deadline for artmakers denver is june 30th!!

for those of you who have been thinking about, but have not committed, the registration deadline for art maker's denver is fast approaching.  to enroll in the workshops, you must sign up by june 30th, which is only a couple of weeks away!!

please see the website at artmakersdenver.com for more information about the awesome opportunities to learn from some pretty amazing master artists!!

on another note, i've decided that after over 200 posts, it's time to change up my blog.  in the next couple of weeks, i will be redesigning, reinventing, and rethinking what has been an artist blog for the last few years.  i have not been creating in the same way as before, and have so many things i want to talk about besides the art-making i have spoken about previously.

thanks, and speak to you very soon!!

b.a.c.

big. ass. canvas.

that's what is sitting in my studio right now.  i generally don't work large.  36x36 inches is kind of overwhelming for me, but i'm gonna give it a try.

we recently did a master bath upgrade.  we lived with terra-cotta, dark green, and cast plastic countertops for 7 years.  we have finally updated the look.  we went for a light spa blue, white, gray, and black color scheme.  unfortunately the oranges, reds, and greens in the master bedroom clashed quite a bit.  the two color schemes right next to each other got me off kilter.  so i have been working to change the bedroom into something more complimentary.  i'm going with blues and greens, which will allow us to keep our painted green bed frame and the slightly lighter green walls.  

i know the golden rule of art is not to "match it to your couch" (or in this case to your bathroom), but i just could not live with the huge orange, red, magenta, and green painting over our bed.  hence, the canvas.  yup, i am definitely too cheap to buy a painting that large.  so i will make do (hopefully) with my own creation.

i have an obsession with houses.  a few years ago we did a vacation in southern colorado.  while i was there, i snapped some pictures of old houses in various states of decay.  i am thinking i will try out this sketch, loosely drawn from one of the photos. 

i have also decided to do a smaller painting first.  it's 10x10 inches.  i have gessoed the canvas black.  i'm going to try and old technique i use sometimes.  the black with actually come through as the outline in the final painting.

wish me luck!

taking a break

i haven't really done a lick of work this week.  we left last saturday for taos (see photos above), and were welcomed with some new fallen snow.  it was beautiful.  since john has been out of snowboarding so far this winter due to his back, we hung out at the house for 4 days.  my son ben and his friend scott ended up being the ski area residents without john.

the good news is that john and i can't possibly sit still for 4 days.  so we painted our bedroom, which has been on the "to do" list for years.  so the pink walls are now taupe-y (ben says we traded light beige for dark beige.)  for those of you who are color oriented, that small change from light (and warm) beige to dark (and cool) beige is a game changer.  the room feels cozy now, and the new mexican details in the room now pop instead of blend in like before.  i only took one photo, and it's not too great, but here is a picture of the pink-turned-taupe in action:

hopefully i will get some better photos one day.  i'm not too great in the room documentation department.

if you look closely, you can see that the vigas (beams) on the ceiling used to be almost the same tone as the walls.  so even though they were up there, and beautiful, they were almost lost.  now the contrast allows them to shine.  i love that!! by the way, we learned if you move the ladder without remembering there is a whirring fan on the ceiling, it makes quite a large clatter!

okay, time to get back to art making.  all of this home improvement is taking me away from my "real" job!!

brush is moving again!

i've had a bit of a dry spell.  i think i needed a little break, as i had been going non-stop making art for over 2 years.  we decided to have our invitational this holiday season, so there was really no need to push for the  winter show.  so i made ornaments for the shop, and stopped there.

my husband asked me the other day if i might consider making some art for christmas presents this year.  and since it was snowing today i decided to stay in and paint.  nothing grand, but it was good to get the brush moving.  i decided on a small piece using gouache on black paper.

the first two shots show the work in progress.  i draw with graphite on the black paper, and then fill in color on either side of the line, leaving the black showing.  it's a really fun process.  i will tell you that my eyes are crazy tired when i am done, though.  the last step is to erase all of the pencil so it looks finished. i like the almost naive look the slightly undulating black line gives.  this one is about 5x5 inches, and took me a couple of hours.  i use acrylic gouache, which is like really nice tempera paint.  it's really opaque and has a matte finish, which i love.

