Photographed in plein air, but it was raining so I painted this in my studio for the Tooele Arts festival plain air competition. I know…I’m a wimp!
So many events to announce…
Flowers for Everyone ~ Solo Exhibition
Holladay Library ~ Gallery Room
2150 Murray Holladay Road
Holladay, Utah 84117 801-0943-4636
Show hangs from March 2 through April 30, 2015
These lovely delicate perennial flowers seem to bloom every Sept 4th on Cami’s birthday. The bulbs were a gift from my sister on the day of Cami’s funeral. My grandson, Hunter helped me plant them after the funeral services were over. This is the unfinished painting that I will finish today in honor of my sweet daughter.
1st Annual Illumination Art Show ~ IAA (Inspirational Artists Association)
Artist Reception is Saturday, May 9, 2015 from 5:00 to 7:00 PM
I’ll do my best to be at every Artist Reception, and hope to meet friends, collectors, admirers, and new friends! My heart is so full at this time…love being a full time artist!!!
Creativity is a magic word to me. Mom is a very achievement oriented individual. She loves math, order and logic. She never forgets a commitment, and isn’t afraid to make them. I happen to be her eldest child…of 9 natural birthed kiddos, and one more acquisition, (a dear sister who isn’t really a sister at all, but a friend we unofficially adopted). I am a duplicate of Mom, or so I thought, until the day she decided I was ready to learn math.
“Ok Jane, what’s 1×3?” My mind was entirely blank. I knew 4 couldn’t be the answer because that had been my answer several times already, and I never did get it right. Crying was always a way out, so that’s what I did. I had always loved school. Now I had something at school to hate.
Creativity was a skill Mom wouldn’t acknowledge (or couldn’t acknowledge) within herself, or those around her. It was not encouraged or praised, or even noticed. Mom is definitely a dominate personality in our family, and since I have a similar dominate personality, creativity lay dormant, or unnoticed for several years.
Parent teacher conferences in 7th grade, a unique night, Mom and Dad were both with me, and they seemed to have time. Time not to rush. Mesmerized, I was lost in halls of magic. My parents let me lead them from painting to painting as I marveled at the incredible art work mere junior high age kids (my peers) had produced.
Mitch McAllister. I still remember his name. I knew him! He wasn’t even very handsome or popular, and he had done the most awesome paintings, and a lot of them. His use of color was delightful. There were pinks and purples in the reflections he painted in water. Old buildings became interesting. Skies were alive with color. Student art work covered every wall in every hall. I had to see them all.
A touch on my shoulder. “Miss, you and your parents will have to leave. We need to lock up now.” The janitor startled me and brought me out of my world. Extremely disappointed that we had to leave, we rushed by the rest of the paintings and hurried home.
Dad was a music teacher. I played the violin.. Our orchestra teacher had me playing first chair. I practiced and I was good. But…so what. My best friend cold draw! And paint! In eighth grade I quit orchestra.
“I need your signature so I can transfer out.” I stood in his office. It was just me and him. He sat upright when I said that. It was terrifying enough to just say that line. I didn’t want any lecture. I probably couldn’t have told him why I was quitting anyway. It was one of those 13 year old decisions that doesn’t get well thought out. It just happens one day. He blamed it on peer pressure. He said I must think popular kids didn’t play violin. He almost cried.
My parents must not have reacted too violently. At this point in my life I don’t even remember anything about their reaction, or their involvement.
As a Junior in High School I got brave enough to take my first art class. My schedule finally had room for it. What a scary class that was for me! I also had an English teacher who approached English as a creative media. My junior year was a year of discovering my creative nature. I came alive. I wrote poetry. I wrote stories. I painted pictures. I drew pictures. I led the class in putting together our own illustrated class publication. I did paintings for all my friends for Christmas presents. I gave a very large painting to my uncle for Christmas. He said he had it appraised, and that it was worth at least $500.00, (and that was in 1975). I developed my own self-identity. It was so exhilarating. And even my mother noticed!
The rest is really happening now, goals to pursue, kinks to work out, art to do, poetry, prose, blogs, music, (yes I’m back to playing a string instrument, I settled on the viola) and novels to write.
This is the culprit…it is a result of this little drawing that I decided I wanted to be an artist, and an art teacher. My teacher, Max Durrant taught me how to use a grid to enlarge the drawing, and how to use color correctly. I found an ad in a magazine for a stereo system. I begged him to let me finish it with colored pencils instead of crayons as his assignment suggested. He reluctantly said OK. (The annoying highlight is because I am too lazy to take off the frame to get a decent photograph)This is my very first oil painting. I carefully drew it using the grid method, and then painted it with oils. It was copied from the cover of an New Era church magazine. It still hangs in my parents home.This is about the 2nd or third painting I did in my High School Oil Painting class. I was quite impressed with myself.
