Lisa Kaus' Trunk Show

Fun and whimsical artwork by Lisa Kaus.

I spent a few hours last Saturday visiting Lisa Kaus at her trunk show at the Jealous Gardener , a beautiful home decor and gift shop, in Portland, Oregon. Lisa creates beautiful whimsical pieces with mixed media and salvaged treasures! She sells her work online and in many retail outlets, has been featured in several magazines and teaches workshops. She will be teaching at the upcoming Art and Soul workshops coming up in October. Plus, she's super nice!

Oregon Farm Landscape

5"x 7"
acrylic on masonite

We have beautiful farmland in Oregon. I am trying to loosen up my brushstrokes with a lot of squinting and a time limit!
Click on image for larger view.

Finished Bear Painting

36"x 60"
acrylic on canvas
sold

Here is the finished bear painting. This is actually the second large bear painting I've done. The first is below:
Click on image for larger view.

48"x 72"
acrylic on canvas
sold

Both bears were very fun to paint. I enjoy the large scale and incorporating so much color.
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Rehoboth Beach Landscape

5"x 7"
acrylic on masonite

Here is the second painting from a photo from Karin Jurick's site Different Strokes From Different Folks . Surprisingly, painting the sand and grass was hard!

Jack

8"x 8"
acrylic on masonite
sold

One of my favorite artist's, Karin Jurick, has decided to have a weekly challenge of painting a photo that she posts on her new website, Different Strokes From Different Folks, on blogspot.
This first photo is of her dear and recently departed friend and companion, Jack.
I encourage you to visit www.KarinJurick.blogspot.com to see her wonderful work!

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More newspaper faces

I have continued to draw faces from the newspaper almost everyday and have quite a collection now. The newspaper provides a never ending supply of interesting people to draw!
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Here's Herbie!

8"x8"
acrylic on masonite

sold

I was communicating via email with a very nice lady from Brand Innovators and saw a picture of her dog Herbie at the bottom of her email.......I couldn't resist and asked if I could paint him!

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Let the Logo Games Begin

I am always looking to learn and have recently subscribed to HOW magazine which is for graphic designers. Through their website I found and read a very informative and fun blog entry from a graphic design firm called id29 (www.id29.com) titled, "Let the Logo Games Begin" where they hired four online logo design companies, gave them the same visual identity problem to solve and critiqued the results. Every time I create I am designing and it is helpful to get different perspectives.

Bear Painting Process Update

Here is another bear painting update. (The last update was posted on July 11) I made the trees a bit more abstract. Even though the trees are a bit busy, there will be black outlining in the bear when it is done which will really make it pop out. I love it when you find a painting you love to look at as a whole, but can also find small areas of color or brush stroke, etc. that you like to spend time looking at. I have had a lot of fun really developing the smaller areas, but when I am painting something this large, I have to be careful not to get lost in the small areas and forget to pull myself back and remember the painting as a whole! Unfortunately my photo doesn't show all the beautiful color as well as I would like it to. So much to learn!
Click on image for larger view.

Volleyball T-shirt

Here's the t-shirt! The kids love it!

We were out of town last week so I am back to painting this week. I plan to post an updated picture of the bear soon.