A Year-End Letter, to You!

Well, it's that time of year - the end of it. A time to take stock, take a deep breath, and gear up for exciting things ahead. I'm looking forward to a lot more painting and teaching in the new year, but first - and speaking of taking stock: these are the final days of the 50% off sale in my Etsy shop.  Please check it out, if you haven't already, and share it with a friend! Thank you.

I'm excited about my upcoming January workshops in Corvallis, Oregon, and San Clemente, California. If you'd love to take a workshop, but live too far away, consider joining my online art mentorship program. With size limited to ten artists, I offer lots of individual attention and guidance on your unique creative journey, whatever your art goals may be!

And if you would like me to bring a painting workshop to your community, I have openings in my 2018 calendar. Email me to discuss ideas!

2017 was a truly amazing year. I was awarded my first artist's residency, taught workshops in many wonderful places, had a fantastic solo show on Whidbey Island, created a new website, and expanded my online mentorship program. Not to mention painting!

2018 will bring the TENTH anniversary of this blog, February 8th. That means I began this art journey ten years ago, with daily painting, selling small works on ebay, becoming a part of the online art blogging community... and on from there. I can't wait to celebrate this milestone with you. Not sure how I'll be doing that yet, but I have ideas, so stay tuned!

I will also begin publishing a quarterly newsletter soon - something I've been intending to do for a LONG time. So, if you want to be included in that new venture, click here and sign up! 

I mentioned my year-end sale earlier in this post. The new year will bring changes - both to the content of my Etsy shop and to my overall pricing structure. It's been quite a while since I've raised my prices, but the time has come. For more information about that, click here. 

Before we say goodbye to 2017, I want to offer a huge, deep, and heartfelt Thank You to all of you - my readers, supporters, followers, collectors, friends, and family. It's your love of art - and of me - that keeps me going. I feel deeply blessed, humbled, and grateful.

Happy New Year!
-Sarah

Blue and Gold, a new Ornament Painting, with a Video!

 "Blue and Gold"

8 x 8 inches, oil on canvas

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The stages of this piece. Isn't it funny how GREEN the gold ornament looked before the rest of the painting got filled in? I admit it, green is my secret weapon for creating the illusion of gold. 

Here's a quick time-lapse video of the underpainting coming together - I love these things! No matter how long you let the camera run, the resulting video is always 30 seconds. So, I have absolutely no idea how long this part took. 😉

I get a LOT of questions about materials - what paint, brushes, etc I use. For this part, the underpainting shown in the video, I'm using a #2 round taklon brush by Connoisseur. The canvas is toned with a mixture of red, yellow, and blue - an orange dulled with its complement. And, as always, the brand is M. Graham. To provide a quick answer to questions about materials, I've compiled a list of products I use on Amazon - you can check that out here!

Pear Power

 

 "Pear Power"

8 x 8 inches, oil on canvas

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This pair of pear paintings were painted with the same limited palette - three tubes of color, plus white (OK, two whites). 

It looks like a lot more, doesn't it?!

You can click on this image for info on the colors I used:

It's Holiday Sale Time!

"Brown Pears"

8 x 8 inches, oil on canvas

$250

Click to buy

There are so many holiday sales, and I'm here to announce yet another one! But, in my humble opinion, if you only visit ONE this year, the Whiteaker Printmakers Holiday Show and Sale is the one to see. I was there last night setting up, and let me tell you, the studio is crammed full of amazing art. 

Shiny Persimmons - and Happy Thanksgiving!

 

 "Shiny Persimmons"

10 x 10 inches, oil on canvas

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Happy Thanksgiving! I'm grateful for green and orange, just one of the many color combinations that make my heart sing.

I'm grateful for you, the artists and art-lovers that inspire me to create.

And I'm grateful for the process, for learning and growth. Looking forward to more and more - this holiday season and onward!

 

Happy Holidays, enjoy!

Golden Loops

 "Golden Loops"

12 x 12 inches, oil on canvas

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My first ornament painting of the year! With this shiny gold ribbon thrown in as a bonus. I love the  texture and movement that ribbon brings to a still life - and the eye workout!

Here's how my paintings begin - as compositions seen through a viewfinder.
Looking through an aperture that's the same format (square, rectagle - horizontal or vertical) as my canvas helps me decide where to place the objects in a painting. Using this tool takes SO much of the guesswork out of my process, but taking photos through a viewfinder? Definitely a next-level challenge. I'm working on it!

