Advertisements

Tag Archives: realist art

Don’t Let Your Lemons Get In A Twist

29 Friday Sep 2017

Posted by in art, humor, mental health, painting, Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Whoooooo, it has been a week, y’all. A serious week. I got my lazy ass in gear and worked out on Monday (by which I mean that I did zumba with no music with my friend in her living room), and then looked at some commercial real estate. I had lunch with a friend that I hadn’t seen in almost a year, and then looked at more commercial real estate on Tuesday. Wednesday, I drove over to a little nothing town in the middle on NC to test-ride a couple horses with my mom (who is looking to buy for herself), then she and S and I spent the night in Winston-Salem, my old stomping grounds. Who’s a giant ball of pain now? This girl!!! But it was totally worth it because I haven’t gotten to horseback ride in about 6 years, and, assuming the horse passes the vet check, we found my mom a new buddy. On Thursday, we went to a Georgia O’Keefe exhibit, then visited my paintings on the Wake Forest University campus, had a little lunch, and came back home. And then spent the rest of the evening discussing a game plan regarding the commercial real estate we looked at on Tuesday. Really, we’ve been doing pretty much nothing but discussing real estate for the last month or so. And I am worn out. This brain? It’s actually just a matzo ball by now. Or maybe a dumpling. Either way, it’s soft and soupy and not much of a thinker. I needed a break.

So I spent the day painting, then napping, then painting, then napping, then painting some more. Turns out, painting actually requires thought, damnit. Who knew? It’s exhausting. But I was able to listen to podcasts while I painted and finally not think about real estate for a minute and a half. Ahhhhhhhhh. And now, I present the fruits of my labor:

Lemon Twist I

Lemon Twist I 5″ x 5″ oil on canvas

Get it?!! Fruits of my labor? Admit it, you kinda sorta secretly liked that pun, didn’t you? Anyway, this is actually one of 2 lemon paintings I worked on today. Hopefully the other, which is significantly larger, will be done in the next week or so. If you like this one, you can buy it on my website at https://shop.emilypageart.com/t/realist-works or get prints or other fun thingsies here and here.

And one more thing: today would have been my parents’ anniversary. They need to come up with a way of acknowledging occasions like this, when it’s no longer happy. Saying “Happy Anniversary,” seems inappropriate now that my dad is dead, but I still want to let my mom know that I’m thinking of her, and them, and marking this day in some way. So maybe we need to come up with a phrase like, “Marking Anniversary,” or “Acknowledging Anniversary,” or “Nostalgic Anniversary,” or “I Really Love You And Know This Day Might Be Hard But I’m Still Kinda Sorta Celebrating Your Marriage.” Or something. So Mom, when you read this, pick which ever of those phrases you like best. Love you.

Advertisements

Low Hanging Apple

24 Sunday Sep 2017

Posted by in art, painting, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Remember how I had a dream that I did a series of paintings and called them “Low Hanging Fruit” and then, instead of being a normal human, I got up and sketched several? Well, here’s the second one, fresh off the easel.

Low Hanging Apple.JPG

Low Hanging Apple 6″ x 6″ oil on board 

 

The original is for sale here, and you can get prints and things here.

Trumpet in Red

19 Tuesday Sep 2017

Posted by in art, culture, humor, music, painting, Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I finally managed to organize my studio enough to paint again. It still has a ways to go as I try to find places to store all the crap I brought home when we closed the paint and sip studio, but at least there’s enough table top/easel space to do a little arting. And since it’s International Talk Like a Pirate Day, I thought I’d make today’s post about “arrrrrrrrrrrt.” You’re welcome for that.

I’ve been working on this painting for over a year, and by “working on this painting,” I mostly mean it’s been glaring at me accusingly for long stretches of time while I avoid making eye contact with it. It’s the largest piece I’ve done that is this detailed (and at 16″ x 20″ it’s not even that big, but still), and it was not a happy process for me. Too many straight lines and confusing reflections. Too much thinking required. But I finally took a couple days and powered through and finished the asshole. And now we’re besties. It’s been sitting happily on my easel for a couple days drying and cooing at me and telling me how grateful it is that I finished it.

Trumpet in Red_compressed

Trumpet in Red 16″ x 20″ oil on board 

But all that cooing is starting to get on my nerves ever so slightly. So maybe someone should buy it, like, right now. You can do so here. You can also get prints and other fun stuff here and here.

Fiddle Quartet

04 Friday Aug 2017

Posted by in art, music, painting, Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Awhile back I posted a series of paintings of a friend’s fiddle.  It’s seen a lot of wear and tear, which gives it so much character. I love the scars that document the roadmap of its time in the world. It’s a good reminder that all the bumps and bruises we all accumulate along the way are the things that set us apart, and they don’t make us any less beautiful.

I decided to put the four paintings together as a print, which is now available here on a variety of products.

Fiddle Quartet.jpg

Electric Guitar in Blue

28 Tuesday Mar 2017

Posted by in art, music, painting, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Along with starting some new paintings, I finished up another painting over the last couple days. I’ve never been all that enamored of guitars, but I sure love a few guitar players who’ve been incredibly generous with their talent and time. Decided to paint a guitar in their honor:

Electric Guitar in Blue.JPG

Electric Guitar in Blue 10″ x 10″ oil on board $300

It was a little bit of a nightmare to paint because of all the straight lines <damn you, guitar strings and frets> but I managed to complete it. Original available here. Prints available here.

