Dear Art lover,
Today is the last day of my anniversary sale on my
art! Thus proving that January has
escaped almost as quickly as I dreaded. I still have so much to do! And you?
Anyway, the sale celebrates my 15-year-run as a
full-time artist. I hope you will
indulge. The sale offers free worldwide
shipping on any available art, even those offered through my galleries. Sale ends Texas time (Central time US) at
midnight tonight.
So, go shopping!
http://BorsheimArts.com
And ladies, I doubt your man would be offended if
you surprised him this Valentine’s Day as well!
I am all for equal joys.
If you have been following this blog or me on
Facebook, you may remember that I moved to Croatia in mid-December. I had decided to travel light, but even so,
for three months of life, I have a fair amount of stuff. I packed more art materials than clothes and
personal items, which is typical for me.
However, I chose to pack only dry materials: pastels, pastel pencils, paper, and
computers. I also took my travel easel,
light and extension cords (which I did not realize would not work here with the
type I brought). Ah, Italia, amazing how
many plug types and sizes they use!
So, when I decided to paint a portrait of my Croatian
landlords in oil, I was hardly prepared.
Today I share with you some of my
silliness. I did not want to buy too
many supplies since that just added to the baggage later. And I tend to multitask.
This first image shows you how I got palettes for
mixing the paints that I ordered online.
Those mushrooms had the perfect plastic container: wide open on top, low sides, and a smooth
bottom (often veggie containers have ridges, I assume for controlling the water
on the contents). I usually buy food in
glass jars based on the shape of the jar (for spirits and medium). However, I rarely buy food that I would not
eat since that would not be multitasking; that would be overpaying for future
trash. Also, once my landlady saw what I
was doing, she and her sister supplied me with more jars and palettes than I
can use in my time here. Sweet. Miranda apparently saves all of her
newspapers for recycling too, so I was fortunate to have an instant stack!
The second and third images show my brush
holder. It would be better if the
plastic container was a wee bit taller, but not worth the effort. And, the best brushes I found here were NOT
the ones I originally found in a boat paint shop or a bookshop (they do not have
art material stores in this little town of Umag). Even the hardware stores did not help
me. The softest and best paintbrushes I found
were in a nearby grocery store. They
were colored sets made for kids! Thus,
the handles were shorter than I am used to.
I never before thought about how it might affect my color mixing
abilities to use a brush with purple, or light green, or pink, or blue, or
yellow hairs! But it is fun to have
color-coded handles.
Oh, and I used [un-popped] popcorn in the jar to hold the
brushes upright. Beans, lintels, etc.
work well, but I do not eat those that often.
When I looked around my kitchen, popcorn was the only thing that would
work. Pebbles would work, but takes
collection time. These little details I
had forgotten until I was ready to start painting. So… use was works and gets one painting.
This last image is just silly. I moved my painting around the flat at
different times of day since lighting is important and I needed to judge what I
had painted during the middle of the night.
I just enjoyed the light coming through the curtains.
I hope you have had a chance to check out the new
online blog features and if you have any feedback, that would be
appreciated. I would like this site to
be easy for you to use.
And, as always, thank you for your continued
interest. Share this with anyone you think
might appreciate it!
Kelly
~ Kelly Borsheim, sculptor,
painter, writer, teacher