Thursday, July 23, 2015

Reception and More

The artist reception at 8 Chains North winery was great – lots of friends attended.  It was extra special because I haven’t seen a few of them in quite a while.  There were several dogs happy to be part of the festivities despite how crazy hot it was that day! Delighted that one of my paintings sold – see bottom right At the Lake.   Two other paintings sold as well.  The four of us were quite pleased with the show, the promotion by the winery, and the overall event.

Gallery Wall at the Artist's Reception (Barbara, Caroline, Louie and Johnna)
8 Chains North - Waterford, VA


Wrapped up a class I’ve been taking - finally finishing a large (for me) painting.   It’s a great class which I have taken before (and will again this fall).  The artist/instructor puts together multiple set ups and somehow recreates them two weeks in a row – in this case, we worked on our paintings for three weeks and only the apples looked slightly “aged.”  Amazing given it’s painting from life yet the setup is literally the same the next week.  Hoping to finish the other ones started. . . . 

The main subject in this painting is called a Dallah (thank you Google images). It is a traditional Middle Eastern coffee pot.  I guess it goes without saying that I kept referring to the spout as a beak!  That thing is HUGE.  Not sure why a peacock had to wander by, but enjoyed that challenge as much as I did painting a mixed-metal pot.  The instructor sure knows how to “echo” colors and complements (orange in pot and peacock feather – bronze/reds with green).  I hope you like how it turned out too!


Ancient Dallah
14" x 18" 


Enjoy - life is joy we make one moment at a time,

Johnna


Friday, July 10, 2015

It's a Go - Gallery Reception

Quick posting, much to do today!

My art club will be exhibiting paintings celebrating the love of dogs and wine at a winery located in Waterford Virginia. We each have about 10 paintings on the gallery wall in the tasting room.  All of us will be attending the reception on Sunday July 19th 2-5 pm.  Not in a million years did I expect to be doing something like this, but it is happening and I'm excited. 

The owners of the winery are doing a lot of media and have included us on their website landing page.  See here 8 Chains North

Love that 20% of the sale price is being donated to three local animal welfare organizations.

Wish us luck and stop by!


Barbara Quast

Caroline Helmly


Louie Dobson


Apologies for the photos - had to boost them off the 8 chains website.

Enjoy - life is joy we make one moment at a time,

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Chuffed (Happy Face) Which Way to the Pond?

Wow – I haven’t blogged or painted in several months, but interest and excitement still seem to be lurking out there – quietly waiting and ready to pounce for the love of art.  After putting Kitchen Sink on auction last week, I was asked if I would be willing to ship to the UK. It’s quite expensive, but they were okay with the extra cost.   I am beside myself with delight as this art adventure now takes “part of me” to Bristol, Avon UK!

Chuffed - British slang for very pleased. . . . Cool word, don't you think?

If you’re really into this blog, maybe you’re thinking what I’m thinking. . . that the painting is just trying to make its way back to Russia where the photographer known as Viacheslav (PaintMyPhoto) created the reference photo.  He solves so many of my sticking points – what to paint, artistic composition, interesting perspective, dramatic lighting, etc.  Of course it takes time and effort to find the perfect match, but the photos inspire me to try new things and keep the adventure going.

Seriously, have you ever thought a sink of “dirty dishes” could be art - not just by one, but three different people????  How fun.

'cause we gotta have a pretty picture in every blog, here's one more headed to the show in Waterford VA that I painted a few years ago.  An amazing artist allowed me to use his work as a reference and was delighted to help me.  Rare for that to happen. Check out Michael Naples.

Seeing these side by side after learning so much, is teaching me even more!

MINE -
Wine Night
20 x 16"

HIS - 

Wine Night (Challenge Painting) - Michael Naples artist

Enjoy - life is joy we make one moment at a time,


Friday, June 19, 2015

Wine and Wags

Last March my art club meeting was at the 8 Chains North winery (Waterford, VA) that artist GB brought to life – a truly gifted interior designer!  It was also GB’s inspiration to create an art gallery wall where various artists are invited to show their work.  She proposed that our club be the featured “artist” this summer.  We all agreed and got busy - lucky for us, the monthly challenges since then have been “more paintings for the show!”

We’re calling it “Wine and Wags” since the owners are very dog friendly and encourage people to bring their pets to the wine tastings.  There must have been 15 dogs in the tasting room the day we were out there checking out the beautiful space. Small dogs, big dogs – all very well behaved.   If you need a place to host a reception, you should go take a look (link above).  If you need an amazing interior designer – leave a comment and I’ll put you in touch.

