All done...yay!!!! Special thanks to my father-in-law, Raffaele, for cutting all these wooden blocks for me...and for my 'LWHS sanding crew' for making them super smooth! Pricing info is listed on my Gallery Page :)
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Two PBCATA show openings during the month of February! First up, the PBCATA Members Exhibition at the Armory Art Center in West Palm Beach. This is always a big show for the organization, and having a chance to show work in such a great venue is always an honor. I put one piece from my #GirlTalkJLG series in this exhibition. I chose to exhbisit one of the earlier pieces, before I really figured out where I was going with the series. I am still holding off on showing any of the actual portraits because I am hoping to show them all in one big show...I just need a venue. (hint, hint...if you have a venue...) My colleague, Brent Bludworth, also displayed some of his super fun and colorful surf art. I am so excited by all the work he has been creating...that on top of being a dad AND even surfing before school!
That's it! This is my second year attending this event as a spectator- I want in on the action!! I went out to support my colleague, Brent Bludworth, and our LWHS art students and also to take some pics for Art Hive Magazine social media...the creative vibe was contagious! I really think I might participate next year!! (better start stretching now...it's pretty grueling!) For more info on the Lake Worth Street Painting Festival, click here!On the second day I returned with my girl Erin and her amazing wheelchair- its basically like a rolling art installation, but neither of us mind being a spectacle! I made this quick video and posted it to my Instagram...kinda shows a lil' snippet of the sights.
Come out and support the TEACHING ARTISTS that are members of the Palm Beach County Art Teachers Association...including the LWHS Visual Art Duo...
Yup, me...and Brent Bludworth, my awesome colleague! Brent has started the new year with daily surf art, sellin' as fast as he makes 'em! He will be showing five recent works, all priced to sell! More about B$ and his work, http://www.brentbludworth.com. I will have one piece in this show from my recent #GirlTalk JLG series (shown below, NFS). It was kinda a tough call, but I decided to only show one piece, from the beginning of the series before I really figured out what I wanted to do- pair women with their words. I am hoping to show that whole series with additional works not see before sometime this spring...fingers crossed...gotta find a venue! But...hope to see all you local folk on Wednesday at the Armory! Thanks so much, Jean for having me at your 'Love Can Change the World' event!
http://bootzculturalartscenter.com/index.html
It took me a little while to get into the groove with this new series. I have known since Christmas that I wanted to create 3D mixed media pieces-I was inspired by a fun piece I saw decorated with scrapbook papers and embellishments. I just knew when I saw it that I had to create something 3D. I had my father-in-law cut enough wooden pieces for the month, and I hauled them back to Florida with me. Then I just made time each day to make the faces and start on various parts of the angels...and finally, this past weekend I was able to figure out how to work on the pieces...and I finished up the first seven days worth! Yay! Part of what was holding me back was prep. I had the wood cut- but I needed to sand all of the pieces. Thank goodness for Veve and Ronalson, two of my awesome art students that helped me with sanding. (seriously, THANK YOU!) Then, it was just a mattter of getting my materials organized...it took a little while, but here are some behind the scenes pics of the materials I will be using for the series...all in various shades of red and pink for Valentine's Day of course! So far my plan is to prep some of the pieces (the wood blocks and beads) ahead of time, for the week with the main color, and then decorate them and embellish them each day along with the angel I create for that day. I think I will work in batches of color by week- the first week was red, this week coming up I will move into shades of pink, and change embellishments as I create.
That's just the initial plan...I might not stick to it! But for now- here are the first seven pieces in my new series! Well...my January 2016 series has come to a close...kind of. I may keep making some portraits, maybe not every day...but I have in my mind a number that I would like to complete- and maybe show. But first, some reflections on this body of work. RENDERING: One goal was to get back to working with pencil and drawing a little more realistically since I tend to favor a more stylized style when working with the face. And I did. Some of the pieces came out better than others, and I still want to push my darks so that is something that I will continue to work on. Overall, I feel like my style has a light touch, and I think I am okay with that but I know that including darker values will create a richer image with more depth. I intentionally left some of my 'underdrawing' visible...I think it shows the process of how the face came to appear from a blank white page, which is the most magical part to me of drawing and painting. QUOTES: I also wanted to work with quotes in this series. When I first started I would pair a random face I created with a quote that I liked. But a few pieces into the series I realized that I wanted to take it a step further and pair the quote with an actual portrait of the person who said the quote (or in some cases is associated with the quote) This also made the series a little more challenging because rather than just draw out of my head, I was working from photo references with the goal of creating a likeness of that person. MIXED-MEDIA: I added the watercolor washes to each piece to contrast with the gray scale of the rendering, and to make the faces stand out more. The watercolor features wet on wet, salt technique, spattering and paint drips to contrast with the tightness of the rendering. SUBJECT SELECTION: I selected women (mostly) that I admire for one reason or another. Many are relevant to music, there are some authors, artists, icons of fashion and popular culture humanitarianism. And yes, you're eyes aren't playing tricks on you- there ARE some men featured in the photo below. I chose to draw David Bowie when he passed to honor him, and his androgonous spirit that was not bound by male or female identitiy. (Then I did another portrait of him just because...not in the daily count...I wanted to remember him in one of my favorite roles, as Jereth the Goblin King in Labyrinth) I also included another piece I did not in the series, but in the same style- a portrait of Ric Flair and his daughter Charlotte that I gave to him in Miami. Also, not pictured, I am currently finishing up a commissioned piece for my cheer judge friend- Kent. PURCHASE AND COMMISSION INFO: Yep, these are for sale- all of them (except for the piece from January 4th, the two David Bowie pieces,the Jackie O portrait and the Ric Flair Portrait...if your favorite original sold I am willing to recreate something similar, but not quite identical) I will be scanning some or all of these pieces to be available for purchase as prints and on gift items. I will create a blog post and social media campaign when get those images up. Also, I have had some inquiries about the originals, each original is prices at $120, which includes a white mat with protective plastic sleeve and shipping. If you are interested in commissioning me to create a portrait for you- custom images in this same style start at $150 and go up from there for larger images- additional faces in a portrait are $25 extra per face. For more information, you can email me directly at [email protected]. Thanks everyone for all the support while creating this series. It was definitely a tougher one for me to complete artistically, but it also awakened my deep love for drawing so I look forward to trying to complete that magical number of portraits I have set for myself...I hope to reveal that later this spring. In the meantime...my new series for February...I think I may head back to the land of big-eyed ladies...maybe they'll have wings... |
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