Thank You!

I want to thank everyone who came out this past weekend for the 11th annual Western Loudoun Artists Studio Tour. It was an absolutely gorgeous weekend with a lot going on, and I appreciate everyone who took time out of their busy schedules to spend time with me in my studio.

I have always loved connecting to people through my art, and the Studio Tour affords me that opportunity on a large scale. I am so thankful to everyone who came out to support me and the other artists on the tour.

I would say that my monsters were the hit of the weekend in my studio, and many of the polymer clay sculptures found new homes. I'll definitely be making more of them in the near future.

If you couldn't make it because of distance or time, I will be putting some of my artwork for sale on the JFJ website within the next couple of weeks, so that people near and far can take a closer look. So, in the meantime, I thank everyone who has supported my art in anyway. I am very grateful to everyone who I connect to through art! Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!

Monster Selfies

What if monsters took selfies? That's the question I have been exploring with my new series of drawings and paintings. I've been drawing full bodied monsters for a while now, but the compositions always seem so stagnant since I don't put in any background.

So, I began exploring close-up views. I've completed four ink drawings that I have added watercolor paint and colored pencil to, and I've completed four acrylic paintings on panel. They're all 6"x9", but I'm looking to possibly paint larger ones. If you're in the Northern Virginia area, stop by the Studio Tour this weekend from 10-5 both Saturday and Sunday, and check them out!

Letting Go: Part 2

Over the last week, I've been sorting, cleaning, organizing, and purging a lot of stuff in my classroom, and I've been able to let go of a lot things from my 20 years of teaching. That letting go has carried over to my studio as well, as I have been getting the studio ready for next weekend's Western Loudoun Artists Studio Tour. I've been sorting and purging a lot of stuff from the studio - old artwork, old supplies, old fodder - as I have been cleaning and organizing. I've worked quite a number of hours, and still have a long way to go. The photo above was taken last night after spending a few hours working. I did even more today, and the studio is a complete shambles. Slowly, though, I am getting it put back together.

Even though the Studio Tour is a great motivation to clean and organize the studio, it goes deeper than just trying to get ready for next weekend. It's about getting ready to make the transition into a new chapter of my life, and I am looking to declutter, to simplify, and to let go. It's a new beginning, and I want to make a fresh start. I don't want to let the things of the past clutter the life that I am living now. So, if I haven't used something in a couple of years, if something doesn't serve a purpose for my life now, I'm letting it go.

I still have a ways to go, but the studio will be ready for next Saturday.

Western Loudoun Artists Studio Tour

Mark your calendars!

The 11th annual Western Loudoun Artists Studio Tour is just over a month away. Come out on June 18th and 19th and spend some time checking out over 60 awesome Northern Virginia Artists. I'll once again be on the tour, and I'll have my garage studio open to the public from 10am to 5pm both days. I'm stop number 17 in Purcellville, VA, and I hope to see you there. It's a great way to kick of the summer.

Studio Clean Up

Now that my recent bout of traveling is done, I can focus on the next big thing, the Western Loudoun Artists Studio Tour which happens the weekend of June 18 & 19. Though it's a couple months away, I need to get busy making some art, and getting the studio ready for visitors.

The first step is to clean up the studio a bit so that I have some room to work, so I spent some time tonight cleaning and organizing. It's amazing what happens to accumulate in the studio over the months, and I have the habit of simply moving piles around. The studio has become quite cluttered, so I began the preliminary process of sorting and organizing, and hopefully I'll soon have a functioning studio again with space to work.

Western Loudoun Artists Studio Tour

Today was another cold and icy day in Northern Virginia, but my thoughts have turned toward spring since I found out that I will once again be part of the Western Loudoun Artists Studio Tour the weekend of June 18 & 19. So mark your calendars, and come visit me in my garage studio in Purcellville, VA. Here are a couple of photos from last year's tour. I better start making some new work!

Western Loudoun Artists Studio Tour

I can't believe that I have yet to mention on here that I will once again be part of the Western Loudoun Artists Studio Tour. This will be my fourth time as part of tour, and the tour celebrates it's 10th Anniversary with more than 60 artists spread throughout the western part of the county. I will open my garage studio in Purcellville, VA to the public the weekend of June 20 and 21. So mark your calendars and make arrangements to head out to Northern Virginia to see some great art in June. For more information, please visit the tour website.

I can't wait to share my work with everyone!

