A Handpainted Switchplate

Here's another tidbit I did for Sassy J's Indian-inspired room. This switchplate is on a wall that she painted a brilliant red. Her love of elephants and my love of sunsets behind elephants was the inspiration. I sprayed the plastic plate with Fixatif, then painted it with acrylics, then sprayed it again with the Fixatif so it hopefully won't chip off. I like how it came out.

Fun With Markers in Sassy J's Room

A couple weeks ago, my friend Sassy J told me that she was painting her room in a brilliant red and bright orange because she wanted an Indian-inspired motif. And since I can't keep my nose out of artsy things (and because she let me), I used gold paint markers to do Indian/henna-type designs on her bookshelf and nightstand drawer face. She also loves elephants, so I did some elephant silhouettes in gold on her door. I'm hoping she lets me go all-out again, because it was 3 hours of fun for me, and I still have loads of ideas for her room, some of which include fake gems that you can get at a craft store. I'm pretty sure that gems are a brilliant idea --though Sassy J didn't seem so keen on it, so we'll see. Maybe I'll do a border of elephant silhouettes around her room if I have the time and she lets me. Here are some photos of what I did.

Happy, Happy Spring!

Hey y'all!

I haven't finished my painting yet (nor have I worked on it as much as I would've liked this past week), but I've been busy working odd jobs and waitressing trying to make money. In my free time, I have embarked on a quick creative endeavor with a friend. My friend Sassy J and I have begun our very first duct tape dress, after much deliberation and talking about how awesome it would be, and designing on paper with sharpies like there's no tomorrow.
We weren't sure how to start, but looked up online how-to's and found some helpful things. So we spent about 4 hours working on it the other day, and it's decent for our first attempt. Hopefully, we'll have it finished by next week, and I can post some pictures of the process and the final result.

Until then, enjoy the lovely weather everyone, and I wish you sunshine and blue skies! <3

Working on a New Painting

Currently, I am working on a piece that is titled "Man or Fish" and is another one of the bigger canvases I've ever done. It's definitely a challenge for me to do bigger pieces, if only because I find myself getting way too detailed with the images. Like with this one, I started with a whole conglomeration of stuff and have been trying to whittle it down so that it's not so overwhelming. I like to create pieces that are a little complex so that the viewer sees something new every time he or she looks at it, but sometimes I get carried away. So with this painting, my main focus is to make sure everything ties together in a coherent way, so that it doesn't look like I just threw a bunch of stuff together.

When I post the finished piece, I will give more info about the dimensions, how long it took to finish, and anything else you might want to know. Until then, I hope you are all well, and that snow doesn't fall on New England until at least November or December (but who knows, we might get a blizzard in June, the weather here is crazy!).

Edited Painting

I've gone back to a piece that I did 2 years ago, the biggest canvas I had ever done at that point, and fixed a couple problems that I had been eyeing for about a year now. It didn't feel finished to me, but it is as of today! :-) It's called "Like Eating Glass," which I named after my favorite Bloc Party song. Hope you like it!

(There's a full picture and a couple detail pictures.)

Volunteer Work

It's been a while since I posted, and that's because a lot has been going on in my personal life that's kept my mind on other things (ie a death in the family, job changes, etc) but I vow to myself --and you!-- that I'll be updating regularly from here on out. Even if I don't have a new picture to show you, I will definitely be writing about my artwork and other appealing things. :-)

Now, on to other things...

During the last two weeks of March of this year, I found an ad on craigslist (sometimes that site is awesome, sometimes it's sketchy as hell) that was looking for volunteer artists, so of course, I sent in a submission for acceptance. It's for the "BoardedUP!" series in Albany, NY for the Grand Street Community Arts program. (Their website is www.grandarts.org/ if you want more information, it's a great bunch of people coming together to make their community more exciting and artsy!) I ran over to the church at the corner of Grand and Madison to pick up a piece of 1/4"-thick plywood and was told I can paint anything on it that was family-friendly. So I decided to do something colorful and abstract, which is my true passion, at least at this point in my life. The board is roughly 2-1/2 feet by 5 feet.
Here's a few pictures of my piece, and the one against the gray stone background is the picture I took of it installed.

