Spring Awakenings

After a long hiatus, I'm trying to get back into a more productive cycle, which means more painting, creating lessons and teaching, and taking my work out of the house to events.

It's not that I haven't been busy, but I've gotten sort of sidetracked with fun pursuits like gardening, sewing, and breaking up fights between my children.

I did manage to teach my first paint-sip at the beginning of the year (hauling all of the materials in during a rainstorm that dropped an alarming amount of moisture!)  It was a blast, and we did the piece below in about 2 hours:

                                                     "Moonlit Valley" Acrylic on Paper
(We used canvas instead of paper, so it would be easy to hang at home.)

If you're in the North San Diego County or Southwest Riverside County area and would like to do a paint-sip event, please contact me for samples and prices at nicolehilsabeck@yahoo.com.

Since it's now April, it's a busy month for all things art-- including contests and shows!

"Avocado Jumble" Mixed Media Collage on Canvas
Click here to view on Daily Paintworks   

Every year Fallbrook has the famous Avocado Festival, and as part of the festival we have the Art of the Avocado contest downtown at Brandon Gallery.  This is a fun event to participate in, and although I usually stick to traditional avocados in my own work, I love to see the creativity that goes into the other pieces.  The show runs through April 28th, and visitors are allowed to cast a ballot for the People's Choice award.

This was my first collage on canvas, and I must admit it was nice to just make sure the sides were finished, varnish the final layer, and hang it as is!  Most of the piece is done with layers of tissue paper and acrylic, with a few paper cutouts to give the avocados more form. and help them "pop" a little (as much as they can, being the same color as the rest of the tree of course).

I won't be at the Avocado Festival this year, as it's on April 23rd--instead, I'll be at the Oceanside Days of Art April 22nd-23rd in downtown Oceanside.

"O'Side Bird" Pastel on Paper
Click to view large
I enjoy this festival because of the location (complete with ocean view!) and the variety of artists who participate and come to browse.  It may be a bit warm this weekend, but that will hopefully be better than the screeching wind that showed up a few years ago when I participated.

In addition to participating in more shows and events, I'm adding some more teaching to my schedule.  If you have children and are in the area, please feel free to check out some of my upcoming classes:

Family Art Workshop at St. Stephen Lutheran:

Fallbrook School of the Arts:
June 19- 27 (Mon/ Tues) Kids' Camp Poetry and Illustration

Have a child or teen who wants to learn at home?  I bring the art instruction to you!
In-Home Art Instruction:

For more information on my latest art, visit my website and sign up for my newsletter.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Inspired by Light (Pastels on Canvas)

Image
"Morning Glow" 12 x 16 Chalk Pastel on Flat Canvas Email nicolehilsabeck@yahoo.com if interested in purchasing Been trying to get back into the daily painting routine, which for me either means a small painting a day, or a larger painting spread over two days.  It's a bit of a challenge with the growing belly and a very inquisitive firstborn, but I was lucky enough to get a little extra inspiration from an odd source: Sunday's eclipse. We have beautiful views of the canyon and hills behind us, and I watched the light change on this hill as the sunlight waned throughout the course of the eclipse.  I noted how the normally stunning lights and shadows on this hill were blunted by the general darkening (as opposed to the usual sunrise or sunset glow).  I thought I would be a little more appreciative of those lights and darks and try a painting of the trees and hills the next morning. I completed this painting in several steps, having struggled a little recentl
Read more

Painting Cats

Image
"The Bookeeper" Click here to view auction After many years of painting cats, I've learned a few things.  Every time I start a new cat painting, it follows its own unique path, bringing challenges that I don't seem to face when I paint my more traditional material (landscapes, birds, floral and botanical pieces, etc.) For example, cats don't stay put for too long (unless they're asleep, and even then they'll often stretch and change positions when you're least expecting it).  To combat this challenge, I end up working mostly from photographs.  That means adjusting the proportions, since the camera angle causes some distortion depending on the position and location of the cat. "Eye Contact" Oil Pastel Not for Sale "Side Glance" Oil Pastel Available on Etsy  One of the reasons cats are enjoyable to paint is that they have strong facial expressions.  When I'm painting a cat, I get so focused on rendering the cat
Read more

A Hot Mess of Water Lilies!

Image
"Balboa Water Lilies" 9 x 12 Chalk Pastel on Paper Click here to view large or purchase So, every time I take great photos to paint later it turns into a learning experience for me. We took a little day trip in September down to Balboa Park in San Diego, California.  There wasn't much left of the water lilies after some recent vandalism (a bunch of geniuses decided to have a water gun fight and ended up destroying the lilypond).  It was a strangely hot day for downtown San Diego-- part of a series of heat waves that dogged me throughout the last months of my pregnancy.  I was thrilled to get some pretty photos while down there, particularly of the lilypads and turtles. I love to paint water, but I forget how time consuming it can be.  There are lots of layers involved, and I ended up using fixative as I layered in the lights and darks in this piece.  I also didn't anticipate how difficult it is to depict those peaceful, floating lilypads.  After a couple of
Read more