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Hi acrylics, long time no see

The original inspiration - photo taken at the Indiana Dunes

It's been a very long time since I worked in acrylic - however I was at Michaels Crafts the other day and saw some sales going on pre-stretched canvases so I thought I'd give it a try. Luckily, I still have loads of paint left over from the last time I painted in acrylic, which must be at least 5-6 years ago.

Now what to paint? I thought immediately of a photo I'd taken on a recent trip to northern Indiana - sand dunes central. I had forgotten how much fun acrylics can be, and this subject with the wind in the grasses lent itself perfectly to the task. What a huge difference from working with watercolor!

Watercolor requires planning and patience. You paint a bit, then wait for it to dry, then paint some more, and so on. Mistakes are very hard to fix, sometimes impossible. You learn to make the most of "happy accidents", but they're not always so happy.

Acrylic painting by contrast is much more immediate - you paint what you see. If you don't like something you can just paint right over it. I have to say, the easiness of painting in acrylic was a welcome change!

I have loads more canvases, I can see this becoming a "thing".

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

Inspiration / Paintings / Watercolor - 11/06/2011

Rochelle Weiner Greeting Cards - Yippee!

Ok - they're here! I spent the last two days packaging up all the little cards in singles @$4, 4 packs @ $13 and 8 packs @ $24. On sale now at the Galleria! I also put together some fun little framed birdie prints - stocking stuffers, priced at $35. Great gifts!

Art show / Greeting Cards / Winter scenes - 11/04/2011

Who's afraid of a little snow?

I may be in the minority but I love a good snow storm. Since I work from home, it takes away the stress of the situation and allows me to enjoy the beauty of the day. I often will take a long walk through the snow after a blizzard with my camera at the ready. Everything is clean and shiny and pretty after a snow.

With the holidays coming up I was brainstorming what I could add to my booth at the Galleria that might sell well during the holiday season. Greeting cards have been on my list for a while so I beyond the cards I already had in mind, I decided to develop a line of cards inspired by winter.

Of the images below, I've chosen to make cards from the snowman image, the winter trees, the snowflake and the snow angel. I'm also printing a series of penguins, and some of my still lifes of fruits and vegetables, sixteen designs all together. Envelopes and packaging are on order and all should be delivered by the middle of next week. Can't wait to see how they turn out!

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Greeting Cards / Winter scenes - 10/30/2011

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

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

Shadows and daylilies, installment 2

A couple weeks ago I wrote an in-progress blog post about a new painting, "Shadows and daylilies". I've been working on it on and off since then and I wanted to post another installment. It was inspired by a photo I took outside of Galter Life Center in Chicago. That day the sun was hitting the day lilies in such a beautiful way that I knew right away I wanted to try and paint it.

I'm at that point right now where I'm not positive if I should stop before I ruin it, or if I should continue and try to take it further. Yesterday I thought the painting was done but now the more I look at it I am feeling like the painting is about 75% there.

So - I'm going to keep going. Next step is to start working into the areas of shadow with more depth and to add some slivers of shadows in the areas of light. I'm excited to get back to it!

Paintings / Watercolor - 07/24/2011

Seascapes

Pictured above, "Rolling", watercolor, 32" x 40" framed.

Browsing through Facebook I saw a couple beautiful ocean shots taken by my friend Celia. (I occasionally scroll through Celia's albums because she's got an amazing eye. This is not the first painting I did inspired by her photography).

I've been looking for some subject matter that would translate well to a large canvas and my aesthetic, and that had a tendency toward abstraction. Celia's photos felt like the perfect inspiration. Following are two large scale (22" x 30") paintings finished today. I think I may be on to something here.

"Break", watercolor painting by Rochelle Weiner

Inspiration / Paintings / photography / Watercolor - 07/17/2011

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