Be careful what you ask for!

Artmaking has been a lower priority these past few weeks. This is not a optimum thing in any shape or form. First it was the Pre-Holiday "things to get done and sent", then the Annual Winter Solstice Party-with lots of homemade food to prepare. Now throw the fact that your Lucky Husband just landed a job that he has been preparing and trying for for over 15 years. Oh-the job is just a few states away-Montana! With a short hiring timeline he got barely 3 weeks notice. I'll be holding down the fort in Alaska until warmer weather, then working on the move south.

Can I just say it's always something? I'm feeling a mix of anxiety and excitement which trade place rapidly through each day. My secret hope is that with the "distraction" of Lucky Husband gone-I will spend more time buried in my world of Art. We will see if that comes to fruition. Coping with the anxiety of all the change and facing a BIG move coming on I have turned to ORGANIZATION as a way to settle my mind, not to mention it will make room in the Studio and will make packing and selling art before the move much easier.

I just rediscovered Bento-loaded it on my IPAD (thanks Santa) and am committed to inventorying all  new works and gradually getting older works documented. It's super easy and fun to set up. I'm using a trial version on my Black Mac and know I will be purchasing the full version soon. Also  I decided to make sure that all finished works were wrapped, labeled and accounted for-this is the almost free way to organize paintings. All are wrapped with kraft paper and labeled on the side, as well as a masking tape label with painting name and medium corresponding to it's placement in the box.

Paintings wrapped, labels and put away

More of the finished work new organization 

I did manage to fit in time to rework a painting for the Members Show at International Gallery of Contemporary Art. It is an encaustic that I was not satisfied with-now I like it! The photo does not do it justice-needs to be seen in person. The Members Show will open Jan 6, 5:30-7:30pm and will be on display for the month.

Fall Foliage, encaustic painting

Studio Time

It's been a busy productive time in my studio. I'm putting the finishing touches on the encaustic paintings for my upcoming show. Also working on a couple small pieces for the IGCA 100 x 100 exhibition. Time to name, price, finish edges and put hanging hardware on everything. 

Pallet just after turned on-wax still unmelted

Another pallet show-some of my favorite colors

Works in progress, awesome torch too!

Adding a window fan to my studio has been very helpful. Now in addition to limiting my time around the wax fumes, they actually get drawn out (as they should be). It has been a very fun show to paint. Nice to have the memories from my photos of various landscapes, mostly around Alaska.


The upcoming show is titled "sweet dreams". It will open with a First Friday reception on December 2, 5-9pm-at Octopus Ink Gallery, 410 G Street, Anchorage.

Quiet on the Blog, Busy in the Studio

Yes-I'm attempting to get back to weekly blog posts. While the blog has been pretty quiet, they studio has been busy. Encaustics have been the complete focus with a show coming up next month. I've been listening to my favorite pods casts, which include: Latina USA, Fresh Air and E-town. I think I'm caught up  and need some suggestions for a few new podcasts to paint by. I find that listening to spoken words puts my mind at rest and the creativity flows easier, I listen to the speaker and not my inner critic I guess.

Here a a few quick snap shots of parts of some recent paintings. Better ones will be posted when it's closer to the show.

Two paintings just neared completion this afternoon and I'm really excited by both of them.

 I've got some new formats including a couple diptychs (two piece paintings), that are on 2 square panels, also a couple narrow rectangles. The show will be in downtown Anchorage at the hip little gallery, "Octopus Ink". Stay tuned for more information as the date nears.

Sorry Blog I've Neglected You

Wow-I planned on posting something at a minimum weekly. After a crazy summer trip with multiple vehicle breakdowns and lack of relaxing plein aire painting I had planned I totally missed the mark.

So time to get back to business. My little pal Allie keeps me company in my studio-of course she'd rather be on a walk-but she's still good company.

During the past couple months I have attempted to consolidate studios back into one studio-that being my home studio. It feels a bit overwhelming at times-but is nice to have everything in one place again! Also no commute, pay for parking, and I learned that I am much more of a solitary artist than I was admitting to myself.

I am working on a new series of encaustics for an upcoming show in December. It is getting close to time for some sneak peeks. The series is a continuation of landscapes and trees. I've having fun with the encaustics, trying to spend from 2-4 hours in the studio on all days that I'm not working at my job with a bigger paycheck. I keep reminding myself that it's what makes you content and whole that is most important-everything in life should not be measured on monetary value scale. Painting is important.

