I don’t know whether or not any of you have noticed but lately my art has been changing. I’m not as concerned about how ‘realistic’ a painting is anymore. I’m much more interested in expressing myself creatively and sharing the way I feel about life and beauty. I want my paintings to flow with emotion and color. I want to drink deeply of the beauty that surrounds me and then create my own unique beauty that hopefully others will drink deeply of. I want my paintings to have a life of there own, not just look ‘real’. I kind of feel like I’m on an artistic journey. That sounds all dramatic, I know, but I love journeys and I constantly want to better myself and that includes (but isn’t at all limited to) my art.

It’s been forever since I last blogged! Sometimes life gets so busy that you forget to do the little things, you know?

I’ve been getting ready for the show at the DeZion gallery lately. Today, my Dad and I drove down to my grandparent’s house to drop off a bunch of pieces that will be in the show. My grandpa has agreed to make the frames for all the art. Normally my brother Jake would do it but he’s kind of on his honeymoon right now so he’s a little busy . Anyway, Grandpa makes fantastic frames so I’m really excited to see how they come out. I’m sure they’ll be amazing.  It was fun to see my grandparents reaction to the art. They’re so proud! Grandma’s eyes just lit up as she was looking at it. Man, it always makes me feel so good to make my family proud of me. After all, family is what it’s all about.

I like to look for other artists who share my passion for colored pencil. I enjoy seeing their work and am often inspired by their ideas and creativity. My favorite colored pencil artist is Sheri Doty. (She also goes by Sheri Lynn Boyer-Doty.) Her work is amazing! So lifelike and touching. She always seems to choose subjects that are heartwarming and cheerful. The other thing that I like about her is that she uses Prismacolor pencils! A woman after my own heart. I would recomend to anyone who likes art to take a few minutes to look at her stuff at imagekind. It will be time well spent.

The DeZion art gallery in Springdale Utah (located at the mouth of Zion’s canyon) has agreed to show my work. It’s a really nice gallery and I quite like the other art that they have there. They are even going to let me be in a show. The reception will be on the 4th of July and they would like me to get as many paintings of Zion’s national park done as I possibly can before then so I’m just going at it like crazy these days. I’m really enjoying the work. To be honest I wasn’t sure that I would since I’ve never been all that interested in doing landscapes but Zion’s national park is so breathtakingly beautiful that I’m really getting into it. I’ll post the paintings on here as I finish them.

The DeZion Art Gallery

This is a drawing of my sister Shelly’s eye. She has really dark eyes, almost black. I’ve always thought they were really beautiful. This drawing doesn’t do them justice but I did my best. It was done with black and white prisma color pencils from a photo that I took. I remember the day I took the picture. We were running around the city and just having a great time. Hey Shelly, we have to do that again sometime. (:

Here’s another fantasy painting I did. I named it Queen of Neziaro because of a fantasy land called Neziaro that my family made up. We like to make up legends and fantasy stories and such. You can read some of them here.

I started this one yesterday and finished it today. I got the idea from a Loreena Mckennitt song. It’s called Dante’s Prayer and in the chorus it says,”cast your eyes on the ocean, cast your soul to the sea.” Anyway I was thinking about the idea of a person gazing out at the sea and then I thought of the idea of a fisherman’s wife who is waiting for her husband to return. I also liked the idea of a not so settled sky in the distance so there is a question about how the weather is out there. I think I’ll write a poem about it. I’ll post it on here if I do. This is the 3rd in my ‘little paintings’ series. If you’d like you can bid for this on ebay.

I’ve decided to enter an art competition that will go from Feb. 15th through March 28th. My sister in law, Kristina found out about it in the paper and sent me the article.

It’s always fun to enter a competition. Even when I don’t win it’s a kick. I never actually agree with the judges and it’s a lot of fun to go around and decide who I would have picked as a winner. There is so much talent out there. I always have to remind myself that I don’t have to be the best. I just have to be as good as I can be and that’s enough. It’s better to compete with myself, to always try to make the piece that I’m working on better than the last one and then if I fail to not mind and just try again the next time. The day that it becomes too serious is the day that I’ll stop. It has to be fun or what’s the point? We are that we might have joy, not stress and misery. Those things come but why bring them upon ourselves? I paint because I love it. If it sells, it sells. If it wins, it wins and if it doesn’t, at least I enjoyed the ride.

The paintings that you see on this post are the ones that I have decided to enter.

I went down to the museum where they are hanging my work and the director told me that he has decided to use this painting for the premier piece in the show. Cool huh? Jake has framed it beautifuly with black matting and a shiny black frame. It looks great.

You know I am really glad that I know someone who knows how to make frames. It can be so expensive. Jake is awsome at it. If any of you out there are looking for someone who will make BEAUTIFUL custom frames for a great price contact him and he’ll make you one. I know I sound like I’m trying to advertise for him or whatever but he really does a great job. I would recommend him to anyone.

Availability status of this piece:

Currently on loan to the Fairview Art Museum, Fairview, Utah: Museum Web Site

Original available for purchase. Temporarily not available while on exhibition (Contact sales@willowrise.com)

Giclée quality prints are also available. (Please visit willowrise.com for details)