Have you ever thought about children’s songs and their message? I find myself continually inspired by my son to do things like write a new children’s book or make some paintings so I think I will. I have a show coming up this summer and I’d like to base at least some of my paintings on the song ‘Blackbird’. I love the message and love the images that are flowing through my brain. So… I just need to learn how to draw a blackbird and then paint one… whooie! I’m much more comfortable painting based on this song then something about the bubonic plague or cradles falling out of a tree… I mean really? who thought these are comforting? I sure don’t and nor am I comfortable singing about how daddy will buy you things until you’re happy. I’ll be sure to post images of my sketches and workings as I progress.

Normally I reserve this blog for thoughts on artwork, upcoming projects etc but I must take a moment to express my regret in the decrease of book stores.  First let me preface my rant by saying I’m a bibliophile.  I love a good book.  In my world the only thing better than a quiet evening with a new book, some good wine and cheese is an evening spent with my son and husband.  Even with that qualifier I still crave evenings with a good book and a glass of wine.  A properly written book can suck you into a story, it can transport you to other worlds, expand your emotional horizons and lighten your burdens.  For me a good story has always been an escape.  I was an awkward teenager, I didn’t fit into any standard molds and paid the social prices for it.  I spent many a night reading some Anne McCaffery novels wishing I could ride a dragon and talk to him/her telepathically.  It was a solace in a time where I didn’t fit in; as such Books became my friends.

Now as a busy artist and stay at home mom I rarely have time to read and if I do I’m reading a book on my iPhone after being awakened one too many times in the middle of the night.  My poor  husband somehow objects to me turning all the lights to read a paper book… go figure   In this digital age so much is ‘paperless’ and the environmentalist in me loves that in theory we’re creating less paper waste but the reader in me misses books.  Don’t get me wrong, I am a techno hound; I own a kindle, and love it.  I love that I can travel with my personal library of 300+ books in one thing that fits in my purse/diaper bag… you gotta admit that’s crazy cool.  I no longer have to pack a duffle of books or make a deal with someone that if I read all my books I can then move onto theirs.   I read many of my books on my iPhone, my iPad and enjoy them but it’s just not the same.  I miss the fun of walking through a bookstore, poking through fun book covers skimming authors and generally enjoying touching and smelling a book.

The increasing prevalence of digital bookstores is taking it’s toll on our bookstores.  I see Barnes and Nobles going out of business (ok they already have but you get my point), and small book stores going under and I am sad.  I love that Barnes and Nobles and Borders made it cool to surf through a bookstore.  Yes I surfed through the bookstore hoping to meet an intellectual guy who didn’t mind my dozens of books stashed around my house.  Yes I smelled books when I started them and yes I miss sitting a bubble bath with a trashy romance novel that has slightly warped pages from my wet hands.  If only we had endless room and money for both digital and paper books that way I could have both!  As it is I have incomplete series on my kindle because I can’t stand it and just buy a hard copy book.  This also means I have random books on my bookshelves and no longer have complete series of books in my bookshelves… except for Harry Potter and Barbara Kingsolver books.  A girl has to have standards.

My thoughts for the day!

Last year, while surfing through my favorite art supply store I came across some tiny canvases and thought…oooooh fun!  They are super fun to buy but a ton of work for such a tiny painting.  I started a series that has had a great response… my ‘Tiny Treasures’ series.  I started selling them for the Christmas/Holiday season and realized that people wanted more… so this year I did some more.   This year I did a polar bear series, and expanded the repitoire to include 3×3 inches not just 2×2 inch paintings.

I did several Seattle scenes (those sold on the first day of display) and a bunch of Polar Bears, as well as the snowmen I created last year.  I intend to create more and to offer them throughout the year.  I think I’ll create a bunch of Seattle scenes as well as some scenes for other areas.  Given that I come from the DC area I think I might make a few tiny treasures for the DC Area (monuments etc) and maybe some of the San Francisco bay area.  I’d love to hear comments about ideas or things you think you’d like to see!

I have a new show up at the Women’s Wellness Center in Everett, WA, http://www.womenswellnesscenter.org/.  The Women’s Wellness Center is a wondeful place in Everett, WA The Women’s Wellness Center is a unique facility that combines wellness coaching, circuit strength training, body treatments, spa services, and healthy lifestyle classes. An overall approach to personal wellness designed for women and girls..

This show is a fun combination of existing pieces and some new locally inspired pieces.  The show is a on display in their foyer and in their exercise class area, hopefully inspiring some good sweaty workouts!  I’m so pleased to be a part of this.

So… you’re reading the blog of the new board member for the Shack Art Center (http://www.schack.org/).  I’m incredibly honored and super excited to contribute to such a fabulous place.   I know I bring a unique perspective as an artist who also has started some businesses and worked with foundations and I know that I have a ton to learn from them.

For those of you who are unaware of the Shack, you should be!  It’s this incredible non-profit organization that brings artwork to the community in Everett and Snohomish county.  It has a hot-shop for glass, classrooms for instruction in a variety of art techniques, from painting to collage to kids classes.  All classes are taught by local artists and are open to everyone!  This is the same group of people who started the ‘Art in Great Spaces’ Program that brought so much additional art and life to the community in Everett.

I can’t wait to contribute and see you there!

Liz

So while painting the mural for my son I fell in love with the Pacific Northwest Octopus.  I loved the colors, the oddity and the sheer fun of painting an octopus… so I decided to paint one in watercolors instead of on a wall in acrylic. 