Here are my show entries – a little grape inspiration and a few puppies.  I loved painting the dogs – will have to do more of those!

Still Life with Grapes 9x12
On the Board 9x12
ref: Viacheslav photo PMP

Grapes on the Loose 6x6
Green Grapes 12x9
ref: Viacheslav photo PMP

The Barn Door 6x6
Shotgun Sailor 6x6


Fruit Titanic 10x10
At the Lake 8x10
ref: D.Currier PMP

 For the locals, I'll let you know when the gallery opening will be held -- planning early July.  The other art club members (GB, GL and GC) are hard at work too and have great paintings for the show.


Enjoy - life is joy we make one moment at a time,

Friday, June 12, 2015

Catching Up - She's Back

Hard to believe it’s been five months since my last blog!  All is good, but haven’t painted too much.   I did attend a weekend workshop with artist Robert Thoren in early February.  It was held at a studio in Purcellville which I am still raving about to anyone who will listen. A fantastic venue, wonderful space, and the most delightful owner-artist-hostess, Francie.  Great group of people and the perfect space-to-attendee-ratio.  Small pic of the painting I did there is below.  Also finally getting my workspace back to normal now that the painters (er, the other kind) finished several rooms as we’re planning to put the house on the market early next year. Have a to-do list a mile long, but who doesn’t!   


Besides the workshop, my art club is my mainstay – it always gets me going with the challenges. My turn to host was in January and my challenge was to paint something that started with the letter “K” (I’ll spare you the details on the overall lame challenge I came up with).  Kitchen Sink was indeed quite a challenge.  It is from another one of Viacheslav’s PaintMyPhoto entries.  Metal, water, soap bubbles – oh my!  Had a blast doing it.  

Kitchen Sink
6x6"
Click Here to bid - starts Saturday 6/10/15


Thoren Workshop
16x20"


I am going to try and get back into the swing of things by challenging myself to blog weekly and paint a lot more often!  If you enjoyed this blog, please add your email to the list above (top right) to automatically receive new blog postings in your inbox. 

Already have a surprise in the works for next week – stay tuned. 

Enjoy - life is joy we make one moment at a time, 

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Fiesta Fish

Trying a few new things to get back in the groove.  Painting fish is total fun because it just seems odd and lets you play around - I wanted to do something more angular / abstract, but these guys just wanted to get going - somewhere, anywhere.  .  .  .  right now it's 18 degrees and I am in Virginia -- the whole week it's been freezing, but I guess that's happening across the country right now.   

Brief history - The capelin is a small, silvery relative of salmon that forms large shoals in cold and Arctic waters and is a vital food source for sea birds and marine mammals.  The reference is from photographer, Viacheslav based in Russia, who has several amazing photos on PaintMyPhoto (a wonderful resource for artists). This painting takes a huge leap in playing with color - now it looks like they are headed to a Fiesta, I guess a really smart thing to do in this weather! I couldn't find the mileage between the inspiration and the inspired, but a direct flight would be almost 10 hours.  Art connecting the world.  

Fiesta Fish
Click Here to bid - starts Saturday 1/10/15




Last night one of my holiday auctions ended and it is still so exciting to find out who "won."  I didn't expect that the identities would be hidden from me, but that's how it works.  Once it gets down to the finish though, they have to know where to send the money and I have to know where to send the painting!  Very exciting to me and I hope so for the buyer as well.  It is triple-fantastic when it's a new buyer - I don't really care why that is, just know it makes me do the happy-dance (seriously).   So the painting below is off to sunny Texas, near Houston. Interestingly it's from another reference photo on PaintMyPhoto (Rodney Campbell).


Goldfinch Pose









Enjoy - life is joy we make one moment at a time,

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Catching Up - Class Recap

What I seriously love about being an artist (despite being a former, rather structured, computer engineer) is all the rule-making and rule-breaking.  Egads, it's a free-for-all in the art world.  I haven't completed a full analysis, but it looks like half of the art instructors are insisting you HAVE to do it this WAY and the other half is saying do WHATEVER you WANT.  I guess the trick we finally figure out is pick-and-choose what we like and what feels natural (ish).  As a rule-based person, this is quite a challenge, but each class and workshop propels me through this particular vortex!

