Friday, April 30, 2010

Art in the Afternoon feature-Annie Evans
























ok, I love, love, love Annie Evans clay works! And here's the thing, I haven't even seen her work in person yet, only photos, and I just recently met her, and let me tell you, she is just wonderful. We are in for treat at the Melia and Newman residences for Art in the Afternoon! And, she is going to spread her work out between the 2 carriage houses (they're across the street from each other) So you get twice the amount of eye-candy and I guarantee that you will be just as enamored with her work as I am!

Annie Evans, Ceramics
Evans foremost creative goal is to honor the female, the subordinate one-half of our race. All of her work, with the exception of a few animals, is comprised of women. She also creates human-animal hybrids, a concept found in myths and religions across cultures and time. We are but one of many animal species, related to the others both physically and emotionally. Her hybrids offer an imaginative leap to our connectedness to other animals, to the spirit world and to humor, with the juxtaposition of soft clothing, feminine curves and animal heads.All of Evans pieces are hand built with stoneware or earthenware clay. The surfaces are rough, rather than smooth, to offer depth and complexity to the finish. She fires each piece several times, applying oxide washes, underglazes and glazes to achieve layered and variegated colors.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Art in the Afternoon-Jill Bates























Jill Bates work is just so serene and beautiful. She is currently exhibiting at Decatur Gallery and Dancing Goats in Decatur. Her work is sumptuously rich and full of vivid color. I used to work in this medium, and it is really challenging to create depth of color without getting muddy! Jill has mastered this medium and it is even more stunning in person. She has created these really cute "crab boxes" which are small works of art in little shadow boxes, and they are very reasonably priced. She will also be creating working plein air in the Newman's garden on May 1 for Art in the Afternoon, so you will get to see her in action!

Jill Bates, Pastels
A Kalamazoo, MI native, Bates did her undergraduate work at High Point College in North Carolina and also attended Georgia Southwestern College in Americus, GA. She has participated in various solo and juried exhibitions around the state and her work has received recognition at many of them, including: Beaux Arts, Atlanta Beach, Jonesboro, Best of Show, 1996; First Place, 1997; Artists of the Southern Crescent Juried Exhibit, 2nd Place; Fayette County Courthouse Art Show in the Square, Honorable Mention, 1996; One Man Show, Performing Arts Center, Jonesboro; Clayton County Festival of Art, 1999, 3 Purchase Awards. Her work is included in several corporate and private collections. Bates lives and works in Lilburn, GA., with her family.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Art in the Afternoon-Hang on Sister



















Whoo hoo! We made a last minute add-on to the Melia residence, Hang on Sister! My good friend Connie Fontova and her sisters have been creating upcycled jewelry from bottlecaps and inserting their whimsy in the mix. So very cute stuff, and affordable too! So come by and have a glass of wine and try on some necklaces-she just started working with metal clay too!

Hang on Sister, upcycled jewelry
Five sisters from Alabama make up Hang On Sister! Most of their jewelry is made from upcycled bottle caps and magazines. These aren't your usual pre-fab, mass produced bottle cap necklaces. Each necklace is made by hand and are embellished with beads, charms and whatever else they may find lying around. One of the sisters, Connie Fontova, is an Avondale Estates resident. Recently, she started dabbling in using precious metal clay to make small dog tag pendants as well.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Katty Negrete-Art in the Afternoon feature





















I'm getting behind with my features, so I may have to double up everyday before this Saturday so you get a chance to see everyone's work!

Now, getting down to business, I'm so very pleased to have Katty Negrete exhibit at our May 1 Art in the Afternoon event! She is so very talented as well as one of the nicest people you will ever meet! Her jewelry is absolutely exquisite, especially her rings. I have my eye on a few and have tried my very best to resist, but I may have to give in on Saturday. It is for a good cause, you know, 15% of the artist's sales go to the Avondale Arts Alliance. Hope you can stop by the Newman's carriage house to see her work this Saturday!

Katty Negrete, Metal and clay jewelry, www.kattydesign.com
A native of Vina del mar, Chile, Negrete always has been a lover of art and fine craft with two creative passions, metal and drawing with precious metal clay. She’s been able to join the two with a dynamic success. In 2000, Negrete came to the United States continuing her work with different materials like alpaca, waxed thread, copper, bronze and enamel and started working with precious metal clay where she found the magic to express her emotions, inspiration, imagination in a piece of art.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Beth Ann St. George-Art in the Afternoon feature


I discovered this very talented artist through my long-time friend Jan Selman, an amazing art activist and leader in our community and former president of the DeKalb Council for the Arts.

Beth Ann recently relocated from the west coast and has these wonderful, colorful quilts full of intricate patterns. I have not seen them in person yet, but I cannot wait to look through every single one she brings to the next Art in the Afternoon event on May 1. Please come out to meet Beth Ann and learn about her craft at the George residence in Avondale Estates!

