Always Illuminated, New Work of Miniature Art

As promised, here is the finished work, Always Illuminated! It started out as a first attempt at egg tempera, (First Attempt at Egg Tempera blog post), but alas, that didn't succeed. This piece is from that design with some additional work all done in acrylic. It still needs to have the master scan done so the "Always" has not been completely attached to the miniature landscape. Each piece will be scanned separately. This is to show how it will look when all together and which frame I have chosen. It will not be matted, but will have spacers between the glass and the artwork. That is so that the art does NOT rest on the glass. It was done on 100% rag illustration board using acrylics, including gold and iridescent colors. The only thing I would do differently next time is to make my background much lighter. The varnish seemed to darken the work more than I intended. But otherwise, I am happy with the final image. I loved painting the tiny landscape with the fields and trees. The castle was great to do. I mean, how often do you get to add a castle to your landscape?

I wanted the work to be more than just the word, so I added a landscape to rest the word on. I used the same surface and background color. Because the letter design used the autumn leaf and colors, I tried to bring that same theme and color to the landscape.


The word is attached to a piece of rag board with acrylic gel medium to lift it slightly when attached to the landscape with the same gel medium.

Always Illuminated, ©Barbara A. Freeman, Acrylic on Rag Board, 4"x 5"

Above is the frame I have chosen for it. Sorry, it is showing more of a shadow at the top than it will have when framed. Thanks for taking the time to read about my new miniature work. I'll let you know when I have decided which upcoming show I will be submitting, Always Illuminated to. I really had fun doing this, I hope it comes through in the work! It will be interesting to see what kind of response I get with this. I could see a series of illuminated words!

Gina Ballew, Entry Featured in Fundraiser in Austin

I am so happy for my daughter Gina Ballew who is once again participating in the annual silent auction fundraiser held in La Peña's downtown Congress gallery in Austin. Her mosaic heart, The Object of My Affection, was one that was included on their local We Are Austin, TV spot. It's the one in the center of the table, she didn't pick it up, but it's easy to see. I'm sure that it will have a lot of bidding on it!! I'm very proud of Gina and her dedication to making time for her art. Congratulations Gina!! Have fun tonight!

Toma Mi Corazón XVIII, Saturday, February 6, 2010, Preview Party: 4:30-6:00 pm, $10 admission (includes silent auction), Silent Auction: 6:00-8:00 pm, $5 admission for silent auction onlyGallery located at 227 Congress Avenue, Austin, TX.

Coming Soon, & 4 Show Deadlines in April!

This weekend I'll be doing the isolation coat and varnish on my three new works. Then after they are dry enough, I'll have them scanned. I have completed the third work, Always, my illuminated word and will be able to show it then. If you have been following me, you may remember this one because it started out as an egg tempera painting. I had some problems with the egg tempera but liked the design, so I redid it in acrylic. I liked the way it came out, but decided I wanted to take it further. I created a tiny landscape painted on the same kind of surface, using the same colors, including gold, with the autumn theme. I'm going to "float" the work, Always on top of the piece with the landscape. In other words, the word Always is raised slightly in the space that is the sky with the landscape below. That is why it can't be shown, it needs to be varnished before I can connect the two pieces. Words! It would be so much easier to just show it! Hopefully I made all that clear. If not, stayed tuned, Always Illuminated, Coming Soon!

In the meantime, I am starting to panic! I have four deadlines for miniature art works! I'll need at least 16 or more quality fine art miniatures total for all of them! The show in Florida will end this weekend and I'll be waiting to see how many are returned from that show. Those remaining works will all be available to show in these upcoming shows, but I will still have to have new work to add to them. The shows are listed below, if you are a local artist or you live elsewhere and don't mind shipping your work. Or perhaps you are a collector of fine art miniatures and want to see the work in person, please check out the shows. Seaside and Parklane are miniature art shows only and are exhibited for a longer time period. Bothell and Edmonds are several day festivals with both miniature art and larger work. Good luck to all of you entering these fun and exciting shows! Now, it's back to my studio to get busy!

April 16th: Edmonds Arts Festival, Edmonds, WA edmondsartsfestival.com
April 20th: Seaside Art Gallery, Nags Head, NC. seasideart.com
April 23rd: Live Arts Bothell, Bothell, WA liveartsbothell.org The site is in the process of correcting information. Deadline is April 23rd!
April 27th: Parklane Gallery, Kirkland, WA parklanegallery.com

"Peek-a-Boo", New Miniature in Acrylic

Peek-a-Boo, © Barbara A. Freeman
Acrylic on Claybord, 3 5/8" x 3 5/8"

My latest miniature work is a redo from one that I had done in colored pencil on film several months ago. I ran into problems with the first one though, and had to abandon it, (see below). I knew I wanted to come back to doing the chickens because I liked their expressions, they were so cute. I especially liked the way the one is partially in the picture plane. It was as though it wanted to be sure to be in the picture too. They were really funny to walk through and photograph. They were difficult to shoot, would not pose and instead, would come up to the camera and try to peck it. This chicken breed is the White Cochin Bantam.

