Category: Commissions

Summer of Plenty

8/11/2014

The idea that life is slow in a small town didn't apply here this summer. Between helping to plan Guttenberg's Stars and Stripes Celebration, keeping up with RAGBRAI coverage, and teaching various classes at the Creativity Center, I managed to eek out a few paintings.

I've been teaching Canvas Uncorked, a beginner's acrylic painting (and wine drinking) class, and so have been keeping brush to canvas on a fairly regular basis. Although I don't paint in the class at the same level I'd paint my 'own' work, I do think it helps me stay in shape. It's also been fun playing with acrylic paint, which lends itself to quicker studies than an oil painting.

Anyway, here's what's been going on in my studio this summer.

January Wedding, 10x10, gauche on canvas.

I got a set of gauche paints and am super excited about them. They're so bright! This is a painting I made as a wedding gift for a couple whose first dance just happened to be to the song January Wedding (by the Avett Brothers) - and around the edges of the canvas I scrawled lyrics from that very song in metallic gold. "My heart and hers are the same."

This painting was commissioned by a local vintner. Her dog, Kirby, is the star of the new label for her Hound and Hare wine. Kirby dreams of Watership Down-inspired hares. After testing the wine (delicious), I chose the background color to reflect the wine itself. The version at left is the first sketch, and the one at right is the one that will go on the label (with text added by the vintner).

She purchased a digital image of the final piece, but the original is still for sale. It will be featured along with Catmoon (my first gauche painting) in a cat, dog, and cow-themed show this fall at the Marquette-McGregor Art Center.

My third commission of the summer was this sign for the Guttenberg Fish Hatchery & Aquarium's 75 year anniversary. I've always loved going to the aquarium here to see river fish and especially turtles. Plus, it's always about 65 degrees inside - so it's the perfect place to take a break on a hot day.

It's been wonderful to get to know Kevin and Karen, the two DNR staff at the hatchery, through various projects at the newspaper, and I was thrilled to be able to contribute to their 75th anniversary celebration.

There are a pair of antlers and a shabby cow skull bleaching in the sun in the front yard, and a box full of India ink jars is waiting for fall to come to my studio.

5 Comments

Ink on Bone

4/13/2014

6 Comments

This bison skull got a colorful makeover during the past few months in my studio. Zentangle-inspired, the design uses sharpie, ink pen, and India ink all on gessoed bone. I had so much FUN! Henri likes it, too.

Bone is such a meaningful canvas. It's organic. It's alive. It holds memory of a life vastly different from the one it leads now. I wanted the artwork to respect and honor the animal, and I found myself telling a story of life and death with ink and bone.

A sundial notes the days that passed as the skull lived and died, and the phrase written on the cheek bones was taken directly from Masaccio's Holy Trinity, a fresco in Santa Maria Novella in Florence. Trinity is one of the first artworks to incorporate true, scientific one-point perspective (it was completed in the early 1400s). The latin inscription above the skeleton (and now on the bison) reads "What you are, I once was. What I am, you also will be." A good reminder, don't you think?

We (especially as women) mark time by the moon as much as we do the sun. We change as it changes, and we'll be connected to its phases as long as we live. I've been taking the time to howl at the moon lately, and I thinks she appreciates it.

And finally, the horn-winged owl. For my second attempt at painting on a skull, one of my goals was to integrate the bullet wound into the design, giving it an important role rather than ignoring it. The hole became the open mouth of a screeching owl, in flight against the backdrop of the moon, giving new voice and new life to the long-dead bison.

6 Comments

A new direction

10/11/2013

3 Comments

My pace has slowed, and things seems to be taking a new direction. This summer I received a request for a painting on an unusual canvas - a longhorn skull. It took a few months, and a few different strategies, but both the patron and I were pleased with the results. I'm currently working on a bison skull for the same patron.

Unconventional canvases call for unconventional easels. I painted this in our workout room, surrounded by gloves, mats, and muscular hunks.

Henri lent her services for showing the actual length of this magnificent animal's head.

It took two trips to Colorado this summer for this project to finally reach completion. The patron requested the 'Trail's End' image be included, but the rest was up to me. The background was inspired by Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. Pictured are the North and South Gate, with Pikes Peak under a full moon.

