Thoughts on Colored Pencil Paintings

Thoughts on Colored Pencil Paintings

"Moving Day" by Joan G. Funk 

based on photographs from a NASA staff photographer.  

I was recently looking at the Colored Pencil Society's"Explore9!"online show.  There are some really incredible painting by some very talented artists in the show.
 
Explore This 9! award winners

One of the things I enjoyed about some of the paintings in the exhibit was the humor  in the work including the best in show award winner by Eileen Sorg.  In thinking about humor  in paintings I realized most of the paintings I remember from previous Colored Pencil Society's shows while being technically awesome also had the element of humor or surprise.

More of Eileen Sorg's work can be seen at Two Dog Studio.  While a large part of her work contains humor, another portion is highly realistic.  The common thread in her paintings is animals.  If you are an animal lover or looking for some humor I would suggest looking at the gallery on her website.

Mana Hewitt, Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Art Department of the University of South Carolina, was the juror for the show.  She definitely had a difficult job.  I can narrow my favorites down to ten or so.  But picking the best in show or which one should get one of the other awards would be very difficult!

Although I have done some colored pencil work and enjoyed it, its not something I do very often.  It took me a minute or two to realize why that is- Colored pencil paintings just take an incredibly long time to do, particularly if you are going for a realistic look.  For an example if you are doing a cat you will have to put in every single pencil stroke to get the "fur" and in some cases you are building up multiple layers.  Love the look!

"Moving Day" was the second colored pencil painting I did.  I had no idea I would be working on it for months.  Its the only painting I have done that is associated with my other profession.  In this painting a large composite cryotank is being lowered into a test stand.  The crane operator can not see inside the test stand so he was working blind.   The three men in the painting were talking continuously to the crane operator so he would know what was going on.   It was like watching a high flying trapeze act - well rehearsed with flawless hand-offs.

Trying Something New-Aquaboard

"Trying Something New"

Watercolor on Aquaboard

The Dixie Girls Paint Challenge this past month has been "Favorite Things".  One of my favorite things is to try different things, go to new places, etc.  So for this painting challenge I used a different substrate.  Instead of painting on watercolor paper, which is what I typically do when I paint with watercolors, I painted on aquaboard.

I had seen some work by Kara Bidga as part of the Hurricane Sandy Relief Auction on Daily Paint Works and actually purchased one of her painting "Up Front".  This little jewel of a painting was painted on aquaboard.  It is a wonderful painting that makes me smile.  If you aren't familiar with Kara's work, her website is 

http://www.karakbigda.com

One of the interesting thing about Kara's painting was that it didn't need to be framed under glass.  I was intrigued.  So I got some aquaboard to give it a try.  "Trying Something New" is my first attempt with using aquaboard.  It is not for sale- it is going to take awhile to get use to this surface.  I'm not going to count the first attempt as a success.  There will definitely be a second attempt.

So here is to Trying Something New!

Best of 2012

2012 was a very good year for me in the art department.  One of my  goals was to paint at least two paintings a month.  I exceeded that one - so only a few of my paintings are represented here.  Some of them were firsts for me - like painting the rainbarrel for the North Alabama Land Trust Auction.   I also had my first show in October.  Thanks to everyone that came out for the reception.  I wanted to find a way to get my art out to folks that were not local to Huntsville and where looking for things besides an original painting.  So I set up a site for folks to purchase prints of my paintings   http://www.joanfunk.imagekind.com

And for notecards and other products with my art images I site up another site at  http://www.zazzle.com/joanfunk

For 2013 there are many things I would like to do.  And I've already started off with a bang- I ran a logo tournament to develop my logo which can be seen on my website and also on facebook.  (Thanks to Tere Parsons of Magnolia Texas for the winning design).) There are several paintings in progress- one in oil, one in pastel and two in watercolor.  Two of them have been hanging around for quite awhile but they will get finished with in the next month or so!  I managed to paint in plein air for the last three months of 2012- a couple of times after dark which was challenging.  So that's on my list for 2013 as well.  As a member of the Dixie Girls Paint Challenge group I expect to get outside of my comfort zone on a fairly regular basis- with new themes or painting materials.  All and all 2013 is setting up to be a year full of learning, painting, and fun.  I'm hoping 2013 brings you what you are wishing for as well.

Wishing you a safe and Happy Holiday!

Merry Christmas!