Sheila M. Evans

Since I went all week without posting any new oils, I thought I should at least post something new! This little pastel, Nirvana Study, is the blueprint for my next large oil painting, which I will start on Tuesday. It will be number forty-nine. Amazing. I’m really excited to get started, but will be taking a carload of art over to Issaquah this weekend. Hopefully I’ll return with lots of painting energy.

I did paint two little 8″ x 14″ oils this week, but haven’t photographed them yet. It is too sunny to shoot them and they are too wet to be shot. Without making a giant mess, that is. 

Another reason I’m looking forward to my return: I’m planning a new feature for the blog next week. Stay tuned.

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A lot can happen in five years. For me, the last five years have brought eighteen art fairs, eight solo shows, three new series, four different framing styles, a new medium and an ongoing string of group exhibitions.

One inevitable result of all of this activity, as it turns out, is orphans. Orphaned paintings, I mean. Orphans appear for many reasons. Maybe they are part of an old series and look out of place with my newer work. Maybe they went on the road a few times too many, and ended up with a damaged frame. Maybe they are in a perfectly good frame from three frame styles ago, and now look odd in my booth. Maybe they were shown several times, or maybe not at all, before I was on to the next new thing.

Regardless of how they got there, all of these paintings now sit in storage, waiting for homes. Normally this would be the time I would have a studio sale. But if you’ve ever actually seen my studio, you know why this is not exactly practical. I can barely fit myself and my current artwork in the 10′ x 11′ room I call my studio, let alone sale merchandise, customers and a table of wine and hors d’oeuvres.

So I’m doing the next best thing: a virtual studio sale. Well, parts of it will have to be virtual anyway. Like the wine. But the art is very real, and I will be offering it for sale here on my site. At the right under Pages, you’ll see a new page titled, appropriately, “Studio Sale.” This link takes you to all my posted sale items, each with a Paypal button for easy purchasing.

All artwork offered in the Studio Sale will be shipped matted and ready to frame. Prices are comparable to unframed work I sell in my art fair booth. Every piece is an original, hand made, one-of-a-kind work of art.

Go ahead and take a look. I hope you find something you like, and can give one of my babies a home.

Take me to the Studio Sale!

Emerald, Bound (above) and seven other of my oil and pastel paintings will be featured in the group show, Four Seasons, at University House in Issaquah, Washington beginning with a reception March 6.

A few months ago I was contacted by the show’s curator, who had seen my work at the Bellevue Art Museum show last year. It was nice to be noticed among so many amazing artists, and I am flattered to have been invited to participate. Plus, we get a nice little trip across the mountains this weekend as I take the work over. It won’t be practical to turn around and drive back three days later, so I will probably miss the opening reception. But I’m sure it will be a lovely event. To see the invitation, click here.

In the meantime, I’m a bit slow to post new paintings this week! I’ve spent too much time getting ready for shows this weekend and last, and not enough time planning something to paint. I’ve been working on a few fierce little paintings this week, but I have large pieces in mind for my final two oils (hard to believe!). Look for those in the next two weeks or so.

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Whoo-hoo! I just got the April Issue of the Pastel Journal in my mailbox. I needed a little pick-me-up and some pastel inspiration, so perfect timing!

April’s issue is the Pastel 100 issue, where they publish the winners in their Pastel 100 competition. The Pastel 100 jury picks a total of 100 winning pastel paintings divided between five categories: Landscape, Portrait and Figure, Animal and Wildlife, Floral and Still Life, and Abstract and Non-Objective.

I received an honorable mention in two different categories this year: one in Still Life and Floral, and one in Abstract and Non-Objective. I’ve made honorable mention twice before in Still Life, so while that win is exciting for me, it is not nearly so much so as my award in Abstract. This was my first abstract entry, so when I won with Tapenade (right) I was thrilled.

Tapenade is part of my very new Moongazer series (working title, subject to change). I only have a few pieces so far. Never having done abstract work in the past, I had no idea what to expect with these paintings. I made just a few pieces, then had to go back to my earlier series to create work for shows.

(When jurying into shows you must present a cohesive body of work, and you must arrive at the show with the same work you presented to the jury. This new series is far too different to show alongside my other work. I’ll need to paint a boothful of Moongazers before I can jury with them.)