Once I got started, I really enjoyed following the curves and lines in the bone with the drawing. The three howling wolves are something I wish I had been able to do in my travels - a visit to the wolf sanctuary near Colorado Springs.

Magpies are a personal mascot. I always take a magpie as a sign of good things to come, and I saw many in Vail this summer. So, one appeared in the painting!

3 Comments

A new commission

3/11/2013

4 Comments

I'm not sure yet what it's called.

This painting is a highly personal commission for a friend of the family who currently resides in Seattle. He requested spirit hearts, dead hearts, and the main character, a battle-worn heart, headed for his final trip into the sunset.

I've never painted a sunset, and could hear the soothing voice of Bob Ross in my head as I brushed gently over the canvas.

Darker things to follow from the same patron.

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Update: DSM Commission Installed

2/20/2012

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The two paintings I made for the recently renovated home of a couple in Des Moines are back from the framer and have been hung. Here are some photos of the installed artwork and the lovely new bedroom!

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Someone likes my art!

11/27/2011

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I got a commission! Yay!!

Most emails I get from the contact page on my website are spam. So I was really excited when I discovered a message from a woman right here in Des Moines who had found my website while looking for an artist to hire. She sent me some images, described her situation, and invited me to her house for a look at the space.

We instantly clicked over a bottle of champagne. Two hours flew by as we went from talking about art to travel, family, books we're reading, and many other topics. Learning about Tracy and her husband helped me come up with ideas for the personal objects in their paintings.

The couple wanted two narrow, vertical canvases to fit their space. Tracy liked the circular patter and tie in The Escape (the header image for my website). They had a very specific color scheme in mind--right down to a paint chip! I picked up the chip and got to work.

First, I sent them several sketches so they could see what I had in mind and make suggestions of their own.

They selected the top left image and the top right one, with modifications. I wanted the paintings to be meaningful to them, and purposely did them with a "His and Hers" theme. Tracy is a writer and enjoys music, and her husband is a lawyer who wears a suit to work daily. He would have liked an object added to the painting to memorialize a pet, but it didn't seem to fit. (I managed to sneak something in later.)

The ideas for the chosen images came from my own desk and a chair I saw at Pittock Mansion in Portland this summer. The ottoman was one from the Grant Wood house at 1142 in Iowa City.

After discussing the changes the couple wanted to see, I adjusted the final sketches and put them on canvas. At this point I hadn't quite got my studio situation figured out and was working in the tiny dining area in the kitchen of my efficiency apartment. I sacrificed eating at a table until these paintings were finished!

I started mixing colors according to the paint chip, which was far from my usual bright palette. Balancing the strongly vertical compositions and reigning in my urge to add more color were the biggest challenges in these pieces.

It took me a long time to realize the value of an underpainting. For most of my college classes I was in such a hurry to finish by the deadline that I would try to get the color and detail right in the first layer of paint and move on to the next area. After spending part of a summer doing ONLY underpaintings for my professor John Dilg, it finally sunk in that there was a better approach. Now, I try to cover the entire canvas in a layer of paint right away and work up to the colors and textures as I add more layers of paint to the surface.

His, with the first thin layer of paint.

As I was working on these paintings I got a message from Zanzibar's Coffee Adventure, a local coffee shop. In 2009 while interning in DSM, I had apparently put my name on a wait-list for showing work at the shop. I still don't remember doing that, but I have to thank past Molly for her foresight! I'll be showing there in November of 2012.

I haven't done many commissioned paintings, and I struggled with how to make them meaningful to me as well as to the couple. When making work for sale, it's tempting to watch TV while you paint since it seems all the decisions have already been made. I didn't want that to be the case--I wanted to make something that still had significance in my body of work. Obviously the change in color palette was a learning experience, and the furniture with objects representing the couple fit in with my usual themes. But how to make it personal?

The relationships, of course. The connection I felt with Tracy throughout the project as we communicated with emails, had meetings in person, and shared ideas. The new friendship made in a new city. And, in this case, the idea that someone who never met me was moved by my work! There is even more to come from this couple next month.

Here are the finished paintings. See below for images of both from start to finish.

His (Missing Dog Dish). 12x24, oil.

Hers. 12x24, oil.

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Summer of Plenty

Ink on Bone

A new direction

A new commission

Update: DSM Commission Installed

Someone likes my art!

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