Happy New Year! 2010

Happy New Year to all of You!

It never ceases to amaze me how each year I start out with so many things I want to get done! I love that I can start new, and reflect on what worked, what didn't, what if? Questions to be asked, solutions to be solved, challenges to be overcome and goals to be met.

Looking back, I am happy that I accomplished a good many of the intentions and goals that I wrote down in my "Dream Book". There are some things that were not accomplished and I will re-evaluate those, but I never look at the "unfinished" things as negative. Like an unfinished painting, unfinished wishes and goals are just another thing that will come into completion in time. I don't worry about it.

This past year was quite busy. I developed my curriculum for my workshops and classes and launch those mid-spring at Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts. I am gearing for more venues to teach and will continue to expand my calendar. I find that when I teach, my heart is enthusiastic and I have a ton of energy. It is another way that I can pay it forward and help others with their artistic journey. My dream is to be able to get a group together and travel various places on the globe and explore new "vignettes" that stir our hearts. Wouldn't that be fun?

I also painted more each day and that was a challenge, especially running a household, organizing Exhibits and Shows, being on art society boards such as ISAP and Minnesota Watercolor Society, marketing and promoting my art and also this year, teaching my "Expressive Workshops and Classes", marketing my husband's business-and so much more. My calendar was full!

Now as I ponder this year, I want to work on getting more cohesive works of art. I have several series that are ongoing and I want to push to complete several for upcoming shows and festivals.

I have also opened more online store's such as Cafe Press, ImageKind and Simply Licensed which are all wonderful opportunities to sell my art. These sites are fairly new to me and I post specific images to those venues and the rest will be on my website. Speaking of websites, I will be continuing to update and tweat my website month by month. I love having the availability of social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, and many other online sites. I have met some wonderful people online and will continue to explore Social Media for more marketing and promotions.

As always, I will paint from my heart. I paint what I love-nothing more, nothing less, and that is all I want to do. I will continue to paint those aspects of life that cause me to feel deep emotions and express those emotions in my art with bold, bright beautiful colors. I plan to have fun adding more pieces to the Sister Series, make more Mountain Messages, continue on until I complete twelve large Crosses of Hope, will goof off making Art Deco Dogs, and whatever else this year will unfold that will be an inspiration to me!

Blessings and love to all of you who stop by to read my blog. With all the information on the web-it's a wonder that we get anything done at all! Happy New Year!

Come and join me in my "Expressive Workshops" that are posted on my website. Many new workshops and classes are coming up soon for Winter. They workshops are for beginner to advanced students in acrylic and watercolor. Many times and days are available. I am happy to be teaching again. I taught in the early '90's in watercolor and had a blast! My most rewarding thing about teaching is having the student achieve another level of creativity with their artwork. They never cease to amaze me with the level of artistic development that comes with some encouragement and coaching. Teaching and painting are ways that I give back to others what I have been blessed with.

Minneapolis Skyline- "Sweltering Summer"

I call this painting, "Sweltering Summer". It is a 16"x24" acrylic-a fun cityscape. I had a blast painting it! I was going to paint the sky red, but decided at the last minute to paint the buildings red. It is from a photo I took of the Minneapolis Skyline while I was lazily enjoying myself at the Stone Arch Bridge Art Festival last summer. I love going to Art Festivals and this particular one is a favorite of mine. It was June, in the morning, I had stopped to have coffee and croissant, and had my camera with. While I walked along all the booths, I decided to walk along the Mississippi river behind all the booths and there across the river was an amazing scene-the skyline was lit up with the rising sun and the colors were fantastic! WOW! I shot a few photo's, came back to my studio, and started to paint. The painting became alive with color- I tweaked it several times until I was satisfied with the shapes, colors and mood. The dark sky is gradated from blue to darker blue and looks better in reality. This painting was in the Minnesota Watercolor Society's Fall Show.

Still in Process...

