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...

the birds

Once I was sitting on a beach in Seattle, when all of a sudden a flock of seagulls flew over my head and, while my head was turned, a seagull dropped a bomb right on my ankle...which also splattered on my pants and purse.

Gross.

I still like birds though. This piece proves it! It's a gift for my sister and still a work in progress but should be done soon.

Excited, excited!

Just wanted to share the thumbnails for a few pieces I'm working on and am really excited about. They're not my usual subjects...I think Mother's Day being around the corner had something to do with it. Soon they should be done and ready for your viewing pleasure. Until then, use your imaginations.

Breaking in the sketchbook

New sketchbooks are intimidating strangers. Their covers are smooth and pages blank, daring you to make that very first mark. Unlike those sketchbooks that are faithful companions for months, new sketchbooks don't hold any of your experiences, successes or frustrations. New sketchbooks are waiting to have their character decided by you. Intimidating. 

Or maybe I just think too much.

Either way, I finished my old sketchbook and bought a new one. As usual it's taken me a while to get going in it. For whatever reason the first few pages of my new sketchbooks get me into a rather frustrating "sketchbook block." Hopefully that ends soon.

These are a the first few pages of my new sketchbook and a few of the last pages from my old one, listed newest-oldest.

Print Sale! 4 days left...

Looking for some snazzy artwork to spice up those bare walls? Look no further. I recently opened up a print shop online and am offering 20% off prints through Saturday the 26th! The current prints are shown below. 

 If you see something you like, simply:  

1. go to my etsy shop

2. choose a print

3. use coupon code OPENYAY3261 at checkout

Easy beasy! If there's a piece that isn't up there that you'd like a print of (maybe you saw it on my blog or website), then just email me at leslie@lesliedukeart.com and I'll get it up there in a jiffy.

Prints, Prints, Prints for Sale!

Recently I've had a few requests to purchase prints of my work. Well my friends, thanks to the wonders of technology (and my recent use of the ever-popular world wide inter-web) you may now purchase prints online! Just follow these 3 simple steps:

1. Go to my etsy shop.
2. Peruse through the images.
3. If you see something you like, order it!

Easy right?

Ready for the best part? Now through Saturday, March 26th receive 20% OFF on any print! Just enter the coupon code: OPENYAY3261 at checkout.

Isn't technology the greatest?

ps - If there's an image that you'd like a print of but don't see up there, then just send me an email at leslie@lesliedukeart.com and I'll get it up there in a jiffy.

Paint-a-Sketch

My brother and I love to go to thrift/glorified junk stores. A while back we found a few really cool old books and decided to use them for "painting sketchbooks." We bought them, gessoed their pages and then...they sat on our bookshelves. The other day I was rifling through my stack of sketchbooks and stumbled across my nearly forgotten painting sketchbook. Remembering my past ambition, I finally opened it up, grabbed my paints and did a quick paint-sketch. 

That's the long story for: I did a quick paint-sketch. It was fun.

This past week has been slightly crazy -- good, but rather insane (hence the second drawing down). It left me absolutely exhausted and between lengthy evening naps and night sleepy-time, I may or may not have slept approximately 13 hours in the past 24 hours...wow. I just realized how much sleep that is...glorious, glorious sleep.

What are YOU afraid of, eh?

My newest illustration blog! Check it out here.

This blog is dedicated to illustrating the rather ridiculous nature of irrational fears. Fears like sharks coming out of walls and "urban bears" chasing you down crowded streets. Every week I'll be posting a new illustration that depicts an irrational fear. Each fear will be completely genuine, which means I need people like you to send me your irrational fears. Email me your fear at leslie@lesliedukeart.com. If your fear is chosen you'll see it posted online and receive a free print. Consider it a thank you from me.

So what are you afraid of? It's time to get those irrational fears out in the open!