Sheila M. Evans

For my own sake, I hope so. But I’m afraid that may end up being the case for my oils project as well. 

Above is my fortieth painting, Ravelen. Another milestone! Ten left to reach my goal, I should be happy, right? But my forty is starting to feel like somewhat less, for  few different reasons.

First, one of my stipulations for my fifty oils is that they all be good enough to show. But one of the side effects of doing something so many times is that you get better at it. So now some of the paintings that were looking pretty good to me a few months ago are facing tougher standards. 

Combine that with some early exhibits and other juried events which tend to tie up inventory, and my body of work starts to feel a bit underweight. Not that I mind painting a few more! But I do need to get back to pastel someday. Fortunately, about the time I expect to finish the initial fifty, jury notifications should start to come in. Who knows, I may already have way more paintings than I need. There’s a scary thought.

Pastels are so beautiful, all those colors are so candy-like and tempting. It’s hard not to grab an armload of new colors every time you walk into the art supply or open up a catalog. And you might as well, because the more colors you have, the easier it is to accomplish what you want. But of course, this hoarding gets expensive, and the more colors you learn that you can’t live without, the more complicated re-ordering becomes. Unless you are among the most organized of us, you will eventually lose that label for your best light-greenish white with a hint of chartreuse. And as the number of tables and boxes devoted to pastel supplies grows, the likelihood of confusion increases. I currently own well over 400 pastels.

So here’s something I love about oil painting: It is so easy to keep track of supplies! Read more

Have I become an oil painting convert? Well, I don’t know about that, but my latest painting became an interesting experiment for me. Early this week I had run out of canvases, so I did a pastel sketch between making some panels. The next day I began painting the same image, Springswept (above), in oil. Maybe it’s just that I’ve been away from pastel for so long. Maybe it’s because I chose to work so small (7″ x 12″) in pastel. But I found myself getting frustrated as I worked on the pastel study, not finding the right colors in my palette, not feeling as if I could get the effects I wanted, and feeling generally awkward. 

When I began the small pastel, I was fairly certain I would do a larger version later, but not certain which medium to use. After my trying pastel session, I switched to oil and found I had a much easier time. Now that I am finished, I really like both paintings. But I was especially happy with the way I captured the subtleties in oil. 

I’m sure that when I transition back to pastel, it will become second nature again, but I’m happy to be at this point. I think this is what I was trying to accomplish, after all.

See the pastel study here: Read more

Things have gotten off to  slow start this week between the holiday, the must-see inauguration, and a class I’ve been taking, so I’ve posted a painting I finished last week. Autumnflight was a fun piece to paint, another one that came together quickly. I especially enjoy working out glowing colored light effects through the frosty white backsides of the leaves. 

I’m hoping to do another painting in the next few days. I’ve got several new ideas but no canvases left, so I may do a pastel study as I make some new oil surfaces. As I start to think about going back to pastel, I realize that in future I may have a tough time choosing which medium to use for each new piece. I’m not much of one for making decisions. 

When I first started working in oils again, I did a pastel study for each painting, to help me learn to think in a new medium. A few months ago I stopped doing that and have gone straight to oil. But once I start working in pastel again I’m sure I won’t be able to resist doing a few pastel images in oil as well.

This is my latest oil painting, a small piece titled Robin’s Nest. Most of my paintings are done on canvases I make myself. I prefer my own surfaces because they allow oil paint to most closely mimic the working properties of pastel. I can use a fairly dry brush with the textured canvas to get similar effects to a totally dry medium. Robin’s Nest, however, was painted on a purchased canvas.

My purchased canvases have far less texture than my homemade ones. The smooth surface covers much more quickly. This is nice, but  after blocking in the initial colors, I must work into very wet paint. At first this was quite intimidating. I tried to paint in the same style that I do with pastels and my other oils, but this did not go well. Clearly, I needed a completely different approach. I had to be bold, using quick, single strokes to keep the colors clean. Not a new idea by any means, but for me, counter-intuitive. As I stood in front of an early painting contemplating this, for some reason I thought of Christian, the then-recent winner of Project Runway. And in my head I heard him saying what he said about every two minutes on the show: BE FIERCE! Weirdly, this helped. I repeated it like a mantra as I painted, and quickly finished a very different painting–one I very much liked. I enjoyed this style of working so much that I have continued to buy a few small canvases, making these quicker, looser paintings as a change of pace between larger pieces. 

What’s odd about this is that I have not had a similar experience working in pastel. After my initial switch from Canson to Sennelier LaCarte sanded paper several years ago, I have been unable to produce a single work I like on any other surface. Which is fine, so long as my preferred paper continues to be produced. But I’m hoping that my oil painting hiatus will somehow give me a new flexibility in pastels. I’ll find out soon. Fourteen oils to go.

See more “fierce” little paintings here: Read more

Looks like my show season is getting an early kickoff this year. On Saturday, February 21 I will be participating in eye4art, an art show and sale benefitting the Mead Education Foundation. The show runs from 2pm to 6pm at Mead High School in Spokane, and will feature several well-respected area artists. Cost is $10 per person or $25 per family at the door, and there will be live music and hors d’oeuvres.

I have, at long last, completed the painting I started in December. For a while, I did not think I would. It’s been a rough few weeks.

By  Tuesday of the week before Christmas, I had a good start on the painting, but  was struggling. On Wednesday, the snow came. By afternoon there was over a foot of new snow on the ground. The university where my husband works shut down. By morning, Spokane had record snowfall for a 24-hour period. And we are no strangers to snow.

I should point out here that my studio is, for the moment, in our house. Because of this, I rarely paint when other people are here. No matter how considerate my housemates are, I can’t get my head into it. Which is unfortunate considering what was to come.

The university stayed closed all week. My car was buried under three feet of snow. I still had gifts to make and buy, and the intended recipients were stuck in the house with me. Still no time to paint. With the roads plowed the following Monday, I devoted my time to my gift list, bumming a ride to shop since I still had no car. And the snow just kept coming. The university closed again. Then it was Christmas. The day after that, I got sick. And to top it off, I threw out my back shoveling the apparently endless snow. Read more

Want to buy an oil painting? This piece, Falling Heart, will be available for purchase at the Northwest Museum of Art and Culture’s Works from the Heart Auction this Valentine’s Day. It’s the first of my (soon-to-be) 50 oils to be put up for sale, so I am really looking forward to the auction!

This year there are a few changes to the event, and it promises to be exciting. There are two locations for 2009. First, a preview show will take place at the beautiful Saranac Art Projects at 25 W Main. This is Thursday January 15th from 5 to 7 p.m. The opening is by invitation, so if you are not on the mailing list and want to go, you might check with the museum. The auction pieces will remain on display at Saranac until February 13, and can be seen Wednesday through Saturday each week from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

The auction itself takes place Valentine’s Day, February 14th at the Masonic Center Ballroom. This is always a fantastic event, so I hope many of you can make it!

Falling Heart, 36″ x 21″, oil on canvas, 2008