chicago artist Archives - Page 4 of 5

The comfort of home

(Pictured above, "Rita's Back Yard", watercolor)

A lot of painters use a method called "plein air" - which means to bring your paints and paper and set up outside in front of an inspiring view and paint it on the spot. In my travels, I've seen this a lot. Florence, Paris, London, San Francisco, New York City - you see artists in all sorts of places like this, set up in the middle of a crowded square doing their thing.

This has not been my method of choice. Firstly, I'm a little shy about people watching me work. If I were to do plein air painting in Chicago where I live, guaranteed there would be some people watching. Maybe this is something I should work to get over, but for now, eesh. Secondly, what do plein art painters do to record a winter scene? Or a night scene? or a rainy day? I don't believe in suffering for art.

I prefer to use photography to record scenes that move me and then paint later, in the comfort of my own home. Two paintings finished recently, both derived from photos I took while visiting my Aunt Rita in Pittsville Wisconsin last spring. It was cold, wet when I took these photos, but I completed them in warmth, privacy and security, in my living room.

Autumn River

Popping up all over the country

Would you believe my artwork is now hanging in a home in California?

While visiting in Chicago, Donna Knippen of San Jose California found my booth at the Galleria and purchased this print of "Shadows". She just sent me a photo she took of the print, now framed and hanging in her home! How exciting!

My artwork is starting to pop up all over the country! I couldn't be more thrilled!

Thank you so much Donna!

Fans / prints - 10/31/2011

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!

Collage paper / Masa paper / Materials / Monoprints / Paintings / Pet Portraits / Watercolor - 09/25/2011

Cleaning house and inspiration

Featured above: "Up early" - watercolor painting inspired by Milly's garden

For every finished painting, there are also a few that are started and then set aside. They're always in the back of my mind as I am working on other things, waiting for the day I am inspired to finish them up.

I finally took some time this weekend to give some attention to five paintings that have been sitting half finished for a while. Quite a sense of accomplishment. Most of them were started back in August when I was on vacation in Canada.

One of them, "Up early" (pictured at left) was started a year ago and based on a photo taken of my Aunt Milly's garden - a splendid and remarkable place. Forty years of nurturing have gone into her creation of this masterpiece which surrounds her home on the coast of Lake Superior in a little town called Cornucopia, Wisconsin. Many of my paintings are inspired by Milly's garden, including all the images in the presentation below.

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Collage paper / Materials / Paintings / Watercolor - 09/11/2011

Love a gallery night

Woohoo! Even though the holiday weekend kept the crowd smallish, I had a great time! Thanks for all who came to see me at the Andersonville Galleria last night. I met some great new clients - regulars to the Galleria - who loved my fruit and veg series (more to come there!) And the birdies seem to be getting a lot of attention too. Some lovely neighbors also came by to show support and even bought a couple things! Thanks to everyone!

Sales included the following:

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Art show / Paintings - 09/03/2011

Nuts for fruit and veg

I've been working on a series of fruit and veg for the last couple months and finished them up over the weekend. I was going for fun and funky, and certainly colorful.

These are the same technique I've used for florals in the past - a mix of monoprint, collage and watercolor that I learned from Karlyn Holman this spring. I love the element of the "happy accident" you get with the collage paper and the monoprinting process. You just never know what you're going to get!

I'm going to frame up a few of the originals as groups of two or four I think, for placement at the Galleria. And I just sent scans of all of them, and the little birdies, to get prints in time for the Sept 2 First Friday event at the Galleria. Which are your faves?

The fruits

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The veg

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Art show / Collage paper / Masa paper / Materials / Watercolor - 08/24/2011

For the birds

I've been seeing them everywhere - birds have taken over the interiors and fashion industries in recent years. My head has been turned - so many cute little tweeters everywhere I look. So, inspired by what I'm seeing around me, I thought I'd jump in and try some monoprints with birds as the subject.

For the birds? You tell me. Below are the series finished this weekend.

Collage paper / Masa paper / Monoprints / Paintings / Watercolor - 08/22/2011

New booth at the Galleria!

This week I moved. Took me three days and I'm still not quite done. Arms are noodles, legs are sore, and I'm still washing paint out of my hair (just white wall paint, nothing too exciting.)

I am talking of course about my booth at the Andersonville Galleria. In May this year I started renting a booth there to show my paintings and prints. My first booth, while a nice little place, was upstairs and around two corners. Being close to the wine table on First Friday event nights was a plus but otherwise, this booth was a bit hard to find and low on foot traffic compared to other areas in the place. So, when I got the call that a primo booth had opened up I jumped at the opportunity.

My new booth is on the first floor, in the back room. It's bigger and a bit more expensive, but of course I'm hoping the increased foot traffic will boost sales and therefore at the very least cover the increased price.

New booth at the Galleria, right side

Wednesday I painted the new booth, Thursday I moved everything downstairs and installed, yesterday I painted the old booth back to it's original white. I did 4 coats of paint and can still see some of the gray through the paint so I'll need to go back on Tues for (hopefully only) one more coat. By the time I'm through I'll have gone through an entire gallon of Killz paint. (I thought Killz was supposed to cover anything? hm). I'll have to remember this for whenever I move out of the downstairs booth.

So, now that I've moved, the next two weeks will be about stocking the new booth with new work in time for Sept 2, which is a First Friday night at the Galleria. The shop will be open until 10pm and there will be wine, folks! I'll be sending out an evite and hope to see you all there!

Art show - 08/20/2011

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