Blog

August 20, 2013

Hello everyone,



This morning we woke up early, so I am going to grab a few minutes of unexpected coffee time today to let you know what I have been up to.

Last week I dropped off paintings for two fundraisers. The Center of the Visual Arts [CVA] in Wausau, WI has a fundraiser called “Art by the Foot” where the artists create artwork to be displayed on a 12” square canvas. I posted the paintings that I created for that fundraiser on my website. This time I painted a slice of watermelon for one and a molten chocolate cupcake for the other. I have painted a variety of subjects over the years for them: wildlife, desserts, wine with food and martinis. It is hard to know what subject this year’s patrons will want, so I paint what feels right to me at the time.

The second fundraiser is for the Woodson Museum in Wausau, WI. This is the seventh time that I have had a piece accepted into their international juried show,  Birds in Art, and my third trompe l’oeil piece. Their fundraiser is called, “Project Postcard”. Artists donate 4”x6” painting or paintings that are displayed unframed. The money raised from the sale of these pieces is used to purchase artwork for the museum. A couple of years ago, when I last had a piece accepted, I painted two studies of a couple of birds that I really like. I had a pastel painting accepted that year. If you have read my blogs, you’ll recognize that fact from the blog that refers to exploding the barriers to creativity which relates to my introduction to soft pastels. I didn’t think that soft pastels would be stable enough for the little painting, so I painted the bird studies instead. [I used those two birds in the trompe l’oeil piece that was accepted this year.] Low and behold, some of the other artists had submitted pastels, and I bought one of those little treasures. I was careful to not touch the painting, as I wasn’t sure if the artist had sprayed it with fixative. [I don’t spray mine because I don’t like the look of it…..just a personal choice] Artists do not sign the front of the piece, so you don’t know whose art you are buying, unless you recognize the style of an artist who always paints with the same style. I guess people would have a hard time recognizing my work, since I paint in a variety of styles. However, I don’t think people will have trouble with figuring out which are my two pieces that I donated...and that’s all I’m saying. Since it is supposed to be a surprise, I will post the paintings on Facebook and my website after the Birds in Art opening weekend, which is the first weekend in September.

The other adventure that I had last week was trading paintings that were on display at a very nice restaurant in Marshfield, WI called West 14^th Street. Traditional realism was the theme of the work that I had displayed previously. The owners liked my suggestion of hanging some of my abstract pieces. I took ten pieces for them look at for selection, and they took nine to display. I am not sure if I am like other artists, but I really enjoy having these earlier pieces back home. I paint only what I really like, so when a painting doesn’t sell, that’s OK because I really like what I created. Does that sound strange? I guess I am not as ruthless as I should be when it comes to selling my art.

Another on-going adventure is creating paintings for the 2015 calendar for Pine Ridge Art, Inc. I have been told that my 2014 calendar should soon be in stores all over, and it is currently available on their website. I love creating recipes, so painting food is very fun for me. I have written recipes to accompany the paintings that I create, and I create paintings to illustrate the recipes that I have come up with. Someday I hope to make a recipes book that is illustrated with my paintings.

For those of you who are artists, does your subject matter change as the seasons change? Mine do. I have been painting summer foods, summer landscapes and animals in their summer finery. However, the trees are just beginning to change their leaf color due to drought, so that color is reminding me of fall and the glorious colors to come, with all of the inspirations for paintings. Fall food still life compositions are in my mind, with Christmas food arrangements popping in, as well. One thing about living in an area that has four very definite seasons, there is always something new to inspire a painting.

Take care,

Jan