Art by Niki Hilsabeck

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 con...

"Squirrel Snack" 17 x 20 Pastel on Paper Click here to view details 2014 Entry Although the show ended last month, I thought I would share a few of my Art of the Avocado entries over the last few years. Each year, I try to do something a little different for the Art of the Avocado contest that coincides with the Avocado Festival in Fallbrook, California.  This year, I submitted two entries: the painting featured above, and an acrylic piece on canvas that I framed under glass.  You can see both pieces (along with my photobombing cat) in the photo below: The painting on the right is called "Yin-Yang Yum," and features the way avocados usually look at our house: scraped clean and eaten! The inspiration for "Squirrel Snack" came from a photo I took of a freshly snatched avocado, which appeared to have become the victim of hungry ground squirrels.  Anyone who has an avocado grove probably recognizes this view of an avocado! I always find i...

Yes, I learned the word "plethora" from Three Amigos.   There is some evidence that the earliest art created by humans was likely painted with an ancient version of pastels (think cave painting).  There is something about gripping that pastel stick in my hand that makes me want to scratch color on all kinds of things. Pastel allows you to directly make your mark, with no brush getting between you and the color. "Curiosi-Tea" 7 x 10 Pastel on Cardboard Click here to view large or see purchase details I've used pastel on many surfaces: textured pastel paper, watercolor paper, drawing paper, canvas, Canva-paper, and stationery and envelopes to name a few.  I can now add cardboard to the list.   "Quiet Still Life" 9 x 12 Pastel on Cardboard Click here to view large or see purchase details I noticed that the texture of the cardboard itself makes a difference in the pastel's texture.  I also had to use fixative to keep the colors stron...

"Avocado Lights" 24 x 30 in Acrylic on Gallery Wrap Canvas ORIGINAL SOLD Click here to view print choices It's Avocado time again...April is the month of the Avocado Festival and Art of the Avocado show in Fallbrook.  The piece above is my entry in the Art of the Avocado, on display at Brandon Gallery in Fallbrook, California through April 27th. What do frogs have to do with avocados?  Nothing, except that if I hadn't realized I'd turned into one, I wouldn't have finished my piece for the Art of the Avocado show.  I've heard of the phrase "frog in boiling water," meaning that if you cook(?) a frog in boiling water that starts out cold, the frog doesn't realize what's happening until it's too late, since the water heats slowly, gradually increasing in temperature. I spent a couple of months feeling gradually more and more fatigued, until I got so tired I could barely stand to get through the day.  I thought it was a post-b...

"Avocado on the Side" 12 x 18 chalk pastel on paper Click here to buy print: http://www.redbubble.com/people/nikihilsabeck/art/6955621-1-avocado-on-the-side-pastel Getting ready for the Avocado Festival... This year, I decided to enter the "Art of the Avocado" contest, sponsored by the Fallbrook Chamber of Commerce. I've been putting together a lot of avocado-themed pieces, but I couldn't decide on one for the show. Finally, I created this one: a simple chalk pastel on Canson Mi-Teintes paper. It was different from all of the previous pieces in that I didn't include all of the details I had in my other avocado works. It's also much brighter. During one of my art classes at UCR, the instructor asked us if we were "simplifiers" or "complicators." I still don't know the answer to that. I have a feeling that my tendency is to complicate, but once I realize that I'm losing control, I reign it in and bring the piece back to ba...