Just when I thought I was just about done with this painting, I let it sit for awhile-a good month-and pulled it out to look at it. Good thing I did-Ugh! I needed some major changes! I wanted to change the protruding cliff on the left especially. I thought it was just too much, too prominant, and now I am planning something new. I have sketched another image in my sketch book and will be redoing and reworking the foreground. Another thing I noticed is that the foreground is too green and I want to mix it up a bit. The focal point needs some work as well-it is just there-boring! So I will be adding different shapes and different colors in the foreground, working on the focal point and mixing things up abit. I still love the mountains in the back ground. I am asking myself alot of "What If's?" to see about new things that could develop. At this point, I am feeling that the painting is taking off by itself and wanting me to back off- and basically telling me to let go of the control. Some artists will say that their "paintings talk to them, tell them what they need and basically paint themselves". I totally believe in this idea. My paintings do that all the time! I start a painting with my own intentions of what I want and then half way, or even sooner, the painting just starts developing into something else! When this process starts to happen, I find it fun and exciting because I usually become challenged to learn and grow to another artistical level.




On another note, what do you think of this new one on the left? It is a close up of another painting I just finished called, "Mountain Moonshine". I will post the total image soon on my website. Let me know what you think- I would love to hear from you!

Deb

Creating something from nothing....

Well, I cannot really say this is nothing. It is simply a canvas with paint on it with shapes that create a landscape scene. God only knows how to create something from nothing. Like the Grand Canyon, the oceans, mountains, fish, animals or us! But as a humble little human, I think is it really fun to create-even if it is just a painting of a landscape. It is just a canvas with paint on it but it has the potential to touch another human in an emotional, spiritual and/or intellectual way. I think that is amazing. No wonder so many of us love to create.

Notice how I just laid in the shapes with various colors and values? I was searching for the layout and design of the composition and where I needed to go. The process of painting is really, I believe, what creating art is all about. Most of the time I plan my work out in my sketchbook. There are times that I just play around and see what develops. I know the end result is important too, but when you start creating and you are playing in the studio and thinking of a landscape image-or whatever image you have in your heart and mind-that is where all the fun begins!

The finished piece can develop into something that surprises. So many artist love that about art. The surprises and the "Ah Ha" moments. I learn along the way with each painting I create. I love that about my painting process.

You will see the new release when I post the final piece in a few days. Come back soon!

By the way- "Happy New Year!' May all of your dreams come true!

"DAZZLING DAWN"

Good Morning!

I want to introduce to you my newly released,

"Dazzling Dawn". A 24" x 36" Acrylic on canvas. It is another addition to the series I call, "Mountain Messages".

"Dazzling Dawn" is inspired by my love color and mountains. They are so beautiful and take my breath away-they AWE me! How about you?

This particular painting started in a High School Art Class where I was invited to come and do a demo and teach about Acrylics. I had a blast and the kids were awesome artists!

I really did not know where "it" was going to take me. I used a few photo's to get a composition set up, but that was it. From there, the painting emerged into a colorful fantasy mountain landscape with an ethereal feel. I divided the two huge mountains into various shapes using color and value changes to break up the large triangle shapes and to create a sense of connectiveness. The ridges and cliffs are there to remind us that there are always challenges and tragedies to encounter in life. I wanted to create a sense of eternity and the river of life I painted zigzags through the beautiful meadow, and carries you into the ethereal eternal light.

Mountain Messages-"Mountain Secrets"

Here is another phase of Mountain Secrets. I added more color and worked on the composition creating a lake and pushing the mountains back further into the background. Adding more lights and darks. I am not happy with the stark edge of the lake and the line it creates in the lower 3rd of the image. I love the atmosphere of the sky and the mountains. I also need a focal point and will create that where the two horizontal lines of the lake and the lower shaped mountains converge. I also am thinking of adding clouds and softening the mountains even more. The colors in the foreground are too strong and there are no shapes that make your eye travel throughout the piece. So, I continue to ask, "What if....?" and search more of what I can do to make it better. I let it sit for weeks and let it "cook" hanging in my studio. I study, look, listen, let it be...

So, here is the finished piece! I added a river instead! Ha! I am happy with this one. It looks very colorful in reality and with the added 3 coats of gloss varnish, I must say, it looks pretty cool!

I am working on another one for this series that is coming along nicely. I will post that soon, too! Thanks for visiting my blog!