Blooms, for Pier One Imports

©St.Hilaire Nelson

I have created these two 12x16 wildflowers on cradled birch panel for Pier One Imports. They are in the process of evaluating them right now and considering them for fine art reproduction. If they go for them, I will probably have to create four more in this same series of wildflowers.

Question for you, would you be interested in purchasing an original collage that has been licensed for fine art reproduction and would be available at Pier One Imports? Is the original still more valuable to you than a print?

Please leave a comment below, I'd like to know. I just might put the wildflowers up for bid on the blog.

Exquisite Harmony Heads to the Museum

Today the Exquisite Harmony show that has been a year in the making, was delivered to the Maitland Art Center. I'm very excited about the completion of this project. Yesterday my son helped me put bumper feet on 40+ cradled birch panels and carry them out of the studio and into the house, on their way to the van for the trip down I-4 this morning.

After we moved the work into the house, we cleaned the studio! We vacuumed up a lot of bugs and dust that had taken up residency while the work was piled up. We cleared floor space and shelf space and there was so much room that even the dogs did not know what to make of it.

Now, let's keep our fingers crossed that a good portion of the work sells, so we don't have to bring it back in!

Show Runs September 10 - October 24
Opening Reception is September 10 6-8pm
Maitland Art Center
231 West Packwood Ave
Maitland, FL 32751
407-539-2181

Fit to Print

©2010 United Arts Magazine

Orlando Arts Magazine was kind enough to publish a two-page spread on Exquisite Harmony today! Many thanks to the efforts of Editor, Cindy Bowman LaFronz and Managing Editor, Jessica Chapman for all their hard work and efforts in producing such a beautiful layout.

You can pick up this publication of United Arts of Central Florida locally at Borders, Comma Gallery, Gallery on First, Leu Gardens, and Dexters of WP to name a few.

Flamenco Feet

©2010 St.Hilaire Nelson / collage of hand painted papers on panel / 20x24

All the Flamenco music I have been listening to lately has inspired me, and all the compliments on the dancer made me want to do one more in this genre. I have been saving photos of dancing feet for a while, in hopes of capturing the spirit of dance.

My dear friend Barbara Dunham, the president of the Atlanta Collage Society,  has been encouraging me to consider an abstract approach to my style for quite some time. Barbara is a wonderful abstract collage artist herself. She said, "Elizabeth, I'm not asking you to change your style, just to consider experimenting with adding an abstract edge to it."

Well Barbara, this one is for you. I was thinking about your advice and the recent sample of Derek Gores  (another FL collage artist whom I have had the pleasure of meeting and seeing his work in person) work you sent this week when I was collaging this Flamenco skirt!

Now, does anyone speak Spanish? Need help with the title...

Music to My Eyes – a Progression

©St. Hilaire Nelson 2010

In progress, I have completed the dress and now working on the sleeves. I have been collecting paper doilies but have not used them for fear of a "country" look if not used in just the right place. Here I took advantage of the lace-like quality they offer since you can see the colors through them. To make them appear less like doilies, I have torn out the circular pattern and used it in pieces and parts rather than whole. I felt they added a fluffy lacy feeling to her sleeves, enhancing the undulating movement of her dancing.

Having completed the dress and sleeves, the next step is the face and neck. This is a challenge because I'm not feeling like my variety of flesh-toned papers is very large, but it's rainy this weekend and setting up to paint papers (outside) is just not looking like a good idea. I will have to struggle with a minimal palette and really challenge myself.

Its's been quite a while since I have done a person. I am enjoying this piece!

Music to my Eyes Under-Painting

©2010 St.Hilaire Nelson

I have under-painted the flamenco dancer (yet to be titled) and I am experimenting with applying opposite color. This means, where it is green, I will add red paper, where it is purple I will add yellow paper, and where it is orange I will ad blue paper. My plan is to leave a little bit of the under-painted color showing through between collage pieces, allowing that opposite color to visually vibrate with the collage papers.

We'll see how it goes!

Carnival Complete

The Mule | 24x20 | collage on panel | ©St.Hilaire Nelson

The Carnival of the Animals inspired series is completed with the addition of varnish to this collage of a mule. My son and I made some hand-painted papers at the kitchen table this week to be sure I had all the dark brown I needed for this horse/donkey. The kangaroo piece yielded me plenty of golden brown weeks before.

I am quite happy with the fun little horse barn in the back and all the patterning in the face of the mule. When searching for reference photos of mules vs. donkeys online, I was not sure which was which! Still not.

Below is the Bruce Adolphe poem written for this particular movement of Saint-Saën's musical suite, I plan to include all of the poems with all of the collages at the Maitland Art Center solo exhibition Exquisite Harmony.

Now mules are only half a horse
The other half is donkey.
The tunes they sing are therefore coarse
Though some are kind of funky.
The mule is dumb but sure of foot
And makes a great companion.
Especially when they are put
On the edge of the Grand Canyon.

Anyone ever ride the mules at the edge of the Canyon?

