Encaustic Workshop with Shawna Moore

Vineyard II 10 x 10

Here are photos of pieces I produced this last weekend during a truly awesome two day encaustic painting workshop with Shawna Moore. Click on the images to see them in a larger size.

I've been interested in this medium for years but it would take an overhaul of my studio to commit to it so I've just been learning little bits about it here and there to see if I'm really into it. I am so grateful Shawna gave a 2 day workshop. It was such a luxury to have all that time to play and experiment with the medium in her comfortable, well-stocked studio. I got to meet and hang out with some great gals, and had full access to Shawna's tools, supplies and extensive knowledge.

The pieces I came out with are a bit childish and seem very unfinished now that I look at them here, but I'm still ridiculously happy with them. Maybe someday I'll add some more layers.

In the meantime I'm right where I want to be with rejuvenated creativity and inspiration. So it's back to spring cleaning and project finishing and after that... a new direction? :)

Dearest Child 10x10
(my first piece using cursive, always wanted to do that)

Faraway 10 x 10

Hazy Mountain 10 x 10

Vineyard I 10 x 10

Earth and Sky 11 x 14

Flowers in a Vase 8 x 10

Astrology

Jayme McGowan, Awesome Paper Artist

I had really only about 3 thoughts when I walked through my door last weekend after being gone for nearly 4 months.

1. I'm finally home!
2. Wow it's clean!
3. Umm, I really need to do some painting.

Before I left I hung a bunch of half finished pieces on my walls to keep them safe and sound... I neglected to think about how my poor housesitter would have to look at them all winter though, it really could be considered a special form of torture, half finished art.... Mental note to drop a bottle of wine by his house this weekend...

Anyhoo, all I want to do is finish those suckers and start in on my next project. So in the next few weeks I'm hoping to do some major spring cleaning in my dusty little studio, finish a bunch of those long neglected pieces and put them up for sale on Etsy!

In the meantime. I want to introduce you to another awesome artist. Her name is Jayme McGowan and she does the most beautiful paper art I've ever seen. I subscribe to her blog and I must say that every time she posts something I click over and check it out. I absolutely love how she posts photos of the art as it is in progression, her materials and process. It's fascinating to get a sneak peak into another artist's studio. It's best I think, to check out her website first www.roadsideprojects.com drool over her portfolio, and then follow the link to her blog to check out her postings. The cool thing about her art is that she offers it in print form at her etsy shop. Check it out.

"The Knife Juggler," wall art illustration, Fawn & Forest, 2009



"Secret Concert," wallet illustration, Poketo, 2009

Painted Frames

I picked up some raw wood frames at Michael's while here in San Diego and did a few painted frames as gifts for my family in Hawaii.

Mandy Mohler's Photography and Art

Astral Projection. Oil on Canvas & Photograph on Board

Today I want to introduce you to one of my favorite photographers, Mandy Mohler. To my delight, I recently discovered that she is also a talented artist. What I love about her art pieces is that to me they have a life-loving, time-traveling, beautifully blooming, gracefully dying, chic, blue-green-tinted-like-a-childhood-memory..... oh how I could go on, but I think the final descriptive word is.... elegance. Cool, hard working, rusty chandelier type elegance. Elegance with a swirling, inky calligraphic E.

You can recognize Mandy's superb eye for color and texture in every piece. In one it might be the peeling paint on a found piece of wood, its happy history of colors peeping through, in another it's the blood red, almost lava-like beads encrusting an eroded, umber metal disc, the original use of which is long forgotten.

Mandy is currently studying for a Masters Degree in Fine Art at the Cyprus College of Art in Lemba, Paphos, Cyprus. She recently posted a show of her work on her blog. The one piece I imagine hanging in my dream bathroom (where it could be properly viewed from a huge clawfooted bubble bath) is entitled "I Love You, Goodbye". It infuses me with feelings of wistful nostalgia. I love pieces like this because for just a moment, I get to take a little daydream vacation. I imagine walking on that faraway beach, at the same time indulging myself in a bit of sadness for sweet days gone by. Ahh me, life is good.

Mandy does amazing professional photography, I could go on and on about it, in fact I just had to erase a bunch of text because I was getting ridiculously wordy and my usual sort of not very shortish run on sentences were becoming alarmingly long, so you'll have to see it for yourself, and if it moves you, get it! Mandy is adding more to her etsy shop, and you can follow her on her travels via her blog, and if you're getting married or engaged or just plain need a good photo of your gorgeous self, you should check out her portfolio

I love you, Goodbye. Photograph


Sea study



all images on this post copyright Mandy Mohler

New Commission

I love how this painting progressed, in fact if it wasn't a commission I might have been tempted to stop several times along the way, mainly because I loved the chalky black background layer. But when I did my final red layers I was happy with the richness of the black coming through the red.

Daily Drop Cap

crapity scrap. I decided to start over on the Old Vine painting. It just wasn't flowing. I'm chalking it up to too many distractions and hasty preparation! Also being away from my studio was not helping things :) Anyhoo, since I am not going to be doing much in the painting creation area for the next month or so, I've decided while I'm traveling to take advantage of this time to do a few posts on other artists, creative folks, and sites etc. that I admire. My artist today is illustrator Jessica Hische. I've been researching creative font making lately and came across her site Daily Drop Cap. which is a creative commons site, meaning anyone can grab her insanely beautiful illustrated caps and add them to their blog or website. That's pretty cool.

So I've been taking a little haitus from the studio, and the frozen north :) But I brought along a few projects including Old Vine to work on. These are the latest photos. It's amazing how a photo taken on a cloudy day can differ from a photo taken on a sunny day. The top one is most recent (sunny day photo), I decided to kill the moss on the big dead vine. Now I am contemplating whether or not to put leaves etc on it. Also I'm debating the color of the hills, and I think I still need to make the trees to the right bigger. Hmmmm

New Commission, Chair lift to Heaven

Chair Lift to Heaven. 18 x 20(click on the photo for a close up). Using the photo below as a reference, my client wanted this painting to convey the treasured feelings she had when riding the chair lift up to ski on Big Mountain.

I tried to think of my own thoughts and emotions when riding up the chair and infuse them into the layers. This is what came to mind: anticipation, peace, joy, the historical greatness of this thing you get to partake of, the mysterious nature of snow, the respect for and closeness to nature that skiing gives you... the thrill of speed, and excitement of finding untracked powder, feeling both cozy and tingly cold at the same time... there is a lot to capture there, hopefully I got a little bit of it for my client, but as usual I seem to have very little control over the actual outcome of a painting commission and am crossing my fingers in hope that she likes it!

What I think really came through is the mountain itself, or rather the ski run... When I look at this I get a sense of quite waiting, a glimpse of Tony Matt early in the morning, blanketed in a few inches of un-tracked snow. An intimate look at the run itself before the crowd transforms it with bustling energy and whoops of glee.

Snowstorm

Just finished this Snowy commission. It harkens back to some of my older swirly landscapes. I took a little bit of artistic license here... well... more than a little bit obviously, but hopefully it doesn't disturb any viewers that a winter storm doesn't usually come rushing over into a valley that's socked in with an inversion cloud layer... I don't even really know if that is scientifically possible... but this is 2009, anything is possible right?

Also posted updated images on my Old Vine commission and Sunflowers on Red commission

Land

Every so often I try to do an abstract. It never really works out like I imagine it will, but it's fun.