Wednesday, June 29, 2011

LiveARTS Bothell Reception Photos and New Work in Progress (WIP)

Here are a few photos of the Artists' Reception and Preview Party from last weekend at LiveARTS Bothell.   There was quite a crowd in the lobby. 


Wayne snapped this shot of me getting my award for First Place in Miniature for my work, Mister Pelican.  When I came back on Sunday after the show to pick up my work, I found out that it had sold!

Above, artists Eden Hopkins and Susan Jones in deep conversation. 
 
This fun photo was being taken at the same time by both Wayne Freeman and Ron Stocke, so we are all directing our eyes at two different cameras!  Starting left, Ursula Stocke, Josey Wise, Barbara Freeman, Janie Olsen and Eden Hopkins.  It was fun meeting up with everyone, all in the same place at the same time.  These talented artists all had work in the show.

What I'm Working on Now...
 
is another graphite and mixed media on film.  It has a female figure in the foreground with one of my fantasy trees behind her.  I have enclosed the image in a circle and will be adding color on the back side of the film, the border of the circle, her body color and the sphere.





I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do with the central sphere she is holding.  I have a lot of ideas but I'll wait to see what she wants to do with it.  This drawing has taken a lot longer than I thought it would.  The tree is always the easiest part, the figure, not so easy for me.   Right now I am making some corrections to the arm and hand.  I may add something to the four corners, I haven't decided yet.  I like the vision so far.  I do have a competition in mind to enter it into if it's finished in time.  It may be a long shot as you never know if your work will fit the theme or if the juror will like it.  However, when I head about this show, I was inspired to create this new work with that goal in mind. To me the inspiration and creation of the work are what's important!  Until next time, thanks for taking the time to read about my work.  Enjoy your summer!

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Mister Pelican - First Place Miniatures, LiveARTS Bothell!

Woo Hoo!!  I got a call from LiveARTS Bothell that my painting, Mister Pelican took First Place in Miniatures!!  Tomorrow evening is the Preview Party with the awards presentation and I'm going to be there for sure!  You can read about and see the rest of my work that's in the show HERE.

Mister Pelican © Barbara A. Freeman
Acrylic, 3 1/8" x 2"

The LiveARTS Bothell show will be taking place on Saturday and Sunday, June 25th and 26th.  The venue is the same place as last year at the new Mobius Hall Gallery on the campus of Cascadia Community College and U.W. Bothell.  The college is located one mile east of downtown Bothell (directions and map here). The LiveARTS Bothell Art Fair is always great fun, with musical entertainment, great food and ART! There is free garage parking and the festival event will be in the inner courtyard of the wooded campus overlooking its 58-acre North Creek wetland.
This is a great community event and always lots of fun. I hope you can make it. Be sure to look for my work in the new Mobius Hall Gallery.

Monday, June 13, 2011

2nd Place Miniatures! - Edmonds Arts Festival - Fathers' Day Weekend

Traveling the Slow Road © Barbara A. Freeman
Fine Art Miniature, Acrylic on Masonite, 2 7/8" x 3 3/4"
Second Place Miniatures - Edmonds Arts Festival

Sunday evening Wayne and I went to the Reception for the artists and volunteers of the Edmonds Arts Festival at the Frances Anderson Center . The show was still in the "raw", the work not yet hung in it's final position nor with information labels and awards ribbons. Therefore, it was hard to see who the artist was and what works got awards.


I saw someone looking at the tag on my miniature, Traveling the Slow Road and when I told her it was mine, she congratulated me and told me it had taken Second Place!! When the show opens with the Preview pARTy on Wednesday, the 15th, all will be labeled and polished.
Pastel artist, Cheryl Hufnagel and Acrylic painter, Janie Olsen

While there, I met up with several artists friends. My friend Janie Olsen has two paintings and four miniatures in the show. She was happy to find out that her work titled Jingle Bells, took Third Place in Miniature! Pastel artist and friend, Cheryl Hufnagel has two paintings and three miniatures in the show. It's always great to run into Cheryl and see her latest work.

Yours truly with Cheryl and Janie.

Being an artist who loves to draw, I was also excited to see several very nice graphite pieces in the Drawing Category. I was blown away by a really wonderful piece featuring rocks and shells. It was filled with texture and a beautiful range of values. When I looked to see who it's creator was, I found it was my friend Susan Jones' work! Sorry, I didn't get any photos of Susan.

