Good Morning Glory

It is a glorious morning to celebrate one of my favorite flowers, the Morning Glory.  I have for several years now been featuring this cheerful annual by giving it a grandiloquent presence in a number of my paintings and now drawings.  This flower is one of several flowers that has strong memories of childhood affiliated with it and beside who can resist this cheery morning flower.

I just read that I can grow morning glories in a container and so today I'm off to the home improvement store to purchase a pack of seeds and a few color flowers to accent the front of my home.  I'm so excited at the prospect of once again enjoying these climbing beauties and yet having them contained as not to get out of hand.  They will be my inspiration in a pot during the hot summer months that are coming.

Whither you want to see them or not, this is where I'm going to share just a few of my MORNING GLORY artwork work with you.  READY OR NOT, HERE THEY COME!

These first three photos are taken while the artwork is still in my sketchbook.  These pieces are drawn using Prismacolor pencils and pen and ink.  All have been done in the just the past 2 weeks.  I'm currently working on a large canvas piece that features a small jersey calf lying on the ground just in front of a huge cluster of morning glories.  This piece has been a challenge because of the size and shear number of flowers and leaves needed to pull it off.  Drawing in my sketchbook helps me be a better painter and besides these three drawings stand on their own as cute artwork.

The next five pieces are all paintings that I have complete over the past 2 years for a series of work the I call "Down Country Roads".  Each large piece features a different farm animals standing near a fence covered in bright blue morning glories.  Of these five pieces shown here in this blog post, only the last one featuring the trio of noisy geese in "Neighborhood Watch Committee" is available as an original.  I can make prints but they have all been sold and have found new homes.

If you like my artwork and are on Facebook, you might consider following my art studio page.  I always post my newest work there and on Instagram first.
@JulieTownsendStudio

One Smiling Artist and a Couple of Happy Cows

I nearly finished this piece yesterday and I just couldn't wait to show it off.  When you have been working steadily on a piece for several weeks, like I have been with this one, there is a since of satisfaction that comes over you as you head to the finish line.  

I really experience so much fun as these paintings come to that completion stage.  This is when I decide on last minute additions to the composition that I think really add character to the overall piece.  In this case, I decided to add a spunky little male sparrow on the fence post and a small butterfly resting on yellow wildflowers.  The bright yellow and orange are a great balance to the signature blue morning glories growing up the old wood fence post.

As I painted on this piece, these last few days, I could almost imagine the scent of the sweet pasture grass, the sound of the birds in the distant trees and even feel the warm sunlight hitting my face.  This exact scene or a variation of it plays out over and over again across this big beautiful country.  If you have spent any amount of time driving across the middle section of this vast country, you know exactly the story I'm trying to tell you here with my paintbrushes.

Cows seem to be constantly grazing like giant grass machines. They are almost always curious to a fault.  I find that they will usually stop for a moment to stare back at you with their big brown eyes as they stand there trying to figure out what in the world you are doing.  Of course who wouldn't stare at you jumping up and down, flapping your arms in the air, and "Mooing" at them like a darn fool.

 I loved the challenge of painting the roan coloring of these shorthorns.  Mostly using a combination of Violet, Raw Umber and Burnt Sienna but if you look closely there are touches of Orange, Lavender and Light Ultramarine Blue and White making up the fur.  Between the bright colors and their comical faces this painting is sure to bring a smile to your face just like it did to mine.




I am titling this one "Happy Cows" because it is sure to make you happy!  This painting will be featured in my solo art show next month at the Whitney Library.  If you are going to be in the area between March 28th and May 30th, I would love for you to stop by the gallery there and let me know what you think.  My reception will be on March 28th and I will be there with several giveaways and drawings to make the evening special.  Here is an invite just for you.

Just A Gaggle Of Silly Geese

WHAT GROWS DOWN WHEN IT GROWS UP?-  A goose of course!  

I also learned something new today....a GAGGLE is equal to or greater than 5 geese so technically this painting is 3/5th's of a gaggle but saying a Gaggle of Geese is just too much fun not to have it as part of this post title.

The Neighborhood Watch Committee- REDO

This is my first completed painting of 2017 and it is actually a resurrected piece that I painted in 2011 when I didn't know much better. There was just so much about my treatment of the background and foreground that I didn't like.  I've been ITCHING to take a paint brush to it for quite some time now and last week decided to go for it.

There is always an element of anxiety when trying to repaint a large portion of a painting.  I pretty much painting out every part except for 2 of the 3 geese.  The goose on the left had to have his neck straightened to allow for the fence post and morning glories to be added.

