New Art! (Finally) :o)

Raindrop and Somewhere.

I hadn't technically meant for these to go so well together (raindrops and rainbows) but I often realize (after the fact) that everything I'm painting at any given time is connected to each other.

At the moment I'm writing this, Raindrop is sitting flat on top of my workbench, and from this angle, it really looks like water rippling out away from a water drop. It's a shame paintings-lying-flat hasn't caught on in a decorative sense yet, but it will certainly look like you captured a water droplet against your wall. :o)

Somewhere was an exploration in technique for me. Whereas many pieces are heavy on jagged, sandy, waxy texture, this one is smooth and flat. It's still very thick, caused by never-ending layers of paint and varnish and glazing, but it's flat. This gives it a cool cloudy, semi-translucent effect, which really brings out the bright primary colors I wanted to showcase. It's very bright, in fact, the UV light just highlights colors already there, kind of like you turned a light on behind it or something. It really seems to glow in broad daylight too.

I'm really, REALLY happy to be getting back into the swing of things, art-wise. :o) I have two more waiting in the wings to be finished: my fuchsia sunburst that I was so excited about in December, and another one that you'll really enjoy if you're a science geek (like me.)

heh

shaka

:o)

Happy Inauguration Day.

Our New Place

Here's an idea of what we've accomplished in our moving blur over the last month. It finally, truly, actually feels like home.

Iron hanging thing that we inherited from a friend:


Kitchen with sage walls. SAGE, I tell you!


Fire:


Egret!


He's my favorite, I am thrilled whenever he visits. He either likes to swoop by my sliding glass doors, or stand on a rock looking majestic. No disrespect to the ducks though. They're just funny. They battle and have duck wars. Also, there are apparently koi in the creek. I didn't think there would be, but I saw one with my own eyes. A lone, beautiful, orange and white koi fishy. There must be more, I doubt he's swimming all by himself. We plan to search for more this weekend.

Oh, and here's the view from the top of the stairs. I'm not making this up:


When we first saw the listing for this place, I thought, "Wow, that's a lot of pictures of the outside they're showing," and now here I am, standing outside on my patio every day, taking pictures of the egret.

This place is awesome. It's entirely idyllic and serene, and it's difficult sometimes to want to do anything other than pretend you're living in a retreat somewhere. It's also very inspiring, and now that I've gotten back to working on my art (!!), it's been highly motivating.

Speaking of which, I will actually have new art listed in my Etsy shop next week! :oD

Japanese Artistry

For my birthday each year, we always go to Gen Kai in Dana Point, where we've been going regularly (or in my mom's case, weekly) for... yeesh... 14 years now? Yikes.

Anyway, we go there because it's THE BEST, and because once you have a relationship with your sushi chefs, you are guaranteed the best meal possible.

We always get Omakase anyway, but at one point I told sushi master Jun to make something that HE thinks is really incredible, that HE would want to eat.

This was the result. I felt especially honored when he expressed that it was made extra special and with extra detail on account of me being an artist. Wow.



It was some sort of mind-blowing black cod, onion, and lotus root extravaganza, and it was almost too perfect to eat. In fact, it was so good that I felt compelled to end my meal on it. I wanted to savor the after-flavor with my sake. Yum. (I do not think it's odd to gush over good sushi.)

Jun-san:



Domo arigato gozaimasu.

Show Tonight!

That's a wordle made for me by a collector and friend. Hee, fun. :o)

Here's the official info sheet for tonight's A Season of Light show, from the people in charge. Meet the artists! (Click on it to make it bigger.)

NOTE: The address on this flyer is NOT the address of the event, which is listed in my previous blog post. The address for the Buena Park City Chambers, where the event is being held, is:

6650 Beach Blvd.
Buena Park, CA 90620

The reception tonight runs from 6-8pm. Buena Park is nicely situated between Los Angeles and everyone I know in South Orange County.

Hope to see you tonight!

Season of Light Group Show, January 8th from 6-8pm

My apologies for the short notice on this, I have been completely immersed in moving and unpacking for weeks.






I will be at the Buena Park City Chambers on Thursday, January 8th from 6-8pm, along with a blacklight and 5 of my larger paintings. (Specifically, the ones shown above.) (Sidenote, Broken Sunrise is no longer available and if you want to see it in person, this is your last chance! I'm sending it to the East Coast next month.) If you are local, and would like to see my art in person, please stop by and say hi!