New Artwork for 2010!

Here's a look at what I did this past December:

a charcoal rendition of my bro's resurrected 1970s Yamaha

an acrylic and mirrors piece on 9" x 12" canvas

I'm also currently working on my largest piece to date, an acrylic/mixed media on canvas. I can't wait to show it to you all! And coming sometime in the next few months... a brand-new website!!! More details in the next couple weeks. :-)

You've Got Only Four More Weeks...

...to see some great art in person! My show, "A Young Artist on the Rise" by Lauren of LaurenLiz Designs, is scheduled to run through the end of November. It's my first ever solo show, and I am proud of the collection of work on display. It's a variety of pieces that I've done; the earliest is from 2002, before I graduated from high school. There are recent pieces, including (my own personal favorite) "Blue Giraffe." I chose the pieces on display because I believe they are a good representation of the various styles I succeed at, as well as an example of how my style has evolved over the years.

I welcome any comments or questions about my work. If there's an interest in buying a piece, but the price is 'a little too steep' for your budget, let me know and we can work something out. I could even do a commissioned piece for you; the holidays are coming up, and nothing says "You rock, [gift recipient]!" like a one-of-a-kind painting! :-) Shoot me an email at laurenewetherell@gmail.com or check me out on Facebook on the LaurenLiz Designs page.

Have a great November everybody, and look out for new work coming soon. :-)

what i've been tooling around with recently

Since I've started two new part-time jobs in the past couple weeks and had oodles of other stuff to do, I haven't had time to start on one of the two big canvases hiding behind the door in my room. Hopefully, though, I'll be able to start on one this weekend. I haven't got a clue what I want to do with it, but that's ok...I rarely know what I want to do with a blank canvas until I pop in some music and lose my mind.

Anyway, I've been doing a couple side projects that I'm thinking may end up for sale on Etsy. They're home decor-type creations, which I've made with slate from an old abandoned roof.

Pictures from Ambition Cafe

This past weekend, I stopped by Ambition Cafe on Jay Street in Schenectady, NY and took some photos of my art on the cafe's walls. The pieces on display (with prices) are:

• Water Under the Bridge - $250
• Generations - $450
• Like Eating Glass - $500
• Blue Giraffe - $350
• African Love - $350
• Sorry, We're All Out - $200

All pieces are on sale; contact me via email or phone if you are interested in purchasing any artwork.

Thanks!

Today's Feature...

Finished a painting today, after working on it (off and on) for about three weeks. If I ever just sat down and painted for hours on end, I'd be way more productive, but I get antsy if I sit still for more than an hour. Anyhoo, I'm including 2 different views of the piece, so you can see the work around the edges. I used a 'gallery'-style canvas, and wanted to work with the thick edges in a way I haven't before. This painting is called "Universal" and is priced at $250. It's acrylic with broken mirror and clothing studs.

Displaying in Schenectady

Yesterday, I headed over to Ambition Cafe on Jay St. in Schenectady, NY to hang up six pieces of my artwork on the main wall. It took about twenty minutes, since I had to take down the last artist's work (which was seven beautiful watercolors, I forgot her name). Thankfully, I had my wonderful boyfriend Paul to help me out; otherwise, I might have gotten all clumsy and fallen off a table or something. It's really exciting for me to have my work on display...this is the first time since high school that I've had a public exhibition of my paintings. (When I was in high school, I was part of a county-wide high school art show at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA.) All of the paintings I have on display at Ambition are for sale, with prices ranging from $250 to $500, and it would be incredible to sell one! :-D Hopefully, at the least, people will enjoy them while they're sipping the delicious coffee or eating a tasty sandwich at the cafe.

Today, I am working on a logo for LaurenLiz Designs. I've got a couple ideas, but am not sure which one to stick with. I'm so indecisive!

Happy Autumn everyone!

Generations

Finished another painting tonight; it's called "Generations" and is acrylic/mixed media on canvas. My apologies for the poor picture quality, all I have is a digital camera and am far too broke to pay for professional photography. Hope you enjoy it though. The price is $500.

Work in Progress...

