Friday, December 28, 2012

Paint Party Friday: Week 42 Year 2 Check-In - Happy New Year 2013!


Start your New Year off with a bang... 
(Click here for details.)
 
We hope you are all enjoying a lovely Holiday Season complete with wonderful times with family and friends, and some creativity too.  Since we know you are all very busy this time of year, we're keeping this week's post short and sweet.  From our studios to yours, we wish you all a safe and fun New Year..., and that every one of you has a happy, healthy, prosperous and creative year filled with love and laughter!
 
See you in 2013!

Now, let's party!
 
As always, please make sure to use your post URL address NOT your blog home page URL address as there are many late visitors who get confused as to which post is for PPF when they arrive (after Friday) at your website. If you are unfamiliar with Mr. Linky, an explanation of how this tool works can be found on Week 1 and Week 2 Check-Ins.
 

To a great 2013! (insert clinking glass sound here...)
EVA and Kristin
xoxo

Friday, December 21, 2012

Paint Party Friday: Week 41, Year 2 Check In Featured Artist: EVA from "to be determined"


image courtesy of EVA of "to be determined"

Hi Everyone, it's EVA here... First, I'd like to welcome you all to the 41st week (Year 2) of Paint Party Friday and thank you all again for making this such a fun party. Second, I'd like to repeat: Please, please, please send in your PPF Artist Interview!!! We warned you that if you didn't send in your interviews, you'd be subjected to Kristin and I blathering on about ourselves...Kristin did so eloquently a while ago and I guess it is now my turn… So, while we wait for your stories (please send in your stories), you're stuck with me! Third – after this interview, we have an idea we would like to get your feedback on.

Please tell us a bit about your personal history with painting. (When did you start painting? How has your painting evolved since you first started?)
I am fairly new to painting and to art. I remember enjoying it as a child though I never pursued it beyond that. My sister was “the artist” in the family and I was happy for her to be such and kept busy with a myriad of other interests. A few years ago (late 2009) I was questioning my creativity – wondering if indeed I was creative since I rarely did anything more than admire art. I came across Leah’s Creative Every Day website and decided to create something in some blank books I had - every day in 2010. And I did. 365 one-page creations. I tried pens, coloured pencils, pastels and paints. I really enjoyed the painting.
What are your favorite techniques, media, and tools to use in creating your paintings?
I am really still learning and experimenting. Captivated by art stores, I have bought and tried a few different media. So far I like acrylics best, though watercolours are very easy to take with you when travelling – maybe I’ll eventually get the hang of them…
image courtesy of EVA of "to be determined"

What is your favorite thing to paint? Why?
I don’t have any favourite things yet. I keep experimenting with whatever idea the muse or prompts bring my way. I’d like to try more abstracts but so far only one attempt has made me happy. I always think they look easy when I see them on walls but I now realize that there is a lot of skill and talent that goes into making a beautiful abstract. I always admire the gorgeous ones I see my fellow PPFers create.
image courtesy of EVA of "to be determined"
What is your proudest painting moment and/or greatest painting achievement so far?
About two-thirds of the way through my year of “living creatively” in 2010, close friends were over for dinner. They had just renovated their main floor bathroom and were gently bickering over artwork and how to decorate it. All of a sudden I heard myself say “I’ll paint you a picture for it…”!! (??) To this point all the “painting” I had done was in a small book, never on a canvas. But I started. And finished. They loved it and spent over $300 to frame it! I was very happy and proud of that.  

image courtesy of EVA of "to be determined"


I am also thrilled with my nutcracker paintings that I created last January. They are now hanging in my seriously-over-decorated-for-Christmas living room.
image courtesy of EVA of "to be determined"
(btw - note Kristin's lovely Nutcracker on the mantel)
I am also (most of all) super proud of PPF and all of you and your participation in the party here. I am always (and Kristin is too) thrilled when I read your comments about how PPF helps you keep up with your painting activities and goals. It is exactly what we hoped for when we created it.
  
What's next in your painting future?
I would like to paint bigger! Maybe a 3-4 ft  canvas, or larger size? I don’t really have a good spot to do this though so it might wait until summer returns to the north… and I can paint outdoors.
To learn even more about EVA, she can be found at:
***
  
This past week, despite all the excitement and busy-ness of the holiday season, has also been a time of great shock and sorrow over the tragedy at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. Our heartfelt wishes go out to the families involved. Many of you have been commenting about this on your blogs, some of you have been creating art in memoriam and others have been wondering how to contibute. It was suggested to us that we might want to hold an art auction with the proceeds going to the school's support fund. We wonder if you would like to participate in this idea? Other ways to help have been suggested by Liv Lane in this post. If you like the art auction idea, then we will hold the event in January. Please email us or let us know in the comments. Thanks! 
***
**Would you like to be a PPF Featured Artist? (Of course you do!)
Click here for more details!**

As always, please make sure to use your post URL address NOT your blog home page URL address as there are many late visitors who get confused as to which post is for PPF when they arrive (after Friday) at your website. If you are unfamiliar with Mr. Linky, an explanation of how this tool works can be found on Week 1 and Week 2 Check-Ins.