I’ll probably start working in pastel again in a few weeks, so I’m excited to have the inspiration of the Pastel 100. I entered my Ambient series for 2009 shows, so I will be concentrating on that for a while. And I’ll throw in some some hydrangeas, since they play well with others. But after that, I want to devote some real time to the Moongazers. I can’t wait to get started!

To see my winning Still Life and Floral piece, click here .

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Naming a painting can be one of the toughest parts of the entire creative process. It can also be one of the most fun. It’s like a little reward, beyond the finished painting itself, for all of that hard work.

I always name my paintings after they are completed. Sometimes I will start a painting with a title in mind, but I can’t think of a single instance when the painting ended up with that title. I think if it did, it would be because I pretty much phoned the whole thing in. No matter how clear an idea I start out with, if I am paying attention, after a point the work will evolve on its own. And it will demand a fitting title.

Sometimes the title is obvious. It just pops into my head in final form, I write it down, done deal. But the most interesting adventures in naming often happen when only a partial title comes to mind. This oil (number 46 for anyone who’s counting) is a good example. As I worked on it, the element that evolved beyond my original idea was the bronzey-gold, or the idea that the blue-green leaves were turning to bronze. It occurred to me that the blue-green bits resembled oxidized copper as well. As I finished the painting all I knew was that I wanted to incorporate the idea of bronze or gold into the title. 

I couldn’t think of an interesting way to do that, so I headed to the thesaurus and dictionary to do some word association. But looking up bronze, I found nothing more than a pretty standard definition (boring) and some references to suntans (useless). With only one more place to look, it was Wikipedia to the rescue. After skimming over a very long entry, I found some history of Turkish bronzes, including the story of how an Armenian alchemist named Zildjian discovered the musical properties of bronze while attempting to turn base metals into gold. Turning base metals into gold… Alchemy! Perfect.

All poor Avedis Zildjian got out of his discovery was the largest cymbal-making company in the world. But I got a title for my painting. Ha!

California Dreamin’ was the theme for the big preview party at the 2008 Sausalito Art Festival. After two solid months of snow on the ground, I am definitely dreaming of sunshine and art fairs. Walking up the hill from my booth in Sausalito last summer, we saw a tiny yard with these fantastic hydrangea bushes. I took as many photos of them as I thought would be useful, and those hydrangeas have become the basis for a small series including this, my forty-fifth oil, Immersion. I love doing these paintings, and plan to continue the series as I move to pastel. But I’m definitely going to need to get my own hydrangeas first! It turns out that I didn’t shoot as much as I thought I did on the way up that hill, and as much as I alter my reference shots for painting, there is only so much I can do with eighteen photos.

Just a reminder for anyone in the Spokane area: eye4art is this Saturday at Mead High School. I’ll be there with a few new pastels and maybe some new oils as well. Find more information on this art show and sale here.

I’m so close. Forty-four oil paintings. While I feel some excitement about reaching my goal of fifty, there’s a bit of a sense of melancholy to go with it. Really, I’m just getting into my groove. I finally feel comfortable painting in oils. I suppose that means I set a good goal for myself. And, it will be interesting to see how my oil work affects my pastel work. But I don’t want to stop!

I’m especially happy with my latest piece, Ascension. It was one of those that could go either way at the planning stages, then becomes a pleasant surprise in final form. Some aspects of it were deliberate, such as the stormy gray-greens contrasting with red and orange. But the tasty deep-reddish purples sort of appeared unexpectedly at the end, after I had signed the piece, in fact. I walked away for a few hours then came back to find the painting begging for purple. Paintings are quirky creatures. They just do that sometimes.

Have you ever bought one of my unframed pastels? Is it still unframed? Then this post is for you.

I’ve been meaning to do this for some time, and I finally did: I have a new page for my blog titled Framing Pastels. You can see it in the right-hand column under Pages. I’ve included tips for framing a pastel start to finish, and also for framing a piece that is already matted, such as the miniatures I sell at art fairs.

I hope it will be helpful. Most of the necessary equipment is readily available at hardware and/or art supply stores. I’ve also added a new section of links titled “Resources,” which appears at the bottom of the right-hand column, where I have listed a few sources for mats and other supplies. I will continue to add to the list in the future. 

Enjoy my new page, and happy framing!