Friday Feature: Brenda Raub

"Artist's Thumbprint" by Brenda Raub
won 2nd place in the Daniel Smith 11th Annual Art Contest

This weeks Friday Feature is Brenda Raub.  I met Brenda after we both took home prizes from the Daniel Smith 11th Annual Art Contest.  Brenda's painting, "Artist's Thumbprint", won 2nd prize which prize was an on-line shopping spree from Daniel Smith.  I just fell in love with her piece and couldn't wait to feature her.  Brenda is currently an High School art teacher, I respect that so much about her.  There is nothing better than sharing your talents and shaping young minds:)

To see more of Brenda's work visit her website, and Facebook page .

How did you get your start?  

When I was 19 years old I worked at a bank and thought I should not go to college since I wasn’t strong in Math.  Meanwhile, I kept having reoccurring nightmares of me running from someone.  I had my fortune told to me and she told me that I was probably running away from something that I needed but was afraid of.  So, I thought about it and decided it was going to college to study art!  Sure enough, I’ve never dreamt that nightmare since devoting my studies to art.  What’s your artist journey so far? While in college I did a lot of freelance illustration work.  Even though I was starting to build a portfolio, I still wanted the security of a regular paycheck.  I went into art education and became an art teacher at the same school I graduated from! Throughout the years I’ve been lucky enough to teach not only high school students but also kids and adults in private lessons.  When I’m not teaching I work in my studio on my own work as well as commissions. 

original by Brenda Raub

Where were you born? Duluth Minnesota

If you could live anywhere where would you live? In an artist colony surrounded by beautiful landscapes of mountains, trees, and water.

What’s your favorite thing to paint and why? 

I love still lives.  If it has color and texture I’m probably intrigued and inspired!

original by Brenda Raub

Could you talk about your painting techniques?

 I work with colored pencils.  Layer after layer of various colors create depth and a richness of color.  You can melt colored pencils to create an almost watercolor effect.  You can burnish colored pencils for a more opaque acrylic or oil paint effect.   I will use melting and burnishing in the same painting along with layers and layers of colored pencil to create one of my still lives.  

Do you have go-to paints/colors, what are your favorites?

 I mostly use Prismacolor Colored Pencils and my favorite color to use is Tuscan Red!  

Do you have a favorite artist?

 My favorite artist changes as often as the weather in Idaho!  Right now I’m so inspired by Tjalf Sparnaay, a photo realist painter that blows my mind!  Who has been your biggest inspiration?  My biggest inspiration has been my fellow artist’s guild members, other members of the Colored Pencil Society of America (CPSA), my art students, and my patrons.  

original by Brenda Raub

What have been some of your crowning achievements?

 I came in second to Carrie in the Daniel Smith Catalog art contest!  I am a signature member of the CPSA with a monetary award win from their Experimental Juried Show.  

What are five things you would like to happen in your life in the next five years? 

Dream big here:)  I’d like to make the shift to creating more artwork and a little less teaching.  I want to travel to all different places in the world with camera in hand to take thousands of reference photos.  I’d like to submit my artwork to more magazines and books for publication. I’d love to see one of my artworks as a jig saw puzzle!  I’d like to be surrounded by fellow creatives on a daily basis.  

original by Brenda Raub

What is your advice for other artists who are just getting started in their career?

  Network, network, network.  Practice, practice, practice.  And, practice some more!  

What is the best advice that you have received as an artist?

 Value your art and the time you put into it and don’t give it away!  

original by Brenda Raub

SPEED ROUND!

Chocolate or vanilla?

Vanilla ice cream, Chocolate everything else

Your dream vacation spot?

West coast of Mexico

Book or movie?

Book

Favorite author?

Stephanie Evonavich 

Favorite movie?

Bridesmaids

Romance or comedy?

Comedy

Favorite dessert?

warm fresh dark chocolate brownie with coconut ice cream

Night owl or morning person?

Night owl

Thanks so much Brenda:)

Carrie's Favorite Things

Hi Everyone,

Since I'm slow on the painting front at the moment I thought I would share my favorite things list:)  I would love to hear (read) some of yours in the comment section.

