I have a new mini obsession with tiny paintings on wood. Another recent love is drawing my friends as space characters.... Here is my first little project, my boyfriend (jeremy larson) as a space kid....
and the back....
painting is so much fun. i did this tiny one in one evening while hanging out with the most inspiring girl i know.....
i have to admit that the loft feels a little lonely without the Red Velvet girls here. i miss you girls!
xo. elsie
The girls of RVA are having an art pow wow in Spring-town this weekend so check back for RAD pics and a few stories.
Prop your canvas up on a pizza box to paint as well as dry. It keeps the paint off the floor and the walls and allows you to paint all the way around without getting fingerprint smudges on your canvas. It also keeps you from accidentally shifting your newspaper and smearing paint on the wall anyways.
Prop it up against the lid of the box once your base is dry and you've got a very resourceful little floor easel.
I do suggest an unused pizza box unless you're all about mixed media and think a little oily cheese texture is just what your art needs.
~R
since i started dreaming about being a painter... it's still far away, but it is growing in my heart.
here are a few of my favorites from this past year...
(riley get's this one...:))
and a newish one....
still so much to learn and explore. i love the challenge. what are some dreams you have that feel almost too big? those are my favorite...
xo. elsie
If you have been seeing all these graphic paintings of weeds, trees and flowers and are considering paying for one. STOP and LEARN how to create a beautiful masterpiece of your own. YOU CAN DO IT!
Start with a canvas - paint - and your choice of weed, flower, branches etc.(any element of nature)
Using a lamp or some place of direct sunlight, cast a strong shadow of your element across your canvas.
(I used my front porch)
Trace, not to dark, just enough to see the lines so they make sense for you.
Repeat process if you wish to fill in any blank canvas. The last step is to use a small brush, and get to painting.
This could be really great for the holiday decor! Maybe I will be back with just that!!
Enjoy. NOW GO PAINT!!! *sarah
So I cleaned out my closet a couple weeks ago, and I found some canvas that had been sitting in there collecting dust for the last 2 years. At the same time Ive been dying to play with Love, Elsie Jack + Abby, but I havent really had a "chance", since Im everything BUT inspired by my home right now. So I figured id cozy my livingroom up a bit, and here it is :)
Enjoy!
Silje :)
Lisa Congdon is a mixed media artist who is currently working and living in San Francisco. She is partnering with Rena Tom to open the San Francisco location of Rare Device, whose pilot store opened in Brooklyn in 2005. Her work has been shown in Adorn and ReadyMade magazines and can be found here, here and here We're big fans. So when she agreed to be interviewed, I blushed a little.
Rachel: How did you know you wanted to continue developing your mixed media art as opposed to just doing it for yourself?
Lisa: I went from making stuff for myself to making things for other people as gifts as the first step. That was several years ago. And the people that received my work were so positive about it, and encouraged me to show and sell it, which, at the time, seemed like a pipe dream. Right around then, I started a blog where I shared my "experiments" (which is what I called them back then), and my readers also encouraged me to continue developing my work. It wasn't until I was offered my first solo show by someone who read my blog that I began truly developing my work, pushing myself, and taking my work more seriously. In fact, I so enjoyed the experience of preparing for this show that I decided I wanted to keep doing it. And it grew from there. That was only three years ago!! It is my life now, so it all seems so amazing.
Rachel: What was it like preparing for your first show?
Lisa: Pretty intimidating. I had no idea where to start. I didn't even consider myself an artist. It was so
bizarre how fast it all happened. I was completely untrained and unprepared. I started by trying to keep some continuity in the pieces I created for the show. I did a series of ink drawings, some shadowboxes, some embroidered pieces and some stuffed birds. All the pieces had a sort of bird/tree/forest theme. The show had no name, and didn't really have a tight theme. Now I prepare for shows in as little as one month, but I worked on that show for 9 months! I worked really slowly partly because I didn't know what I was doing. And then it came to pricing. I had to ask friends to help me price pieces. I was a complete unknown in the indie art world. Even though my work was priced really cheaply, I only sold two pieces. But that didn't really matter. I realized that the experience of preparing for a show, trying to create a body of work
that holds together well, and then hanging it in the space was incredibly satisfying and enjoyable for me.