I've been working like crazy on my newest painting, and it's nearly finished. Which is good, because my exhibit at Ambition Cafe in Schenectady, NY is less than a month away! It usually takes me about a month or so to finish a painting (depending on the size). The one I'm working on is a mixed media piece of mirror and acrylics on canvas. I'll be posting the new piece as soon as it's finished. :-)

da vinci had mona lisa, and i have british lisa. here is the portrait i just finished of her, in charcoal and white chalk on paper. size is 18" x 24"...hope she likes it :-)

Blueberry Festival Fail

This morning around 7am I got up and prepared for the craft sale at the FCC of Dalton, and brought all my stuff with me. Well...not all my stuff, since I forgot two of the paintings I was going to bring--I forgot to take them off the walls in my house. Anyhoo, I set up at the table and immediately thereafter made a list of things I should have brought. I learned some really valuable setup and selling tips from observing my fellow crafters. I was supposed to stay from 8am until 2pm, but the event wasn't really advertised, so about 15 people checked out the crafts in the span of three and a half hours, so I left early--with a whole lot of useful info though.

Hopefully I will be posting new pieces tomorrow if I remember to. :-)

I'm Getting There...

Yesterday, I drove over to Jay Street in Schenectady, NY and stopped in at a lovely place called Ambition Cafe. It's one of the cafes that I frequented with my friends during college. It's got great style, with crazy awesome decorations everywhere-- like album covers from the 80s, bottle caps, and artwork.
Anyhoo, Marc and Jeremy at Ambition really liked my stuff, so they asked me to display six or seven pieces on the wall there from Columbus Day until the end of November or so. That means I'll be able to (hopefully!) sell some pieces and people from all over can check it out in person...which is uber cool to me.
You can visit the website for Ambition at http://www.ambitioncafe.com/.

As for the Blueberry Festival tomorrow, the weather will determine if I am outside or inside, so hopefully it won't rain cats and dogs tomorrow. If it does, I'm bringing a raft... the weather this summer has been ridiculous. But I will definitely be there, rain or shine!

Blueberry Festival, This Saturday

On Saturday, August 22nd, the First Congregational Church of Dalton (MA) will be hosting a Blueberry Festival, beginning at 8am and ending around 2pm. I will have a table there with my original artwork for sale, and have reduced most of the prices for my works, though they are still all negotiable.

Some of the pieces I am including in the sale are:
Blue Giraffe
Together
Sorry, We're All Out
Lone Wolf
Water Under the Bridge
African Love
Like Eating Glass
and a couple new ones I will have photographed and put up on the website soon!

The church is located at 514 Main St. in Dalton, and can be reached at (413)684-1715 if you want more information about the Blueberry Festival itself. I hope to see a lot of people there!

Giraffe-arific!

This is my new painting, entitled "Blue Giraffe." It's a 16" x 20" acrylic on canvas. Inspirations for this piece were National Geographic magazine, my mother's love for giraffes, and trying out new color schemes. It would look bangin' in a kid's room or a Rainforest Cafe-type restaurant, I think. Don't you?

price: $525

Abstract with Mirrors: New Painting

This is the painting I forgot to post when I finished it about a month ago. It's entitled "Beneath the City," and is valued at $400. It's a 16"x 20" acrylic/mixed media on canvas. The silver parts are shattered mirrors, which I have been experimenting with for a little while.

It took a couple months to finish, and is inspired by the works of Brandon Boyd (of the band INCUBUS) and Morris Bennett, a local artist. You can see some of his works at http://www.morrisbennett.com .


EDIT 7.29.2009: This painting has been sold and is no longer available.

Dabbling in Interior Decorating

In an effort to help my parents out while I'm living at home and looking for a real job, I've started working on updating certain rooms in the house. We live in a two-story country home, and my mother is into the burnt siena/gold/sage green color scheme. The room that I've spent the most time on thus far is the dining room, which was done in two shades of a golden yellow, separated by a chair rail. Here is a shot of the overall effect:


My father and I worked on the painting of this room together. Beneath the chair rail, we did a solid gold (shoutout to that old show, lol), and then above it, we painted a lighter gold, then let it dry. After that, we grabbed old rags, squished them around in the gold paint bucket, and pressed them onto the wall over and over to create a beautiful rustic, antique look.