I'll start with the most life changing tool I use for my art.  My Ipad, full sized, please!  It has truly transformed how I paint.  I use it for taking reference photos, and I paint from my I pad.  The image is amazing way better than any printed off photograph.  If you haven't tried it you need too!!!

My favorite paints are Daniel Smith watercolors.  Their Quinacridones are the best.  They are limited and will run out in the next few years so stock up now.

My favorite brushes are Richeson brushes.  Daniel Smith sells a set that I've been using.  It's the Laurin McCracken set and it has a size 2, 4 and 6 kolinsky sable.  But I've been hearing so much about
Rosemary brushes that I'm going to have to try those as well.

My favorite pencils for drawing are mechanical pencils.  You can get the tiny details without having to sharpen your pencil all the time.  I'm cranky if I can't find a mechanical pencil in the house:)

My favorite paper is Arches 260lb.  Because 140 is too thin and buckles and 300lb is too thick and soft.  260lb is just right:))  Thanks to Paul Jackson for turning me onto this paper.  I did hear that Canson bought Arches so I'll probably be purchasing quite a bit of this before Canson starts making it.

My favorite thing to watch while I'm painting are movies.  I love streaming movies and shows through Netflix and Amazon video which comes free if you sign up for Amazon Prime.

My favorite movie at the moment to watch while I'm painting is "It's Complicated" starring Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin.  Love, love, love this movie and have watched it a thousand times.

Another favorite movie I watch is "Something's Gotta Give".  I know you're probably wondering how can you watch a movie and paint? Well, I'm not a music person.  It gets on my nerves when I'm painting.  So I love having movies or shows on.  I mostly listen but am able to watch too, I'm a multi-tasker.  Talking to other people that have trouble listening to music while creating I think that I have to have by brain engaged, listening to talk, or pod-casts, or talk radio.   Music makes me think to much and I need to be able to zone out to paint.

Not only do I love Something's Gotta Give for the movie but who wouldn't want to create here

Or live here.  I just love the interiors in this movie and would love to have a house that looked just like this!!

And because I love her desk so much in Something's Gotta Give I had to buy this one when I found it at an antique store.  It's my painting desk.  It was in a legal office in New Orleans and is solid wood and really old.  I love it!  I put the glass top on it, it doesn't quite fit so I'll have to order one.

If you haven't listened to this podcast you have too!!!  Artists Helping Artists is the best blog radio show out there.  Tons of free marketing information and interviews with amazing artists.  There is something for every artist.  You can find it on itunes for free or you can listen right on the website.  You must tune in.  A new show airs every Thursday and I've co-hosted often.

And this is what I use every day.  I love EOS sweet mint.  It's an organic product.  It's amazing and addicting.  Love it!!  I also love Burt's Bees, I'm for anything that is all natural and not tested on animals and that is an amazing product.  I wear the color rhubarb and raisin in lieu of lipstick because it does just as good a job.

I hope to do a favorites things list more often because it's just fun:))  Tell me some of your favorites:)

Carrie

Work In Progress

Hi Everyone,

work in progress, watercolor 16x20 by Carrie Waller
www.carriewallerfineart.com

I'm starting a new painting.  The inspiration for this painting comes from my Grandpa.  I recently acquired a lot of the family pictures and one of the pictures in the box was of my Grandpa on the Indy 500 test track.  My Grandpa passed away when I was 6, but my best memories of him are watching him work on cars at his auto body repair shop.  "Smitty" as everyone called him was the best in the area at doing auto body painting.  So you can imagine what a great experience being at the Indianapolis 500 test track must have been for a guy who's passion was cars.

When I found the photo I knew that I wanted to build a painting around this, so I blew the photo up and placed Hotwheels cars all around the photo.  Painting these cars is really fun, even though the glittery purple truck almost took an entire day, who knew glitter would be so difficult to capture.

I'll be sharing my work in progress pictures with you, and you can always like my fan page, I post pictures as I'm painting throughout the day.