***********************************************************************

Thanks so much for reading my ridiculous thoughts! If you’d like to see my ridiculous thoughts translated into art, visit my website, or follow me on Facebook and Twitter. Know a caregiver, or someone with dementia, or someone who knows someone with dementia, or someone who knows someone who knows someone else who’s a caregiver? Or heck, do you know a person? Well, you should tell them about my book, Fractured Memories: Because Demented People Need Love, Too. Part memoir and part coffee table art book, I recount my family’s heartbreaking and hilarious journey through my father’s dementia. Available to purchase here (this is my favorite way if you live in the U.S.), here or here if you’d rather get the eBook than a print copy, and here (especially if you want a hard cover copy).

book-cover-1

Gilding the Lily

08 Thursday Dec 2016

Posted by in painting, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This painting is actually one I’ve just reworked. While it was a nice enough image before, the original background was doing nothing for it, so I played around with it a little, and now have a painting I’m happy with. I didn’t play with the flower itself because it seemed fine as it was. No gilding the lily, there.

I love the smell of lilies and, periodically, my husband will buy some to keep in the bedroom (away from the cats who could be poisoned if they decided to munch on them) to make the room smell wonderful. The downside is that the orange stamen stain everything as they fall.

Lily.jpg

Lily 4.5″ x 8″ oil on board $150

 

The painting is available at http://shop.emilypageart.com/t/realist-works.

Compartments

07 Wednesday Dec 2016

Posted by in art, death, painting, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hot off the press, or rather, the easel: I give you what will most likely be the first in a series called Compartments. I dreamed this painting (something I very rarely do), and woke up the next day and went hunting for a wooden shelf like this. I actually found two, the first with a wooden back to it that I’ll use for other paintings, and the second with a metal back like you see in the painting below. The rocks are primarily ones that I found on the beach at Hyannis Port, MA where my grandparents lived and where we scattered some of my dad’s ashes. The bottom rock came from Canada.

compartments

Compartments 12″ x 16″ oil on board $400

The original painting is available at http://shop.emilypageart.com/t/realist-works.

The Photo Vs. The Painting

09 Wednesday Nov 2016

Posted by in art, painting, Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Since I posted about how I often have to work from crummy photos (here and here), I thought you might enjoy seeing some of the photos next to the paintings to see what I mean. I’m sometimes left guessing. Other times, I guess and then ignore what the photo is showing me to make a bolder choice. Simply making easy changes like background color can completely alter the feel of a image, as can pushing the contrast between your highlights and shadows. I view the photos as a jumping off point. It’s good for reference, but I’m not bound to it (which is good since the photos are often pretty bad in the first place).First up is the Avocado and Cherry Tomatoes:

avocados 3.jpg

The crummy photo

Avocado and Cherry Tomatoes

The awesome painting (I say very humbly)

Next is a garlic one:

garlic 10.jpg

Garlic III

And then some garlic cloves:

garlic cloves.jpg

Garlic cloves.jpg

And piano pedals:

DSC_0069.JPG

piano-pedals

And, finally, the hanging bottles painting:

bottles 1.JPG

hanging-bottles

I Want To Ride My Bicycle, I Want To Ride My Biiiiiike

03 Thursday Nov 2016

Posted by in art, painting, Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Now that I’ve put that song in your head (picture me laughing maniacally here), guess what? I just completed a new painting! I haven’t had nearly as much painting time lately as I’d like, but a friend had commissioned a painting of a bicycle so I had to get my rear in gear (get it, gear, like, a bike has…oh never mind, that was a terrible joke) and get it done. As you all well know, I’m a masochist and I always choose the worst things to paint: metal, water, tiny-veined plants, and straight lines. This covered two out of four, so I was kind of cursing myself for being too ambitious, but after a lot of playing with it, I’m happy with the final result. This one also had the added challenge of having to go to a bike shop to take photos to work from, and the staff thought I was bonkers when I started lying on the ground to take close-up shots. They wouldn’t agree to let me take any of the bikes outside for photos, so I was stuck with crummy lighting and had to make the best of it. This meant that there was a lot of guesswork while I was actually painting, but such is life. Here’s the finished product:

Bike Brake.jpg

Bike Break 12″ x 12″ oil on board

Why You Shouldn’t Wash Your Food

27 Thursday Oct 2016

Posted by in art, painting, Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Remember how yesterday I posted about how I’m a glutton for punishment and am always doing stupid things like cutting fruit open for a painting? If you didn’t read that, go read it real-quick-like and then meet me back here. Done? Good.

Well today, I’m going to reveal another secret. You shouldn’t wash fruit or veggies before you paint them because they get wet. And then, they dry. Mind blown, I know. Which means you, again, have to work from photographs which is fine if you’re a good photographer but not fine if you kinda sorta suck at photography like I do. So I do a lot of pretending when it comes to water droplets on things. Here are a couple of the paintings I created that I kind of wished while I was making them that I hadn’t soaked the subject matter down first:

pear framed

Pear  6″ x 8″ oil on board

Original available at http://shop.emilypageart.com/t/realist-works and prints available here.

And this:

Tomatoes with Stems

Tomatoes with Stems, 12″x12″ oil on board $360

Prints available here.

And then this:

Tomatoes with sticker.jpg

Tomatoes With Sticker 5″ x 5″ oil on board

Prints available here.

And finally this:

Tomato and basil.jpg

Tomato and Basil 5″ x 5″ oil on board

Clearly, I like tomotoes. Prints available here.

And that concludes today’s lesson.