Sheila M. Evans

Between the Pastel 100 coming out and my acceptance to Art on the Square, I thought I probably had better get my butt over to the pastel side of the studio for a bit. I’d been having too much fun painting in oils, and was getting into a pretty nice groove there. But no matter how many hundred pastels I might have on hand, the first early shows going onto my schedule always seem to induce unnecessary and unreasonable panic.

So I rolled with it and made a few small pastel pieces first, then Villafranca, left, which I named after an obscure species of lemon. The piece looked… well… lemony, and sort of Mediterranean, and the name seemed to capture both aspects. I wasn’t even through with it before I was back on the oil side, though—seized with panic yet again as I realized I may have oil shows while most of my oil work is hanging in the Kress gallery.

The drama never ceases.

More good news! I’ve added a new show for 2010: Art on the Square in Belleville, Illinois. This show has been ranked #1 in the country by the Art Fair Sourcebook (the art fair artists’ version of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy). It’s going to be a long trip, but I am so excited to do my first-ever midwest show. By the way, I only got juried in with pastels. The competition to get into this tiny but excellent show is tough!

I am so happy right now! I just learned that I have been juried in to the Bellevue Arts Museum show again. This year, not only did I get in with my pastels, I get to show my oil paintings! This is a first for me in Bellevue, one of my very favorite shows to do. To celebrate, I’ve decided it’s time to fire up the Art Fairs 2010 page. Then I think I’d better get some painting done.

(Left: Frost Line, one of my newest oils. See it at the Kress Gallery in May.)

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Things are starting to happen in the new studio! After spending a weekend moving in (enough to start painting, anyway) I got to work on my first oil painting in my new digs. It went surprisingly fast, which I have decided to attribute to the good energy in the room. Pretty impressive for a 100+-year-old basement. I would have expected something, well… spooky. But it is just the opposite—cozy and inviting.

Shiva (above) practically painted itself. It is not completed in the photo, but it was finished maybe an hour after that. One more piece ready for the Kress Gallery show in May! By the way, I do plan to start posting my more professional-looking “official” art photos again soon. One side effect of my ongoing move has been to separate my art and workspace from my usual photography spot, but I’ll get that worked out shortly.

Oh, by the way, I seem to have  a correction due… last summer I mentioned that I won an award and thus a re-invite to the Edmonds Arts Festival this June. Turns out the award does not include a re-invite after all! Ooops. Anyway, I went ahead and applied so we’ll see what happens. It would be pretty sad if I didn’t get in after all that, but I guess I’ll just have to wait for it! (LOL!)