Little Painting on the Prairie

This next painting is my self identity piece. It took me awhile to figure out what I wanted to do. I came up with some sketches inspired by a couple of different artists though. The first is a Russian artist, Anna Berezovskaya. I loved the juxtaposition of the subject matter under the skirt verses the scene. My teacher introduced me to Stephanie Frostad. I have seen her work before, and it is super cool! I love her pieces and how they are very stylized. The shading and way she renders the figures and fabric is impeccable! She is also a Montanan artist! If you would like to see her work follow this link to her website.

I had fun with this piece. I found trying to paint people is very difficult. (I still hate them hehe) We had a shortened critique this time so my comments are few. Every one commented that the piece has the same feeling as the last one. Once again I heard that it looks like social realism paintings from the 20's. It was also said that there is an interesting contrast between the movement of the landscape and the stillness of the woman. They loved how it seemed that the winds of the prairie were sweeping the city into the skirt. You can also check out my pinterest board of inspiration to see what my brain was thinking HERE!

Here is a sneak peak at the painting I am working on right now

Man Vrs Nature... Painter Style!

The other day in my painting we began the class with a critique of our still life paintings. When it came time for my painting I timidly explained I had painted the scene out the window of the pretty mountains and trees as my focal point. 

Then my teacher asked the question. My teacher asked why I didn't paint people, cars, signs and all the lamp posts that should have been littering my painting. 

My reply was simple, "I don't like people"

When I had said this, I had meant it as, "I don't like to paint people or man made stuff!" not as I hate people.... I think...  I do love landscapes and the beauty of nature. Well with my quick and witty reply we all kind of chuckled because we realized that none of us appreciate man made objects interfering with our art!That led us to add symbolism and double meanings to my painting like crazy! It made me feel like a real artist (chuckle)

I would like to note that I didn't consciously intend to have these meanings in my painting, but I'm starting to think subconsciously maybe I did! I do feel, that man is mucking up the wild and natural beautiful scenes around us. I'm sure glad I live in Montana that is still home to the free rolling plains and wide open sky you can see touch horizon to horizon.

Back to school! My piece was also called "creepy but in a good way"... "It seems almost to perfect, in a weird sublime way. The trees are whimsical, the tree on the left received the comment of trying to push its way into the painting. The painting was also compared to a film noir. In film noir's the women would look so beautiful and extravagant, but the lighting would not dance upon their eyes which would be completely black. This comparison was compared to that of the windows on the building. Windows usually allow you to look into something but not these all you get to see is a black abyss. Also by taking the people and excess of human objects out it personified control and emptiness. But then it shows the beauty in a mockery.

Today I showed my painting to my foundations 3D teacher from last year. She picked up on the eeriness but the perfect beauty right away! She said the mountains has a looming presence over the calm empty grass that was painted simplistic in contrast to the complexity of the mountains. She also made the comment of the emptiness suggesting presence. It was great to get her comments on it! 

My painting teacher suggested I should think about starting a body of work. I think that sounds like a very good plan on how to express my frustration in a calm manner! that I guess I didn't even know I had until now... Gotta love art!

Is It Nap Time Yet?

Wow does time fly! Even when your sleep deprived! But isn't that the purpose of college to teach us that sleep is not a necessity of life? Or that blogging takes priority over studying for french..... oh well!

Today I learned though that art is important and that the world pretty much depends on us. We had a very special guest today at the college, Don Colley! He is an artist from Chicago. He was really inspirational and really cool. He showed us some techniques on how he sketches and shared some really great advice. He said, "sketching is thinking out loud" I had never really thought of that before, but it makes perfect sense! He is a really neat guy! check out some of his work, or his video by faber-castell!

 So I have not posted in ages which means I have been hard at work on projects for school! Here are some of the cooler projects! My first graphic project was a success! We were to create bit-mat monograms in adobe illustrator, which was a piece of cake! We had to mount our designs on mat board and they had to be presented perfectly.

Up next on the update is my painting projects! Our first project was to do a grid painting with a specific color scheme. I had analogous colors, red, yellow, and orange. We are supposed to make our own black in my painting class so thats how I ended up with the green color, the black I make has a ton of blue in it. We were supposed to pick a silhouette and use a 12X12 to cube-ify it. soooooo ya ta-da! Pretty wheat! We were to show depth by using the varying colors shades. Darker colors stand out more while lighter colors recede to the back. 

And finally may I present my first still life. We were supposed to render a still life in gray scale to study lighting and how far we can push the contrast between dark and light. I used oil paint and my own black so it has a blue-ish hue. I also used a pallet knife so the painting is full of texture! It was a really fun study! 

Its a Bird! Its a Plane! NO its My Poster!!!

I feel pretty special right now! My poster has been printed!!!!!!!!!!
I work at the career office as a graphic designer and my first assignment was this ChampChange poster! I went in a whole new direction from their old posters and ta-da!

I made all my elements from scratch, even that awesome iPod is made by me! except Mr ChampChange I don't know who originally made him! But the big picture of him with his iPod does have some little fixes by moi like his eye and his hand...

How awesome is that! haha my dad will be so proud! he's so tech savvy he reads my blog! haha oh boy theres nothing like 280 miles separating you from the most intimidating person in your life that gives you confidence to talk about them on the internet tehe! But he's great he really wants me to be a Graphic Designer so I know he's gonna be just as excited as I am!