Recap of Amazing Show

Yesterday I participated in a show at Dixon Place called The Secret City
(a little theater on the lower east side in Manhattan). Its a variety, cabaret, service celebrating
the arts. One of my lovely followers, Maritza is involved in the production and sent along an
email to see if I'd like to be involved. It sounded a little different, weird, odd but fun.
It was one of those times where it felt right to just say yes and see what would happen.
And the theme was COLOR!!
I decided to do 9 22x30" monochromatic paintings in a rainbow show of color, I chose mainly
a table top theme so I would know what to do each time I went to work.

I painted these in acrylic and gouache, It was fabulously fun, I've been wanting to paint larger
for some time but just never seem to get to it. But in reality 3 weeks wasn't enough time
to paint so many, I got 5 done.
Here are 4 plus a purple one...

But the wall behind the stage where I was going to hang my work was huge and I wanted
impact.
So I chose 13 pieces of art from my sketchbooks and blew them up to 30x43" and had them
printed. I scan all my art at 400dpi, for this I used an app called alien skin blowup that converts
the art to vector for a sec, blows it up to whatever size and then returns it to pixels, It WORKS!!

At home on Saturday my husband and I put command strips on the back of each
piece so when we got there we could just hang it up. It still took over an hour, there were
singers, and musicians and dancers all practicing at the same time. But it happened.
Everyone was so welcoming and fun.
When the show started, the MC, Chris Wells came out, who had been in jeans and a very
plain button down shirt like this:

What a hoot! He was funny and interesting. There was great music, poetry, stories and
meditation. A dancer from American Ballet theater danced a gorgeous blues piece,
we laughed and and really enjoyed ourselves. Everyone involved was so professional
and creative. They brought me up to ask questions, which I have a video of but cant
seem to upload, If I can figure it out I will add it later.
Thanks for looking !

Please see my whole sketchbook project here

The Secret City: Show in NYC on Sunday

New York Friends: My art will be featured at this fun event on Sunday morning the 27th at 

11:30 on the Lower East Side. It's all about COLOR! totally me!! I'd love it if you 

could come!! 

See info here!

It's the big kick-off to our 9th season! Join us for a glorious celebration of COLOR,

 in food, story, music, performance and art. We've had a little rest since the season 

closer and we're gearing up for a beautiful new season of art+community+joy. 

Don't miss out, it's going to be a special day.

The Secret City NYC
COLOR
Sunday, September 27th, 2015
11:30am
Dixon Place
161A Chrystie Street
btwn Rivington and Delancey

$15 suggested donation

We also welcome your baked goods, fruits or other treats for our refreshment table 

after the service.

**FREE CHILDCARE**

"Color is my daylong obsession, joy and torment." - Claude Monet

www.thesecretcity.org

The Secret City is an Obie-Award winning performance ritual combining art, food, 

music, storytelling, meditation, singing, performance and community interaction in a joyful

 event that is part tent revival, part cabaret, part ceremony. With events monthly in New York, 

quarterly in LA, and annually in Woodstock, we're creating an ever-growing community of

 artists and art believers connected by the creative spirit.

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Creative Style: Monika Forsberg

Today's Creative Style Journey is with the fabulous Monika Forsberg, (who is yet
another Jennifer Nelson Artist) We met in an online class a few years ago and I
just fell for her work from day one! She has a mind like no one else, fantastic, creative,
quirky and brilliant. She is a great storyteller. I was so lucky to meet her last year
when we shared a booth at Surtex. Inspiring!!

" I always drew and told stories as a child. We were taught a lot of rules at
school and sadly I lost a lot of my creativity. At age 16 or so I secretly quit
normal school and enrolled at a photography school and there creativity and problem
solving were celebrated and it was such a fantastic place. 

I moved to England in my early 20's and studied art and filmmaking at college.
I was shy quiet and naturally good at observing movement so I became and animator.

When animating no single image are in focus but you group together lots of images
that together form a moving thing. 

By the time of the birth of my second son in 2010 I decided to learn things from scratch, 
to start right from the beginning and take my time; learn to really see, observe. I 
decided to learn how to draw properly. I also practiced telling stories by making 
writing a weekly newsletter of anecdotes and thoughts that in it's heyday had 
hundreds of  subscribers.

So...I started drawing, with my son in the sling on my lap asleep. We'd sit on 

park benches and I drew houses. I studied people and situations. And drew. 

And wrote down conversations I had with strangers. I filled page after page 

with black and white drawings. I'd go to the lido or sit at my eldest son's 

swimming lesson sketching people and there was an intense comfort in 

repetition and to slow things down and be in the now. 

After pretty much a year of simple sketching I wanted to use colours. To 

paint intimidate me,  Painting is for proper people; artists. 

But to get better you have to twist and turn and see things from different 

perspectives. 

