Art fairs cancelled. Galleries and gyms closed. Workshops cancelled. Snow in the mountains. Result: lots of free time and a new series of paintings that I’m really excited about! So I’ve decided to hold an Open Studio (as in REALLY OPEN, with all the doors and windows open). This will be July 24 through 28, Friday through Tuesday, 10 am – 5 pm. We’ll have reserved time slots to avoid crowds, and all the usual precautions. Save the dates and I’ll be getting back to you with details when we’re closer to the event. I’ll have my tiles and a lot of small paintings as well, but for a preview of the new series, go to http://www.paullewingart.com/www.paullewingart.com/Landscapes.html and scroll down to the bottom.
Someone just sent me this picture of a plate of mine from probably 1980. It depicts Mt. St. Helens erupting, and the brown ash cloud in the sky is really ash from the May 18, 1980 eruption. I would glaze these plates just as I had been doing with similar ones depicting Mt. Rainier for years, then I would apply a pile of the dry ash on top of the glaze with a salt shaker. For about a year after the mountain erupted, I couldn't make these fast enough. The next year I could sell a few, and after that no one has ever wanted one again.
This little mural just went home yesterday. It’s on 12” x 24” tiles and shows the area where the clients live, around Port Townsend, WA. There’s their boat, the tree outside their house, and the Adirondack chairs they sit in when they go to visit their friends, plus a few other local attractions.
This mural just went off to its new home in California. It shows a very famous racing car, a FIA 289 Cobra, from the 1960s. The client showed me a photo of it and said they loved the hills around Monterrey. The running horses and the quail I added to give it a little drama. This is on 12” tile and will be a kitchen backsplash. The colors are a bit brighter in real life than they appear in this photo.
Hi. Bored and stuck at home? How about learning a new skill- china painting! You'll need a kiln, but you always have had to order all the supplies online anyway. We've now changed the procedure for signing up for my online course, so you can now register any time. It's a 6-week course, and you get about an hour or so of videos every week, or you can get them all at once. If you've always wanted to take a workshop from me, or learn china painting, or if you'e been china painting for some time but want to see a completely different approach, now's the time. Here's the link to sign up: https://www.teachinart.com/china-painting.html.
I’ve made a lot of these house numbers over the years. They’re 12’ x 12” porcelain tile, mounted on a pice of tile backer board and ready to hang. Or they can be unmounted to set into brick, stone or concrete. I charge $200 for one of these, any image.
This little kitchen backsplash mural just went home today. The clients have a lot of purple in the room, so they wanted purple food. No red, some green. I don’t often post detail so the pieces I do, but here’s a closeup of a small part of it. These are 6” tiles to give you an idea of the scale.
I’m proud of myself today. I was able to do a new trick with Photoshop. This is a picture of myself that I clipped out of one photo and pasted into another. The tile pice part of the photo started as a picture of one whole end of a room, including the corner. I cropped out the part I wanted, straightened it and squared it up, adjusted the lighting, then pasted myself in front of it. I even removed half a fish that was sticking out of my ear.
Here's a chance to learn china painting at The Place That Changed Everything from The Guy Who Wrote The Book. August in Montana! What could be better? Please share this with every ceramic artist you know.
Chickens are a really popular image for kitchen backsplashes. This 12” x 24” tile will be a sample in my booth at the upcoming Seattle Home Show. It starts February 15th and runs through the 23rd.