I will continue sharing the most significant of my life stories, including my love story, some family stories, and a lot about art. I’ll call this series of blogs a Retrospective.
These three pieces of art are the only surviving paintings from my high school days. Stay tuned!
I offered a free gift in a previous Blog…I now have greeting cards created, some containing original artwork, most have a framable picture of one of my paintings.
They look like this, the picture inside varies, and they are blank inside so you can use them any way you choose.
I will send you 3 cards completely free. All you have to do is sign up for my newsletter…it will begin in January.
Hope your Christmas and New Year Celebrations Rock!
Finding a client, collector, or whatever you call someone who commissions an original oil painting is for a separate blog. I found Sara and Francisco as a result of the Bridal Expo I was a participant in on July 19, 2014.
This is my simple set-up at the La Caille Bridal Expo on July 19, 2014
My process, how I do what I do, is a question I often get when people view my work. I am a very patient person, and even though I’m dangerously creative, I am trying to develop a method or process that is consistent and duplicatable.
Your style, and my style is like our signature, no matter what process we use, it remains unique. Following a step by step action plan on each painting, consistently is a powerful tool. You might compare it to memorizing the words and tune to a song. During the memorization process, and especially after mastering the music you are then able to give your full attention to the emotional message of the arrangement and put your whole heart into the presentation. Similarly, my creative spirit and my love of experimenting will not be stifled, surprisingly, by following a similar process on each painting. Instead the process opens up new avenues of creative expression.
I am posting photos and instructions illustrating my ‘Temple Project’. My goal it to draw and paint every LDS Temple in the world. I’m only 57. At the rate I paint (very slowly), I need to live another 40 productive years. Even though I paint slowly, and often do some art for pure fun, and take a few ‘rabbit trails’ as my husband would call them, I pray it can be done… (you might refer to my post entitled “The Profitable Artist” Vision Statement http://wp.me/p4K6CV-9)
This is the St. George Utah Temple. The drawing is finished, I corrected the skewed perspective, and it is now ready to transfer to the canvas.This is my choice of canvas, this is the purchased ‘cradled panel watercolor board’ I’m going to use.You see an 11 x 14 aquabord sitting in my art studio sink. I’ve sprayed Cobalt blue liquid watercolor and am in the process for watching it dry, hoping that the dreaded blooms will appear in interesting places or not at all.This is also a cradled panel, but it is a gessoes board ready to accept Oil Paint. I’m really good at Bob Ross skies…so in case my client wants a more traditional sky I do 2, giving my client a chance to select the one they like.This is the finished watercolor sky. It’s a little more artsy than the oil sky. I’m not sure I’m done. I added ultramarine blue over the cobalt. I like the blooming…this type of Watercolor board is very prone to blooms! I think it needs some pinks…
On Sept 11, 2014, I sent images of both skies to my client, Sara. After conferring with her fiancé they selected the Oil Painted background. So here goes.
I changed my reference photo to black and white in photoshop, this is the underpainting.
The next step is another layer of paint on the entire temple, using the color photo as a reference. The photos I’m using were some I took back in February when my family took a golfing trip to St. George.
Eventually the Bride and Groom will be in the foreground.
My follow-up blog will take you to the finished painting. Watch for it…the painting is to be delivered on November 18.
Yay! The numbers show that I now have 25 followers! That’s like a classroom of new students. I taught Art in the public school system for 24 years. Including my student teaching I’ve taught from 6th grade to college level art classes. There’s no greater feeling than meeting a new classroom full of students for the first time. So followers: I will do my best to keep all of you engaged and learning from me…whether it be life lessons, art lessons, or just a bit of sunshine on a cloudy day.
Looking down the hall in my basement apartment while studying Art Education at BYU, I whipped out a little self-portrait in watercolor.
My style has changed over the years significantly. Here we see a freshness and spontaneity that has been sacrificed for accuracy.
Many collectors and artists would choose freshness over accuracy. What do you enjoy the most?
A Master Painter will have both spontaneity and accuracy in the same painting, at least it will appear that way. This great goal will take me a lifetime to master!
My friend Fiona posed for the painting that is displayed behind her.
This is the painting. It took at least 2 years to finish to my satisfaction.
