New Studio and Humble Beginnings

I always love before and after pictures of artistic projects.  Order out of chaos.  So after last years' Whatcom County Artists Studio Tour and seeing the grand and humble work spaces of fellow artists,  I had a burning desire to create a space where I could work on mixed media and larger canvases.  My living room just wasn't cutting it, what with acrylic paint and medium flying all over.  After considering a couple of options for space on the property, we elected to tackle my father's woodworking shop.  This is pretty much the state of things before he had to move to assisted living.  This was his "playpen" and he knew where everything was.  Amazing.   I'm happy to report that I'll be included in the 2014 Whatcom County Artists Studio Tour, which means this new studio needs to get put together pronto.  I'll post more pics as things progress.

Close to the Heart

It appears that 2014 will be the Year of the Dog for me.  It has started with several friends losing their devoted dogs.  I've just completed (thanks to two snow days) these two commissioned dog portraits for people honoring their furry friends.  My hope is that I have captured some of the spirit they possessed while they romped this earth.

Red Primroses

If you were somewhere off the planet yesterday, you may have missed that fact that once again the Pacific Northwest has obtained on-the-map status due to the spectacular victory of the Seattle Seahawks over the Denver Broncos.  I personally am not a huge sports fan, but I was impressed by the unity of spirit of the "12th Man".   I made soup and blissfully painted my way through all the excitement.

I've had enough of winter

I always know when I've had enough of winter.  I start dragging out my photos of dearly departed bouquets from spring and summers past.  My version of pouring over seed catalogs, I guess.  This is a watercolor I have just finished using 300-pound Arches watercolor paper.  At $16.00 a pop, staring down at a sheet of this paper can be intimidating.  What if I ruin it?  So, I quickly cut the sheets up in 8 x 10-inch smaller sheets.  Now I'll only ruin a $4 piece of paper.  That isn't so scary.  These originals are listed for sale on Etsy.com and soon on dailypaintworks.com (links in the right-hand margin.)

Tangents

Anyone who has known me for very long will suspect it...a tendency toward AAD...Artistic Attention Deficit.  I have a hundred different ways I would like to try to make art and all the supplies to prove it.  Some ideas are way too involved and common sense tells me I'd lose interest before I got the first piece finished.  The learning curve has to be pretty short and the process fairly direct.  Some are more toxic than I want to expose myself to for any length of time, should I actually stick with the technique.  This horse is a collagraph I worked on in 2013.  The plate is made with a collage of cardboard shapes and covered in aluminum foil.  From there, a brayer is used to ink the plate with water-based printing ink.  The drawbacks are the fact that I have to go to another artist's studio to use the fabulous printing press (with the associated chance that I might be sidetracked along the way) and the messy process and clean up.

Other printing processes that I'm mulling over in my artistic mind are mono printing with open acrylics on plexi-glass plates on watercolor paper or trying out the  Gelli Arts  synthetic gelatin-like plate I bought awhile back to make mono prints.  If they turn out, I will be sure to post the results. 

The Colors of Winter

We don't have cardinals in the Pacific Northwest, that I'm aware of.  I wish I could see one of these beautiful little birds out my kitchen window.  I do have holly in the yard.  Thankfully, no snow...just gray rain.  This little image was done in transparent watercolor with black gouache and is ready for the 2014 Christmas season.  Ahhhh.  Ahead of schedule.  A great way to start a new year.

First Painting of 2014

A Happy New Year to you all.

With a backyard filled with birds and squirrels, it seems only reasonable to make this little squirrel the subject of my first painting for the new year.  Within several yards of my kitchen window, I have seen 7 different squirrels, a red tailed hawk, a deer, and half a dozen varieties of birds.  It's such a privilege to have a wild backyard in which to spy so many creatures.

Goals for the new year include painting more, posting originals to my site on Daily Paint Works, posting new cards and prints to my etsy site and being very ready for the Bellingham Farmers Market in April.  (See links in the side bar to the right)