The original 2011 painting of "The Neighborhood Watch Committee"

I think my redo makes my trio of trouble here a much more solid composition and goes perfectly with the rest of my "Down Country Roads" series that all feature country scenes with a wooden fence post covered in blue morning glories.  Since I have an upcoming solo library show in March of this year I have a goal of adding at least 5 additional pieces to the series. One down and at least 4 more to go.   I guess I have my work cut out for me.

Original Reference Photo taken in 2011 in Marysvale, Utah

Can you tell that I'm just a little bit excited about this show?  I want you to be excited too so I will be planning some fun give-away prizes as the time grows closer. 
If you are at all able to come see my show I promise you won't be disappointed.  Take note of the dates and times and I hope to see you there.

The Grass is Greener Because Cows Poo is Good Fertilizer

"Always Greener"

I love this adorable little jersey calf checking out the grass growing on the other side of the fence because we all know it is GREENER there. I love how cows can lick their noses with those giant pink tongues.  I find their faces to be so expressive and yet at the same time be completely clueless.  This adds to their appeal and charm and makes painting them so much fun.  I hope I managed to capture that cow essence here.

This original artwork, which is painted on a 16 x 20 inch gallery wrapped canvas in acrylic paints is bright, colorful and is sure to make you smile each time you look at it.  If you or someone you know is into country, farm or western art this is the piece for you!  If you are interested in purchasing this piece or perhaps ordering a set a greeting cards or a beautiful art magnet you can visit my website gallery at Julie Townsend Studio.  Let me know if you like what you see.

You're Invited!

Please consider coming if you find that you have some free time on Sunday.  I would love to talk to you about my artwork and this beautiful gallery.

This Sunday, April 24th is my closing reception at the Boulder City Art Gallery

Sweet Rendezvous

WIP-"Fence Post Rendezvous"

The past two weeks my focus has been on my 5th piece in my series "Down Country Roads" which features the series' signature blue morning glories growing at the fence post along with the lush tall grass that grows extra tall there, uncut by the mower.  With this piece,  I decided to add some farm children.  I have such fond memories of growing up in the country where I could run and play without worry.  We lived down a country gravel road, surrounded by farmers and where slowing down to greet the horses and cows with screams of MOO would be a frequent occurrence.  

Nearly every mother on the road tended a rather large garden where the best tasting vegetables could be found.  I remember my mother often asking me to go out to the garden and pick something that would be served with our evening meal.  Maybe green beans, cucumbers, radishes or squash.  There is nothing better than fresh from the garden snapped green beans, new potatoes and ham cooked up in a cast iron skillet topped off with blackberry cobbler for desert using the blackberries that you labored to pick. Speaking from experience, picking blackberries is no easy task.   

This piece that I'm calling "Fence Post Rendezvous" combines some of these elements of my early childhood memories of country life. These two little towheads have been given the early morning chore of picking carrots for dinner but couldn't help but stopping for a few minutes to share a couple of their basket bounty with the neighbor's palomino. With his head full of curly blonde locks, I used my own 3 year old grandson as a model for the little boy at the basket.    

The debut for this piece is going to be the Elks Club Helldorado Art Show and I have just a few more days to get it finished because the call for art is this upcoming Sunday.  Sorry that this is a poor quality cell phone picture of the piece, but since it is still on my easel, I haven't taken the time to get out the good camera to photograph it.   I guess I was just really anxious to show my progress this morning to my blog readers. Rest assured,  I will be providing better images as soon as I finishing painting in the final details.  

I hope you enjoy this WIP (work in progress) blog.  I would love to hear your thoughts, comments or memories about your own "Country Childhood"  To see the rest of the pieces in this series check out my gallery tab or go to my website at http://www.julietownsendstudio.com/-gallery.html

Something Has Gone AFOWL in the Studio

I thought you might enjoy seeing my progression on a piece that I am almost finished with.  It's been about a 3 week process because I don't paint very steady.  A little bit here and a few minutes there is my normal studio habit.  I want to work on that this year but I find I get pretty restless and need to get up after only 20-30 minutes of painting.  I've yet to find that "zone" that other artists speak of where they paint for hours on end and late into the night.  

  

Photo 1- Initial Rendering

This is my first rendering that I did in colored pencil.  It is certainly not a fine piece of artwork but here I'm not really looking for detail as much as a feel and mapping out some of the composition.  I knew I wanted it to be about a crowing rooster on a wooden rail fence with an old wagon wheel.  The piece also had to have the signature morning glories that I have painted into the three other pieces in this "Down Country Roads" series. (Photo 1)

Photo 2-Rough Blocking in of the composition

This next photo is now of me blocking in the main elements of the composition.  I had to repaint that fence at some point because I realized I had made the classic mistake of letting it drift upward and I needed it to be straight.  I pulled out the trusty straight edge and got it back on track.  The background took me sometime to work out.  I finally decided on a the distant ruins of a barn and I think that was a good choice here.  Because I'm working with the canvas in a vertical position, I have a lot of depth to fill in the background. (Photo 2)

Photo 3- Adding Focal elements

With this photo you can see I've straighten the fence line and now begun focusing on the wagon wheel.  This proves to be a really challenge because I want it to have the illusion of leaning against the fence and so my perspective isn't straight on.  I'm not a draftsman or architect so getting the wheel to appear correct and balanced is an issue.  I choose to let it go off the page because it really needed to be that large in comparison to the fence post to look realistic.  I still think it may be too small but that is the difficulty I often face when painting a number of random items from reference photos that are not in the same setting.  (Photo 3)

Photo 4- Adding flowers, grasses and foreground hens

Now we are getting into the final elements of the composition.  I have decided the best thing to do to handle my lack of skill at painting circular wheel and spokes is to have an old board also leaning up against the fence with a healthy growth of beautiful morning glories.  All in all I'm pretty sure I made the right decision there.  I have also begun blocking in the two hens in the foreground. (Photo 4)

Photo 5- Rendering of details to add

This is a little rendering I did of what I had in mind of adding to my painting.  I wanted a couple of chicks fighting over a juicy worm for breakfast.  The sketch has also been added to my greeting card designs and I've matted and framed the original.  The resourceful artist and accountant in me will not let a good sketch go to waste lying in a forgotten portfolio but rather try to turn it into a future revenue source. (Photo 5)

Photo 6-Still blocking in the composition and adding depth

In this photo you can see I have blocked in the chicks and added more layers to the hens and depth to the morning glories and foliage.  (Photo 6)

Photo 7- And this is what it looks like today

 So here we are today and I'm entering into the final stages of this painting.  Did I mention that this canvas is 24 x 36"?  That is a rather large piece and so it does take sometime to work your way to the bottom.  Now I'm obligated to focus on all the details that still need to be added to make this piece really pop.  With a little effort I'm hopeful that this piece will be finished by the weekend and soon be available on my website.  I've taken you from "What the heck were you thinking" to "This might just work after all" to finally "I'm Lov'in it" all in 7 photos.  That is the normal progression for me as an artist.  It progresses from Awful-to Awkward-to Amazing!  Well at least we hope for the AMAZING part.

If you enjoyed my little assemblage of progression photos, leave me a comment below and take a minute to check out my website at JulieTownsendStudio.com.   

This Week in My Las Vegas Studio

This week I have had several opportunities to work on my current piece that I think I'm going to title, "Something to Crow About" .  This is #4 in a series that I am working on called "Down Country Roads".  Each of the planned 5 pieces will have the repeated focal of blue morning glories that are situated on either a fence line or the edge of a country gravel road.  This show is my tribute to my rural Missouri childhood and my interpretation of being raised "Country".  All five of the pieces are paint with a touch of humor in mind as you can search to find little hidden surprises among the tall blades of grass. 

Work in Progress- #4 in the series- "Something to Crow About" 

Promotional Flyer for Down Country Roads

If you live in Southern Nevada or are planning to be passing through during the month of April you should make plans to stop into the gallery in Boulder City.  I think the show will be worth seeing in person. (Of course I'm little biased I think!)  

# 3 in my Series-"Fence Post Curiosity"

The other night I was discussing the piece I completed last week of a Jersey cow and her calf with a fellow Mountain View Christian School parent.  She really liked my work and seemed happy to talk to me for sometime about it. She made the comment to me that she really liked my style and how I painted in a way that was both a realistic and yet whimsical.  I hadn't thought of that before but I have had a number of comments about illustrating children's books since I started this series.  You never know where your art will lead you.  

Sold this small 5x7 sketch that I called "Enjoying Good Literature" at the Boulder City Art Gallery today.  I LOVE RED DOT SOLD stickers!  WOO HOO!

Canon Pixma Pro 100

My new studio buddy arrived just this week and I am so excited to learn how to use him.  He is a Canon Pixma Pro 100 and that baby is touted to be a great professional quality printer and so I'm excited to be able to print my own greeting cards, magnets, prints and promotional flyers from the comfort of my own home.  I hope to have all the above available at my April show.

