I’m enjoying a weekend in the studio, and finding much of my inspiration in recent sunrises and sunsets. Quite a bit of new work in progress. Details to come, once pieces are finished, but here’s a sneak peak…
I haven’t made enough room in my life lately for long weekends painting. It feels good to be back in the studio working creatively. I’m eager to see how these pieces develop, and getting them up for sale.
Funny title for a painting, I suppose. It has a backstory. Perhaps I’ll share that with a buyer one day. Perhaps not. This 8″ x 10″ acrylic on canvas piece has details that include glow-in-the-dark pigments and glitter. It was inspired by a brightly glowing luminous round full moon and the shimmering waves beneath it one mild October night in 2022.
New work. I spent some time in the studio this past weekend (overdue). Filled with inspiration, I wasn’t at all sure my time would actually be productive. Decision-making paralysis is a real thing, and I had “too many ideas” and struggled to steady down and work on just one or two.
This particular small piece was inspired in part by the collaboration with my partner (a different sort of artist), who shot several airbrush backgrounds for me recently that got set aside for later use. “Later” finally came around, and I sat down on a somewhat stressful autumn afternoon to think things over and put those thoughts on canvas. I selected this unusual orange-yellow-peach blended background because it threw my usual color selections out the window and forced some fresh thinking on me. New perspective, and a fun result.
Once this piece is fully dried, I’ll charge up the glow and add an image of that alternate perspective on this largely very hopeful piece. Inspired by love, and gray autumn days, and an old love song.
Here’s the piece with the glow charged…
I recently went wild re-organizing my studio. During the pandemic my studio has also served as my office (as is the case with many artists, I have a “regular” job to keep things steady), and working from home has turned out so splendidly that it’s become a professional preference and a lifestyle. I was overdue to put real thought and permanence into how my working space is arranged. With that done, I have also found myself feeling more inspired. Feels good. I’m hoping to make a more regular practice of posting here, new work as it comes, and also getting some of the older work uploaded and made available for sale.
Yesterday I spent time painting and thinking about my “workflow” in my studio. I finished one small piece and started a couple others. It feels good to be back in the studio. The feeling of joy and creative energy hit the canvas as “California Poppies & Summer Sunshine”, a small 6″x6″ acrylic on canvas, with glitter and glow. I’ll photograph this piece again with other light sources once it has completed dried (there is a lot of glow on this one).
This small piece is intentionally playful. It’s been a lovely summer, and feels worth a little celebration. That’s what this piece has in mind. The smaller image above is intended to provide a perspective a bit more like walking past it (hanging in a corridor, perhaps). If you’d like a closer look…
I’ll update this post with the glow-in-the-dark charged up, later this week.
Time spent in the studio, painting, seems to pass quite differently than any other time. New work drying on my work table, on counters, on bookshelves, and as they dry, joining the stacks of other pieces, completed, not yet sold. Very satisfying.
One recent work (Hints of Autumn) sold almost before it had completely dried, to a friend who has collected several pieces over the years. Also very satisfying – although even after so many years, I often find selling my work rather difficult; it means letting the sold pieces go. Somehow that’s still hard for me – they’re part of who I am. They speak for me when my own words are not enough.
One new piece continues to fascinate me, and each time I see it in new light… I “see it in new light” figuratively, as well as literally.
This particular canvas was painted around the same time as “Ship of Dreams” and “Nalla Was Here”, earlier this year, on a moody weekend fraught with romantic stress, during a pandemic. The physical experience of painting, for me, is often one of very soothing motions, allowing the act of painting itself to become a sort of meditation. “Feeling the strokes” as I work is one reliable way for me to “get out of my head” and back into my body, and to be more present in my experience. This particular work was supported by bass-heavy EDM tracks (mostly trap and house music), and was painted with Arteza acrylics (a departure from my long-time Liquitex and Pebeo selections). I’m enjoying the texture of these acrylics, which have a consistency of room temperature butter on a warm day – not quite molten, almost liquid. (I generally use heavy body paints, which is particularly useful for the sort of 3D mixed media pieces I often create, so the flow of the Arteza paint is quite a change!) I’m not held back by brand loyalty with regard to paint; I use what works for the piece I have in mind, or create based on the materials available. 🙂
I’ve been getting more time in the studio, but spending less on the computer. New work is piling up, unshared!
Summer very much felt worth celebrating, and there were some stunning moments that seemed to sparkle with joy.
The time slipped away so quickly… and just this past weekend, I found myself noticing hints of Autumn here and there, on my walks, and as I ran my errands. Time spent in the studio hints at those hints.
Happily, time in the studio is increasing as I become more settled in my work and home routines in this new place. More to come!
My recent burst of inspiration resulted in some fun work in glow, mostly pretty light-hearted. It was a gray rainy day, too, and the filtered light and overcast skies resulted in creating some sunshine on canvas.
“Irises” 8″ x 10″ acrylic on canvas w/glow
This one results in a bright “moonlight” silhouette when charged.
“Irises” charged and glowing.
Spring flowers haven’t bloomed in the garden quite yet, but they bloom in my studio. 🙂
“Potentially Anything” 11″ x 14″ acrylic on canvas w/pen&ink and glow 2015
Painted on a rainy late summer morning, feeling inspired by love, and life; I started this piece thinking about lush green forests, and new life, and finished it thinking about space travel, and contemplating the future of humankind, and how vast our potential is, viewed from the perspective of how much we do not yet know. It is a piece I find myself hoping communicates some sense of how each moment is potentially the seed of some future greatness, and how precious our uncertainty is on our path of discovery. The basic image is of a gravid woman surrounded by whirling motes of dust, imagination, atomic particles, or… really…anything.
“Sunset Meadow” 11″ x 14″ acrylic on canvas w/pen&ink, gold, and glow 2015
This smallish piece, at just 11″ x 14″, is the first painting on canvas created in my new studio space. Painting from the perspective of feeling inspired and in love, it is a recollection of those sun-infused summer evenings when the orange glow of sunset seems to fill all the space between things. This painting is in a style I have recently favored, with an acrylic background on which a more delicate image in pen & ink is drawn. I used a gold leaf pen to add warmth to the details, and a bit of glow to give the impression of fireflies and hints of natural phosphorescence that I remember from childhood.
This 11″ x 14″ piece is available for $150.
“Gypsy Drums” 5″ x 7″ watercolor on paper 1996
Like it’s companion piece, “Gypsy Dancer”, “Gypsy Drums”  is a small watercolor on paper that was painted on a weekend at a local renaissance fair, in 1996. This small piece was inspired by the dancing of an associate of that time, named Margrit, an exotic and passionate Armenian woman of great beauty.  Shortly after these pieces were painted, I changed artistic direction and began to work almost exclusively in acrylic on canvas, in the abstract, and exploring mixed-media work. I have often found that between big changes in style or focus, I return to small watercolors, or pen & ink sketches to ‘get by on’ creatively.
The Art of M. Elisabeth Howell 