50th Annual Own An Original event

Hello everyone! I just wanted to take a minute to catch you up. We had a very successful Pikes Peak Studio Tour, and I just want to say Thank You! to everyone who stopped by. The weather was great, and it was fun to meet all the visitors. Many people took home new art!

Meanwhile, I was invited to participate in the Littleton Museum's 50th Annual Own An Original exhibit and sale in Littleton, Colorado. The exhibition dates are November 20, 2015 through January 26, 2016. If you are in the area, please stop in. It looks to be a great show. For more information, go to littletongov.org/museum.

This piece, Mystical Islands, is on display there.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pikes Peak Studio Tour...and a video!

Happy November, everyone,

First, a shoutout to our veterans, especially the veterans in my circle of friends and family. Thank you for your service. We enjoy our freedoms in this great country, thanks to you and to those warriors who have passed from our midst.

Secondly, in a previous blog, I mentioned studio tours...and I am participating in the Pikes Peak Studio Tour that, if you are in the Colorado Springs area, you may have heard advertised. It's This Weekend! I'm getting things together to take to Dianna Cates Dunn's studio tomorrow so that we can be ready for your visit. 

In the midst of all this, I had the opportunity to film a short video in which you will get a glimpse of my own studio. Enjoy!

Pikes Peak Studio Tour/Julia Evans

Spring cleaning in the autumn

Around here I tend to get serious about deep cleaning in the spring and in the fall. Spring cleaning is good for airing out the house and tidying up after the house plants are getting moved outside. Autumn, cleaning, on the other hand, helps me prepare to settle back into the house and studio as I say goodbye to warm days and lay the garden down for the season.

Today I decided to tackle cleaning the carpet in the studio. If you are a messy artisan like I am, you are likely wondering why anyone would have carpet in their studio. I wonder that myself!! Truth be told, my studio may have been a family room/office in a previous life, and we just haven't gotten around to replacing the carpet. So...I protect it as much as possible and clean it when necessary. (Someday "replacing the studio flooring" will percolate to the top of the "to do" list.)

Here's what the studio looks like during carpet-cleaning season. Hopefully it will dry quickly and I can get back to painting in a couple of days!

Studios

A popular trend amongst the art community is "Artist's Studio Tours," in which a group of artists get together and agree to open their studios to the public for a few days. It's a great opportunity to visit with artists, see how they work, and purchase art. I hope to participate in one of these events later this year. In the interim, though, I thought you might enjoy seeing a few pictures of my studio.

I am fortunate to have space in my home where I can spread out and make a mess. This is my easel, with my painting, "Two Sisters with Crazy Hats."

A closeup of the area where I keep brushes, water, and other stuff.

To the left of the easel is another table, with yet more tools, paints, and another work-in-progress.

Summer: art shows, rain, and gardening

After a late spring, punctuated by 8" of snow in May, we are cautiously optimistic that warm weather is here. I try to divide my time between the studio and the garden. I've added a couple of raised beds to the greenhouse and existing beds, and hope to plant beans tomorrow. I know my southern cousins are already harvesting their beans, but we had frost until just a couple of weeks ago, and the soil just hasn't been warm enough to foster good germination. Iris and lilacs are blooming, and there are buds on the poppies.

When it gets too hot outside I venture into the coolness of the studio and pick up my tools. I have been playing in encaustics this year, and enjoying the results. Encaustics is basically painting with melted beeswax and pigment. I'm also playing in acrylics, as always.

It's the summer show season, so I have been busily delivering work, attending receptions, and picking up unsold work when the shows come down. So far I've been in shows all up and down the front range. It gets a little crazy, but I feel that the recognition is important and can lead to more gallery representation. It's all good!

Here's a new piece, as yet untitled. Let me know what you see, or if a title comes to mind.

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Finally! A sunny day with temps above freezing. Stella (my English Bull Terrier) is enjoying the warmth, and I'm sure it makes her feel better. My studio companion had a couple of bouts of pancreatitis and surgery to remove a chunk of rawhide chewstick from her intestine in February, and she's lost several pounds, so I'm sure she feels the cold sharply. With the offending chewstick gone, she is on the road to recovery. We are hopeful!

Her illness made it difficult for me to work in the studio last month. This was in part because the studio is on the lower level of my house and she wasn't allowed to do stairs, and in part because we were on nursing duty 24-7. (I did get a lot of knitting done while I was sitting with her.) Needless to say, the few hours in the studio were precious, even as they were challenging. I find that it is easy to get sidetracked, and easy to lose focus. Sometimes, when I have a painting on the easel and am unable to work on it continuously, I lose the energy/connectivity that I have with it, making it easy to forget the intentions I have for it. This can cause me to get off on some technical rabbit trail, and can result in a weaker piece. My challenge, then, is to hang onto the intentions I had for the painting, and to get my momentum going in order to finish strongly. Life has a habit of getting in the way of my intentions, so I get a lot of practice in hanging on and keeping some continuity. In the end, I will hopefully be a better artist!

I am please to present one of the pieces that I finished up last week. To me it signifies breaking forth, and I named it "Creation." It is 12" x 16" and will soon be available on my website: www.juliamevans.com. As always, I look forward to your comments!

Do Your Heart Good!!

Good morning! It's a beautiful day in the Rocky Mountain west. Wherever you are, I hope you are happy and have a peaceful heart. Do something good for your heart today, whether it's a walk, a few moments of meditation, making peace with something in your life, or hugging a loved one.

Things have been busy in the studio, but I want to take time out to mention a couple of things to you. First, February is an important month for heart health, especially women's heart health. #GORED.
In recognition of the fight against heart disease, I am offering a win-win sale on my work: For every painting purchased this month I will give you a 10% discount AND I will donate 10% to the American Heart Association's "Go Red for Women" campaign. What better way to honor a loved one this month, or treat yourself? Artwork AND a donation! On the website, simply use the code GORED at checkout. If you are shopping at my gallery, Gallery 113, mention this post and code GORED when purchasing my work.

Second, I am adding a new feature to the store on my website: Bin Art! Ready-to-frame originals at fabulous prices! Matted sizes available: 8"x10", 11"x14", and 16" x 20." I am adding new pieces as fast as I can! Pick up originals for a bargain AND get a discount AND help fight women's heart disease. Win-win-win, yes?

Looking forward to hearing from you!