Posts Tagged ‘painting’
A Painting in Progress
I am putting this one aside for a bit to work on other paintings and to think about how I would like to finish it, but I will be posting the finished product soon.
Yes, I do Commissions!
Here is an example of a commissioned painting that I completed recently. If you are interested in commissioning a piece of fine art from me — perhaps a specific animal, plant, ecosystem, or even pet design — please keep in mind the style and tone of my work. I work on birch plywood and canvas with ink and acrylic paint or on high quality art paper using ink and watercolor, and my pricing is based on size and medium requested. As always, if you are interested or even just curious, send me an email to discuss it. Thanks!
NEW – Whale Prints Available in Society6 Shop
Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve had any art updates to make. Those of you who follow my other blog (Forest and Fin) know that I have been kept super busy with sailing preparations. I still have a project or two on the back burner though, including a couple commissions.
In the meantime, I decided to make one of my panels available for purchase as a slightly smaller print through Society6. The print is 17 x 17 inches (excluding the 2 in. white border) and costs $36.40. It is printed on heavy art paper and looks great in a frame.
Please visit the Lara Neece Art Studio on Society6 for full details and for purchasing.
Thanks!
Time to Move on
south that is. Now that I am officially out of my studio (and it’s actually getting cold), I’m devoting my attention and labors towards the boat to help Brian get her ready to sail again. Right now, he is still sanding and painting the deck, but once that is done, we will need to put all the hardware back on, get the mainsail repaired, get the engine running smoothly, clean, and get organized. We’ll be heading to Hilton Head Island in a few weeks, where we will be able to get hauled out for a few last projects (such as replacing the sea cocks and installing a holding tank – fun right? – and having a mounting system built for the wind generator and solar panel). And then, once that is all finished, we will set sail and begin the great adventure of navigating our way to the FL Keys and on to Central America.
In the meantime, I have an announcement to make: I just delivered my wood panels and t-shirts for exhibition at the Filling Station Gallery in Bluffton, SC. Unfortunately, I don’t have a link for the gallery right now as they are currently revamping their website, but if you are living on or visiting Hilton Head Island please pop in and check it out. The gallery is located on Calhoun Street, and if you make it over there this weekend, you might even catch the Christmas parade. You can check out the last two panels I finished up before I moved out of the studio last weekend. They are pictured below and are already up on the gallery page. I literally finished the big one the last night in between trips to load the car.
I also spent several days printing t-shirts before I left my press and ink supplies at my parents’ house in VA over Thanksgiving. The Young family “sweatshop” helped me iron and take inventory in Hilton Head this week. 
I’m contemplating selling some of them through the blog to help fund the trip. Anyone interested in buying a one-of-a-kind, hand-printed, Forest & Fin tee? The mens’ sea turtle design is printed on various color tees (but mainly blue and gray), and the womens’ osprey design is printed on two colors, black and teal fitted tees (designs pictured below). Please leave a comment or contact me if you are interested in purchasing one; if there is enough interest, I will look into setting something up. Also, here are some pictures of the most recent panels and current boat project.
A Successful Night
Thanks to all who came to my open studio event. We had a great turnout, in fact it was pretty crowded, and Chuck and Andrew put on a great performance. Thank you guys! I also had help from a couple of my other friends, Sarah and Katherine. Thanks to Sarah for helping me hang the show and for hand-making the title tags for my work, and thanks to Katherine for helping me make the food selections and setting up the food and wine. I really had a wonderful time, and it was great to get so much positive feedback on the new work, especially as I prepare to send out graduate school applications. I also sold some t-shirts, prints, drawings, and a wood panel, and now have the opportunity to hang my panels in a gallery in Bluffton while Brian and I are sailing to Central America.
I really couldn’t be happier. I will be posting high quality pictures of the panels in my gallery over the course of the next couple days. My friend Ben Williams of Ben Williams Photography was nice enough to photograph them before the show. For now, here are a few photos that Brian took during the show.
