Nautilus - Finished

"Nautilus"
Oil on Panel, 14" x 11" $1000

Nautilus - Nearing the Finish

I'm thinking this one is pretty close to finished. I still haven't gotten a 2nd layer on the top hand or the background, but they should be fairly quick. There were some other progress photos taken in between posts; perhaps they will end up in a demo on my site.

I have a confession to make: I am sick of painting at night. Lately, I have gotten a few sessions in during the day and might have to make that a general habit. I don't seem to be able to focus as well as I used to in the evening because familial routines have changed over the years. Besides, there's so much more light during the day! I'm not sure yet how it will work out to shift my painting hours, but I'm going to give it a try.

Anyway, in the next several weeks I am going to update and slightly expand my website. I should be adding a couple more demos and hopefully some other informative stuff. If there's anything in particular you'd like to see, send me an email at Lacey at Lacey-Lewis dot com! No guarantees that I will actually incorporate your suggestions, but I am honestly very curious about what you are interested in most.

Lost At E Minor

My work was featured today on Lost at E Minor, an "online publication devoted to pop culture — art, photography, design, music, the Interweb, and whatever else makes us as awe-struck and twinkle-eyed as newborn monkeys." I'm certainly honored to be included!

Even more flattering, I was described as one who paints, "amazingly realistic nudes with taste and sophistication." Can't get any better than that!

Nautilus - Progress

Of course I am giving more attention to this painting, because it is smaller. I always imagined (before I was a 'real' artist) that I'd want to almost exclusively focus on really large scale paintings. While I do have some large projects I want to tackle in the future, especially if I can work from life for them, these smaller pieces are just so satisfying. Perhaps they go faster.

Anyway, hopefully you can see the changes from the last posting. I've worked on the ottoman, her hair, and the area from her shoulder to her waist, stopping at the spine. Not satisfied yet but it's getting there!

Starting "Nautilus"

New painting still on the easel. This one feels like it's going to be easy. 14" x 11" oil on panel.

Painting Progress

Earlier this month I showed the start of this painting; here is some progress! The lower section is still blank canvas, simply because I need somewhere I can grab the painting to move it. I like the yellow and black color combination, but now that I am painting it, the background reminds me of a stage. Perhaps I will call this one, 'Staged.' Any thoughts on that?

Back from "Vacation!"

Last week I had a little vacation. My folks were in town, and we spent the week gallivanting around and eating lots of food! We went to Manhattan, KS, the Oz Museum in Wamego, KS, the KC Zoo, and I topped it off with a 4 mile race on Saturday. My husband and I got to go out with some friends in the evenings.

I didn't do a drop of work the whole time.

The above drawing was mostly complete more than a week ago, but I just put the finishing touches on it tonight. I need to get back in gear now!

Working on Some Nudes

At the moment I have a nude drawing and painting going. I hope to finish the drawing above (which is actually showing up as blue this time!) and start up another drawing and/or painting in the next few days, so I have a lot around to work on. Usually I have one or two projects going at the same time, but I feel like trying to have more than that in progress for a change. Due to my limited space, it can be difficult to have too many wet paintings at once, but now that I have most of my work out of the house I wonder if it might help me move along faster if I have more choices on what to work on each day. I certainly have enough ideas to give it a try!

This is after one night of work. Very rough and general, but serves as a map and starts to cover that awful blank canvas! The last few times I have started a painting, I've remembered how I used to like to paint on a toned ground, but it's too late at that point. Perhaps I should go tone a couple tonight before I get started on anything else.

Facades - The Opening

Opening night for Facades was a lot of fun! Above is a shot that looks straight through the section of the gallery was dedicated to my paintings. The guy in the front and to the left is Jay Nelson, art pusher extraordinaire, and I am off to the right.

I spent the night chatting with art lovers and artists, some of whom I hadn't met before including the elusive Jon Keith Swindell, and sampling from the fabulous buffet Strecker-Nelson provided. There was a lot of great work in the other sections of the gallery which I highly recommend! Unfortunately, I did not get to introduce myself to Lisa Grossman or Lori Wright, either because they were already engrossed in conversation or I was being shy.

All in all, a good time and a great show. Stop in if you are in the area! Stay tuned; more art in progress is on the way.