Western Loudoun Artists Studio Tour

The 9th annual Western Loudoun Artists Studio Tour is just a month away, and for the third time in the last four years, I'll be one of the participating artists. I am opening my garage studio to the public as part of the tour with the hopes to share my art and to perhaps sell a few pieces.

If you're in the Northern Virginia/DC area, I strongly encourage you to come on out for the tour. There is quite a variety of art with over 60 artists on the tour this year, and we're spread all throughout western Loudoun - with a good cluster in and around Purcellville, where my studio is located.

Please check out the tour website for more info on artists, locations, and logistics. I hope to see you on the tour.

Teen Visual Journal Class

I am teaching a visual journal class June 18-22, 1pm-4pm, for teens (ages 12-18) at the Round Hill Arts Center in Round Hill, VA. It's not too late to sign up, and I am trying to pack the class. If it goes well, I'll offer more in the future, both for teens and adults - maybe even for the younger crowd as well.

And don't forget the Western Loudoun Artists Studio Tour this weekend from 10am-5pm both days. My studio is almost ready to receive visitors, and I am in a frenzy to complete some last minute artwork and wrap up all the odds and ends.

I'll continue postings for my Change Initiative and the JFJ Challenge after the tour.

Studio Tour

Come out this weekend for the Western Loudoun Artist Studio Tour. I'm on Stop #18 in Purcellville. I'll have mixed media paintings, art prints, and copies of The Journal Junkies Workshop for sale. Last year was a blast, and I am looking forward to this year. Still have a lot of odds and ends to finish up, but I'll be ready at 10 AM Saturday morning.

Hope to see you there.

Western Loudoun Artists Studio Tour, June 9 & 10

The 7th annual Western Loudoun Artists Studio Tour is happening in a little more than two weeks, and I'm participating once again this year. Last was my first on the tour, and it was a great experience. I am really looking forward to it this year, and the studio is almost ready - just a little more cleaning, organizing, sorting, and making.

I'll be selling original mixed-media work, drawings, and paintings, as well as prints of selected artworks and journal pages and copies of my book, The Journal Junkies Workshop. And if anyone wants to make me an offer on some old artwork, I'll be happy to get it out of the studio. I'll also have most of my journals available for viewing, and I'll be sharing my artistic process.

If you are in the Northern Virginia area, please come out and visit the studios of talented local artists. I'm stop #18 in Purcellville. Hope to see you there.

Visit the tour website for more information, tour maps, and a list of artists.

Studio

I am finally finding a little time to post about my new studio space. For the last nine years, my studio has been sharing space with the guest bedroom in our house. It was a tiny room that often became a mess that had to be cleaned up when we had guests. As mentioned in a previous post, once I was accepted into the Western Loudoun Artist Studio Tour, I spent a lot of time converting my garage into a viable art space. After all the work, I decided to keep it as a permanent studio to the delight of my wife. The above image was taken during the winter, when I first began cleaning out the garage preparing to apply to the tour. The photo below shows the cleaned out garage, but far from being in a state for a studio.

 

Once the weather turned warmer, I began purging a lot of junk that had accumulated in the garage, and I made multiple trips to the dump. Look at all that stuff under the work benches - most of it is gone now or at least stored in the back shed. I cleaned, I purged, I painted, and I cleaned some more. I moved all the lawn and gardening equipment, bags, and tools out to a shed in the backyard, and began to move studio stuff in. I planted grass seed in the backyard as well as around the garage, and my wife did a lot of gardening around the entire house to get everything ready for the tour. We even had the driveway redone with new drains and new gravel. Check out the photo below to see how the new grass, new gravel, new plants, and the general onset of spring transformed the exterior. I would still love to paint the outside of the garage.

 

Inside I painted all the walls white, put up new lights, and brought out all of my artwork and all of my studio materials and equipment. I put in an air conditioner, bought a couple of tables and chairs, and organized and displayed all of my artwork for the tour. The photo below shows the studio set up and ready to go for the tour. The other photos show the set up throughout the studio.

The tour went very well, and I had quite a few people pass through both days. I sold some art, some prints, and a lot of books. The journals were a huge hit, and many people were very interested. Since the tour, I've been trying to organize the studio into more of a working space. I've brought out pretty much all of my art materials, artwork, books, and such from the house. I moved a set of selves from the old studio to the new and got rid of the two black shelves that can be seen in the right hand part of the above photo. I still have a lot of organizing and cleaning to do, but soon, I'll have the transition complete, and all remnants of the old studio will be gone from the guest bedroom.

I can't wait to get producing in the new space.

