The Corner Studio and Gallery is now hosting a finished musical painting by Liz Lund and Josey Wise. We have created “Pacific Sound” and enjoyed every minute of the creation process.

When we were offered the chance to paint the piano I was ecstatic and a little intimidated. I’ve always been confident of my artistic abilities but I’ve never used house paint for anything other than a house. And the piano was huge! That being said I also have never had more fun creating a large piece of artwork.

A painted piano is approachable and somehow calls to the kid inside. I’ve had small children run into the studio with their hands outstretched to plink the keys and adults come in and start playing chopsticks. At the same time I’ve had talented teenagers meekly walk in and just start playing beautiful tunes. All of this has happened while I tried to create a painting that reminded people of the beauty in our region.

My favorite moment is when this enterprising 1 and 1/2 yr old came into the studio at top speed and made a beeline for the piano. He squealed and had to start making noise. Unfortunately the paint was super wet so I had to warn his mom that unless she wanted a blue kid she might want to redirect. I can’t wait to see what he does with the Orcas I painted on the bottom!

The process of creating playable art is definitely hard work. Josey and I elected to create a series of paintings more than a ‘decorated’ piano. We knew that this would be more complicated but it seemed more fun for us. I have found that as long as I’m having fun my artwork is much better.

I also enjoy the fact that this project has opened up new venues for me. I had no idea I would enjoy creating artwork on large pieces of furniture.. and now I can’t wait to do it again. I have been debating taking a trip to ikea for some unfinished furniture and creating fun but approachable artwork to live with. Let me know if you want a kid’s art chair or a unique but fun coffee table.

At the end of the day I’m super grateful to have had so much fun creating something that the community can enjoy.

Musical Everett

The City of Everett has had a brilliant idea. Carol Thomas the Cultural Arts Manager in the Economic Development group has purchased seven pianos for painting and subsequent distribution/display throughout Downtown Everett. Each piano will be painted by one or two artists and I was selected to be one of the artists! Josie Wise and I are decorating a gorgeous old upright piano that has beautiful sound but started ugly as sin.

Our blank canvas!

Josie and I decided to go with a pacific northwest theme. We are both imports to the Pacific Northwest and as summer swings into gear we are particularly grateful for the natural beauty that surrounds us. In addition, both Josie and I are primarily landscape painters. We enjoy taking brush to canvas or paper and communicating our feelings and impressions of the world to you the viewer. We have decided to take the impressionistic trend and to translate it into a series of paintings on the huge piano. It has been super fun and I’d love to hear your commentary on it!

It started with a steep learning curve for me. The bottom of the piano here really is blue! Josie figured it out faster and her backgrounds are done.

I’ll be updating it as we go along.

On Friday I was mentioned in the Everett Herald as part of my introduction to the new studio! It’s very exciting and hopefully will help generate continued notice of my work in the community.

This is what they said about me; the full article can be found at ‘http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20100716/LIVING/707169981/1025/ENT06#Everett.art.walk.artist.Liz.Lund.heavily.influenced.by.trip.to.Europe’

‘Everett art walk artist Liz Lund heavily influenced by trip to Europe

By Theresa Goffredo
Herald Writer
Liz Lund’s European travels led her to study the impressionists and now she likes to paint large and paint bold.

Lund’s paintings share the walls with artists Janet Wold and Jane Meagher at the Corner Studio & Gallery, 2831 Wetmore Ave., Everett.

The works of those three women and many other artists are among the offerings visitors can see during Everett’s free monthly event, the Everett Art Walk.

The art walk allows visitors into many local art galleries and businesses where they can meet the artists. Free public receptions generally run from 4 to 9 p.m. Saturday.’

Hope you came by the studio last night but if not I’ll be at the Studio this monday and wednesday and thursday.

Liz

I’ve been transitioning into more and more acrylic paintings lately and really love working in this medium. First, it’s super fun to create something that is hardy and light fast. I love the flow and mixture of watercolor but it’s such a fragile medium for display. In the midst of this transition I was working in my old studio and staring at a really fun piece of work created by Marc Lucero. This bright cheery sunflower on a smooth wood panel was hanging over my work table and taunting me with it’s fun vibrant colors on wood paneling. I thought to myself… I can make something fun and vibrant with acrylic… So I did.

I decided to take the inspiration and go with a small sunflower series. Each piece is 5in x 5in square canvas painting. I originally planned for something simple and without much texture but the paintings just didn’t work out as planned. The first piece is a closeup of the center of a sunflower. I did a layered series of dots for the center portion and I love the look of it. I also went with a painterly approach to the petals of the flower, meaning each petal is a layered piece showing depth and movement. It was a ton of fun… a little more work than I’d planned but I like the end result.

The second piece was a piece showing the whole flower. I originally did the background for this piece as white but hated the look so I painted the background black. The black really brought out the fun vibrancy of the sunflower look. This piece isn’t as detailed as the closeup piece but is fun in it’s own way. It’s more impressionistic in style.

The third piece is coming and not finished yet…. I’ll post it when it is.
I’d love to hear what you think!

