"Winter"

I finished this Wednesday! I plan to paint a figure for each season, all the same size.

I've also updated my website.

Oil on canvas, 18" x 24"

Booth Shot Massacre

So, I went out to set up my tent, gridwall and artwork in order to get a booth shot to submit with art fair applications. The wind blew my tent away, it got caught on a clothesline and broke in several places. Bummer.

After a trip to Home Depot for some nuts and bolts, my husband helped me set it up again, this time tying the corners down to cinder blocks. We also tied some of the bent poles to a nearby fence to straighten them, and luckily the bright sun bleached out the dirt, grass and rust stains in the picture! So, I have a decent booth shot now.

But I need to buy a new tent sometime this month.

Acceptance

I've officially been accepted to the Lawrence Art Guild's 2006 Art in the Park! So mark your calendars for May 7th. I'll be there all day and I'll be doing a live demo, medium to be determined.

The tent and gridwall have arrived, now I just need to find somewhere to stash them. I have a feeling that I will soon be renting storage space somewhere.

On and Off the Easel

Yes, I am a painter! Still on the easel is this figurative painting, please note that the blue is not quite that strong in real life.


Now officially off the easel is this portrait of a young boy. When the rain clears and I can get a less gloomy pic of this painting I will post it. 8 x 10 Oil on Canvas.

OPAL Program

Here is the link to the archived OPAL program recorded 03-03-06: OPAL Archive

If you have trouble with the slide show, just play one of the audio files and make your way over to my website. On the "News" page you will find an HTML version of the slide show that you can flip through manually while you listen.

March Madness

I think the OPAL program on Friday went well! Once it is archived, I'll post a link to it here. I am scheduled to do it again on the First Friday of April, subject to be determined.

This month I am getting ready to hang my work at the Spotlight Gallery at the Unity Church of Overland Park. The show will run for April and May, and at about 85 linear feet of wall space will showcase nearly all of my current work. I'm also busy gathering display walls and a canopy so that I can apply to a few local outdoor art festivals and do one or two public demos, and will also enter a competition or two.

So, this month I am painting, writing, speaking, matting, framing, applying, gathering and preparing. And I'm spending a lot of money doing it.

The Silver Pitcher

I decided to go ahead and photograph the finished painting while I am waiting to be able to scan it. So here you go! The one eye looks a little funny in the far-away image (shifting of pixels, maybe?) so I included a close-up. 11 x 14 Oil on Panel.

Humble Beginnings

The painting with the silver pitcher is now finished, but I am waiting for it to be dry enough to scan. Meanwhile, here is the beginning of another work-in-progress. 18 x 24 Oil on Canvas.


I've been doing a lot of writing in preparation for the upcoming OPAL Program. Hopefully this will be posted on the Schedule of Events on the OPAL site soon as "First Fridays: Art in Kansas City" with a subtitle of "Lacey Lewis on Choosing Realism." If not, check the Atrium or Auditorium at 12 Central Time on March 3rd!

Opportunity Knocks

I have been invited to share my work and/or point of view on an online program! What extent I show my work on this show is to be determined, as much of my focus will be to talk about why I decided to become a realist artist, what makes me tick, what I think about art altogether!

Exciting.

March 3rd at noon. More info (a link or two) to follow.

In the meantime, I am almost done with the painting of the woman with the pitcher. Here's a detail of some progress:

Introduction

OK, so I figured that I'd start to give whoever might be reading this some info about me, my work, etc. I'm hoping that down the road I can look back and see how different things were!

My studio right now is my livingroom. My husband and I have chosen to live in a small, affordable house while he attends college and I devote myself to homeschooling our son and creating art. This means, however, that I don't have a seperate studio and I have to be creative when it comes to storing supplies and wet and completed paintings. I use plastic carts that roll away under the desk to hold paints, pencils, pastels, etc and shelves for brushes and palettes in the bedroom. There are nails in various places around the house where I hang wet paintings at the end of the evening, trays under the bed, rolls of canvas in the corner, you get the idea! So, when the painting is out and I'm working, the livingroom looks a little like the above. That painting on the easel (a gift from my parents... thanks Mom!) was in progress, and has since been completed.

And finally, here's a current work in progress. 11x14 on panel. I'll show it again when it's finished!

First Post

Appropriate title, yes? Well, here we go.

I've tossed around the idea of starting a blog a few times. For some reason today I just signed up and got started! We'll see if this becomes something that I do consistently or not. Let me start by telling you a little bit about myself:

My name is Lacey Lewis. I am a realist artist in the KC area, originally from Syracuse, NY. My work is mainly figurative and portraiture, although I plan to do a few landscapes and still lifes once I hang a show at the end of March. Maybe I will post some works in progress here, or just talk about trying to land shows and deal with limited space for my creative endeavors.

So there you have it. I've started a blog.