Jennifer Love Artwork BLOG

My painting, "Dancer in White" was published in the Arts section of the Deseret News on Sunday, July 17th (print and e-edition) along with an announcement about my featured show at Local Colors that runs mid-July through mid-August. Nice to be selected for publication!

Thanks to all who came out to Local Colors for my artist reception last night to celebrate the opening of my featured show! Congratulations to David Sidwell, the winner of the drawing for "Top Hat & Lantern"  :) Thanks to all who entered!

If you'll be in the Salt Lake area on Friday evening, come by Local Colors Gallery at 535 S. 700 E. for my Artist Reception to celebrate the opening of my featured show. 6:00pm-9:00pm I will be giving away an original charcoal/pastel. Drawing will take place at 8:00pm. You can print and bring this entry form with you, or there will be forms available at the gallery. Hope to see you there!

As I mentioned in my post Thinking in Abstract...I can't really wrap my brain around creating abstract paintings in watercolor, but I realized I must revise that statement just a bit. I don't create intentional abstract paintings with watercolor like I do with my acrylic abstracts.  However, sometimes I think being an artist also means being as frugal as you can with all your materials and supplies, which aren't cheap. I just hate to waste anything that I can find a use for with my art. Thus are born my UN-Intentional abstracts in watercolor. :) I call these little paintings "Color Blocks." When I am creating one of my typical watercolor paintings, I always have nearby (taped to my board or on the table somewhere) a scrap piece of watercolor paper (waste not!) which I use for testing my colors before applying the paintbrush to paper. The palette will show  you a color you have mixed, but that's not always exactly how it appears on paper. Sometimes it is to...

My cousin's daugher was crowned this year's Miss Utah High School Rodeo Queen. (Yes, I am from a family of cowboys, rodeo queens, farmers, and ranchers...and proud to be part of it!). :) Anyway, she is heading to National competition and had a fundraiser tonight to help raise money for the trip. I donated these two pastel sketches towards silent auction items. I completed these pieces in college under the direction of Don Doxey (the head of the Art Department at the time), a painter known for his highly realistic Western-themed paintings. As you can imagine, he had many Western props for still life sketches. :) Happy to contribute to the cause. Good luck Bailey! http://www.standard.net/topics/rodeo/2011/06/26/morgan-girl-queen-help-family-friends (And...we won a quilt in a raffle too!)

So...as you may know, I will be the featured artist at Local Colors this month (mid-July through mid-August). Usually, there are two 2D and one 3D artist featured each month, but as it turns out, I am doing a "solo" show. I have been busy working on some new paintings to hang for the show, and wanted to work in series of three. I will have nine new paintings for sure, but hoping to maybe get 12 done by the time I hang my show next Tues evening. :) I also decided to create a few new acrylic abstracts for the show. I can't seem to wrap my brain around abstract watercolor paintings, but acrylic affords me the license to do that a bit more. I like the three dimensional effect I can create with acrylic paint. For me, the abstract is about texture as well as pattern. I created these paintings with an underpainting done with diluted paint and a brush. Once the underpainting was dried, I created the top layer using only a palette knife and un-diluted acrylic paint. My show is...

"King of Yellow Heart" was selected by the Utah Arts Council to be part of their Traveling Exhibit Program for the 2011-2012 year (as part of the Utah Watercolor Society exhibit). Another good thing that came from being accepted to the UWS Spring show. So, this monarch will be flitting from one venue to another on display for the next 12 months. :) New exhibit schedule isn't posted yet, but you can click the Utah Arts Council website to find out the exhibit schedule for the show (when it gets posted).

Another ebay group I am recently participating in is ACEO. This stands for Art Cards Editions and Originals. They are mini pieces of art that are the size of a trading card or baseball card. I prefer to only make originals, but some artists will do prints. June theme was "Beach." This month (July) is "Patriotic." I am using these little ebay contests to try to loosen up my artist's brain a bit. Work quickly and loosely, and stretch into arenas I wouldn't normally creat in. It has been a challenge, but also fun. Here is my July ACEO: "Red Stars" ~ Acrylic & Mixed Media. (You can click the pic if you want to go to the ebay auction page). :)