My Latest Project

A year ago I received a grant from our local Arts Council to create and illustrate a coloring book for both adults and children. I am happy to say I have now completed the work and the book has been published! The topic of the book is Northern Minnesota Wildlife. It has 62 pages to color and also has drawing prompts so the users can add their own variations to the scene, and some interesting facts about each animal.

What will my next project be? Only time will tell. It was a great learning experience to take on a year-long project and I am so glad I was able to do this. I am now looking for places to carry the book, and have about 3 so far. I am hoping to get it into the nearby state parks, as that seems like it would be a good fit. In the meantime, I have a couple commissions to work on, so I’ll still be busy!

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Some other new projects

I have been involved in some other new projects — and had fun doing it. I contributed to a coloring book that the local History society published, and they used 5 of my designs, including using one of them for the cover.

Then I was asked to do all the illustrations for a coloring/activity book sponsored by the Lions to promote staying in school and graduating. It was given to all the fourth grade students in the district.

I will have another new project to share very soon!

2020 Efforts = a fun project!

2020 was a very different year. All the usual art shows, festivals, and gatherings were cancelled, so what could I do with my art? I didn’t have the motivation to just paint things without expectation of them being viewed. To me, a work of art is not complete until someone else sees it — the sharing of art fulfills it’s purpose.

Happily for me, I was asked to illustrate a book that a local author was working on — a interactive children’s book meant to involve the child as it is read. So — that was my main project for the year, creating 12 color, and 18 black and white illustrations.

Just last week the book came back from the printer and is ready to be shared. The title is “Scary Bible Stories With Happy Endings” I’m posting the cover, and the wrap up page from the book.

[Purchases can be made from the Author, John Eggers at this website: https://johnrogereggers.com/ ]

Cover of the book

Hope to have many new art works to share this year!

Painted Poodle

This last spring I was asked to paint a poodle sculpture for the Bemidji Sculpture Walk. I was inspired by the work of Gustave Klimt and this was the result.  The Sculpture Walk raffled it off to one lucky recipient at their 20th anniversary celebration in June.

I titled the piece “Hide and Seek — Homage to Gustave Klimt”  Within the patterns I used some of Klimt’s imagery but also added hidden images and symbols for the viewers to find. There are over 50 things that people can find on this sculpture. It took me a long time to paint, but it was fun and people enjoyed looking at it!

Finished Sculpture

Looking back a couple posts, I saw that I promised to post a picture of my epoxy clay sculpture when I finished it — so here it is.

It is a Saw Whet Owl. I think they are so cute and it was a fun project to work on. I hope to do some more in this medium one of these days.

So much for good intentions…

So here I am with a whole year flown by and not many posts. It seemed that I was always going to post something as soon as I finished _______, and then I was immediately busy with something else.

I completed a few dog portraits — two were commissioned works, and the other I did just because I wanted to paint that dog.

 

The other thing I have been spending time on was a large metalwork commission — a double gate for a client’s home.   I just got it finished and installed!

Tomorrow I’m off to an annual art benefit event in Grand Forks North Dakota. It is a fantastic event that raises funds for deserving organizations in the community, and showcases lots of wonderful artworks.

Hoping to have more art to share this year.  Now that spring has finally arrived (we had a long, long winter!) I expect some creative energy to come along with it!

Long Time No Write…

Wow — I haven’t written a post for a very long time! This last year was different — I guess you could say I was out gathering sights and experiences to feed my soul and provide inspiration for future works. I went on a long journey out west with a good friend, visiting friends and relatives all along the way. We also visited 7 beautiful parks: Mesa Verde, Arches, Redwoods State Park and Redwoods National Park, Olympic National Park, Yellowstone, and Theodore Roosevelt National Park. All different, and all wonderful!

Here are a couple shots from the trip.   I addition to the trip, we also were busy raising the kittens of a stray cat who came and adopted us — we spent a lot of time playing with and feeding, petting etc. to make sure they would be friendly and adoptable. They all got good homes and Patches [the mama cat] got spayed and adopted by us. We also kept one of her babies, which we named Calypso.

Hope to have some new works to share later on this year!

Settling in to Winter …

The Fall was a busy time, for both Art Life, and Family Life. Dave and I were (and still are) busy preparing for winter — putting away the boat, and winterizing machines that will be sitting out the season, cutting trees to saw into lumber,  stacking it to dry properly, making sure we have propane tanks full, etc. etc.  The first snows have fallen, so winter has arrived.

