Available Art

Thursday, May 19, 2011

What's in a name?

My friend Dani Keith is filling out an application for a grant.  She is blogging about  the questions and her answers and I thought what fun it would be to do my own answers....



  What business/brand name are you using for  your creations? Why did you choose this name?”
I picked Lighthearted Studios.  I really wanted to chose something that would describe my art and my personality.  Perhaps it was easy to do that because my art is an extension of my personality?  I first started playing with words and phrases that had light and color in them.  I strive to make my art full of light and color so it only seemed natural.  When I started thinking about myself Lighthearted just popped out.  Anyone that knows me knows that I am laid back and "lighthearted".  I did struggle with whether it should be studios or studio.  I figured, dream big and grow into the name!  I also tinkered with Lighthearted Parties, a couple of years ago I thought I would sell art in a home party format but that didn't work out for me.  I am still available to host a home party if anyone is interested *wink wink*  

Monday, May 16, 2011

Painting in the Blue Ridge Mountains


This is my first attempt at video blogging! I'm sure you will all be mesmerized by my awesomeness.
I was inspired to do this by Megan Auman from Crafting an MBA  Let me know what you think!  Do you like videos?  Maybe next time I should shower first?

Friday, May 13, 2011

Artist Interview, Polly Jones

Irises and Roses in A Blue Pitcher, find it here!

I just realized that I have been MIA! I feel like my head has been spinning, I've had so much going on. This past weekend was my 10 year wedding anniversary so we headed up to Asheville, NC and had a ton of fun! There will be more on that later!

But now....I'm continuing on with my 2nd artist interview! She is one of my favorite painters Polly Jones. She is the first person I have ever purchased a piece of artwork from! (usually I trade for art) I found Polly on Etsy and I obsessivly look at her artwork, I just can't help it. I messaged her once and told her that her art makes me want to sing and dance....and I stand by that! 

I love how your paintings have so much color and texture.  Flowers, glass, and fabrics
show up in so many of your paintings, but which one is the most fun to paint?
 I suppose I get the most excited when I am painting glass with water in it.  There's just something about how it transforms what goes through it that gets me every time.
You use so many beautiful flowers in your paintings, do you have a green thumb?
I love growing flowers in our yard but I don't ever seem to do enough of the weeding and keep up-- the hard part.  We had a hail storm two days after I had planted a bunch of flowers outside and they survived but are not looking great right now.

What is your favorite flower? and is that also your favorite flower to paint?   
Irises
They're my favorite to paint too.
  
The fabrics that you use in your still lifes are so bright and colorful where do you find them? 
 I am an avid thrift store and estate sail sifter.  I have way too many "props" because of my bad habits.
Blackberries on Green Depression Glass, find it here!

 
I love the paintings with the fish, what made you decide to paint them and how do you get them to sit still :)   Thank you!  One of my earliest memories...I'm guessing I was about 2, was reaching into a fish bowl and grabbing a fish.  My memory stops there but I must have learned something about the fleeting quality of life.  That's what they symbolize for me.  I've had a lot of fish, but never for long.  Also it's a great excuse to paint that glass and water.  Many times I have painted from life just staring and trying to remember them in the right position.  I have also cut out pictures of fish and placed them inside the glass bowl to look at.  I have a stash of photographs for reference, the rest of the painting is usually painted from life.

Dutch Iris Together, find it here!

 
Do you have any advice for painters just starting out?  
Starting out is such a great time!  I suggest you experiment boldly.  Also juust doing a whole lot of work is such a great teacher.  All of the successes and all of the failures add up faster and give you more to learn from.  

A Romance, find it here!

How do you balance painting with having a family?  

Well, I took a bit of time off when my daughter was young.  I didn't even feel guilty about it.  Soon enough I was able to fit in some painting and when she went to school I definitely had more time.  Now that she is grown I have even more time.  My husband is an artist and teaches full time in college.  I do most of the domestic stuff around the house in hopes that he will have time to do art too.  I'm not especially organized but I am an amazingly quick cook. Meal time is a big deal around here and I have gotten good at whipping things up that seem to take more time.  My painting groove usually just gets going good right when I should be tending to dinner...


I love your collage pieces!  How do you decide what kinds of paper to use for the collage?   Do you decide ahead of time what parts to leave peeking through or does do you let the painting decide?  

I like using pieces of maps and Golden book encyclopedias from the 1950s best of all.  In a funny way I think of maps as a way of referring to God looking down on us, the omniscient view.  Also they make me think of journeys.  I use the children encyclopedia pages because of the information and the great pictures.  I love the colors in them.  I am constantly bombarded with thoughts and information that influences everything I see.  In my paintings I like to weave in the information in the form of the papers.  Sometimes the text has a connection to the image that I'm painting and sometimes (like life seems) it's more random.  The decisions of where to put the collaged papers are done in front of my still life set up.  It's a very intuitive process. 

Pink Umbrella, find it here!
Time for some fun!
Whats your favorite color?  cobalt blue, or sometimes red
Who is your favorite artist? for a long time it was Janet Fish but now I've gone back to Manet
Whats the weirdest thing you've ever eaten? chocolate covered crickets
Who is the worst actor in Hollywood? Keanu Reeves in Much Ado About Nothing.
Please be sure to check Polly out here on Etsy!