Lena Amstrand, Swedish watercolor artist

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lena amstrand watercolor

...who is another architect addicted to watercolor and whose influence I can now clearly see in Rebecca Elfast's work (Rebecca is an architect, too. I feel like I'm not that unique in having an architectural background and a burning passion for watercolor. I only hope they aren't doomed to sitting in front of a computer screen wishing they'd rather be painting). Amstrand's paintings make me think of the so-called Scandinavian design and of quiet places that are great for things like pondering and reminiscing.

lena amstrand watercolor
lena amstrand watercolor

Art in the Village review and my interview

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art in the village poster

A couple of things happened since my last post. First of all, we participated in our first real art fair last weekend - Carlsbad Art in the Village. Here's the poster with my "Cherry Blossom II" on it :) :

Unlike with our local markets and swaps, we actually had expectations for this one. It was supposed to show whether or not we are ready for large regional events and whether it is worth paying $200+ to participate. Well, when it comes to generating interest and attracting visitors, I think we are ready. A lot of people stopped by. It is the beauty of an art-dedicated event: all who come there come for the art. It was great to have an "audience" with a genuine interest in and appreciation of my work and art in general.

When it comes to sales...er...it wasn't that good. We did make our money back with a very small profit on top which disappears when you count things like gas and food. We didn't have to pay for a night's sleep (our friends at Camp Pendleton were kind enough to let us stay with them AND they came to the show AND they bought an original painting and a print) or for childcare (my family was visiting and they were more than glad to watch the kid while chilling at the nearby beach). Still, we didn't lose money, and that's something, right?

Some of the highlights of the show:

  • being in Carlsbad. Perfect weather. Beautiful streets. Intelligent people. Don't ask me why I moved to the high desert, it's too prosaic...
  • seeing our friends and family who came to the show and made me feel special :)
  • the smell of the ocean! And almost getting soaked in cold water when I was sitting on the sand breastfeeding Elijah and didn't notice a particularly strong wave sneaking up on us. We were saved by my husband :)
  • some comments people made...Like, coming from a dark-long-haired young man with a guitar, "All these colors...This is just too happy for me. I like Gothic...And why so many babies?" - the babies (five of them) are on the wall with examples of my portraits.
  • being a Yupo-evangelist. I even gave a little piece of Yupo to one lady.
  • a friend of ours buying an original painting. I didn't feel like I was giving my baby away, but it was still very special. The painting is the "Cheeseburger in Paradise", I mean, "Lahaina, Hawaii" ;)

For my husband's review of the fair, go to http://theartistshusband.blogspot.com/2010/08/carlsbad-art-show-report.html

A few days before the fair, I was email-interviewed by Jennifer The Milk Mixer. Jennifer is an artist herself, and maintains a blog where she writes about creative people she meets. She found me through Twitter (@YevgeniaWatts) and liked my paintings. She asked me if she could feature me on her blog - and of course, I was all for it! You can read the mini-interview here.

Cactus Flowers - watercolor on Yupo

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There is a corner house in our neighborhood with a very nice and neat front yard, a fine example of successful desert landscaping.  A month or two ago, they had a blooming cactus plant (I wish I knew the name of that particular kind : /). Me and the cactus flowers liked each other at the first glance - and then the game started. When I passed them in my car or on a walk, I didn't have a camera on me. When I went there with the camera intending to take photos, the flowers closed or fell off or the light wasn't good enough...So, after weeks of hide-and-seek, I finally managed to snap a couple of pictures that were good enough to make a hyper-detailed painting. And then, during one of our local swap meets, I made this:

Watercolor on Yupo synthetic paper.

Watercolor on Yupo synthetic paper.

8.5x11". I like them...I am still planning on a larger painting with more of the plant shown but I'm not sure how to show the cactus spines without getting into too much detail.

Bell Peppers - watercolor and crayon on Yupo video!

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Since several people asked me how I do paintings similar to "Tomato Juice" - watercolor on Yupo with wax crayon as a resist  - I gave up and made a video. Actually, i made three videos but only two of them with the camera on and only one where the painting is close enough so you can see what's going on. The result is one video and three paintings :) The video:

(sorry it's so small - I recorded it in vertical format :/. I promise I will know better next time)

And the paintings:

Watercolor and wax crayon on Yupo synthetic paper.

Watercolor and wax crayon on Yupo synthetic paper.

Watercolor and oil pastels on Yupo synthetic paper.

Watercolor and oil pastels on Yupo synthetic paper.

The first and last ones have oil pastels as resists.