This was my first animal painting in acrylic. I have always used either graphite or colored pencil to do any animals because I liked the control in getting all the small details. Now, though, after painting these, I would not hesitate to do more. It was a bit challenging getting all the value shifts in the whites though. Such fun! It still needs to be varnished. I'll post it again when I have it framed.

Radioactive Chickens, Colored Pencil on Film, (left),
"Peek-A-Boo", Acrylic on Claybord, (right)
© Barbara A. Freeman

Above are the two works side by side. The colored pencil work was finished except for the final fixative. However, after spraying it, the piece was ruined, my chickens ended up looking radioactive!!! I think it was because I sprayed the fixative too heavily, which caused the colors to run. A very bright yellow ran on the backs of the chickens and the blues surrounding them is neon blue! Needless to say, I was upset. So, I put the chickens aside and concentrated on other subject matter using a different medium. Even though it was disappointing having my work ruined after finishing it, the experience did end on a positive note by getting me to push myself into painting the chickens. I was very pleased with the results and think it is a better work overall.

Next, I am back to finishing up Always Illuminated, the illuminated word I've posted about earlier. I'm doing it in acrylic and expanding the work, making it more than just the word. I hope it works out! Until then, thanks for taking the time to read this and look at my work.

New Miniature in the Italian Landscape Series, "Over and Beyond"

My latest miniature painting is another in my Italian Landscape Series. I had started this one a while back, but didn't like the colors in the sky, nor the way the light was hitting the tops of the mountains. I put it away and moved on to another work. I find it's good to do that, when a piece just doesn't grab you but you have put so much work into it. This one had been at that point. Meanwhile, I was thinking about what I wanted to do next, when I saw it sitting there on the miniature easel where I prop them to "age". I picked it up and just started working on it. I think it's good sometimes to put all the photos and references away and let your painter's eye take over. Once I got the sky area worked out, the rest was the fun part of just refining the details. I'm very happy with it now. It still needs the isolation coat and varnish. When that has all been done and a frame chosen, I'll post it again. Thanks for looking and taking the time to read this.

Over and Beyond, © Barbara A. Freeman
Acrylic on Claybord, 3 5/8" x 3 5/8"

Miniature Art Society of Florida Show Opens and Other News

This weekend the 35th Annual International Miniature Art Show opened. I have five miniature works in this show, (you can see them in this blog post). I heard that sales were doing really well at last night's Collectors Preview and Artists' Reception. I hope several of them were mine! The show opens to the public today at 1PM to 5Pm. The show runs from January 17th through February 7th, 2010 at the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art, 600 Klosterman Road, Tarpon Springs, FL. This is the largest miniature art show in the country and one I would love to attend. There are 850 works of art from 221 artists, in addition to the society’s permanent collection of more than 100 miniatures. There are magnifying glasses available for the complete enjoyment of these small treasures. Entries are from 33 states and 11 countries!

Other news...the prospectus is now online for Parklane Gallery's 18th Annual Miniature Art Show, in Kirkland, WA, at www.parklanegallery.com.

Also, another great miniature art show coming up is at Seaside Art Gallery in Nags Head, NC. You can find their prospectus for the 19th International Miniature Art Show on their website, at www.seasideart.com. I am planning to have work in both of these shows and will be blogging about them in the near future.

I have a new painting to share soon and another one in process. I'm sorry I've not been able to share much due to my trackball (mouse) causing me problems. I am using a loaner until my new one arrives on Tuesday. This one is different and like my new one, so I'm having to retrain my thumb! Now back to painting!

Kaewyn Gallery Miniature Exhibit Extended

I just got an email from Kaewyn Gallery that the Miniature Masterpieces and More exhibit will be extended through January 29th. If you didn't get a chance to see the show, there is still time! I have three miniatures remaining in this exhibit, Innocence, "Rhodie" With Bee, The Sentinel, and one small work, A Meditation on the Pacific Northwest , (located up front by the window). So if you don't know what to do with that check from Santa, consider some local art at Kaewyn Gallery, 10101 Main Street in downtown Bothell, WA. Support your local artist!

First Attempt at Egg Tempera

First, let me say, Happy New Year !! 2010!! It's hard to believe we're already in the first week of a new year. Where does the time go?