Painting My Country Roots

I moved out west to Las Vegas back in 1978 from my childhood home of Eldon, Missouri.  I was only a teenager at the time, but there is something about one's childhood that shapes and influences your life, perhaps more than the rest of your years spent as an adult.  I may have lived in this large city for all of my adult years, but in my heart I still identify myself as a country girl.

That is why I'm painting a series right now I feel I have a strong connection to and that I am calling "Down Country Roads."  I lived the best years of my childhood on a dusty dirt road surrounded by trees, flowers, wildlife and farming.  I love old farm houses, gardens, livestock, barns, porch swings, old mail boxes, barbed wire fences and fence posts covered in morning glories dotting every dirt road and 2 lane highway across this amazing country and they are my inspiration.

When it feels like crazy is becoming the normal,  I have to only return to my roots to find that this country is still full of good folk that appreciate the freedom to work hard and get their hands dirty, to raise their families and take care of their neighbors. This series of paintings are my tribute to that way of life and looking at them, frankly makes me smile.

"Fence Post Curiosity"- 36 x 24 Original Acrylic

This is my newest piece, just finished this week.  I'm calling it "Fence Post Curiosity".  Cows are curious creatures and will often watch you as drive by, especially if all your children are hanging out of the windows yelling, "MOO."  I just couldn't help myself and found that I had to add the cow licking her nose to the composition.   The consistent themes of blue morning glories are present as they are in the previous two pieces along with cheerful Black-eyed Susans.

This piece was a real challenge as I have never painted such large animals before.  The canvas measures 36 x 24 inches so this jersey cow is at least 2 feet tall.

Lunch Under the Mailbox- 36 x 24 Original Acrylic 

My second piece in the series that I have painted is called "Lunch Under the Mailbox".  I've blogged about this one previously and so if you follow me you know that I loved little box turtles growing up.  They were everywhere in the spring and summer.  They may move slowly but they are so persistent.  I remember many times just running in for a moment to get a drink or snack, certain that I could return in time to prevent my little reptiles escape on to find that there was no longer any trace of him.   

Life at the Fence Post- 36 x 24 Original Acrylic

This is the piece first piece that I came up with and at the time that I painted it I wasn't thinking about a series.  I simply was painting a piece that reminded me of summer.  The predominate color of green makes me think of Missouri in the summer.  Everything is SO green unlike the Mojave Desert that I call home now. 

This series will be presented together as part of a solo show that will be held in the month of April at the Boulder City Art Gallery in Boulder City, Nevada.  My goal is to have at least 2 more pieces completed by that time along with a number of smaller related paintings.  It will be a show worth seeing.  All these piece can be found on my website where you can find a link to order prints and see the rest of my work.  Just visit JulieTownsendStudio.com and click on the gallery tab.

Finally! I Got To Do Some ART This Week.

I stayed a pretty busy artist this weekend.  After battling several bouts of different kinds of flu at the beginning of the month and visiting a hospitalized family member it felt good to let my creative self be in charge for a change.

Friday, I fulfilled my galley sitting duty at the Boulder City Art Gallery.  I'm pretty sure the co-op gallery scene is where many artist find their start and I'm currently involved in two different galleries.  I love the Boulder City Gallery because everything is neat, orderly and the walls are filled with really nice art.  We just had a change out of artwork so everything was new and fresh and it was just a real pleasure to be there.

Saturday, I gave my first painting lesson of 2016.  My two young students are in the middle of painting eagles that they started back around the first of November.  We spent the entire hour lesson just working on the details in their eagle feathers.

The student area of my studio-Everything laid out and ready for their lesson

There was also plenty of time on Saturday and Sunday for me to work on my own piece.  I blogged the other week about this piece and have posted several progression photos along the way.  Sorry for the blurry cell phone photo but I will post high resolution pictures when I get the piece finished.    I'm still working my way around the canvas on the small details and at 24 x 36 inches this is by far the largest cow I have painted.  Painting large adds a level of difficulty because the details have to be so exaggerated to be convincing.  I've got things pretty well blocked in with the composition and am happy with the addition of the "Momma Jersey cow" complete with her licking her nose.    I plan on add some wildflowers in the foreground and of course the barbed wire but that will be when I am finished with the morning glories and these cute bovines.  

Current Work in Progress- # 3 in my Country Life Series

I was excited to hear that my piece that I call "First Light" sold yesterday to a wonderful couple visiting the Boulder City Art Gallery.  I was told they knew right away when they saw it that they wanted to buy it.  It is a small 11 x 14 acrylic piece but it thought it turned out to be impacting.  I guess they thought so too.

