Just Little Art :: Justina Smith's Art Portfolio

Yesterday was my 31 birthday. It was also one of the coldest days of the year so far. I painted. I puttered. I emailed. I ate tiny birthday cupcakes for breakfast and ended the day by meeting up with friends over at one of their houses and eating delicious homemade lolly-cake (which really isn’t cake at all….but mushed cookies and bits of candy held together by sweetened condensed milk and topped with icing and sugary sprinkles. My pancreas got a gooooood work out!).

The blog has been quiet, it’s true…but the studio is buzzing. I’m trying not to post previews or works as I finish them, because they’ve been selling so fast and I really want some new pieces for the show. Pieces that AREN’T already sold, as I’ve asked to borrow a few, so I don’t have to paint 24hrs a day just to have enough. I’m so thankful for how enthusiastic people are getting about my work. It’s overwhelming (in a good way) and very astounding! Thank you for looking. Thank you for your lovely comments. Thank you for following me on twitter. Thanks for being a member of my facebook fanpage. Thank you for purchasing work before it’s finished. And thank you for reading this blog.

This is the side view of “the great book of art”. It’s the little ring-bound Hilary brand lined notebook I have been writing down ideas, keeping color swatches and recording random creative thoughts in for the past 12 years now. I am now writing on the back of the last page. Then it’s full. I’m a little sad, but at the same time….really excited! There are over 400 paintings recorded in it’s bloated pages! (And they are indeed bloated, because one time I was writing down epiphanies I was having while taking a bath…and I accidentally dropped it in the tub. For the record, I read in the tub ALL THE TIME and this is the ONLY BOOK that has ever gone for a swim!) I’m not really sure if I should get another one, or if I should use one of the few sketchbooks I have already on the go as “the great book of art 2″. It’s a bit of a dilemma, and a silly one at that. Perhaps a flat white and a bit of reading will help me make a real decision about this.

First two Roaming Artist adventures are already booked for 2012. Quebec City at the end of April, and Saint John in mid-June! Almost makes me wish winter were over…but then, winter really only just got here middle of last week. I’ve been living in my long johns for days! It’s been cozy and glorious!

Stay warm.

I just dipped my camera strap in my homemade guacamole and just 20 minutes before that, I accidentally set my white bottle of ink on the EDGE of my work table. I caught it….and splashed opaque white ink on the red wall, work table leg and hardwood floor of the studio. It’s cleaned up, it’s fine…there’s no trace of the hazard-that-is-me in the studio today. So now as I sit to write this, the ink bottles are on the drawing table, with lids securely fastened…and out of arms reach so that I don’t randomly flail an arm and knock them over reaching for my beer that I’m sipping while I eat my lunch and blog. Some days, you know? Rented limbs.

I don’t know if it’s the new year or the fact that I bombard peeps and friends on facebook with my new work almost daily…but I’ve been getting a fair number of lovely emails from fans and buyers sharing their stories and complimenting me on my work. It’s been so sweet, and it means a lot to me…so if you are reading this, and you are one of those, thank you again!

The comments have been neat. It’s nice to see people getting inspired to start drawing or creating again, or sharing what they’ve already done…and have been to shy to share with others. That’s what it’s about, making art (as far as I’m concerned). It’s basically saying; “here is the world, the way I see it/think about it.” It’s not complicated. It doesn’t need some long-winded, convoluted and somewhat circular explanation. I like how Emily Carr said it best in her writing;

“Why use a big word, when a little word will do.”

I don’t think you need to put words to the reason you like a painting. You can just like it, just because. Same thing with painting. I think most artists (that I like and are dead) would be rolling in their graves if they read some of the things written about their work…and why they used certain colors, or painted the trees a certain way….or made the people’s heads bigger in a street scene, or whatever. Maybe they were just trying something new, or it was an accident and they finished painting and thought, “screw it! I like it that way. I’m leaving it.” Or maybe….like me, they find it funny to over hear the ‘deeper meanings’ interpreted into their work from other observers. Something about teeenage angst, broken hearts….maybe sometimes, but not always. Most likely deadlines, lack of sleep…maybe a hangover? Most likely….just because they could.

One of the comments I think is really funny, depending on delivery, is “this work really speaks to me”. If it’s not sincere in nature, my immediate thought is if paintings are speaking to you….I am curious to know what kind of conversations you have in the morning with your rice krispies.

