Last night was the opening for my reception for the show Interpretations of Nature with another artist Hazel Camp.  I was so excited to be asked to have this show!  Here are some photos from last night:

Me with Charley Burch, member of the Board of Directors along with Hazel Camp

With my mom Barbara Wiertel who was visiting from Buffalo.

With my husband and biggest cheerleader John Koleszar

With fellow artist Meg Livingston

I am so humbled and grateful for the opportunity to show my work in this venue.  I was also so appreciative of my fellow gallery members who put on such a beautiful reception for Hazel and myself.  I will never forget what a special night it was for me.  I love hearing what visitors to the gallery thought of my work and which pieces that they felt a connection with.  It gives me energy and focus to work on the ideas that I have floating in my head but have yet made it to canvas.  Thank you!

Show will be up at the Gallery for another month so stop by if you were not there at the reception.

This morning I did something that I usually don’t do.  I went out and got a pedicure.  It’s my big art opening tomorrow night at the Gallery on the York.  I figure it’s a special occasion so why not go all out?  So I went to get them done this morning.  I picked out my nail polish color.  As I sat listening to the technican’s stories about her family in Korea, I all of sudden noticed the color she was painting my nails with.  Why in the world did I pick THAT color out?  I mean it’s okay but it’s certainly not the color I was thinking of when I chose my color.  Anyway, here is my pedicure:

Later on I was thinking what my new pedicure reminded me of and I thought of this:

And then I thought of this:

And what about the image I picked for my show postcard:

So I guess I like the color “medium magenta” more than I thought I did.

I think I, along with  many other artists, look at the world around us and see it in the way that we would replicate it.  Last night, I was sitting on my porch looking at the sky.  Looking at the beauty of it, I immediately thought that by using cerulean blue, yellow oxide, napthol crimson and a lot of white I might be able to recreate what I was viewing.  I wonder how many other artists look at their world this way.

My show with Hazel Camp, “Interpretations of Nature” will open this Saturday night at the Gallery on the York.  I dropped off my work this morning and it felt weird seeing my work on the walls this evening. I am providing the food and it will be tasty.  :)

This is your invitation to come and to bring a friend!

White-throated Sparrow

Mixed Media on Canvas, 8″x8″

$80.00

A couple of days ago I said that I was taking a short break from using Envirotex Lite since I messed up my last project.  I lied.  I finished this piece last night and I really, really wanted to have a real live branch in the piece.  I thought that the only way I could accomplish this was using, you guessed it, Envirotex Lite.

The piece is on gallery wrapped canvas.  I painted the canvas first and then texturized it by applying pieces of rice paper on the surface with acrylic medium.  I added different colors of acrylic paint along with gold ink to the canvas to get the right color of background I was looking for.  I have been wanting to try something that had been on my mind for awhile.  I went out to the woods near my house and picked some fern leaves.  I applied a mixture of viridian green and black to each leave and applied it using a brayer.  Do you know what a brayer is?  I call it roller, you call it brayer….

Anyway, I digress…It took way more paint then I thought to coat the leaves.  Note to self:  Next time, make sure I have enough paint for project before I start.

I put the coated leave on the canvas, put a piece of newsprint over it and rolled it with the brayer(notice I am using the word brayer now and not roller!).  It took some practice to do this before I actually applied it to my piece.

The bird was painted on canvas pad and cut out and applied to the canvas using acrylic medium along with the branch.  The whole piece was coated with Envirotex Lite .

The photo above has a little bit of a glare to it due to the surface being so reflective.  If you want to see it up close and personal, come to my gallery show reception on Saturday night at the Gallery on the York!

As always, thanks for looking!

Hummingbird with Trumpet Vine

Acrylic on Gessoboard, 6″x9″

$67.00

I will be doing heavy posting the next few days as I finish pieces for my show on June 25th at the Gallery on the York.  This painting just came to me one night when I was staring at a blank 6″x9″ gessoboard.  I was thinking about doing a lot of different things to it, but then I thought of doing a hummingbird in mid-flight.  Everyone that has a hummingbird feeder has seen this sight.  Instead of a hummingbird feeder, I added in a trumpet vine which I know that they love to get nectar from.

I was thinking about coating with Envirotex Lite but frankly I am a little spooked after my last Envirotex Lite disaster that pretty much trashed a piece I had finished.  After my show, I will experiment over the summer and go for it again with the Envirotex Lite.

Thanks for stopping by to take a look!

On Memorial Day, I spent time visiting with a friend Cindy Davis who also happens to be a very talented writer and artist.  She was telling me about  ”Art-O-Mats”. They are refurbished cigarette machines that are in many locations throughout the country and the world.  You might remember cigarette machines from your childhood.  I remember them always being at bowling alleys. Artist Clark Whittington came up with the idea to refurbish the machines and have art be the focus and not cigarettes. The machines themselves are a work of art.  For about $5.00, one can insert a token, pull a lever and receive an instant work of art from a contemporary artist.  The work is about the size of a business card.  Check it out to see if there is an Art-O-Mat near you.

They are currently looking for artists to create work for submission for the art-o-mat machines.  This is something that really interests me mainly for the fact that it brings an artist’s art to places and people that might never have the chance to view it.  I have ordered my prototype kit.  Last night, after two out of three of my children woke me during the night I couldn’t get back to sleep. My mind kept on going back to this project.  What should I create on an art-o-mat piece?  What would make a customer think “Wow!  This is really cool” after they selected and received my piece.

