Art Resin Challenge!

Last month I was approached by one of the wonderful employees at Art Resin with an offer & a challenge. They would supply me with free resin if I would create something new to share with my (and their) audience. SO…(drumroll please!) here it is!

Well, okay…here is ONE of the pieces! 🙂 There are three in total. I’ve done several pieces using the quilling techniques to make the designs – some inspired by nature, others very abstract. These three take their cue from the great outdoors. This piece, in particular, has a specific representation. The flowing terrain below that rising sun was inspired by watching the sun rising over a desert landscape. It’s created in an 8×8″ wood panel, turned upside down. Title? Desert Sunrise, of course!

Since this was a challenge I tried to think of what I could do to make this pour different. I settled on LIGHTS…each piece has a round portion of the background cut out and a clear Petri dish glued down over it. The paper design is attached to the front side of the dish. Small, remote control twinkle lights fit into the Petri dish behind the art and glow & sparkle through that section of the design! I also painted the background of these pieces, which I had not done before. I’m still deciding if I like them that way or not!

Now I’m going to blitz you with a bunch of “progress” images captured during the creation of these pieces:

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Modifying the wood panels, various quilling tools and paper pieces, stages of creation, and all the pieces taped off, ready for the resin pour!

I did make a few videos of the process too, you can see them by following the links shown here:

Prep and Intro

Pre-Pour

Pouring the First Piece

In addition to the finished image of Desert Sunrise above, here are the other two pieces that were created:

Moonlight over the River, 8×10″

Summer Tree, 8×10″

Although the final images turned out just fine the pour had a moment of panic in it! When pouring the piece “Moonlight over the River” it took me several times pouring the resin before I figured out there was a leak around the Petri dish I had glued to the panel. I lifted it up to see a HUGE puddle of resin growing on the table. Ack! Ductape to the rescue! I can assure you before I started to pour the next piece it was inspected for leaks AND had tape added, just in case. 😉

I want to thank the great people at Art Resin, this was a fun challenge! You can find these pieces on my website if you’re interested in purchasing.

Your randomly creative artist friend,

Lynne

The Grands Continue…

In my last blog post I featured the first two colorful portraits that I created of my grandkids. I’m continuing with that topic today. This one is actually the one I painted first, just to see if I could! It kicked off the whole idea of painting each of them! My youngest/teen grandson (and yes, he had pink hair at the time!). These are some of the progression images:

I got a little carried away with the hair and had to go back in a shorten it up, then re-do the background and did even more fine-tuning before I was finally satisfied! This guy spend his first five years of life growing up at our house and has a pretty special place in our hearts!

Although not in chronological order of creation, I’m sharing the working images from his little sister, my next-to-the-youngest granddaughter. I actually did one entire painting of her that I disliked enough to paint completely over it and start again! This process is still not the easiest for me, but once I get it right I am a happy artist! These images are the steps of the “do over” painting of my Sweetpea:

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I was surprised how many times these youngsters started off looking like old people!! Thankfully that had improved before the final image:

Last, for today, is the artwork of our youngest granddaughter. She is one of the most joyful kiddos I know – and also the one that I collaborated with to create a special book all about her. I call her my Sunshine!

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Finished image

My next post will feature the last two of our Grands, who happen to be (non-identical) twins! Twice the fun!! Until then!

Lynne

Indiana Artisan Spotlight

March brings a feature of eleven select Indiana Artisan works at Art on Main Gallery & Gifts in Carmel, Indiana. They have filled their walls and shelves with an assortment of amazing work. I’m proud to have my batik artwork included.

Art on Main is featuring an exhibit/ sale by Indiana Artisans. Indiana Artisan is the state’s official organization that recognizes the work of Indiana’s highest-quality art and food artisans. Art on Main will be presenting art and food items from 12 Indiana Artisans.
Julie Bolejack- Chocolate for the Spirit
Pam Hurst Designs- jewelry
Amy Greely Studio- Jewelry
Lynne Medkser – batik Art
Marie Reamer- photography
Otis Harville- photography
Marl Lisota- jewelry
Nancy Keating-mosaics
Peter Falk- woodworking
Kathy Blankenheim- painting
Sylvia Gray- wearbale art
Monte Young- stoneware pottery

I delivered several new (and one classic) pieces of artwork for this feature, including these three pieces below that are fresh out of the studio! If you’re looking for a great night out the gallery is going to have a special hours this Saturday, March 9th from 5-9 pm during the “Meet Me on Main” monthly gallery walk. Be sure to visit!

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  Limitless

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  Spontaneous Song

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  Catalyst

The feature at Art on Main opened today, March 5th and will continue through the end of the month – which leads up to the annual Artisan Marketplace on Sat, April 6 from 10am – 6pm and Sun, April 7 from 10am – 5pm in the Expo Hall Building at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.

Only once a year, the state’s highest-quality Artisans come together — at the Indiana Artisan Marketplace. Talk with artisans at the top of their craft, recognized by the state for their exceptional art and food. Taste their wines and foods, see what makes them the best, and take advantage of the opportunity to take home some of their outstanding work made in studios, workshops and kitchens here in the Hoosier State.

