ETSY STORE IS OPEN!

HAPPY FISTS!  Finally... after all this blabbing about "I'm going to open my Etsy store SOON!" I can say, "Soon is now, start shopping!"

You can visit TheNewOldBiddy Etsy Store here!

Please enjoy and keep a look out for more coming soon - including handstamped cards and my "Cute As A Button" series that will be custom made just for you!

ALSO - there is a button on the side that will allow you to "request a custom item" - go ahead and shoot me an email letting me know what you want.  We'll work it out!

Please enjoy!  :)

Spring Has Sprung - New Painting!

Spring is my favorite season (not just because I get presents on my birthday), followed by autumn, followed by winter and then a distant fourth is the hot goo season we call "summer."  (Or "complete bullshit" as I like to call it everyday I walk outside of my apartment and realize that the shower I took is now null and void.)

Anyhoo... My latest painting endeavor was inspired by my favorite season:

It's Spring!  Where's my Flonase?

This painting took awhile and I looooooooooooooooooove it.  It's acrylic on a 14"x18" canvas panel.

Here's how this painting happened.... I started out using this painting as a practice canvas for testing out texture using the plastic bag technique you've heard me yammer on about.  I'd slap paint on the canvas and then let it dry with a plastic bag over it.  4 layers and 4 plastic bags later, I had this:

I'll be honest, I didn't know what I was painting.  I was merely playing with paint and texture.  (I REALLY like plastic bags, ya'll...) I emailed this draft  to my friend Jenn who politely said, "I see trees."  So I let that sink in and I put the painting aside for awhile.  Then one day I looked at it and said, "I see the background of Spring."  And with that, the final layer, Spring, was added (but no bags, just paint).

I used varnish sponges for the stems and streaks of light and sea sponges for the flowers.  Here are some close-ups so you can really see the texture and mixture of all the layers of paint:

This painting will be going up for sale once my Etsy shop is established.  Who's gonna be the lucky person who gets to hang this in their home, hmmmm?  

The "Cute As a Button" Series Continues!

It was my nephew's first birthday this weekend!  TIME FLIES.  I remember when he was just a wrinkle of a baby and now he's got teeth, is walking around and says, "Hi, Mom!"  Craaaazy.

To jog your memories, I made him a series of paintings for Christmas called, "Cute As a Button."  It's just cute animals on 5x7 inch canvases.  And somewhere, a button is involved.  Here's Christmas again...

And here's what I made for him to add to his wall for his birthday:

AND.... my mom's birthday was last week and she wanted some artwork for his bedroom there, so she got these yesterday:

So now Nate is outfitted with the hottest thing going in kid art in both his houses.  Such a spoiled little boy!  Happy birthday, Nate!

Latest Paintings and Things...

I haven't painted as much this week as I'd like, but for good reason - my new pooch, Annie!  (Her proper name is Anya, but her nickname is Annie, or Anna Banana, or Annie Granny or Lady Doodle or whatever.  Shut up.  I'm single.)

Here are some more paintings that will go up in my Etsy store!  (Which, yes, is still under construction.  I still need to photograph the paintings properly and set up graphics and all that.  Yeah.  Should be open by next year.  Blergh...)

First up, an instant favorite, TAR-JAY!

Jennifer misses Target.  Can you tell?

The canvas panel is 11x14 inches.  The background is acrylic paint (portrait pink, white and unbleached white).  The bag was applied and dried for about 10 hours. And voila, art!  (Target IS art.  You don't get to argue with me about that.  IT IS ART.  So shut it.)

Second up:  That is "Shurfine"!

This makes me want hot chocolate.

This canvas panel is 9x12 inches.  The canvas was prepped with white and unbleached white acrylic paint and then the bags were placed on top and they dried (like the one above) for about 10 hours.

I love how this turned out!!  What a peaceful setting.  My mom supplied me with this bag.  It's from a store in her tiny corner of the world, they used this as their holiday bag.  I had to cut out a "Shurfine" logo out of the middle and collage the sky to make it a complete picture.  

Last...  Flowers from the Caribbean! 

SQUEE!  Flowers!  My favorite!

Unlike Chunk from The Goonies, I love nature.  (As long as its just on my canvas....)  

This canvas panel is 9x12 inches.  The canvas was prepped with unbleached white paint.  What I did next was paint an impression of what the color of the flowers/leaves/stem would be (as the flower on the bag is merely a red outline).  This had to be done quite quickly as acrylic paint dries SO FAST.  (I have a "slow drying" medium to add to my paint for the next go-around.)  The bag then stayed on (again) for 10 hours or so.

