Month: March 2018

community creatures curated

A Creative Life, animals in art, art exhibit, art gallery, artist book, artistic inspirations, fine art, mental health, Narrative Art, public art, sketchbook

Here are some pictures from the Anstine Gallery exhibit of my artwork titled “Community Creatures”.  I’ve noticed that adults sometimes become problem oriented, especially in certain professions. So I delight in, via the Anstine Gallery, bringing humorous art to a government building in Vancouver. Doing my small part to bring a smile to your day. All of my artwork in this exhibit is about what I enjoy in town. I’ve also included my sketchbook pages for your additional amusement.

The hand sewn book display version of my “Running Around Loose” sketchbook. An ebook version of the same book is here: https://sueclancy.com/product/running-around-loose-vancouver-wa-edition-1-by-sue-clancy/

My last post about this exhibit is here: https://sueclancy.com/community-creatures-running-loose-at-the-anstine-gallery/  – and it shows direct links between sketchbook pages and the fine art pieces.

My sketchbook “Running Around Loose in Vancouver WA” is available as an ebook here: https://sueclancy.com/product/running-around-loose-vancouver-wa-edition-1-by-sue-clancy/  I like to think that my sketchbook will be amusing even for people who can’t come to see the original fine artwork.

purrameters of pie

A Creative Life, animals in art, artistic inspirations, cat portrait, Cats in art, Narrative Art

Finished the artwork and titled it: “Purrameters of Pie”.  I decided on that title because (as my last blog post said here) I was thinking of all the various sizes of sweet or savory pies available here in the Pacific Northwest. And the tabby cat’s towel protected paws encircle the just-out-of-the-oven pie…

PurrametersOfPie72

purrfecting pie

A Creative Life, art techniques, artistic inspirations, cat portrait, Cats in art, kitchen art

I’ve noticed in my travels around the Pacific Northwest that you can get savory or sweet hand pies to-go from food carts, a medium sized “personal pie” in restaurants, a slice of pie, a whole pie or a serve-yourself-family-style pie. I’ve also heard from several sources that a flaky pie crust is hard to make from scratch.

I’m currently discovering that it’s also a challenge to paint a flaky pie crust.  Here’s a picture of me working at it:

SueWorksPurrametersOfPie1b72

I’m using a “color shaper”, a rubber wedge shaped brush, to remove the top layer of color to reveal the color underneath. An attempt to make the pie in my painting look like a browned pie crust top that has cracked to show the yummy goodness inside.

I’ll keep working on this piece but first I’ll let it dry a bit and go have some dinner… for some reason I’m hungry.

finished art of a peel

A Creative Life, art exhibit, art gallery, cat portrait, Cats in art, fine art

Here’s the finished artwork I was working on in my last blog post art-of-a-peel. I’ve titled it “Purrfecting Happy Hour”.  Now… on to the next painting…

PurrfectingHappyHour72

Purrfecting Happy Hour by Clancy 36 x 24 x 2 inches (h x w x d) Handmade paper and acrylic on cradled board

art of a peel

A Creative Life, animals in art, artist book, cat portrait, Cats in art, creative thinking, drawing as thinking, fine art, sketchbook

I’ve been busy lately working on a new fine art piece that has an orange peel in it. And a cat of course. Here’s a picture of me at work…

ClancyAtWorkPurrHappyHour72.jpg

Between 7 and 14 of us get together once a month for happy hour in one of our local pubs, and the trays of drinks that arrive at our table often reminds me of a jewelers tray. So I’m trying to capture that festive feeling in my painting.

This has meant, as I’ve worked on my composition (the to-scale drawing you see to the right in the above photo), a practice of sketching various drinks in my kitchen sketchbook. I used ink and gouache in my sketchbook – and I’m using acrylic in the painting. Below is the first sketchbook practice drawing; the drink recipe, an orange hot toddy, turned out very well in the real-life tasting of it – the drawing in my sketchbook of the orange-peel didn’t turn out so well.

OrangeToddyBest72

But I remembered the phrase “Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly at first” from my book, Dr. Bob’s Emotional Repair Program First Aid Kit, and kept going.

In other sketchbook pages I tried more orange-peel attempts and here below is the last sketchbook orange-peel drawing – and the drink recipe that I decided to use within the painting.

FlatironMartini72

Below is a close-up photo of the drinks I’ve put in the painting – including the one with the orange peel:

TrayDetail72.jpg

I’ll post a photo of the finished art when its, well, finished – there’s still more to do on the cat.