I used marker pens as a child so it started in that corner (and haven't

yet moved very far from there). I tried drawing with colour like I drew with 

black lines, it looked horrible.

I tried and tried to incorporate colour to my everyday observational sketches  

but it didn't work.

I also worry about having no imagination. Constantly. And then my mind wanders 

away and I forget about my worries.

I started doodling, deliberately abstract; little swirly shapes, round blobs and then 

there were a lot of eyes, fire and worm like shapes. And lions. The colours where 

brightly sharp and all of a sudden I was making forever changing repeats. The 

drawings all made on 8x12" paper continued onto the next page and then onto 

the next. It was liberating to not have a clue what I was drawing, to let the pen 

swirl around over the paper.

After about a year of lots of different colour experiments I had reached a place 

where I wanted to mix the fantasy with the real life observations and I merged the 

two. If I get stuck I say to myself; roll the dice...Everything has 6 sides so if you 

tuck there's another 5 ways to approach the problem.

And to have a lot of friends is very important. It's like playing a game of tennis; 

you throw ideas back and forth, laugh and ask advice moan and share highs and lows.

You can see more of Monika's work here at Walkyland

Thanks so much Monika!

Daily Sketchbook Tips: Painting Stylized Faces

Yesterday in the comments I was asked for tips on  how I draw faces.
One of my favorite things to do is paint faces of all kinds. I go from
more realistic to completely flat and decorative like these.
I use this technique  as a fallback when I have no idea what to paint one day, and
then I end up having a fantastic time!
Here is a simple lesson on how to try this yourself.
I would start with faces looking straight forward as going to the side or a profile
is more difficult.

Faces are all shapes, play around with them.
Look at pictures in magazines of people to get a bit of reference.

Play around with hairstyles. They don't need to be realistic, be imaginative
dots for curls and stripes for longer locks.

And then the details. Big eyes, thick eyebrows, a dot for a mouth or some big glasses.
Remember that toy where you could turn the cubes and the character
kept changing? Its like that, the shape of each part, lips, eyes, nose will totally
change the expression of the face. Mainly just have fun and do it a lot, you'll get it.

Creative Style: Jessica Swift

Today's creative style post is from Jessica Swift, another great Jennifer Nelson Artist.
I first met Jessica when I took her Pattern Camp class. It was so helpful for me to learn
how to put my art into repeat using photoshop (for me) and illustrator for many others.
She was so warm, giving and easy to work with and learn from. I do highly recommend
her class! The journey below is about her painting style, maybe we will do one with pattern
at a future time!

How did you arrive at the style you are working in currently?

Over the years, I've followed my intuition on styles, colors, and subject matter that 

interests me. I tend to get bored by doing the same thing over and over, so I'm always 

sticking new techniques and bits into my work, depending on what's catching my attention. 

Monoprints made with oil paint with pastel details

Color is, I think, the thread that I've carried through all the different phases of my work

over the years, so even though I've moved through several styles, I think my color sense

is unique and shines through each different era.

I tend to alternate between styles that are a bit looser (my early monoprinting days) and then

tightening my style up a bit (the botanical/geometric piece and the painting of the couple 

holding hands, from my middle-ish period), this works well for me--

My style evolves and fluctuates depending on what I need to receive from my work.

More structure, more fluidity or looseness, whatever. I feel like I'm in a sort of combo

period right now--my paintings feel to me both loose and structured, the two opposing

ways of working layered right on top of each other, chaos and structure all at once.

That's sort of how my life feels these days, so the style seems fitting! I find that my style

always sort of reflects where I am in my life and the the things I think about and am 

interested in-- I find it fascinating (and sometimes painful, haha!) to look back on my 

older work, because it's almost like looking at photos of my younger self. I'm sure my 

style will continue to morph and evolve over the years--

thats the fun part of being an artist, I think!!

2. Are there any other styles or techniques you are playing and experimenting 

with now that you think will incorporate into your work?

I am expecting a baby in a few weeks and I'm creating some new art to hang in 

his room. I've unexpectedly stumbled on a bit of a new for me style of kid art that 

I'm pretty obsessed with creating!

New Kids Series

I'm painting a series of animals and I just don't want to stop--

I can definitely see myself incorporating this new style and subject matter into my work,

and perhaps even creating a range of new products from it. So that feels exciting!

I've also been experimenting with gouache paint these past few months and creating repeat

patterns from the painted shapes. That has been really fun as well. I typically paint on 

wood or canvas with acrylic paint so using this more watery type of paint on paper is quite

a shift for me. I have really been enjoying it!

I'm trying to figure out how to make the medium my own which I think will just

take a lot of painting and experimenting. We'll see if it ends up being a permanent tool in my

toolbox! I'm enjoying playing with it for now and I've created some pieces that I really like.

Patterns made from gouache paintings.

You can see more of Jessica's work here.

Thank you so much Jess!