RevolutionaryArt

Dreamy Coleus

shelly — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 12:18:05 +0000

This is a plant from my backyard garden. Photos can be so much more interesting with certain styles applied to them . . . I think that is where the art comes in and leaves the plain old photo behind.

Here is a small low quality version of the whole photo. I’ll be putting this on ImageKind soon.

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Wacom Drawing #1

shelly — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 06:18:36 +0000

I just got a new Wacom Intuos4 drawing tablet. I’ve wanted a Wacom for years, and having never used it or any other tablet before, I was very happy to be able to come up with this drawing on my first effort. It looks like marker, or pen and ink. It’s far from great, but it shows the potential of the drawing tablet, and yes it was copied from something. (The original stuff comes next.) So far, I love the Wacom but the pen takes some getting used to, and I have no idea what the scroll wheel is for yet. There are other buttons on it and a mouse that seems totally redundant. It has a bit of a learning curve for someone who is used to pens and brushes. Click on the little square image here for a larger one. Read on for news of an art show . . . .

Good news! My painting Shooting Stars was juried in to the local “Art a la Carte” show at the Paramount Gallery in downtown St. Cloud, MN. It will be there until about July 11th. The juror was urban watercolorist John Salminen. He’s also a specialist in abstract art. Only about 50% of the artwork entered into the show was accepted.

He awarded prizes to a couple of paintings that didn’t do much for me, (I won’t say which ones) so it was good to hear his explanations of why he awarded prizes to them. I may not agree, but at least I see now what he was seeing. I wish all jurors at shows gave us explanations like that.

Waterworld 2050

shelly — Sat, 15 May 2010 10:24:19 +0000

This piece is titled “Waterworld 2050″. My interpretation of this is that it’s a vision of a possible future, probably somewhere in an area near a coast that will flood when the sea level rises. Climate change and global warming are interests of mine and I regularly blog about environmental issues, and from my knowledge of this subject, it’s clear the world will be a very wet place on coastlines, and a very dry place elsewhere. It’s a very misunderstood topic, but more important than just about anything else people worry themselves about. Nature does not care that we can’t afford to deal with climate change — the planet’s atmosphere will keep on changing and warming as long as people keep doing what they do. 2050 is the target date for countries around the world to lower their carbon emissions by 80%, at level at which scientists think may keep climate change in check.

This is acrylic on canvas, about 24″ X 22″ and done in May 2010. Below is a thumbnail of the entire painting. In the water are two climate refugees fleeing their flooded land.

Caves of Phosphorous

shelly — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 11:45:33 +0000

This is an abstract landscape, prehistoric in nature, with rough terrain. It is layers of abstract paint, on canvas, not too textured, with mostly warm colors. The style is impressionistic with occasional spatters. It was painted in 2010.

The piece measures 11″ x14″ with painted sides, so it does not need to be framed. It’s kind of a disturbing landscape, and I consider it an anti-war painting.

Buy this or other paintings here at my Artspan gallery, Gemini Gallery II.

Climate Refugees

shelly — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 15:20:29 +0000

This is a painting that is quite large, 44″ X 22″ and reflects my interest in (and worry about) global warming and the environment. It’s called Climate Refugees

After global warming hits the earth quite hard (in 20 years or maybe 30?) there will be quite a few climate migrations of large amounts of people. The people lack color in this painting on purpose. I wanted them to symbolize everyone, not just people from any particular country. Climate refugees won’t just be brown people, or black people, or white people. Climate change will affect every part of the planet, and all people.

This is acrylic on canvas and done in 2010.

Shooting Stars

shellius — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:33:13 +0000

This is a watercolor and acrylic painting called “Shooting Stars” that I started over a year ago, with just the background, which I finally finished in March of this year. I often make about 10 of these backgrounds at a time, and then later I try to decide what to add to them. This one needed some foliage in the foreground, and the person and stars came later. It’s a long process, sometimes. But I like how it turned out so it was worth the wait.

This painting can be seen at the Paramount Art Gallery in St. Cloud through July 11th 2010.

For people who don’t think the arts should get any public money — oh yes they should! Most artists are lucky to make any money at all on their work, especially paintings, which seem to be everywhere online. Most do not have a “sold” label by them. People should buy art! That is the main way to support artists.

This painting is approximately 28″ X 22″ unmatted, on heavy watercolor paper, and predominantly a dark painting with lots of reds and other warm colors and textures.

Updated on June 8th, 2010.