Sold this piece yesterday at the Boulder City Art Gallery

Enjoy the Process

A very common question asked to an artist is "How long does it take you to paint that?"  Mostly because the person standing there in front of you likes your work and feels the need to engage you as the artist but has no clue about the painting process so it is the first question that comes to their mind.  I have many times explained that I paint quickly but that I don't paint for long periods of time, so a 24 x 36 may take me a week to finish off and on where I can paint a 12x16 in one evening.  I usually then mention that is my main reason I like acrylics over oils and that if I'm painting in oils I have to be working on 3 pieces at the same time because the drying time makes me crazy impatient.  I would take a certain amount of pride in this fact.  Like the fact that I can paint fast made me stand out as an artist.

There is certainly a difference in painting fast and being prolific.  Prolific painting leads to proficiency while painting fast may only lead to stacks of mediocre artwork. After 5 years I think that I'm beginning to get it.  I've read over and over that sketching out the composition is a vital step, not to be skipped but skipping was exactly what I would do.  Please don't think that I'm saying that I think everything I have painted is junk, but I think often the struggles I get myself into with a composition might not have happened if I had taken more time to plan out the work.  

So this is my "Year of Art" and I'm dedicating myself to slowing down and enjoying the process involved with creating art and writing this blog.  So with that in mind, I thought I would share with you what I've been thinking about for my next painting.  A few months back I started what I saw in my mind a series of artwork that focused on my memories of the country childhood I was blessed to have being raised in Central Missouri.  When I think of one color that best describes my memories of Missouri, it would be GREEN.  Green was everywhere you looked most of the year.  A canopy above and several layers of undergrowth that covered all those hills.  Unlike it's neighboring state of Kansas, the thick forest and many hills would obscure your view.  I would often think that a tornado would be right on top of you before you could even see it coming.

I think that is why I painted the background on both "Life at the Fence Post" and "Lunch Under the Mailbox" in a solid green tone that kept the focus on the foreground.  I don't think that I will treat each piece in this series this way, but I am still loving how these two turned out.

For my third piece I want to continue with the fence post, morning glories and a definite grass line that shows the black, rich and fertile dirt that covers much of the state. I want a calf standing in the tall grass and wild flowers that is looking straight at you through the barbed wire.  I'm considering a chicken or a quail at the grass edge looking for a bug breakfast.  

In preparation of the start of this new piece, I have created two sketches so far.  Both have helped me greatly when thinking about how I want this painting to look when I am finished.  There are still questions that I still have to consider.  For example, which breed of calf do I like better, the Jersey or the Holstein?  What other wildlife if any do I want to include?  Do I continue with the solid green background or do I try to add sky and distant hills to this one?  It is obvious that I need to keep that sketch pad close by. 

I would love to hear from you and please visit my website to see a complete collection of my work.

Life at the Fence Post

Lunch Under the Mailbox

Renderings for my next painting

Fence Posts

Most of my childhood memories involve growing up near the small town of  Eldon, Missouri.  We lived in a very small mobile home positioned 1/2 mile down a country gravel road off Hwy 52 on 20 acres of wooded property.  20 acres is a goodly amount of land for any child to explore and have plenty of childhood adventures.  Our house was tiny, cramped and stuffy so I recall that I spent as much time as I could outside. I had my own clubhouse at the edge of the clearing that we call our backyard.  I loved spending time there.

Our property was fenced very much like shown here in my painting.  Old fence posts strung with 3 strands of barbed wire.  The line of fence posts that bordered the gravel road that accessed our property were always painted white because my mother liked everything in the front yard, including 3 feet of the base portion of many of the trees, recycled rubber tire planters, well house, porch and our swing set all shining under many layers of white paint.  I think she would have had me paint all the rocks in the driveway if she had thought about it. 

The rest of the fence posts that separated our property from Old Man Shulte's pasture were left to succumb to the elements and slowly decay giving way to the character of the wood.  Knots and flaws in the wood probably go unnoticed by most but in this piece I wanted to show how this post still is standing strong enough to be home to many growing things.  Strong enough to still create that a barrier between the field and their grassy home.

This new painting I've just completed reminds me of home.  In the summer everything about Missouri is dominated with the color green.  There is just so much vegetation there and living in that vegetation is vast number of small creatures living their lives out in the search of food and trying not to become food themselves.  I call this piece, "Life at the Fence Post" and it is 36x24 inches and painted in acrylic.

If you like my work then please click on the link above called gallery or visit my website at JulieTownsendStudio.com