Public art!

So I haven't been getting to paint as much as I'd like recently but I was asked if I'd be willing to paint a newspaper dispenser for our city's paper and I thought, why not? That's an interesting challenge! And I love supporting arts in the community, especially here where there hasn't been much of it as of yet. So I agreed and painted a local scene from our national park down the road in Medora, ND.

It was certainly the challenge I'd anticipated! Dealing with all the different sides and angles and trying to make it look good straight on, or when you could see two sides at once...all a new experience for me! Can't wait to walk by it downtown!

Summer Art Camps 2013

“All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”

-Pablo Picasso

K-5^th

June 3^rd – 7^th, 10 - 11 AM

YOUNG MASTERS

Create your own Pablo Picasso, Edgar Degas, Henri Matisse, Georges Seurat, and Georgia O’Keeffe using tempera paint, watercolor, oil pastels, and collage.

$50
--CLASS FULL--

June 17^th – 21^st, 12:30 - 1:30 PM

WORLD ART

Create unique art inspired by Mexican folk art, Australian Aboriginal art, Nigerian wax batiks, Ming vases, and the Molas of the San Blas Islands.

$50

June 17^th – 21^st, 2 - 3 PM

WORLD ART

Create unique art inspired by Mexican folk art, Australian Aboriginal art, Nigerian wax batiks, Ming vases, and the Molas of the San Blas Islands.

$50
--CLASS FULL--

6^th -12^th

June 10^th – 14^th, 2 - 4 PM

LIKE THE MASTERS I

Follow in the footsteps of Vincent van Gogh, Edgar Degas, Georgia O’Keeffe, René Magritte, and Henri Matisse using tempera paint, oil pastels, watercolor, and collage.

$100

--CLASS COMPLETED--

June 24^th – 28^th, 10 AM - 12 PM

LIKE THE MASTERS II

Using inspiration based off of Pablo Picasso, Norman Rockwell, Georges Seurat, Mary Cassatt, and Diego Rivera create artwork with collage, colored pencil, tempera paint, and oil pastels.

$100

Slowly getting back

So it's taken me much longer to get back into painting regularly than I had hoped it would! Before baby G was born, I had really ambitious/unrealistic goals of continuing to at least draw every day and being back to painting regularly within a month or two. So here we are nine months later... But in that time, apart from getting use to caring for four little kiddos, my husband got a job in North Dakota(!) and we moved our family far from grandparents and friends and everything familiar. Enough with excuses though, I did start painting again a month or two ago. I just kept putting off posting until I felt like I was ready to do it regularly again. That probably won't happen until after the holidays, but it is way past time to jump back in. So here are two of the three paintings I've done recently of my new surroundings (Sorry for the bad photos. They were already framed before I thought to photograph them and I'm being too lazy to take them apart just for a photo):

"Badlands Buffalo"

"In the Shadows of Thee"

Never painted a buffalo before so that was a first, but they're a much-requested subject around these parts :) I painted these for a local show (Badlands Art Association's Annual Show), and won 1st place for the second of the two! Kinda funny since I had procrastinated (big surprise there!) and had only finished painting it about two hours before I had to drop off the painting. Oh boy. That was cutting it close! I think I still prefer the first. The color makes it much more exciting. And I never really got the trees in the front of the second painting to look how I wanted them to. The Badlands are a mere half hour from our house though, so I imagine there will be lots more of these interesting hills to come!

My 7 pound excuse

I have to confess. I haven't picked up a brush lately or even thought about painting. But I do think I have a pretty good excuse, and that she's pretty darn cute! So please forgive me for neglecting my art blog for the next bit. My little Gracie is more important for now. As is recovering :)

Continuing with the shadows

 I love the flow and life in wind-blown trees, bushes, and grasses. It was fun to fill in a lot more of the greenery. My favorite part really!

And this is where I've left it tonight. Forgive the bad photo with the reflection. Only so much you can do when it's dark outside and the paint's not yet dry but you're too tired to wait until it is :). Sadly it makes it impossible to see the color I added into the shadows, which I really like. But I don't know what else to do now. I kept dabbing a little color here and there and then realized how tired I was and how mindless, and so I stopped for now. I've heard you're done when you don't know what else to do. So am I done? I'm not entirely sold on the composition. Not sure it's successful yet. I don't know really. Maybe it's done? What do you think? Any suggestions?

Lots of personality

So I'll get back to my "Shadows on the Hillside," but first I thought I'd post this one that was done for fun (and for a class). The reference photo has always made me think there was a distinct possibility she could end up a crazy old cat lady. Or just really fun. Let's hope for the latter. I think looking at it on the screen that I need to add a little hair on top. Kind of too flat of a head. Why is it sometimes easier to see problems on the computer screen? Weird.

Shadows on the Hillside

This is one of like 4 paintings I'm working on right now (not focusing well :) ) and is a study in contrasts. I'm trying to preserve the lightest lights (which didn't start so well - I had to add a bunch of white gouache to the sky because it was matching the dark value of the tree line. I might have to lighten it even further. Haven't decided yet), so the darkest darks will look that much cooler. And they dark shadows get extremely dark. I'm trying to keep them interesting instead of just the near black they appear in my reference photo. Sadly, I think I have also messed up by cutting up the foreground too much. Again, just trying to add subtle interest to a large, hilly field but I may have done too much? There should be some variety in size of shapes too. But it's early yet. So there's still hope for it. Regardless, I'm sticking it out to learn what I can from it, if nothing else.