Art Fair Today - Nazareth, PA

Coffee Break

approx. 4" x 3" watercolor and graphite

Stacy L. Rowan

Just a post for people in my area to announce that I will be showing my art this afternoon and evening at Nazareth Evening on Main Steet in Nazareth , PA. The event starts at 3pm and runs until 8pm. The art show is taking place in the square at Main and Center Streets. Also local businesses along Main Street will be open for the evening and there will be entertainment in the street and square.

If you are in the area, I'd love for you to stop by and say hi!

I created the above image for the postcard I sent to my mailing list announcing this event. If anyone is interested in how I make and print my own postcards, leave a comment and I'll be happy to share. Notecards with this image are also available.

Finished Charcoal Drawing

Hello all! You have been very patiently looking at my recent sketches and workshop paintings and photos, so I thought it was time to share a finished piece with you. Yes, I do actually finish pieces, believe it or not! I would love to share my most recent watercolor painting, but that will have to wait since I entered it in a local competition.

charcoal on Rives BFK paper
15" x 22"
Stacy L. Rowan

Instead, I am sharing another piece I am excited about, this charcoal drawing which I finished earlier this year. I completed it as part of my mentorship work with Michael Newberry. It may look familiar since the idea came from one of my graphite thumbnails that I shared earlier. I also did several other graphite thumbnails to investigate lighting and values. I’ve even done some color thumbnails of this same set up. I have to say this is the piece which taught me the true value of prep work!

The story behind this charcoal drawing is that it represents a scene that is found on many winter evenings in our house. After dinner, while the children are upstairs cleaning up and getting ready for bed, hubby and I often sit on the couch for “10 minutes peace”. Loosely translated that means ten minutes of adult talk time without the interruptions from said children. Since I am typically cold all winter long, I often have a cup of hot chocolate. And since sweets are a personal weakness, especially in the winter when my body thinks it wants to be hibernating, I also have two Oreo cookies to dip in my hot chocolate more times than I care to admit. Hey, at least I wait until the kids are upstairs so they don’t see my bad example.

These ten minutes of peace are when hubby and I reconnect and talk about our day. A little breather in a hectic life that we really look forward to, and that keeps us strong as a couple. I even feel more peaceful just looking at the drawing and telling you about our routine.

I’m still working on a title for this one. If you have any ideas, please feel free to share.

Edit: On my screen the image appears to have some pink in it . I have no idea why. I promise you the image I resized and uploaded had no pink in it. It is way past my bedtime, so unfortunately I have to leave it for now. I will try to correct it later, but other than uploading the image again, I have to admit I am stumped as to what to try.

Extrovert

3" x 2"

watercolor thumbnail

Stacy L. Rowan

If seasons have a personality, autumn is definitely an extrovert. With its clear, golden light and bright colors it shouts, "Look at me!! I'm stunning, don't you agree!"

This arrangement of berries and fall leaves was definitely calling for my attention. It sparkled as it enjoyed the sunny spotlight and invited me to relish its blazing colors. So I accepted the invitation and quickly captured its brilliance on paper. Now I can enjoy a date with fall even as introverted winter comes to town.

(Just to clarify, a thumbnail is a miniature size drawing or painting - in my case mostly 3 inches by 2 inches - which is quickly done to test a concept. I learned to use this tool in my mentorship with Michael Newberry. You can find his excellent tutorial on thumbnails here.)

Gifts

3" x 2"

watercolor thumbnail
Stacy L. Rowan

Being a mom of young children, I often receive special gifts which they find for me when they are outside playing. I love these gifts and wanted to encourage the gift giving. So I decided to find appropriate vases to display them. This allows us all to enjoy their finds as long as possible.

The painting above shows some of the mini vases that I use expressly for this purpose. They are the perfect size to hold dandelions or clover flowers or grass that has gone to seed. They have also been known to contain fall leaves, flowers that have already fallen off their plants or other treasures that the uninformed might call weeds.

I love that my children are so excited to share nature's beauty with me, and I want them to know I appreciate their thoughtfulness. That's why my collection of mini vases will continue to grow. At least until they grow too old to bring me gifts from the yard.

(I'm working on a title for this. Before writing this post I was thinking about "Signs of Appreciation", but now I'm wondering if "Gifts" isn't better. Anyone want to cast their vote? If so, leave me a comment with the title you like best. Or if you have an even better one, I'm open to that too!)

What's in a Name

Lately I have been finding myself with short snippets of time to work on my art, instead of hour long blocks. I have been using these snippets to work on several different projects. I'm finding it fun to jump around and work on the piece that speaks to me in the moment, but it doesn't really give me much to share in terms of progress images.

So instead I will share a little of my process for naming this piece.

watercolor 3" x 2"

Stacy L. Rowan

I have been trying to come up with titles for my watercolor thumbnails because the title "Watercolor Thumbnail 8" is neither informative nor inspiring. However, I was struggling a bit to name this piece and didn't know why. After trying a bunch of different titles in my mind and not liking any of them, I decided that, instead of trying to find a good title, I would try to find out why all of the current titles didn't work. Once I looked at the problem from this angle, I realized that my struggle with a title originated from my feeling that the pear and blueberries shouldn't really be together. This summer I started shopping at a local farmers' market and, as a result, have been learning about harvest times for fruits and vegetables. So I now know that blueberries ripen in summer and pears are a fall fruit. Because of that, in my mind, these fruits don't really go together.

