Sheila M. Evans

Today is Solstice, and it feels like time for new beginnings. Of course there are a few holidays ahead, but shortly, hopefully, I can get back into the groove and do some serious painting.

The past few months have been like those dreams where I run and get nowhere… with so many shows and so much to do, there was always something standing between me and the studio.  Right after the Sausalito show, the flu took me out until the Little Spokane studio tour. October was spent planning and sketching for upcoming shows, and starting to build up some creative momentum–just in time for jury duty in November, Thanksgiving week and the regular interruptions that are part of the holiday season.

So once again, I’m looking forward to January. My first big project will be Las Lunas, the large three-panel oil mentioned in the previous post (the pastel study is shown above). Some major rearranging of my tiny back-room studio was required to even fit the three 3′ x 3′ canvases, but it will have to work for now.

Something hopefully good has come of this sometimes frustrating few months: between the challenges of maintaining my schedule working at an in-home studio, and my desire to begin painting more large format pieces, I’ve decided it’s time to start looking for an off-site studio. More about that in the next few months, I hope. In the meantime, happy Solstice!

Now that the small works shows are all on, it’s time to get serious about making some big pieces. I’ve got two more gallery shows and a lot of wall space to fill and basically less than two months to paint. Today I finished Blue Suspension No.5 (left) which I started last week. Now I am working on a pastel study for what I hope will be a major triptych in oil—three 3′x3′ panels—if the pastel turns out as planned.

The idea for the triptych is to be leaves arranged to resemble a group of luna moths in flight. I’m hoping it works out well, especially since a collection of coincidences are making me think I have some strange connection to these moths. It started when I did a similar small work last week or so. As I finished and was trying to name it, I decided it might look like a luna moth. I liked the name “luna,” anyway.  But I actually didn’t have any idea what a luna moth looked like. Hoping the name would work out, I Googled luna moths and found that, luckily, they looked very much like what I had painted.

I liked the small painting, but decided it might have more impact with more “moths,” and planned to use the idea in the big three-panel format I had been wanting to try. With all the panels combined, it will be the largest oil painting I have done to date, so of course I’ve been feeling a little nervous about diving into the project. (My friend Neicy and I were just discussing how with each new painting, we sometimes suddenly feel as if we will have forgotten how to paint!) Anyway, on a holiday shopping trip downtown this weekend, I walked into Atticus, an awesome local gift/coffee shop, and the first thing I saw was this big, sparkly luna moth ornament. Given that a week before I would have had no idea what it was, I thought that was a pretty cool find. So I spent a whopping four dollars and took it home for inspiration.

Here’s hoping my new lucky moth gets me through the next few months with a ton of good work for my next two shows!

Tonight is the First Friday art walk in Spokane and Coeur d’Alene. I will have new work at galleries in both places: six pastels each at the Tinman Gallery in Spokane’s Garland District, and the Art Spirit gallery in downtown Coeur d’Alene. Both opening receptions are tonight from 5 to 9 p.m. If you are out and about in either city tonight, please come see the art!

Both shows are the respective galleries’ holiday small-works group exhibits, so there will be lots of art and artists to see. I plan to attend both shows for a bit, and hope to see some of you there!

Blue Suspension No.4 Study, above, will be available at the Tinman Gallery.