Winter Salon Show at The Metro Gallery

 

Metro Gallery is pleased to present a Winter Salon exhibition featuring 37 local artists. The opening reception will be held on November 14th from 5pm - 7pm.

We are featuring affordable works from local artists. This is a great way to support local creativity while shopping for the holiday season. The exhibition will be showing 11/14 - 12/14.

Three of my encasutic pieces with be shown!  If your in town, please stop by!

(I promise to resume regular blogging very soon.)

 

Weekend Inspiration: Andres Amador

I am just blown away by this beautiful, fleeting artwork.  Wouldn't it be wonderful to stumble across this.  I haven't been able to get in touch with the artist himself, but please check out more images of his work here.  And on Andres' website it appears as if you can join him in the creation of these beachscapes/sculptures/prints. I think that would be an awesome experience.  What an amazing medium, and a studio to die for, huh?!
Have a creative weekend!
 

Showering

This weekend seemed to go by quick!  Yesterday, I helped throw a shower for a good friend and co-worker.  We enjoyed a wine tasting at a local vineyard.  So nice!  I enjoy helping organize these things but have learned to keep it simple and not too overwhelming. I think this worked great, a few vintage table clothes, flowers in some mason jars and lots of wine!  The bride-to-be made me a lovely knit blanket at my baby shower so I wanted to return the handmade favor and made her a wreath.  I really like how it turn out, simple as well. 

In other news I got my first rejection from the show applications I've been sending out.  For the most part I am used to it, but this time since I was on a high from so much productivity in the studio, it made me question myself for a second.  Just a second though.  On ward, and back to the studio this week to complete a new commission.

(Side note; Boordy Vineyard, and specifically the interior shot above,  was used in the movie "Runaway Bride"  to film the luau scene.)

Collections of Titles

Does anyone else do this? I collect words I like for I one reason or another and save them for painting titles. Sometimes they fit something already milling in my head and sometimes the imagery comes after the word. But, I write them all over the place. Some I've had for years and still haven't used. One of those archived ones I think I'm ready to pull out. Here's a small group of them: 

Inertia

Tethered

Resonate

Invention

Reinvented

Curio

Ju Ju
Construction
Path
Lullaby
Target
Vista
Visited
Gathered/Gathering
Bailiwick
Variation/Variegated
Tomes
Clearing
Picket
 Cairns
Ancestral
Turned
Wonder
Artifact

If any of them strike a cord with you, I'd love to see what you create!

Patricia Gerkin: Weekend Inspiration

"Greek Chorus" 8x8" encaustic/mixed media on wood

"Secret Woods" 8x8" mixed media on wood

"Spring is in The Air" 12 x12" encaustic on wood

Hubby was searching for himself one day.  (See...I told you I wasn't the only one.)  And he came across Patricia Gerkin. (Gerkin is my married name.)  How surprising that she is a fellow encaustic artist that seems to perhaps be distantly related to my husband!  And to top it off I rather adore her work! I am so glad that Hubby stumbled across her.  Check out more of her work here.  I particularly like the Currents and Consistency series.  Thank you for sharing Patricia.

Just for fun

I'm sure this experiment would of worked better on an iPad, or with a stylus. I was playing around with the Brushes app on my phone. I was hoping to use it to record ideas. Not sure if I'm talented enough with digital media, but it sure was fun.

One of them I even did while Miss V was napping on me.

Sweet Spot

"Atmosphere" 18 x18" encaustic on panel

"Float" 12 x 12" encaustic & rust on panel

"Atmosphere" 10x22" encaustic, rust & metal findings on panel

As a runner, there is always talk about a "runner's high".  I'm not sure if I ever felt that specifically, but I do find that sweet spot everyone once in a while.  For me, it's when I am just in the zone and it's effortless.  On Monday night I had just a couple hours to be in the studio and in no time I found myself in that sweet spot.
I turned around "Atmosphere" and found what I think it needed. (You can check out the before here.) I was able to pull together "Abandoned", I started it last week and I wasn't sure what direction to go in with it. But I was just moving in that rythym where every decision I made turned out to be the right one for that piece.  
I kept moving and with my last remaining blank panel "Floating" appeared.  I'm sure it was a good thing that it was my last blank surface. At least that's what I am going to tell myself.  I mean, what if I could've just kept going like that?  It was great to have such a productive evening!  That sweet spot is like a drug.  If I had another surface I'd be out there tonight trying to capture that feeling again. 

