Sheila M. Evans

Things are starting to happen in the new studio! After spending a weekend moving in (enough to start painting, anyway) I got to work on my first oil painting in my new digs. It went surprisingly fast, which I have decided to attribute to the good energy in the room. Pretty impressive for a 100+-year-old basement. I would have expected something, well… spooky. But it is just the opposite—cozy and inviting.

Shiva (above) practically painted itself. It is not completed in the photo, but it was finished maybe an hour after that. One more piece ready for the Kress Gallery show in May! By the way, I do plan to start posting my more professional-looking “official” art photos again soon. One side effect of my ongoing move has been to separate my art and workspace from my usual photography spot, but I’ll get that worked out shortly.

Oh, by the way, I seem to have  a correction due… last summer I mentioned that I won an award and thus a re-invite to the Edmonds Arts Festival this June. Turns out the award does not include a re-invite after all! Ooops. Anyway, I went ahead and applied so we’ll see what happens. It would be pretty sad if I didn’t get in after all that, but I guess I’ll just have to wait for it! (LOL!)

I was starting to think it wouldn’t happen, but it did… I finally finished Las Lunas, the 3′ x 9′ oil version, just in time to move into my real studio. Here it is in the upstairs space where I painted it while waiting for my new studio to be open (thanks to my very nice new landlord Len for allowing me to paint in this cool AVAILABLE office space!) Look for Las Lunas in my all-oils show at the Kress gallery this May.

Now that I’ve finished this monster, it’s all about getting settled in my new basement speak-easy-esque studio, framing for my pastels show opening February 5th at the Tinman Gallery, and making MORE OILS for the Kress!

Oh, one more thing… if you are in Spokane, check out Buttercuppity’s new shop in Steam Plant Square… they had my new studio before me and quickly outgrew it. Congratulations Ari and Captain Hotpants! Love your store.

For another view of the new studio click here.

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So this has been an incredibly busy week. For the five of you who actually read this, I apologize for my recent lack of posts. Between the holidays, my upcoming shows, and my sudden realization that my in-home studio wasn’t cutting it, I’ve been a bit overwhelmed.

My plan since early December had been to start painting my three-panel luna moth oil this coming week. I recognized that studio hours would be spotty at best until after the new year and had been thinking about finding a new work space, as I mentioned. But as I started prepping the canvases, it became clear that the three panels literally would not fit in my current space. Not without wrapping around a corner, anyway, which posed a big logistical problem. So I got it into my head that I would find a studio that I could work in by Monday (tomorrow).

Last weekend I started, with the help of family and friends, looking around town for some possibilities, and on Monday I started calling. The first few spaces sounded promising, in funky old buildings with great locations. But there were downsides. The first space I actually got to see was in a building I’ve always loved for its great windows and light, but the spaces available inside were windowless, depressing offices… not at all what I had pictured. The next few places seemed promising but ended up being loud, tiny, or otherwise not as advertised. Read more

Today is Solstice, and it feels like time for new beginnings. Of course there are a few holidays ahead, but shortly, hopefully, I can get back into the groove and do some serious painting.

The past few months have been like those dreams where I run and get nowhere… with so many shows and so much to do, there was always something standing between me and the studio.  Right after the Sausalito show, the flu took me out until the Little Spokane studio tour. October was spent planning and sketching for upcoming shows, and starting to build up some creative momentum–just in time for jury duty in November, Thanksgiving week and the regular interruptions that are part of the holiday season.

So once again, I’m looking forward to January. My first big project will be Las Lunas, the large three-panel oil mentioned in the previous post (the pastel study is shown above). Some major rearranging of my tiny back-room studio was required to even fit the three 3′ x 3′ canvases, but it will have to work for now.

Something hopefully good has come of this sometimes frustrating few months: between the challenges of maintaining my schedule working at an in-home studio, and my desire to begin painting more large format pieces, I’ve decided it’s time to start looking for an off-site studio. More about that in the next few months, I hope. In the meantime, happy Solstice!

Now that the small works shows are all on, it’s time to get serious about making some big pieces. I’ve got two more gallery shows and a lot of wall space to fill and basically less than two months to paint. Today I finished Blue Suspension No.5 (left) which I started last week. Now I am working on a pastel study for what I hope will be a major triptych in oil—three 3′x3′ panels—if the pastel turns out as planned.

The idea for the triptych is to be leaves arranged to resemble a group of luna moths in flight. I’m hoping it works out well, especially since a collection of coincidences are making me think I have some strange connection to these moths. It started when I did a similar small work last week or so. As I finished and was trying to name it, I decided it might look like a luna moth. I liked the name “luna,” anyway.  But I actually didn’t have any idea what a luna moth looked like. Hoping the name would work out, I Googled luna moths and found that, luckily, they looked very much like what I had painted.

I liked the small painting, but decided it might have more impact with more “moths,” and planned to use the idea in the big three-panel format I had been wanting to try. With all the panels combined, it will be the largest oil painting I have done to date, so of course I’ve been feeling a little nervous about diving into the project. (My friend Neicy and I were just discussing how with each new painting, we sometimes suddenly feel as if we will have forgotten how to paint!) Anyway, on a holiday shopping trip downtown this weekend, I walked into Atticus, an awesome local gift/coffee shop, and the first thing I saw was this big, sparkly luna moth ornament. Given that a week before I would have had no idea what it was, I thought that was a pretty cool find. So I spent a whopping four dollars and took it home for inspiration.

Here’s hoping my new lucky moth gets me through the next few months with a ton of good work for my next two shows!

Tonight is the First Friday art walk in Spokane and Coeur d’Alene. I will have new work at galleries in both places: six pastels each at the Tinman Gallery in Spokane’s Garland District, and the Art Spirit gallery in downtown Coeur d’Alene. Both opening receptions are tonight from 5 to 9 p.m. If you are out and about in either city tonight, please come see the art!

Both shows are the respective galleries’ holiday small-works group exhibits, so there will be lots of art and artists to see. I plan to attend both shows for a bit, and hope to see some of you there!

Blue Suspension No.4 Study, above, will be available at the Tinman Gallery.

The past few weeks have found me neglecting my website a bit, I’m afraid. Luckily, this was due to good problems: I had to get twelve small pastels ready for my two small works shows in December. (Of course it would have been no problem had I not spent several days recently painting the oil version of Isis, left.) The deadline sort of snuck up on me, but a little extra adrenaline is always good this time of year.

In fact, this year has been filled with all sorts of goodness for me, and now seems like an appropriate time to send out some appreciation to those that helped make that happen. So, while this is by no means an exhaustive list, here are a few things for which I am grateful:

Juries that let me into shows

Shows that invite me back

Galleries that invite me to show my work

Suppliers that bend over backward to make sure I have what I need, when I need it

The Pastel Journal, again (specifics coming soon!)

All the traveling artist friends that make strange places seem like home

All the local artist friends that make home that much better

My local art community for making me feel part of it all

Paul, for schlepping my stuff and enduring countless boring hours of travel and fairs

My parents, for never telling me I should become an accountant instead

And  most of all, I am grateful to the people who would argue against the statement “art is not a necessity.” You keep me in business with your generous patronage, and I couldn’t do this without your support. Thank you!