Fiona allowed me to do an exhaustive photo shoot with her as my model, from there is created this painting, using several sources, including a pottery piece I made several years ago for the main sunflower image.
Short post, probably because I’m used to short attention spans in the classroom, so now it’s time to respond in the comments below, spontaneity or accuracy if you must choose?
Do you like to create in series? I do! It seems that is what the Art Gallery’s like, and it’s what I feel really helps an emerging artist make a clear and strong statement. I’d love to explore the theme of a ‘theme’ in your art more thoroughly. Tell me, what theme’s have you painted, created, or collected? My daughter Rachel collects ladybug stuff and things. It’s so easy to create and buy for her! She loves gifts and I love to give them. I’m always on a quest for ladybug cool stuff! It makes her smile…me too!
Little Nola Jean Harris, born May 5, 2014 and wrapped in a LadyBug blanket…
I began a sunflower theme 20 years ago. Acting as a Chaperone for a high school field trip filled with Granger High Schools best artists, (a very tame group) I sat alone. School busses are noisy places and not conducive to chatting anyway, so I pulled out my ‘something to write with and something to write on’ that I had in my bag. Out of the blue…came a good idea. I had previously looked at sunflower designs at the store, and realized there was only one basic boring design available. So, sunflowers became my first real series…I wondered how long it would last. I have created sunflower art in many mediums. I’ve done sunflowers in ceramics, stained glass, watercolor, oil, graphite, photography, and planted gobs and tons of sunflowers in my yard and garden. Creating sunflowers is quite easy for me now, with lots of miles on my paint brush. And I still love them! I’m partial to Russian Giant Sunflowers now. I grew them in rows this summer, along my courtyard.
They’re all gone now, but sunflowers like this one were all along my courtyard this summer. It was glorious to behold!
Other themes I have explored include sunsets and sunrises. The sky is so inspiring! I love crazy storms and driving into the sunset. I live by the Great Salt Lake, and the sunrises and sunsets over it never cease to amaze me. So, wa-la another theme I’ve painted and still am, behind my LDS temple paintings. As I’ve considered God’s most beautiful creations, human beings, I have taught myself to paint beautiful accurate portraits, first using my porcelain doll collection, then joining the Portrait Society of America and learning from true professionals. I love love love to paint! From life, from photos, from my lovely dolls, or from my imagination, I live to paint!!! Atheists and non believers mystify me. Alma says it for me here: From the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Christ
Alma 30:44 (this is the prophet Alma talking with Korihor, an anti-Christ)
44 But Alma said unto him: Thou hast had signs enough; will ye tempt your God? Will ye say, Show unto me a sign, when ye have the testimony of all these thy brethren, and also all the holy prophets? The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denotethere is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator.
Today I want to revisit my Mission Statement. I worked on it a few times, but it all sounded like a vision statement to me so I haven’t actually blogged about it yet. I’m an Artist, so I’ve written lots of Artist Statements…but those are more specific to a certain painting or a series of paintings.
No matter what I decide to create as I apply my artistic skills to convey an idea, it must be uplifting, encouraging, and radiant.
As I was driving into Salt Lake City, Utah for a day at Local Colors Art Gallery, I was overwhelmed with the way the morning light penetrated heavy cloud cover over Salt Air. Salt Air is not a temple, but as I viewed it I received a spiritual conviction in my heart that I wanted to paint LDS Temples—all of them!
MISSION STATEMENT~I want to provide lovely oil paintings of temples for the whole world. I want them to be so inspiring that every LDS home will want a print. The resplendent beauty of each Temple hanging on the walls of Saints all over the world will bring the Spirit of Christ into the living rooms and hearts of followers of Christ.
If you read my vision statement you know that I am an idealist to the core. Lofty goals are part of my character. Realists don’t relate to me very well…C’est la vie!
Old 20 sec blurb: I paint exquisite portraits of dolls and flowers. I want you to feel what I feel as I paint, a reverence for the beauties of the earth and an awareness of humanities personal search for perfection. With my art I want to melt your heart.
New 20 sec blurb: I’m a professional artist working mostly on commissioned portraits in oil. When I am not painting a commission, I love to paint religious edifices, such as Temples, churches and the like. My work is highly idealistic, much like the old masters with an emphasis on eternal themes. I am an idealist to the core, an artist who cherishes high and noble principles. With my art I want to enlarge, soften and enlighten your heart. Ah-Hah! Awe…..”One person can make a difference…” JFK
Eternal Oils ~ by Jane 