April Showers Bring . . . Art Shows!

April is looking like an artsy, busy month! Three art shows, and one plein air event, all in Virginia for a change! The first place I took two paintings, one oil and one pastel, for a show, was the England Run Libray in Fredericksburg, VA. That will be the Virginia Equine Artists Association's Member Show, which runs into May.

"Fire" - pastel

                                          "Dock Dog" - oil, 30"x42"

"Dock Dog" & "Bend in the River I" waiting to find a place on a wall at 

Art at the Mill, in Millwood, VA

Temporary hanging on the weekend when everyone brought their artwork

The second place is Art At The Mill, at the Burwell Morgan Mill, in Millwood, VA. This show, 2016 being the 26th year, runs twice a year, and is a fundraiser for the Clarke County Historical Society. It is an amazing show, with usually about 1,000 pieces of artwork, from 300 artists! April 23-May 8. If you haven't been to Art At The Mill, or to Millwood, you really should try to get there. Millwood is a tiny village, that time has forgotten, right off of Rt. 50, outside Winchester, VA. You can see wonderful artwork, get some wonderful food at The Locke Store, which was built in 1836. You can sit outside the store, or take your amazing food, and wine or beer if you want it, to sit at picnic tables on the gorgeous grounds of the mill.

"Patriotic Truck - oil, 5"x5"

 The third show, is the first show of the Village Artisans of Port Republic, which will be held April 28-May 1 at the newly renovated Town Hall in the middle of the village of Port Republic, VA. This show will highlight artists and artisans, musicians, food and other wonderful things made by people living in the village of Port Republic, or who have Port Republic addresses. We are planning to hold four shows during the year, April, July, October and December, 2016. I will have have paintings there, as well as some fiber art. I will also be playing music with our group, the Countryside Garage Band, on Sunday, May 1, 2:00-4:00. I hope to see you there!

"Fire" - pastel

The last event is another new event, put on by the Beverly Street Studio School in Staunton, VA. They are starting a new plein air painting festival, the 

Queen City Plein Air Festival, April 22-24. There will be many well known artists painting around Staunton, as well as a Quick Draw event, which I will be particiaping in on Friday, April 22. The paintings will be done that day, then offered up for sale. Hope to see you there too!

So, lots going on just in April! Come enjoy our beautiful Shendandoah Valley spring, and some wonderful artwork! 

Burwell Morgan Mill, Millwood, VA

"The Beast" - oil, 16"x20"

Out and About in Virginia

Saturday, May 23, 2015 dawned a gorgeous, blu-sky Virginia day.  Perfect for a wonderful event held in Central Virginiat at Rounton Farm, outside of Orange, VA.  "ARF - Art Round the Farm" was held for the first time as a fundraiser for The Arts Center in Orange, with the theme of dogs.  There were 5 artists invited, myself included, to bring artwork to set up, and do demos.  There were fun contests held for dogs, kids and adults, along with live music, food, a 1-mile walk around the farm, and a great place to be on a Saturday in May.

It was the first time I used my new banner.  I also brought a couple of objects which have images of my artwork on them, such as baseball caps, tote bags, journals and notecards.  This in addition to quite a few of my dog oil paintings, some of the tiny dog paintings on their tiny easels.  It was a fun event, which I will look forward to next year.

New Medium! New Ideas!

I'm working on something a bit different, acrylic mixed media layering. After taking a workshop last year with Roby Artist Robyn Ryan - Ballyryan Studios, on her technique, I have been playing around with my own technique. These are NOT finished. The idea is that you create layers of paint, and mixed media if you choose to, and medium. You can sand back to previous layers, and bring out colors behind colors. I will post more as I get closer to being finished with these.

As you can see in a couple of the photos, the gel medium is put on fairly thickly.  I am playing around with different kinds of mediums, which give the effect of encaustic painting, which is a technique of painting with hot wax.  On the cow, you can see some of the earlier layers showing through.

I hope you enjoy watching how these progress!  Happy Spring!

Hello!  Hope you are staying warm and dry during this cold winter weather.  Spring is on the way, not long now, I can feel it coming!

I have a show, with an art opening, Friday, March 6, 2015/5-8pm at the Spitzer Art Center in Harrisonburg, VA.  The show is the "6x6x30" show, 750 pieces of artwork, created by 27 artists!  It should be a wonderfully unique and exciting show.  I hope you will join us for the opening.  My paintings are all about the area around Harrisonburg and Rockingham County in the Shenandoah Valley of Virgiina.

I am also teaching some classes at the Spitzer Art Center, and I have finished the spring/summer schedule, which I am including here.  Hope to see you soon!

