New "Cute As A Button" Series - MONSTERS!

"Good art is in the wallet of the beholder."

-- Kathy Lette

Since deciding, "I'm going to paint for a living," I've actually been painting for a living!  (A very modest living, but it's living!)  I have to say, it feels good.  After leaving a career in comedy/performing, it's nice to still be able to do something that is creative that doesn't involve playing at instrument on the subway. (Yesterday's in-car concert, JAZZ FLUTE.  So rude.)

My concentration lately has been on creating art for babies, toddlers and kids.  I believe that art is an ESSENTIAL in a child's life.  It helps spur creativity, happiness and imagination.  So I came up with my "Cute As A Button" line for my nephew, Nate.  These animals hang over his bed and keep him company while he sleeps.  Yesterday, I came into his room to get him after his nap and he was sitting in his crib, looking up at the paintings.  I like to think he was thinking, "Wow, that Auntie Jennifer is quite the talent!  I can feel my brain making new neural pathways and my synapses are firing on all cylinders!"  (He was probably thinking, "I think I pooped."  Bygones.)

So now I have a new line for toddlers: Cute As A Button - MONSTERS!  But they are fun, cute and happy monsters (unlike Frankenstein or the IRS).  I came up with them one day and doodled them in my "doodle book."  (Look, some people have little black books, I have a doodle book.  Shut up, I know I'm single.)

Monster inception.  Rated PG.

Next, I got out 2 5x7 inch stretched canvases and starting outlining.

At this stage my friends thought I was making a rabbit
and a Pac Man ghost.  NOTE TO SELF: Don't let friends
see your art until it's done.

And then finally, the finished product! 

Introducing Abernathy & Bartholomew the Monsters!

Each "Monster" will teach a toddler a lesson through a poem.  (I'm writing them now and they will be revealed on my Etsy site when they are finished.)  Abernathy loves to smile and brush is teeth, while Bartholomew likes to keep his shoes tied and put them under his bed at night. 

So what is the point of all this?  I'll tell you:

* Inspiring kids to draw, paint, whatever!  CREATE!

* Getting kids interested in the arts, museums, etc.

* Conversation pieces for children and their parents

* Giving parents nice artwork to hang in their kids room that isn't a piece of plastic crap from China.  (No offense, China....)

So stay tuned, the Monsters will have more joining them and will be coming to my Etsy store SOON!  (Also note, I do commissioned pieces so if you have something specific you want, let me know!)

Thanks for helping to support a struggling, new old biddy!

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...  :)