is what I came up with.  I hope it brings them a small fortune.  I feel honored to assist these inspiring young adults who, working together, are a light of hope in this dark and scary world.

Thanks for thinking of me, Ann. :)

"Fly Away"    8 x 10  Acrylic on canvas board

Sharla's Girls

My friend and coworker Sharla asked me to draw a portrait of her kids (cats), Ming and Bella.   It took me awhile to get to it.  Sadly, in the meanwhile, Ming succumbed to an illness on June 20, 2011.  Sharla provided me with a photo of them when they were still kittens, back in 1998.

I asked Sharla to tell me about them.  These are her words…  

I got them while I lived in Colorado.  Ming and Bella were littermates.  I wanted a Russian Blue which is what Bella is (a knock off) and most people thought Ming was a blue point Siamese.  Ming was very sweet, affectionate, and active.  I called her my little gymnast.  We used to play with a feather on a stick and she would jump up very high in the air and do flips!  Her eyes were so blue it was amazing to me.  She used to come in the room when I did Yoga and do her own little routine, rolling around everywhere.  She was such a precious little soul.

Bella has always been the less active of the two, preferring to lay in the sunbeams and watch the great outdoors. She is very much a lap cat and has been much more affectionate since Ming died.  Bella loves to be brushed.

I also used to love it when they would lay together, all curled up close.  I used to say they looked like one big cat with two heads.

Ming used to meet me at the door when I would come home, kinda like a dog would do and roll over on her back so I could scratch her tummy.  Bella has now taken to doing this (interesting, huh?)

 

Charcoal and pastel on Colourfix paper, 9”x11”

One of My Favorite Places

This fall, I posted about my new plein air painting system, and how I was practicing using it on my own property.  Well, here is a painting that I worked on outside until the weather shut me down and the leaves fell away.  My plein air painting became a studio painting based on photographic references.  This painting then served as my reference for the etching I did in my last blog post.

8x10 Oil on Canvas Panel 

I’m giving it to my husband.  It’s a painting of the patio that he built and is rightfully proud of, and the place where we like to eat our summertime suppers together.  Life is good.

Etching

I’ve been taking a 5 week etching class at the IAC.  Etching is a printmaking process that goes something like this:

1.  Prepare a copper plate by cleaning it, spray painting the back side, and then coating the front side with asphaltum.

2.  Scratch through the asphaltum (like scratchboard) with a sharp tool to expose the copper plate.  Every scratch mark will translate to black in the final print.

3.  Soak the plate in acid for about 25 minutes or so.

4.  Clean off the asphaltum, leaving a clean, etched copper plate.

5.  Ink the plate, and wipe off most of the ink with a wad of starchy cheesecloth.  The ink will settle down into the etched grooves.

6.  Place the plate and a moistened sheet of printmaking paper together, and run it through a press (like a big, overgrown rolling pin).

7.  Separate, and voila! 

Tonight I finished up with steps 3 through 7, and I just wanted to share what my first print looked like.  It measures 4"x6".  I think I’m going to tint it with colored pencil.

I’ve done this process back in art school, and in a future post, I might share some of those.

Note to my family...yeah, I know it's the reverse view of our patio.  I forgot to reverse the image when I was scratching the plate.  Oopsie.

My First Plein Air Painting

The key word here is "First", so don't hold me to great expectations.  My only goal was to try out my new Coulter Plein Air System from Art Box and Panel.  I'm still a bit shy of making a spectacle of myself by trying to set this up in the middle of some park, where people can see me fumbling around with the gear.  So I gave it a trial run out on my back patio.  You can't see it, but I did have a tarp down to protect my husband's masterpiece, The Patio.

I actually took my packed backpack outside as if I were on a location (to my daughter's amusement).  I quickly realized the little things that I needed which I hadn't packed, so I kept "cheating" and running into the house for this and that.  It wasn't long before the sun was shining on my palette and my pupils were going nuts trying to adjust from looking at my sunlit pallet, the scenery, and the silhouetted canvas.  This is why I did a trial run...so I can figure out how to do this outdoor painting thing.  I have a magazine about tips and tricks, but I haven't read it yet because the fall leaves aren't going to wait.  Today was the day to get out there!  The trees are yellow and orange, and it was 75 degrees outside.  Loved it!

