Country House

Country House
"Paintings have a life of their own that derives from the painter's soul"

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

The artist discusses her work and shares some new paintings

Once again, time has slipped by and then there's the sudden realization that this blog has been empty for a long period of time.

"So how is your painting coming along?" people reading this might be curious to know.

I've been actually quite productive producing some new pieces and fixing up some older paintings that at least in my eyes, needed tweaking. Fixing up a painting that in my eyes requires a change of color or shade or moving a line or two or more (emphasis on the latter) can spell disaster because frequently, I never know when to stop. When does the image on the canvas become perfect and how much paint can be applied without it looking like the artist can't make up her mind? Ask me! I know the answer! Never enough!

I've also been focusing my efforts on minis or 4x7" paintings that are shown in mini easels and find the paintings a delight to create. Given the amount of canvas, I've become quite proficient painting full images on smaller surfaces.

"How about art shows down the line?"

I'm contemplating - strictly at the contemplation stage now - organizing another condo art exhibition and sale for this coming summer. It gives local artists the opportunity to show their work along with the possibility of a sale if they're lucky. Given that it's an outdoor show, the problem is being dependent on good weather conditions. Lots of time to think about it.

Meanwhile, I'm sharing some of my latest paintings. Comments always welcome.





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Wednesday, May 8, 2013

A little art goes a long way

Upon conducting my daily morning check into my blogs, a blank Artistic Concepts graph greeted me, indicating a lack of additional content. As a writer, there is always the threat of a blank page and whether one can fill it with interesting reading material. My art is a newer addition to my endeavors and more disciplined approach is required to taking fingers to keyboard and sharing updates - starting now.

I've been focusing my efforts on my mini 4x7" canvases with a variety of subjects ranging from landscapes for the main part, to abstracts or whatever hits my fancy at any given moment. Their numbers are accumulating by leaps and bounds and are currently being stored in mini easels on my dining room server. Who knows where they'll end up next once the surface becomes filled to capacity. The larger canvases are displayed in regular easels that were stained with varnish to integrate with the surrounding furniture. They are the perfect vehicles and only means other than walls, in which to display my painting efforts. Storage is always a problem living in an apartment condo and ideally a studio setting would solve the over-crowding situation but for now, anyway, that's a dream scenario.

Still more are being stored in a small - accent on the small - supply room in the apartment that houses a hot water heater. My art supplies are also stored here on shelves and actually on any and all free space but the warm temperature is not conducive to storing art material. Another option is to hang all the finished paintings but one doesn't want the walls to resemble an art gallery.

I'm re-working one of my earlier canvases, a 20x24" black-and-white abstract entitled, "Broken Windows - Broken Dreams." It's getting there after two years of tinkering with the image.

Our Thursday morning drop-in art group collective still gets together in a local but small library, for weekly painting sessions. The atmosphere is relaxed among the participants and help is always available when someone asks for opinions or help.

Not sure whether the condo art display is taking place this summer, since there hasn't been any notices posted anywhere to this effect . It's an outdoor exhibition and is dependent upon good weather making it conducive to browsing by visitors. Last year and in spite of ideal conditions, visitors were few and far between so who knows if there's any interest among the artists in displaying their work.

"What art offers is space - a certain breathing room for the spirit."  John Updike.

Or a lack, thereof, of space in the physical sense. Ask me about it.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Mini paintings make a nice splash of color

It's been a while since sharing more photos of my paintings. This winter, I focused my efforts on my minis - 4x7" - which are displayed in a small easels. Enjoyed the experience of miniature-izing flower and landscape scenes.

I call my latest efforts, "Table Toppers" in that they sit in small easels that fit perfectly on a corner table or any type of display top, actually ("oh Ellie - you're so shameless in an obvious plug for your minis!"). They are an interesting artistic challenge but I also like my larger canvases, two photos of which I'll share shortly, here. As an aside (big on these), my favorite of the paintings is the butterfly. There is something about butterflies that is very fragile and entrancing to watch.



Here is the end result.