I won’t have a booth at the Marketplace this year but will have artwork featured in the “All IN” exhibit which runs parallel to the Marketplace and features a display of products and art from Artisans who want to participate. As you enter the Marketplace you’ll be able to enjoy “All IN” as you make your way to visit the Artisan booths. I’m also on the “All IN” committee this year so you might well see me there when you visit the Marketplace. 

I have several other new batik pieces finished and in process right now, I’ll share them in my next post! Till then….

Lynne

Publicity for Paws

I’ve held my very favorite volunteer job going on two years now. It involved going to my local shelter and taking photos of the newly arrived critters so they can be posted on the “available” site, shown on Facebook and generally get some publicity as they search for their forever home. I’ve fallen in love multiple times and as a result now own two rescued dogs in addition to my rescued “studio cat” that’s been with us for almost 10 years!

I’m not sharing details on these images because they span the entire time I’ve been taking photos and, to the best of my knowledge, these cute critters have all found homes. If you’d like to see some of the wonderful animals in your area please visit the local shelter or it’s website. They are hard to resist, whether you’re a cat lover….

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Or prefer the pooches….

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It’s an awesome thing to share your heart & life with these babies that just want to be your friend. Furry love to you all,

Lynne, Amy, Emmy & Carl

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  Amy

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  Emmy

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  Carl

Whimsy

Last year, as I was preparing for a show of my mixed media batik art, I was also spending lots of time with my grandkids. Trying to mix the two I did many of the drawing layers of the art while they were busy coloring and drawing at the kitchen table with me. As often happens I got requests – “Gramsy, can you draw a fish? Gramsy, what about a bird? Maybe some flowers?” as those drawings began to unfold I unintentionally created a trove of tiny art pieces inspired by the requests! The original pieces were all small – mounted on 4×4″ wood panels when completed. Some just seemed to need a bit more space so 6×6, 6×12 and 8×8″ pieces were added to the mixture over the months.

Above: Batik art on paper in progress – drawing/coloring stage Below: Finished 4×4″ pieces

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Display of multiple 4×4″ pieces

As I continued to create these whimsical pieces I also began adding text and quotes to them. The ones shown below are all 6×6″ pieces on wood panels.

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These creations fell right into my art motto of “Happy Art for Happy People”! Many of the pieces that feature flowers, nature, gardens, etc. are now available at Queen Anne’s Farmhouse & Flower Shoppe located in Greenwood, Indiana. You can also find a few of my handmade journals there too! Hmmmm….journals. I’m not sure I’ve blogged about those yet. Perhaps next post?

Lynne

Photos of Artwork: A How To

Just for fun I thought I’d share with you how I take photos of my artwork. (Disclaimer: The photos I’m sharing here were taken with my cell phone and would not be the ones I’d submit for shows, etc.!) Since I’ve set my website up to have all the images on a black background that is how I always photograph them. Occasionally I’ll do them on both black and white backgrounds if one just really needs the white to look good. I don’t keep my photography backdrops, stands, etc. set up in the studio so I pretty much drape the black cloth over whatever I can find. Depending on the size of the art I’m photographing some creativity might be needed to get it large enough to surround the artwork. Here’s ares pictures from this morning showing both the front & back of the set up.

As you can tell from the shot of the back this is one of those “creative” set ups since a few of the pieces were over three foot tall. As long as it works no one (normally) sees how it’s put together so who cares? I placed it up on the table so I wouldn’t be bending over so much to get the pics, plus there was more available light coming in through the windows & doors at that height. Unless it’s a late-night desperate situation I prefer to take these shots with natural window light instead of room lights or using a flash. Today was cloudy out so it was perfect conditions…not too dark but no hot spot of sun shining in to deal with.   Here is a pic of a new art piece sitting in the photo area:

 

Doesn’t look too spectacular at this point but, as I said earlier, this was taken with my cell phone so I didn’t have a lot of control over the amount of light, etc. that was being captured.

One of the hardest parts of photographing square or rectangle images is to get the perspective correct so they actually look like squares or rectangles. Aiming your camera at the center of the piece and keeping it parallel with the artwork helps a lot, plus just being aware of that it’s not skewed when you shoot helps too. (Multiple shots up the odds as well!) If all else fails you can straighten while you’re making adjustments to the image with your computer, but that’s extra work so I try to get mine lined up correctly when shooting.

This final image was still on the cell phone but was taken closely to the art and then I also tweaked the lighting/color in photoshop before I uploaded it here. It’s an improvement over the previous image!

currently untitled, mixed media art (carved wood, painted stones, driftwood, paint) on 6×16″ wood panel © Lynne Medsker

The one taken on my Nikon will be even better than this! Since this is a semi-flat (it hangs on the wall, anyhow!) piece of art with black borders on it I didn’t care that it blended right into the black background. With more dimensional pieces I try to place them with a space between them and background to help emphasis the depth and give them some separation.

So that’s that…

I’ll be sharing more new work as I get a chance, heck I’ve still got a couple of pieces from this summer I haven’t gotten on the blog yet.

Busy, busy,

Lynne