Afterwards, I was given the task of finding some frames for reproductions that we had done of old photographs given to us by my grandmother. They are of our relatives on my father's side, and they are all black and white. I went to Michael's (http://www.michaels.com/art/online/home) and found some beautiful, vintage-looking frames, spent around $90 on frames and matting, and put them up on the wall. This really added to the rustic, familiar appearance of the room.

The final touch was inspired by a great bowl my mother had found at a local housewares store. I created a bouquet of faux flowers by using styrofoam blocks as an anchor in the bowl and Spanish moss to hide the foam from sight. I carefully picked out all the flowers to stick with the basic color scheme...and as a result, spent wayyyy too much time in the store (as usual). It's the first bouquet I've ever made.
I have to tell you, though, it would look a lot better if my cat didn't continually chew up the plastic grass. I've already replaced it three times, and have pretty much given up on trying to keep him away from it.

Chalk It Up

I recently returned from my journey to Troy, NY to compete in their 6th Annual River Street Festival street painting contest. It was pretty much smack dab in the middle of Downtown Troy, at Monument Square. There were a lot of really talented artists there, and I was glad to participate... I didn't win anything, but maybe next year! My favorite part was hearing little kids say, "Mom, look! That's from 'UP'!!!" Which, of course, made me feel good in that at least it was recognizable. A lot of teenagers and adults also commented on how much they liked the movie and my drawing. The sidewalk chalking was a lot of fun, though I didn't have a whole lot of time to walk around and enjoy the rest of the festival...but I did see some of the musical performance by the lead singer of The Spin Doctors, and checked out the sidewalk arts & crafts stalls, which impressed me. Maybe someday I will have enough money to support local artists and buy their stuff--I wish I could right now! lol. :-)

To the left, I've posted a picture of my mural by itself, and then one with the mural that some girls drew next to it. They chose to do a scene from the book, "Where the Wild Things Are."

I hope to do something like this again very soon, it was quite an experience and a LOT of fun! :-)

StreetPainting Contest

Tomorrow is the River Street Festival in Troy, NY, and I'm really excited to go. I have registered for the StreetPainting Contest, the winner of which receives a money prize, so I'm really hoping I can win. Unfortunately, the size of the area each person gets is only about 3' x 5', but hopefully I can make it work. I practiced in my driveway today and made the drawing waaaayyyyy too big, but I think I can scale it down enough so it makes sense tomorrow. :-) I'm doing a still from the Disney/Pixar movie "UP." I'll definitely post pictures next time I log on.

For more information about the River Street Festival, visit http://www.troyny.gov/ .

My First Parade Float

Can't believe I forgot to post about the parade float I worked on a few weeks ago. Through a friend, Ihad heard about the Quadricentennial Parade for Rhinebeck, NY, and that volunteers were needed to work on the float that would be used as a focal point for the parade. Of course I jumped at the chance. I bought some SPF 60 sunblock (us pale people are sun-intolerant) and trekked to Rhinebeck for a three-day weekend of volunteering. I used a jigsaw, power sander, staple gun, and other power tools to help assemble the float, which was designed by Terry Gipson of Gipson Design Group, Inc. (You can check out their website at http://www.gipsondesigngroup.com/ .) Their portfolio is quite unique and impressive if you get the chance to look it over. In any case, the float turned out quite well, and I was glad to lend my painting and powertool experience to a wonderful project. I have included a photo of the finished float. :-)



To view information about Rhinebeck and the lovely countryside of the Hudson Valley, please visit http://www.rhinebeck.com/ or http://www.rhinebeckchamber.com/ .



Many thanks to Terry Gipson for the opportunity and experience! I hope to work on more projects like this in the future.

Painting to Music

A few minutes ago, I visited the blog at www.creativeeveryday.com after reading about it in Artful Blogging magazine. I really enjoy the artwork and ideas offered there, and the most recent post was about creating to music...so I decided to share some of my music choices, because I rarely (if ever) create to silence. Here's some of the music I love hearing in the background while I paint...

