An Awesome Web Designer

This weeks Featured Artisan is Anne Hopfer - Helping Hands Graphic Design. Banners, Avatars, Ads, Templates.. all customized to your Style! You can find Helping Hands Graphic Design on:

Website

Etsy

Blog

Facebook

Twitter

I would like to start featuring other Etsy artists on my blog to share the love!  Anne Hopfer is an amazing graphic designer who creates anything you need for an online shop, website, etc.  If you have ever tried to make your own banner, avatar, ad, or anything else on an online program, it is tedious and difficult!  Anne's designs truly pop off the page and represent the essence of your business.  Check her out if you need a design, her prices are very reasonable and the work you will receive is amazing!

New house, new art studio!

So I just moved into a new house, slightly bigger but much nicer than my previous house.  The first thing to be unpacked, of course, was my art studio!  In the other house I had to share my art studio space with the computers and office things, but now I have a whole room just for my art.  It's going to be AMAZING!!!!  I'll post pictures when it's a bit more organized.

I am going to also embark on a new series of paintings this week while I am off work.  I'm going to do a coffee series... I myself am a HUGE coffee lover so I'm excited to start this one.

Since it's an early Tuesday morning, here are some pictures of things coffee related, before I go make myself a cup   =)

Have a great day everyone!

Giveaway!!

I am hosting my first giveaway on Facebook!  My facebook link is here: http://www.facebook.com/artbyjae

 

If you decide to participate, you could receive a FREE print of one of my paintings, either an 8x10 or 8x8 depending on whether the painting is rectangular or square.  Here is what you have to do to enter:

1)  "Like" my facebook page. Easy right?  You must be a current fan of my page when the giveaway ends to still be eligible.

2)  Write on your wall what your favorite painting by me is, linking my shop with it.  To link my shop, just type the @ symbol before my shop name.  For example: I love the tulip paintings by Art by Jae!

Feel free to share this giveaway with friends and family!  Anybody who completes the two steps above is eligible to win!  Someone will be randomly selected on February 12 and will be able to choose their print.  Have fun!

You can see my prints on my etsy shop:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/artbyjae 
 Facebook website:  http://www.facebook.com/artbyjae

Goals for 2012 - Painting, Art, and Teaching Art

2012 is finally here!  I have a really good feeling about this year and have some personal goals as well as some goals for my students.  I am going to really push myself to participate in as many local art shows as I can.  That means I need to stay creative, try new things with my work, and not lose focus!  I'm already starting on a good note, the first show I'll be participating in has an opening reception on January 13 and will feature 3 of my paintings:

"The Blue Heron." 28x22" Acrylic on Canvas.
Prints will be available in a few days; contact me at http://www.etsy.com/shop/artbyjae if you are interested!











"Carefree." 24x36" Acrylic on Canvas

Prints will be available in a few days; contact me at http://www.etsy.com/shop/artbyjae if you are interested!

"Bell Peppers."  20x20" Acrylic on Canvas.
Prints will be available in a few days; contact me at http://www.etsy.com/shop/artbyjae if you are interested!










I also want to expand my work by creating prints (which I've mentioned in a previous post).  I am in the process of having some paintings scanned so prints will be available of my more popular paintings. 

And my goals for teaching are to give my students more open ended assignments to expand their creativity and really make them think outside of the box.  ESPECIALLY the AP art students  =)

Happy New Year!!

How to Paint the Edges of a Painting

Happy Holidays to all!  As I've recently started selling artwork on Etsy, I've been thinking about painting the edges of my canvas more and more.  Painting the edges makes the painting ready to hang, without the need for a frame, which appeals to many people (including myself!).  It seems like many artists paint the edges of their canvas black, so it mimics a more modern framing around the picture.  I think this works beautifully will many paintings.  Other artists continue the painting onto the edges, so it wraps around the stretcher bars.  I have done this myself for a few paintings and I think this is a really neat effect.

My dilemma is that I never use straight black paint in any of my paintings.  Many of my paintings are very colorful, and I feel that black paint would take away from a lot of my colors.  So for these paintings, I tend to paint the sides a dominant color found in the painting, or a neutral color like brown.  For example:

I painted the sides of this particular painting a flat yellow-green.  This helps to match the overall tone of the painting without being distracting, and I think it works really well.







For this painting:

I painted the sides a dark umber brown.  I love this color on the sides because its an earthy color, which goes along with the organic nature of this painting.  I didn't want any one color of this painting to become dominant by painting the sides of the canvas that color, so the brown was a good choice for this particular painting.







Overall, I think painting the sides of a canvas (as long as it is gallery wrapped) is a great choice for artists.  Personally, I love hanging paintings on my wall without the frame, because that is how the artist was looking at the canvas while painting so that is how I want to view it as well.  It also gives a more modern feel to the room the painting is hanging in.

You can find these paintings and more at my etsy store (hey I rhymed!):  http://www.etsy.com/shop/artbyjae

Impasto & Palette Knife

So I have been experimenting lately with palette knife painting after seeing some incredible paintings online that used this technique.  The paintings are so textured and alive!  For my first attempt, I decided to use a photograph of pink flowers I took last year at the park as inspiration and used the palette knife to paint the background.  I mixed my acrylic paints with a heavy acrylic gel medium to give them more weight and texture.  Here is the photograph:

And here is my painting interpretation:

I love how the palette knife helped me to make the background imitate the grass texture, while keeping it somewhat blurry so that the focus is on the flowers.

Obviously I did not paint the flowers using the palette knife, because I wanted them to be more clear and show up more realistically.  They still have a textured feel because of the textured background.

Another palette knife painting I finished this week was inspired by the colors gold and red.  I think those two colors together are beautiful, so I was inspired to paint red tulips on a gold background to imitate dusk, fall, or a sunset (depending on how the viewer interprets it!).  Here is the painting:

I think this is a technique I will teach to my art students this year because it makes them think about how colors are used together and the marks they are making on the painting.  I think it will also help to loosen up my "perfectionist" art students  =)

I'd love to hear some of what you guys have experienced with the palette knife!

Be sure to check out my etsy site for examples of my paintings:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/artbyjae

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