Western Loudoun Artists Studio Tour, June 11-12

Nest 2, 4"x6", Watercolor and watercolor pencil

The Western Loudoun Artist Studio Tour is almost here. It will be this Saturday and Sunday, June 11 and 12, from 10-5 both days. This self guided tour opens the studios of about 50 artists around Leesburg, VA. There is a great variety of artwork being offered by the artists. I am stop 23 in Purcellville. It's my first year on the tour, and I am looking forward to the weekend.

I'm pretty much done with all the major work. The studio is ready and I have a lot of artwork to offer for sale. But I still have a lot of little things to do, but it will all get done.

The two works pictured here are two more that I have just completed for the tour. The work pictured above will be mounted on a wooden cradle and will be ready to hang on the wall. The ink image below is from a series of drawings that I have been exploring using only line. The idea is to have this series of ink drawings as loose, unmounted pieces. I'll package them with a foam core backer inside a plastic bag.

Stretch 2, 4"x6", Ink on paper

This is the outside of my studio (my garage) as it looked last winter. I've spent the last couple of months converting it from a garage that housed my woodshop and all the lawn and garden equipment into a large, working studio. I've decided to make this my permanent studio because it such a large space. Besides my wife will be happy to have a room that is just simply the guest bedroom.

I'll share more images of the finished studio in a later post.

Old Artwork

While cleaning out my crawl space looking for older artwork to include on the Western Loudoun Artists Studio Tour, I discovered these six pieces. All are from 2001 and 2002, and all are oil on canvas. The first three were completed during a graduate painting class that I was taking at the time, and I had just gotten into the visual journal. The painting above was from an idea that showed up in one of my first journals. The visual journal profoundly influenced my painting. Before coming to the journal, my paintings had very dark and muted color, and they were nearly always figurative.

The journal brought color into my art, and allowed me to explore more abstract and non-objective work. The painting above was a direct result of the swirling, spiraling images that I was exploring in my journal. Since I never signed the work, I'm not certain which side is the top. I wonder what it would look like flipped.

Near the end of the class, I wanted to bring the color that I had been exploring into more representational imagery. I referenced a photograph of some old machinery near an oil well at my parents house in the above painting. I never really finished this painting, and I was never really happy with it.

The two paintings above were done independently, and I brought together some of the figurative work that I had been doing at the time and the color that I had been exploring in my class.

This final painting was from another graduate painting class the following year. I began the class working abstractly and non-representationally, but soon turned to portraits, something that I have explored since I was a teenager. I applied what I had learned with color, and focused on expressive brushwork and odd croppings. This self-portrait is, by far, my favorite painting from the time.

I am fascinated to see how much my art has changed over the last ten years. I work with a variety of water based media now, and my imagery has evolved and changed. The one thing that has stayed constant has been the exploration of self. No matter the material or the imagery, I have always looked within and tried to express the soft vulnerable truths hidden there.

The studio tour is in about a week, the weekend of June 11 and 12, from 10 AM to 5 PM each day. If you are in the Purcellville, VA area that weekend, stop by my studio to see these pieces, and much, much more.

Announcements and Changes

I received some great news today. I was notified that I was selected to be a participating artist in the Western Loudoun Artists Studio Tour to be held in June. This annual two day event invites the public into the studios of artists living and working in western Loudoun County, and it has grown into quite and event over the last five years.

I have been meaning to get my act together and apply to be part of the tour ever since its first year, and this year I got the application together and submitted everything last month. The main thing holding me back was the lack of a proper studio space. My studio is in the house and doubles as the guest bedroom - not really conducive to the public popping in. But I have a nice one car garage where I house my wood shop, and I am in the process of converting it into a somewhat temporary studio. If I get heat and air conditioning in it, maybe I can move the studio out there on a permanent basis. I know my wife would love that. One day, we would like to add a second story onto the garage and build a proper studio. But in the meantime, it will work nicely for the tour.

If your in the Northern Virginia region, mark you calendars for June 11 and 12. The tour runs from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. each day, and there are a great number of artists to visit. I can't wait, but there's a lot to do before then.


On a different note, you may have noticed that I have tweaked a few things around the blog and added a few stand alone pages (see the tab under the blog title). It is all in preparation for a big announcement and change that I plan on unveiling tomorrow. I'm putting on the finishing touches, and the beginning of a new month just seems appropriate to make it public. I am hoping that this new idea will allow me to have an even greater impact. Tune in tomorrow for the grand reveal.