I love the imperfection and impressionism of this.  Here's a close-up.

Alright, that's it for now.  But expect more soon!  (And yes, the store to open someday before I'm dead...)

The Art is In The Bag!

HAHAHA.  "In The Bag!"  I'm so clever.

If you've been keeping up with me, (and if you haven't been, what the hell is your problem??) you know that I'm waaaaaaay into how print off of plastic bags transfers onto canvas.  Obsessed is actually more accurate, as it's to the point where I'm scouting out the best bags of strangers on the street.  Yes, I'm officially a bag lady of sorts.  Please, don't act so surprised.

So here are a few more of my mixed media creations!  Enjoy!

My favorites!

Book 2: Mixed Media on 9"x12" canvas panel,
acrylic paint, Barnes & Noble plastic bag transfer

Book 1:  Same as above.

Raisin Bread bag mixed media,
8"x10" canvas panel.

Dog Park!  Mixed media, acrylic and plastic bag transfer
on a 9"x12" canvas panel.

Tomato Garden: Mixed media, acrylic paint and
the tomatoes from 3 D'Agostino's plastic bags
on a 9"x12" canvas panel.

Summer Time!  Mixed media, acrylic paint,
Byrne Dairy plastic bag transfer on a 12"x16" canvas panel.

Etsy store is almost ready!  SQUEEEE!

An Experiment To Calm My Nerves

Today was an incredibly stressful day.  My dear little pooch, Matilda, who is 12-years-old and suffering from congestive heart failure, became quite sick.  In short, barf-city.  In between my own panic attacks and holding her ears while she ralphed up her guts, I played with paint.  (I never said I was mature.)

If you refer to the blog entry below, you'll see that I've started playing with how to add texture to paint.  One way is to let a plastic bag dry on the wet paint.  Odd, but quite effective. When I removed the bag, I noticed that some of the paint from the bag had transfered into the painting.  It was a happy surprise as well as a trigger for today's experiment. 

Today I took a regular plastic bag from the grocery store (Westside Market, hollah!) and cut it up into sections.  I then painted a concentration of wet paint in the area I wanted the bag's print to transfer.  This is how the piece started:

And this is the final piece - 10 hours later:

I deconstructed the bag into many different parts and made a collage.  Needless to say, I'm very inspired by this and am now on the hunt for plastic bags with interesting prints/colors!  Thoughts on what stores you know that have great bags?  (PS - I know that asking for plastic bags is practically begging for an email from Green Peace or whatever organization that is eco friendly, but come on, it's in the name of art so it can't be all bad, right??)

Final note: Miss Matilda is better-ish.  After a ($171) vet visit, she has been diagnosed with having a virus.  (Possibly even contracting the stomach bug I had last weekend.)  She's very dehydrated but because of her heart condition they can not give her fluids.  So they gave her anti-nausea meds.  Now we hope and wait.  Tomorrow I can introduce food and water to her again and hope it stays inside her body.  Oy.

So do expect a crap load of art work coming up.  It's all I can do to keep my mind from wandering into that horrible place minds go when your elderly dog is sick.  

Matilda (aka Doodle Bug)

First Painting for Etsy Store!

Behold... the first painting for my Etsy Store is finished!  

You want me, I know you want me.

It's acrylic on a 14x18 canvas panel.  There are 3 layers of paint, each drying under a squished up plastic bag that adds amazing texture when peeled off. 

Trust me, there's a lot of awesome under here.

For the store I will have better picture - just wanted to give you a preview of what's to come!  Squee!

New Painting!

I had the WHOLE day off today.  I'd looked for jobs, submitted a bunch of resumes the days before and had no shows tonight.  So naturally, I balanced my checkbook, cleaned, organized and read to orphans.  I kid!  I hate orphans!  (More kidding!)  I used today to paint... and man, it felt good.

When I was home last I was drawn to this photo my mom had taken in Iceland and framed:

Isn't that beautiful??  Mama Eolin has a really good eye.  (She took about 390348309438930438 photos, and that's just from last year...) It kinda already looks like a painting to me, which is maybe why I HAD to paint it.

So first step:  SKETCH.

Fascinating, right?  I use a charcoal pencil to roughly gauge where everything will go.  I know this looks like a child did it, but it took me an hour.  45 minutes was just looking at the picture and then looking at my canvas, then looking at the picture again, then back at the canvas.  (Where's my Icy/Hot??)