I also was featured on Daniel Smith's page the other day, they did an interview and everything:))

Carrie

My Big Secret

"Celebration" original watercolor by Carrie Waller

All weekend long I have been harboring a secret.  Have you ever received information that just doesn't seem real, like you'll wake up and it was all a dream.  Last week I received a call from Daniel Smith Art Supply Co.  I didn't answer either time they called because it was an 800 #, finally the Director of Sales left me a message.  I called back and got her voice mail.  We finally touched base around 4:30 Thursday afternoon.  She said "Are you sitting down?", "You are the Grand Prize winner of the 11th Annual online art competition.  My mind went spinning in a thousand directions.  "Are you sure?" I replied.  "Yes, she said and why haven't you been answering the phone."  She was thrilled to get to call the winners and was dying for me to answer the phone.  So I have won a trip for 2 to Seattle, $1000 spending money and a full art studio, which from the contest rules it states it's a full shawn taboret.  The package is worth $10,500.  They're calling back with the details.   I'm almost equally excited because Laurin McCracken won last year and I am a huge fan of his work.

I'm thrilled and still a bit in shock!  And I really hope they make the official announcement soon, just so I can see it in writing:)  Oh and my painting will be on the Daniel Smith catalog going out August 1st.  Somebody pinch me!!!!

Thank you to everyone that voted to get my painting into the final round.  Seriously, I'm still in shock!!

Carrie

Mixing Greens

I've had several requests to share my green palette and mixing techniques so I thought I would devote todays post to greens.

These are the greens I have been using in my green bottle paintings.  The pans at the top are Schmincke watercolors on the starting from the left is Pthalo Brilliant Grn, Delft Blue (not used in these paintings but wanted to identify what it was), empty space, Sap grn, Hooker's grn, and May grn.  The tube colors below are all Daniel Smith paints starting from the left is Undersea grn, Spring grn, Green Apatite Genuine, Green Gold, Sap Green, Cascade Grn and the end tube on the right is Holbein's Shadow grn.

The yellow I used in this painting is Daniel Smith's Quinophthalone, love this yellow it's in between a cool and warm yellow, kind of a bright fresh neutral.  Love it!!

I also wanted to show my favorite turquoise which is Schmincke's cobalt turquoise.  I always try to sneak a little of this into every painting.  One of my absolute favorite colors.

I always save my paints because I just can't stand to wipe a way paint, feels like I'm throwing money away so I work from dried paints.  Plus I started using pans and they are always in a dry format.  I understand that some artists prefer fresh colors for each painting but I really enjoy using some of the colors I mixed from previous paintings.  Some of my best colors have come out of that.  I do keep my paints segregated by like colors.  So  this palette has only greens.  A tad of orange in there because I used that to mix some of my neutrals.  I always mix my neutral grays by mixing the compliments.  Also my black areas are always a mixture of Indigo and Sepia both Daniel Smith.  But Schmincke makes my favorite Sepia.  

"Going Green" work in progress 18" x 30"

In the painting "Going Green" I began by laying in my lightest colors.  I try to avoid using masking fluid because it can leave such a hard edge, I try my hardest to reserve my whites and paint around them.  It just takes a little more planning but I feel worth it in the end.  So I started with my Quinopthalone yellow.  In the areas that were cooler I laid in a Pthalo Grn mixed with a bit of sap green just to warm it up a bit.  I also lay my darks in right away so I can get the values that I want.  It ensures that the painting is working and helps me to avoid that awkward stage a watercolor can go through if you don't establish the darkest darks at the beginning.  The darks I use in the painting are a mixture of Indigo and Sepia.  To darken any greens I mixed in DS Undersea green or Holbein Shadow Green.  I also mix in a bit of the orange color for a great neutral which in this case was Quinacridone Sienna.

Add caption

I just kept working the above process throughout the rest of the painting.  I followed my reference photo and had my bottles in front of me while I was painting.  If the bottle was warmer and more yellow I stuck with the Quinophtalone yellow and sap greens, in the cooler areas I used phthalo greens and brilliant green.  

If you have any questions I would be happy to answer them.  Leave any questions in the comment section and I'll reply.