When painting in the puddling style one should plan out the basic shapes and think through the order of your painting.   With this painting I used masking fluid to preserve the shape of the octopus while keeping the background looking like it flows together and has an interesting composition.  The task then was to pick the order of the legs to paint…so fun!

I opted not to have each leg have suckers…. While it’s certainly possible to use masking fluid and go as detailed as you’d like with the painting I frankly just get bored with that level of detail…

There is a call for art out there for three 12 x 12 paintings and I’ve been planning on creating a series based on ‘Blackbird’ by the Beatles.

The idea came to me while I rocked my baby to sleep and heard ‘Blackbird’ playing behind me.  The lyrics are as follows:

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise

Black bird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
all your life
you were only waiting for this moment to be free

Blackbird fly, Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.

Blackbird fly, Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise,
You were only waiting for this moment to arise,
You were only waiting for this moment to arise

Here’s my vision:

Three images with text behind them.  Blackbirds will be featured in all of them.  The colors will be of the night and tiny splashes of color from the blackbird will be on display.

Several months ago some friends of mine convinced me that not only could I apply for and be accepted to Fresh Paint in Everett but that I could do a good job at the festival.  It’s a juried festival and every year it apparently gets harder and harder to get into, so when I was accepted I was honored, excited and very very nervous.  The people that I know who have done the festival are uber professionals and really together with their tents, displays and products for sale.  Whereas this was my first real festival and I had a lot to learn about all of that.

I know I can sell things but I’ve always had to work hard at displays and marketing.  I find myself much more comfortable marketing other artists than marketing myself.  I am tempted to say “I rock, my artwork is solid.. buy some” and call it good… but alas that just doesn’t work in the professional world.  Add in the fact that I had a two month old baby when this festival was scheduled to happen added a little bit of stress.  Oh and we traveled for a memorial service one week on the east coast the week before the festival.  Total it all up I felt as if I was in way over my head.

Here’s the thing though, the artist community in the Pacific Northwest is incredible.  People are generous with their time, support and supplies.  I’m continually amazed that people have done so much to support me.  My friend Janet loaned me her fabulous tent and grids, another friend loaned her grids to me.  And then my rockstar in-laws came in and helped me with everything.  On top of it all, my husband just did more than I can express to help pull this off.  I caught a cold on the trip and proceeded to completely go down and my husband picked up the tent, grids and display things for me.

Then the day of the event rolled in, I was so nervous that I was shaking, I was ready way in advance of the set up time, and barely slept the night before.  The day was sunny with not a cloud in the sky and gorgeous.  It was all I hoped for; within two hours of things starting I sold two original pieces.  People were lovely and supportive of me and my artwork.  I can’t express how fun it is to see someone do a double take while looking at my booth or walk away from a demonstration saying, “Wow, that was cool”.   Although I wasn’t able to continue sales at my starting rate I have to declare the festival a success.  I enjoyed the experience, learned a ton and had the honor of being near several talented artists.

Creatures:

This was an intimidating prospect for me as I generally paint landscapes and not creatures.  It required a lot of pre-sketching and general research.  On a tree I can move a limb and no one knows… you can’t exactly move a fin on a whale and not notice the difference.  For each creature I looked at approximately 5-6 different images, practiced sketching them and then just went for it.  I have found that once I say that the image doesn’t have to be

perfect I can enjoy the process of creating each creature.  If I say it has to be perfect I stress out and don’t enjoy the process of painting a creature.

I opted to paint fewer creatures than originally planned because I ran out of steam, but also because it was getting increasingly difficult to squat/sit for hours in front of the wall.  I chose to paint a belugah, a pacific northwest octopus, some cool jellyfish and a small pod of orcas.

Lessons Learned: This is definitely the time to bust out the acrylic paint and the good paintbrushes.  It will be much much easier to paint these critters if you have the control and color selection offered by professional acrylics.

Completion:

At the end of the day my plan was to create a mural that I enjoyed, that my son would hopefully enjoy and I believe I have a success.  This mural was a much larger project than I initially understood, however, I’m proud of the results.  Maybe after I give birth I’ll add in some ocean floor and ocean floor creatures.  But that part of the project will have to wait until I can bend over and paint near baseboards.

Landmasses:

This is where I opted to use house paint instead of acrylic paint.  I definitely saved money but it was way harder to use house paint here.  I believe that acrylic paint would have made it more luminous and I wouldn’t have had to recover the drips from the blue ocean.  But I made it work anyways.  I went for a stylized landmass that referenced the San Juan Islands (one of my favorite parts of this world).

Lessons Learned:  1) If you can afford it use acrylic paint… it’s way way easier!  You won’t have the drips I did off the landmass area.   2) I wouldn’t use expensive brushes because the house paint will trash the brushes but the professional brushes definitely made a difference in the ease of painting my landmasses.  That being said I found some fabulous brushes at Daniel Smith on sale that were fabulous.  They were cheap but similar to brushes designed for use by a professional artist.

Note: on this image you can see the white chalk outlines of what else I was going to add.  This was my secondary sketch of the mountain area.  I used white charcoal because it wiped off with a damp cloth!

Mountains:

When I planned this I decided to have a line of mountains that would make the viewer either think of the Olymipic Mountains or the Cascade Mountains.  I had a great time painting these mountains and definitely went overboard.  When I was done I realized that I created a field of mountains more reminiscent of a Glacial field than a mountain range… whoops!