Flashback to Plein Air

 "La Mota"

12 x 16 inches, oil on canvas

$300

Click to buy

I only made it to one plein air paintout this year, but it was great, and a new one for me - located in Roseburg, Oregon, a smallish town about 60 miles south of Eugene.

 On the first day, we painted cityscapes, which I have a much easier time with than traditional landscapes, for several reasons.  After some trial and error, I settled on this corner scene - the strong shadows, the truck, the "stop-go" interplay of that red hand and the green cross.... all attracted me. 

Here's my value plan:

La Mota means marijuana in Spanish, and yes, this is a painting of a recreational pot store. We have these - lots and lots of them - in Oregon now. It was an interesting spot to hang out in front of for an afternoon - at times I felt like I was conducting the most un-surreptitious surveillance operation ever. But no paranoia required, folks! I'm just arting over here. 

 

 The three paintings I ended up submitting for judging. I don't participate in these events to win - in fact, I consider myself a rank amateur when it comes to plein air. But I enjoy it, I always learn a lot! 

 

...And here's a bonus for reading this far! I've got a major sale going on in my Etsy shop for the next few weeks. 50% off everything - including "La Mota." Use the code HOLIDAYHALFOFF. And thanks for following my work!

Teaching Figure Painting with Zorn

 

 "Kendra"

14 x 18 inches, oil on canvas

Workshop Demonstration

Price on Request

I taught "Beginning Figure Painting" on my home turf this past weekend, at Whiteaker Printmakers in Eugene. It was an enthusiastic, talented group, and I thoroughly enjoyed painting with them!  

Can you spot me in this picture?

 

We started out with gesture drawings, mixed flesh tones using the Zorn palette, and they painted these lovely pieces - all in two days!

 Here's my color chart, and two little demos - same pose, different lighting, four values.

If you're interested in trying this limited palette technique, I've got two portrait workshops coming up - one this weekend, November 11-12 at Sequioa Gallery + Studios in the Portland, OR area (spaces are still available), and the other in Eugene, at Oregon Art Supply, January 6-7. 

Live models, and lots of painting! Click the links for details.

"Admirers," And New Paint Colors!

 "Admirers"

12 x 12 inches, oil on canvas

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 I did a quick black-and-white oil study before launching into this one, right in my sketchbook, to plan out my composition and value structure.

I painted this during a demonstration of M. Graham's new paint colors at my local art supply store. M. Graham just expanded their line of fantastic oil paints from 50 to 75 tubes, big news! Some of my new favorites are Bismuth yellow, Pyrrol red, and Pthalo blue red shade, all of which I used in this piece.

I love having an audience when I paint - whether it's my online students joining me virtually, a group of workshop students, or friends who come out for a demo, the back-and-forth is always enjoyable. If anything, chattering away while painting seems to help my focus and concentration, go figure! 

I'm looking forward to demoing again, November 8-9, at the Tools of the Trade Show at the U of O. Come say Hi and pick my brain about M. Graham's new colors. I love em!

Early Persimmons

 "Early Persimmons"

12 x 12 inches, oil on canvas

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Here's how this one looked, through my viewfinder:

 And the palette I painted it with! Lots of reds in the mix, along with two yellows - a warm and a cool - and one big strong blue.

In other news, my 2018 calendar is out! Order yours by clicking here - or come visit me November 8-9 at the Tools of the Trade Show at the U of O Duck Store. I'll have a few to sell, and some new greeting cards too!

My next still life workshop will be November 18-19th, at Oregon Art Supply in Eugene. Two days of Painting the Dynamic Still Life! Hope you can join me.

Emerald Orb - and Workshop Announcements!

"Emerald Orb"

10 x 10 inches, oil on canvas

$350

Available via Brackenwood Gallery, click to inquire

My strange little offering from Still Life Open Studio last week. It's always such an adventure - I never know what I will come home with, even though I bring all the objects and set up the still life! 

This painting may be strange, but I love it. It just lingers in my eye.

I want to give you all a last-minute heads up about two still life workshops I'll be teaching soon - one in Park City, Utah later this month, and the other in Oklahoma City in October.  Spaces are still available in both, and I'd love to have you join me!