Spitzer Art Center Classes

Spring/Summer 2015

Oil Painting 

Tuesdays, April 7- 28/ 1-3 pm

Acrylic Mixed Media Layering  

Tuesdays, April 7 - 28/ 10am-12pm

Tuesdays, June 9 - 30/ 1-3pm

Paint/Draw The Burg, Plein Air Painting Class

Tuesdays, June 9-30/ 6-8pm

Oil Painting

Tuesdays, May 5-26/10am-12pm

Pastel Painting

Tuesdays, May 5-26/1-3pm

Acrylic Mixed Media Layering

Tuesdays, July 7-28/10am-12pm

Private lessons available.  Contact Elaine Hurst:  elainehurst@mac.com

6x6x30 Exhibition

I was just accepted into a show at the Spitzer Art Center in Harrisonburg, VA, "6x6x30 Show".  This is a show which will have 27 artists, two sets of collaberative art, in which we each create a 6"x6" painting each day for 30 days.  They will all be hung at the Spitzer House at the end of the 30 days, which is for the month of March.  I have some work started, but thought you might like to see some of the panels as I toned them.  All will be toned with Ivory Black oil paint.  I have several ideas which would work well for this, but I am settling on having most of the paintings have something to do with Harrisonburg and/or Rockingham County Virginia.

I've had a long spell of not much painting, and I hope I haven't bitten too much off, but I have done this kind of thing before, and look forward to it.  I'll keep you up on what's happening, even at the end when the show is hung.

Stay tuned!

Out of My Comfort Zone!

Before getting into the content of this blog post, I wanted to say that I have decided to keep this blog going, for now.  I will be posting on my blog through my website, but I hate to lose track of everyone who follows me here. So, enjoy my latest journey in the creative life!

November 8-9 I drove to Fredericksburg, Virginia for a workshop taught by fellow Virginia Equine Artist, Robyn Ryan.  This workshop was not a part of the VEAA, but rather a workshop help at Backdoor Gallery in Fredericksburg, focusing on acrylic painting with mixed media and layering.  WAY out of my comfort zone and anything I had done before, artisitcally speaking.  Robyn is a fantastic teacher, with lots of energy, and well organized so you always knew what was happening.  We played with color, shape, line, and all sorts of mixed media in with the acrylic paints.  

The idea is that you work on a different aspect of  your painting, separating them with gel medium.  Once you seal it with gel, it is there, but before that, you can sand, scrape, use rubbing alcohol, and anything else you can think of to work on your painting.  The layers give your work a depth, and way of seeing the layers that go before, plus, is a blast to do!  I don't know that I totally understood it all while we were there, but it gave me some ideas to play with.

I had wanted to do something totally different to get "out of the rut" I was in, as well as spice up my oil paintings.  I came home and started playing with my pastels and the gel.  More on that later.  

Change of Blog Address

Hello!  I am trying to combine, and simplify my website, blog, newsletter, and everything, by putting them into one place.  I have joined the Fine Art Studio Online, FASO.  If you go to my website, you can now sign up for my blog there, as well as sign up for my newsletter, which will be going out once a month.  You will still be able to receive my blogs through your email, as well as my newsletter, through your email.  I'm sorry if this causes anyone any problems.  If you would like to ask me about any of these changes, please let me know.  Thank you so much for your help!

That's My Dog! Art Show, You're Invited!

I have a show coming up for the month of October, to be held in the Spitzer Art Center, in Harrisonburg, Virginia.  There will be an opening, on Friday, October 3, from 5:00 - 8:00 pm, which also coincides with Harrisonburg's First Friday events.

Last year I put out a request for people to send me photos of their dogs, to be used as a group of paintings, of, you guessed it, dogs!  I have so far used almost all the photos I was sent, plus our own dogs, and friends' dogs.  Some of the dogs I haven't gotten to yet, will still be done, and will probably go over to the Arts Center in Orange, or another gallery, in November.

I hope I will see some of you at the opening.  You can also stop by the Spitzer Art Center on Saturdays during October to see the show.  Enjoy!

Changes, and Entries

"The Groom" - oil on canvas, 11"x14", sold

I have been making some changes, when it comes to my website, and how I look at marketing.  I have changed my website to Fine Art Studio Online (FASO), www.elainehurst.com.  I changed partly, or really mostly, because of the exposure that using this site can give you.  

One perk to the FASOsite is that it makes it easy to enter several online contests, and provides various forums for getting your work out to the public.  So, I took the bull by the horns and also entered two online painting competitions, The Bold Brush Painting Competition, which I would love if you went to, and voted for my painting.  I also entered the Raymar Art 8th Annual Fine Art Contest.  I don't think you can vote for this one.  They have their own judges.  But I would be honored if you would keep up with it, to see how things go.

Through the new site they have a blog, which I will see whether I want to move this blog to it, or just link to this one.  But, I will let you know when, and if that happens.  

Cheers!

New Gallery!

"Walkies" - 16"x20" oil

I will be sending several paintings to a new gallery,  The StableWoman Habit for me, in 

Geneva, Illinois.  The gallery also has a great Face Book page.  They are located, one hour from Chicago, in a historic shopping district with a wonderful arts and equine community in the area.  I will be sending them a variety of sizes of paintings.  If you happen to be in Geneva, Illinois, stop in to see all the great things happening at The StableWoman Habit.  I look forward to working with this new group.