Edith

Just wanted to share my hot-off-the-drawing-table drawing.  It is done in colored pencil for Jerry and Linda, a dear couple who have found me worthy of drawing each and every one of their grandchildren as gifts to their children.  We have had this wonderful client-artist relationship for a several years now.  I think this is the last grandchild that will be coming along.

First, let me introduce this little cutey named Edith.  She was waiting for my arrival, all dressed up and sitting patiently in the sun-room of her grandmother's house.  I was taken by how the sunlight lit up her hair, as if she were an angel (the photo doesn't really capture that).  I'm not even trying to be sappy.  I was truly struck by her.  She was soooo good through the photo shoot.

Her parents looked at all the photos, and chose the following pose, which they felt best captured Edith's personality.  I labored to show the little fly-away strands of hair, because they caught the light, and little girls are perfect like that. 

Below is a close-up, which for some reason shows the color of the paper more accurately.  Click on these images to enlarge.  It seems to look better when enlarged.

Edith is drawn on gray Stonehenge paper, in black and white, with hints of color reminiscent of a hand tinted photograph.  I used this style in the portraits of her two older brothers, and I wish I had done it for their cousins as well, but I hadn’t figured out this technique when I drew theirs.  Anyway, if you go to my website, you can see some (but not all) of the grandchildren I had the privilege of working with for this family.  They’re the ones done on gray paper.

Next project…kitty cats for my friend Sharla.

My Naked Elf

This is my new naked elf…

I like him because he is chubby, happy, and unique.  He’s naked and he’s blushing a little. But darn it, he probably couldn’t put his legs together if he wanted to.  He’s unpretentious sitting there in his birthday suit.  I think if he could talk, he’d make me laugh.

           

You may be a bit worried about me for buying a naked elf sculpture.  Well, I must admit it was a bit of therapy.  Somehow, he gives me permission to be the imperfect person that I am. 

How he and I hooked up:

I was googling the internet, looking for information on how to paint a polymer clay sculpture, and I stumbled upon this hugely helpful website called Doll Makers Dream. It is authored by Amanda DeVirgilio.   She’s an award winning Australian polymer clay artist  (she is a doll herself, and I love her accent). 

The website is filled with helpful information and tutorial videos that are free (paid for by advertisers) to aspiring sculptors like me!  I was watching her video “How to blush/paint polymer clay dolls” when I fell in love with the elf she was painting.  I contacted her and asked her to make one for me, and she did!  She is as sweet as can be, and funny, and wants to make sure that her customers get what they want.  We shared some funny emails back and forth as to whether he should have a “doinky-doink.” (her words…hilarious!!!)

She also creates dolls of beautiful women, fairies, and other characters.

Here are a few more pics of my elf, in case you haven’t gotten your fill of him.

I must admit, we were carefully selective about which shelf in my curio cabinet he should sit on. Looking up at him on a glass shelf was a bit much for all of us, so we sat him on a shelf that is lower than eye level.  He contrasts nicely against my Precious Moments figurines.  ;)

My husband asked me why I didn’t just sculpt one for myself.  I said that, first of all, it’s Amanda’s design and I believe in supporting other artists and their innovations.  Secondly, there are no doinky-doink tutorials out there!

Don't Throw Me In the Dumpster

It's been on my heart lately.  My dad and step-mom have hardly any of my artwork in their home.  The thing they have hanging on their wall is a piece I did back in high school.  It's an ink-wash painting of a crystal glass.  And Dad put me through art school (graphic design at BSU).  I owe him big and it's long overdue.  Even though I eventually changed careers, he did shell out some change to get me educated.

So I recently finished this painting.  It's my first still-life.  It's 8 x 10, oils, on gessobord. 

