a work in progress

I thought I’d say farewell to the 20th Annual May festival of the Arts by posting another wonderful art car that rolled down Spring Street in the Artrageous Parade.

I am so happy the art cars came to Eureka Springs!  I hope more will come each year and that we will need an art car parade in addition to the Artrageous Parade. I’ve been planning to do something fabulous to mine, but somehow it always seems to be the lowest priorty project on the line-up. Maybe by next May….lord knows, I’ve got a closet full of oddities waiting to see if they’ll be on parade.

I have entered this painting in an online contest where every vote counts. It’s the sixth round of the Saatchi Gallery Showdown. Voting will be open May 28-June 4. Click on the picture or link to vote for my piece. Thanks!

Here are the instructions for another silly project for one of my favorite clients. Pretty detailed. This woman sure knows how to get what she wants.  I’ll work my creativity into the project  by refining the color palette for these six faux windows. I’ll also try to get them in and and out of the studio pretty quickly. I’ve got lots of work to do before my next show, June 16th. More on that later…

The traditional advice for cutting foam core is to make two passes, one through the top layer of paper and foam and the second through the bottom later of paper. How tedious. After many trials (and errors), I have found that I can make very clean and straight cuts with just one pass of the blade. This not only saves time but keeps any of those annoying rips of the back paper from happening. I work at a low table and this can be hard on the back, but being able to make one pass makes it so much faster that this complaint is disappearing. I have a higher workspace available, but feel the lower table is best for positioning my body directly above the area to be cut. It reduces wrist fatique and that is definitely a consideration with all the time spent on the computer and at the easel. In the picture above you see my preferred tools:

a thick straight edge- my level works well both for measuring and keeps my hand out of harms way as I use it to guide the cuts
a pencil- to mark both ends of each cut

a cutting mat- saves not only the table, but the blades last longer. also essential for cutting through all layers at once.

a box cutter or utility cutter-as others have said before, snap off blades are awesome. The tool I use is perfect because I can dial up the blade to such a length that the edge of the blade’s sheath rests along the top edge of the level and provides enough blade depth to go through all layers at once.

The steps:

1. Measure and mark the starting and ending points for each of the cuts for your first piece.

2. Align the straight edge (in my case, level) with the two marks.

3. Slide blade forward in it’s sheath and press into the foamcore at the starting point for the first cut and so that it is pressed against the straight edge.

4. Hold straight edge very firmly with one hand and while pressing in firmly with the other draw blade the length of the cut.

5. Repeat, making adjustments in pressure used as necessary.

Tips:

Don’t skimp on blades. A sharp blade makes all the difference. Snap off the top piece of your blade after each full sheet of foam core.

Use a cutting mat. If you don’t have a self-healing mat for crafts, try one of those silicone cutting boards.

If you use a metal straight edge such as a square or triangle, watch out for black residue on your fingers and foam core. Wash and dry your hands well before packaging your prints with all those wonderfully cut pieces of foam core.

I promised to show some of the different papers I have experimented with as I begin producing some of my own fine art prints. I took this photo under a cloudy sky with the papers resting on a blank canvas. I found it interesting to see that the Somerset Velvet White is the same color as the canvas on which I paint. I can see why watercolorists often use this paper for their prints. It is soft, thick, and luxurious. The Radiant White is not quite as white I would like for my prints, but shares the same tactile qualities the Velvet White is admired for. These two papers are fine art papers which have been treated (enhanced) with a coating which makes them very receptive to the printing inks. They are wonderful to touch, but for most of my work, reproduce too softly and are too yellow.

On the right side of the picture are two much brighter papers and I find that truer whites really work best for reproducing the highlights in my paintings. Working in acrylics is a bit different form other media in that it is often most effective to paint dark to light, with the lights resting on top. This is very natural for me and I really enjoy the last few strokes of each painting as I watch the highlights bring it to life. The Moab Entrada Bright White is heavier than the Epson paper and has a very nice feel, but it is also a little too white for my work. You can see the washed out appearance of the greenish yellow color in this photo and the white highlights are much brighter than they were in the actual painting. I’m really happy with the quality of the reproduction on the Epson paper. While it was developed for photography and professional presentations, it has many qualities which make it superior for much of my fine art printing. It was created to work with the Epson pigment inks I use and when used together these prints are archival in nature. Tested to withstand 100 years under glass or 200 in an album. I choose to print this image, and most of my work, on this paper for the color and quality. It is white, but not too white, it shows the color of the highlights as they appear in the original. It is also very smooth and provides a very crisp reproduction.

While there are some paintings of mine which reproduce well on the Somerset Enhanced Radiant White, and others which I print on the Epson Watercolor Radiant White (not pictured), most of my reproductions are done on the Epson heavyweight matte paper picture above. I first presented these prints to the public at last Friday’s White Street Art Walk and I heard all sorts of comments and questions to indicate I had chosen wisely. “Who’s the photographer?” “Are these original pastels?” And my favorite, “What is this done on? Did you paint all these on fabric?”