Artist Network TV free weekend review

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So, did you do the Artist Network TV free 4-day weekend? I did. And even though I felt that there was too much basic stuff and not enough good watercolor videos, it was nice. I "discovered" Stephen Quiller. That is, I've definitely heard the name before and saw some works, but last weekend, I discovered the way he paints. Fantastic. If I ever have a chance to take his workshop, I will.

Charles Reid turned out to be very boring, imho. Maybe he should stick to books :)

I enjoyed Mark Mehaffey's watercolor on Yupo workshop, even though most of the techniques and tricks he showed I already learned by myself and with the help of my online artist buddies. It was still fun.

A couple of things I learned from around 10 workshops that I watched:

  • When working from a photo, put it away as soon as you can. Copy machines do the copying, you do art. When you don't have the photo to imitate, you have to refer to your own mind which is a good way to bring a bit of you into the painting. When doing portraits, of course, I tend to hold on to the photos longer, but I still like to finish the painting without looking at the photo. It's not a "find 20 differences" game, it's a work of art.
  • Stephen Quiller, for example, along with many others, works from a black and white sketch (instead of a color photograph). It gives you the values, but also the freedom to make stuff up :)
  • I knew that most American watercolorists prefer flat brushes to round ones, but now I saw the flat brushes in action. I still like the round-ness of the round brush, and its ability to pick up the paint from my St Petersburg 24 pan set (a good size flat brush is too big for it). I still think that a round is better for some things - but I will be experimenting with flats, too.
  • A masking liquid tip that I already tested and determined that it's great: When masking, dip your brush (that you dedicated to masking for life) into water, then watered-down dish soap, then water. Repeat as needed. This keeps your brush clean!
  • It's better to under-do a painting than to over-do. Everybody knows it but we still need to be reminded now and then. Quiller actually said something along the lines of "When you're beginning to have a really great time doing something (like splashing paint or placing your trees in a landscape) - STOP!"

And that's a nice end of a blog post, don't you think? ;)

Copyright, Cheeseburgers, and The Artist's Husband

First of all, let me introduce my husband, who you might know of from occasional sketches and brief mentions, whose name is Terry, and whose last name I readily adopted after four years of observing agonizing attempts of English speakers to pronounce my Ukrainian-Polish-Russian maiden name. I did leave my first name pretty much in tact, though ;) A couple of days ago, my husband decided to start a blog about art, art marketing and promotion, our journey towards artistic fame, glory, and overall success, and about his own discovery of the artist within. I think it's an awesome idea and I hope he keeps up both the artistic ambitions and the documentation of them. The blog is called The Artist's Husband.

So...what does it all have to do with Cheeseburgers and copyright? Remember this painting?:

NOT cheeseburger in paradise :)
NOT cheeseburger in paradise :)

Well, I listed it on Etsy.com and I received an email from them...The rest of the story is on my husband's blog, check it out :)

Gerard Hendriks - a Dutch watercolor artist

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Originally uploaded by Gerard Hendriks

Once in a while, I come across a piece of artwork that is just awesome. It inspires awe. The watercolors of Gerard Hendriks are like that. Gerard is a self-taught Dutch artist and it looks like he specializes in wildlife paintings. He also does acrylics and mixed media but his watercolors are what takes my breath away.

Check out Gerard's website at http://www.gerardhendriks.net/

Helendale swap meet - our test run for art fairs of the future

Some of you may know about my plans to participate in art shows and street fairs. Well, last Saturday was our test run. We got everything (or, rather, almost everything) together and went to a local swap meet. It was great! No, I didn't sell anything - but it was still nice to have our own booth, to talk to people, and to paint outside. A small local news website mentioned me in an article. Here we are(minus my husband who took the picture) in the morning, just finished setting up:

And me painting our dog from a photo:

We still have some things to add: a print rack (my husband is making it), a card rack, table cloths (I am making those), and other details. Next Saturday we're in Barstow, and the Saturday after that...who knows ;)

Girl with grape vine revisited - watercolor and some gesso

Remember the girl with grape-vine? Well, I did not finish that painting. At some point, I just decided I disliked it enough to start over. My main issue was the fact that most of the shadows in the reference photo were not really there - thanks to the flash. So, after having it on hold for several weeks (or was it months? ;), I picked a different photo as main reference and started all over. This time I completed it!

I wanted to try gesso in a watercolor painting ever since discovering Jean Pederson's "Expressive Portraits: Creative Methods for Painting People". This was a perfect case for it. I tried a dark background and didn't like it. So I went into my parents' backyard, picked some grape leaves in several sizes, put gesso on the leaves and pressed them to my background with a brayer. When it all dried out, I applied a little color, and voila! (the background is still my favorite part in this painting...)

Here are some in-progress photos: