Gregory Alan Isakov

 

It is always a gift to discover new music and when I found the music of Gregory Alan Isakov while living in Colorado, I knew I would be a devoted listener for a lifetime.  It was his album This Empty Northern Hemishere that lulled me off to sleep every night for six months during an intensive season of insomnia.  The soothing opening with Dandelion Wine worked every time and off to sleep I would drift.  I listened to that album in the car and in the studio and while cooking dinner.  It quickly became an all time favorite. 

I didn't think he could make an album that I would love as much as This Empty Northern Hemisphere, but when Appaloosa Bones came out, it was that album that became a go-to for me.  He came to Wichita, Kansas to play with his amazing band last February and I will never forget the experience of hearing all the songs so familiar to me spilling off the stage in layers of gorgeous sound.  

This video featuring the song The Fall which is the opening song on Appaloosa Bones, is so artistic and inspiring.  I hope you will enjoy it.  

Another Video Creation

 

Creating short and entertaining videos has been a thing I do for many years now.  I watch a lot of YouTube videos myself at night just before going to sleep.  They say the computer screen lights are not a good thing as it can disrupt your sleep, but it has never seemed to bother me.  I love to watch videos on art, interior design, but especially on quiet living, minimalism, or living with intention.  It often inspires me to take the thousands of videos and photos I take while out and about and put them to good use.  Like using them to make this little video.  It is about a two minute nature walk through one of our local parks here in Kansas.  

If you are a YouTube subscriber, you can find my channel under Lisa Graham Art.  I post new videos periodically on painting, drawing, hiking, and lifestyle.  I would love it if you subscribe to my humble little channel.

Until next time.

Small Paintings and a How the Finding Faith Project is Going

Wendy With a Watering Can
oil on panel 6 x 6 inch
(sold)

 You can probably tell from my color palette that I am excited Spring has arrived.  I've been very busy in the flowerbeds cleaning them out, digging and planting.  Mud on my shoes makes me happy.  I was outside from 10 am to 9 pm yesterday, so obviously the progress on my next Finding Faith painting is moving along VERY slowly.  I did these small paintings over the last three weeks or so.  I am loving oil paints right now and vibrant colors.  I am working on new ways to paint flowers...always a challenge for me.

Flower Pitcher
oil on panel 5 x 7 inch
(sold)

Ella
oil on panel 5 x 7 inch

Striped Pitcher
oil on panel 5 x 7 inch

Here's a little teaser from the next Finding Faith video (the music you hear in this snippet will not be a part of it).  The photos and video turned out great and the 30 x 24 inch painting is coming along.  It might be another couple of weeks before I am done.  If you have no idea what the Finding Faith project is click HERE.

I invite you to follow my other social media sites as that is where I spend most of my online time these days.  Click on the links:
Instagram
Facebook

I wish you all a joyful end of the week!  

♥ Lisa

Bugs, Shirts, and What My Gallery Space Looks Like

Caterpillar
mixed media on cradled wood
4 x 6 inch
(sold)

This has been a blazing and creative week.  I worked on a small commission piece for a friend and painted small works to take to the gallery for Final Friday tonight.  Caterpillar and Ladybug are two of those small works.

Ladybug
mixed media on cradled wood
4 x 6 inch
(sold)

Creme Shirts One, Two, Three
and Four
(sold)

I worked a lot in my sketchbooks last week and several of my pages were simply clothing.  I loved painting them so much, I decided to do a small series of shirts, which also went to the gallery.  You will likely see more of these.  

my space at Tessera Fine Art Gallery

Tonight is Final Friday here in Wichita and this is what my space looks like as I type this.  Readings at the Dusty Bookshelf  (upper right and photo below) has a new frame.  It was in a black frame, but I like this one better.

Readings at the Dusty Bookshelf in a new frame.


I painted Readings...nearly three years ago, but it stayed in our home for quite some time before I first showed it anywhere.  It was inspired by a really atmospheric bookstore called The Dusty Bookshelf in Manhattan, Kansas.  My only regret about this painting is that I didn't paint the store cat that lives there.  Truth be told, I never even thought of it.  Atmosphere was my ultimate focus at the time I painted it.

detail

I am still on a mission painting faces.  I have a new project in mind which I will share more with you as things unfold.  This was what actually took most of my time this week!  Let's just say the words technical difficulties and leave it at that for now. :)

Happy weekend to you all and thank you tons for all your comments on Between Green Thread and Broccoli in the last post.  Your positive feedback made me so happy.  

♥ Lisa

Tahmoor's Table: the Inspiration, the Process and the Changed Face

Tahmoor's Table
mixed media on cradled panel
16 x 20 inch

Last month I did a series of very small paintings inspired by Picasso.  I decided to do a larger painting of the one I called "Amy" because I loved the posture or pose of her which was quite exaggerated in comparison to Picasso's "The Ascetic", where the whole concept came from.

After beginning my larger painting, the blank space behind her seemed too big and too plain.  I considered many options like a window or just a simple pattern, and when I saw Carolyn Plochmann's lace cover in her painting "Something Finely Made" I knew a lace curtain was what I wanted to do.  It offered the challenge of trying something new (painting lace) and also provided the background I was looking for.

I used molding paste to create the larger flowers you see in the lace and when they were just too bumpy, I sanded them down quite a bit.  I used acrylic paint and colored pencils and ink washes to achieve the look and was pretty happy with the result.

detail

 On the table I used some loosely-done fracturing marks I learned from Julie Ford Oliver's online tutorial and workshop.  I loved how it created movement all over the tabletop.

The bird was more hallow and ghostly-looking at first.  I had planned to leave it that way, but once I started to think of a name for the piece I stumbled onto some interesting knowledge.  I was searching for names that begin with "T" since "T...'s Table" seemed an appropriate name for the piece.  When reading about the name "Tahmoor" I read that its origin came from the Bronzewing Pigeon which are a group of pigeons native to Australia.  So I added some color to the wing and changed the beak to make it look more like a Bronzewing, and now the name Tahmoor was perfect!   How's that for a complicated, round about way of naming a painting?  Whoever said being an artist was simple?  :)

detail

The flowers were a happy turnout as well.  I think painting flowers can be difficult and I am ever-searching for new ways to paint them.  These were at first big blue blobs and they looked like Dr. Seuss' Truffula Trees.  But after playing around with some chunky brushstrokes, the result was exactly the happy flower I had in mind.  I mixed a lot of gel medium into the paint to give it a nice, buttery texture.

detail

The trickiest part was her face.  I am trying to get away from hard lines and my figures tend to have them, especially around the nose, eyes and brow.  There isn't anything wrong with hard lines really, I just want to learn and explore more with with how I paint faces on my characters. After conversing with Julie about my dilemma, she suggested I look at photos converted to black and white in order to discover value changes.  I looked at a lot of art online this way and then put my own painted face in black and white to see the "trouble areas", then went from there.  I used a lot of light skin tones to sort of smoosh out the hard lines and that did it.  It transformed her face by flattening the bridge of her nose and making the eyes quite smaller, but that was okay with me.  

Here's the original face in color...

close up of previous face with harder lines

And here they are side by side in black and white.  You can see a lot more light and dark contrasts in the original face vs the final outcome, especially if you squint.  A brilliant suggestion on Julie's part.  I had heard this suggestion before, but never took the time to do it.  

in black and white
Left:  before  Right:  after

I began painting faces in my sketchbook this week  and also started a new 16 x 20 inch painting.   I can tell you quite honestly, that painting and drawing faces with hard lines is deeply ingrained in me.  It just comes so naturally to do them that way, so I don't know if I will ever be able to change it without A LOT of practice and effort on my part.  Plus, I am not 100% sure I want to change when I look at the before and after side by side.   The "before" face feels a little more like "home" to me.  More comfortable.  More familiar.  That feels silly to say, but do you know what I mean?  I have been thinking a lot about this lately, on whether or not to tweak my style a bit or to just not worry about it and paint away.  To me, tweaking means growing as an artist and I definitely want to grow.  What do you think?

I am babbling now, so off I go to paint more faces.  Who knows what will come next?

Thank you SO much for all your wonderful comments in the last post about my show at City Arts.  It's still up and running until February 20 and I've had a lot of great feedback on the show.  If you live in Wichita or close, I hope you will get by to see it!

Happy Weekend everyone!

♥ Lisa

Various Narratives Show at City Arts

Last Fall my painting They Call it Connection Cafe was accepted into the Arts Council Annual Juried Art Show at City Arts here in Wichita.  Shortly after the opening night I received an invitation to show in the Main Hall Gallery for the Final Friday art crawl in January which opened last night.  The new and beautifully renovated space, gorgeous weather, and four diverse art shows brought a huge crowd with a lot of fun energy.

Various Narratives from left to right:  Releve',
The Backyard Bench, Reading Space,
On the Way to Afternoon Tea

These are a few of my ten paintings on display, all various in sizes and mediums.  On the Way to Afternoon Tea has a new home and all the praise and kind words were enough to keep me painting for quite a while.

