Kim Morin Weineck's Art: gallery9

Showing posts with label gallery9. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Put yourself out there

As an artist, I honestly find art shows a bit scary. Having your work out for all to see is an invitation for a response. Talk about vulnerable! I've always felt that by the time you're ready to put yourself out there, you're ready for the response, whatever it may be -- good or bad. It's easy to say but harder to pull it off.

Gallery9 hosted a wonderful group show called "The Great Frame Up" where we had to create a piece to coordinate with a frame we selected in a blind draw -- totally backwards from the norm. When I opened my frame and saw the 1" flat turquoise wood burl I'll admit I knew this wasn't going to be easy. My still life came together well and three judges awarded me 3rd place. Hurray!

My painting with the 3rd place
Golden Brush award above it
©2013 Kim Morin Weineck
BLUE JAR
original pastel, 10x8"

The very next day my work was shown in the Norwood Art Association's 35th Annual Arts in the Park event. Imagine my feeling when I walked up to my piece and saw this blue ribbon on it! The beautiful sunshine-filled day got even better!

For all the painting going on in solitude, it feels quite nice to have my work recognized, and I'm so appreciative.

Thanks for reading! -kmw

Monday, December 10, 2012

Small works :: Pear pairing

A gallery owner had told me years ago: "Pears sell!" In my years in galleries, I find this to be the truth!

Recently I started looking at still lifes by pastel artists and focused on their edges. Result of the exploration? Work quickly, with aplomb, and have fun playing with the marks and pigment. Take risks. Be messy!

I set a timer on these pieces, too, so I wouldn't get too tight. Any guesses on how many minutes I permitted each piece?

Contact Gallery9 for information on these pieces.
Thanks for reading! ~kmw

Monday, July 30, 2012

Watercolors of art supplies

As mentioned in yesterday's post, I've been creating new work for a show at Gallery9 using watercolor and mixed media to get the creative juices flowing. Last night's fruit studies and still lives (just can't make myself write "lifes") ended with a simple watercolor of a paint brush.

Today I was eager to get back at these paint brush paintings.

I figured I'd work in a few other treasures from my studio.

My awl is a go-to framing tool.

Of course the ever-present Sharpie marker in assorted colors can be found as well.

Blue is my favorite color and my artist pencils tend to be these Mars Lumograph pencils in just about every hardness they make. When I searched for a classic yellow No. 2 pencil, you know, like a Ticonderoga -- the classic -- I couldn't find one. Only these blue guys.

Lucy joined me for the afternoon painting session. She was ADORABLE to paint with. See her assortment of 'junior' art supplies? She organized them just so. I was proud of her work and her diligence. I'm biased but still!

Lucy and I enjoyed painting together today.
What an amazing afternoon we shared.

She even did some paintings of paint brushes, prompting me to do a painting of her brush. How are kids supposed to make a masterpiece and feel like they're any good at painting when their brush gets splayed and horrible and is made of plastic shards that feel like mono filament/fishing line?

My brushes are old and worn and cared for.

Watercolor is a medium that requires good materials to make a difference in your outcome.

In person these paintings look so much better. Try as I might, this is the best I could get them to look here.

Generally I don't use a fan brush but that doesn't mean I don't have one.

Nor does it mean they aren't good painting fodder. It's pretty cool-looking for a paintbrush.

My students in the Neponset Valley Artists will love this one of my teensy weensy brush, the double zero, 00, or double aught. Mine is so worn out and tweaked at the end from sitting in water just a spot too long.

Still makes for a fun painting.

Thanks for reading!
~kmw

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Mixing it up

After focusing so intently on pastels for a spot of time, it was a nice mental break to switch to something utterly different: illustrations in mixed media.

For these works on board I used pencil, colored pencil, watercolor, watercolor pencil, iridescent pastels, ink, sharpies, my daughters' art supplies of all sorts, and perhaps something else I am forgetting....