We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday celebrations!
xoxo
EVA and Kristin

Friday, December 14, 2012

Paint Party Friday: Week 40 Year 2 Check-In


Being a PPF Featured Artist is sweet!
(Click here for more details.)

While we wait for more featured artist submissions, we thought it would be fun to revisit a "Year 1" tradition and ask a poll question!

Since everyone is so busy this time of year, we're wondering if painting is still a priority...


Now, it's time to show off those painting efforts!

Please make sure to use your post URL address NOT your blog home page URL address as there are many late visitors who get confused as to which post is for PPF when they arrive (after Friday) at your website. If you are unfamiliar with Mr. Linky, an explanation of how this tool works can be found on Week 1 and Week 2 Check-Ins.


Friday, December 7, 2012

Paint Party Friday: Week 39 Year 2 Check In

created in photofacefun.com

This holiday season, give your PPF friends the gift of your story!

Dear wonderful PPFers,

This is a message that is worth repeating...

We have received many messages from lots of you not knowing "if your paintings are good enough" or thinking that since you don't "sell your art", you shouldn't submit an interview to be a PPF Featured Artist.  If this sounds familiar, please know...

*ALL PAINT PARTY FRIDAY PAINTERS ARE WELCOME!!!*

If you paint, we want to hear your story.


We all learn from each other...

It doesn't matter if you use oils or fingerpaints; if you paint on canvas or cardboard; if you paint in a studio, at the kitchen table or on the floor; if you've been published or you only post paintings to your blog...

We all have something to share! It has been fascinating to hear a such a fun variety of  stories and to learn more about each Featured Artist. Such inspiration! Similarities, differences, uniqueness  and wonderful paintings. Thank you to everyone who has been featured so far!

Now, we want to hear YOUR story!

What are you waiting for? 
Submit your interview  ;)
xoxo
EVA and Kristin

Now, let's get this party started...

Please make sure to use your post URL address NOT your blog home page URL address as there are many late visitors who get confused as to which post is for PPF when they arrive (after Friday) at your website. If you are unfamiliar with Mr. Linky, an explanation of how this tool works can be found on Week 1 and Week 2 Check-Ins.


Friday, November 30, 2012

Paint Party Friday Week 38 Year 2 Check In Featured Artist: Amy McDonald

image courtesy of Amy McDonald

Welcome to Week 38 of Paint Party Friday (Year 2) and to the next edition of our Featured Artist Series! (Would you like to be a PPF Featured Artist? Please click here for details!) This week's featured artist is a creative force to be reckoned with... Her prolific portrait painting and fearless experimentation never cease to amaze.  Please welcome Amy McDonald!
image courtesy of Amy McDonald

1.Please tell us a bit about your personal history with painting. (When did you start painting? How has your painting evolved since you first started?)
I think before maybe last year I was definitely more of a crafter - I just played around and made a lot of mixed media art - um, whimsical art - stylized, shit like that.  I got more serious about it and started spending more and more time painting each day and the more time I spent at it, the more I felt that my work was becoming more representational of my own vision rather than someone else's idea of art.  

image courtesy of Amy McDonald
This past year I've sort of started painting all of the time, like most of the day every day (unless I have an appointment or I am really sick - but like, I'd have to be pretty sick not to paint, and frankly that appointment better be very important).  
I really put in a lot of studio time, approximately 6-8 hours a day.  
Putting in the time, really putting in the time - even when I don't feel like it - has been the best thing for my art.  I had to figure out how to do things, how to go about things.  I used to always look for easy answers or for someone to tell me how to do something, but you really can't learn that way.  You learn to create by looking and working.  There is no other way.  Sit down and work.
image courtesy of Amy McDonald
2.What are your favorite techniques, media, and tools to use in creating your paintings?
Oil paint is my favorite favorite favorite, no question. I'll paint on pretty much any surface - except gesso board.  I hate gesso board.

I'm starting to learn to make portraits in encaustic wax, but so far they are looking so dreadful that I haven't shown any yet. I hope that after a few weeks I'll have gotten to a point where I am feeling better about them.  The media is tricky for me after becoming so used to the workability of oils.

