Cityscapes

Here's a new one I'm working on, a scene from a small town near St. Louis.  I'm changing the photo a bit to create more light coming through the trees.  Right now I'm blocking in the main objects with one layer of color.  After I finish that, I'll be ready to work on details and add more color.  This is on Mylar, a frosted drafting film.  I've used this material on my last four paintings and I love it!

This new painting is in my Etsy Shop  It's 8" x 10", titled, "Kevin's Place".  I took a lot of photos on a sunny, snowy morning and had my husband pose in front of this darling cafe.  Using artistic license, I took out the snow and changed some of the back ground.  I love the shadows and window reflections!  Next month, I'll post more cityscapes.

Three New City Scenes

As promised, here is the finished painting, "The Loop"

                                               
                                      $300 on Etsy "The Loop" 11 x 14 colored pencil ©Susie Tenzer

I've also posted this on Fine Art America where you can purchase various prints. If you're in St. Louis, see it hanging in Wood Icing Gallery. 

Next to go up in the gallery is this one, titled "Maryland Plaza".  Fine Art America "Maryland Plaza" 11 x 14 ©Susie Tenzer

I love doing these city scenes!  I'm inspired by the light and shadows, reflections in windows, the people and cars moving about.  I'm working on a smaller piece in the same part of town:

I'm just blocking in the bricks and windows now.  I'll post the finished piece next month.

Learning From Ann Kullberg

I browse the internet often, looking at other artists' work.  I learn a lot.  One of my favorite colored pencil artists is Ann Kullberg.  Her website offers workshops and gallery images.  She is a master artist, particularly of portraits.  I have several of her books, but the one I look at the most is Colored Pencil Portraits, Step By Step.  One idea I learned from this book is to push values.  

                                                    The Listener  by Ann Kullberg

This is a great example of one of her colored pencil portraits.  She left the top portion of the pants stark white against a dark background.  The contrast gives it punch!  When I look at my own work as well as the work of others, what catches my eye (no matter the subject or medium) is strong value contrast.

I started a painting with this in mind, using back lighting to create strong value contrast.  I've left some of the street and sidewalk white.  The bushes in the middle will be the darkest value.  I'll post this painting again, and hopefully what I'm learning from Ann Kullberg will show.  Do you learn from other artists?

Art Commissions, I Love Them

It's been a busy couple of weeks.  My young grandkids and their parents came to visit.  We had a great time going to the pool, park, museum and eating - wow, kids are constantly eating!  They're gone and now I'm back to work.  I just finished a lovely house commission for a wonderful client.  She was easy to work with.  However, I think that communicating with her often really made the process run smoothly.  I talked with her first about what she wanted, repeating her comments at times for clarification.  I sent her a rough draft for approval.  About half-way through the drawing, I sent another photo to make sure I was on the right track. I emailed the final photo and made adjustments.

I love doing custom house portraits!  Talking with clients, making sure I'm meeting their needs, creating a painting that will bring joy - it's a great feeling.

Nature Vs. Man-Made

I finished my painting of the St. Louis Gateway Arch and it got me to thinking:  do man-made structures enhance or detract from their natural surroundings in a painting?  Except for the top ten ugliest buildings in the world, I guess it depends.  If the structure detracts from the scene, but is essential, it's a moot point. In this painting, I wanted the Arch to be the focal point, but I could certainly have just painted the trees and pond.  I think buildings, interesting structures or people can bring life into an otherwise boring landscape painting. Unless the landscape has something going on like mood - dark stormy skies, crashing ocean waves, huge mountain rocks.

                                             Stand Tall (St. Louis Arch) 8 x 10 Buy This On Etsy

What's your point of view?

What's So Great About Blogging?

 I really didn't want to write a blog, because I thought I'd run out of things to write about.  It has happened a couple of times, but for the most part I do come up with ideas.  Blogs are easy to set up. You can even write your post ahead of time & set to publish whenever you want at a later date.  There are templates to choose from for the design, colors, fonts, you name it.  It's actually fun.  After I got the hang of it, I added widgets.  I just created a new banner - what do you think? 

 Blogs help artists reach beyond the canvas or the computer screen and make contact with other people all across the world.  Blogs provide any creative-minded individual the opportunity to share their work with the world. Blogging, combined with social media and online art communities offers artists a unique opportunity for self-promotion, expanded viewership, and ultimately, contacts with buyers.  Although galleries are still important, most folks realize that the internet is where it's at.  Blogs allow artists to show works-in-progress. You can receive feedback and criticism before the work is finalized, make changes, and contemplate new ideas and suggestions.  Blogging can help bring the world to your art, and your art to the world.

You're already reading blogs...do you write one?

                                  Two Cherries, 3 x 3 on miniature easel Buy this on Daily Paintworks

How Do You Sign Your Name?

 I've seen a few paintings that don't have any signature at all.  The last time a Monet exhibit was in St. Louis, I learned that the family signed for him.  I thought those signatures looked too perfect (they were a stamp)!  When I began doing my colored pencil work and framing them for the gallery I signed my whole name:

                           
                                                  Three In A Jar 6 x 6 Buy this painting on Etsy

Lately, I've been playing around with my signature.  I looked at a lot of other artists - wow, what an array of styles!  Initials only, last name only, first name only, you name it (sorry for that).  I thought about a qr code:

                                                 
How cool would that be?  But I finally decided on using my initials:

                                                 Blue Butterfly 8 x 8 Buy this painting on Etsy

How do you sign your name?