©2012 Kim Morin Weineck
HEIRLOOM TOMATO
original mixed media, 7x7 unframed
available $45
I am going to take a better photo and repost

Julie at Gallery9 has asked me to do some work in a different vein for a show coming up Friday, August 3rd. I always am up for the challenge to see what can be produced under a time crunch.

These are fun illustration art for me to do and making them is oddly exhausting.

Photographing them in my dining room was horrible, but I was anxious to share them because they got me excited.

I can't tell which is my favorite and can't wait to do more.

Have suggestions for a subject or want to purchase one? Let me know in the comments, in an email (kimweineck@gmail.com) or on Facebook.

Thanks for reading!
~kmw

Monday, February 13, 2012

Fruit studies

Recently I posted about some time spent painting with my girls. We did have such fun.

I had been jonesing to do some watercolor and experimenting, so I took this as the perfect opportunity to try.

In person, these pieces really look different because of the translucent, iridescent, and opaque materials used in combination. In this pear piece the red-violet striations seem to hover over the cobalt blue wash.

This strawberry was my first painting of our session and I like it best. I also painted from a sweet little real strawberry that Pippa kept asking me to eat. Too funny. Making little strokes with my paintbrush gave Lucy some ideas of her own.

Cool, right? Here are two watercolors by Lucy. The top right is a 'quick study, Momma," and then the other is her interpretation of the marks I was making. This little gem of my 4-year-old's work is now hanging in our kitchen. You know that Lucy couldn't be prouder.

Thanks for reading.

~kmw

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Four pastels

Today I stopped in to Gallery9 and Julie, the owner, was excited about the four new pastels I brought in to show her. Hurray!

Rising Moon, left
Last Light, center
Red Tree Reflection, right
all original pastels, 9x12" before frame
©2012 Kim Morin Weineck

Later today I got these photos in text messages from her.

On the framing table
Red Tree Panorama
original pastel, 3.5x18" before frame
©2012 Kim Morin Weineck

She liked them well enough that they are already framed! Stop in to Gallery9 to see them or contact me for more information.

Red Tree Panorama
in all its framed glory
I love how this one looks!

Part of me doesn't want anyone to buy the panorama. Perhaps there is a wall in my house which could be a perfect home for it.

Thanks for reading!
kmw

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Pastel surfaces demonstration

Pastel painting surfaces are myriad, and it's quite important to select the right one for how you work and what you'd like the final outcome to look like. This precise topic was the subject of my demonstration two night's back for the Foxboro Art Association.

The nearly two-hour demo concentrated on four different surfaces and somehow I quickly was able to sketch four (!) paintings to show just how varied these surfaces can be.

Sennelier's Pastel Card is my favorite and so it was my opener. I created this landscape with two hay bales on dry-mounted charcoal colored Pastel Card. I find the paper, with its cork tooth, grabs color vibrantly. This is a work-in-progress, but I stopped at this point because it demonstrates the point.

The next surface was Canson Mi-Teintes paper, which has two distinct sides. The 'right' side (with the Canson watermark) offers a zillion small circular 'nubbies' on it which I am constantly feeling the need to overcome. I have a hard time with this paper on the 'right' side.

I created this sketch on this paper, again selecting paper in a charcoal tone for continuity to the above sketch. A member made the observation that this piece looked like it had a netting over the entire surface - the exact 'nubbies' I'm describing! Yes, it does look just like that!

If you turn this Canson Mi-Teintes paper over to the 'wrong side, an entirely different effect is achieved. No 'nubbies' are there. It's smoother and, for my way of working, I am not fighting the paper the entire time I'm painting. The pastel pigment sits nicely on the paper, I find.

To finish up, I painted this incredibly dull start of a pastel which needs so much work I nearly didn't post it here. For the purposes of the demonstration, though, I'm including it.

PastelMat by Clairefontaine is a relatively new surface which is so mind-boggling in its ability to accept more and more pastel and yet confounds because it has no tooth or grit to grab the pigment. The paper I had was white, and a lot is still showing through. More work to be done, but those in attendance got to see how one works on the surface.

