May was a month of decisions... Mainly, I had to decide this, 

am I crazy enough to attempt to open a gallery?

in 2013?

in Montana?

by myself?

...

An opportunity presented itself and it just seemed like this was the right thing to do...

Unfortunately it took me several cookie making sessions to make up my mind (during which I discovered the most delectable almond butter cookies, nom nomm.. and after which I needed to cleanse my poor sugar loaded system with several green juices and salads...)

but in the end I decided that, well yes of course, I'm an artist! I'm totally crazy enough to start a gallery. Resort tax? Signage permits, what?

The space is a beautiful loft above Lakestream Fly Fishing Shop, at the south end of Central Ave in Whitefish. At first I thought it was very small, but then I hung my entire blooms series and realized there is actually a lot of wall space. And there's this great huge deck, which is so nice to have, especially on these balmy summer evenings...

So here it is,  the Minton Gallery :) 

 

Just need a little signage.

And here is my latest creation, and first work to be finished here, a Montana inspired landscape.

Backroads  9 x 12  Acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas 

$250 

Now available at the Minton Gallery :)

Back in Montana

The Artwalk in San Diego went beautifully; great weather, well run event, huge crowd, a few very appreciated serious art buyers... I want to say a big thank you to the new and established collectors who snapped up the pieces that spoke to them! I am also grateful to my husband Daniel's family, what a great support crew, I am so lucky!

Made it back to Montana just in time to see the wild strawberries, arnica, and lilacs begin to bloom. Jolie got sick in the middle of our California trip so plane tickets were cancelled and road trip plans were made. We needed to get our Subaru back into the fold anyway :)


So now it's time to get settled, weed the garden, find the trails and the good books, get inspiration from the beautiful light and landscape here.... and just enjoy the precious Montana summer.

There is a small selection of works now available for sale on the website...
Aaaaaand... I'm 99% sure I'll have an interesting little surprise artsy announcement to go on my next post. Oh I do love a cliffhanger don't you?

Getting ready for the Mission Federal ARTwalk!

The last month has been a blur. We moved back in to our house in MT, and settled in. I set up my studio first thing, and went right to work. In order to save money and spare Jolie a bumpy transition, we opted not to put her into day care, and instead Daniel stepped up to fulfill the parent duties while I worked nights to finish as much work as possible to showcase at the Mission Federal Artwalk in San Diego this month.  It's not a schedule we want to keep up, but I must say I do love working under a deadline like this. It was so satisfying to be able to really focus and get so much done.  Here are a few sneek peeks.

Rusted Sky  8 x 8 Encaustic on wood

Windswept  8 x 10  Encaustic on wood

I needed to keep the work small since I'm shipping these...

 Across the Valley 4 x 6 encaustic on wood

 Orchid  5x5 Encaustic on wood

 Mountain Flowers  5x5  Encaustic on wood

Bouquet  5x5  Encaustic on wood

Mounted Prints.

 This is kindof a new thing that I experimented with and the results

are beautiful, though hard to get good photos of because there are a few layers

of translucent wax over the top of these.

Big Sky I  5 x 7 Encaustic Mono-print, mounted on wood panel

 

Big Sky II  5 x 7 Encaustic Mono-print on wood panel 

 Big Sky III  5 x 7 Encaustic Mono-print on wood panel

 Loosened Ties  5 x 7 Encaustics (pair) on panel

Festival Girls 8 x 10 Encaustic on panel

Blooms 8 x 10 Encaustic on panel

The next post will likely be a report of the show and photos of my booth. Until then visualize me selling tons of paintings under sunny skies! 

~ Karen

New Encaustics, amidst the packing

I just returned from my Cabo girl's trip and I have to tell you, if you are stressing out, now is definitely the time for a vacation.  I'm feeling refreshed and ready to move... next Friday... Holy Crap now I'm stressed again. No really, it's all better.

I finally got a good photo shoot in this week. Here are some of the pieces I am boxing because I'll leave them down here in S.D. for the Artwalk show.  I'm working on a few more large pieces that will round out this body of work and then do smaller pieces once I'm up in the beautiful north.  I'm pushing myself to get them done before the packing gets into full swing.

  "This Crazy Beautiful Life"  24 x 24  Encaustic on wood

 "Sweet and Fleeting"  11 x 14  Encaustic on wood

 "Moment in the Sun"  8 x 10  Encaustic on wood

"Listen"  8 x 10  Encaustic on wood

"Secret Garden" 11 x 14 Encaustic on wood

"One Summer Day"  8 x 10 Encaustic on wood

Recent work, and Moving News

It's been a little while since my last post so here's an update for ya, Montana we're coming back! Yep, Daniel's company needs him up there more frequently than the monthly trips so we are moving... again. This doesn't stress me out or anything... especially since the Artwalk show is fast approaching! So, my to do list grows long while I am waiting for the temperature to creep up in the studio this morning...

So many things to do!
Pack
Clean
Pack for my girls trip to Cabo (YES, so needed right now but I don't have time to relax do I? yes always make time says Daniel, my relaxing guru)
Figure out the logistics of moving cars and stuff
Figure out the logistics of getting myself in the studio as much as possible so I can be ready for my ARTwalk show in Little Italy April 28th
Paint
Paint
Paint!
Find daycare for my kiddo in MT (so far this is the hardest thing)


and in the meantime, doing all the little mama, hairbrained odd jobs that seem to never end ;)
but I finally finished this piece which ended up taking a few more months than expected, phew!
Love it though.

 Sometimes its so hard to sell these more intricate works, you want to look at them for a year first.

 These three little paintings are so juicy. Loving the orangey red tones.

I've done about 50 monoprints in the last month and this one is my current fav.

Mountains baby!

 I did a few like this, I suppose it's time for a large format photo shoot because this photo is terrible

 This one might get put into my Studio Sale area on the website, I'll see if any more

come out like it first though. Classic Minton right? ;)

 This is the big mama I'm workin' on right now. Just stuffing it with blooms.

Many more in the works, but they aren't ready for their close up yet.

Let's see, what else is new.... Jolie is turning 5 soon, which blows my mind, she is such a fun kid, she falls asleep with every last children's book we own. I think she's trying to teach herself how to read by osmosis. Sometimes she wakes us up in the middle of the night shouting "MORE BOOKS!" 

 Which reminds me I need to write that on the to do list :-)

Speaking of Children's Books,  check out my friend Amelie's children's book site, Amelie's Bookshelf  I love reading her book reviews for suggestions on what to get for Jolie

Until next time... Thanks for reading folks!

Encaustic Mono Prints

Just before Christmas, I got addicted starting learning how to do a mono printing process with encaustics. Here is a peek at the latest prints. I am doing as many as possible in preparation for Artwalk.   The reason I started looking into doing these, was because I wanted to offer an affordable print alternative to prospective buyers. Encaustics are expensive, and a large investment for most folks, and I've noticed that many artists offer limited edition prints, but... if I think about it,  I would personally much rather have an original piece than a digital print if possible, so I started experimenting with this process as a way to do that. I have been using all sorts of handmade papers to try and hit on the one I like the best but it's tricky, and so far the best is a japanese rice paper traditionally used for painting with ink.  Here's a step by step photo guide of what the mono print process involves:

 

 An anodized aluminum plate is placed on the heated palette and the

painting is done straight onto the plate.

 

 A sheet of paper is cut to size and carefully placed over the heated wax paints

and the paint is pressed into the paper.

 Voila! Beautiful, frameable, encaustic paintings on paper!