Trip way North

Our "explore" trip this summer was to Inuvik, NWT, Canada. That was the destination-but it was more about the trip as a whole. I managed to get a little sketching and painting in. Our trip was plagued with mechanical problems both with our pop-up camper and our truck. We still managed to have a good time-the scenery in the Yukon territory is amazing. I did one small painting with open acrylics-not sure I really like working with them on canvas for plein air-but in the rush of packing I had forgotten to put in watercolor paper. The painting will wait for its reveal, when we get our vehicle repaired and retrieve it and the rest of our belongings-hopefully later this month....

Here are a few shots from my sketchbook on the trip.

  

Remembering winter

 A few days ago I was organizing some photos and come across some from a few winters ago plein air painting day. Seeing them again made me remember how precious the summers are in Alaska. I had gotten  completely set up and started to paint (watercolor)  and the paint promptly froze-both on my painting and on my palette. I had some warm tea with me-I added that to the paint and it froze immediately too-that was the end of my plein air painting for the winter. Time to get out the reference photos!

Heading out for a summer road trip-planning some sketching and possibly using the open acrylics.

Will report back when I return!

Painting near Sheep Mountain Lodge

July 11 was set aside for an "all day" painting excursion. Plans had to be modified a bit when I got paged for a flight an hour before my shift ended. You would think that making plans for 13 hours after you are off shift would be safe-but not in the unpredictable world of medivac  nursing. So our plans were changed and it made for a bit shorter day-but still was productive and happy. Even though I was a bit sleep deprived all day.

My painting accomplice Kirk and I went to his chosen area near Sheep Mountain Lodge, I was excited to revisit this area and find some new painting inspiration. Weather was overcast, just warm enough not to be cold (Alaskans should understand this-I think it's called summer?). Just enough of a breeze to keep any mosquitoes down, and only had to grab the easel a couple times to keep it stable. We were in a large pullout just off the road and occasionally tourists would stop for photos, and some even took photos of me and my painting! They were very polite Europeans and Canadians and asked permission, they were excited to see artists painting.

First painting scene

Painting in progress

This painting was done on a wood panel. I used some venetian red gesso that I had gotten a while back and forgot about. It is a richer red and more opaque than the burnt sienna underpainting that I usually do. The wood panel was really different to paint on than a canvas, after a little while I got used to it.

Kirk at his easel

Me at my easel

painting and source

I really tried to do a value thumbnail sketch!

My second painting of the day was on a landscape format canvas-I liked the way the paint went on the canvas better. This painting was almost complete, needs just a bit more drying time and a few changes and I will post completed painting.

Second painting, mountains in front of last scene

First scene-light changed

Just as we were finishing, I took another look at the mountain range I had first painted-the light had changed-see photo above. It would have been fun to paint again with the change in light-maybe another day-or a winter studio painting day from my photo? That's part of the challenge and fun of painting "en plein air"-the ever changing light and weather.

Last week

I managed to get out a second time last week for painting! This time to Carr-Gottstein Park, just a little ways north and west of last spot. These have quickly become my favorite painting spots in Anchorage. I'm enjoying the expanse of the grassy flats, changing mudflat and water lines and the mountains in the background. Adding a bit of discipline by limiting my palette colors has been quite helpful not to mention I have been able to cut out one bag out of the painting gear. Enjoying the warm burnt sienna underpaintings-this time they were dry, that helped a lot with the painting process! Still working small-well 8 x 16 and 8 x 8. Liking the horizontal format, but also enjoying the challenge of the squares. The fireweed will be blooming anytime down over the bluff at the park-that should but fun. Gotta get there fast-have a road trip coming up with the husband and doggies soon.

Painting scene at Carr-Gottstein Park

What I saw-Pretty happy with this one, brushy and fresh

second painting-still unfinished

 We painted from just after 7pm until around 10pm, time to quit-as I had been optimistic and had worn shorts-got a little chilly. The scene above is looking towards Kincaid park, beautiful view as we were leaving.

Starting

I've been toying with the idea of my own blog for a while. First I got bogged down by wanting to make it perfect and visually stunning. Now I'm thinking just get started and revise as I go along...
As it is "Plein Air Season" in Alaska-as well as the rest of the Northern Hemisphere, it is a good time to start posting and sharing some fresh paintings. In fact it is a great evening and almost time to get out and paint again!

So read and look and I'll make this a work in progress! Here are paintings from July 4.

 8 x 16 -as yet untitled-from park at end of Victor and Shore, Anchorage

8 x 10 -second painting of the day-looking more northward from same area

These were worked on a little after getting home-the first one was very wet on scene as I had forgotten to prime my canvas and was working on a fresh undercoat of burnt sienna.