Pole Bean Pair Studies

For the next painting I did a number of drawings to get to know the subject. It is an image I've been sitting on for a while. It was one of the first images that I took when I began looking at sprouting seeds a number of years ago. For a long time I didn't feel like I was ready to be able to turn it into a painting that would do the image justice. I'm glad I waited. This image is going to go onto a beautiful piece of slate that my good friend gave me over a year ago.

Graphite and Lead on Toned Paper

9 x 12"

Colored Pencil on Toned Paper

9 x 12"

Graphite, Lead and Red Chalk on Tracing Paper

16 3/8 x 19"

Sweet Pea Pairing 2

Sweet Pea Pairing 2 (Sisters)

Oil Pastel on Slate

11 1/16 H x 18 1/16 W"

SOLD

I got some slate roofing from a good friend 1 1/2 years ago. When I mentioned that I was working with recycled materials she offered to bring me some slate that had been saved after a barn was removed from her acreage many years before. The next time she passed through town for a visit she gave me a few beautiful pieces of it. I love drawing on it. It makes the oil pastels feel extra buttery and creamy. The painting surface is so textured and the translucency and thin application of the pastels allows some of the tones and texture of the slate to come through. 

Rosie Rising

11/13/15

Sprouted Mandan Bride Corn and a Residency

Sprouted Mandan Bride Corn

6 3/16 W 3 9/16 H x 5/8 D inches

Wood, oil paint

Every time I go to a nursery I look through the seeds. I can't resist. I bought these Mandan Bride seeds two years ago because they were so colorful. I had fun sprouting the Bloody Butcher Corn and Black Aztec Corn that I found at the farmer's market the winter before and this packet of seeds from the Seed Savers Exchange looked promising that gray, end of winter day. 

From the packet: "From the Mandan Indians of Minnesota and North Dakota. Extensive color range includes some attractive striped kernels. Use as a flour corn or for fall displays." I love the pinks and purples of this particular seed with the green beginning to emerge in the stem. 

In other news, I was not only happy to learn that I was accepted into the Art Students League of New York residency program at Vyt, but I am also honored to receive a Ruth Katzman scholarship to cover my costs. I will be participating in the special two week session at the beginning of December. 

http://www.theartstudentsleague.org/Residency.aspx

I am so excited to be able to take advantage of this program! I can't wait for the time and space to paint and draw uninterrupted and I look forward to the critiques and conversations. It will be such an incredible gift during the holiday season! 

Midwest Summer: Light and Warmth Opening and A New Painting!

The opening reception for Midwest Summer: Light and Warmth was June 5, 2015. It was an exciting night. First, I was able to share this event with my three children . . . who were more excited to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house than stand and look at my painting or the other 60 or so amazing works of art all around us. None the less, I was so happy to have them there with me. 

Being included in the exhibit was a bit of a dream come true. One of my paintings is in a museum for the summer. This is . . . exciting! Then I think about the other artists included in the exhibit (some of my heroes!) and I am humbled. I couldn't help but document the some of the minor details leading up to the exhibit.

 

I am no stranger to loan agreements after working as an art conservator on museum installations, but this was my first loan agreement for my own artwork. 

Taking one last picture of it on my wall where I got to enjoy looking at it every day.

The day I dropped it off. (Yes, I am embarrassed that it is not wrapped or otherwise protected. Thankfully I live a mere two to three miles from the museum with a 25 mph speed limit the whole way)

The exhibit will be up through September 13, 2015 and there are so many great paintings, photographs, drawings and even some sculptures and gorgeous jewelry to see. If you're in the area I hope you go check it out. 

All this activity got my creative juices flowing again and with an unexpected month off from teaching painting classes in June, I had some time open up that I wasn't planning on so I started a small oil painting. 

Hidatsa Shield Figure Bean 2

Oil Paint on Wood Panel

3 1/2 w x 4 5/8 h x 3/4 d"

This is my third painting of an hidatsa shield figure bean. I blogged about the first one here Hidatsa Shield Figure Bean 1. I love these beans because of the history of how they were grown in a three sisters method of planting with corn and squash and of course I love the way they look. I love the spotted patterns that most beans have and the way the skin splits open to let the root emerge. 

Dimensions with frame 4 1/8 x 5 1/4h"

SOLD

Midwest Summer: Light and Warmth at the CRMA June 6 - September 13, 2015

I am so pleased to announce that my painting Black Aztec Corn 1 was selected to be a part of the juried  exhibition Midwest Summer: Light and Warmth at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art this summer. The show will be up from June 6 - September 13, 2015 with an opening on June 5 from 5pm - 7pm. I am truly honored to be included in an exhibition with several of my local artist heroes.

Information on the exhibit can be found at the following link.
http://www.crma.org/Exhibition/Detail/Upcoming/Midwest-Summer-Light-and-Warmth.aspx

I blogged about the painting in this previous post Black Aztec Corn 1.

Practice Drawings

I used to dive right into a painting. I would always do a sketch, of course, but right onto the prepared substrate, and then the painting would begin. Not surprisingly I produced a couple of duds. It either had a boring composition or the seed was nice to look at in it's less than one inch size, but once it was blown up it just became unappealing. This was difficult since I don't like waste and I used some beautiful slate, steel siding and wood to produce a couple of paintings I didn't feel like showing anyone, and didn't even want to look at myself. While I haven't given up on trying to convert them into something I do like, I also haven't come up with many ideas for them yet.

I returned the the decade old advice from a former professor in a mid-semester critique - practice, practice, practice, draw, draw, draw. Now I do colored pencil drawings first on 14 x 17 in paper. It simultaneously feels like it takes up more time and saves me loads of time and frustration. It's a little easier to fit in drawing here and there. Sometimes I only have 15 minutes, but it is enough to provide a little relief from the roiling feeling I have when I haven't been able to get to my work for too long. It gives me the chance to flesh out my ideas in a way that works with my hectic schedule. Since I started this more disciplined path, I have turned a number of my drawings into larger work and I have also discarded or reworked a number of images. This blue corn drawing was turned into . . .

this painting, which I blogged about here: Black Aztec Corn

Black Aztec Corn

This drawing of bloody butcher corn . . . 

Became this 21 1/4 x 25 7/8 inch painting on pallet wood (currently being framed and soon to be featured in a post of it's own) . . . 

This drawing of a sprouted apple seed is transforming into . . . 

 This 17 x 25 3/4 inch painting on the wood that I blogged about here Wood. This painting is still in the works, but in it's early stages it went through a period when I didn't like it at all. I did love the drawing when I completed it though, so I started putting the drawing up every time I went to work on the painting and it helped me get back on track.

The drawings also offer me a chance to tweak the composition a little . . . 

Or a lot. 

I also like the (slightly) looser feeling of the drawings. I like seeing the pencil marks that wouldn't completely erase during the reworking of the image. I love seeing the margins fill up with colorful marks and notes. 

The current drawing in progress is from a series of sweet pepper photos I did that I have been aching to get to for over a year. My hope for these is to do some seriously large paintings several feet in width and length so that they (hopefully) engulf the viewer in a sense. Starting this series of drawings has been a relief in one way, while it also has added in the excitement of figuring out what materials to use and how to mount the painting properly since it will likely weigh a lot. Creating these drawings stop me from jumping in before I'm ready and give me the time I need to work out some of the mechanical issues as well as the compositional issues. 

They save me from myself . . .