aeMcDraw

I mentioned yesterday at the end of my post  about finding my direction.  Something that I have said repeatedly is that I love maps and I love to paint maps.  Three of the largest pieces of art I own in my home are two vintage school maps that I got while in college and a large enamel vintage map of the United States that was salvaged from the Old Heidelberg Hotel in Jackson Mississippi.

After my Fifteen Minutes of Decay painting was selected for the Warhol exhibition, the gallery owner requested an artist statement.  I wrote a story about why I painted that piece and how I was capturing the smell within the painting.  I think my artist statement came out great for that piece.  But it made me wonder if that was where I was at today.  I really started to question myself and what my art is doing and what I wanted for my audience.  I think this exercise also made me realize just who was my audience.

My work is about a collection of memories and studies of color and form.  I create fine art abstracts, realistic and impressionistic paintings of landscapes in the vantage point of maps.  The subject can be as detailed as a city map, a single subject such as a state and county map, a study in form as the coastline, a study in color of vintage style maps, or an abstract form of a continent.  As much as a maps role is to educate and inform, a map is also a landscape painting that casts daydreams upon the viewer and provokes a recollection of memories.  As selfish as I am that this is my process while I paint, I believe it is something that continues long after the varnish dries.

I love all the work I have created to date seen in my gallery and Etsy.  With the perspective of distance and time, the Lay Off Series are really landscapes with a single home.  Obviously, there is the deeper emotions behind them, but if I had to identify them I would call them landscapes.  I thought I might continue on with that series, but the emotional baggage it carries is no longer part of my current state of mind.

I get very excited when I think of all the possibilities of Maps and Landscapes.  It’s endless.  I feel so unblocked and charged, I can’t paint fast enough.  I took out my oils and a large canvas that has sat blank in my studio for over a year because I didn’t know what to subject should fill the space.  I took out my National Geographic, opened up Google Earth and set a grid on my canvas and sketched the composition in white charcoal. I’ve documented the progress below so you can see how the painting and color pallet all came together.

Canvas grid and sketch with white charcoal

Filling in the ocean and establishing the boundaries

Land rendered with undercoat of greens, yellows and sienna

Adding more sienna and establishing brushwork

Adding more colors to the pallet

Further boundary work and color highlights

Mediterranean Sea (12x24" on 1.5" linen canvas) by aemcdraw

Mediterranean Sea (Detail of Side)

Detail of Aegean Sea

Detail of Red Sea and signature

I will post this to my Etsy shop sometime this week.

Let me know what you think.

I saved the best for last.  My last profile from the Cherry Creek Arts Festival is an artist who I know from Etsy, the lovely Cori D.  I had no idea Cori was going to be at the festival until the day of when I viewed the emerging artist section of the Festival’s website.  I made a definite plan to visit her booth.

Cori is so fun and funny in person.  She is bright, cheerful, and a joy to be around.  I spent so much time in her booth looking at all her work and chatting up about everything from Etsy to freelance illustration.  We both moaned about how difficult it is to get noticed on Etsy, how the same sellers make the Front Page over and over, and how at the same time it can take just one right placement at the right time  to launch a career.  Of course, the largest of these formulas is if the work itself is good.

Well, there is no question that Cori’s work is amazing.  Her pallet is soothing and the subject and composition are beautiful and captivating.  You don’t take a quick glance at her work because you get immediately pulled into each piece.  If I could sum up the medium, it would be watercolor, pencil, ink, beeswax, and vintage papers.  My very first impression was how much this all drew me in in person, much more than just online.  I think her work really deserves to be see in person.   (Keep that in mind as you see my meager photos of her booth below.)

(My apologies to Cori for getting a picture of her in mid eyes wide interest as she was conversing with another patron.)

Over the course of the festival and meeting fellow artists and Etsy sellers, I have done a  lot of soul searching with my own art and work.  In short, I feel that I have turned that corner.  I feel less artistically blocked and directionless.  I will share in another post where my path is leading me now.

STUDIO NEWS
from Anne E. McGraw

August 2010

I am very excited to announce that my painting Fifteen Minutes of Decay will be on display at the WarhoLove exhibition through the month of August at Niza Knoll Gallery in the Santa Fe Art’s District in Denver.  I hope to see you all at the First Friday, Andy’s Birthday celebration August 6th and the Artist and Curators Reception, Friday August 20th.

If you are in Denver, invite a friend to attend the Birthday celebration in the Sante Fe Art’s District.  I hear there is going to be a costume dress up, Birthday cake, Velvet Underground and an Andy film screening.  Sounds like a lot of fun.

Sign up for Studio News from Anne E. McGraw newsletter here.

eta:  Here is a full round up of First Friday Warhol celebration activities.

Guess who has a piece in the up coming WarhoLove exhibition at Niza Knoll Gallery?

Fifteen Minutes of Decay (acrylic 11×14″) ©aemcdraw

My Fifteen Minutes!

Check out Westword’s “The Best at Cherry Creek Arts Festival“.

And more link love to artists from the Cherry Creek Arts Festival.

Shea Guevara I love these aerial perspective and use of brush and pallet knife.  The powerlines  are stark and interesting modern notes on an otherwise picturesque landscape.

Chris Roberts (video plays on opening) -fiber art

Justin d Robinson -mixed media painting

Phyllis Stapler – painting  I love the backgrounds as negative space with peaks of flora.

Mark Traughber – stencils and painting Also has an Etsy shop.

Andrew Woodward -  I loved the 50 state animal paintings. Mississippi is the Red Fox, Colorado is the Rocky Mountain Bighorn and Texas is the Nine Banded Armadillo (aka road kill, lol).  All the paintings are slightly raised making them 3D.

Ron Zito -painting  Weight of Blue and L’ape Returns were my favorites.

Nick Wroblewski – woodcut prints   I cannot believe the depth and colors in these wood cuts!  Just think of the patience it takes to carve the wood block (backwards mind you)!  Absolutely stunning in person.

Okay I will share more later.