If you bought something at the show, I will be calling each of you to set up a time to pick it up over the course of the next few days. Thanks again for all of the support!
Announcing…
My Open Studio! Friday Nov. 6th from 6:30 – 9:30 pm at Sparks Gallery (12 Hagood Street, Charleston, SC). This is a free event with live music by Chuck Taylor and Andrew Hanson of Mad Cat in the Coffee House (check out a few of Chuck’s songs on his facebook page, my favorite is White Picket Prison). There will be wine and snacks, and possibly some of Daniel McSweeney’s ceramic sculptures on exhibit as well. If you are in the area please stop by, tell or bring your friends, and enjoy; it will be an informal affair with prices ranging from as low as $15 to $500. I will be selling paintings, drawings, screen-prints, and t-shirts (including the wood panels I have been working on, which have not been posted yet). All sales will help fund my sailing trip to Central America in December and hopefully art school next year. Exciting.
So now you know why I have been absent from the blog. Here are some projects I have been working on for the show and a sneak peek of one of my wood panels in progress.
In the Studio: Week 5 (plus a few)
As you have probably noticed, I’ve gotten a little behind on my studio updates, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been productive. I’ve been managing my schedule well and have been spending about six hours a day in there. The big news is that I finished my bee painting. It came along much faster than expected. I actually finished it last week and am already in the midst of a new one that is focusing on ants. I am pushing myself a little bit farther on this new one, spending a great deal more time on the background of the painting. My goal is to work on my perspective and draw the viewer into the painting. We will see how it turns out. I like the concept and layout, but it is proving to be challenging. I’ll take it as a good sign, but expect that it will take a little bit longer than the bees.
Also, over the past few weeks, I finally modified some curtains for the boat (just in time for the weather to turn cooler) and worked on several more pages of my sketchbook. I experimented with watercolor and also worked on some portraiture. I also included some design elements, playing with patterns and shapes within my drawings. In the beginning, I wasn’t sure how these experiments would turn out at all; it had been a very long time since I worked on the human form. Generally I am pleased with the results and had a lot of fun creating them. Expect to see more in the future.
Also, I signed up for a profile on Society6, which is an online artist community that I stumbled upon recently. If you are an artist or illustrator, you should check it out. The site offers a great number of art grants, all of which sound pretty awesome (designing cd cover art, magazine spreads, art zines, etc. for companies as big as Vans and MTV, or other smaller art magazines and publishing companies). Anyway, my webpage is: www.society6.com/laraneeceart/. Most of what you’ll find on my Society6 page has already been posted at some point on the blog.
In about two weeks, I will be starting a five week batik-painting class at Redux Studios. The class only meets once a week, but I think it will be a great way for me to facilitate some creative interactions with some other people and learn a cool new skill. I figured that compared to a college course, this was pretty cheap ($160, all materials included), and I think it will compliment my screen-printing endeavors in the future. If you don’t know what batik painting is, it is a process of dying cloth using wax to create a design. It’s kind of an advanced version of tie dye. A number of saris and beach wraps have been dyed according to the batik process.
In the Studio: Week 2
Brian and I are hopping a plane to the west coast this afternoon, so I wanted to post my studio update early this week. It’s been a short, but productive week. I spent about eight hours in the studio on Monday, five hours on Tuesday, and four hours yesterday. I worked on my sketchbook a little bit more, but more importantly, I started a new painting—and am nearly finished. This is a great sign, and I feel that all the extra time in my studio is paying off. Because I am sketching and color mixing everyday, I’m getting pretty fast at both of these tasks. I feel as though I am gaining confidence and precision. This may even prompt me to make a new studio goal: one painting a week. Judging from this week, I think it is a perfectly obtainable goal. Anyway, I’m off to the studio right now for an hour, to screen-print a tank top to wear on the trip. Hopefully I will get a post in during the trip, if not, then stay tuned for a big update when I get back. Ciao!