Carrie

Going Green original watercolor 18" x 30"

"Going Green"18" x 30" original watercolor on 260lb Arches by Carrie Waller

Hi Everyone,

I can finally share my completed painting:)  I had so much fun with these glorious greens.  I just love incorporating dramatic natural light in my compositions and this painting was a great vehicle to do just that.  The inspiration for this painting came when we were trying to find a bottle of red in our collection that didn't go bad during our move this summer in 116 degree temperatures.  So even if the wine was a loss at least the bottles were put to good use. 

Getting wine labels off bottles is no easy feat.  After a warm bubble bath they were still stubborn so I had to bust out the goo gone.  It worked like a charm.  Among the wine bottles there are also some small Perrier bottles and a Tabasco bottle as a nod to my Louisiana crew.

This painting is the beginning of a new series I am going to be doing.  I really want a cohesive body of work with some continuity in my subject matter, so expect some more glass bottle paintings.  I've already been scoping out the flea markets for bottles.  I hit the jackpot on amber glass the other day, and my in-laws are looking for cobalt bottles:)  My father-in-law found several cobalt bottles of Riesling and Vodka,

I do have a few commissions coming down the pike and a couple smaller projects intermixed. 

Come back Wednesday for the work in progress pictures of "Going Green".

Sam graciously offered to be my model.  Thought you could get a better sense of the scale.

Carrie

Work in Progress Wednesday step by step pictures of my latest paintng

Hi Everyone,

Thought I'd share my process with you.  This painting is 11" x 14" painted on 260lb Arches with Daniel Smith watercolors.

wip 1

wip 2

wip 3

wip 4

wip 5

wip 6

"Summer Kaleidoscope" 11"x14" original watercolor on 260lb Arches by Carrie Waller

Friday Feature: Frank Eber

"Donaufahrt" original watercolor by Frank Eber

 Hi Everyone,  It's Friday again.  For all of us in the States we're getting ready for Turkey Day!!!  Today is another spectacular artist Mr. Frank Eber!  His work is amazing!  I'm going to share Frank's bio from his website.

  Frank Eber is a young, up-and-coming watercolor artist who paints uniquely fresh and atmospheric watercolors that possess a dreamy quality. He is known for his loose and magical plein air work. He is a Signature member of the National Watercolor Society and has won awards in many international shows. Frank's painting Dordogne River Valley View, 2011, was awarded the Alden Bryan Memorial Medal at the prestigious American Watercolor Society's 2012 Annual Exhibition in New York City, and is currently in the Travel Show. His work is featured in the October/November 2012 issue of International Artist magazine, the June 2012 issue of Watercolor Artist magazine, Splash 14: Light and Color! (North Light Books, 2013) and on the cover of the Palos Verdes Art Center Fall classes and Daniel Smith 2012 Summer catalogs.

Frank grew up in Europe and was mentored by Italian master painter Renato Casaro in the early '90s. His work is currently exhibited in local as well as national shows and he currently serves as the 2nd Vice President (Traveling Exhibit) on the board of the National Watercolor Society. His love of travel has given him prime opportunities to paint: he lived for two years in the south of France, and has painted on location in Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Germany and the Czech Republic.

Frank is happily married and lives in Redondo Beach, California.

To see more of his work visit his website and blog

"Les Toits" original watercolor by Frank Eber

 How did you get your start?  What your artistic journey so far?

 My artistic journey began in early childhood. Drawing and painting was always part of my life. But I never pursued a carreer in fine art. Instead I became a professional illustrator in the field of video cover sleeve design in the early nineties. Later I pursued a career in Faux finishing. I haven't discovered watercolor until about ten year's ago.
Also in the nineties, I was fortunate to have studied with Renato Casaro in Munich. He is an Italian master painter who became famous in Europe for his painted movie posters. I did a painting apprenticeship and we worked both in oils and gouache. Other than that, I have no formal art training.

Where were you born?

I was born in Nuremberg, in the state of Bavaria, Germany - Albrecht Duerer is from the same city!

"Santa Cruz Church" original watercolor by Frank Eber

 If you could live anywhere where would you live?

I think I would move back to the south of France where I've lived for three years in the past. I might still do it!