Awards and kudos to artists, sponsors and volunteers.

I am looking forward to returning to the show when the festival is in full swing this weekend. Mark your calendars and take Dad to the Edmonds Arts Festival , this Fathers' Day weekend, June 17th through the 19th - Friday, 11am to 9 pm, Saturday, 10am to 8pm, and Sunday, 10am to 6pm. Also, this year’s annual Preview pARTy will be held on Wednesday, June 15 at the Frances Anderson Center beginning at 6:00 pm. Look for my work at the Juried Art Show, inside the Frances Anderson Center, 700 Main Street, Edmonds,WA

Needless to say, I was very happy that my miniature received an award, especially after I received notice last week that the silverpoint and acrylic work in progress that I had just blogged about, Trio, was rejected from the competition I entered it in! Just goes to show, you never know what gets in and what gets turned away. As most jurors will tell you, it's a hard job! In the meantime, I'm working on another mixed media piece on film and will post it here when it's finished. As always, thanks for taking the time to read about my work. Do try to visit some of the great Art Events in your area wherever you live, and support your local artist!

Monday, June 6, 2011

"Earth and Sky" Silverpoint and Acrylic WIP Completed

My husband and I were going to make a journey via train to visit my in-laws.  It was our first overnight train trip and we were looking forward to a new experience.  I keep a good daylight lamp with a magnifier at their place so while I'm there, I can still work when there is time.  I thought I would also be able to work on the train to help fill the time.  As usual when I know I will be working while visiting, I have to get something planned out and started.  I had been wanting to do another silverpoint work, and already had some paper prepared with silverpoint ground.  I knew I wanted to do something with lots of texture and with color like I do when working in graphite and film.  After looking through my photo library, I decided on one of a piece of driftwood that had mushrooms growing out of it.  It had the perfect bit of color and all the texture that I needed.

I drew the study for this work on film.  I have found that film works really well in the planning stages.  It erases so easily and I can do smaller studies and lay them on top or under to arrange the composition.  Above is the drawing with the reference photo and the prepared paper with the drawing transferred on.

I did a small study of the mushrooms on a bit of silverpoint ground to see how the acrylic looked with the silverpoint and to work out the colors, etc.  I was happy with it at this point so it was time to get started. 

I started on the upper left with the silverpoint.  But before I got very far along, I knew I was going to add something else for color balance.  I decided on a butterfly with wood nymph markings, or my interpretation of one.

Because this was going with me on my journey, I wanted to get the painting parts finished first.  Better to have that all completed BEFORE I invested the time on the details of the silverpoint drawing.  

Here's a closer view of the mushrooms.

A closer view of the butterfly.

I made a traveling portfolio to use as a drawing board on the trip.  It's two pieces of foam core hinged on the inside.  I kept the drawing with a sheet of mat board to cover it.  The thing on the right side is the wedge to sit it on.

I cut the wedge from the same piece of foam core, same width as the portfolio.  I cut it in three pieces, but not all the way through so it would fold.  Then I used the velcro that came on heads of lettuce from the supper market. (I save everything!)  I glued this on the end and then used it to wrap around the wedge to help hold it in place.

This is at a table in the lounge car on the train, the windows are large and folks come for snacks and drinks, to just read or play games, or look out the window at the beauty going by.  It's also a fun place to take photos if you can avoid the reflections on the windows.  Now if only they would get an espresso machine!!

This shows the wedge with the work on top.

I've attached a small magnifier to it here.  Everything worked out great, except the train didn't cooperate!  There was far more movement than I thought there would be and I could not work!   I did see another person with a sketch book working on some ink tatoo-like drawings but it wasn't working for me.  Also, there were far too many distractions with all the abundance of scenery, water fowl and other wildlife to look at!

 
Finally, when we got to our destination and I set up my work space, a card table with my daylight lamp, I was ready to get started!

I know the photos are strange with the light being warm sometimes and cool another.  I think it depends on the light in the room or if it was day or night.  You can see the silverpoint reflecting in the upper right.  In the photos below, you can see the reflection of the warm colors from the butterfly in the upper left. 


I was able to make much more progress when I got back home. 