that's all for now.  time to put it in the frame and wrap it for the receiver!!

handmade brochures

i spent the day making brochures.  my dear friend johnine designed them for me.  she sent me the PDF images of the design, and i print them out at home.  the booklet is 10 pages in length, and has a cover over the pages.  they take a while to put together, but i think look really cool when they are finished.  the front cover is created from a collage i made, and the interior has a total of 16 artworks.  there are two pages of prints, two of collage, two of assemblage, and two of paintings.

the first step is to print out the pages using really nice paper and cover stock.  then i score and fold each page, making a nice crease with a bone folder.  then the pages are assembled together in order, and sewn together at the crease.  since the interior pages are one-sided, there is a tab left over.  i sew this down with a zig zag stitch that shows on the front of the booklet.  next, i cut the brochure down to size with a ruler and rotary cutter.  finally, i put a coat of matte medium over the stitching to keep it from raveling.

these little booklets now get placed in a translucent envelope, and are closed with a custom sticker with an image of one of my art pieces.  they can be addressed and sent as-is, or can be placed in my artist packet with my resume, etc.

johnine is a genius!!

it takes me over 3 hours to make 8 booklets, but somehow it is relaxing to me.  i am getting faster now that i know the process a bit better than i did when i started making them.

this particular batch was made to take to pagosa for the upcoming show at shy rabbit.  they are to be given to buyers of my work.  we will see how it goes.  hopefully their creation will bring some good karma my way.

moab, utah

 moab.

it's almost too awesome and huge to capture with any success in photos.

i'm posting a couple for looking, but know that you can't even understand the vastness and the color changes without seeing it in person.

i spent the last four days plein air painting in moab.  i have been thinking about the experience since leaving utah.  for me, the weekend was about seeing if i still had the passion to paint outdoors.  in my twenties, i painted from life or outside for 3 continuous years.  and i loved the experience because it really improved my skills and made me focus on learning about light, color, perspective, immediacy, and about a million other things.  it also calmed some of my post teen angst.

the days i spent in moab were great.  the landscape was enormous, awe inspiring, and almost incomprehensible.  but it really didn't turn me on as far as painting goes.  i went through the motions, but never felt that i could capture all that awesomeness in my work.  it was a huge struggle for me.  honestly, the beauty was overwhelming, but i didn't have fun trying to put it on canvas.

don't get me wrong, the trip was way worth it.  i saw amazing things, i painted with really nice people, and i had a lot of fun with my friend kelly.  and i love mark nelson, our teacher.  he is a great, talented, wonderful, laid back, and knowledgeable guy.  his paintings are beautiful.  i wish i could say that the place and the teaching gave me a newfound energy to pack up my easel and go outdoors once a week.  but it didn't.

what i did learn is that i am content to say that plein air painting of the landscape is not on my list of things i am currently passionate about.  and that i do still have a passion for making prints, creating collages, and making assemblages.  i do still want to paint.  just not outdoors, and not of landscapes.

i am happy that i have come to this conclusion.  i don't think i have crossed landscapes off the list forever.  only for a while.  maybe one day i will feel the love again!!

anyway, here are two studies from the weekend.

one last note, if you ever read this, thank you kelly for listening to my banter for all of those days and nights.  i am forever grateful to you for letting me vent about my artistic struggles.
thank you, thank you!!

okay, so i cheated.

ah, winter!

this is my "plein air" painting for today.  ok, i didn't exactly go outside, as you can tell from the subject matter.  it was over 90 degrees, and i just couldn't bear it.  so instead i found a great snow shot, and worked in the comfort of my air conditioned home. i don't often work from photos, and usually when i do i take some major artistic license.  in this case, there were about a million branches, which i edited out to only a few.  i figure that at least i practiced!