I participated in  a couple group shows with my Critique Group [Artists of Studio 10], and took several sculptures over to Grand Forks, ND for their annual TAG(The Art of Giving) art gala/sale and fundraiser. I also took a couple workshops to learn more techniques, AND have fun! One was to learn the use of Epoxy Clay sculpture, from Wanda Odegard. I still have to paint my piece to call it done, so I will share it in a later post. I also took a wonderful workshop from Tonja Sell, which focused on using a variety of textures in the works and combining media, such as Watercolor or Acrylic with Pastel, or  Acrylic with collage and texture mediums. I started 3 pieces at the workshop, and just now finished the last of them.

Portrait of my son (many years ago!) using the texture techniques from Tonya’s workshop — done in Watercolor and Pastel.

This one was done using Acrylics on Canvas, texture mediums, and metallic paint — also painted in a looser style than I usually work in.

Portrait of my Sheltie, Bailey, done in Acrylic on pastel paper, with texturing techniques, and finished with Pastels

If you ever have the chance to take a Tonja Sell workshop, you should do it! Very Fun, and you learn a lot.

Coming up, Studio 10 is hanging a new exhibit at the First Lutheran Church in Bemidji, and after Christmas we are hanging a major exhibit at the Rourke Gallery in Fargo/Moorhead. I am busy with a few pet portrait commissions, and after that I hope to play around with the epoxy clay some more, and also have some started metal sculptures waiting for my attention. There is never a lack of things to work on!!

Hope all of my readers had a nice Thanksgiving — it is so good for us to look for the good things in life and be grateful.

Fellowship Grant Exhibit

In August I finished the work on a Career Development Fellowship Grant I received from the MN Region 2 Arts Council. My project was to study, and learn to work with different metals, and try different methods than those I was already doing. I learned how to braze with a torch; anneal, hammer, and form non-ferrous metals, and methods for cleaning, and texturing them. I tried out various adhesives, patinas, and finishing products. Also tried out some forge work with steel, mig welding Stainless Steel, and Aluminum, and many other things — too many to list them all! There is SO much to learn, I will be continuing to discover new things for years to come. Many thanks to mentors Wanda Odegard, Roger Loyson, and Paula Jensen who worked with me, and shared their knowledge.

I had an exhibit to share with the community what I had learned and the sculptures created during my grant project. It was fun to talk to people about all the new things I have been doing. I will share a few images from that evening:

Here is the exhibit just after setting it up, awaiting the opening.

A few of the pieces on display:

“Garden Arch” Welded Stainless Steel and Mild steel 7′ x 6′ x3′

“Harvest Moon” Brazed Copper and Stainless Steel

“Cattails” Welded steel and brazed copper

“Serenity” Cold-formed Aluminum, Copper, painted wood

Camp Fire poker and the start of a hammered leaf (in progress). Both created with forge, hammers, and anvil.

“Totem” Brazed and hammered/textured copper, found objects, patinas

“Copper Roses” and “Irises” Brazed Copper, Aluminum, wood, corian, transparent paints

“Turtles” Large sea turtle (in progress) –welded Stainless Steel, small turtles – copper and aluminum, patinas

“Avian Melody” Steel and Copper

Here is my favorite piece that I worked on — it took the longest but also used many of my new skills to create it, and was a chance to put several different metals together in one piece:

“Over and Under — Where Two Worlds Meet”
Steel, Copper, Aluminum, Wood, Patinas, Lexan

I have many more ideas brewing — I’ll share more when I can.

The end is in sight!

I’m just going to post a few pictures, as I’m getting into the home stretch on completing my grant, AND have a new exhibit with my art group, Studio 10, going in at almost the same time. For any readers in northern MN, or nearby areas, you should come to see the show. All new works by 10 accomplished artists on the theme “Transitions”. Our opening is August 7th at the Watermark Art Center in Bemidji, from 5-7 pm. The show will be up until the end of September. My Grant project event is August 15th, from 4-6 pm at the Headwaters School of Music and the Arts, in Bemidji. I will be showing the work I have been doing in metal sculpture, using new metals and techniques learned during my Fellowship grant from Region 2.

Cut steel panel for a railing. Finished last fall, for a neighbor’s house

Another piece from my grant show — just a sneak peak.

Close-up of one of my new works, which will be at my grant exhibit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ll share more pics after the events, when I have time to catch up on life!