… on a day where there is NOT too much scheduled, where I WANT to do what is scheduled, where the sky looks like this at 6:30 a.m., when there is coffee in the cupboard and a new blank book to scribble in!

When a viewer/patron looks at a painting and instantly identifies with the scene or story then as an artist I have accomplished my goal. I started to seriously study art in 2005 with watercolors. I decided to pick up where I had left off 35 years earlier with my love of art and found it wasn’t as easy the second time around. I took a few classes at the Peterson Art Center and then decided to venture out on my own and try oil painting in 2007. This adventure opened my eyes to the realization that painting has to be a daily habit if one wants to become accomplished and appreciated. It also has to be a constant endeavor of studying great artists, visiting galleries, museums and taking workshops and lessons to improve.

In 2008 with my limited exposure and slowly improving skills, I applied and was gratefully accepted for the fall 2008 Artist-in-Residence program at Zion National Park. Nothing can describe the awe and wonder of painting 30 days in such a unique and beautiful environment. It was a life altering experience that I encourage every artist to work toward.

Since my residence I have been working hard to improve and work with better artists. I continue to take painting workshops. I am also starting to sell more paintings and am finding it interesting that the watercolors are the most popular. I’m thrilled to say that my paintings have been sold to buyers from all over the U.S and now also Germany and Canada. (See archives)

My background does explain a little about what and how I paint. I was born and raised in Utah and graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in Anthropology and Archaeology. As a child I was lucky enough to have a father that thought girls should do anything they wanted and not be gender oriented in their activities. Therefore, I have always fished, hunted, played as many sports as possible and worked in my garden and yard. These activities have influenced my painting and love of the out-of-doors. When my husband, Corey and I travel I attempt to paint, sketch and take photos as references for future paintings. Our shared love of art, fly-fishing, golf and gardening has led us to some of the most beautiful spots in the western U.S. and Canada. I simply want others to share my travels and fun through my paintings.

5-Exhibitions, Awards and Shows

One Woman Show 2008 Wasatch County Library-Senior Citizen Center

Honorable Mention Award for “Zion Bank Building” Midway Plein Air Paradise Annual Competition 2008

Artist-in Residence, Zion National Park Fall 2008

One Woman Show at Canyon Gallery, Zion National Park May-June 2009

Participation in Midway Plein Air Competition 2009

click here to see Janice’s wba painting archive

Photos from my 365+ project:

Been doing some good and some terrible designing. Mostly for classes -

Florez is releasing a full length album called Sweet Tea.
I designed a full layout for them this is just the front.

Had to design some promotional material for a hypothetical independent film theater for my final in my independent film class. Here’s a fake poster for a film festival.

Here’s some funny pictures of a banquet that some friends and I attended:

In other news, I’m getting some internship material together and applying. Got lots of goals, so we’ll see how this goes.

same fruits as before, but this time I used oil pastels. I think the dry chalks look better

She needs some band-aid.

Oh, and for those in the know, tonight’s gonna be a good night!

One.

This is a little unfinished, and the style is a little mixed up.  For some reason I included a black line around each object. I think the black lines would have worked better if the objects were rendered more blockily, like the bottle on the right.

Whatever, this is just for a school assignment anyway. I finished the last of my acrylic paints with this painting, so it is time to buy some new ones.

This little meditating frog sits among some old-style books at the home decor store near my work. Note the blown-out highlights; such is the limitations of cell phone cams.  I decided to give him a soft pewter look in order to draw attention away from the flaws. I do like the composition though.

Emma Fordyce MacRae

Born in Vienna, Austria, in 1887, Emma Fordyce MacRae became a noted painter of floral still lif, landscapes, waterscapes and female figures. She was raised in New York City in a wealthy family that traveled frequently to Europe. Most of her professional life was in New York City, but she also spent much time in Cape Ann and Gloucester, Massachusetts.

MacRae studied at private schools while growing up. She married Thomas MacRae, a physician who practiced with her father, a dermatologist. However, she and Thomas stayed together less than a year, and the marriage was annulled ten years later. In 1922, she married Homer Swift.

In 1911, she enrolled at the Art Students League, studying with Frank Vincent DuMond and Kenneth Hayes Miller. In 1915 and later, she studied with Francis Luis Mora, John Sloan and Ernest Blumenschein. At the New York School of Art, she again studied with Miller and with Robert Reid.

In 1914, she had her first exhibition, which was in New York at the Anderson Galleries. The style of those exhibited paintings was “broad impressionist inspired” with “a hint of the form and the careful arrangement that would characterize her later compositions.”

Throughout her career, Central Park was a frequent subject of her landscapes. Other favored locations were around Cape Ann and Gloucester, especially the beaches and coves of Ipswich Bay. Unlike many of her contemporaries in those locations, she avoided painting the open vistas of the ocean. Her still life paintings were unique for that time in that she often used “props” that she owned such as simple ceramic pots or Oriental vases and combined them with figurines. Her treatment of the background and foreground frequently gave the impression of being merged. Most of her figure paintings were interior scenes with simplified female forms.

In 1925, she inherited a home that her father had built in Gloucester, which meant she spent considerable time in that location as well as New York City. She exhibited at the Gallery-on-the-Moors, the North Shore Arts Association and the Gloucester Society of Artists.

In 1936, she and the French artist, Raoul Dufy, held a joint exhibition in New York. She became a member of the National Association of Women Artists in 1923 and was active in numerous other East Coast art associations including Philadelphia, Gloucester, and Boston. From 1918 to 1918, her work was exhibited at the National Academy. The artist died in 1974.

View Examples of her Work here

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My room has too few outlets.  Sometimes, electronics have to share. Today, my external hard-drive gets the lamp’s socket. He’s also borrowing an adapter from Kathryn, as his rectangular American prongs don’t take too kindly to the round French receptacles.

Still life, Paris Ve.

Just brought some fruit from Coles and decided to do this still life. I did it in dry chalks. hope you guys like it :-]

The subject matter is so much more important than the photographer.
-Gordon Parks-

Many years ago, in an attempt to have my photography staff understand that just about every element around them can produce an interesting photograph; I challenged them to take a look literally in their own backyard and produce a visual that was compelling and unique.

As I remember the majority met and surpassed the challenge with one individual laboring over a macro image of dog poop.  I’m guessing it was more an editorial comment on the assignment than taking the journey to elevate the way one sees simplistic objects commonly found within our daily reach.

The wonderful thing about photography is that you don’t need to travel far to see the beauty of light and how it can transform every day objects into a worthy subject for the lens.

Two of my favorite photographers when I first picked up a camera were, and still are, Elliott Erwitt and Gordon Parks who both had a different, yet unique ways of viewing a still life.

At some point in everyone’s life they have a period of time while recovering from a physical or financial challenge and find they have too much time on their hands and need a focus.  I can only suggest picking up a camera and turning to the light.  The only limitations you’ll find are your own.

Dog  poop?  Just the fear of failure.

You can find pictures anywhere. It’s simply a matter of noticing things and organizing them. You just have to care about what’s around you and have a concern with humanity and the human comedy

-Elliott Erwitt-

Dreams and Prayers

With l’Ange, De Parnier’s portrait series moved into a more abstract phase. A natural evolution from “Portrait de femme en sphinx,” she reversed her formula of camera on tripod with subject attempting to remain still, with still subject captured by a camera influenced by the slight movements of the photographer’s own body.

A classic of the B-Ville group.

Busy staving off the real world with a bucket full of broken glass – these photos remind me a little of the calm glass city that sings sometimes seen in my dreams.