This is one of 3 things I’m working on in the studio today. I know…I said no posting, but it’s a commission so it’s already spoken for. This is Frida, or rather…it will be a mixed media portrait of the mexican artist Frida Kahlo. I’m painting it because that is what they asked for. I used patterned paper in it because it’s one of the things I like to incorporate into my mixed media paintings. I’ll be using bright, obnoxious color because the customer wants it to match the interior of his establishment. I will use ink because I like to draw on my pieces sometimes.

And down the road…if you see this painting somewhere and there is a long, convoluted, long-winded write up about how Frida was my idol and I was trying to emulate her, you’ll know from reading this that it’s just *bison turds!

(*or rather bullshit, but I try to keep the language clean on here! Happy Monday to you.)

Judging by where my mind has been wandering lately in the realm of painting…I think the Sugarbowl show in February is going to be very whimsical indeed. So many silly animal paintings with humorous captions have been jotted down in various books of mine as of late. Oh well. Go with the flow, right? Often for the silly animal paintings, the caption comes to me first and THEN I get the idea for the painting. Here are the two titles I came up with today while I was on my way to the Camrose Public Library to pick up my paintings from there:

1. canary in a coal mine

2. polar bear in a snow storm

I’m still snickering about these two ideas. I’ll be 31 in a few days. Maturity obviously still doesn’t reign in the studious little flat. Or in my creativity.

I’m trying really hard not to post this months new works ANYWHERE! I need paintings for the Sugarbowl show in February. I’m hoping this will lead to a bunch of new works completed due to spending less time switching out pieces and posting them. I’m not sure how successful I will be at this…but it’s only a month, right? However….here are two sneak peeks at two pieces I’m working on right now:

(beginning of “the paper sky”, #5 in the series with the girl in the hymnal dress)

(beginning of “murderous thoughts”, #6 in the same series)

And then today…I came across this lovely post by a very good friend of mine who happens to be a super-fantastic poet as well. Her blog is pretty cute. Take a look!

http://lizziederksen.blogspot.com/2012/01/this-is-not-painting-for-which-i-traded.html

Alright…back into the studio with me. This couch is quickly becoming WAY to comfy.

It’s a new year. I contemplated doing a ‘creative year in review’ blog type post…but then I figured it’s been done already. A zillion times. And really, I am bursting with new works and would like to focus on new experiences and creating new stories….so let’s not, shall we? (Isn’t that why these posts are archived anyhow?)

I’m not one to make resolutions, but this year I have made a few. Kind of.

1.  on studio days…cell phone stays off (until 5pm….a girls’ got to have a social life!)

2. draw or paint something EVERY DAY. Now…I’m not sure if this will take me back to ‘one-a-day’ paintings or not….but so far, that has been the case. Mostly focusing on being in my studio everyday…which already happens 90% of the time…but it could be a bit more.

3. read more books

4. visit galleries in Edmonton more

5. take more pictures

That’s it. Simple and attainable.

So, today I was painting in the studio and I had my heart set on a little winter themed painting. A little 8″ x 10″. I finished this one yesterday:

“merry christmas from the ‘star of the sea hall’”, acrylic on canvas, 8″ x 10″

A new friend of mine that I met on my last trip to Newfoundland, took this fabulous night time winter shot on his iphone while out and about one night in St. John’s. He posted it on facebook and I asked if I could paint it. He said yes…and this is what came of it. Also….it has since been purchased and is in fact, being mailed to Newfoundland.

Today I worked on this:

“snow patrol”, acrylic on canvas, 8″ x 10″, $90

It’s a shot I took of tree branches covered in snow with early morning light on them….from two Christmases ago. I love painting winter scenes. There is so much color and so many interesting shapes in the snow and shadows. That and well, we really haven’t had much of a winter so far. I’m still waiting for it. Painting it is not helping. Where the hell is all the snow?!

Painting this reminded me of one of my very first paintings which I still have and it happens to be on canvas board. It hasn’t been displayed in public since I worked at a cafe called ‘the Grind’ back in 2000, when I brought it in to show my boss who heard that I was painting. It’s attempt #2. There is a partial tree painting underneath, but I remember I hated the color, so I gessoed over it and started again.

“the honeymoon path”, acrylic on canvas board, 18″ x 24″

I used to shudder when I looked at this painting, but now that I’ve pulled it out, and have seen it next to a very current work…I am OK with it. The painting I finished today, according to my digital archive is painting #417 (not including other one-a-days, watercolors, sketches, postcards, pen and pencil drawings) and ‘the honeymoon path’ is probably painting #2. In some ways my painting style has changed so much….and in others, it hasn’t changed that much at all. In art class in high school, when I would hate a drawing I was working on and felt like nothing could salvage it, I would tear the entire page out of my sketchbook. My teacher, Mr. Alspach gave me two pieces of advice that I still consider on occasion when in the studio now and am feeling frustrated if what I am working on isn’t working the way I think it should:

1. don’t tear out pages in your sketchbook. You won’t be able to look back and see how you have progressed and feel encouraged.

