Holiday Exhibit Announcement

May 19th. oil and acrylic on canvas. 10 x 8.5" available

November 11th - January 2012, you can find my work at Annex Gallery in Charleston, WV as part of their group Holiday exhibition!

The end of the month has come and gone, so that means that this will be the last post here on my Blogger blog. It's kind of sad, I have enjoyed this format, but having my blog integrated with my website is too good to pass up! Thank you so much for reading and commenting, it has really meant the world to me. I hope you will join me over at my brand new blog/website!

New Painting - Portrait

Yellow Poplar- Portrait. oil, acrylic and crayon on canvas.

This is the first work in a new series that is inspired by the trees along a walking path that I frequent a lot that runs along Prickett's Creek in Marion County, WV. There are nine trees (that are labeled) along the trail and I will be doing a "portrait" of each one. The first is of the last tree on the trail (just to mix it up!), the yellow poplar. This is also the largest painting I have done since university, and it feels great!

For a larger image of the painting, please check out my new website blog! Don't forget to begin following me there :)

Thank you!

Just wanted to say a quick "thank you!" to everyone who stopped out at the Arts Walk on Saturday. It was a great time and I truly appreciate all the people who came to visit all the artists showing. I even made the local news!

Work in Progress...

New studies Preview

"Study 50" acrylic and crayon on canvas. 6 x 4.5"




"Study 43" acrylic and crayon on canvas. 6 x 4.5"

"Study 48" acrylic and crayon on canvas. 6 x 4.5"

"Study 51" acrylic and crayon on canvas. 6 x 4.5"

This is just a sampling of new work! To view more new studies, be sure to view my new blog at my website. Remember, this is the last month for posting at this address - please follow me over. Happy Friday everyone!

New Painting!

Creek Flowers - August 27th. oil, crayon and acrylic on canvas. 17 x 20" $450

Notecards

Now for sale through my etsy shop! 4 for $6 or 8 for $10

These little notecards are blank on the inside, and can be used for any occasion or given as a gift. I use them to write out my thank you's to gallery owners, etc. They are professionally printed on cardstock, measure 4.5 x 5", and feature a different painting on each card. Each card comes with a white envelope. On the front of the card, the title of the painting is listed underneath the image, and on the back at the bottom in small print are the painting's details: my name, the title, medium, size and date.

"February 28th"

You can find my piece February 28th listed online now with Gray Blush Gallery - exciting! I'm hearing that their official website will be up and running soon...

New Painting!

August 27th - Upshur County. oil and acrylic on canvas.

I want to give everyone a heads up. Soon, I will be switching completely over to my new blog that is housed on my brand new website. I hope you will join me over at the new url. If you are a follower, please update your reader or bookmark with my new address: http://www.laurenadamsart.com/blog.html.

I hope to see you there!

Monday's Front Page!

I'm late to post, but it was too cool not to mention. On Monday, my sister, Chelsey Adams of cla contemporary created a treasury featuring one of my little studies. Because of her awesome curatorial skills, it made it the front page of Etsy! To those of you who aren't familiar with Etsy, this is really awesome and brings lots of people to your shop. I had over a 1,000 page views that day alone - Thanks, Chelsey! Also be sure to check out her amazing shop full of handmade contemporary jewellery!

Reception and Gallery Talk Tonight!

Tonight there will be an opening reception for the 3 person show I am participating in along with Martha Neaves and Derek Overfield. It is at the Sleeth Gallery at WV Wesleyan College in Buckhannon, WV. If you have never been to the Sleeth Gallery and are in the area, be sure to stop by (it really is a lovely space). The reception is from 4:30-6:00 followed by a Gallery Talk by all three artists. If you love power point presentations (who doesn't?), both Martha and I will be including one in our talk - I promise not to bored you! And there will be refreshments. We would love to see you there!

New Website!

About 2 weeks in to my training on Dreamweaver, I threw my hands up in aggravation! I was learning a lot, but I could tell this would be a long, loooong road to new-website-dom. Like, maybe a year from now, I could potentially build the website of my dreams. Then I was tipped off to Weebly.com (thanks Chris! You are the best!). After the first 10 minutes using the site, I was giddy. I am still giddy. It is the absolute best for people like me, who are...hmm, what's a nice way to put this...not very computer savy. It has a fantastic website editor that lets you work very intuitively (as in, drag and drop), while also offering you access to your code and css. Perfect!

So I give you the new and very much improved www.laurenadamsart.com!

Upcoming exhibit @ Sleeth Gallery

The work will be delivered tomorrow - yay!