I have a few ideas floating around in my head but by all means you have all seen my work.  What would you be happy to see if you pulled the lever with my name?  Flowers?  Birds?  Mixed Media pieces with flowers and birds?  Landscapes?  Donuts?

Let me know your ideas!  :)

Birds of a Feather…

Mixed Media on Gessoboard, 12″x20″

$195.00

I am back!  This painting has been sitting around my studio since the beginning of April.  I wanted to bring a dogwood painting to the Dogwood Arts Festival that I attended in April.  Never finished it in time.  I had never painted dogwoods before and I didn’t want to do the single dogwood branch that I see every artist do.  I added some goldfinches on the painting and added gold colored lace to their breasts using acrylic medium.  The hardest part of the painting was trying to find reference photos of goldfinches facing forwards.  I had some bad photos and when I looked online to find some images to see if I was heading in the right direction, I could hardly find any.  Apparently, goldfinches like only their profiles photographed.  LOL!  Seriously,  google “goldfinch photos” or “goldfinch paintings”.  Everyone is photographing or painting these birds from the side.

I wasn’t setting out to create a painting that was whimsical but it sort of turned out that way.  My daughter said that it looks like the birds are smiling.  I thought about fixing it but then thought that it looked cute just the way it is.  It’s almost like they are having a conversation.

Hope you like it.  Will be posting more paintings this week.  I am trying to get ready for my show in a few weeks at the Gallery on the York.

In the last month, I have done 5 different art shows and traveled 2, 071 miles in my “new” 2006 Kia Sedona van.  This has been a new endeavor for me as I have only done maybe a couple of shows a month since I ventured into selling my art.  In the last month, I have rode a roller coaster of emotions and along the way I have learned A LOT.  Not just about the art fair world but also about myself .  I describe  myself as “a constant work in progress” and this was evident as I traveled this past month.  Here are some of the things I learned along the way:

1).  My fantasy of sleeping in my van to avoid paying hotel fees is some people’s reality.

2).  Always, ALWAYS bring a jacket no matter what the weather report tells you.

3).  Expect to pay at least $4.00 for an Oscar Mayer equivalent hot dog without any fixins’ at any art fair venue you travel to.

4).   One never regrets arriving early to set up for an art show.

5).  Not everyone is going to love your work.  That’s okay.  Accept critiques and criticisms with grace.

6).  Hot coffee to some is lukewarm to others.  i.e.-Never forget your thermos!

7).  My breaking point emotionally is winds that are about 35 mph.

8).  Having a booth next to an artist that’s pretty cool to hang out with makes the show so much more worthwhile.

Two days post of my last art show and I am enjoying not having the stress right now of preparing for a show.  I do have my show in June at the Gallery on the York but that just requires me to finish some pieces and plan my reception.  I don’t have to worry about weather(it’s indoors).  Right now it feels really good to be home and enjoy my kids and my pets and to get to some household projects that are long overdue to be done.

I am committed to blogging more, learning  more, drawing in my nature journal more and exploring some ideas that have been stirring in my mind when I have been driving down those long Virginia country roads.

Stay tuned and see how everything turns out….

Magnolia

Acrylic on Gessoboard, 8″x10″, Framed

$100.00

The magnolia is one flower that people ask if I have ever painted.  It is so common here in Virginia.  Last spring, I was on the search for some magnolias to  photograph in order to paint.  It seems easy enough but it isn’t for I was trying to find a subject that wasn’t heavily shaded and had some tonal values in order to paint.  I felt like I struggled more than I should have with this one but I was satisfied with the end product.

I painted this on gessoboard.  I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I wasn’t sure how I felt about painting on gessoboard.  I have done quite a few small paintings on it.  This is the largest that I have painted so far.  It feels a lot different painting on than canvas.  The paint seemed to dry faster than working on stretched canvas.  I like using it but it is taking some getting used to.

Thanks for stopping by.  Now, I am off to find a frame for this piece.

J.J.’s Iris

Acrylic on Gallery Wrap Canvas, Framed, 24″x24″

$375.00

I have a friend who moved away from Williamsburg a couple of years ago.  Before I moved here, I would often visit her at her home.  She lived near a major interstate and one could hear the traffic buzzing in the background but that didn’t seem to matter because it felt like we were in some quiet place in the country.  My friend, J.J. is an artist too but unlike me she has been selling her paintings on and off her whole life.  She is one of the people that have helped to push me into pursuing my artwork.  I have a lot of those folks in my life and I am grateful for each and every one of them.

I would often stop by with my older two kids and have a cup of coffee or tea.  While my children played with J.J.’s cats and kittens(I think I remember she had about 9 at the time!) we would talk about art, current events, books, nutrition along with various other subjects.  She was always telling me to tell people I was an artist when they asked “what did I do”.  Those words “I am an artist” were hard for me to say at one time for I didn’t think I had the ability or talent to make such a claim.

We would often sit in her backyard and time would go by and then I would realize that it had been 3 or 4 hours that we had been sitting there.  She inherited a neglected garden from the previous owners.  Some of the gems in the front were these beautiful tall irises in striking maroon, red and yellow.  They looked so wonderful even though they hadn’t been cared for.  I took a lot of photos of those flowers in the summer of ‘06 promising that I would paint them.

J.J. ended up getting married and moving away.  I always meant to stop by her house before she sold it and remove some of these iris bulbs.  Life got in the way though and I never did.  Part of  me wants to drive by the old house and see if they are there still, but I know I would be sad if I they weren’t and I didn’t want to imagine what happened to them.

I worked hard on this painting.  I wasn’t sure if I could pull it off but thought of the possibilities if I could.  Thank you for looking.