Wedding Design

Weeeeek! After almost a two year engagement it feels like our fall wedding is just around the corner. I am still going to be doing the Boston Arts Festival this year and Fort Point Open Studios. The next few months are jam-packed, so I know the time will just fly by.

I have been hording my vacation time so it will be lovely to have a much needed two week vacation in the country.

Above I have posted some images of the Save The Dates and the wedding invites. I used a gocco printer to print the text section of the invites. I used 4by6 (the company I use for my business cards) for the color map as well as the fox and bunny "paper dolls".

A lot of wedding projects will be hand created to give me an opportunity to work on my design skills. I really need to practice Illustrator and In Design, so I have worked out a Comic/program project for myself. I will be posting some snippets of my work here in the next few months.

Winner Selected

Thank you to everyone that entered to win my mini Nurse painting. A winner has been selected! congratulations TracyDawe! I have E-mailed and as soon as I get a reply with your mailing address I will send her out to her new home. Thanks again. -Jen

Disney/Pixar, Brave

I just saw a preview for the Disney/Pixar movie, Brave. The imagery looks like something I would really enjoy, bears, archers red headed girls and dark landscapes. eeek!

I can only hope that there will be numerous woodland creatures included.

Below is one of my pieces... my own interpretation of a wild woodland girl.

In other news I am working on a short comic.

I have posted some sketches below. They are not the best quality photos, but I usually end up taking photos at night after the sun has gone down.

Summer Give-Away

Hello all-

I was recently cleaning up my apartment and I came across this little painting. It is a tiny little thing about 2" square, painted with acrylic paints on a piece of illustration board. I could not find a frame for it so I am offering it as a give-away prize.

The rules:

Please reply to this post.

Provide your e mail address.

On July 21st I will check the posts and randomly choose a recipient. I will e-mail you and ask you for your address so I can send you this tiny painting.

-Good Luck!

Gearing up For the Fall

I know, summer has just started, but it seems like Fall is just around the corner.

I was just informed that I got into the Boston Arts festival again this year. This year it will only be two days, Saturday the 10th of Sep and Sunday the 11th.

I will also be participating in the Fort Point Open Studios; Oct 14th 15th and 16th.

In between my day job (really a night job) and painting I will be working and selling my work at the FPAC store, right next to the yummy Flour Bakery.

Below are some snippets of paintings I have been working on:

Thank You All

A great big thank you to everyone that made it out to the RISD sale and the FPAC open studios. It was great to see you all. It has been a crazy busy few weeks!

The next few weeks will be slowing down a bit (no stints of jury duty, dentist appointments or stitches), finally I will have some time to get back to painting.

The most exciting news: In June I will have a piece in the "Picture This" exhibit at the Danforth Museum of art. This show will showcase new work created by contemporary picture book illustrators living and working in New England. The juried work will be featured in the Danforth's Children's Gallery.

http://www.danforthmuseum.org/exhibits.html

June 11, 2011 - August 7, 2011

Patrons' Preview *Invite Only* Saturday, June 11, 2011 - 7pm - 9pm

All Creatures Great and Small

I've been revisiting one of my favorite childhood series, "All Creatures Great and Small". It is a lovely, witty, lighthearted story about a vet in the English countryside. It is streaming on Netfiix and provides great background entertainment while I paint and work on wedding projects. Someday when I have enough free time I would love to re-read the books. My new wedding project is working on gumpaste flowers, what fun! It is a very hard medium to work with, it dries out very fast and cracks, but I'm excited to learn new things. My current cake inspiration is Cake Opera Co. They have very Marie Antoinette looking cakes. Their color palettes are very unique I am in awe of their use of black and gray and hand drawn elements.

Spring is in the Air (and a little snow)

This year I will have a very busy spring. I will be showing my work at the: RISD spring alumni sale Saturday April 30th 2011 Providence RI Facebook link Website as well as the Fort Point Spring Art Walk. May 6th 7th and 8th Boston, Mass Link Off to do some more painting. -Jen

It is Difficult to Paint on a Record

Visiting Portsmouth NH

I just visited Portsmouth NH. I went up to see my work at the Three Graces Gallery and show Tom around my old stomping ground. The gallery was great. It is full of many wonderful paintings, ceramics and some beautiful wooden tables. I ended up purchasing a little fox assemblage on blocks, so cute.