Also, I'm over the  moon excited because iIm starting to learn tattooing.  I can hardly think of something more fun than painting on someone, but you know, also hurting them at the same time.
image courtesy of Amy McDonald

3.What is your favorite thing to paint? Why?
I love painting portraits - there are so many ways to reflect a subject's personality, just by color or style.

image courtesy of Amy McDonald

4.What is your proudest painting moment and/or greatest painting achievement so far?
I think my greatest achievement so far has been developing the 'I don't give a crap' section of my brain when it comes to followers or fans - that has really really helped me stay fresh and keep experimenting, even when  my experiments look like garbage.  That's my big achievement for this year, I think - learning to keep growing as an artist and keep experimenting despite what people think of the results.

image courtesy of Amy McDonald
5.What's next in your painting future?
Hopefully realistic encaustic portraits and some bad ass tattooing, but we'll see where art takes me...
um, so here are some links to stuff of mine:
Tumblr art (process photos of my work) http://www.tumblr.com/blog/amymcdonaldxo

so, okay  (:  enjoy your weekend.



***

Thank you for inspiring us all to paint, paint, paint, (and paint some more), Amy - we'll be interested to see your encaustic portraits (and tattoos)!


**Would you like to be a PPF Featured Artist? (Of course you do!)
Click here for more details!**

As always, please make sure to use your post URL address NOT your blog home page URL address as there are many late visitors who get confused as to which post is for PPF when they arrive (after Friday) at your website. If you are unfamiliar with Mr. Linky, an explanation of how this tool works can be found on Week 1 and Week 2 Check-Ins.


Have a wonderfully creative week everyone!

Friday, November 23, 2012

Paint Party Friday: Week 37, Year 2 Check In Featured Artist: Andrea Thompson

image courtesy of Andrea Thompson
Welcome to Week 37 of Paint Party Friday (Year 2) and to the next edition of our Featured Artist Series! (Would you like to be a PPF Featured Artist? Please click here for details!) This week's featured artist frees our spirits with her fanciful falling ladies and jazzy zentangles.  Please welcome Andrea Thompson!

Please tell us a bit about your personal history with painting. (When did you start painting? How has your painting evolved since you first started?)
I have thought of myself as an artist ever since I was very very young and my parents and grandparents told me how good I was at drawing. I loved art and since it was encouraged, I kept doing it. Apparently it was reported on my kindergarten report card that all I wanted to do in school was to sit alone and color. I don't think I have changed an awful lot since then, as that is still my activity of choice...

I took art in highshool and was considered an artist by my friends, but then I went to college for floriculture merchandising instead of art, and then I  got married and had 4 kids and worked full time at the local bank, then in head start, then in early head start and then in fraud and legal in DSS and now in child support. Even though in my head I was always an artist, I didn't actually paint. I did creative stuff like scherensnitte, quilting, quilling, embroidery, sewing, and eventually mail art. For awhile I had a rubber-stamp company with my parents. It was called Zooming Turtles. I drew all the rubberstamp designs and my mom did all the work. You can now buy my designs from third coast rubberstamps.

I think all along I thought I would put off my art until someday when my kids were older and I had time... then I had my surprise child at 39, and then we got his autism diagnosis... And I realized that someday would never come so I had better start painting again anyway. I started with watercolor, started my blog and my etsy shop.

image courtesy of Andrea Thompson

What are your favorite techniques, media, and tools to use in creating your paintings?
I used watercolors as they were easy to start and stop since I was mostly painting on my lunch breaks at work. I worked wet into dry, again as it was easier to work in 15 minute slots that way, always with a tiny brush. I have since done some acrylics now that my son lets me work at home a bit too.

image courtesy of Andrea Thompson

What is your favorite thing to paint? Why?
I painted falling ladies like it says in my header... Not by choice, they were just what showed up when I started to paint at first. They were me, I guess, falling out of control, but trying to enjoy the wind on the way down. But that was for about a year, then I moved onto mandalas and zentangles. Both of those are so relaxing to do, no pressure over having it come out a certain way. No preconceived notion of what it will even look like, Just enjoying the process. Then this year I started doing the rocks in white, and my sketchbook, both are very soothing to me as well, along with some acrylic canvases done in an intuitive style, just adding color until I "see" something there on the canvas, then trying to bring that image out.

image courtesy of Andrea Thompson

What is your proudest painting moment and/or greatest painting achievement so far?
My proudest moment would be getting my daughters who were never all that interested in art to do creative things with me....my oldest, Brandy, now has her own etsy needlefelting shop: barefootbananas... And Jesse has started painting at home as well.

image courtesy of Brandy Thompson

What's next in your painting future?
Any type of art that keeps me calm, sane and connected to nature. I would love to make a living at it, wouldn't we all? So if I could publish a book or make classes to sell, that would be wonderful, but for now, it is what i do for myself. The sketchbook I carry everywhere helps document my life and plan future projects but mostly it helps clear the artistic clutter out of my head into paper!

