Saturday, February 25, 2012

In the mix

House Portrait Commission 8x10 watercolor
I have been busy and as usual I'm entertaining a mix of art.  Today I finished this portrait commission in watercolor.  It's a beautiful lake house successfully sold by local realtor Helen Dansker

"Toasty Cat" 16x12 acrylic on canvas
I also recently finished this acrylic painting.  In time for the grand re-opening of Poor Richards Art Gallery which is one of the galleries carrying my work.

Winter has been most moderate this year.  I've always cringed when I hear people say we have moderate winter in Northwest Arkansas because the last 7 years I've lived here has been too cold for me.  In fact last year we had record-breaking 2 feet of snow.

I am so eager to paint some pieces I have in mind.  It's a good feeling to experience that sensation.  Keep me in mind that I please - ME when I do finally get to creating them!  I am trying to paint for myself... When I say that I mean  I have things I want and need to try out, to see if I am correct in how they will turn out. 


The other night I managed to pry myself out of the house and attended an event at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.  It was "Art Night Out" and the theme was Time Travel.  The guests were encouraged to wear clothes from different eras.  I've gotten rid of many clothes recently but fortunately I found a few to throw together as flower child of the 60s.  It was great fun, ran from 7-10PM live music, some readings in front of some museum art, food of course, and finally an open mic poetry reading.  My highlight was when my friend Dustie got up on stage and delivered an impromptu poetry she wrote for the occasion!

Friday, January 27, 2012

Behind the revolving door

It has entered my self-analysis oftentimes that I am sitting behind a revolving door.  I have glimpses of creative surges but as far as my art ... and I guess my stamina, I am not as consistent as some of my contemporary artists.  I assure you that having a Catholic upbringing has made it impossible for me to escape the self-torment over this!

One of the mechanisms I've developed to alleviate this issues is to seize some future opportunities that will make me work toward something artistically productive.  Not 100% full proof but I try to keep the wheels turning one way or another...

One of those was this the sketchbook project I spoke of in November.  I signed up to get me going through winter and through this big move into a smaller house.  Of course it started slow (as expected).  I had sketched the clutter around me from the move.  Then I sketched Alice Walton, as I watched her live during the grand opening of the Crystal Bridges American Art Museum in 11-11-11. Then I gave up because I was sure I missed the deadline.  But my dear friend Mark alerted me on Facebook that we had until January 31.  That's when I turned to just sketching something -ANYTHING!  Since as my other sketchbook colleague Hillary told me that the whole purpose was for us to create and chances of people browsing through our books at the Brooklyn Museum was slim hahahaha  OK good and useful point!  So I then, unbeknownst to them, decided to sketch some Facebook friends who are kind enough to interact with me on a regular basis.  And here are a few of them :)





Above is my dear friend James who I hadn't seen for at least 3 years!!!  But just like any good friend, when he came by yesterday, we were able to pick up our friendship like it was yesterday!  What a wonderful blessing good friends are!  Oh he never knew where I lived but the reason why he came by was to pick up my first portrait of the year.

"Guapo" 10x10 acrylics on canvas
This is James birthday gift for Kent.  This was a successful "oil on wheel" that I had to do.  Despite not being able to locate my proper art supplies.  I did find a canvas I had previously gesso'd and some student elementary grade brushes that shed all the time which I had bought to teach art to children also 3 years ago.  And I used acrylics instead of oils because they were in a shopping basket accessible for me to use!

The rough beginning which succeeded and thus the ice has been broken!

The other great news is my work can be found at 3 local galleries  click on the name to like their respective Facebook pages thanks!


I have sold some pieces this year already so now I must kick things in gear get more organized in my new area so I can be functional!

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Happy New Year!!!!

Click on image to see greetings
Please click on image to see my greetings to you all!  Hope you're all being safe until I see you next time!  Wishing you all the best that 2012 can offer you may you be prosperous, have good health, be surrounded with love and have lots of laughter in your year to keep you smiling! xoxox Erika