Rachel: How do you decide what your theme for a show is going to be?
Lisa: I get ideas all the time that just come to me--usually by imagery that inspires me in just regular day to day life, and I also get ideas that resonate for me. My current show is called "The Tenderhearted." I am a very sensitive person. I have been called tenderhearted. And I think I have an affinity with other tenderhearted creatures. In general, I make a list of all my potential themes in my notebook. And then I go through them as I do shows. But sometimes the theme changes a bit as I prepare for the show because things never go exactly as you imagine.
Rachel: Where do you see yourself in five years?
Lisa: Making art, showing my work in galleries, continuing to have my shop and gallery in San Francisco. Financially stable. Able to travel around the world to see new things, meet people and take photographs, which is what I want to do more than anything!!
Rachel: So, what is your morning routine like?
Lisa: I am not a morning person. But I have to get up early to get everything I do accomplished in a day. So I get up at like 7. I like to get up and do all the stuff that is the most tedious first thing to get it over
with. For example, this morning, I poured myself some cereal and made some tea and got to work packaging Etsy orders from yesterday. And then I drove my scooter to the post office. By the time that was done I had finally woken up!
Rachel: Describe your creative space at the moment.
Lisa: My studio is a place of organized chaos. I have all my inspiration around, and all my supplies in their
designated place. I have my ephemera organized by color. But I work on the floor of my studio, so it's usually looking like a hurricane has hit, especially if I am working on collage. I allow myself to make a complete mess with the paper I am cutting. And then when I'm done, I clean up (putting all unused
materials back in their designated places) and start my next project. And the storm hits again. But I am
comfortable in this mess. It's my creative place. I love it.
Rachel: Favorite drink?
Lisa: Unflitered Saki, hands down. Accompanied by a spicy tuna roll at on of my favorite sushi places.
Rachel: Biggest fear?
Lisa: Not being loved for who I am.
Her next show is opening Thursday, Sept. 6th at The Candystore so if you're close to San Fran, go and tell me how fabulous it was.
Thank you, Lisa, for giving us a peek into your world. You're a star!
It's always cool looking back at old journals. These are from about 2 years ago. It also happens to be from the very first post on the old RVA blog. Thanks for peeking! Elsie
I want to apologize first for the last four pics being so blurry. I had to take them off of the Two Peas site because they are no longer in my hard drive.
These are from my 3rd, 4th and 5th Art Journals. I started my 4th before Sebastian was born and haven't finished any of it since. I did submit a few last year from 'book 5' to be published (its not out yet) but I really just want to start fresh and try to be more consistent. Maybe a smaller journal would be easier to fill.
The journal in our next kit has 20 pages so its not too intimidating.
My favorite things to use in art journals are images from magazines or found papers. I use fewer photographs because its more about mood and feeling than capturing a memory. I focus more on color, texture, and images which I feel is one of the things that makes Art Journaling different from scrapbooking. All of the elements are the same, you just have a different goal when you're laying it all down. I love to bring in vintage lace, scotch tape, staples, bright paint, and images from the mid 1900's.
Its soooooooo fun! You should try it!
Let me introduce you to Sabrina Ward-Harrison. These above images are four pieces from her four books. These are amazing to me. I am not a straight lines, clean layout artist. I used to feel like I had to fix all of my images to make them neater until I saw Sabrina's work. It also gave me the freedom to write about my feelings rather than my daily happenings. I could be honest in my art in ways I couldn't be honest in my relationships. Elsie and I started our first art book after finding her work, and thus, Red Velvet Art began.
Sometimes, trying a different medium can boost your creativity in your current/favorite medium. I wanted to share these with you so you could be inspired, too.
Check out Sabrina's new work here. Check back Tuesday for some of our art journal pieces.