There are numerous little shops and cafes in Portsmouth. We spent a majority of the day hanging out at Breaking New Grounds sipping cappuccinos. I sketched and nibbled on some Ceres Street bakery Mexican chocolate cookies and Tom nursed his hangover in a dimly lit corner of the cafe. I forgot how early everything closed and ended up missing out on trying on a ring at a hand made craft store. They closed at 4:00! I did find a pile of little treasures. I ended up picking up some antique picture frames and a glass milk bottle.

If you are interested in any of the work at The Three Graces it is available on line as well. They offer FREE SHIPPING! (for a limited time)

http://threegracesgallery.com/

Tiny Tiny Art Show, Opening Feb 4th

The Tiny Tiny Art Show is opening Feb 4th in Portsmouth NH. I just sent them a fine selection of some of my favorite art pieces. Please visit the website for more info: http://threegracesgallery.com/tiny_art_show.html Thanks and enjoy -Jen

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Hope everyone has an awesome holiday. I'm spending the next few days baking and preparing for Christmas.

Process Photos

New Paintings

Currently I'm working on a few new paintings for the Three Graces Gallery show and trying to prepare for the holidays, so I will not be doing many holiday sales.

This week I will be re-stocking the FPAC store with prints and a few new paintings. I will also be posting some more of my work on Etsy. I still have fairly cheep un matted unsigned prints on Deviant Art.

Happy Christmas shopping

My Favorite Supplies

Here are some of my favorite art supplies:

A mechanical pencil (it keeps a nice sharp point) A 005 Sakura pen, I find the nibs in these tend to sink into the tip fairly quickly, but I have not found a pen I like better yet. A tiny tiny paintbrush. I also have a "large" 1 1/2" paintbrush for doing washes over a whole painting.

Weekly Walks

Recently we decided to take a weekly walk. It is really quite surprising how close everything is in Boston and what neat little nooks and crannies there are out there to be discovered. The day after thanksgiving we went to the South End to check out Gaslight. Sadly, they were closed, but we got a nice peek in the window. Then we were off to the Butcher shop ( I love the pig sign).

Thanksgiving Eve

Oh sad day. My favorite Starbucks mug broke this morning. I checked e-bay to see if I could get a new one and they are $75. Holy crap! I guess it is time to find a new mug. The next few days I will be taking a little rest from painting. I will be cooking up a big Thanksgiving feast, bacon covered turkey, pretzel rolls, green beans, baked Brussels sprouts, homemade orange ginger cranberry sauce, and four kinds of pies. Yummm! Oh how I love the fall weather and harvest-time cooking. Over the holidays I will be showing in a few small works group shows. I will also have some small works and prints in the FPAC small works group show at the Fort Point store, by the awesome Flour bakery. Happy Thanksgiving!

Rotten Teeth

I just came back from the dentist,, and I have more cavities! My penchant for sweets has caught up with me. Inspired by my tooth-woes I'm doing a mini series, little paintings of all my cavities selling at the price they will cost to fill. I will be posting the paintings on Etsy.

Relaxing

A big giant thank you to everyone that made it out for this years Fort Point Open Studios. It was such an awesome blast! and a very full weekend. We very much appreciated Barlows Fort Point breakfast which kept us fed and caffeinated while coffee maker and dishes were all stored out of reach. This weekend I'm looking forward to a quick relaxing vacation in Upstate New York. With the fall weather I have weddings on the mind, Tom and I will be getting married this time next year. eeekkkk! We hasd a fairly long engagement but I think we needed the time to prepare. I'm very busy with my art shows and still want to make all my own invites. Yay Fall! -Jen

Half Finished

I often have more than a few half finished paintings laying around my studio. These pieces range from small pieces that just never seem to turn out right to huge paintings that will just take forever. I am always working on a million projects at once so the paintings tend to build up in the corner. Every once in a while I will rifle through my painting stack and pull something out. Yesterday I found this cute little painting on my desk after a frenzy of cleaning. The texture of the canvas had been bugging me and I just could not seem to get it to turn out right: I usually work on a smoother surface like wood or paper. Miraculously after a few hours of work it developed into this little gem. (I think I found my magic paintbrush)