Tag Archives: watercolor

11/20/11

Art Crawl St. Cloud

I didn’t take a lot of photos Friday night during the art crawl, but I did get a few. We had a much larger crowd of people after these were taken so I didn’t have time to take more. It was a good art crawl, though I was expecting more people. But there was a time period of about an hour when the building was very crowded with people looking at our work. The cookies and food were a big hit too, of course.

Inside Shelly's studio, Suite 206

Art Crawl November 18th -- before the bigger crowds came

The next art crawl isn’t until March 2012. If you saw something you liked and wanted to come by to purchase it later, just contact us using the contact forms above.

Next time I should have the ability to accept credit cards so that should make it easier for everyone to get the paintings they like and not worry about paying on the spot. We did sell a few things, but not as much as we had hoped. I talked to someone afterwards and suggested it might be because we don’t accept credit cards so finding a way to accept credit cards will be a priority for me for the next art crawl.

I also have a painting in the Planet Earth exhibit in Studio C at the Paramount. It’s titled “Erosion” and there is a photo on my website here. Please visit the Paramount to see the whole exhibit.

More of our artwork can also be seen in Little Falls at the GRAA art center downtown during their Wrap Up art show.

 

09/9/11

Groups and Gender Specific Shows

El Pilar Clearing

This painting is a large watercolor that I completed in 2011, of a scene in Central America. It is based on a photo taken at a Mayan ruins site called “El Pilar”.

My city has a supportive and active local arts organization, which is great, after decades of having an arts organization in this city that promoted primarily music and dance. Until the last couple of years, visual arts in this city has been treated sort of like the bastard child.

Despite my gratitude for this, I’m torn about some things. One of them is about the promotion of a special artists “Group” as opposed to the more accessible and usual public and member art show plans.

Second, the local arts organizations sponsors many art crawls and has lots of local art shows. Which is wonderful, but . . . . Lately I’ve noticed planning for at least two art events that exclude men. Why is this the case? I have no idea, but it feels odd and sexist. I’m wondering whether to participate in one of these women-only events, (and I decided to apply anyway, even though I’ll probably be excluded for other reasons) but I can’t figure out why only women are involved in this event.

I wonder — Are women artists grouped together as doing decorative, crafty stuff that would work with an interior decorator better than “man’s art”? What is “women’s art”? What would be the reaction if there were a male artist-only event?

UPDATE: I will be included in this event after all, despite my misgivings about the sexist nature of it, because why not take advantage of some affirmative action? Well, it would be interesting to have a male artist weigh in on that question. I’ll have an upcoming blog post on this event coming soon. (that update was written on September 22).

Continue reading “Groups and Gender Specific Shows” »

05/24/11

Genesis

A blast from the not-too-distant past.

This is a watercolor called Genesis II reflecting my love of science-fiction. It’s about 24″ x 27″. (There is also a Genesis I featuring a woman in a similar scene.) I have this on Artspan.org too. Soon I’ll have my things on Zazzle so people can get them on items other than prints. It’s just a matter of finding the time to list them there.

04/8/11

Dog Park I

This is a watercolor and ink on paper painting of puggles* and other dogs romping around at the dog park. I’m going to be selling ACEO cards on eBay soon and this will be one of the paintings offered for sale there. In fact, ACEO cards are original artwork or prints and their size is uniformly 2.5″ x 3.5″. Yes, they are tiny, and sold and collected like baseball cards, or any other collectible. Since they are so small, I can take a painting like this, break it up into two cards and sell each as a print. More information on them coming soon.

*My dog is a puggle. A puggle is a mix of a pug and a beagle, and they are adorable.

02/9/11

Middle East Background

It might not look like the Middle East yet, but it will.  Yes, another in-progress watercolor. This one will have a portrait painted on it.  In reality it’s not quite this bright.

And this is the final version of the painting I renamed Border Walls.

My Artspan site has a better copy.

The color is still not 100% correct,  as I took this photo outside on a very gloomy day which rendered everything blue-ish.  How do I compensate for that with my new camera?  I don’t know yet.   For a simple camera, it sure seems fussy to use.  I tried to fix it as much as I could. After finishing this painting, which I enjoyed doing so much, I attempted two others which were not as successful.  I completely started over with one of them. The other will morph into something besides its beginnings.