***

Thank you so much Andrea for the lovely interview and for sharing your wonderfully creative artistic "clutter" with us!
To learn even more about Andrea, she can be found at:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/FallingLadies?ref=si_shop
 **Would you like to be a PPF Featured Artist? (Of course you do!)
Click
here for more details!**

Another hopping party last week with awesome artwork! And now, here is our check-in:
As always, please make sure to use your post URL address NOT your blog home page URL address as there are many late visitors who get confused as to which post is for PPF when they arrive (after Friday) at your website. If you are unfamiliar with Mr. Linky, an explanation of how this tool works can be found on Week 1 and Week 2 Check-Ins.

Hope everyone in the USA has a fabulous Thanksgiving weekend! We are ever thankful for all PPFer's fantastic paintings and enthusiastic participation here.

Friday, November 16, 2012

Paint Party Friday Week 36 Year 2 Check In Featured Artist: Linda Richardson

image courtesy of Linda Richardson
Welcome to Week 36 of Paint Party Friday (Year 2) and to the next edition of our Featured Artist Series! (Would you like to be a PPF Featured Artist? Please click here for details!) This week's featured artist is an avid art journaler, enthusiastic experimenter, and passionate painter with creativity that is sure to inspire.  Please welcome Linda Richardson!

Please tell us a bit about your personal history with painting. (When did you start painting? How has your painting evolved since you first started?)
I have either painted, crafted, scrapbooked, quilted, or sewn all my life. Dabbling in one thing or the other, I have never really settled to anything in particular – until I came across Art Journals! Then I was hooked! I loved the freedom art journalling gave me to be creative, to get messy, to express myself in weird and random ways, or to be focused. I did a couple of online art courses, which I loved, and at that moment, when I realised 'I Could Do This', I decided that being creative was how I wanted spend my days, and I committed to art. From that time (about 18 months ago) I have gradually invested more time, resources, and supplies in learning and exploring, and being creative. From art journals, I rapidly progressed to being interested in portraits, quirky illustrations, pastels, oils...you name it! I'm still exploring, and haven't settled on one thing just yet, but I do have favourites.

I started out with an art journal and some watercolours, then a small desk to art journal on, to now having a whole space in the garage! I am fortunate in that, because I don't work, I have time through my day to paint. I am committed to developing as an artist, to see where this can go, and whether I can make it work even in a quasi business sense.  


image courtesy of Linda Richardson
What are your favorite techniques, media, and tools to use in creating your paintings?
At the moment I swing between oil painting, pastel and watercolour – either individually or together as a mixed media. I love to use recycled ephemera, and old linen and lace doilys. To start with a random bit of paper, or scrap of linen embroidery, and then use it in some way in art is interesting, and I like the way it adds extra dimension and meaning to the painting.

image courtesy of Linda Richardson

I love oil painting. I love the colours, the smell of the linseed oil, the way it dries with a beautiful sheen, the intensity – almost everything about it! I love pastels for their smudyness, the freedom they give to work large and loose, and the beautiful boxes of bright colourful sticks! I love watercolour for it's quick drying, quick application, and lovely luminous colour!
What is your favorite thing to paint? Why?
I don't really have a favorite thing. I tend to go with whats in front of me, a recent photograph or place I've been to that inspired me, a face I'd like to draw, or to try out a tool in a new or different way, or see if I can paint the same thing again, or I challenge myself to do something I've never done before, like paint a landscape in pastel, paint an oil using a palette knife, etc.
image courtesy of Linda Richardson

What is your proudest painting moment and/or greatest painting achievement so far?
My proudest moment was being asked to paint a work on commission. 'For Ellie' has a story behind it, and will always have a special place in my heart. It was at this moment that I really accepted myself as an artist.



What's next in your painting future?
I like to keep things moving, so more experimenting as I continue to develop my arts practise. I might need to consider just focusing on one thing (or maybe two), but that hasn't happened yet!

**

Thanks so much for a lovely interview, Linda... Your exuberant experimentation is an inspiration and we look forward to seeing what's next!

To learn more about Linda, please visit her at:
http://brightwingsofsummer.blogspot.com.au/


 **Would you like to be a PPF Featured Artist? (Of course you do!)
Click
here for more details!**
Now, here is our check-in for this week's party:

As always, please make sure to use your post URL address NOT your blog home page URL address as there are many late visitors who get confused as to which post is for PPF when they arrive (after Friday) at your website. If you are unfamiliar with Mr. Linky, an explanation of how this tool works can be found on Week 1 and Week 2 Check-Ins.


Have a fun, painting filled week everyone!

