Kickstarter Newsletter

My Kickstarter project is now live and I'm off to a great start (thanks to all my art angels)! I explain my project and why I chose to create it in my newsletter (it's pretty). If you'd like to sign up to have it delivered to your inbox, there's a link in tabs to the right. For now, here's a direct link to the online version here.

And here's a link that will take you directly to my Kickstarter page. You'll also see a video of myself in my studio as I explain the project. If any of you would like to make a pledge toward my project, there are rewards. And mountains of gratitude!

Hugs,
Sharon

Kickstarter

I have some big ideas in mind for the future. I mean BIG which also means expensive to produce. These would be projects on the level of my experimental piece Diagonal. Accomplishing these ambitious efforts requires some creativity in the logistics of funding which led me to explore Kickstarter. My first attempt to familiarize myself with this platform will be with a much smaller project.

One of the requirements of Kickstarter is to create a short video presentation describing the project and why I'm seeking funding. Perusing other artistic project videos I'm confronted with some that are very, very professional. Cool music, integrated graphics, well-scripted and slick -  I'm intimidated. My video? Michael shoots with our modest camera perched on a walking stick for stability while his other hand holds a cue card taped to a stretcher bar. We tried to have background music but I  struggled with this so much that I thought it was a distraction.

Okay, so it took 11 tries and it's still crude. But it makes a case for myself and my artwork and not for an app to send someone a flaming bag of poop (yes, really).

Take three...

Seriously,
Sharon

Back to Basics

After spending the last several months experimenting with different subject matter, I'm delighted to return to the loyal and patient muse. Don't get me wrong, my foray into street scenes, ocean, snow and a bit of plein air has been a welcome change - reassuring my brain that it can still concentrate with dogged focus and even learn a few new tricks.

It was a return to the basics of value and perspective. My equine paintings are closely cropped into somewhat abstract compositions. Spatially, here's limited depth of field and the angles are as unorthodox as I can convincingly portray. It's difficult to choose a focal point when the entire surface is so in-your-face.

My artist friend Robert Stebleton generously sent me a cd of images that he scanned from one of his Richard Schmid landscape books. I drooled over these paintings. And I stared at them for hours. What impressed me the most was Schmid's simplification of some very complex masses and his suggestion to perceive these areas as patterns. Also noteworthy is his effective technique with edges, something I really need to work on.

It will be interesting to see if my return to a large-scale, motion-infused canvas will be affected by the time spent painting scenes that were definitely outside my comfort zone.

7'x5' canvas with preliminary charcoal sketch and color washes.

I think it will.
Sharon