Posts

Showing posts from August, 2020

Trophies

Image
 Trophies is an original still life oil painting, that was painted in 2015 while I was still in art school, in an advanced still life painting class. I was able to choose my own subject matter, and wanted to do something different than the traditional fruit and pottery that often defines the still life genre. My husband and son are passionate hunters, and so I took inspiration from their pastime to create this one of a kind still life.  This painting shows the tail feathers of a turkey shot by my son (good eating although somewhat tough), and an elk antler from a kill, from either my son or husband (also good eating!). It was really fun trying to make the feathers soft, the antler bumpy, and the gun shells look like shiny metal. This painting is available for sale from my website, www.dancingelephantart.com .

Night at the Baker Heritage Museum

Image
 --This piece was originally published in 2015 but has been updated for the new blog format. Early 2015, I received an invitation from Crossroads Carnegie Art Center, to come tour the Baker Heritage Museum. I, along with many other artists, went, and found inspiration for art in the artifacts, exhibits, stories, and people dressed and in character, at the museum. Upon entering the museum, one of the first people I met was a woman wrapped in a red feather boa, with a feather fan in her hand. Her real name is Elaine Logsdon, but her character's name was Diamond Lil. I imagined she had been a burlesque dancer in her youth, and now perhaps ran her own saloon and theater. I am sure she could tell some very interesting stories! I knew I had to paint her, and knew her personality would shine through on the canvas. I decided with the other paintings I made for the museum, to be more creative in the composition. Instead of painting the entire object, I chose to crop it in a way that would b

More Marbles

Image
  Here are some more of my marbles. These were painted on 8x8" wood boards for the Little Big Show in Baker City, Oregon. Some of these sold, but some are still available at  www.etsy.com/shop/AmyVanGaasbeckArtist  . It's the perfect size canvas for these marble paintings. It's always so fun to see each marble turn from just shapes and colors to marbles. This one is called Big Blue. Many of these marbles were from a collection owned by one of my oil painting students, an elderly woman, who had a large jar full of them and they had been in her family for decades. This particular one was very old, and not perfectly round...just a little bit off. As an artist, I have to judge when to idealize and perfect something, like remove a blemish, leave out a few wrinkles, make someone thinner, or leave it in and embrace the imperfection. I decided to leave in the flaw in this marble, where you will see my others appear perfectly round, this one feels just slightly off, just by a hair.