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| "Self Portrait" original watercolor by Kelly Eddington |
It's Friday again! Is there any way we can slow down time, maybe double the month of December? It is flying by and I am not ready folks.
This week I'm bringing you a new discovery of mine. I found Kelly's work through Imagekind and fell in love with it immediately. I found her on face book and after chatting a bit I found out that Kelly and I share some common ground. She lives in Illinois where I call home and her sister is an news anchor in the area that I went to high school and college, small world. Anyway, Kelly's work is AMAZING!!!!!! It speaks for itself.
If you would like to see more of her work check out her
website and
blog.
How did you get your start? What’s your artist journey so far?
When I was four or
five my mom asked me what I wanted for Christmas. “A scribble pad.” That was a
pad of 9”x12” newsprint that retailed for around a dollar. “What else?” she
asked. I already had crayons, so I was legitimately stumped. Drawing was my
favorite thing in the world along with playing in the pasture behind our house,
where I made forts out of paneling scraps, looked for monarch caterpillars, and
hid from the ponies. (My grandparents had ponies, strangely enough, and I think
I kind of assumed everyone else did, too.)
My love of art
continued during my years at school—I was the only one in my grade who found
any real pleasure in it. Inspired by my dog Alex, I created a comic strip about
a family of basset hounds that my small-town newspaper published. My drawing
style evolved from child-art to realism when I was 13. I felt like some kind of
veil had lifted and I could really see. My right hand and my brain became best
friends, and suddenly I could draw whatever I wanted. I was an overachiever in
high school, a mathlete, if you will, and I knew that one day I would have to
choose between art and math.
During the summer
between my junior and senior years, I wanted to paint. I had been exploring
acrylic painting in my art classes, but the only paints we had in the house
were a set of watercolors that belonged to my three year-old sister. I spent the
summer painting with those sad little watercolors and their awful plastic brush
on drawing paper so thin that it turned a translucent gray whenever I’d flood
it with too much water. Even though this setup was less than ideal, I fell in
love with watercolor, and once I got my hands on decent brushes, acceptable
paint, and actual watercolor paper, it became so much easier. All thoughts of
studying math in college went out the window.
I loved being an art
major at Western Illinois University, and those years flew by. After completing
four semesters of required courses, I was finally able to study watercolor, and
I didn’t even have to think about it—I knew that this was officially my medium. After graduation I became a
graduate student in art education at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign. My father was a teacher, and my working-class background
dictated that I would need to make a reliable living once I was on my own.
Teaching art seemed like the way to go.
I taught art for
seventeen years in two medium-sized Illinois public high schools. I didn’t marry
until I was 39, and teaching allowed me to support myself and pursue my
painting every summer. I spent the bulk of my twenties exploring abstract expressionism
before returning to realism in my thirties.
Teaching at its best
is the most fulfilling job imaginable, and I loved helping students discover
talents they didn’t know they possessed. My first teaching position was
wonderful, but after eleven years my job became increasingly difficult—classes loaded
with forty students, no money for supplies. I accepted another teaching
position at a different school, but its breakneck schedule and factory-like
environment burned me out in a hurry. I found that I was jealous of my
students. I wanted to be the one doing the projects. Teaching at its worst can
be crushingly repetitive, and eventually I experienced “I shouldn’t be here”
feelings every morning when I pulled into the parking lot. So two and a half
years ago I took a giant step and quit teaching in order to pursue my painting
full-time, and while I am no longer raking in that big fat teacher’s salary
anymore and have to hustle for every dollar I make, I have never been happier in
my life.
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| "The Graduates" original watercolor by Kelly Eddington |
Where were you born?
I was born in Iowa
and spent my entire childhood in La Harpe, a small town in western Illinois.
If you could live anywhere, where would you live?
If I could magically
transport my current, weird home in eastern Illinois, along with its stream and
dozens of trees across the ocean—and also take my extended family, husband, and
three cats along in a way that would stress-free for all involved—sure, I’ll
live in Italy.
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| "Mabel" original watercolor by Kelly Eddington |
What’s your favorite thing to paint and why?
Lately I’ve been
obsessed with things that are wet, shiny, and/or complicated. For a while I was
really into reflections on water. Now I’m crazy about jewelry. It’s also very
satisfying to complete a portrait and watch a human being take shape under my
brush—I like to say that it looks like the person I’m painting is slowly rising
up from a vat of milk. Usually my portraits are very tight, so I tend to follow
those up with a looser floral. I feel like I will never come close to painting
everything I want to.
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| "Studio Assistant" original watercolor by Kelly Eddington |
Could you talk about your painting techniques?
The majority of my
paintings are watercolors in the 22”x30” range. They’re highly detailed and can
take from a couple of weeks to over a month to finish. I work slowly,
completing one section at a time. Nearly everything I paint begins with one or
two layers of wet-into-wet paint, and once those areas dry (or not) I’ll glaze
over them with additional flat washes and drybrush techniques. I use the
smallest amount of water required and rarely flood my paper. I’ve avoided using
masking fluid for over twenty years—I felt that to use it would violate this
ludicrous old-school code of mine—but a couple of years ago I had no other
choice and broke my rule. And now I love the stuff. I use it sparingly, but if
you want to paint sparkly things, it’s the only way to go.