After a successful year full of adventures, successes, great decisions bad decisions and all levels of fun I am leaving my studio on Colby Ave.  It has been a wonderful experience and a successful one!  I’ve learned so much about owning and operating my own store, how to sell artwork.   What kind of artwork sells and what doesn’t.  As it turns out I have no idea what will sell!  I love all my patrons the friends I’ve made and the good times I’ve had.  I can’t wait to continue them all at the corner studio.  It is on the corner of Wetmore and Hewitt in downtown Hewitt.  Janet Wold and Jane Steele-Meagher have been operating a wonderful studio gallery and asked me to join them.  At the end of June I am moving to join them.  I can’t wait to work with such talented and interesting artists and I can’t wait to see what new work they inspire!

Every now and then you have to change your perspective on life and art.  In the past I’ve spent a lot of time painting large and thoroughly enjoy the loose expressionist style enabled by large format paintings… but then I found these really adorable tiny canvases.  They’re one inch by one inch.  In discussions with my mom, a fellow artist, she how a change in perspective can help one’s work.  I thought why not, they have these mini canvases on sale and they’re super cute… I loved it! They are so much fun to make and I’d encourage anyone to give miniatures a shot. Just get a small brush. I think that with a small brush you can still achieve an impressionistic style and a loose look but just tiny.

here’s a wee photo of my work:

These days all my friends seem to be creating new life and I always struggle to find unique and original gifts. One of my dearest friends and her husband (yep the guy even married my husband and me!) recently had an adorable baby girl. I wanted to do something special and meaningful but struggled to find the right gift. I decided to create something similar to what my parents were given when I was born. A family friend gave my parents a very sweet embroidered piece with an image, my name, pounds and date. I don’t sew but I do know how to create artwork, so I spent some time researching options. I decided to go realistic… sort of. I wanted something sweet so I opted to use a bunny as an image. I spent a good deal of time online looking at bunny photos and learning how bunnies are shaped. Once I got comfortable with the shape I decided to work in colored pencils, they’re fun celebrate childhood and I have been missing them as a medium. So I drew a bunny in colored pencil and then added in the information for the sweet baby girl. That being said I had to celebrate the girlyness of it all so I changed the bunny to a pink one!

I’ve blurred out the baby’s name but the rest of it is true. In this case I’ve added a basic frame and some very fun mat board to the piece.

In the future I plan to take high resolution photos of the pieces before I add in personal information and use the images to create prints. The prints will allow me to put in nice font names and such but it’s a print so a bit less personal. I’d love to hear what you think! The next creature will be a frog… I’m collecting frog photos 🙂 Cool frog photos anyone?

Da Eggs:
How appropriate for Easter! I have created several pieces inspired by friends who are either preggers or gave birth recently.  I’m attaching photos of the first two in the three piece series.  The third piece isn’t done yet!  These pieces are all based on the egg and the womb.  I do have to say that despite all of the symbolism behind the pieces they were fun to paint.  I worked to achieve the smooth look of the womb/sac space and to achieve a smooth flow of color.  It was a lot of fun to make these pieces. They are abstract and representational and way cool looking if I do say so myself! What symbolism do you see?

This piece I find interesting in the composition.  I tried to create a happy and interesting visual space.  You can see the red comforting space cradling the egg and it’s all surrounded by a peaceful blue.   Throughout the blue space you see lots of movement and flow and the red space is warm and comforting.

I wanted a little more aggressive of color choices in this one.  I do feel as if the red background is much less soothing.   That being said, upon review I do believe that this piece requires some additional working.   I think that the blue sac is not finished.    I’ll rework it and post it here along with the third piece later this week.

I’d love to hear your reactions.

Fun with Oil Paintings

Under normal circumstances I describe myself as a watercolor artist but in the last couple of weeks I have been drawn to painting with oils and acrylics.  I have had a blast and learned several things about my style of painting.  Apparently, no matter the medium I still think like a watercolor artist.  I guess that isn’t a shocker since I was trained to be a watercolor artist.   That being said… I am loving the gushiness and the flow of these new mediums.

Oil:

I have created two pieces in oil that I think are interesting and fun.

Red Flower in Oil

This is the first piece a red flower that is full of gushiness and flowing colors.  I have noticed that I prefer to paint with just oil paint and linseed oil… it creates a really cool flowing effect… however it takes forever to dry!  In this piece I worked to create a vibrancy and flow but to still retain the overall shape of the center flower.  I think I did an ok job.. at the very least while painting it I had 7 people walk into the studio to see the new painting.  I think it’d be very fun to try a different flower and try to achieve the smooth flow but to do it in watercolor.   What do you think?

The second piece is all green motion.  The piece was originally inspired by the background grasses in a photo… but somehow I never got to the flower part.  I had so much fun creating the flow of color and movement in this piece.  As with many of my more inspirational pieces I think this one is from the heart.  I can’t tell you what I was thinking as I created it or even what color combinations I used.  In looking back at it I can tell you that I used green 😉 but not much else.

I hope you enjoy these and I welcome comments or critiques on the pieces.

Hello all friends one of my favorite paintings is featured in Everett’s blog. check out the blog for any upcoming events and opportunities in the Everett Area. www.everettwablog.com! Also tomorrow I’ll be updating the blog with a bunch of new photos of oils, acrylics and a few cave like paintings. Stay tuned!