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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.

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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

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!

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A week of art

I just got back from a week in Canada hosted by my lovely upstairs neighbors. We stayed in a cabin overlooking a beautiful lake (photo at left) in Nestor Falls, Ontario and I spent the entire week soaking up the beauty of the place, snapping pics for future inspiration and ... wait for it... painting.

I painted most of the week (when not eating, sleeping or goofing off with my friends). I got 7 paintings going and wanted to share them here (see below).

They're all in various stages of done-ness and will finalize all of them soon. I'd love your input if you'd like to share your thoughts. Please leave me a comment! 🙂

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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!

 

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Justin's sunset - the Aqua series

Well - I have many talented friends. This painting was inspired by a gorgeous sunset photo taken by my neighbor, Justin. I think it fits nicely into my "Aqua" series.

Justin's photo jumped right out at me because of the drama created by the composition and intense color contrast. His photo was amazing - I hope this painting does it justice!

Pictured above, "Justin's Sunset" - the Aqua series. Measures 32" x 40" framed.

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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

"Break", watercolor painting by Rochelle Weiner

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Flying dreams

I've been doing a lot of sketching lately - I have been getting inspiration to do a series based on narratives that spring from my dreams. For years now I've been having dreams of flying. Sometimes I'm in a flying contraption, sometimes I'm just floating above the street, sometimes I'm really high, sometimes I'm just above the treetops. What these dreams have in common is I'm always on my own and I'm always unseen by those below.

I've read a lot of interpretations of flying dreams but my favorite is that dreams of flying indicate reaching for higher goals. Nice.

My little sketchbook is full of quick sketches and notes of ideas for this series. I finally put one on paper, see below.

Pictured above, "Dreamflight" - watercolor on Arches 140lb paper

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