 What is your favorite thing to paint?
 I can't decide! I like painting streets scenes plein air. It's such a formidable challenge and a great teacher! I love painting bucolic scenes with cows and farms, maybe because I grew up around them.

"Satrocesk Trdlo" original watercolor by Frank Eber

 Could you discuss your painting techniques?

 All my paintings are two or three wash paintings. I usually start with the sky and foreground establishing mood and value. I use big squirrel mops that hold lots of water. My paintings are painted loosely and with focus on an
atmospheric feel. I try not to have too many hard edges, so I paint mostly wet on wet and wet on damp.

 What are your go to paint colors?

 Go-to paints are definitely Cobalt blue, ultramarine violet, orange and turquoise, Daniel Smith is great, so is Holbein and Schmincke.
  

"Cow Pasture, Northern California" original watercolor by Frank Eber

 Do you have a favorite artist? Who are your painting inspirations?

Renato Casaro. Joseph Zbukvic is one of my biggest inspiration when it comes to watercolor painting. Also, Christopher St. Leger, Robert Wade and Charles Reid

What have been some of your crowning achievements?

"Three's A Crowd" original watercolor by Frank Eber

Winning one of the major awards at the American Watercolor Society in NYC this year. Becoming a signature member of the National Watercolor Society in 2010. Having a painting accepted at the Shanghai Biennial.
Being featured in both Watercolor Artist's magazine and International Artist without paying to be in there.

What five things would you love to see happen in the next five years?  Dream big here:)

I'd like to become a better painter. On the materialistic side: a *real* studio with lots of space. I'd like to become a household name in the watercolor world! That's dreaming big, right?
You said five, so I'll say the first sentence two more times! :) To me, that's the most important thing in the world!

"Total Concentration" original watercolor by Frank Eber

  What advice do you have for artists just getting their start?

Keep it real, work hard on your craft. Find a niche. Paint outstanding paintings and you'll get recognized. Compare yourself to the elite in your genre and brutaly, honestly assess where you are. Don't ask you family to critique your paintings.

"Vienna Calling" original watercolor by Frank Eber

 What has been the best advice you've received as an artist?

"Make it about the paintings, everything else is secondary"

"Wilder Ranch" original watercolor by Frank Eber

Speed Round:

Chocolate or Vanilla?
Chocolate

Dream vacation spot?
 New Zealand

Book or movie?
 book -

Favorite Author?
 Raymond Chandler

Favorite Movie?
 Run Lola Run

 Romance or Comedy
 Romance

Favorite Dessert?
fresh goat cheese (in France)

Morning person or Night Owl?
night owl

Frank, Thank you so much!  Your work is oustanding!

Carrie

These are a few of my favorite things

Thought I'd share some favorite things of mine:)

Favorite Fall Painting:

I love this painting of Heide Presse's "Oliver's Porch".  Heide paints with watercolor, casein and oils.  After seeing her works I bought casein paints, I didn't have much success with them, I may have to give it another go sometime.

Favorite Paints

 It was love at first sight with Daniel Smith's quinacridone paints.  Couldn't live with out them.

Favorite Candle

I love candles and this is what I'm burning this month.  Smells so good!

Favorite Fall Candy

I hate to admit this but our family has already been through 2 bags of candy corn and it's not even October yet.

Favorite Artsy Flick

Watched this documentary while painting this month.  It's fascinating.  I was thrilled when I found out that the Arkansas Art's Center just had the opening for an exhibit "50 for Arkansas: the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection." The couple's gift to Arkansas is part of the Vogels' "50X50" donation of 50 works to all 50 states, to institutions of their choice, making the Arts Center lucky as well. The remainder of the Vogel collection went to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.  Can't wait to see it.

Favorite Project Around the House

I decided to spruce up the front door of our house.  Left is the before picture it was pretty bland so I decided to paint it, Right shows the after.  We have a lot of stone work on our house so I wanted to pull some of that color for the door.  I was thrilled to find the perfect shade of paint in the Oops section at Home Depot for $2.  Pretty great improvement , money well spent:)

What are some of your favorite things?

Carrie