There also seems to be a little "mantra" that goes along with this cult - do something, then tell us what you learned.  So here's the recap from my recent class and the new things I learned:

  • Block it in (largest object first, then middle, then "baby bear")
  • Make an interesting mud for the background (huh, really?) fascinating concept this one - mud is made by mixing too many colors together, but this idea was to mix all the colors in the painting for the background as each object would be complementary to some part of the mud.  When objects are complementary, they pop out even more.  Go figure.
  • Get extreme on the composition - zoom in!
  • Fine-tune the focal point
  • Then destroy the other edges to give it drama and interest (oh yeah, wild woman now!)  This one also loosens you up knowing that precision is not going to survive to the end -- can't wait to try more of this. 

Class paintings

Yellow Pom-poms in a crystal bowl (12"x12" canvas)


Abstract composition / zoom (9"x12" canvas)
            


Fruit Titanic (10"x10" canvas) 
You should have seen the size / shape of the bowl this was in - humongous!  I'm putting this one on sale at DailyPaintworks - let's see what happens.  I love it.  



And I painted some silly things -- okay the grammar police say NEVER start a sentence with the word AND, but I just had to do it now that I'm "breaking bad!" 


          
Stuffed dog, house and bird (5.5"x5.5" panel)
Stuffed dog, Embarrassed (5.5"x5.5")


This is what you get for a couple hundred bucks and a few weeks of training. . . . LOL.  I guess  being able to laugh at yourself, take risks, and be willing to fail, are all part of the adventure. 

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog and being a part of the journey.


Enjoy - life is joy we make one moment at a time,

Saturday, January 3, 2015

Happy New Year

The holiday art sale was a real boost - I was thoroughly delighted that four paintings sold.  Even better, I got to deliver them in person - it is always extraordinary when people connect through art.   I don't think it matters if they like the same things or not, but having it in common really does seem "out of the ordinary."  I learned that having one of my works become a part of the buyer's amazing collection is a pretty mind-blowing experience that I don't think really hit me until days later.  Another painting was purchased as a gift and is headed to Europe.  The giftee moved last summer literally across the street from where I lived in Germany several years ago.  That shared experience, and now this painting, shows me there are no boundaries. How does something like this happen with someone who also lived across the street from where I live now?  Extraordinary!  Art has truly become a personal journey as each chapter unfolds.  

Here are the paintings that sold.  I'm hoping that blogging and thinking about art will help get me motivated and "resolute" about the new year!   

Quatro 
Orange-Rageous


Delish!
The Star

Enjoy - life is joy we make one moment at a time,

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Merry, Merry and Cha-Ching


A fellow artist put together their 2014 Most Viewed paintings on DPW.  What a great idea!  My ah-hah moment was to twist it up, exclude those already taken (this is about you not me), discount the price for holiday gift giving (not sayin' who should get the gift, if you know what I mean!), and put these gems on auction along with the added plus of a buy it now price that's especially low since we're all hurrying and need to get gifts in the mail asap! 

So here's my Most Viewed 2014 - all are 6x6 except the handsome fox which is an 8x10 and comes with a low profile floating frame.  I was sure that cutie pie would run off during a show west of Leesburg this year, but he insisted on coming home. 

All of these paintings are being offered at a 40% reduction (gallery commission that now THEY don't get, but YOU will!).  How great is that?  Please go here  for the latest list of auction/buy-it-now prices.  Another insider secret to my loyal blog readers - this is slow auction season, so if you have time to wait it out, you'll save a few bucks. 

Oh yeah, if you've read this far, Cha-Ching. . . Shipping is half-price! 

Click here for the Auction deals
p.s. DPW made me spread out the auctions so some start on Friday, then Saturday and Sunday.

Feel free to email me with any special requests - packaging, handling, etc. and I'll get back to you right away - see the email option at DPW under my gallery - here.  I'm planning to chill over the holidays so happy to accommodate any and all requests. Art is so much more fun than work!


As always, thank you so much for reading my blog!  

Happy Holidays and Enjoy - life is joy we make one moment at a time - all year long,

Johnna 
 


Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Undercover in Vienna Virgina - The Traveling Chicken

Hi all - I've been asked to provide a link to my Traveling Chicken blog entry and remove it from my blog.  So here you go - the lively Ms. Chick and her adventures while visiting with me.  Isn't she adorable?


Click here to see my journey