I want to thank those that came out last night, it was so fun visiting with you!  And a HUGE thank you to the staff at City Arts for all the hard work. You all make such a great team. The show was beautifully displayed!

And blog friends...see you in a week or so...I am painting like a maniac these days and I will have some new work to show you very soon.  Thank you for your wonderful comments and your supportive words as always!

See you soon!

♥ Lisa

They Call it Connection Cafe

They Call it Connection Cafe
mixed media on canvas 20 x 20 inch

This painting is one of my newest and was inspired by those wonderful one-on-one chats that we have with friends or family...those soulful talks that leave an impression.  I'm sure we've all had them, both men and women and I find myself rather grateful for them.

 I am happy to announce this work was recently accepted into the Arts Council Annual Juried Art Show at City Arts here in Wichita, Kansas. You can read about the show here if you are interested.  The opening is tomorrow night and I plan to be there.

This is special because this is my first time entering a juried show and I am so honored to be in the mix of a lot of really talented artists.

Hope you're weekend to come is a great one.  Thanks as always for following my art.

Spending the Week With Julie

Julie Ford Oliver
teaching at Tessera Fine Art Gallery
Wichita, Kansas

What an amazing week it was spent with my dear friend and artist Julie Ford Oliver.  She arrived safely in Wichita last Monday, and a whirlwind of fun, laughter and learning started the second she stepped off the plane.  We did so much during the week and I will try to just highlight our week for you.

Julie Ford Oliver teaching her fracturing technique
Tessera Fine Art Gallery in Wichita, KS

 The fracturing workshop was a big hit with all the artists that attended.  Many were there with the hopes to loosen up on their technique and Julie's fracturing helps do just that.  Most were working with oil paints, but there were two artists that worked in acrylic.  We were mesmerized watching Julie paint her demos and truly in awe of her natural knack for color.  She made it all look so easy, but it really isn't.  I was glad we had three days to work at it.  

Julie making the rounds with each artist
Tessera Fine Art Gallery in Wichita, KS

 We spent time at our easels and Julie made the rounds to help us along.  She limits the number of attendees in her workshops for this very reason.  It's important to her to give individual attention so that everyone can walk away feeling they have really learned something.  Her teaching spirit was such a gift to all of us.

Lunch break

 The class went from 9 am to 4 pm for three days...though we went later every single day.  We took much-needed lunch breaks each day.  It is exhausting to engage your mind in such a way for so long.

Our class minus two

There were eight students one day and seven the other days of the workshop...one student could not attend all three days.  We had a blast together and of course everyone adored Julie like I do.  

cup
oil on canvas
about 5 x 7

 We all painted an imaginary cup using the fracturing technique.  I lost my fracturing lines in this one, but I was happy with the colors.

backyard
oil on canvas panel
9 x 12 inch

 We each also brought an old painting that we wanted to fix.  My backyard painting was the first painting I ever did in oil.  I worked on it for a while, but it still is not finished.

rose
oil on panel
6 x 6 inch

   Julie advised all of us to "stop right there!"  at one point or another on our paintings...some listened...some didn't.  There was a point when this rose looked better and Julie advised me to stop.  But being the poor listener that I am, I just kept on painting and almost ruined it completely. 

vase of flowers
oil on panel
6 x 8 inch

 I listened on my vase of flowers.  :)

river scene
oil on panel

 The above painting was done on a panel primed with bright pink.  Julie gave us all pink panels to paint on and the exercise was to allow some of the pink to show through.    It's a pretty neat effect.  Who would have thought?

 living room
oil on panel
6 x 8 inch

My living room painting was my favorite of all the paintings I did during the workshop.  I love that you can see the fracturing in it and the light in the windows turned out well.  Values are something I am working on right now, and Julie is big on values.  It is very evident in her work.  

Flint Hills
Kansas
photo taken by Julie Ford Oliver

 The workshop filled the bulk of Julie's visit, but there was time to play also.  One afternoon we took the 1 1/2 hour drive on highway 177 to the Flint Hills.  Julie said it looked a lot like parts of England, which is where she is from.  We saw the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve which is the only national park in Kansas.  On the way we stopped near Matfield Green (population 47!) and looked at all the wildflowers blooming.  We saw beautiful farms, barns, bridges, buildings and even saw a cowboy rounding up cattle.  It was a real day in Kansas for sure...filled with green grass and big blue skies.  Then we finished the day with dinner at the Grand Central Hotel in Cottonwood Falls.

Wichita Wagonmaster tour boat on the Arkansas River

  Julie's visit was during Wichita's annual Riverfest so we saw the tour boat going back and forth one evening as we walked.  We watched a couple of movies too...About a Boy and Miss Potter.

sunset near the Arkansas River
Wichita

For those of you that already know Julie, it won't surprise you that a sunset like this one makes her pretty happy.