Beth Ann St. George, Art Quilter
http://www.dancingspiritquilts.com/
Art-as-meditation is the process used by folk artist and teacher St. George, working primarily with vibrant colors and patterns to create quilts of the heart and spirit as well as pieces “just for fun.” She is an approved professional member of Studio Art Quilt Associates and has served as a traveling teacher for the Arizona Quilt Guild. Her work has been shown in galleries and exhibits in Houston, Orlando, Chicago, and Scottsdale.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Art in the Afternoon-May 1 features

















I'm starting the Art in the Afternoon features a little late, but here we go into the countdown to the May 1 event! We've got 11 artists for May and they will be exhibiting in three of Avondale Estate's carriage houses. The work will be for sale, and there will be wine, light appys in a very fun "art party" scene. All the artists and hosts are super excited about this event, it is sure to be great fun and hopefully successful sales for all the artists!

So today I'd like to kick my feature of the day off with the lovely Holly Black. Her work has been featured on the postcard that has been distributed for the May promotions. She will be exhibiting at the George residence in their newly built carriage home. I saw her paintings displayed at my yoga studio and just had to meet her to find out more about her work.

Holly Black, Painter
Holly has many visual influences in her work ranging from Durer etchings, Flemish paintings, Hudson River School landscapes, religious paintings, Audubon nature prints, and even the unicorn tapestries combined with the voice of fairytales and folklore. Her paintings become more complex pieces of visual work on closer examination. She uses varying techniques; drawing, painting, finger painting and varying mediums, mechanical pencil, house paint, oil paint and plaster all in one piece to bring this depth, subtlety, tension and harmony. The concept is utilizing the visual sense. The focus of her work is to visually stimulate the viewer, to coax them to look further to see more and more as the painting reveals itself, like a moment in a story they heard once as a child, but still remember.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Back from Isla Mujeres


















An amazingly, blissful 5-day trip to Mexico is behind me, but not without some inspirations for some new pieces! I'm taking bits of time this week to expand on some ideas and do some writing, which seems to help me get all those jumbly thoughts down on paper.

We stayed at Villa Rolandi, an amazing resort on the island of Isla Mujeres in Mexico, just a half-hour boat ride from Cancun. There was amazing gourmet food, spectacular views and, of course the infinity pool overlooking the ocean. We hung out mostly at the resort, because it was complete paradise, but we did venture out into town a couple times to do some shopping, eat fish tacos and have the occasional mohito or Pacifico (local beer). The pic above is the view from our room, and below is an image at the docks in town. As you can see, there is a big thunderstorm behind me, one of many that graced our trip!

It was a perfectly perfect time to get away, life was getting too hectic before we left! And now it's all going to hit full-force again but at least I can attempt to channel some of those carefree memories for a little while.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Enchantment























It is finally finished and I was able to photograph lady butterfly on a beautiful, sunny day. I wish I had more work to photograph, the light was just perfect late this afternoon! This piece takes a little departure from my usual technique, but I'm pretty satisfied with the result. I can't hardly remember what I was thinking about when I did this sketch. Probably an Alice in Wonderland connection since I've been wanting to see that movie! So I titled it Enchantment, because she is certainly surrounded by a kaleidoscope of color and it kind of reminds me of someone entering another world, or a dream-like experience. I may build a custom frame for this one.

Thursday, April 08, 2010

In progress painting























Here is a new painting in progress that incorporates gampi paper, a really strong, translucent Japanese paper. I created the sketch on the paper first with charcoal, spray-fixed it and then mounted it to canvas as a layer over several washes of underpainting. This one took a life of its own, as a lot of my pieces have developed lately, in that the red went pretty dark, and I wasn't sure how the collage elements were going to work in the background. I really liked how I was able to create washes of color on the gampi paper, that has a little tooth, and create a watercolor element along with the more opaque acrylic areas. I'm looking forward to working on the butterflies, just thinking about what color combinations will work. 18x24, acrylic, collage on canvas.

Thursday, April 01, 2010

A few springtime blocks
















In the midst of all this Art in the Afternoon craziness, I actually squeezed in a little time to create three 5x5 blocks. I took these in a little different direction using pattern as a base and then some free form sketches. I'm trying to work with less of a plan and just put down ideas as they come. Sometimes I have an intention to paint with a series of themes in mind, but then as the idea starts to form through painting, it tends to change, or not come out as I envisioned. Which can be a battle sometimes. In my head, there's this picture of how I want it to look, but it won't come out exactly as I anticipated. I'm starting to let go of that, there is this rigid nature as an adult to want everything to be planned and just so. This can be my challenge, and I hope these small studies on blocks can free me up a bit.

Titles from right to left: Sanctuary, Ronde, Rasberry Swirl
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