It seemed to take longer than I thought it would.  Perhaps due to not being in my own studio and not having worked with silverpoint in quite awhile.  Everytime I do use it again, I learn more.  One thing I have to remind myself is not to become rushed, to go slowly!  The layers need to build up slowly, I got heavy handed in a couple of places.  Fortunately, they were in a place where I ended up cropping anyway!  Also I was reminded not to make the point too sharp, it can scratch the surface of the ground!  I also remembered the beauty of the lines and the changes in the silver color and how it warms.  I could see the difference from when I worked before I left for the trip and when I arrived and started working again.  It all evens out and becomes the same warm color.


Earth and Sky  © Barbara A. Freeman
Silverpoint and Acrylic on Prepared Paper  6 1/2" x 7 1/2"

This is the final cropped version.  Showing more of the background rocks seemed unnecessary and I thought it took away from the focal point.  Now your eye goes directly to the mushrooms! This work is all about textures, from the detail of the driftwood to the smoothness of the mushrooms, the underside of their gills, as well as the smooth river rocks and then the delicate wings of the butterfly.   This work in silverpoint and acrylic was submitted to a local competition, no theme.  I'll show it again after I have it framed.  I should find out this week, so I'll keep my fingers and toes crossed and let you know!  For now, I need to come up with my next project. I have several things floating around in my head so it's just a matter of working it out. I do have to get some miniatures finished for the fall deadlines, but I think I have one more non-miniature to do first! Until next time...Thank you for taking the time to read about my work. 

Oh and by the way, the train trip was great and we will do it again!  It's so much better than flying, much less stressful and without the invasive security!

Friday, June 3, 2011

LiveARTS Bothell Juried Show Acceptance

I've received my letter from the LiveARTS Bothell Juried Art Exhibit and the good news is... ALL my work has been juried in!  Below are the four works in the Miniature Art Category, including the new miniature painting, Mister Pelican, making his debut in this show. 

Mister Pelican © Barbara A. Freeman
Acrylic, 3 1/8" x 2"  Framed
Peek-a-Boo, © Barbara A. Freeman
Acrylic on Claybord, 3 5/8" x 3 5/8"  Framed

A Touch of Autumn, © Barbara A. Freeman
Acrylic on Polymin, 2 1/8" x 3 1/4"  Framed

Moonbathing © Barbara A. Freeman
Graphite and Mixed Media on Film 3 1/2" x 3 1/2" Framed

My two larger works,  The Vernal Arrival of the Green Darner and The Wood Nymph are in the Drawing Category, both done in graphite and mixed media on film.  You can read about the two of them on this blog as a "work in progress" by clicking on each of their titles above.


The Vernal Arrival of the Green Darner © Barbara A. Freeman
Graphite and Mixed Media on Film, 7" x 7"


The Wood Nymph © Barbara A. Freeman
Graphite and Mixed Media on Film, 8 1/2" x 8"

The LiveARTS Bothell show will be taking place on Saturday and Sunday, June 25th and 26th.  The venue is the same place as last year at the new Mobius Hall Gallery on the campus of Cascadia Community College and U.W. Bothell.  There will be a Patron Preview Party on Friday June 24th, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm with the awards presentation at 7:00. Please call for reservations at 425-398-0559 by June 10th. The college is located one mile east of downtown Bothell (directions and map here). The LiveARTS Bothell Art Fair is always great fun, with musical entertainment, great food and ART! There is free garage parking and the festival event will be in the inner courtyard of the wooded campus overlooking its 58-acre North Creek wetland.

This is a great community event and always lots of fun. I hope you can make it. Be sure to look for my work in the new Mobius Hall Gallery. The sun is going to shine that weekend!
~~~
I know I said I was working on a new drawing in silverpoint and would blog about it as a work in progress as soon as I had it finished.  I can with relief say that I did finally get it finished today (Friday) in time to submit it to a local competition!  I will blog about it and show the steps I took, hopefully by Monday!  I need to download the photos, organize and put my watermark and copyright on them.  In the meantime, I thought I'd share a sneak peek image of it. 



Trio, Silverpoint Work in Progress © Barbara A. Freeman

Thank you for taking the time to read about my work and the shows I'm going to be in.   The sun has been out all day and it looks like a beautiful weekend here.  I hope you are all enjoying your spring or whatever your weather is, in what ever part of the universe you reside!