...CITIZEN COPE...

their music is really soft-sounding, but has some killer hip-hop and ska/reggae beats in the background that creates a fantastic high for the listener

...JOHN BUTLER TRIO...

can't stop listening to their Grand National CD that came out about a year ago; songs like "Groovin' Slowly" and "Daniella" create some beautiful images and colors in my head

...ADELE...

the British sensation with jazzy overtones and pop/rock undertones, her voice is incredible and gets me in such a good mood every time

...ATMOSPHERE...

these are some seriously talented guys; I usually hate listening to rap when it comes to painting, but when their poetry spills out of my stereo, I am inspired

...THE DECEMBERISTS...

their CDs The Crane Wife and Castaways and Cutouts are fantastic; images conjured up by the lyrics deal with early American Realism and the plight of various classes in American society

...INCUBUS...

the wide range of sounds from all of their albums influences me a lot when I paint...from their first CD Fungus Amongus to one of their newer ones, Light Grenades, there are so many styles and genres mixed together that you can't help but feel totally freed and creative

So here's where I invite others to tell me what they like (or don't like) to listen to when they create. I am always looking for new music, and since I'm not a huge fan of radio, I would love to hear what everyone has to say! Comments are welcomed and appreciated.

Thanks guys!

Experiments in Canvas...or What-Have-You

I'm always looking for new ways to bring my creative ideas to life, and have been thinking about different "canvases" I can use for my artwork. Typically, I stick with the traditional canvas of 16"x20" or smaller...however, there is a whole world of cool things out there that I could try painting on. In response to requests from others and my own ideas, I have painted designs and images on chairs, old milk jugs, an antique saw (sandblasted first to give it a paintable surface), and recently, slate rock direct from an old house that was torn down. What I really like about these various surfaces is that each one presents a different challenge for me. For example, the slate was difficult to deal with, mostly because it is not completely flat, as a canvas is, and the paint didn't take so well to it at first (acrylic and varnish). Perseverence pays off though. My finished product was made even more unique and interesting because I started off with a blank slate (pun intended). :-D

AND, as you all know, spring is here, and that can only mean one thing: TAG SALES! The beautiful thing about tag sales is that antique-looking items are selling for cheap, and here is where your creativity can come into play. As you wander through a tag sale, it is probable that you will spot at least a couple items that can serve as fantastic "canvases." As I mentioned before, an old saw can set the stage for a lovely countryside folk art painting. There are endless possibilities. If you're like me and working with a strict budget, tag sales (and even independent antique shops) are the way to go.

You are only limited by the extent of your own imagination...and what's available to you, of course. I encourage all artists out there to challenge themselves as well and try something that might seem totally odd or too difficult...you never know where it will land you, and the finished product is so often worth it!

New Painting

Finished today, this painting is 18" x 24" acrylic on canvas, entitled "Hombre."

PRICE: $55

New Completed Works

1. "Wordsmithing"

acrylic on canvas paper

$85

2. "Together"

mixed media on canvas board

$ 85

3. "Around"

acrylic on 4"x5" canvas

$85

I ALSO DO MURALS!!!

(Prices determined by wall size, images desired, travel requirements, etc.)

CONTACT ME AT:

leweth86@hotmail.com

Additional Work

"Sorry, We're All Out"

(16" x 20", acrylic on canvas)

PRICE: $650

My intention with this piece was to comment on the lack of services that so many people across the world need and don't receive--be it healthcare, proper nutrition, or some type of thetherapeutic services. However, the first person who saw this piece believed it to be a commentary on drug abuse, which also makes perfect sense. Really, it is up to the viewer to assign their own personal meaning to the piece.

The background serves as a juxtaposition to further emphasize the struggling, emaciated subjects in the piece.

One of My T-Shirt Designs

I designed this image with pencil, ink and magic marker for the t-shirts that everyone in Union College's Spring 2008 production of Shakespeare's "As You Like It" received. I scanned the image into my computer, then helped make the tshirts with iron-on transfers (available at any craft store). They turned out really well, and the t-shirts still look great a year later. :-)