2017 Art Calendars are here!

My 2017 Art Calendars are here and they look beautiful!

Each month has an image from the paintings depicted above.

Each calendar is $12.00 with $1.50 per shipping.  Discounts on shipping for quantities over 4.

To order, click here:

Thank you so much for ordering and please email me at lisabwiertel@gmail.com if you have any questions!

"Pug", Acrylic on Canvas, 8"x10"

I just finished up this cute painting of a pug.  I love the green background on it.  I currently have it for sale at Daily Paintworks.

I have a couple more pet portraits that I will be posting in the next couple of weeks.  I have been really busy teaching and planning for my art classes so it hasn't given me a lot of time to work on my own paintings.  I am hoping for more time in the studio in the next few weeks.

Stay tuned!

"Small Trio", Acrylic on Gallery Wrap Canvas 5"x7"

I was busy last week finishing up a couple of paintings for a recent show.  I decided to do a smaller painting of peppers using a trio of peppers I bought from Trader Joe's.  Once again, I am using the Liquitex Slo-Blending Medium. Wondering where this product has been all my life!  It really has been helping me.  I can't wait to get in the studio and finish up some paintings using this medium.

This painting is currently for sale at Daily Paintworks.

Thank you for looking!

"Yellow Tulips", Acrylic on Gessobord, 16"x20"

I just recently finished this painting that I had been working on for a long time.  It took a while for me to figure out how I wanted to lay the colors.  I have been using Liquitex Slo-Blending Medium for the last couple of paintings and it has been helping me with the blending of the colors.

This painting is for sale through Daily Paintworks.

Thank you for looking and always comments and critiques are appreciated.

"Bowl of Cherries", Acrylic on Canvas, 8"x8"-SOLD!

I just finished up this painting this week.  I used a photo from a Facebook friend for the reference photo.  I have never painted cherries before so I was excited to have a new subject to try.  I have been using Liquitex Slow-Dri Blending Medium on the last couple of paintings.  I am enjoying experimenting with it.  It gives longer drying times for the acrylic paints in order to blend better.

Thank you for stopping by!

Albright-Knox Art Gallery Visit

Paul Gaughin's Yellow Christ

I grew up in Western New York and try to make it up back this way at least once or twice a year.  Since my 16 year old daughter has developed a love of art and art history, I thought it would be fun to go back to probably one of the first art galleries I ever went to.  It's kind of nice that I have someone to bum around with to art galleries without feeling like I am being rushed.

The Albright-Knox Art Gallery is in Buffalo, New York and I haven't been there in probably about 20 years.  I can remember distinctly some of the art that I viewed there as a child mainly the Warhol works that they have in their collection.  I was happy to see that they had more works that I recognize and love which made for a fun visit.

Besides "Yellow Christ", another Gauguin piece that is one of my favorites was there.  Paul Gauguin's "Spirit of the Dead Watching".

I love walking through and finding pieces that I have read about.  It was nice to come across a George Seurat painting and to study the artist's pointillism technique.

 

"Etude Pour "Le Chahut"" by Georges Seurat

I was happy to see a Frida Kahlo for the first time.  I love her work so much.  I never knew that the Albright-Knox had one of her self-portraits.

"Self Portrait with Monkey" by Frida Kahlo

Another one that I knew that my daughter would like would be Jackson Pollock's Convergence.  I had my daughter pose in front of it just to show the scale.  I thought it would be a good reference photo to use with my students to show how truly large Pollock's pieces are.

My daughter loved this whimsical play on words in this piece by Francois Morellet called "Geometree No. 51".  It actually had a tree branch on the painting.

There is a special exhibition going on right now at the Albright-Knox with 2 different abstract expressionist artists.  The description of the exhibition is as follows:

Shade: Clyfford Still / Mark Bradford features the work of celebrated American artists Mark Bradford (born 1961) and Clyfford Still (1904–1980). For the exhibition, Bradford has helped select more than twenty paintings from the Albright-Knox's important collection of works by Still. In adjacent galleries, Bradford presents a group of his own paintings—created specifically for this exhibition—that manifest an ongoing conversation with both Still’s abstractions and the broader legacy of Abstract Expressionism.

Being a mixed media artist myself, I loved being able to get up close to Mark Bradford's work and seeing the different layers he used to create his art.

The paintings were HUGE, complex, multi-layer masterpieces that amazed me with their execution by the artist.  I can't imagine how long it took to complete these pieces.

I will be posting some photos from my visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art that I went to in May.  As always, thanks for stopping by to read!

#urbansketching

I just got done  visiting my family in my hometown of Buffalo.  I always bring my art portfolio every place I go so I was excited to see that an Urban Sketching event was taking place in downtown Buffalo.  Living where I live in Virginia, I don't get the opportunity to urban sketch.  I don't think there is a building more than 4 stories tall where I live!  I was lucky that our busy schedule here allowed a free night to join up in this.

In the effort to spend more time with my children I brought my 8 year old son Joseph along.
Being a homeschooling mom sometimes makes it difficult not to make time spent with your children always a "teaching moment".  I have been trying to spend time just "hanging" with my children and not having a goal for what we are doing.  Since my older 2 were going to be back at my parent's home alone I didn't want to saddle them with watching their brother.  Sometimes they fail to feed the kid!  I brought my tablet with "Angry Birds" on it for Joseph to play on while I sketched.

The location for the sketch was Lafayette Square in downtown Buffalo where it's showpiece is the Soldier's and Sailor's Monument in the Center.  Joseph and I walked around the monument with my eye scanning something that would be interesting and not too difficult to draw.  When we reached the front we met Dana who is the organizer of Urban Sketchers of Buffalo.  She said that she was going to draw the monument.  Joseph pointed out City Hall and told me that I should draw that so we parked ourselves down on the monument steps to start.

The city was busy and people came and went through our area.  At one point, a group of girls dressed in prom dresses posed near the statue.  I guess maybe a prom was happening at the hotel across the way?  I got to work on my drawing.

Joseph took a hold of my camera and went around snapping some photos.

Joseph wanted to also sketch which I encouraged as it left me to work on my drawing with him by my side.

 A little more than an hour later, I started to get tired.  It was getting a little rough trying to keep track of all the windows on City Hall.  Joseph was also getting hungry.  Here is my drawing:

I think I will work on it more when I get home.  Not exactly sure how I will enhance it but I want to fix a few things.  Joseph finished his sketch as well.  His work is below.  He took a little "artistic license" and drew some platypuses flying across of City Hall.

Joseph's urban sketch of City Hall

I enjoyed my night of urban sketching and I am hoping that I have the opportunity to do it again in the future.  To find out more about urban sketching, please click here.

Thank you for stopping by to look at my blog!