The Stink Bug Art Car was one of my favorites in the Eureka Springs Artrageous Parade earlier this month. It has won lots of awards at art car parades and I can certainly see why. It is meticulously moasic-ed with cigarette butts. Beautiful and malodorous-plus a message all should heed.

Last night’s White Street Art Walk was fantastic! It’s one of the best attended local events so I got to visit with lots of friends and people I see just every so often. My talented and funny photographer friend, Jim, crawled out of the woodwork and took some awesome shots, including the one above. Check out his new blog so you can enjoy his interesting perspective and techniques. By the way, that’s me in back clowning around.

So many kids come to say hi to me, my wonderful neighbor on the porch thought I must be a teacher. I just love kids and I’ve subbed at my godson’s school a bit. I also spend time with those kids at their school facilitating art projects. Other kids in town know me as the face painter. This was the first year I’ve set up my paintings, well, prints, at the White Street Art Walk and not done face painting for the kids. The response was tremendous and I really enjoyed a lot of support. Someone remarked how nice it was to see me out with my real art instead of just painting faces. I really appreciated that.

I also appreciated all the folks who decided to make a piece of my art their own. It’s great to see it heading off to new homes, here and away. I did get to talk to a lot of people about my work and I enjoyed doing so. I learned that most of the people who really like what I do and appreciate the simplicity of my closely focused images are very well educated and interested in creating a life filled with appreciation for the every day. Many live in big cities and it ocurred to me last night that while this town is a perfect fit for me to live in, my work is rather different from the flowers, animals, and landscapes most artists around here are focused on. I am very pleased to be learning more about my customers and it will help me as I work to promote my work outside the magical bubble of Eureka Springs.

I continue to add new prints to my new shop at Etsy . I almost ran out of business cards last night so today I will revise the design of the old ones and place an order for more. Perhaps some people will find they have a coupon for free shipping on the back of the business card and find their way there. I also need to run by the gallery, Eureka Thyme, take some of the new prints and cards and pick up a check. There are so many business things to care of , it’s a wonder I find time to paint anymore!

I’m taking a quick break from framing and packaging prints to do a couple things online.  I listed a print of this painting in my new Etsy shop.  I’m still waiting for my first sale from that shop and the key on Etsy seems to be to list regularly so as to avoid being buried in the many pages of listings.

Here’s one of my new prints. It’s 8″ x 8″ to fit a standard frame. Click on the image to see it in my Etsy shop. Short post tonight… I went to a high school band concert and am about to play a couple rounds of Boggle Master before packaging up my new prints and getting some framing done. Just three days until the White Street Walk. I’m getting excited!

After pricing fine art prints and then having a print job come back to me with the colors way off, I decided to improve my printing capabilities. I can now offer prints of all my paintings! It’s been amazing to see the quality of these prints and so much fun to watch a sold painting come back to life. My godson thought I had repainted a painting I sold a couple years ago the quality is so fine!

I selected an Epson printer which has incredible resolution at 5760 x 1440 optimized dpi and makes archival prints with 8-color pigment ink. This is better resolution than the large giclee printers and it even boasts ink droplets as small as 1.5 picoliters. Some of the big print houses refer to these prints as Studio Lab Prints to accentuate the quality of their output and distinguish them from other giclees. Furthermore, these inks and papers can last up to two hundred years! I have spent quite a bit of time testing different papers and working with the color management and am now creating my own fine art prints on paper and canvas. (I’ll post more later about the different papers I’ve tried .)
Word is getting out and I’ve already completed one job printing photos for someone else and will be working on another set of prints for a local business tonight or tomorrow. So much for the painting I had planned to complete! More ink is on the way and that’s a good thing as I need to make some more prints for the gallery and for Friday’s White Street Walk Studio Tour.

I was just reading through the Etsy forum checking out what folks had said they had recently purchased when I clicked on this link. First thing I noticed was the title and then I scrolled down to view the print and howled with laughter. It’s beautiful, too, and tender. I love that it accomplishes so much. It’s by Kendra Binney. Check out her shop. I really like her art. And although that item has sold, it’s a print…another one may list soon.

These are the fun faux windows I painted for the new treehouse cottages which are being built by the great folks who own and operate Oak Crest Treehouses and Cottages here in Eureka Springs, AR. They knew exactly what they wanted me to do, so it was not like my usual work at all, rather more like a giant paint by number. I’ll be painting another set for their southwest themed cabins soon and I have the same type of instruction sheet from them, just a bit more detailed. I’ll share that in a later post. If you want to see the diagram I worked from for this set, click here.