Hey, March!

WOW!!!! February (and the beginning of March) was a whirlwind of events.

Let's see what happened: 

I gifted the portrait of my niece and she said "that doesn't look like me!!". It, in fact, does look like her. I did have to redo a few things on it; there were two different light sources on the portrait which made the painting look a bit odd. I fixed it to be one light source and the result was a perfect completed product of my love. It is nice to think about how she will forever be encapsulated in that time, seven years old. My nephew asked me why I didn't paint a picture of him and I simply replied "when you're seven, I'll paint your portrait". So I've got to keep this up for a few more years! 

Moonrise Cafe in Downtown Fargo gave me the incredible opportunity of displaying some (all) of my paintings! I love this cafe and the support they give to local artists is amazing. I'm so happy with the outcome of the set up. Artist reception coming at the end of the month!

Ever since coming back from the two years abroad in Korea, I craved a cozy and unique cafe and Moonrise is just that. Their homemade poptarts are to DIE for and with super yummy seasonal drinks, it's hard not to support.

One of the best parts about painting specifically on paper, is putting the final painting in its frame. 99% of the frames I have are thrifted either by myself, or by my mom. She often tells me she found a frame I can use and it's always a good one. I love going to thrift stores or antique stores and searching for previously loved frames. Each frame I see, I can envision what I would put in it.

Most of the paintings I do are pictures I have taken. I try to find beauty in everything and being able to portray it in painting is something I never thought I could do. You know what they say. "Try everything twice". I really think this is true. Before moving abroad to Korea, I tried my hand at painting, but with acrylic. You know the super cheap stuff from Walmart. It was kinda fun, but didn't really fill the thing I needed to fill. After coming back stateside, I tried again and voilà! I like the complexity of watercolors and acrylics, but I love the deepness oil gives.

The moment I saw these frames at a local antique store, I knew exactly what I was going to put in them. If you have the chance to visit Moonrise Cafe, I include a description on the inspiration behind the painting. Not really trying to be deep in those descriptions, but ultimately becoming deep because I'm an artist I guess and I have to be! "The Swan" on the right was a painting I originally did in watercolor. I loved the photograph taken by Raoul Pascal (raoulfilm on instagram) because of the tonality of the colors. I gifted the watercolor to my sister in an oval frame (if anyone has tips on how to frame oval/circle paintings, please let me know I don't know why it's so hard).

From all the way back in my 2016 camera roll, I came across the photo of a horse overlooking the western North Dakota sunset. I remember driving out of Bismarck with my friend (we were there for a swim meet during college swimming summer break) and had a grand old time hanging out with these random horses. First time oil painting a horse and I'll say it's not the last time.

"Three Long Bois" (I'm a millennial?) I, once again, found a frame at a thrift store that was a foldable, three pane frame. LOVE that. I knew I wanted to put some birds in it and ultimately decided on a great egret, great blue heron, and a sandhill crane. I noticed just today that some of the legs and wings will most likely be covered by some of the frame, so I may change my mind and put different birds in the frame and save these guys for individual frames. And that's okay! I love changing my mind. I'm definitely going to make prints of these. I love the single entity in the solid background. Patiently and patiently waiting for them to dry so they can be placed in the frame.

Mt. Hood

Peace for You

I'm so excited for warmer weather to stay! This week has been a bit chaotic so far with the weather. I spent a day this weekend painting with the window open, letting in the fresh air and birdsong into my studio/mom's dining room table. I've got a few pet portraits lined up to do this week and an artist reception to get ready for at the end of the month.

 Busy, busy, busy, but having fun. And that's what it's all about, y'all. Find the thing that makes you happy in this crazy world and do it forever!

Teewinot

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