Um, I guess actually its my second still-life oil painting, which reminds me of a story...  The first one I did back in art school, and I stored it at my mom's house (because my dorm room was small, and my mom had extra closets in her house).  It was huge, and it was the most hideous painting to ever have existed.  It was done in yellow and black paint, and it was of some stuff which included one of those animal skulls that are found in the desert.  Not my choice of subject matter, but that's what the teacher set up. 

Well, one day, during one of my school breaks, Jeff (boyfriend at the time, hubby now) and I were driving down the highway near Greensburg, on the way to my mom's house.  Suddenly, I saw it!!  THERE IT WAS in somebody's yard!  Some guy with a bunch of junk in his yard had my painting propped up against his mailbox with a "for sale" sign on it.  I saw it and freaked out and told Jeff to pull over.  I (with the arrogance of a 19 year old artiste) marched up to his door, and demanded that the guy give me back my painting.  I also demanded to know where he got it.  He said, "I found it in the dumpster up the road.  You can have it back if you want it."  So I grabbed it and took off for my mom's.  When I got there, I told her the story about this art thief.  She sheepishly admitted that she had thrown it away in the dumpster, and that she assumed I wouldn't want it or remember it.  I told her I was insulted.  I stuck it back in her closet.  After I graduated and got my own apartment, I threw it in the dumpster.

So, here is still-life number 2:

Originally I was going to call this painting something profound like "Green Jug with Red Apple".  But I think I'm going to call it "Don't Throw Me in the Dumpster".   I don't think he would do that anyway.  Cause I put a really nice frame on it. ;)

Qiang Huang workshop

I just finished a fabulous 3-day painting workshop with master artist Qiang Huang (pronounced Chong Wong). I have been stalking his blog for a while now, and I took a workshop with him 2 years ago in Cincinnati. This time it was in Noblesville, IN, hosted by the Hamilton County Artist’ Association. I love his work, it’s so fresh and lively and painterly. He just retired from his career as a physicist/engineer/rocket scientist, because his painting career has flourished. His genius definitely carries over into his artwork. Up close his paintings are an abstract collection of beautifully applied brushstrokes (total eye candy). From further away it is obvious that each stroke is there for a reason, and the whole painting becomes the scene he was capturing (again, total eye candy). There's no brush brush brush, blend blend blend. He puts it down and doesn't fuss over it, because each stroke of the brush is just right. It makes for a very strong painting.

Each day, Qiang would lecture with a power point presentation. The first 2 days he followed up lecture with a demo. He set up and painted a beautiful still life arrangement, and his demo was also video projected on a big screen for all to be able to see. Here is a LINK to an article about Qiang’s teachings, for those who wish to know more about him.

I just want to share some photos of my experience…

Here he is, priming his canvas with linseed oil.

This is a photo of the items he arranged for his still life demo.

The initial block-in...

 The painting as it progresses...

The finished painting:

This is the finished demo from the second day. Isn't it gorgeous? Roses are so difficult to paint so we watched closely.

We students gave it a go.  This is my painting.  I think we had about 3 hours to set up the still life, set up our gear, and attack the canvas.

My friend Janettmarie is an accomplished artist in Indianapolis. She took the class with me. She is a sweet and lovely lady. You should check out her blog.  I learned a bunch from her too.

This is day 3. I didn't take many photos on day 2. But if you click on the pic and enlarge it, you can see my unfinished day 3 painting on the easel (on the right), and my unfinished painting from day 2 above it. I had a bad habit of not getting my painting done in a timely fashion. Those who know me would not be surprised at this.  I'm slow as molasses at everything.

This is Qiang, and his lovely wife Song, and their son Jonathan.  Such dear, sweet people.

Here is the whole crew. We all had a ton of fun. I want to say thanks to the ladies of the HCAA, who all helped make the workshop a wonderful experience. Many ladies worked hard to make sure we had places to sit, tablets to take notes on, produce, flowers and other stuff to paint, snackies to eat and drink, rides to restaurants at lunch time, ample lighting to paint by, accommodations for Qiang and his family to stay, etc. I appreciated their kindness and hospitality.  If I lived closer, I would definitely be hanging out with these sweet ladies.  I felt blessed to have met them. Thanks Cheeri Dennis for being a great leader!