Me and Julie
on our last evening

 We really had such a beautiful week, and I don't feel like I've done it justice in my writings here.  Julie has an abundance of energy like me, so we click together very well.  I loved learning from her and listening to her stories about art and life during the week.   She has a wealth of information and knowledge tucked into her pretty head.    My only complaint about the week is that it went way too fast!

I am so grateful for Julie coming to visit us, and for teaching her workshop here in Wichita.  It was a gift to have her here and I know I speak on behalf of everyone else in the class.  They are already talking about her coming back.

I hope you all are well.  I will probably take a break from blogging.  There are paintings dancing in my head and I need to focus for a while.  I will still try to pay some visits as I am long overdue to see what you have been up to.

Happiness to all of you!

♥ Lisa

Guess Who's Coming to Wichita

watercolor on yupo

Last year you may remember that I took a trip to visit Julie Ford Oliver in her hometown of Las Cruces, New Mexico.  It was a very special time spent with her...a time of friendship, art and healing for me as I had just lost my mother.  During my visit, I invited her to Kansas any time she could make the trip and today she arrives here in Wichita!  I have been so excited about her visit, I just cannot express how much!!  During her stay, she will also be teaching her amazing and sought after fracturing technique at a three day workshop located in the classroom at Tessera Fine Art Gallery.  The class filled up right away of course and everyone is really looking forward to it.  

I cannot wait to see this beautiful person again...her arrival is literally hours away so I had better sign off and do some tidying up around the house.  I will post about our week after she leaves on Saturday.  Have a great week everyone!  

Julie Ford Oliver
2014

Rooms Exhibition at City Arts and a Peek at a WIP

Yesterday I delivered nine framed paintings to City Arts for my exhibit there.  I have so many figures in rooms now so Rooms seemed like the perfect title. 

These are all the paintings that went.  You probably recognize some of them.  They don't look so good against that busy rug, but you get the idea.

WIP detail

I started a 16 x 20 inch mixed media painting late last week.  It's very slow-going because there are four figures and a lot of little details.  Hopefully I will finish it this week.  

Hope you're having a great week!

The Difficulties of Painting on Wood: A Look at the 2nd WIP

The title of this blog post should actually say "The Difficulties of Being Self Taught".  This is my second large acrylic painting on a 24x48 inch piece of wood.  I am not sure what type of wood it is, but it is definitely not that wonderful birch I painting on in the last post.  Live and learn.  This wood is so much more porous and getting coverage is really really really taking a lot of paint.  I put gesso down prior, but it probably would have taken a gallon of it to cover this wood properly.

I like the overall composition and the colors, but there are so many things I don't like and I am not really sure how to fix them without just painting certain parts over.

 I am okay with the way her face turned out...the shading is difficult, but this is nothing new for me.  What is annoying is that line you see by her left eye which I believe is from the wood grain.  I didn't even notice it until I took the photo.  The only way to change this is more coverage and I think it would take a lot of paint and then I would lose what I have.  Also, I can't figure out why there is so much glare?  Is it the acrylic paints?

 This is the floor...TOO RAW...but I have no clue how to make it better or to finish it.  I thought about painting borders around the squares in kind of a Klimt-ish style...but then it would tighten the work and I am trying to loosen up.

And her hands are too small.  If I paint larger hands I think I would have to entirely change the mattress and you would not believe the amount of time it took to get it to the point it's at.  It was a white blob for a long time and now at least it sort of looks like a mattress.

I am seeing now that this is why they say an artist should draw, draw, draw.  If you do this you have a much better chance at having proportionally correct hands and mattress edges.  :)

In a nutshell I need to decide if it's finished. Should I leave it raw looking and accept that it is likely the wood that is my problem (if it is a problem) ...or does it really NEED more and I will just have to risk losing the things I DO like about it and keep on painting it.   It may be a while before I decide either way.

♥ Lisa

PS:  Look what we got here in Wichita, Kansas!  We set some records...second largest snowfall from a single storm in recorded history...over 14 inches!  I leave you with a few images of our winter wonderland.  Even though most of us are feeling ready for Spring, it is hard to deny the beauty of snow and the fun it brings, especially to an area of the world that sees so little of it.

Our cat Bean leading the way for Hurley through tire tracks. Bean is the more seasoned pet of the two.

View from my studio window

Female Cardinal

Male and female Cardinals

Hurley our Golden Retriever... and his nose

After shoveling, shoveling, shoveling...I tried my hand at sculpting. Not bad, eh?