Here is the official press release for the event:

A Season of Light

Shines through Buena Park City Hall

WHAT: A Season of Light Group Exhibition

WHEN: Opening Reception ~ Thursday, January 8th, 2009 from 6pm-8pm

Exhibition runs December 17th through January 30th, 2009

WHERE: Buena Park City Hall ~ Council Chambers

6650 Beach Blvd.
Buena Park, CA 90620

About the Exhibition

The City of Buena Park’s Cultural and Fine Arts Division proudly presents A Season of Light group exhibition. Seven artists from Orange and Los Angeles counties were selected by the Buena Park Fine Arts Commission and invited to exhibit work representing the theme of light and shadows. This year’s exhibiting artists include Arondi, Jeni Bate, Phil Kim, Shayla Maddox, Lori Pond, Wanda Reynolds, and John Urquiza. From painting to photography, this exhibition explores each artist’s representation of reflection and illumination.

About the Reception

The opening reception for A Season of Light will be on Thursday, January 8th from 6pm-8pm. The reception will be at the Buena Park City Hall Council Chambers located at 6650 Beach Blvd. in Buena Park. Light refreshments will be served. Council Chambers is open for public viewing Mondays-Thursdays, 7:30am-5:30pm, and Fridays, 7:30am-4:30pm. Alternate Fridays and weekends are closed. Please call ahead before visiting; viewing availability is subject to change. This exhibition will run from December 16th through January 30th.

About the Exhibiting Artist Program

The goal of the City of Buena Park’s Exhibiting Artist Program is to nurture working relationships and partnerships between artists, presenters, arts organizations, and the greater Buena Park community.

More ACEOs

I started these a long time ago, and just found them in one of my art drawers this past week. It seemed better to finish them and send them out into the universe than to move them to our new place. :oD

Currently, our new place is empty except for large finished paintings, and a cypress Christmas tree in a container. (Living trees!)

This will change today, after we begin filling it with boxes. I'm already dreaming of having a nice log burning and crackling in the wood stove next week, just in time for holiday cheering. Yay.

Soul Colors

If you asked me what color I saw my soul living in, I would tell you it was a heavenly teal-aqua-turquoise-teal-watery-milky-aqua-teal color. I imagine myself just floating endlessly through that color. ahhhhh

Except... well, I don't know. This year I've noticed a distinct color that keeps popping up as I paint. I don't intend to paint with this color, I just find myself doing it, again and again and again. It's odd because, I really never liked this color growing up. At all.








PINK. I can't stop. I have no idea what's wrong with me.

Another artist, Emily Balivet, pointed out to me that "Pink= emotion, creativity, marriage, friendship, beauty, compassion, relationships" and is "kinder, gentler then red/ Heart chakra."

Kinda neat, huh? I'm not sure if that's what's going on inside my head when I'm painting pink, but it sure sounds pretty, and I'm going to go with that. Maybe I'm just exploring my emotional side. :oD

It feels like this is what's going on in my head:


A fuzzy, swirly, electric pink blur that somehow reminds me of my childhood. (wooo 80s!)

baby herbs

We needed to do some re-potting this weekend in order to give our beloved plumeria and orange trees a chance to cope with the trauma of fresh soil and bigger containers before the big move in a couple of weeks, so I took the opportunity to plant a few herbs as well.

For the first time in my life, I will have an actual kitchen window to set herbs on. Well, I mean, I've had windows in the kitchen before, but I'm talking about the kind of window that has a shelf sticking out towards the outside, a garden window of sorts. ::squeal::

I love herbs, and I love growing herbs. I first started when I was about 16 or 17, when I became obsessed with making my own herbal products, which I was pretty good at I'll have you know. But, anyway, I planted some herbs, and it was wonderful. Apparently the seaside clay soil in my mom's backyard was perfect for lavender and rosemary, because those things took off like a crazed herbal science project and became glorious smelling plant monsters in no time. There was no way I could possibly use so much, and we certainly didn't trim it back enough to keep it from being humongous. Then, when the bees and spiders and faeries took up residence in the 2 gigantic bushes, I was too afraid to cut anything from it, so we just sort of gave it to them.

The previous containers of herbs on my soon-to-be-ex patio are all dead now (my patio gets an awe inspiring amount of direct sunlight in the summer) and I didn't bother to plant new ones, because nothing small can survive there.

But now, it's a brave new world of herb growing. I'm so excited. I've never grown chives before, but I think we eat them even more than basil (gasp) so I'm super eager to see what happens.

yay!

