Hi all!
I hope that you all are enjoying spring 2012. For me this spring is shaping up quite nicely. I have been writing my book funded by Regional Art and Culture Council (RACC) Project Grant to Individuals, preparing for a show in Korea of a video collaboration. While preparing for all of that I have been painting quite a bit! Oh baby yeah!
I would like to let you all know about my recent inspirations, and a small show that I will be in this May.
The show opens at the Village Gallery of Art May 1st and runs through the 29th. The artist reception is Saturday May 5th 10:00 am to 4:00pm. The gallery is located at 12505 NW Cornell Rd #14 Portland OR 97229.
Portland is aphotic and rainy throughout September to late March. The dribbling rain in the afternoon’s and evenings during fall/winner
Acrylic on canvas
6′x6′
makes the vitamin D and bits of sunshine brought by our springs highly welcomed. Most Portlandians seem to complain their way through winter with the remark” another grey day. However, I find th
e sky to be alive with drama with variations of texture, blues, purples and
yellowed grays. Portland based Gamblin Paint Company seems to agree with me in that they created a series of colors named for our Portland grey skies.
Similar to my watercolor work of 2010 this year I have made 4 works as an ode to spring, but this time for the Village Gallery of Arts Art challenge 2012. Over the course of the past six month, I have been watching a shameful amount of YouTube tutorials on makeup and have now found myself inspired by the in style color combinations of spring 2012.
To name a few colors I have had “on the brain”: coral-ish red, dusty brown-ish greens, white-ish –neon-pink and oranges/peaches galore. Another source of my inspirations of late has been my time sitting in my beloved window nook. My window overlooks the train yard and two parks. The Northwest United States is awfully green year-round, so much so that it takes the “green deprivation” of our winter light for me to see the nuances of our landscape. One could say that emerging from our winter weather gives me a kind of color perspective.
Acrylic on canvas
6′x6′
Through the Oregon Women’s Caucus for Art (OWCA) I learned of the non-profit Village Gallery of Art’s 3rd Annual Art Challenge 2012. Normally, I am not attracted to such opportunities, especially because with this one there was an entry fee of $30. The nearest show or project that I have participated in would be Rainbow Ross’s postcard projects. However Ms. Ross never charges a fee, which is a practice I detest. I’ve chosen to participate, because some of my OWCA sisters do invest their time in the gallery and I want to support their work, for the 25% commission (and entry fee) go to the gallery to pay for operations. The additional benefit of the Art Challenge is that there are 99 other artists in the Art Challenge show. This group show is a great opportunity for inspiration and networking. Simply the art challenge and Ms. Ross’s projects both have this in common they are both opportunities to show what an artist does in s limited format and amount of time to a wide audience. These opportunities are a total non-financial gain activities, but are on the other hand are really good “strut your stuff opportunity”. Unfortunately if you want to be in the art challenge this year the time for entry has elapsed. Due to the great success of the project the Village Gallery plans on doing it again next year. If you would like to have a “strut your stuff opportunity” I recommend a visit Ms. Ross’s blog and to the FB event to learn about the rules for her newest postcard project Blue that has a postmark deadline of the 31st of this May.
Acrylic on canvas
6′x6′
In a nutshell the rules are to create 4 themes and related by medium works using the intact substrate given to each artist and to price the finished work between $20-$50.
Pretty simple right… No not completely. Size matters. The canvases are quite small. The substrate is a 6-inch square, which means that put together they still would be the smallest acrylic painting on canvas that I have painted to date. If you look carefully at my work you will note that it is rather physically made. This is most apparent in my large abstract piece. I had considered for the art challenge of working in oil paints, as I tend to be less heavy-handed and therefore less messy. As I work in my home mess is a limitation. I end choosing acrylic to work with as it can in my opinion be cleaned off of furniture, rugs and walls with persistence. So before starting my work on these baby sized canvas I wrote my self two rules to follow: 1. Use colors inspired by spring fashion 2012 and the changing landscape 2. Find ways of working that would create to same effect present in my larger paintings.
Acrylic on canvas
6′x6′
I apologize for the poor scans of the work in this post. I will have reproductions made into packs of greeting cards by June. They will sell for 8 for $8 and 12 for $10. Pre-ordering is appreciated by email. If you are interested in purchasing postcards please send your order to CatherineJHM@gmail.com. Each of the painting in this post are for sale during May at Village Gallery of Arts for $35 each.
Thank you for visiting my blog!
Sincerely,
Catherine J. H. Miller