Friday, November 9, 2012

Paint Party Friday Week 35 Year 2 Check In Featured Artist: Tracey Fletcher King



image courtesy of Tracey Fletcher King
 
Welcome to Week 36 of Paint Party Friday (Year 2) and to the next edition of our Featured Artist Series! (Would you like to be a PPF Featured Artist? Please click here for details!). This week's featured artist elevates everyday objects with her masterful mark making... Each week she wows us with her watercolors and makes us laugh with her supreme sense of humor. Please welcome Tracey Fletcher King!
 

image courtesy of Tracey Fletcher King
 
Please tell us a bit about your personal history with painting. (When did you start painting? How has your painting evolved since you first started?)
Personal histories can be a bit long winded at times so here is the speed version: ... Always loved art, writing and reading... went to college... lots of academic art classes... became a high school teacher .... taught art... met Sinus Man... got married... left teaching and went on the road because he was a touring golf pro... spent the next 5 years in hotels and on planes... had Phantom Steve... kept travelling... no art at all ... give me a break you should try living out of a suitcase with a toddler in tow... spent most of the year living in Florida... drew lots of cartoon animals and Barney the freakin dinosaur ... moved home... Sinus became a club pro... Phantom went to school... and I breathed for the first time in 9 years...
 
Spent two years trying to find my artistic rhythm again... failed most days... ate plenty of chocolate to get over it ... had two years where it sort of came together... still needed lots of chocolate and tea to get through it.... went back to college... did a masters in Art Education and majored in Creativity Theory... opened a small art school... worked out I didn’t want to go back to teaching... when I finished the bloody Masters... closed the art school and went back to painting... freaked out at rubbish skills... spent two years doing botanical art to get skills going again ... got bored stupid by all the detail... got frustrated by trying to do such concentrated work in a madhouse... got bored writing a boring blog... threw my hands up in the air and thought I would just have fun with it and draw anything and everything around me and forget all the other rubbish that had cluttered my brain for so long... voila here I am now... blogging and drawing whatever takes my fancy.

Still eat lots of chocolate and drink masses of tea... but love it all to bits and wouldn’t change a thing...


image courtesy of Tracey Fletcher King

What are your favorite techniques, media, and tools to use in creating your paintings?
I love using pens and watercolour... any sort of pen will do, though Microns are my favourites, and I even like ones that are a bit smudgey when you add water. My favourite watercolours are a little cheap wheel of colours that I attach to a palette so I have room to mix colours though I do supplement it with Permanent Rose from tube watercolours, and I would be lost without my white gouache from Art Spectrum. When I am working on canvas, I use a mix of Golden acrylics and Matisse flow acrylics as they have Australian colours which is kind of cool ... The other tool I love to use is my blog... by making the commitment to post I have to also make the commitment to paint and draw.... and I get the bonus of being able to blame my abject failure as a domestic goddess on blogging time eating into housework time... that is one tool I am never giving up.


image courtesy of Tracey Fletcher King

What is your favourite thing to paint? Why?
I love to draw inspiration from around me. I paint the things I am familiar with on an everyday basis, or things that interest me... I love tea and cooking, and my somewhat gloriously haphazard home and garden, and all of these things provide endless subject matter. I also find the things that happen in our family life inspiring and Phantom, Sinus and my adorable fur baby Mushu, are fine with me sharing the happenings ... well to tell you the truth I have never really asked them, but if they don’t want me to write about stupid things they say or do then they should stop saying and doing them!!!! Sometimes I start with writing about what has been happening and the art grows from there, and sometimes something catches my eye and I run with that, but more than anything I try not to over think it.... if I want to paint a ratty old paintbrush, or the pile of dishes on the sink then I do... anything and everything is fair game as long as it sits still...
 
What is your proudest painting moment and/or greatest painting achievement so far?
I have had a lot of proud moments and every time a painting sells, or people order prints, pendants or cards, or they commission me to do work, I get a huge kick out of it... I love that my paintings live in places as diverse as Tanzania, Belgium, Sweden, Germany, UK, USA, Canada, and all over the country here... it is a great thought that there is a little piece of me floating out there on the other side of the world.
 

image courtesy of Tracey Fletcher King

What's next in your painting future?
Despite a failed attempt at drawing and writing a tea zine earlier in the year, I have made the decision to jump in and make a zine type deal of drawing and painting tips and tricks I have learnt through experience both as a painter and a teacher. For years I have resisted any return to teaching, but then I realised that I am no longer hemmed in by curriculums and all those boring education things... I could do it my way... woohoo baby.... no rules hemming me in means it is fun to write it... and by stating it here I will have to get in and finish it!!!! You are all hereby given permission to tease me mercilessly if I get distracted and off track on that one ... and maybe one day I would like to teach an online class... but that one is just a whisper at the moment
 
I sell my work through my blog and through facebook, and a lot of people contact me and commission work that way, or have bought cards and prints of my work. I also sell through a store called The Collective Store and am hoping to expand into more bricks and mortar venues as my time management gets better.

**

Thank you for such a fun interview, Tracey... We look forward to seeing your zine and learning more about the whispers of an online class!

To learn more about Tracey, please visit her at:

 
 **Would you like to be a PPF Featured Artist? (Of course you do!)
Click
here for more details!**

Another busy party last week despite Hurricane Sandy. We hope anyone affected is unhurt and starting to dry out and get back to normal. Now, here is our check-in for this week's party:

As always, please make sure to use your post URL address NOT your blog home page URL address as there are many late visitors who get confused as to which post is for PPF when they arrive (after Friday) at your website. If you are unfamiliar with Mr. Linky, an explanation of how this tool works can be found on Week 1 and Week 2 Check-Ins.

Have a colourful and creative week everyone!

Friday, November 2, 2012

Paint Party Friday Week 34 Year 2 Check-In The (Not So) Subtle Plea Continues...


created in PhotoFaceFun

Well, it appears that 1 billboard may have been too subtle (lol)... 
So, this week we're hanging 2!

Help us take down the banners! (Please!)

We want to hear YOUR story!!!
(We really do! Each story has been unique, fascinating in its own way and we have learned so much from PPFers who have been featured so far. We want to hear your story too.)
Click here to find out how to become a
Paint Party Friday Featured Artist

What are you waiting for?

We want YOU!

109 painters! Talk about a busy party last week! (And most of you haven't even been Featured Artists yet... *HINT*HINT*) Such beautiful paintings!  

As always, please make sure to use your post URL address NOT your blog home page URL address as there are many late visitors who get confused as to which post is for PPF when they arrive (after Friday) at your website. If you are unfamiliar with Mr. Linky, an explanation of how this tool works can be found on Week 1 and Week 2 Check-Ins.

Have a wonderful and creative week everyone!

Friday, October 26, 2012

Paint Party Friday Week 33 Year 2 Check In (And A Plea)

created in PhotoFaceFun

We fear we previously may have been too subtle (lol)...
So, we've put it on the side of a building!

We want to hear YOUR story!!!
Click here to find out how to become a
Paint Party Friday Featured Artist

What are you waiting for?

We want YOU!
 
It was a hopping party last week (and most of you haven't even been Featured Artists yet...)! Wonderful paintings galore!  

As always, please make sure to use your post URL address NOT your blog home page URL address as there are many late visitors who get confused as to which post is for PPF when they arrive (after Friday) at your website. If you are unfamiliar with Mr. Linky, an explanation of how this tool works can be found on Week 1 and Week 2 Check-Ins.
 

For those who celebrate it - Happy Hallowe'en and Buenos Dia de la Meurtos! Have a great week!

Friday, October 19, 2012

Paint Party Friday Week 32 Year 2 Check In Featured Artist: Aimee from Artsyville




photo courtesy of Artsyville
Welcome to Week 32 of Paint Party Friday (Year 2) and to the next edition of our Featured Artist Series! (Would you like to be a PPF Featured Artist? Please click here for details!) This week's featured artist creates bright, colorful, and fun paintings with charming and thoughtful words that match her vibrant personality. Please welcome Aimee from Artsyville!
 
image courtesy of Artsyville
Please tell us a bit about your personal history with painting. (When did you start painting? How has your painting evolved since you first started?) I’m not primarily a painter, but I use paint and love it! Mostly I write and illustrate hand lettered poems and phrases, and I do use paints with those sometimes. But I'm a big crafter too, and this is where I really go nuts with paint!

image courtesy of Artsyville
What are your favorite techniques, media, and tools to use in creating your paintings? For paint in my illustrations, I go with gouache. It’s chalky and has a weird texture, which gets a lot of people all riled up, but personally, I love the thickness and boldness of it. It’s like painting with cream, and it’s excellent for filling in little doodle details, which I love, and covering up my mistakes, of which I make plenty.

image courtesy of Artsyville
I love watercolor, too. Sometimes, I’ll work backwards from my usual method of creating, and toss a bunch of watercolor splotches on paper. After they’ve dried, I let the shapes guide my writing and my word choices, since I’m restricted by the sizes of those shapes. I use this method a lot for my journal pages.

Liquid watercolors (any kind) and acrylics (Liquitex) are my favorite for craft projects.

image courtesy of Artsyville
What is your favorite thing to paint? Why? Objects! Things that have no expectations -- and even things that don't expect to be painted in the first place. Pumpkins! Chairs! Whatever is there. I’m much freer with paint when I’m in crafty mode rather than deciding where it should go on an illustration. I love to slap paints on kraft paper grocery bags. I cut them apart, lay them flat, paint in random patterns, and then cut them up for collage pieces or craft projects.

image courtesy of Artsyville
What is your proudest painting moment and/or greatest painting achievement so far? It’s not so much a particular moment as it is a feeling I get when I put a brush onto a surface. The moment a brush imparts that bright splotch of color... it’s like the first sip of an excellent beer or a real, full-sugared Coke. It doesn’t even matter to me if it looks good or not.

image courtesy of Artsyville
What's next in your painting future? My family and I just went through a major relocation that has taken the better part of a year to work through, and the (un)settling process left me with very little time or emotional energy to take on new work. Some people are great about working their way creatively through strife, but instead I can only absorb and observe. So as the ideas popped up, I kept them in a thousand different notebooks, and now I have the time and the spirit to channel them. It will be a very busy fall in Artsyville! ♥

image courtesy of Artsyville

***
Thank you for bringing so much color and inspiration to the party, Aimee!

To learn more about Aimee, please visit her at:

http://artsyville.blogspot.com/
http://www.etsy.com/shop/artsyville
http://www.facebook.com/artsyville?fref=ts

 **Would you like to be a PPF Featured Artist? (Of course you do!)
Click here for more details!**

Another fun and busy party last week with such lovely creations! Now, here is our check-in for this week's party:

As always, please make sure to use your post URL address NOT your blog home page URL address as there are many late visitors who get confused as to which post is for PPF when they arrive (after Friday) at your website. If you are unfamiliar with Mr. Linky, an explanation of how this tool works can be found on Week 1 and Week 2 Check-Ins.


Have a fun and creative week everyone!

Friday, October 12, 2012

Paint Party Friday Week 31, Year 2 Check In Featured Artist: Alicia Araya


image courtesy of Alicia Araya

Welcome to Week 31 of Paint Party Friday (Year 2) and to the next edition of our Featured Artist Series! (Would you like to be a PPF Featured Artist? Please click here for details!) This week's featured artist has just successfully completed an astounding project using a very creative (and slightly unusual) medium.  Please welcome Alicia Araya!
Please tell us a bit about your personal history with painting. (When did you start painting? How has your painting evolved since you first started?) My father was an oil painter, though for some reason he has not painted in years. He's living on another continent, and painting was a passion, a hobby, something he did not pursue - he was a Navy man, then a lawyer, as well as an artist, as well a self taught electrician, carpenter, etc. Thus I learned how to oil paint at the age most children are still using crayons. Sure, I used crayons as well, and to this day, but you know what I mean... in any event, I followed my dad's spiritual legacy, I suppose, because I was never willing to, in any serious way, commit to one thing. I spent most of my 20s travelling around, partying, enrolling in University, then quitting and getting a job, then finding it dreadful to work and joining University again, then traveling, then being broke ... ad nauseum. Even though art has always been with me, I never seriously contemplated being an artist until after finally committing to receive a college diploma.

Vowing to AT LEAST achieve receiving a BA before my 30th birthday, I realized my last 9 months of university that, were I to declare a Bachelor's in Studio Art, I would succeed in graduating (oh my!!!) - I had, in the past 8 years or so, taken enough arts electives to qualify me for that diploma quickly. For anyone who finds this level of cluelessness incomprehensible and possibly even unforgivable, I would like to remind folks that it was quite en vogue in the 90s to instruct our youngsters "go for broke! take student loans! just enroll as an UNDECIDED MAJOR!!! This is THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE!!!" and well - some of us never quite transcended that early well-meaning suggestion.

That diploma effort seemed to, at least in my mind, justify focusing time & attention on creating art. Part of my problem has always been that I can never, on a given day, decide what to focus on. The great thing, then, about seriously pursuing the BA was the way it gave me permission to PAINT, or sculpt, or draw, all the time! And I definitely realized that, all other things working out, I could definitely pursue this vector of activity for the rest of my life, if anyone would pay for it, certainly, but even barring that, if I could just be allowed to paint and live somewhere and not starve.

image courtesy of Alicia Araya
So now I find myself at mid 30s able to say "I am an artist and at times a graphic designer", not necessarily because I make a brilliant living at it at this time, but because it is the one thing that has consistently rewarded me, and which I can commit to fully.

As far as painting evolution, etc: I feel like I am heading more & more towards realism, in some form or other. I started out in an inchoate, sort of untrained way. I then got tired of what I was capable of producing (or NOT capable, as the case may be) which was when I started taking art classes. A drawing class in 2008 radically transformed my relationship to art and rendering, and I am forever grateful for all learned there. As well, it gave me the habit of charcoal sketching everything I could possibly see, which has helped me immensely in painting.