2. stop using your eraser! Deal with the line you just put there.

I think maybe as resolution #6…I will get ‘the honeymoon path’ framed and hang it in my living room.

Last studio day of Christmas holidays. And last FULL studio day of 2011.

Two new canvases are on the go. The last two (I’m faaaaairly certain) of the girl in the hymnal dress. Maybe. Oh who am I kidding? There will probably be more!

So far my commission tally for 2012 is 3….and here are the canvases for the first two, modeled by none other than my faithful, four-legged companion, Gershwin.

(good dog!)

These babies (yes, there are two!) are 40″ x 40″ (inches)! I am pretty sure they will fit on my easel…and if not, well, the drawing table and the wall will do nicely to lean them up against as I work on them. Hooray for large mixed media portraits!

Happy Friday to you.

One of my favorite movies as a kid (and even as an adult, yes…I’ll admit it!) was Mary Poppins. I loved the singing, the costumes and the animation that accompanied some of the dance scenes. There were also a few things from that movie that have stuck with me through to being an adult:

-feeding birds is good therapy

-laughter really is the best medicine

-there is no such thing as ‘over packing’ for a trip (when you have a bottomless carpet bag, that is!)

-drawing on the sidewalk is only the BEGINNING of the adventure

-and some people can’t see past the end of their nose

Yes, it’s all very deep and life changing to be sure. And this painting is an example of not being able to (clearly) see past the end of my nose.

“the alley @ night”

acrylic on canvas, 16″ x 20″

$350

I think I wrote a bit about this earlier, but this is from a blurry photo I took, at night, while walking Gershwin….and this is kind of what it looks like to me when I take my glasses off. I can’t see very well without them…and the further away you or something is…the hairier or blurrier that thing (or person) will look. Sometimes not being able to see past the end of your nose can be an exercise in creativity and looking at things differently.

(Bet you didn’t think of THAT did you, Mary Poppins?!)

(Holiday dog sitting….so the other dog isn’t mine. YET. Meaning yes, I am planning on getting another dog this year, not that I’m going to steal the dog I’m dog sitting….although, I have thought about it. But real friends don’t steal their friend’s nice dogs. Stupid conscience.)

Yesterday morning (Christmas Day) I went for a 7k run….from my house, across the High Level Bridge and back. Yes, I am one of those crazy winter runners, but mostly I was doing it to make more room for delicious food. I was tempted to make a sign for my back; “don’t laugh, I’m making more room”. Justina; 1, food babies; 0.

Today, it’s boxing day and I am enjoying some leisure time in the studio…meaning I am working on my OWN things. Nothing pressing. I figured out how to fix one painting who’s bird was bothering me GREATLY. Loved the cat. Hated the bird. So this is what the painting LOOKED like:

But it doesn’t look like this anymore. I tried to fix the bird. It didn’t work…I hated it even more. Fortunately while working on a lovely piece about Rocky Harbor, NL, I had a brain wave about how to fix it and a new title for it. I’ll post it later on today as it’s just about finished.

And this is the lovely piece I’m working on about Rocky Harbor, NL. It’s a belated Christmas gift and it’s not done yet. Still needs some ink work.

Before all this began in the studio this morning…a link was posted to an article I contributed to reflecting on this past year and all it’s foibles and frolic. It’s an Edmonton based e-zine that I have been featured in two previous times…but this time I’m included in the a group of local celebrities and well-to-dos in the Edmonton area. My bit is at the end but I hope you take the time to read the other contributions too. It’s nice reading everyone’s take on this (almost) past year. Here’s to another year of weaving my colorful and random threads into the fabric that makes up this stellar community. Happy reading, and Happy Boxing Day!

http://www.iheartedmonton.com/2011/12/edmonton-looks-back-on-2011.html

No no…keep reading! I haven’t gotten completely eccentric and decided to retire. It’s not MY retirement I am contemplating. It is a friend of mine who’s retirement I am contemplating.

Yes….it’s a brush. But not just any brush. This brush has been in use since I was in grade 9….so all the way back in ’94. I’m pretty sure this is the same brush I painted my very first watercolor with, which was purchased by my grade 9 art teacher and still hangs in his home (last I heard). It’s the brush I use to outline paintings and sign them. The bristles are getting a bit frayed at the end….and there is a build up of paint in the belly  of the brushes from years of use, causing the bristles to spread a bit more than they should. Slowly I’m noticing it’s harder to use this brush for bits of tiny detail. I accidentally forgot it in a jar of water years ago when I was painting Christmas cards, so the bristles curve a bit near the end. It’s well used and well loved….mixed in with a lot of nostalgia. ‘Tis the season for nostalgia, right?