Once I figured out what had me stuck, a title came to mind quite easily... "Untimely Companions." They are untimely companions because if I buy fruit according to the local growing season I wouldn't be able to buy them together. The title gives a nod to a topic (buying local produce) that is becoming more important to me. And I like the touch of humor in it too. Their companionship is also untimely because they are going to be made into fruit salad and devoured! YUM!

Why Simplified

watercolor thumbnail "Marigolds"

copyright 2007 Stacy L. Rowan

(A continuation on the theme of my last post...)

I like people to be happy, and I see a lot in the world to be happy about. I like helping people be happy by showing them what I see that brings me happiness. I'd be even happier if my art could do that for me.

Yes, you may now call me Pollyanna...
but only if it makes you happy.

The "Why" to Being an Artist

watercolor thumbnail 3" x 2"

copyright 2007 Stacy L. Rowan

I was having a discussion with my husband about different jobs that he thinks would be interesting. I have to tell you that I envy him a bit. There are at least 5 different careers that he thinks would work for him. For myself I can only think of one – artist.

There are some benefits to knowing what I want to do. In fact, before I figured out that I wanted to be an artist, I was stressed because I couldn’t think of a career that I was passionate about. I’m thankful to be through that phase!

The downside of knowing what I want to do is the knowledge that being a successful artist is HARD. It requires the obvious creativity and technical skills (drawing, painting, etc.) but also requires skills necessary to run your own business. An artist who is just starting out must wear many hats – artist, salesperson, accountant, purchaser, marketer, PR rep. Being a successful artist requires dedication, persistence, a clear vision, hard work and lots of time. I’m not sure if I know any artist who hasn’t wondered once or twice whether they are cut out for the job.

In Robert Genn’s newsletter from July 24th, he comments on being an “artist for life” and gives some ideas that he thinks will increase a persons odds for success. His newsletter got me thinking.

I’ve thought a lot about why I want to be an artist. I mentioned my main motives in my first post on this blog and recently I expanded my own understanding of this desire.

I do not have a good memory for events and experiential things. One improvement I am trying to make in my life is to live in the moment, appreciate the blessings found in that moment and somehow commit it all to memory. There are many things in my life that I don’t remember clearly. Most of my memories have to do with how I was feeling during an event instead of exactly what happened, who was there or what things looked like.

Should my self improvement plan not work, I have a plan B. That plan is to use my art to record things as they are happening and capture the feeling and the details all at once. For example, someday I want to travel to Italy, visit the museums, taste true Italian food, travel around the countryside, meet and befriend locals, drink in the scenery, experience all of the good things Italy has to offer. I want to capture it all, all of the experiences and sights and feelings. Then I want to pour it all out into sketches and paintings and drawings so I never have to worry about forgetting anything. Through my art I can share my experiences with people who have had similar experiences, or who wish to have them but for some reason can not.

Thinking of this goal makes me feel excited. Thinking of living this goal makes me feel happy. It makes me itch to get back to my drawing table, to improve my skills, to make progress. These feelings are just what I need to transition out of vacation mode and back into being productive.

My husband recently pointed out to me that I have been creating art and pursuing my dream of becoming a successful artist for longer than I was an engineer, longer than I have been a mother, longer than I have taken dance lessons as a hobby, and almost as long as I spent in school. Maybe I am a “lifer” after all.

My Newest Adventure

My family knows that I am good at keeping secrets. If you tell me something and then say, "but don't tell anyone", I really won't tell anyone. I also like to try out new experiences quietly and only talk about it once I see how things are going. This drives my mom a little crazy. Maybe because my sister tells everything right away. When we were teenagers, my friend Trish used to to tell my mom things too. Sometimes things I hadn't told Mom and that I didn't really want her to know. Luckily in addition to being good at keeping secrets I'm also pretty good at forgiving my chatty friends for spilling them.

Recently, I filled my family in on my latest adventure. That means I can

now share it here. (I couldn't let Mom hear my latest secret by reading it on my blog, now could I?)

In May I signed up to be mentored by Michael Newberry. I met Michael when he taught an online class on Wet Canvas. After that class, some of my fellow classmates signed up for mentoring. They spoke so highly of Michael and are producing such wonderful work that I couldn't miss the opportunity of working with Michael too.

So far I am extremely pleased. Michael is a professional artist living in New York City. He is very knowledgeable, a super nice guy and easy to get along with. But don't be fooled, he knows how to make you work. The thumbnail I posted a couple of weeks ago was done for the mentorship. So were the two in this post. My next assignment is to develop a very similar thumbnail into a large charcoal drawing. I will also be working on some thumbnail sketches in watercolor.

So, if you don't see me posting much artwork, have no worries. Michael is cracking the whip and making sure I am working, I may just not be ready to share yet. You know, I like to see how it's going first. I wouldn't say I'm secretive...how about we use the word patient instead.

thumbnails copyright 2007 Stacy L Rowan

Thumbnail

I don't have time for a proper post today, but I will put up a recent thumbnail sketch that I did. It is of a pot of Gerber daisies on my window sill. I had moved them there to make room on the counter when I was preparing dinner. The next day the sun came streaming in that window and illuminated the daisies. I'm a sucker for dramatic lighting and couldn't help trying to capture a quick sketch of this. My favorite part came near the end of the sketch when I noticed the reflection of the daisies in the window. More inspiration for the someday file!