Much Promise

©2010 St. Hilaire Nelson

Today I learned that my 4x6 collage Much Promise is one of 16 Award Winning collages at the National Collage Society's 13th Annual "Wish You Were Here" Postcard Exhibition. 

I have to share with you that Much Promise had a former life before it went to the Postcard Exhibition.

I struggle with the 4x6 format because it is very difficult to create a figurative collage in that size, trust me I have tried!

Gretchen Bierbaum, the president of the National Collage Society, gave me great advice when I exclaimed to her "Gretchen, I'm not an abstract collage artist, how am I going to make this small format work???" She told me that many times for this format she cuts herself a mat board with a 4x6 opening and uses it to view small cropped areas of unresolved collages. She said she often times finds just the right crop in a bigger piece of her artwork.

Much Promise is a result of Gretchen's advice. I had a cardinal collage that I was not happy with because the bird was proportionately too big. I loved the stamps I used and the fortune, so it became the perfect piece to crop. I chose this area of the 12x12 original because I like the way that the blue branch and the bird leg worked on the diagonal within the composition. For me, the stamps and small piece of map are representative of the bird's flight patterns, migration, and travel. The fortune is just out there to make you think of what lies waiting for you when you choose to take that journey.

Tuscan Triptych

© St. Hilaire Nelson 2010 | three panels 12x24

The last of the vacation artwork!

Here is the Tuscan scene I worked on over the beach break. I like it for the simplicity. This piece is more about color, pattern and shapes rather than shading and volume. While I was working on it, I likened it to the childhood days of scribbling a big swirly paper and then coloring in the shapes created by overlapping lines. Remember that?

Dog Days of Summer

©St. Hilaire Nelson 2010
Boxer in progress on portable easel in the vacation house living room

This week I am at the beach in North Carolina, the Outer Banks, with the extended Nelson family. There are 14 of us (8 adults, 6 children) and this is our 11th year coming to Buck Island to rent a big house on the beach. In the last few years I have made a point of taking art with me to work on here.

Creating art on vacation is one of my favorite things to do. I get up early in the morning and come up to my portable stick easel on the top floor of the house. From here I can see the ocean, it's peaceful and beautiful and very inspiring. Usually when I am up painting, most of the other Nelson family is asleep, at least for a little while.

My travel supplies for the beach are much like my travel supplies for the Dance Competition weekends with one exception, here I do not have to work on my lap! I can spread out and work on larger pieces. I can actually stand at the easel, like I am accustomed to at home. Similarly to dressing room projects, I do work out of gallon zip lock bags filled with hand painted paper divided by color, and I do bring my wood panels already under-painted.

This week I actually FORGOT my #8 filbert! I was in a state of panic when I unpacked my supplies to find all but the brush! Thank Goodness art runs in the blood of the Nelson family. My Mother-in-Law had a brush for me to borrow, she said she travels with them "just in case."

Do you have artists in your family? Do you think that artistic ability is hereditary? Both my husband and his mother are excellent artists. My parents were not artists, but I have an uncle who was very artistic in college. I have some of John's student work pottery in my studio.

Take the poll to the left of the Boxer art to give your opinion about Nature vs. Nurture.

Buck Island on Dwellable

Kangaroo, Hopping to It!

©St Hilaire Nelson 2010

Another installment in the Carnival of Animals series collages for my music show Exquisite Harmony in September-- this kangaroo had been sketched up for a while but I did not have any really good golden "roo" paper. On Friday afternoon I made myself a batch of yellow golden brown papers, let the dry in the grass and then brought them in to save for later.

My daughter, Emilie, had a dance competition this weekend again in Orlando. We stayed down at the Marriott World Center Saturday and Sunday. I did not have the benefit of a dressing room this time, so working on the go was not an option.

Prior to heading out for the weekend on Friday night, I worked on this guy until 2am! Now let me tell you, a "Dance Mom" on Saturday with four hours sleep has to work extra hard to get up the enthusiasm needed for a national competition! I was dragging, but was very happy to have completed the Kangaroo and to see my daughter in the spot lights!

The poem by Bruce Adolphe that goes along with this musical movement talks about the unusual manner in which the kangaroo reclines... so I am happy with the way his belly is hanging down in the grass.

Once again, I experimented with some mark making on the background with the Derwent Inktense pencils, a Christmas gift from my husband that just keeps on giving...

Looking for a Title

©2010 St. Hilaire Nelson

This Dalmatian is the most recent in my series of dog collages. I'd have to say that in the beginning I was not to fond of creating dogs, but they are seriously growing on me. I think I really enjoyed the Dalmatian because he has the same coloring as a black and white cow. I felt I was familiar with this color pattern and how to solve the shading in the white areas.

Necessity being the mother of invention, this dog ended up with some purple and burgundy spots because my stash of black papers was pretty much non existent.

So now, I am searching for a title for this guy. Something with a little pizzaz. I open it up to you for suggestions!