Small Dog Paintings

Yes, it has been a while since I posted.  Due to various health related things, especially surgery for a torn rotator cuff tendon, I've had to side-line my painting.  I was able to do som small paintings from the reference photos people have been gracious enough to send me.  I haven't been able to paint all of them yet.  But I will as soon as things heal.

I did take five paintings, four 6" x 6"paintings in 4" wood frames, and one 5" x 5" painting in a 4.5" ornate frame, to a new, fun store for dogs and their people, Blue Ridge Dog.  This great new store is in historic downtown Harrisonburg, VA.  If you're in town, stop in.  I am able to do small paintings for Christmas, up until

Corgi Time

JJ

Oil on 5"x5" board

I have several images of each dog, and I will be using different poses and sizes of boards and canvases. Right now, I'm in a small painting board time.   This little fuzzy guy has a quite regal look to him I think.  Maybe he knows his cousins live with the Queen.

Dog Portraits Started

Belle

Oil on 5"x5" board

I started some of the dog paintings I have been collecting reference photographs for.  This one is of our Bernese Mountain Dog, Belle.  She has got to be the happiest, and most patient dog in the world.  Not sure if I like the eyes in this one, but I enjoyed the pose.  It is all Belle.

Dog Reference Photographs Wanted!

Back to the Blog!

I haven't been very diligent about my blog posting for some time.  I apologize for that, and I am trying to do better.  I've been through some health issues which sapped a lot of energy f and my blog was swept up into the pile of things left undone.

Still not a huge amount of energy, but I am trying to get myself back into a certain schedule of work.

I did participate in an annual event put on by the Blue Ridge Fall Races Foundation.  They raise funds for various charities in their area.  In the past the event was held at private farms, which made for wonderful locations to put up art booths.  Many years we, as the Virginia Equine Artists Association, have had several members participating.  This year it was only me.  There is always a nice meal, good music, and an auction.  This year they auctioned off one of my paintings, which sold for $1,400, and was then donated back to the cancer center which is working to build a new building at the Winchester Medical Center.

On top of that, I sold three paintings, which made for a nice evening.

Happy Mid-Summer to everyone!

Back to Blogging

Westminster Canterberry Show

Charlottesville, Virginia

I have really been AWOL from my blog for a long time.  But, I'm back.  Not that I haven't had things to post, just other things going on.  Last week I drove over to Charlottesville to hang my half of an equine art show at the Westminster Canterberry Retirement of the Blue Ridge.  The other artist is a wonderful photographer, Susan Carter.  The folks at Westminster Canterberry were wonderfully helpful in hanging artwork.  The show will be open through the end of March and is open to the public.

I am working on several paintings for the Montpelier Hunt Race Poster Contest.  We'll see how that goes.  I have four different compositions ready.  The first one I started out way too tight, and that ended up being a wiper.  Started it over and redid the whole composition, of which I am pretty happy.  I thought about posting it in progress, but it is certainly in an ugly stage, so I'll wait until I'm a bit further along.

Spring is coming!

New Look

I am trying out some new looks to my blog.  I would really appreciate comments on what you think.  This is a more interactive template for the blog, what do you think?  Leave your comments so I know how you feel about various ways of viewing a blog.  Thank you!

Summer Commission

Oil, 16"x20" on panel commission

Here is the final summer commission.  This was a fun commission that involved a lot of different components that had to work together.  I am pleased with the result, and the painting is at the framer's right now.  I'm looking forward to seeing it hanging at its new home.

Sailing Away on Something Different

Oil paintings on 8"x8" Gallery-Wrap Canvases

Commission

Here is another commission that came my way from a Sunfish sailboat enthusist from Texas.  These small, 8"x8" canvases were fun to paint.  They have 2 inch gallery-wrap sides, so they are hefty little guys.  The woman wanting the commission really wanted the sunset and reflections to say color!  I can't wait to see a photo of them hanging on her navy blue walls in Texas!  It will be interesting to see how she decides to arrnage them.  Sail-on!

Commissions - Something Different

Oil commission from black and white wedding photograph

Logo design

I have been working on several different commissions this summer.  Some of them have been very different from what I am normally working on.  I am posting two of them here, more to come.  The top painting is done in oils, and was done as an anniversary gift.  I painted it from a 1950's black and white wedding photograph.  Very different, in that it is more representational than much of my work, and of course centers around the figures.  Fun to do!  The second one here, is a logo design that I created for a natural horsemanship equestrian center in Sweden.  I met the wonderful owners at a Parelli course one of our daughters was taking a couple years ago, in Florida.  The bottom one is the final design they chose.   Check out the lovely Swedish scenes, and what Lina and her mother, Åsa, are up to, Dalpraktken Sweden