Valentine's Day at the Galleria

Remembering Grandma

This Christmas, to commemorate the passing of my wonderful Grandma Gertrude 10 years ago, I did a couple portraits of her to give to family members.

I had wonderful source material - my mother had taken a series of beautiful black/white photo of Grandma years ago, so that was my starting point.

Making the paintings was a wonderful experience for me - it actually felt that I was both honoring her memory and communicating directly with her over the last couple days as I perfected her soft cheeks, her direct gaze and her arthritic hands.

My grandmother was a dear woman, greatly missed by all who knew her. Love you Grandma!

portraits from photography, watercolor artist, modern artist

Grandma Gertrude with patterns - portraits from photography

My painting hanging in Germany!

How cool is this? One of my paintings is now hanging in a home in Cologne Germany! And I must say she chose a lovely place for it.

Thank you to Tania Danilenko for her patronage and for sending these great photos - love seeing where art ends up!

acrylic paint / acrylic paintings / By Rochelle / canvas / Materials / Paintings - 12/11/2011

Winter Birds - a great holiday gift

Since the first set of 6 has nearly sold out and I'm getting requests for more, I went ahead and created 6 new small canvases of winter birds. I focused on Cardinals and Bluejays.

I just need to get the hanging hardware attached on the backsides and then it's off to the Galleria for hanging.

Happy holidays everyone!

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acrylic paint / By Rochelle / canvas / Materials / Paintings - 12/09/2011

Red balloons

(Pictured above, Red Balloons - original acrylic painting on canvas, 12" x 12")

Another to add to the moody series - this one more melancholy a bit sad and reminiscent. Dead tree, floating balloons, small red heart. What does it make you think of?

acrylic paint / By Rochelle / canvas / Materials / Paintings - 12/06/2011

More moods in blue

Finished up the second moody blue canvas last night. This one I am calling Ice Storm.

Pictured above, Ice Storm - 12x12 canvas, acrylic

acrylic paint / By Rochelle / canvas / Materials / Paintings - 12/06/2011

Moody blue

Working on some new canvases - kinda moody. Here's the first one, "Blue Night", 12x12, acrylic.

acrylic paint / By Rochelle / canvas / Materials / Paintings - 12/05/2011

Acrylic cardinals

Great night last night at the Andersonville Galleria's December First Friday. Wow - what a crowd! I was told it would be busy but actually seeing the check out line winding all the way down the hallway was a wonderful sight. I have no idea of the actual head count but in the three hours I was there it seemed like hundreds of people came by my booth - and it seems my gift items are going over well! There was a lot of buzz in my booth and I sold 2 originals, 2 framed prints (thank you Dan!) and a couple packs of greeting cards. On top of that made some interesting connections and heard many positive reviews of my work (which always feels good!)

I heard many positive comments on my new line of cardinals, just finished minutes before walking into the Galleria last night.

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acrylic paint / canvas / Gifts / Materials - 12/03/2011

Sweet attack

Wayne Thiebold made a name for himself during the pop art movement by painting cakes and pastries - and I can see why he chose them. They're so pretty! Like making a painting of a sculpture, it's art inspired by art.

While the Pop movement was about glorifying objects of mass culture, my inspiration is more of an homage to the work and talent that goes into making a beautiful cake or pastry.

These were way too fun to paint, and I have lots of ideas to continue the series. However, the fall out is a pretty hefty sugar craving. Uh oh!

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Art show / Collage paper / Inspiration / Masa paper / Materials / Monoprints / Paintings / Watercolor - 10/29/2011

Pet Portraits R Us

I just finished a commissioned puppy portrait of Maya - a gorgeous Great Dane. My client purchased this painting as a birthday gift for her friend, Maya's owner. I always like to have a few paintings going at once so I'm not sitting there watching paint dry, so, while I was at it, I also did two other pet portraits. One is a portrait of Juno, a lab mix puppy owned by my good friends the Carrolls, and I also did a portrait commemorating my much missed cat, Daisy.

All three of these paintings are combinations of monoprints, collage and watercolor. I love the unexpected effect created by both the collage and the monoprint. You never know what you're going to get, but it's usually something good!