My goal is to finish up what I can on these and post when they're completed. I hope I can keep on this positive flow of energy since the demonstration this week and get to them soon! Please cut me some slack on these studies. They were done in great haste and aren't refined yet.

People asked me some wonderful, pertinent questions about materials. Keep in mind that this is my opinion. Please experiment and enjoy your own process of discovery! I'm reluctant to use the word 'best' here, but in my opinion, that's what they are!

The plein air set

The best go-to set of pastels for plein-air:
Sennelier's 80 half-stick set for Plein Air

The best paper for plein-air:
Sennelier's Pastel Card pad in either size available

The best fixative to protect your pastel and not have too much dulling of color:
Lascaux fixatif

The pastels I used for the demonstration:
Sennelier (so beautiful with Sennelier Pastel Card), Unison (loved these with the PastelMat surface), Terry Ludwig, Nupastel, and Girault.

The best sources for on-line ordering of pastel supplies:
Dakota Art Pastels
Dick Blick
Jerry's Art A Rama
Terry Ludwig

Please find me online at kimmorinweineck.blogspot.com and follow my blog, should you like.
I'm also at Gallery9 at Custom Art Framing as the Gallery Director. I'd be delighted to see you there.

What a wonderful experience it was to test myself for this demo. The crowd was wonderful with amazingly on-point questions and such encouraging comments.

Thank you to Foxboro Art Association for having me!

Monday, October 3, 2011

Color vocabulary: green and white

"All or nothing" seems to be my motto. I'd been working in pastel exclusively for a long spell and then I had a show requiring oil paintings and I took a three-month hiatus from them. Feels a bit funny that I haven't touched a pastel stick since the beginning of the summer.

These three pastels were done in quick succession, and I was pleased with them. During the summer I worked to enrich my color vocabulary in greens and whites. Seems that I was delving into this study with these three!

All are 16x12" and are all done on PastelMat archival pastel boards. If you're a pastelist and haven't tried PastelMat, you really should. It's smooth and yet somehow holds pastel as if it were gritty sandpaper - utterly contrary!

Each of these pieces is available at Gallery9 in Norwood for my show opening October 5, 2011.
Comment on which you like best. Your feedback is appreciated.

Thanks for reading!
kmw

Friday, September 16, 2011

Marshland sunset

The last painting in my marshland series of four, this is the same scene as two posts back, but this time the marsh is at sunset and so slightly lighter than the other. The nuances between twilight, sunset, and dusk are fun to try to capture.

Yesterday I felt like trying to paint was like voluntarily going to the lion's den - I've been so beaten up by my efforts. Late in the afternoon my diligence was rewarded with a painting I can't wait to have framed and shown at the reception, October 7th at Gallery9. The BIG news for me -- drum roll, please -- it's 20x20"! Large!!

Have a great day!
Thanks for reading,
kmw

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Marshland path

Yesterday was spent on the patio working on a bunch of paintings that were unfinished and unresolved. I'm not sure if anything has gotten better or instead is just getting more muddled. Argh! Painting can really take you on a roller coaster!

Today's painting is a scene I have worked on a few different ways and sizes, both in oil and pastel. This manifestation is my favorite. Seems to me there's a great distance toward the water. I hope it appears that way to you, too!

For inspiration I've been looking at a lot of artists' work lately. Check out David Lussier's page at the Harrison Gallery. In class I showed a few of his paintings on my phone's web browser. We were discussing the sparkle that he gets with well-placed 'random' marks. Gorgeous, really!

I'm hoping to get more time painting in today. And the fever to jump to pastels is imminent. Looking forward to making that change shortly.

Thanks for reading!
kmw

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Marshland twilight with bonus girlies

Twilight is a bit later than sunset, right? I love the subtle nuances between sunset, twilight, and dusk. The light for each is a challenge to capture because it's changing at the speed of...well...light!

