Beat the heat by visiting museums and galleries

Rhode Island Rocks  5"x7" acrylic - on view at the Wickford Art Assocition Gallery

This summer the southern New England weather has been fierce! Between the heat and humidity, we've been all melty here. So it's a great time for visiting the beach, and finding ways to escape the heat. You can do both by taking a road trip to Wickford, RI to see North Kingston town beach, and check out the Wickford Art Association right next door. My acrylic painting Rhode Island Rocks was accepted into their current exhibition Art of the Ocean State.

Exhibition info:

• Wickford Art Association Gallery - 36 Beach Street, Wickford, RI 
• July 25th - August 9th
• Tuesday - Saturday 11-3, Sunday 12-3

Warwick Museum of Art

Another great venue to visit for free air conditioning is the Warwick Museum of Art in Apponaug, RI. The current show Life in the Round - Remembering the Warwick Musical Theatre is concluding today, so if you haven't seen in yet, I urge you to check it out ASAP! The exhibit features a documentary film and loads of memorabilia from the theater.

In My Garden  16"x20"  mixed-media encaustic - on view at the Warwick Museum of Art

The upcoming exhibit at the Warwick Museum of Art is The Elements, on display August 2nd through the 28th, and features artwork depicting earth, air, fire and water. My mixed-media encaustic work In My Garden will be included in the show. This is the first large-format painting I've tried with the encaustic, so I'm glad it made it into the show. Please come check it out and support the WMOA!

Exhibition info:

• Warwick Museum of Art - 3259 Post Road, Warwick, RI 
• August 3rd - August 31st
• Tues, Wed, Fri 12-4
• Thur 4-8
• Sat 10-2 

Stay cool out there folks!

Teaching opportunities ahead!

So things have been a bit busy here in the studio. I took a brief hiatus from blogging as I was working on syllabi for several upcoming teaching opportunities. Just last week I completed my first children's class, "Bug Week" at the Warwick Museum of Art for their summer art camp. I have assisted with some classes at the museum, and teaching Bug Week was both challenging and fun. The students learned about various bugs and drew out their anatomy, were very creative with the art projects, and even had a visitor during one class - a large (and noisy) beetle! Luckily we were able to catch our guest and release him gently outside. But it was a good opportunity to see and review what we learned about beetle anatomy. 

Opening Lace  5"x5" pastel

This fall I will be back at WMOA to teach a four-week pastel series for adults in September, on Thursday nights. This series will focus on floral paintings, using different techniques from light pastel drawing, layered pastel painting, and even pastel over underpaintings. If you are interested in taking the pastel class (Sept 1st - 22nd, please feel free to contact Patty Martucci for more information.

examples of drawing styles from Flash

I also am scheduled to teach a ten-week class "From Hand to Screen: Drawing with Adobe Flash" coming this September at the Worcester Art Museum. I've been a multimedia designer and animator for years (more than I'd care to admit) and Flash is my program of choice. I use a Wacom tablet to sketch and often draw right in the software. For this class, students will learn about the drawing tools in Flash, and how to create graphics, illustrations, fine art and animation in different styles. More information is online for my class, and online registration is available.

My acrylic painting featured on Zibbet!

Bowl of Lilacs  5"x7" acrylic

Here's a nice little Monday morning perk! Zibbet has included my acrylic painting "Bowl of Lilacs" in their current Fantastic Five collection. Please check it out!

Fantastic Five: Make Mine Purple

My work featured in the Artsy Shark blog!

It's good to share the love! Carolyn Edlund, author of the Artsy Shark blog, just added the article "How to make your customers fall in love with you". Great article for creatives, by the way! But she was also kind enough to request my artwork for Anna's Art Heart as an image for the article. Artsyshark has also blogged about me in the past as a featured artist, with some information about the Art Hearts for Olivia's Heart Fund.

Anna  10" x 10" mixed-media

Thanks to Carolyn for the props! Check out the full Artsy Shark article for some great tips for artists and designers.

Enjoy!

Illustration for Newport Arts Festival (maybe)

Nature's Community  mixed-media  17" x 11"

I was running around like a crazy person yesterday - trying to finish an illustration to submit for the poster contest for the Newport Arts Festival, and then run it down to Middletown RI. In traffic. And the snow! It was a long day, and I thought twice about it, but it was worth a try, right?

painting on the artboard...needs some love...

Besides that, it was an opportunity to make an illustration based on my current art style, something that's always good for the portfolio. The theme was "creating community", though they are open to interpretations of that theme. I must be yearning for spring, because I immediately pictured a warm, sunny nature scene with the birds and flowers - communing with nature as it were.

The tree now has some pastel and a glow from the gouache

The painting is mostly watercolor, with some gouache and pastel. Here it is when I was nearly done, but I thought it lacked the "glow" I like in my recent poppy paintings. So I went around the main elements and added the white halo. I like the way it punches up the color, and also the feeling that all the living things there have an aura about them.

detail - black capped chickadee 

Here are a few detail shots of the birds I liked the most - based on the ones that have been visiting my feeder outside my studio window.

detail - Blue jay

And of course I had to include a blue butterfly! Coming in for a taste of the buttercups.

detail - buttercups and butterfly

It will be a month before I hear back as to which painting is chosen for the poster. But overall, I'm happy I was inspired to make another piece. Plus the sunny day pictured here is a respite from the new snowfall I'm seeing outside right now!

My totally unofficial mock-up of what the poster could look like -
I left room for some text, just in case

Enjoy!
-Lisa

Mother Nature just has a sense of humor

Just a little comic venting today. I am so tired of snow. I bet my new crocuses are too. Fingers crossed for warm weather!

Enjoy!
-Lisa

Southern exposure in Attleboro

finally!

It looks like spring is actually on the way! Last weekend I did a little volunteering for the Red Tent Event in Cranston, RI (a wonderful cause by  the way - an initiative to end violence against women and girls in RI) and outside I noticed a few promising little stems growing. Now the Rhodes on the Pawtuxet is a little further south than where I live, and at the time I had a good amount of snow on the ground at my home (still have some now), but I did see a few crocuses sprouting up in Oxford while I was out shopping today too. Thank God! I can't take any more winter.

Radiance II  9" x 12"  mixed-media

So it's appropriate that the Attleboro Arts Museum's Flower Show is coming up at the end of this month. This year's theme for the art show is "Southern Exposure", and just the thought of warm climates, brilliant sunshine and golden light is intoxicating! One of my new mixed-media encaustic pieces will be included in the art show (yay!) and I'll be down at the museum for a couple of days during the weekend. The event is very family-friendly, with flower and landscape displays, the art show, music, food, live painting, demonstrations and gardening information. 

If you're thinking about going, here's the scoop - the show runs Thursday, March 31st through Sunday April 3rd, with an admission of $3 each day (children 9 and under get in free). A full schedule of events can be downloaded here. Hope to see you there!

-Lisa