Your Website: An Important Art Tool

The first thing I did when I jumped into my art career was get a website.  Lucky for me, my daughter the computer genius made my website.  We narrowed down what sort of pages I wanted.  I set my goal for the website, which is to display my work.  Some folks sell their artwork on their website and give information about their technique (not me).

If your goal is to display your work, you ought to have these five pages:

•  A home page: this page gives an overview of the website and lets visitors know what’s in store for them. You can include news items such as upcoming exhibitions.

• A bio page: toot your horn!  Talk about collections your work is in, awards you've received, your solo and group shows, and other “credentials”.

• An artist statement page:  the artist statement can be a stand-alone page, or can be included as a section of the "About the Artist" page. The decision is yours, and will depend on how much focus you want to bring to the statement.

• A contact page: this page lists all of the means of contacting you. 

• A gallery page: there are as many ways of presenting artworks on the web as there are website designers. In general, the gallery page will contain thumbnail images of your artwork. 

If you have a website, take a fresh look with some of these ideas in mind.  If not, consider getting one!

 Meanwhile, check out my new piece available on Etsy.

                                        Grape Reflection 8 x 10 colored pencil all rights reserved
                                        by Susie Tenzer   BUY THIS PAINTING

Blue Butterfly And Other Things

I went to the Missouri botanical garden's butterfly house last week because it's March Morpho month.  They had 3000 blue Morpho butterflies!  It really was spectacular, they were everywhere.  I had a hard time taking photos of them - none wanted to land for the perfect shot.  I did manage to get enough photos to begin a new painting filled with shadow, light and bold color:

Busy month, actually.  I'm getting ready to give a workshop on colored pencil technique to the Greater St. Louis Art Association this week.  I'm getting some pieces ready to hang at the Daniel Boone Library in Ellisville, MO. for the month of April.  One of my favorite paintings, Dancing Peppers was accepted into the Art St. Louis exhibit "Food Glorious Food":

I don't want to forget to show you my dining room!

 It's finished and I love it.  Don't mind the paint cans.

When Creating Art Sometimes You Have To Just Walk Away

I learned this from golf:  when you're in the middle of a swing and it just doesn't feel right, stop and start over.  It's hard to do.  Recently I posted a painting with two ducks and some fish  that I spent three weeks working on.  Last week, though, I stepped back from my drafting board to check the tonal values and I knew it was time to quit. One of the ducks looked stiff to me.  The water wasn't showing any movement.  I couldn't get the fish to disappear underneath the water.  I realized I'd used the more textured side of the Stonehenge paper. So, even though I invested three weeks of my precious art life in this painting, I'm glad I quit.  I learned I love the smooth side of Stonehenge because of the way it takes color.  I was trying to change the photo too much and it just didn't work for me. I just finished a new painting and I love the reflection of the grapes in the silver bowl.

Grape Reflection by Susie Tenzer, 8" x 10" colored pencil (all rights reserved)  Buy this painting

I'm participating in a blog hop this week.  What's that?  It's a fun activity where you can visit a lot of wonderful blogs.  Click on the Blog Love Therapy below & start hopping!  See you in a couple of weeks, I'll be out of town visiting my adorable grandkids.

Art Galleries Are More Than A Place To Sell Art

My colored pencil art is sold at Wood Icing Gallery.  Hard to believe I've been there a year!  I remember when I first went in to show my work to the gallery owner, Heather Haymart.  I threw about 15 pieces into a folder, headed out to the gallery.  I spread them out on a table, not sure whether or not they were good enough.  The art around me in the gallery was high caliber - many of the artists are juried members of various organizations.  Happily, Heather liked my paintings and I began my lovely association with her gallery.  I work every Wednesday and it's a pleasure.  I get to draw all day and talk to nice folks who come in to look at art.

The gallery also sells wood refinishing products, including Wood Icing and Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.  I love the camaraderie among the artists.  We sometimes come together as a group for discussions about art and art marketing.  Every one is supportive and friendly.  I've heard about artist egos, but none of that here!  If you're in St. Louis, come visit me at the gallery.  I'll be drawing and we can chat!

What Makes A Painting Remarkable?

I've been thinking about this one.  A lot.  It seems to me that for a painting to be really great it has to have a certain "something", but what in the heck is it?  I found this terrific website written by artist Robert Bissett, "The Secret To Better Painting".  He says, "You must first have an idea, an artistic concept."  To me, this means finding a vehicle such as sharp contrast, unusual texture, drama in lighting, etc., that will help make the painting stand out.  There are plenty of paintings with apples, but what will make your apple painting look remarkable?  Speaking of apple paintings, mine is coming along.  I decided to use strong color along with the absence of color as my artistic concept.  One of my favorite artists, Frank Serrano, gets this just right.  I love how he infuses atmosphere into his landscape paintings with the use of neutral grays and pops of color.

Ok, I'm off to eat an apple :)  Really, though, do you use a technique that sets your art apart?