Green Flash

"Green Flash" 

10 x 20 inches, oil on canvas

$500

Available, click to buy

My latest! Here it is, on the easel:

I did a black and white oil sketch for this piece, as I often do before beginning larger works. This time I actually managed to stick to the plan! If you squint, the values between the grayscale and the color painting match up well. That's the goal! 

The black and white piece is 6 x 12" on Arches oil paper, and it's available. Click here to bid on it.

Thanks, as always, for looking!

"Knife and Nectarine," And, of course, the Eclipse!

"Knife and Nectarine"

9 x 12 inches, oil on canvas

$250

Click to buy

My latest piece from Still Life Open Studio. Our next session will be September 7th, at Whiteaker Printmakers in Eugene. All are welcome! 

In today's news, I just watched the eclipse! We had 99% totality here in Eugene, and it was pretty cool. And now I can't stop seeing the ring of light around this dark purple plate as the 1% sliver of sunlight peeking around the shadow of the moon. Art does change the way we see the world - and vice versa!

Green Loops

 

 "Green Loops"

10 x 20 inches, oil on canvas

$500

Available, click to buy

It's been a while since I ventured out of the square format canvas - thought outside the box, if you will - and it feels good! 

I paint a lot of red delicious apples with my students.  I always choose red delicious over other varieties of red apples because they have the fewest striations, variegations, freckles, etc, to confuse an eye that's trying to discern clear light and shadow patterns. And their velvety garnet color - so rich it's almost purple - gets me every time. 

Here's how this piece came together.....

And here's the still life. Just a side note: I'm actually drinking one of these apples in a smoothie as I'm writing this. Talk about multitasking!

You can see more behind-the-scenes studio pictures like this, all day every day, on my Instagram. ;)

A Plein Air Still Life on Whidbey Island

 "Five Lemons"

12 x 12 inches, oil on canvas

$350

Click to buy

In my last post, I shared pictures from my recent opening at Brackenwood Gallery on Whidbey Island. It was a fantastic opening, and the fun didn't end there! The next day, I did a plein air still life demonstration outside the gallery doors, enjoying the cool island weather, and the gallery-goers who stopped to chat. I even had a canine audience, as you can see!

The light was a little strange, as it was cloudy and hazy with smoke from nearby wildfires - a kind of grainy, golden light. Not bad, but not as dramatic as the stunning summer sunlight I got for my demo afternoon last year!

Here's a look at my process: a simple black and white oil sketch (in a sketchbook) to plan the value pattern and composition, an underpainting on the canvas in sepia tones, and color laid directly over that, alla prima.

"Reflecting Pool," A Solo Show, and Gallery Gratitude

 "Reflecting Pool"

14 x 18 inches, oil on canvas

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Ta Da! My sole solo show of 2017 opened earlier this month at Brackenwood Gallery on Whidbey Island, Washington, and I got to be there in person to enjoy the festivities. 

I've been saving this painting, "Reflecting Pool," not blogging it, waiting for this show to open. It's the last - the final! - painting I will be posting from my artist's residency at Playa earlier this year, and it's my favorite piece made there - my favorite of the twenty paintings that I brought home from that powerful, miraculous month of work. 

Here it is, hanging in the gallery:

 And here is another shot of the show:

Here I am posing after the opening with the other artist who has a solo show in the gallery right now, Pete Jordan. His beautiful Whidbey Island landscapes are such a perfect counterpoint to my still lives... majestic in every way!

Thank you, Brackenwood, for making me look so good!

Six Cuties, and Stages of the Painting Process

 

 "Six Cuties"

10 x 10 inches, oil on canvas

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Here are the stages this painting went through: still life setup, underpainting, and color application. My favorite phase of the painting process is definitely the underpainting. Still life setup is the hardest part, and the finishing touches are so agonizing...but the end stage can be fascinating.

What's your favorite stage of a painting?

(Click the link to tell me!)

"Tangerines on Turquoise"....and Tons of Teaching!

 

 "Tangerines on Turquoise"

10 x 10 inches, oil on canvas

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July was a whirlwind month, busy and full. This painting was a demo I did for students in Portland, over a two-day period. Here's my palette - heavy on the red-oranges. I really wanted to emphasize the red glow that reflects back and forth when oranges cuddle up together, and those saturated contrasting colors on the oranges and the plate.

 

...And this, believe it or not, is some of the student work from that class! What a talented bunch - not beginners. They did great.