painting

Kristin’s Valentine

acrylic painting
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Kristin’s Valentine to Life

 

I painted this portrait of my friend Kristin.  I am constantly inspired by her and feel so fortunate to be her friend.  Below is her description of her struggles but also, I hope, a testament to what she has overcome.

Was very ill and had several unsuccessful surgeries. Gradually lost ability to walk, developed cerebellum damage, and went into organ failure. After a final life-saving surgery in 2014, have been in recovery, relearning how to walk and function. Because was so ill, recovery included developing epilepsy. Very frequent seizures caused further damage in left temporal lobe, making it impossible to continue 12-year career in international development and so changed careers. Currently an LMT in WV.

Fillmore Art Show

art show, Uncategorized

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Recently I was contacted to participate in a group show at the Fillmore in downtown Silver Spring by RAW Natural Born Artists.  The show is on October 24th from 7 to 11pm.  I’m super excited to be in the show with 59 other artists.  There will be a lot to look at.  If you are interested in supporting me in the endeavor buy a ticket on my profile page.

For anyone unfamiliar with the Fillmore, it’s a music venue.  It’s very easily accessible by metro.  There are also many parking garages around it.

Well, I’m hoping to talk to some new people and old friends.  I hope to see you there!

Potential

acrylic painting

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For me, sometimes things are more beautiful in process than they are finished.  It’s about their potential.  When I’m working on something I don’t know how it is going to turn out in the end.  Sure, I have an idea and I might even be trying to emulate something I see.  But there are endless decisions in the process of making art, and painting and drawing allow a lot of spontaneity.

Is it art yet?

College work, What is art?
Hannah's drawbridge

Drawbridge painting from college

During college I was working very hard on this painting of a drawbridge.  I wanted to get all the details from my photo.  I wanted the light and shadow.  I wanted the train tracks and the metal beams around them, the wooden underpinnings.  I spent a lot of time on that painting.  Then one day, I was walking into the studio and the head of the art department called out “Is it art yet?”

It’s funny thinking back to that painting.  I did about three bridge paintings with train tracks and they all found homes.  I was very proud of them.  However, my teacher had a point.  How long do you need to work on something before it’s art?  The truth is that art can be anything so you can put as little or as much work into the actual product as you want.  I don’t mean to get into a discussion of what art is.  However, I think it’s important to note that this gives artists a lot of flexibility, to go between abstraction and representational art, between finished and unfinished products.  And I think that’s part of what makes art expressive and fun. 

Snakes

acrylic painting

I recently was inspired by my continuing education in Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy (BCST) to paint snakes.  I know that probably sounds like a big jump in topics.  However, some of my classmates said that’s what they were seeing when they were receiving or giving BCST sessions.

The snakes below are Brazilian rainbow boas.

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30×40 inches.  Acrylic on canvas.

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16×20 inches.  Acrylic on canvas.

 

In the Winter

Meredith's poetry, watercolor

In the winter

It is quiet and cold outside

But in the winter

We burn fires and wear layers

We sing songs

And drink hot cider and wine

The winter is really the warmest time of the year

It is the time that we are all together

In the winter the trees look dead

But we have green holly and evergreens

We have bright red cardinals

In the winter the night comes early

But we stay up late and have grand dinners

or we snuggle under blankets and read books

In the winter our hearts are big

In the winter we watch our breath

In the winter we roar at the freezing cold

 

I hope you all like my original poem.  I just wanted to mention that the characters I used for my illustration were borrowed from the book The Selfish Giant.  Kudos to anyone who knows who Lisbeth Zwerger is.

Dance Place Gala

art show, watercolor

My friend, Ben Levine, is putting together the Dance Place Gala at Dance Place in DC.  He invited me to be a part of it by contributing to an installation piece that he designed.  There will be music, there will be windows, there will be cool lighting, and there will be me painting in the foreground.  I have met up with him and the manager for this project, Sarah Chapin, a few times and we have one more meeting to go before the show.  I’d be happy to see some familiar faces after the performance and happy if people I knew could enjoy the show.  So if anyone is interested in attending it is on the weekend of October 21st.  You can buy tickets through Dance Place.

 

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From left to right:  Meredith Osterman, Ben Levine, and Sarah Chapin

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This is me playing with some ideas for the show at our second rehearsal.  We will be working with projections of what I am painting during the show.

My Elephant

acrylic painting

IMG_0353Recently, when I got back from Santa Fe I felt the urge to get back into painting.  So I did about 7 fast paintings.  Most of them were not great but I was excited that the trip got me going again because I mostly work in my sketch books.  The first three paintings were still lives, then I did a couple portraits for my cousin’s engagement/wedding and I also did this depiction of a stuffed animal that I have.  I think out of everything this was the most fun to paint because it was the simplest.  I actually have repeatedly drawn or painted this elephant since college.

My painting spurt is over now, but I’m hoping that I will do more since I have some free time coming up.  Maybe I’ll do something else with my elephant or portraiture.

Tree

commissions, ink

So in the past year it has become apparent to me that depictions of the tree of life are very popular.  I see jewelry and t-shirts.  One of my friends is using it as a logo for her business.  And now, I’ve been commissioned to paint it for one of my students.  She’s allowing me to interpret it and do my own version while giving me one image as a guideline.  I’ve also done a couple practice sketches in my sketch book and on some scrap paper.  This has all lead to a 20″x 16″ work.

Below I have some practice works and the final.  I wanted to do something simple.  Sort of going back to when I was practicing sumi-e painting, being able to work with the beauty of the ink as it spread on the paper.

It’s another study of process I think.

 

 

 

 

Color Studies

acrylic painting

I started working with watercolor studies about a month ago.  It’s a pretty simple concept of letting watercolors mix and using washes as well as concentrated blobs of color.  The challenge has been to take these studies and blow them up into acrylic paintings.  In some cases I got the flow of imagery and in others I didn’t.  Part of the fun is the transformation that switching mediums has on a concept though.  In any case, I hope to find a place to display the work and in the meantime am happy to share the work here online.