In other exciting news…I got interviewed on live radio this week. Via phone. On a show that runs out of Thunder Bay, Ontario. For some reason, the link off the site for the Dec 19th show isn’t loading on my laptop…so I can’t share the link with you on here. The link IS however posted and working on my fanpage. It’s just a few posts down. I’ll check back tomorrow and see if the live link is working, then I will post here to my blog and twitter feed.

Oh, and here is a painting I finished today. First one of the Christmas holidays that WASN’T a commission:

It’s posted in the gallery on this site (under 2011 works)…and was sold a few minutes after I posted it on the fanpage.

Time for errands and coffee and house cleaning. Happy Wednesday!

Ah the benefits of having keys.

The cafe I work at the in the Garneau area of Edmonton (near the U of A) is a pretty bustling place. It has a pretty cool interior. The main wall opposite the espresso bar area is all exposed brick, and the floor was restored back to it’s original state (and I can’t for the life of me think of what the type and style of our floor is called) from the carpet it was covered with when our space was a pizza joint for 40 some odd years. The wall behind the espresso bar is painted in black chalk board and magnetic paint, and since we opened, this cafe has sported a magnetic menu. I kept joking that they shouldn’t have told me it was a chalk board wall….that is a lot of ‘empty canvas’ and I just so happen to have a small arsenal of chalk at home AND a key AND security code to the place.I mean…that could spell trouble.

But I was patient. And one day….my boss said go for it! So here is how it looks so far:

(standing on the coffee counter, looking left toward the windows. main menu wall)

(trusty sketchbook and partial chalk arsenal)

(my feet and the ladder acting like an extension of the counter so I can draw above the door to the kitchen)

(some of the mess I made of the cafe. bags of coffee do not normally go there)

(standing on the coffee counter, looking to the right above the door to the kitchen)

(wine glass with wine glass drawing just behind and wonky bottle sketch to the right)

(little drawing above the tea pots, with some of our cute pots and jars of tea)

(silly wine glass drawings with one broken wine glass and the same wonky bottle. from the left)

(the food menu located above the door to the kitchen, with short food descriptions)

(the coffee counter, below the wine shelf. it says ‘single origin beans $16 and up’)

There is still a space above the cupboards to the right of the kitchen door that I need to tackle. Tonight, and then the menu board/wall is complete. Gosh I love working with chalk and getting chalky fingers…and leaving little chalky finger prints everywhere. I cleaned them all up though before I left the cafe late last night.

I think.

It’s been a running joke with various people in my life about my favorite things. The joke is…there is a LOT of them. Almost everything is my favorite. I’m not even joking….I can get excited about the silliest things. Mismatched socks, cute kids, cafe customers with a good sense of humor, cranky cafe customers that are just super ridiculous….music. But the past few days I have been really, really excited about fish tacos.

Voila! A (partially eaten) fish taco from Tres Carnales Taqueria in downtown Edmonton. I went there for the first time last week with a bunch of friends after a movie. There was this, and much other tasty goodness masticated (hee hee….bet you had to read THAT twice!!) that evening. First time I had tequila that DIDN’T make me want to gag. Good times were had by all.

Really, this post should be about how my work relates to bacon (as in Kevin Bacon) and the whole ’6 degrees of separation’ thing. But (unfortunately) this has nothing to do with bacon. However, it does relate to my work. If you’ll follow me:

My friend Sarah J. knows EVERYONE and is awesome. She love Tres Carnales and bragged about it all the time. Because she’s awesome and is an awesome-person magnet, she is friends with the boys who own and run Tres Carnales. (Sarah = person 1, Tres Carnales boys = persons 2 & 3) Upon settling our tab the other night, I got talking (or shamelessly self-promoting….AGAIN) about my work as I commented on their cool graffiti murals on their walls. I told them I was an artist. They asked for a business card. I showed them the examples of work on the back of my cards (clever! thanks Moo.com!) and pretty soon they were telling me they would like two commissions for the opposite wall and wondering if I could work with their budget.

Um….yea. YEA!!

Friends. Dinner. New joint. New friends. Two tequila shots. Fish tacos. Commissions. (Large, loud, mixed media portrait ones, at that! Insert multiple fist pumps here!!)

Oh, and pretty lights!

The end.