Cupcake Commission

©2010 St.Hilaire Nelson

Beth from A Little Something Bakery in West Hartford, CT purchased five of my 12x12 cupcakes from Celebration Gallery and Shoppes in Pomfret Center, CT when she first opened her sweet shop.

Last month Beth asked me to create a custom cupcake piece for her to compliment the others. This Memorial Day Weekend I spent a LOT of time in the studio. I was day dreaming about cookies, cakes, cupcakes and more.... all being made from scratch.

Beth had an idea for this piece. "Keep Calm, Eat A Cupcake." this will be added in magazine letters to the top right corner, near the cupcake that has fallen off the wagon!

As usual, my piece started with a pencil sketch on clear primed birch panel. The second image is the under-painting done in fluid acrylics over the sketch. I always work the background first, the third image is the background working around the cupcakes and leaving some natural wood grain at the top. In the background I wove in "Pat-A-Cake" nursery rhyme and some line art of the cake marked with a "B" I thought this was fitting for Beth being the baker and all... Next I tackled each cupcake individually, leaving the fallen one for last.

My next step is to add the lettering and apply the varnish for an even sheen. Stay tuned!

Music Collages

©St.Hilaire Nelson

Carnival of the Animals is musical suite of fourteen movements by the French Romantic composer Saint-Saëns. It was composed in 1886 while Saint-Saëns was vacationing in a small Austrian village. It was originally scored for a chamber group of flute/piccolo, clarinet, two pianos, glass harmonica, xylophone, two violins, viola, cello and double bass, but it is usually performed today with a full orchestra of strings.

Saint-Saëns, concerned that the piece was too frivolous and likely to harm his reputation as a serious composer, supressed performances of it and only allowed one movelent, Le cygne (The Swan) to be published in his lifetime. Only small private performances were given for close friends.

Saint-Saëns did include a provision which allowed the suite to be published after his death, and it has since become one of his most popular works. It is a favorite of music teachers and young children.

As the title suggests, the work follows a zoological program and progresses from the first movement, Intruduction et marche royale du lion, through portraits of elephants and donkeys to a finale reprising many of the earlier motifs. Several of the movements are of humorous intent.

I was sitting in orchestra rehearsal one night thinking about representing music through visual art when all of a sudden it came to me. Carnival of the Animals would make a great collage series! We had been rehearsing the music for months in preparation for our spring concert, but it took a while to hit me.

There are some wonderfully whimsical poems written by Bruce Adolphe which I will display with each piece of art from each movement of the suite. They will help to tie in the humorous music with the whimsical collage art.

Resting up to Race

Gouldian Finch, in progress ©St. Hilaire Nelson
The day before the race, I tried to relax and not exert myself in the FL heat! I walked the dogs a few times in the morning, but in the afternoon I settled in to the small table top in our RV and worked on a bird for my Carnival of the Animals series.

I packed my portable art bag, the very same one I took to the dance competition. I also packed a 12x12 bird, which was pre sketched and painted on an American Easel Wood Painting Panel, which I primed with clear gesso so that I could leave the wood grain showing.

Seeing Double

Birch Bark 1 and 2 | collage with acrylic on boxed wood panel
©St. Hilaire Nelson | click image to enlarge

This morning I wondered about my triptych that I inadvertently split up by sending the nest panel of Hope I, II, and III off to a show at the Quinlan Visual Arts Center in Georgia. This piece, Birch Bark 1 and 2, I think I will keep together when I show it at the Gateway Center for the Arts as part of "Paper Capers" a five person show in June. I'm not sure if that's the right decision or not, so I'm going to keep my mind open for your comments and suggestions. This diptych is a piece where each could stand on their own more that the three-part bird's nest triptych in the previous post.

My thought on this one was to create the striped feeling of birch bark with sheet music and black and white book illustrations and text. The backgrounds are painting in acrylic and the birch trees are collage. Silver birch trees have bark that very much resembles paper, I can remember peeling it as a kid growing up in New England and marveling at the fact that Native Americans made canoes from it! Recently on my trip to Québec in January, I was very happy to see many birch trees  on our taxi ride from the airport.

So what do you think? Price them as one and not separate these two? or price them separately and let the collector decide?

Peacocks Completed

©St.Hilaire Nelson
Poised Peacock 1 & 2 | 20x24 | collage on panel

I gave you all the details on these birds in my last post, but I thought you might like to see them completed. Tonight I will be framing them and tomorrow they'll be delivered to Grand Bohemian Gallery downtown for delivery to their Asheville location!

Interpreting Music

Old Mother Hubbard, Went to the Cuppboard  |  20x24
Rather than do 35 collages of musical instruments and singers, I'm trying to stretch my visual interpretation of music. I went back to one of my favorite sources for collage materials, my old 1970's Nursery Rhyme book I had as a kid.

Did you know that the rhyme "Old Mother Hubbard" had two or three pages of verses? It provided a wealth of yellow and black illustrations and text for my yellow lab collage. When you think about it, all musical lyrics are basically poems and rhymes, so this dog seemed fitting to me.

Click image to enlarge