Paint on Purpose

Okay, so in the last post I mentioned that Christine has been painting in earnest, and that I recently sold four of her landscapes in the gallery. Christine is kicking around three distinct styles currently - the aforementioned trees and words (as shown in the previous post) and abstractions like the one above. We discovered that paintings like this one are somewhat difficult to frame; too much going on around them diminishes the strength of the central figure, but putting them in a little nothing frame makes them seem...confined, I suppose. As a result of this, Christine has been experimenting with mounting her paper paintings on prepared gallery-wrapped canvases - it's a great technique that allows a painting to be displayed without a frame. Watch for more pictures as she completes a few more pieces.

The painting sales have given Christine a healthy boost of self-confidence, and she's making plans to begin entering art festivals, her first likely being the Festival of the Arts here in Bigfork. This event always falls on the first full weekend of August, and brings roughly 10,000 people to Bigfork to walk the streets and shop the festival. Start painting now, Christine - you need a lot of stuff to fill that booth!


Final thought for the day: Christine has started her own blog to catalog her paintings and the process - find it at http://www.paintonpurpose.blogspot.com/.

New Year, New Artist

Happy New Year! I apologize for allowing the FOR blog to fall by the wayside over the past few months, and fully intend to keep up in 2011. It's not a New Year's resolution, because I don't really believe in those, but I am resolved...

The title of this post is a little deceiving, because our new artist isn't exactly new. The painting above was done by Christine Vandeberg, one half of the Frame of Reference team (or, one third if you count Roxie - and who wouldn't?) Christine has been painting for several years now, and since I sold one of her paintings to a couple in New Zealand a few years ago, she is technically "internationally collected." Most of her paintings in the past have featured words, either inspirational or simply meaningful. Here's an example:

There are several word paintings here in the gallery, and Christine will continue this series. One thought of special note - she takes commissions. The word of your choice can be done in the color palette of your choice - please call or come in and talk to her about it!

So, back to the New Artist part. As you can see, the painting at the top of this page is a radical departure. Christine has started painting on paper, creating her own iridescent papers and then painting abstract landscapes with a palette knife. This painting was a Christmas gift to me - thanks, Christine! The first of this series of trees was painted in early December; Christine brought it in to work one day to show me what she was doing. I told her how much I loved the painting, and encouraged her to do more of them so we could frame them for display in the gallery. Reluctantly, she did so; we framed three paintings and put them in the front window as a winter display. It was quite rewarding to Christine to see the number of people who stopped to look at the paintings, and several people came in to inquire. Sadly, we had to turn them away, as I sold all three, plus a fourth painting (purchased sight unseen) 24 hours after putting them on display! Christine is working fervently to replace them, and she ordered more paint and larger paper to see if the paintings can grow a bit. Stay tuned for details!