Here is another in my Marshland series. In person the foreground reads a little more resolved than my photo. My skills in taking photos of my work are improving, but I still have lots to learn.

In keeping with yesterday's post, here's a bonus picture of my girls playing in their room. Love them and their awesomeness! While typing this post, Pippa just came in and kissed me. What fun!

Thanks for reading!
kmw

Thursday, September 1, 2011

September 1st

The calendar in the kitchen shows September. My husband is elated for the dwindling of summer, but I'm not as happy. Summer is my favorite. I have been outside with the girls painting while they've been playing, enjoying the sunshine. It's been a stellar summer season.

While painting outside I focused on making six strong paintings for SIX PACK, a show at Gallery9 I'm in which opens tomorrow, September 2nd (September's First Friday show). Six artists each painted six paintings and each painting is 6x6" - I love the idea for this show!

In July, the Neponset Valley Artists went on a painting extravaganza to Nantucket courtesy of NVA charter member, Haydi Hurley. When I think back on the summer of 2011 this trip will be a highlight. For sure. This series of paintings came evolved from that trip.

All these works are from Siasconset, Nantucket where I was inspired by the light streaming across the narrow lanes of gray shingled rose-covered cottages. Wonderful. Those familiar with my work know that I don't paint buildings often - so I decided to take this on.

I had visions of what the collection would look like in the end, and of course, this doesn't quite match up to what I had in mind. BUT I learned so much. As many of my students will attest, the vision is a loose, colorful painting but it seems impossible to let paintings stay loose and painterly. Instead they get tighter and tighter and more fussy.

Of these six paintings, I have some I'm partial to more than others. One frustrates me horribly! And I learned about white. I think I'll be able to do a workshop on using white! More on this at another time, maybe.

Everything is available for sale, so email me should you be interested. It'd be wonderful to get red dots on my work at the show. Always happy to ship it to you!

Finally, I didn't only finish these six paintings. I made twelve. I'll be showing those soon.

And come to Gallery9 if you're in the area for a wonderful show featuring Polo Barrera, Ann Gorbett, Mark Logue, me, and Steve and Sue Zafarana. What fun!

Thanks for reading!

kmw

Friday, August 12, 2011

Dusting off my oil paints

Painting for a show is a true motivator. Lately I'm working in oils for a show which opens September 2nd with a First Friday reception.

Here are the details:

SIX PACK

Six artists,

Six paintings each artist,

Each painting is 6x6"

I'd been interested in painting something in a series, but felt stymied by this idea. Then, in a flash, it hit me - the perfect 'non-theme theme' - "What I did on my Summer Vacation."

I have five paintings begun. Two are mostly completed and I'm pleased with them. More than pleased. The other three have some work yet to be done.

Going to oil painting after all this time working in pastel was quite interesting. Pastel painting for me is quicker and the colors and application can be much cleaner. Four months of pastel painting alone made it feel for me like I was starting oils at square one. Argh!

Here is a bad, dark photo of the two that I like. The others are coming and there are figures in them. What? Me and the figure? Perhaps that is why I struggle. I'm desperately out of practice!!

And yes! There are six artists in this SIX PACK show:

Ann Gorbett, Polo Barrera, Steve Zafarana, Sue Zafarana, Mark Logue and Me!

Thanks for reading!
kmw

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Framing some pastels

For a show at the Art Gallery at Patriot Place, I had two of my recent pastels framed.

My almost-four-year-old Lucy took this photo. I rather like it! Nice work, hon.

I brought them to Julie at Gallery9/Custom Art Framing where I work. Her selection of ready made frames is really great. I knew she'd have just what I needed and in stock.

Here's Lucy at the shop

The frame must have made it look great because the pastel has sold. Hurray!

Here is the piece in the gallery, along with two of my students, and Neponset Valley Artists, Nancy Bacevich and Haydi Hurley.

Thanks for reading!
kmw