Brenda Thour's Art Blog: February 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

Joann Wheeler

I want to feature an artist from my Dawg group (designing artists women group). Her name is Joann Wheeler and she does alot of beautiful Porcelain painting, which totally intriques me.

Here's the interview with her,

1.) Tell us about yourself.

My name is Joann Wheeler from Pasadena, Maryland. I love to paint and have been doing so since I was a child. I have taken classes from time to time at art shops, etc. but basically I'm pretty much self trained. I would describe myself as a porcelain and miniature artist.

2)What are your preferred mediums and art scale (miniature, large art, etc)

My first love is porcelain art (china painting), however I also love to paint watercolors, pastel & colored pencil. I prefer miniature art (ACEO's). Since I am prolific painter keeping it small doesn't cause me storage issues!

3)What are your inspirations?

I am inspired by God and nature. I love to paint flowers particularly and religious art.

4) Describe your art style.

My daughter describes it as realistic but I don't think my paintings are realism. I personally don't think I have a particular style as some painters do. It depends on the mood I'm in as to how I paint.

5)Do you do anything other than painting?

I like to take recycled old jewelry and restructure it into one of a kind pieces. I wish I had more time for it because you can come up with some pretty interesting things. Periodically I will do some decorative painting on wood or glass.

6) Do you blog, and what is your link?

I do blog. You can find my blog at http://jywheeler.blogspot.com/

You can also find me on facebook

7) Where do you sell online?

http://jywheeler.etsy.com/

http://bonanzle.com/eclecticspirit

http://www.artfire.com/users/ArtByJYWheeler

And sometimes I'm on Ebay

8) Are you opened to commission work?

Yes

9) What was your favorite piece of work?

I have so many pieces of work that I absolutely love. I couldn't choose just one.

10) Do you sell in a brick & mortar shop? If so, where?

No, just online and occasionally an art/craft show in the area.

I hope you enjoyed our interview with Joann Wheeler. Be sure to check out her shops and links

I picked a few of my favorites of Joann's to show you. This cutting board is my absolute favorite, one side has this beautiful painting, and the other is left unfinished so you can actually use it as a cutting board.

Friday, February 12, 2010

For Valentines

As I mentioned in the past, I am a member of the DAWG team on etsy. DAWG stands for Designing Artists Women Group. For some reason I keep forgetting what the G stands for and I have to go look it up, stupid, I know.
Anyways, we have these little quests, kinda like a contest just for fun, and we create a piece or 3 of art to go with the theme for that month, whatever it may be. Of course, being it's February, the quest is Valentines.
After I finished Monkey Around, I was on a roll and wanted to keep on painting. So I thought this would be the perfect time to get my quest pieces done. Saturday morning, I went straight to the studio when I got up. Yep, I was still in my jammies and hadn't even eaten breakfast yet. Came across a butterfly on a cornflower taken by my friend and collector of my paintings, Pat Otten. Changed up the colors and design, and this is what I came up with, Butterfly Love.

So, then I started thinking snowman. I live in Minnesota or Minne-snow-da as I like to call it. My studio table is right infront of a window facing my backyard with all the snow. Well, I put snow and valentines together and came up with this little guy. He is created on black card stock paper. Yes, water soluble oils works great on card stock. I call him Snowman of Hearts. I think he kinda looks like a space snowman.

Had a bit of fun with Design of Hearts.

I had so much fun painting last Friday and Saturday. I just put everything on hold and took time to play and have fun in my studio. Sometimes way too much time lapses between painting sessions. Not everything has to be serious, so let go and have fun! I highly recommend it.

Happy Valentines Day to you all!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Monkey Around

So last weekend I wanted to paint, and usually it takes quite a bit of time figuring out what I'm going to paint and planning the painting, blah blah, blah. Well, I went into my studio, started looking through some pictures we had taken, and this little monkey just popped out at me, so to speak. So I sketched him out on a 5x7 canvas panel, and here he is. Reference photo was taken at the Minnesota Zoological Gardens a couple years ago. Hope you like him.

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Thursday, February 4, 2010

Baby Snow Leopard

This is my newest painting, Baby Snow Leopard. It is a 16x20" oil painting on stretched canvas. Sides painted as a continuation of the painting. No frame needed, but can be used if you so choose.. The background colors look a bit different in the real painting, I used phthlalo green, ultramarine blue and dioxazine purple. Reference photo by Daniela Pintimalli from Imagekind. Daniela is a wonderful photographer who was kind enough to allow me to use her photo. Thank you so much Daniela. If you have a chance be sure to check out Daniela Pintimalli's work.

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May you be showered with Blessings,
until next time,
Brenda