3 days of printmaking on the schedule for wednesday-friday.  i am going to try a painting a day, too.

this one is acrylic, and is 11x14" on canvas panel.  

landscape painting

yesterday i went and listened to mark nelson, a denver painter.  he talked about the landscape, particularly the plein air landscape.  i will be spending the next 2 mondays outdoors practicing this technique.  plein air is not new to me.  i spent 2 summers in DC with high school students, lugging all of our equipment in the 100 degree, 100% humidity.  it was certainly a good experience, mostly because i got used to someone looking over my shoulder all day as i painted.

mark is an incredibly talented guy, but his work is not readily visible on the internet.  luckily, my friend kelly berger, an aspiring painter herself, sent me a few photos.  so here is one to share.  i like his simple composition, with the actual "land" minimized into a very small strip.  very dramatic, wouldn't you say?

wish me luck.  as  i said in the last post, i am a bit overwhelmed with the whole idea.

front range sunset by mark nelson

a week of printmaking

yours, truly

cool cat

i spent almost a week in taos, and much of that time making prints.  i would have made even more prints, but ran out of white ink.  i wasn't too worried about running out, as there is a fabulous art supply store in taos, and i was sure that finding what i needed was no problem.  sadly, the art store has closed in taos.  i guess the faltering economy has one more victim.  

tomorrow i will begin painting again.  i have decided to take some classes with a local (very talented) painter named mark nelson.  my friend kelly has been studying with him, and i think she is doing some great stuff.  we will paint for 3 mondays in a row, and then go to moab, utah as our culminating activity. in moab, we will paint for 3 days outdoors.  i need this.  i love to paint, and it was my first love artistically.  it taught me so much about drawing, value, color, texture, and having people looking over my shoulder.  i haven't really painted seriously for 2 years.  other stuff has peaked my interest, and painting has played the "ignored toy in the corner" role.  i do need to pick it back up and play again.  i just hope that i can still do it.  i hope it's like riding  a bike or ice skating--a skill you put into muscle memory, and just know how to do once you try again.

if you are so inclined, a little prayer of confidence would be appreciated.  i selfishly don't want to suck in front of a whole new group of people.

Signe and Genna Grushovenko

buff beachgoers

today i went to the cherry creek arts festival with friends tom, linda, teresa, and taylor.  we saw some wonderful art.  i bought a few pieces, one of which is pictured above, by signe and genna grushovenko.  i think it's amazing.  genna paints the backgrounds, and the signe paints on top, letting some of the background show through.  

true story.  a few weeks ago i was at the studio, and was playing around with the notion of using old photos along with the push/pull of an abstracted background.  you have seen some of this work on my blog in recent history.  anyway, i come home from the studio after working on these prints, and start looking at my various bookmarked blogs.  i stumble upon these incredible artists the very next morning, and voila!!!  i find someone experimenting with the same idea!  of course, our work is very different.  i am working in ink with the monoprint technique, and genna and signe are working in oil on masonite, but the push/pull idea is the same.

crazy.

anyway, i saw them at the festival today, and was literally shaking because the work is so beautiful.  i am so very lucky to now own a piece of my own.  my neighbor jane came by this evening and asked me why their painting spoke to me.  i didn't even understand that they couldn't speak to everyone who saw them.  but i told jane that the drawing skills are amazing, that the immediacy and confidence in the brushstroke is remarkable, and the understanding of value is incredibly sophisticated.  

how serendipitous that this would all come together today.  life is always full of happy coincidence, isn't it?  yay!!!

triptych (first in the series)

this is the first triptych in the series. i felt like playing with color and edges and letting the underpainting come through. now i am working on a larger scale triptych, but i think it will go in a completely different direction. at the studio yesterday i was looking at some vintage photos and found some funny shots of some frumpy ladies. so i collaged a background on a 12x30" canvas, and am working on a juxtaposition of vintage ladies with a modern twist. so far, so good. i'll let you know if they work out or go in the trash!! it does feel good to play.

sometimes i worry i am going in too many directions. i look at artists who pick something and stick to it, but i guess that's just not me. i can't imagine doing the same thing over and over. i know i look a bit scattered with my work sometimes, but i can't help it. i get excited by doing something new!

wing tips

this is the full sized version of the gouache painting that appears on the site. i kinda got sick of boxes today, and decided to paint instead. i stayed small so i could finish in one day. so they are actually pretty small. the whole painting is only 5x7". it was good to paint again. maybe i'll do a series??

we got back from santa fe and taos on tuesday. saw tons of art, most really good and inspiring. loved jane sauer's gallery and nuart gallery on the canyon road. act 1 in taos had some nice aerial view paintings by dina worman.

time to sleep. it's been a long day at the office.