I also just started a fuchsia painting, because even with all the boxes I'm tripping over, I couldn't help but do some art. FUCHSIA. I don't know if it will stay that way, but that's what color it is now.

Promises...

hee

:o)

Movin' on up!

Yeah, so, this is the view from my new future patio:




I know, right?

It gets better though, because there are ducks and egrets and crawdads that live in that creek.

!!!

In less than a month, we move. In the meantime, we're frantically packing and arranging and organizing. We are very, very happy to be moving.

Solace . 24x36 inches . 2008

Hi. :o)

1. natural lighting
2. artificial lighting
3. combined uv and artificial lighting
4. uv lighting only
5. no light

Ingredients: acrylic, beach sand, crushed glass, phosphorescent pigments, varnish, water & light on canvas.

When I started working on this painting, I instinctively knew that somehow it was the beginning of a new phase in my work. Not necessarily in style or focus, but I've been particularly interested in what I can accomplish with texture and super thick paint. It takes an incredibly long time to build up, but I'm pleased with how it looks. The first image was taken in that awesome light I was blathering about in a previous blog post, where the sun shines through the windows, casting great shadows across the painting. It looks even more striking on a piece like this that has great texture, and really brings out the depth of the acrylic.

Obviously I'm going to have to increase my supply-buying in order to continue painting this way.

The color of this painting represents the light as it is before dawn, when it's still dark out, but the sun is clearly approaching. It's a very glowing light, very mysterious, and shifts between blue and purple as though it's liquid or fog, even though it's actually crystal clear. It's really a very beautiful, magical light, one that I rarely see because it's not in my nature to be up at that time, unless I've stayed up from the night before.

That's actually when I really experienced this light recently, in a way that inspired me to paint it. It was in June, and we had just returned home from an incredibly emotional and sad experience. It was when Meat died. I took notice of the light, in the same way that I took notice of the rain hitting the windshield on the night my grandfather died. I always notice the environment very distinctly in situations like that. It's almost slowed down, with the volume turned up.

Anyway, on that morning, the light was beautiful. It wasn't enough to call the color of the sky Lavender, although I've been referring to this piece as my "lavender moon" painting. It wasn't even the sky itself that I was looking at. The light was everywhere. It was in the trees, on the wall, and throughout the apartment. I sat and watched it for awhile to really absorb the color I was seeing, and to lock it in my memory as vividly as everything else I was feeling in that moment.

I adore the color of light.

This week has been rad.

So apparently I was on the Etsy Front Page 3 separate times yesterday. Wow.




Hey, look, there's Chelsea! It's cool when you're on the front page. You get like 17 million views. :o)

Also, I wanted to show you this Color Study I just finished, but I ended up selling it before I blogged about it. I love it when that happens. (yay) Check out that texture. As I say in the listing, this was really more a texture/phosphorescent study, but either way it was totally done in my very favorite colors.


A couple of days ago there was this really really awesome light coming through the windows and I ran around frantically taking pictures of every painting in the house before it went away. It made huge shadows across the texture, showing each piece in a new light. (Um, so to speak.) I'll post more of them soon so you can see what I mean.

It also made my hair look dark and my lips look pink. It was an awesome, awesome light.


Yep. Quite a week. :o)

New Etsy Paintings

Busy, busy. It's not really November, is it? :o(

I've been finishing up some work. I had 2 commissions to finish for delivery next week, although I haven't taken pictures yet. You'll just have to imagine. Think circles.

These 2 are going to my Etsy shop:




Moonfire and Joyous.

Joyous was one of those that I started a million years ago, stopped for some reason, and then picked up and finished again. I guess I was waiting for the right color, which obviously was yellow. Happy happy yellow.

They are both very sandy.

My newest show piece is nearly almost practically finished, and I have a few more small pieces to list in my shop next week, depending on how elated or depressed I am after Tuesday.

:oD

2 New COLOR STUDIES

Yeesh, I've been workin' lately. I need to start clearing out my studio to make room for bigger (meaning, huge) commission and show pieces that I'm starting. I haven't done two 4ft x 5ft pieces at the same time in my little apartment, since.... well, since last year, for my last show. Somehow it's baffling that I was able to do that at all, especially since I have more room now! Ah well. That's the fun of it. Although, I may have to delay any other commissions that size until after the show, unless we move into a bigger place. Woo studio fun! I still have to fit smaller, but still large show pieces in there too. Hmm.

Oh, the "problems" I have. Totally awesome.