Art Blog - A Painting Journey

Journey of an Artist

I see the world full of vibrant colors.
Oil pastels allow me to capture that.
I share my love of this versatile medium as editor of the
Oil Pastel Society newsletter, an international web publication.

Follow along on my artistic journey as I show paintings, thoughts behind them and some how-to lessons.

My acrylic painting “Cherished” got into the juried show at the Bloomingdale park district museum.

Friday night was the reception for the show. It was the first time I saw the show all hung up. Where my painting was placed, it was the first thing you noticed walking in the door!

My friend Carl Zack’s oil pastel was hanging on the other side of the window (top one) so it’s good to know there was no bias against oil pastels.

Four friends from the Hoffman Estates Art League also got into the show. So it was nice for all of us.

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Cherished
Acrylic paint on canvas
30x40"

This painting is done in Acrylic paint rather than oil pastel. I've been branching out into Acrylics since I took that class about a month ago in Golden Paint's Working Artist program on Acrylics.

This painting is almost 3 feet wide by 4 feet tall. The heads are about 1-1/2 to 2 times life size.
This painting is based on a photo that I've had for a while. I knew I wanted to turn it into a painting but it wasn't until I saw some portraits that an artist did after manipulating the photo in Photoshop that I thought I may have found how to paint that photo. Once I tried this manipulation technique on the photo, I knew that this was the painting that the photo was waiting for!

I'm very happy with the way this painting turned out. It pretty much came out the way I envisioned it could. And my husband likes it too.

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This group show is on display now at the Praire Art Center in Schaumburg.
I have 5 paintings in the show. They are all Oil Pastels although they are different techniques.

At the entry to the show are 2 large paintings. One is my Bozo's Buckets.

Going down the hallway to the main exhibit area, another of my paintings is hanging.

Then in the main exhibit area, the last 3 paintings can be found.

This show is all artists from the Hoffman Estates Art League. The 5 members who hung the show did a wonderful job of figuring out what paintings looked good next to each other. It took them over 4 hours to hang the show.

The show is on exhibit until the end of the month. These 2 photos show some of the crowd that came for the opening night viewing.

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The third generation painter in our family?
My aunt passed the passion for art on to me. And now it's my turn to pass it on to my niece.

I've been very lucky to have Nicolette painting with me lately.
She enjoys painting and has produced several beautiful abstract paintings.

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Oil Pastel on 12x16” canvas panel

This is from a photo I took at an outdoor bar.
What drew me to the image is a group of friends sharing a good joke.
I think I’m about 90% done but it still needs a few tweaks. Like showing a smiling mouth on the woman on the right to get across the idea that they are all laughing.
I'll get back to this one soon and finish it.

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This 8x10" oil painting was done one very cold Saturday morning.
My friend Sharron and I had planned to go out and paint but as the weekend approached, it got very cold with a nasty windchill.
So we went over to a local forest preserve that had a visitor's center. We set up our easels inside and painted through the window.

We set up our easels within 3 feet of each other and were looking out the same window.
It is amazing how different the paintings are not only in the subject but the colors used.

Below is the view we was out the window.

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Besides painting, another creative passion is dancing.
Here John & I are performing our Lindy routine (a form of Swing Dancing.)

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Dressed in "Tinkerbell green" shoes, shorts and hair ribbon.
She takes a few moments to rock on the swing.

Dreaming of Tinkerbell

11x14" oil pastel on canvas

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Tonight was the Opening Night Reception for the Art League of Hoffman Estates art show.
This was the first time I have hung my work in a public place.
The reception was a wonderful time!

The main hallway that Roosevelt University allowed us to use for our show was wonderful. A wide hall with lots of natural light from large skylights.

Here are some views of the main hallway.

Above, four of my paintings are in the dark frames to the right of the 2 large blue paintings.
My other 3 paintings were around the corner.

Two more views of the main hall during speaches.

Above, in light blue, the VP of the Schaumburg Campus who allowed us to use her facility and who hosted this event.

Sharron & Danuta, 2 of the leagues driving forces.

Most of my paintings hanging in the show were oil pastels.
Here is one of two that were oil paints. This is my niece when she was a toddler. Painting titled "Playtime".

Here is the other oil painting. "Fountain Dancers", 12"x24"

Back to the 4 oil pastels hanging in the main hallway.
It was so much fun to watch people stroll down the wall looking at paintings and occasionally they'd linger over one of mine.

One man even stopped me as I was walking through the room.

"You're Ann?"
(We wore nametags.)
"I love your red painting. It looks like a field of poppies.
I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed it."

Okay, I have to admit, that was a major ego boost!

Some more photos of Opening Night:

Before the reception, I had what someone called First Show Jitters, not knowing what to expect or what people would say. My husband came with me holding my hand and providing what he calls "moral support and sound effects". In other words, being my rock and saying "I told you they'd like it"

My parents came and so did a number of friends.
Even the mayor of Hoffman Estates and several town trustee's stopped by.

I had an absolutely wonderful evening!