2nd Friday Artwalk at Art Works Downtown

Speaking of Solitude 6th National Juried Exhibition

Juror: Maria Medua, DirectorSan Francisco Museum of Modern Art
(SFMOMA) Rental Gallery, Fort Mason, San Francisco, California
has accepted my eggshell dress on vinyl, held together with
velcro for exhibition from September 4 - October 3.
I hope to see all of you at the Reception: September 11, 5 to 7pm

Elise

Camargue Fantasy

It's been 6 months since I painted for the first time on my iPhone. I stopped after 3 weeks because I noticed the potentially deleterious effects to my eyes from looking at the screen and my hands and arms hurting from working on the itty bitty keyboard. I had a shock when I printed out my creations on my printer and they were grainy looking. A trip to a professional resulted in no better quality than my home printer. I found out from the clerk at Marin Photo that this is the problem with computer art! The quality is dependent on the initial resolution of the picture. iPhone apps are lacking in resolution. So, that being said, I left my goal of making a "painting-a-day" and took an oil painting class with Chester Arnold at IVC. But, as quandaries go, I love the paintings I make on my iPhone, so I decided to revisit the technology to see how I can take advantage of the App painting program called Brushes. With another Apps program called Mega Draw, I can create my own E greeting cards from my own oil paintings!

As things go, a little time for ideas in the incubator is sometimes all you need to inspire you to the next level of your art. Take the time to listen to your little/big Voice within and honor what it's telling you. All is not lost when things don't work out as you initially hoped they might. Come back and revisit what you've learned in a knew configuration and see what "shakes" out. Check out Mega Draw, and see how easily your "mistakes" are a thing of the past with a simple shake of your device.

Happy drawing and painting!

Elise

Make your own E greeting cards!

New Logo with Color

New Logo

Gearing Up to Paint Large

I went over to Utrecht in Berkeley to pick up a large canvas to paint a larger rendition of "The Last Run" for my solo show in December. This is my first large canvas, 36" x 48, and I'm looking forward to painting it with real oil paint. I've been painting with water-soluble oil paint, but then my friend Anne turned me on to hand-made oil paints by Williamsburg and the quality of the paints is amazing. So, I'll be making another trip over to Utrecht to get some of them.

Photographing Your Work for Gallery Shows

Photographing my own work has been a daunting task. I started out with bad advice to use white photo paper as a backdrop for my art, but encountered all kinds of problems with ambient light and reflected colors ranging from warm to cool tones of yellows and blues whether I took the pictures indoors or outdoors. It was very frustrating for me. I learned how to use Photoshoppe and was able to clean up the photos, but not to the liking of a friend/professional photographer. Shadows were a big problem, too. Then, my friend Ventana, came across some excellent advice for amateur photographers and shared it with me via email. I ended up using a piece of black velvet as a backdrop, attached to the wall, similar to when Juline used it to photograph the hats for Plexus cancer project, and the results were fantastic with no shadows or reflections on the velvet. Tomorrow, I'll post the pics I submitted to the MOCA show.

Additionally, I finished backing my piece, "Inner Reflections", made with Shisha embroidery, with a bright green piece of Lame. It turned out beautifully. I repaired my eggshell dress and photographed it as well. I retitled my piece, "Free Reelin'", submitted to the OHCA Portraiture Show, and submitted it to MOCA as "Sound Off", after Georg suggested the title, "Sounding Off". Sound Off is used when someone expresses their opinion about something. I'm expressing my opinion about the oil spills throughout the planet.

I delivered three pieces to OHCA yesterday, including my Shisha embroidery piece called "Inner Reflections", my first wire sculpture called "Wired to Go", and my painting called "Neptune's Horses".

I didn't get my act together to make the piece for the LAB Gallery, Art:Tech featuring biotech art. I guess two out of three isn't bad. Next time.

Now, I'm working on pieces for the next two shows, WEAD for the Bioneers Conference and the Wild Animal Art Show Benefit in New York.

O for Opaque - Every 2 Week Word Project

Opague, not clear. When something is opaque, it's not easily understood. The word opaque goes back to Middle English and means "shaded". Artists who use Gouache use it for it's opaque nature. My experience with gouache is limited to my color theory classes. Now, I'm thinking about how I can make statements in my art, juxtaposing opaque qualities with transparent ones.

I'm also thinking about other words that start with the letter O. "O" for Oprah! "O" for Oh My God, life is good. I made quite an impression at Utrecht. They are gifting me with a plein air umbrella! "O" for outrageous!!!