image courtesy of Alicia Araya
What are your favorite techniques, media, and tools to use in creating your paintings? What I have always adored for reasons I can't entirely understand or articulate are the look and plain old capacity to render things in a realistic way. Though I work in many mediums, etc, I want to briefly describe oil painting. I begun with straight up alla prima painting - wet on wet, I believe they call it - and then came to LOVE glazing techniques, thanks to that last oil painting class I took at college, where I learned both the technique & the mediums/chemicals used. Now I am developing hybrid styles mixing glazing with wet on wet, as well as, in an ad hoc sort of way, developing ways to achieve different sfumato effects & specific hues & whatnot through sheer persistence as opposed to actually doing the reasonable way and reading up about various techniques, etc. Experimenting - that's it, in a word.

image courtesy of Alicia Araya
What is your favorite thing to paint? Why? I do enjoy still lifes, now! Especially, as stated above, things that allow me to capture the mood and feel of a different, earlier era. I also love landscapes of all sorts - mountains, streams, waterfalls, etc. This is why the Turner project resonated so well with me. I am not terribly keen on portraiture...

image courtesy of Alicia Araya
What is your proudest painting moment and/or greatest painting achievement so far? 2012 has been an excellent artistic year for me! I begun by selling my first commission for $500 and shortly thereafter managed to fund my Kickstarter campaign, 90 Paintings in 90 Days, aka the Epic Painting Project, which has allowed me to complete, give or take a little tweaking, 90 oil paintings. These are reinterpretations of the oeuvre of the incredible landscape Romantic era British artist, JMW Turner. These are done on prepped wood panels - not traditional wooden panels, but pieces of driftwood rescued from local waterways. The shapes of the canvases very directly correlate to the subject matter and the composition itself - an effort with which my husband (photographer and artist in his own right) assists me with. He can view each piece of wood chosen, we consult the JMW Turner book of images we have, etc. One painting a day. Intense.

This Epic Painting Project has been a highlight, both in a creative and business sense. Being able to Kickstart (as it were) a project of this length and effort is an achievement I, even 6 months ago, could not have fathomed bringing to fruition. It involved more promoting, advertising and selling than I've ever really done in my life, and gave me a look into what arts fundraising is like. Some confidence in terms of future projects will come from that, no doubt. Artistically, of course, the effort is legion. I address many of these matters in my blog turner.aliciaraya.com but, in a nutshell, doing this has allowed me to stick to an artistic discipline, exploit & explore the medium, learn a style from a master, and provide me with a cohesive portfolio group of works - something I've never really had in the past. Additionally, I have sold another commission for a painting project (a large portrayal of the ocean), and have sold a good quantity of smaller works through the site FiVERR. I blog & have blogged about all these things throughout the year.

Since then I have managed to receive another large painting commission, and in addition, I have successfully produced (and sold some) close to 100 wood, poetry, and art pieces with Jim, my husband. We call them Homily Sticks and Ponder Panels, and more can be read about these here http://art.aliciaraya.com/2012/08/ppf-and-august-challenge-new-wood-art.html. We are focusing a lot of time producing these in hopes that folks might find then neat as holiday gifts.

image courtesy of Alicia Araya
What's next in your painting future? Let's see... as stated it is a particular difficulty for me, projecting myself to some sort of future, but if I were to extravagantly desire a painting future, it would be one where I could live off painting, doing either commissions and/or successful sales - my overhead is immensely low, so it wouldn't take much in the scheme of things - but consistent income through art is the thing. The other thing I'd dearly love is to go back to school to get an MFA. I would love this like nothing else! I love being steeped in training and study! Also if I have a chance to go back to school I will know better how to take advantage of the benefits of belonging to an institution.

image courtesy of Alicia Araya

Thank you so much Alicia for the wonderfully informative and inspirational interview!

To learn even more about Alicia:
I can be found habitually at art.aliciaraya.com, as well as marshallcommunityarts.com - the latter is a blog I keep regarding mine and hubby's artistic activities in WNC where we live. The site for my Turner project is turner.aliciaraya.com, where one can also see the entire portfolio of events, of the project. I have an online shop at Zibbet, http://www.zibbet.com/MarshallCommunityArts where I sell not just my art and our joint wood pieces, but a lot of Jim's photography. As well, I am selling some 'virgin' driftwood pieces so that fellow artists interested in exploring the medium could acquire some of these 'jewels'.

I am on facebook here where I also like to post images of work https://www.facebook.com/alicia.c.araya and the facebook page for the work Jim & I do is https://www.facebook.com/marshall.community.arts - I welcome any new FB friends or 'likes'!!!

 **Would you like to be a PPF Featured Artist? (Of course you do!)
Click here for more details!**

Another fun and busy party last week with such wonderful paintings! Now, here is our check-in for this week's party:

As always, please make sure to use your post URL address NOT your blog home page URL address as there are many late visitors who get confused as to which post is for PPF when they arrive (after Friday) at your website. If you are unfamiliar with Mr. Linky, an explanation of how this tool works can be found on Week 1 and Week 2 Check-Ins.


Hope everyone has a wonderful painting filled week!