Whispers

"Whisper: Sprout" 4x5" encaustic on panel

"Whisper: Cocoon" 4x5" encaustic on panel

"Whisper: Cluster" 4x5" encaustic on panel

"Whisper: Become" 4x5" encaustic on panel"

I hope every one's weekend was lovely.  We have a sick doggie, so It was not a fun one around here.  But, I wanted to share some new work with you!  Here are 4 little pieces in a new series I am working on.  I am almost set to send off for a show deadline, which listed the postmarked deadline as today!  Hmmm, Federal Holiday. So I think I will try and see if I can get by with a postmark of the 21st.  (Nothing like waiting till the last minute!)  Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll consider me anyway.  Fingers crossed.

Cedric Smith: Weekend Inspiration

"Today's Special" mixed media on canvas 60 x 49"

"Southern Pride"  38" x 48" mixed media on canvas

"Church Bus" 11 x 14" ultrachrome print

Amazing, huh?  I saw Cedric Smith's work when Hubby and I were vacationing in Savannah.  It just stood out over and above all the other artwork we perused all weekend.  I couldn't wait to look him up.  When I started these post, I immediately knew I wanted to share these complex and sweet works with you. As usual I was draw to the layering and re-working that is present in his work. Even though the work seems rather large and demanding, I wanted to get up close and inspect the nuances in the technique as well. I love the bitter sweet nostalgia of the work and the advertising imagery becoming so painterly.  Amazing.


All I could think about was purchasing one and that when we had the perfect house it would be there in the kitchen where I could enjoy it every day!  And when researching this post I found Cedric's Etsy store.  I can, at least own a print one day. Hurray!!

I also can't get by without mentioning his photography.  The juxtaposition between the past and present leads your mind to create a narrative.

Check out his bio to learn more. And make sure you visit his website and blog as well.  It was really hard to pick a favorite painting to post here!  Thank you Cedric for sharing your work.

Happy creating!  

Amazing Techincal Talent

Close to You
(Angus calf)
8”x10”
Pyrography on maple

I am speechless.  The first work is by artist Julie Bender and is wood burned or Pyrography.  It is so amazingly delicate.  
The second is quilled (I've been trying this, and been put to shame here) and is by artist Lisa Nilson.  Check out this lovely article about her Tissue Series here.
I just had to share!

Critique Anyone?

"Atmosphere" (?) encaustic on birch panel 12" x 24"

So, after an evening pondering whether or not the above painting was finished I read fellow blogger Megan Woodard Johnson's  post "Venturing off My Beaten Path", and was reminded of how common it was for us artist to ask that question.  As a student at a fine arts college, I couldn't wait for the day when I could stop talking about my work.  The ad nauseam "crits" sometimes seemed, for some, to be about creative spinning more than the actual creating of art.

Since those long ago and far away days, I've realized there needs to be a happy medium.  While the act of creating requires a significant time alone for most of us, there is still a need for a certain amount of artistic community.  I find this lacking the most while I stand in my studio asking myself "Is it finished?", "Is something missing?", "Would you add something?"  

I often think about the graduate studios at said fine arts college, and loved the perfect combination of being walled off yet peeking next door for a conversation or an opinion.  When I daydream about one day doing a residency I think this is the environment I would search for. (In perhaps a tropical climate, or one with amazing vistas and to-die-for pasta.) But, I digress.  My point is this: in such a lovely and supportive community full of talented and inspirational peeps, would a critique post be possible?  Once a week, or bi-weekly, you could send me some images of a work in progress, and I could post them with one of mine and we could give each other some constructive criticism.

Let me know if anyone out there is interested.  And I would love some feedback about the work above, if you're so inclined. And please, no need to be an artist to comment!  Sometimes the best feedback I've gotten is from those persons that just appreciate art.
Thanks!

Christine Sajecki: Weekend Inspiration

The Works
48"x24" encaustic and oil on board
2005 

Backyards of Baltimore
34"x30" encaustic and photocopy transfer on birch
2009 

 

I first saw Christine's work during an open studio tour in 2006 (I think?) I remember seeing "The Works" and thinking that is the surface I've been trying to create since college!  I wanted to touch it, and ask a thousand questions!  I didn't.  (I wasn't as pushy as I am now.) I can't believe I waited until 2009 to take a class on encaustic at The Creative Alliance in Baltimore, and Christine was teaching. (She was a resident artist there art the time.)

Her work is even more beautiful and complex in person.  Her mastery of the medium is stellar.  There is such a great balance of color, depth and imagery. You've gotta check out her website to see the full breath of Christine's work.  I love her sculptural work as well, since encaustic is such a tactile medium, she gives the viewer an opportunity to carry some pieces around. I can't wait to see what is coming up for her.  Thank you Christine for sharing!! (And for creating another encaustic painter.)