Now on to new work! After I finished the stone with the illuminated G, I needed something that I could paint in miniature using egg tempera. I wanted to keep it simple so I decided to do another illuminated letter. I didn't have as much of a problem as I thought I would with cleaning the egg yolk for the medium, (thank you Mona for your demo)! I found that using my hands to clean off the yolk worked better for me than the paper towel though. Until I know better what I'm doing, I am using watercolor instead of powdered pigments, except for titanium white. My surface was a 100% rag illustration board. My friend Janie Olsen ordered some of the True Gesso panels and is bringing me one on Friday. The True Gesso panels are not made with acrylic gesso, but made with the rabbit skin glue formula and are perfect for egg tempera painting.

Below is what I did and the problems I ran into. I think the hardest part was knowing when I had enough medium mixed with the paint. Also, I noticed the paint that was already applied was fragile and could scratch easily. I used thin paint to seal the surface and then on top of that I would use cross hatching and thin glazes. Sometimes the paint would lift off if it wasn't completely dry so I would work on another area.

You can see the cross hatching on the gold/orange area.

Here is where I've covered all the surface with thin layers.

I have continued to build up color and light. Here is where I started noticing problems. There is a flaky place just above the "a" and "y". Then the same thing started happening on the lower left corner. I was going to repair it on the bottom left corner by building it back up, but thought I'd leave it for awhile and see if anyone has any solutions. I also wonder about just using some of the medium alone on top of the flaky place above the "a" and "y" to see if it would stabilize it.

I continued to work on it because I was hoping to save it. I loved the glow and the colors. You can see the flaking places really well here as I used my brush to lift them off hoping I could repair them. I started to repaint, but gave up because I wasn't sure if I would run into this elsewhere as well. At this point I had already spent too much time without any assistance. I would like to know if I am on the right track, if this flaking is because I've not used enough egg medium, or if it's because I added too much paint or too many layers without it being dry? From the research I did, it sounds like the answer could be YES to all of them. But I don't know which and I'd like to avoid it again!! I'm having Janie look at it when she comes over. She's done some egg tempera and took one of Koo Schadler's one day workshops. I'm hoping she can at least give me her opinion. Any other suggestions would be welcome. I know Mona Diane Conner does beautiful work in egg tempera and sometimes visits here, so maybe she can give me some insight. I will try again. However for now, I need to move along and get some work finished for all my miniature deadlines coming up!

This is the new attempt so far of the same image using acrylics. I'll post the finished work when it's done. I enjoyed using the egg tempera so far and I'll be going back to it when I get a slot of time to try again. I think it's probably like anything else that you do. You have to do it a lot till you work out the problems and get better at it. So for now, I'll put the egg tempera on pause. Thanks for reading this post.

Janie Olsen's Painting, "The Whippets", Stolen!

Sad news from my friend Janie Olsen who emailed me last night to tell me she had a painting stolen! Yesterday morning, Wednesday, December 30th, around 10:30 or so she was taking down work from her show that was in the Lake Stevens City Hall. The title of the stolen work is The Whippets. (Click on the title to go to her website to view the missing work.) She thinks it must have happened while she was loading them into her car. The back door to the car was open as they were walking back and forth during the loading. It is a small place right by the police station! When she got home and unloaded everything she couldn't find the painting anywhere! She said she remembered it was one that she put in the car first because she had plans to enter it into a competition coming up. Everyone who helped her look for it, remembered it. It was a large framed painting! The only other possibility is it could have been taken sometime while she was transferring some of the paintings from that show at the city hall to the library where she was hanging a few of them. She said she is sure she locked her car because it was full of her work. When she got home, unloaded and found it missing she drove back to both places to look for it, and with the help of others, still could not find it! She did talk to the woman from the Lake Stevens Art Commission who said she will put an article about it in their local paper. We all as artists and art lovers know how this must feel for Janie. Any information or a safe return of this painting would be greatly appreciated. Here is Janie Olsen's website and contact page, www.thestorybookstudio.com. Good luck Janie! My heart goes out to you!

Illuminated Letter For Gina

This is a little something I did for my daughter, Gina. She should get it today. It's something I worked on while I was sick. I love illuminated letters and last year I did a miniature for the February "Romance Show" at the Arts of Snohomish Gallery. I had such fun doing that and want to do something similar again for their show this year. (I'll say more about that in my next post.) Meanwhile, I remembered I wanted to paint something on a stone. I love rocks and stones and have them all around our home. Once when I had some leftover gel medium I used it on some of the rocks that were sitting nearby. After several coats, the surface was so nice, I knew someday I wanted to paint something on one. Gina also loves rocks and found natural treasures. When she was little, she gave me two stones that she painted for me. I love them and have them in my studio, they make me smile every time I see them. I thought I would return the favor and had one with just the right shape that was perfect for her. I thought the colors and gold paint did well on the surface. It's painted in acrylic and finished with varnish. I forgot to measure the size, but you can get an idea by the first photo. It was done with love. It's not everybody who can say their Mom gave them a rock!