NPR & Urban Bears

The Irrational Fears blog has a brand new look! You should probably visit the site to get the full effect. A big thanks to my talented designer friends, Jana and Collin Cummings, for the beautiful design.

Also, this must be mentioned. NPR ran this article today and I did this post a while back. Coincidence or prophesy? You decide. All I have to say is that it's happening (sorry Collin).

Keep a wary eye on the Irrational Fears blog. I have a few new fears up my sleeve.

Mad Tea Party

Another piece for Ten Paces and Draw's artist swap. This one was especially fun for me. I can't help but love drawing/painting hair and decorative details. Check out all of the original sketches and other pieces here.

Not from Belgium

This is not a picture from Belgium. Just to clarify. It is a picture of a study I did in what my husband and I fondly call "the art cabin." Maybe sometime I'll post a picture of the beautifully wood-paneled walls that make "the art cabin" feel quite literally like a shack in the woods.

Anyway. This is my sister who kindly sat for me for two hours. Currently I'm practicing my oil painting skillz and working on a body of work to submit to galleries. During this particular session I was focusing on getting the "big squint" down, or in other words, getting the correct values while creating pathways for the lights and darks. It's not perfect, but I'm happy enough with it to post on the inter-webs.

And then I went to Belgium

Prepare yourself for a tragic story.

I spent the month of June in Belgium. (No, this is not the tragedy.)

I spent my days drawing and painting. I took lots of pictures of my drawings and paintings. I visited incredible museums. I took pictures of the incredible artwork there. I ate incredible food. I took pictures of the incredible food. Get the picture? (excuse the pun)

Then I came home. I procrastinated organizing my pictures and inviting my dearest friends to a slide-show event. A month or two past, and still those photos were left untouched. Unseen. And then, my computer was stolen as well as both, yes BOTH, of the hard drives which contained the backups on these lovely pictures.

And yes. Belgium was all but forgotten in the midst of the police reports, insurance adjustors, calls from  the detective and never-ending gathering of information. (Wait, that's all still happening...) UNTIL I acquired a new computer from a new company that I'm working for and now, finally, I have the courage and means to post what few pictures that remain from my month-long Belgian adventure. (Fortunately I'm paranoid -- for good reason, apparently -- about completely deleting my SLR's memory card, which means I have a handful of pictures left.)

So for the next several days I will be posting a few images here and there. (To be honest, I haven't even uploaded all of the pictures to this computer yet...) Today's post is a bit meager, but important none-the-less.

This is the still-life I spent the month painting. It is the unfinished version, but I wanted to post a picture of the painting actually in Belgium simply on principle (those damn thieves may steal my life/computer/hard-drives but they won't steal my spirit). I had just finished glazing the apple and was really loving the brilliant color it achieved. I still love it, and will post the finished version later. For now, glory in one of the only pictures that remains of my stay in Flanders. More to come.

Images of My Summer

I chopped my hair off and dyed it red. The initial dye was a little on the orange side but has since calmed down a bit. I drew this soon after the great hair adventure, without even thinking. Apparently my subconscious thought it was a bit orange as well.

I attended a month-long classical painting workshop with William Whitaker in Brugges, Belgium. While there I ate much chocolate, waffles and frites. It was lovely. I'll post more about my stay there very soon...

We moved. In the process I found a few old images I'd totally forgotten about. Most of them aren't worth showing, but I was rather pleasantly surprised to find this one. I remember disliking it before, but looking at it again there are some things that I rather like about it.

Ten Paces & Draw

Last month I participated in Ten Paces and Draw's "artist swap." Basically they have a group of artists do pieces for a specific theme, BUT there's a catch: each artist submits a sketch and then is given someone else's sketch to illustrate. Kinda crazy right? Some crazy artist fun. Check out all of the sketches and finals here.

The theme was "Ancient Greek" and the sketch I was handed is based on the theory that the Ancient Greeks mythology about giants originated from a few Greek guys finding some dinosaur bones.

I'll be doing more of these artist swap things in the not-so-far-distant future, so keep a wary eye...

Sidewalk Portraits at the Bijou Market

This Saturday I'm going to be at the Bijou Market in Provo doing portraits. Hooray! What does this mean exactly? It means, my friends, that you can sit for a live session (or bring a photo) and walk away with an original piece of art for a steal of a deal. So bring yourself, your BFF, your honey, your puppy...you get the idea...and come find me. 

Artists Lady Hue and Ashmae will be doing portraits as well. Take a look at their work if you haven't already. 

great scott!!

Happy (very) Belated Birthday Jess!

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It all started with a quick doodle in my sketchbook, which transformed into a promised (but unfinished) birthday present for my sister, whose painting approach transformed after I flipped through a few John Singer Sargent books, (and whose color scheme changed after peeing in a grayed cerulean blue bathroom stall with my black coat and dark beige colored bag hanging on the door), which finally led to the finished (and very belated) birthday gift above (sorry Jess). Personally I'm pretty happy with it. Hopefully it was worth the long wait.

Snow Day

This morning I woke up to snow on the ground, which generally isn't a happy surprise for someone like me -- but today was different. The snow covered everything so beautifully, how could I not be in an awesome mood? Of course I'm sure that sleeping in until 10:00 AM, eating homemade crumpets with honey butter for breakfast, enjoying some quality time in the studio and spending the day with my better half didn't hurt my good mood either... Whatever the case may be, I'll take it.