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| "Burano Glass" original watercolor by Kelly Eddington |
Do you have go-to paints/colors, what are your favorites?
Most of my
watercolors are from Old Holland (tubes). Their cadmium red light is so
beautiful I want to be it. I fill in Old
Holland’s color gaps with other brands such as Windsor and Newton and Van Gogh.
I’m crazy about W&N’s turquoise. And opera. Oh. That’s the most gorgeous
hot pink, and it stuns me when I squeeze some out of the tube.
Do you have a favorite artist? Who has been your biggest inspiration?
I was an art history
minor, so I have so many, and I’m the crazy person in the museum who stands in
front of paintings with tears running down her face. Artists who have made me weep
include (in no particular order) Giotto, Masaccio, Rembrandt, Goya, Durer,
Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Rembrandt, Hopper,
Warhol, Vermeer, Picasso, Rothko, Bellini, and de Kooning.
But, and not to
sound too precious about this, my biggest inspiration is nature. The colors and
shapes I see in this most boring of landscapes blow my mind sometimes. Yesterday
I gasped at a stubbly, harvested cornfield in afternoon light—that yellow-gold
was stunning. Or swirly snow drifts by the side of a ditch after a blizzard:
there is no better sculptor than the wind. Color combinations you see on birds,
shapes created by wilting flowers…I feel like I must annoy my husband whenever
we take a walk in the fall because I can’t see a red tree without pointing it
out to him. It’s really kind of a problem.
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| "Glass Gems" original watercolor by Kelly Eddington |
What have been some of your crowning achievements?
I’ve had a great
year: I’m now a signature member of the Illinois Watercolor Society, saw one of
my paintings turned into a mural in downtown Urbana, won an online art
competition put on by CaféPress, and received special awards in a couple of
juried exhibitions. I’ve had two one-person shows over the past year and a
half. A few months ago, I finished an insane wedding portrait that kept me busy
all summer long.
I follow Roger Ebert
on Twitter, and one time he tweeted that he always looks for books on film
criticism in bookshelves in the backgrounds of movies, but he has never seen
any. Coincidentally, I had just completed a portrait of a little girl named
Mabel, and one of Roger’s books was on a shelf behind her. I brought this to
his attention, and he’s blogged and tweeted about my work and has been a pen
pal of mine ever since. We even sort of collaborated on my painting Abandoned Knowledge (he sent me a photo
and said, “You should paint this,” so I did). I got to meet him last year, which
was a thrill. He is unable to speak and communicates via a small notebook and pen
now. He introduced me to one of his friends by writing the word “artist” on his
notepad. And then he underlined it. And then my mind exploded.
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| "Planets and Foil" original watercolor by Kelly Eddington |
What are five things you would like to happen in your
life in the next five years? Dream big here:)
I want to remain
healthy and keep doing what I’m doing. I don’t take that for granted for a
second. I’d like to have a few more one-person shows, maybe publish an article or
two in watercolor magazines, and take on some high-profile portrait
commissions. I also think it would be awesome if every “like” or positive
comment on a Facebook post of mine would automatically translate into cash that
would come spewing out of my laptop. How about a dollar per like, and five
dollars per comment? Ten dollars per share!
What is your advice for other artists who are just
getting started in their career?
Paint what you love
and realize that you’ve got to put in lots of time no matter how talented you
are. I’ve been painting for over 25 years and feel like I’m still improving.
Challenge yourself and take on projects just to see if you can do them. Be
prepared to deal with rejection and keep expectations low as far as
competitions are concerned. Don’t get too down on yourself if you lose, but don’t
get too thrilled if you win. Count on the fact that people who ask you to paint
something might flake out at the last minute. Down-payments need to happen. That
person you said you’d email? Email her today, not tomorrow. Social media will
not lead to many direct sales, so don’t get discouraged; if you stick with it,
it can provide a foundation that will lead to other opportunities. Let your
audience get to know you as a living, breathing person with other interests
beyond begging them to buy your work. If you like to write, create a blog. If
you are like me and live in an area where the art scene is not exactly robust,
online art galleries and printers like Imagekind can be your friend.
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| "Ruby Liberty Dragonfly" original watercolor by Kelly Eddington |
What is the best advice that you have received as an
artist?
I love this quote by
Nick Cave.
"Inspiration is
a word used by people who aren't really doing anything. I go into my office
every day that I'm in Brighton and work. Whether I feel like it or not is
irrelevant. Inspiration is nice, but if you only work when it strikes, you're
going to be an unhappy artist. This is especially true if you want to earn a
living at it; you don't hear about surgeons getting ‘surgeon's block’ or
garbage men getting ‘garbage men's block.’ There are assuredly days when the surgeon
doesn't want to be removing gall-bladders, but she does it anyway, because
that's her job."
SPEED ROUND!
Chocolate or vanilla? chocolate
Your dream vacation spot? Venice/Murano/Burano (I’ve been there twice.)
Book or movie? Book
Favorite author? Vladimir Nabokov
Favorite movie? Pulp Fiction
Romance or comedy? Breaking Bad
Night owl or morning person? Morning.
Thanks Carrie! :D
Thank you so much Kelly:)
Happy Friday everyone1!!
Carrie