Gray Blush Gallery

January 8th I. oil and acrylic on canvas. 20 x 17" $450

I have exciting news! I have waited to share it with my readers until it was online. Two of my works will be carried by the newly formed Gray Blush Gallery. They have a preview site up right now, so check that out - I am currently on the front page! Also make sure to view my introductory Artist Profile page.

You may remember one of the jury panelists, Ryan Schultz, from Bravo's TV series Work of Art, which I know has been renewed for a second season, but I don't know when it will air?

Work in Progress...

The view in my little studio as of now....working on a new 48 x 30". It's nice to be painting this large again, that's for sure!

Hopefully I will have this painting completed by the end of the weekend for a New Painting post. Won't be in the studio tomorrow - as I am taking a much needed trip to Ikea. Derek and I need a new bookcase for the office. Anyway, it would be great if this piece would turn out, as I could include a very new painting in my upcoming 3 person exhibit at the Sleeth Gallery. This Wednesday is the delivery date!

New and Improved!

Banner, that is. Today, in my ongoing effort to freshen up the look of my blog, I am changing the header and background color to reflect the changes in my work. This change will slowly be implemented throughout my marketing materials as well. So new brochure, newsletter, business cards, and maybe (hopefully) new website are around the corner! I am trying to learn very basic Dreamweaver to create my own website and have complete control over the look and feel. This is proving even harder than I imagined (and trust me, I imagined it to be very difficult), so wish me luck - I really need it!

In Banner history:

(yikes! this is getting embarrassing.)

New Painting

Oak - July 29th. oil and acrylic on canvas. 34 x 28"

Donation!

Prickett's Creek. oil and acrylic on canvas. 20 x 17". Donation.

Remember the Loyalhanna Watershed Association's Annual Dinner and Art Auction Benefit that I mentioned many months ago? Well, I have settled on donating Prickett's Creek (above) for the silent auction. I really wish I was able to attend the event as I have heard that their decorator is doing a 3-D re-creation of my Valley Falls- October 9th painting as a water feature, and also coordinating the decor for the evening with the color palette of the piece! I really can't believe it...I am so excited and honored, I am sad to miss it. At that time in September, Derek and I will be celebrating our 1 year anniversary for an extended weekend. (We are both huge Avett Brothers fans and will be attending their back-to-back shows in Virginia that weekend.) Hopefully I will have pictures of the event sent to me so I can share.

Prickett's Fort photos

The area that I paint a lot (Prickett's Creek) has a nearby log fort (and original house circa 1859) that has recreated a representation of forts and a lifestyle common at the time, with demonstrations by artisans, blacksmiths, etc. These are a few pictures that I took on a recent visit with Derek's parents.

As one of West Virginia's most unique living history museums, Pricketts Fort invites visitors to relive the pioneering spirit of Captain Jacob Prickett and his family.

Perched on a small rise overlooking the confluence of Prickett's Creek and the Monongahela River, this rustic log fort is a re-creation of the original Prickett's Fort of 1774, which served as a refuge from Native American war parties on the western frontier of Colonial Virginia. Built in 1976 by the Prickett's Fort Memorial Foundation, the "new" fort serves as a living history site where interpreters recreate late 18th century lifestyle through period attire and demonstrations of a variety of colonial crafts. Throughout the season, visitors may find blacksmiths, spinners, weavers and other traditional artisans at work, and a gun shop which features the only public demonstrations of 18th century firearm manufacturing in the state.

The fort covers a 100 by 100 foot square, with 12-foot-high log walls and blockhouses at each corner. Lining the weathered stockade walls are 16 tiny cabins, some with earthen floors. A meetinghouse and a storehouse fill the common.

When the threat of Native American uprisings occurred, up to 80 families from the surrounding countryside would hurry to the fort. They would stay as long as the threat existed, from days to weeks.

"Forting up" was simply tolerated by settlers, as life in the cramped quarters could be unpleasant. Such sacrifices were necessary for survival on the dangerous frontier of the late 1700s. Today's fort, just north of Fairmont, still portrays that life and time.

Formatting

I am changing how images appear on this blog ( along with a few other small things), as you can tell from the previous post - as this is of course a blog about painting and images are too important to have them as small as I have previously had. Through some simple html tinkering I will now have much larger images of my paintings appearing! This new format puts the emphasis where it should have been all along. It was so much easier than I thought it would be, I should have searched for help earlier. I'm feeling a bit ridiculous now...

Also, in painting (and format?) news, I have a new canvas size that I have been working on recently, a larger stretcher - 34"H x 28"W. Right now I am working on completing my first one. I will be displaying the new piece in my August Studio newsletter first, so be sure to sign up! These are especially intended for my upcoming group show at West Virginia Wesleyan in August and September.