Murphy complete

"Murphy" 12x12" oil on canvas (Custom dog portrait)

Here is Murphy hot off the presses! I absolutely love the humor that shines through. Makes you want to play catch with him, doesn't it?
I love that my client chose such a fun picture to capture his spirit.  

In other news I've been keeping up with some submission deadlines, and plugging away in the studio.  I'll post some new work soon.

I'm also super excited about tomorrows "Weekend Inspiration" post.  Don't miss it!


 

Time Heals

"Ascension" 16"x 20" encaustic on birch panel

This finished work has been years in the making.  I first mentioned it in this post.  I had started the painting below in 2004 after my Dad passed away.  I just couldn't get it to a place that I liked.

"Flight" acrylic on canvas 38" x 48" (painted over)

I ended up painting over it. I just couldn't seem to get across all the complexity that I had wanted. It seemed too elementary to me. So I thought I'd try again in encaustic.  My usual palette doesn't always turn out the way I would like.  I am still learning the medium.  But now that I've made it more subtle and quiet I think it says more.  At least to me.  I may at some point revisit the image in oils. But for now I'm satisfied.

Finding myself

Not in the philosophical sense, who has time to ponder that now a days!!  So, I Googled myself. (Like you haven't done it too.) I was doing research for my new Etsy shop and web page.  In the process I found this article from a hot minute ago.  It was written by one of my talented clients and it was back in my single tree house (what I called my apartment) days.  The studio pictured was the other half of my bedroom!!It was a tiny apartment, with a large bedroom luckily.


*I couldn't find the photographers name!! I would like to give credit to him.

Announcing my Shop!

A collection of 10 blank note cards using 5 images of my original artwork

I have opened an Etsy shop!!  After two years of making every excuse I've finally jumped in. It doesn't hurt that my amazing Hubby got me an archival printer for Christmas and now I can make prints of my work.  

It is still a work in progress, but if I waited for perfection I wouldn't of ever opened it.  I struggled with whether or not it would devalue my art(?) But, in the end I like the idea that my friends could own a print by me or send a lovely note with my artwork if they can't afford an original oil painting or encaustic.

I will be adding more items, and maybe swapping out some photos. AND as an treat you can receive a 10% discount on any item in my store through February 26th by using the coupon code GrandOpening!  So..tell me what you think! 

Did I forget to mention how nerve racking this is!?!  Now I'm going to go play with Miss V.  

 

Ernesto Neto at Faena Arts Center

I just couldn't wait to do this for a Weekend Inspiration post.  How amazing!!  All crocheted.  AND you can crawl through it.  I wanna see this.  Check out the article here.

Allison Long Hardy: Weekend Inspiration

Finish Line  

Monotype, pen, colored pencil on paper

10" x 10"  2011

Pour Out

Monotype, colored pencil, pen on paper

21.5" x 19"  2011

Shelf Life

Monotype, colored pencil on paper

43" x 25"  2010

Flourish

India ink, colored pencil, graphite, pen on paper

60" x 30"  2011

Flourish, detail

Aren't these pieces just glowing?!  I found Allison Long Hardy  when I saw this post about one of her shows. I love the build up of layer after of layer and the colors! I could get mesmerized by them, or lost as I follow the twist and turns of the marks.  Allison also plays with the opacity of the inks to add even further dimension.  The play off the dark and light in "Shelf Life" really attracts me, as well as the drawing of the scratches/marks through out.  The final image of her drawings I was going to begin to describe as a deconstructed version of her prints, but that's not quite true.  There is still so much depth and presence to the marks and intensity of the ink.  Just lovely!  Please check out more of her work on her website and enjoy getting lost in her amazing work. 

Miss V and I took a field trip to The Howard County Center for The Arts yesterday afternoon.  I got to see "Shelf Life" in person.  I'm going to add that to my wish list of artwork I'd like to own.  It was a great show, well curated.


Her work is currently being shown at The Howard County Center for the Arts in "Intertwined Expressions" and at The Dupont Gallery in "Crowded Spaces".




Thank you Allison for sharing and kicking off an inspiring weekend!

A Mother and an Artist

"Swarm" 16" x 20" encaustic and mixed media on birch panel

"Reckoning" 20" x 20" encaustic and oil paint on birch panel

So happy to have 3 finished encaustic paintings!! Here are two, I don't have an image of the third yet.  I will post that one soon.
It has been so awesome to have studio time.  I certainly don't have total balance in my life, but it's nice to be able to find some time for me.  I am hoping to really crank it up and apply for some shows by the end of the month.  Fingers crossed everyone.

P.S.  Big news coming Monday!! I can't wait to share.