Second step:  Start to color block.

SQUEE!  So this process takes a few hours.  Figuring out colors and paint strokes, as well as fixing anything that doesn't look right proportionally along the way as once the next layer goes on, it's harder to fix anything I don't like.

Step three:  Landscaping! 

The grassy hills are in the style of Van Gogh, or at least my interpretation of Van Gogh.  I love his brush strokes and how he translated what he saw through paint.  I want to be just like him but without the bucket of crazy and just go around that whole bit about giving body parts to hookers and suicide.  (WHY are painters so messed up?  Thank GOODNESS I'm so rational and even keel..... right?!?!)

Now the details and voila...  It's done!!

I started painting at 1pm and finished at 9:30pm.  (A few breaks in there along the way... this biddy needs her tea, thankyouverymuch.)  I have a bunch of other photos from the same town that my mom sent me, so I'm hoping I'll be able to get to those SOON!  And hey, if I remain unemployed, yes, I will get to them sooner than later.

(NOTE:  Not sure if this is for sale yet.  If so, I'll be posting it in my future Etsy store.)

By the way, I've watched the following art movies/docs lately and all have been fascinating (and are avail on Netflix):

* The Art of the Steal

* Exit Through The Gift Shop

* Frida

* Pollock

* Beautiful Losers

I also just started reading Steve Martin's latest novel set in the art world, An Object of Beauty.  SO GOOD.

Okay, time to clean up the studio (read: "kitchen") and sit on the couch for an unauthorized amount of time and think about WHY my overhead neighbors must stomp when they walk.  Why can't they sit down too?  Sigh...

When I'm not blogging, I'm painting....

"I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them."

~ Pablo Picasso

"Me too."

~ Jennifer Eolin 

(aka The New Old Biddy)

I've always been interested in art.  My parents have quite a few pieces of impressive art collected over the years. My dad was also a painter before I was born.  And in 1999, I picked up my first paint brush outside of elementary school art class.  It was scary, yet liberating.

Painting is how I relieve stress.  Some people run, others scream, I turn on music and paint.  I can't think about anything else when I'm painting, so I can't A) worry B) worry or C) worry.  It's fabulous!

So here are my latest paintings.  Please note that I paint for fun.  I do not think I'm the next Jackson Pollack. (Although, I wouldn't mind being him, but without the crazy.  And the penis.  I like being a girl...)  So please know that I'm always looking to improve and grow.  I have a long journey and I can't wait!

So let's begin the (art) show!

This painting is titled Dena's Garden since my friend Dena asked me to paint it for her.  (Sometimes a title is just that easy...)  She asked for lilacs and plumeria and this is what my brain made.  It's acrylic on canvas and the background and leaves were painted with a varnish sponge while the flowers were all created with a heavy body paint on a palate knife. I liked how the colors mixed and highlighted each flower. It really helped create a sense of light.  (Since completing this painting, I bought a palate knife that I think will handle leaves as those were painted with sponges and I really prefer to use the palate knife because it gives a better texture.)

This set of two is simply titled Tulips.  I painted this all with varnish sponges and sea sponges.  The tulips were painted with my fingers and thumbs!  

I liked how my hands could get the shape and feel of the flower best out of all my tools/brushes.  A happy surprise that came out of these paintings is that they mimic a window.  Meaning, if there's sunlight on them, the sky is bright as are the flowers.  But when its night time, the blue darkens and becomes quite a different color and the paintings look like, well, night time!  My friend RM bought these.  

And last... Thunderstorms:

This one was painted on a rainy day in NYC.  It's acrylic on canvas (as they all are - it's my fave medium!).  It was painted with car paint scrappers (which are pliable straight edge plastic tools) and sea sponges.  I started by just layering paint with the scrapper.  I just kept layering until I got what looked like an amazing sky.  Then I added the blues and greens to indicate sky and land.  Then the rain.  OH THE RAIN.  I used a silver on the straight edge part of the scrapper to make the lines of rain coming down.  Then with sea sponges, I made all the "movement" in the painting.  My friend, Marcy, bought this one.  She just got it yesterday!

So that's what I've been up to... now I'm dabbling in greeting cards as well.  I have a series to create for my nephew's nursery that I can't wait to get started on!  I hope to start an Etsy store soon.  But that means I need to paint and then not post/sell them on Facebook!  We'll see if that happens...  :)