Barbra Sundquist

“Watching Her Heart” Mixed Media Painting Becomes CD Art

Barbra — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 17:45:18 +0000

"Watching Her Heart"

This painting “Watching Her Heart” has been one of my most successful. Not only did it sell right away, but the band Four Story Heart saw a picture of it and asked if they could use it as the basis for the cover art for their CD.

Here’s what the the CD cover ended up looking like:

The CD cover

Making My Art Website

Barbra — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 20:25:09 +0000

I’m in the process of making my art website, and one of the most important decisions is how to organize my images. The WordPress theme I’m using (Photocrati) allows me to organize into “galleries”, which is a cool way of categorizing. I’d like to limit the number of galleries to 4 or 5 at the most. So what to name the galleries?

There are a number of ways to go. I could name the galleries by medium (such as acrylic, oil, watercolour, collage, mixed media) or art-making processs (drawing, painting, printmaking) or date of completion (2011, 2010, 2009, etc.) What I’ve decided to do is name the galleries by subject matter. That tends to be the way I think about my art, so it makes sense to me.

I want names that are simple, appealing and general enough to cover my diverse subject matter. Here’s what I’m thinking of:

People – anything involving people or the human body
Places – landscape, travel, interiors
Objects – still life and anything else that has a recognizable inanimate subject
Concepts – “abstracts” and idea pieces

I like these four categories. The only thing that seems to be missing is where to put animal images. I could change #3 to “Subjects”, but that seems confusing because all images contain subject matter. Maybe I need to add a separate category for “Animals”. On the other hand, my animal paintings are not animal portraits as such. Rather, they are narrative (usually concerning animal-human interaction) or conceptual pieces. So I think they would fit well under the “People” or “Concepts” categories. There. Decision made.

Paper or Raku? You Decide

Barbra — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 05:25:38 +0000

This is the commission that I did for corporate client Scotia McLeod. The work process involves making sheets of handmade paper and texturing them while wet to give a decorative surface. The textured paper is cut, torn and assembled to form the painting. The whole piece is then painted with many layers of acrylic paint in various colors. The texture (creases, lines, tears, overlapping edges and shadows) achieved from accidental and intentional manipulation of the wet paper pulp is a notable element. As well, the subtly glowing depth of colour resulting from multiple glazes of acrylic paint invites a closer look. Many people mistake these paper works for raku (iridescent pottery) or metal works.