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Heading Home- 12 x 24 Original Acrylic

Every year at this time I turn my focus to my entries into the annual Helldorado Art Show and Rodeo that is put on by the Elks Club here in Las Vegas.  It is about the best art show I have participated in and again this year I am looking forward to adding my entries to the assortment of great Western art that I know will be there. It is a great afternoon.

In this piece that I just finished,  I am trying to capture the excitement and strong emotion felt by both horse and rider as home comes into sight.  The curious cow paused from her grazing to stare as they quickly pass by.  

Even before urging from the rider, the horse has picked up his ears and quickened his pace.  His long black mane flows outward as it begins catching the breeze as he trots down that familiar road.  There is cool water, oats and sweet alfalfa waiting inside the doors of the big red barn.  The rider knows that very soon the aroma of his dinner cooking should soon begin filling the afternoon breeze.  It was a good run  and both horse and rider have enjoyed the freedom of their time together, but now it is time to be heading home.  

To see more about this and my other work, check out my gallery on my website at  Julie Townsend Studio Gallery

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.

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