• Home
  • Browse the Gallery
  • About/Contact
  • Blog
  • New toys
  • Ceramics
AM Landry Art

Slow progress is still progress

6/28/2015

0 Comments

 
This week has been pretty momentous for our young country with two big supreme court rulings causing a stir.  I have very good friends and family members for whom they are monumental. 

My week, personally, has been slow.  I developed a neck cramp that brought my productivity to a dead halt.  You never realize how important those muscles that hold up the most important organ in your body are until they stop working or cause you so much pain you just can't function.  I've done the very minimum possible this whole workweek with agony.  Even after two trips to the massage therapist, lots of anti-inflammatories, and heat and ice packs, the spasms continue.

I managed to make progress on only one painting.   So I will share it with you from its inception (which was more than a year ago) to its current incarnation.  This painting, which will become a set and possibly another series, follows the musical theme paintings I've done before.  I usually do them with treble and bass clefs covered in vines and berries and flowers.  This time, I thought I'd add a little more sinister but beautiful nature to the design.  The snake design came first.  I sketched this some time ago.  It was sort of a snake/serpent/dragon concept.

Here is what the first sketch looked like:

Picture
I'm a big fan of snakes.  I do prefer the nonlethal kind in person.  However, the innumerable variety of snakes around the world, in fact, just in Louisiana, is mind-boggling.  One of the most dangerous and also one of the most beautiful snakes here is the copperhead.  I decided that would be my first one.  This is what it started out looking like, wrapped around the treble clef.  Obviously, I had a long way to go at this point.
Picture
My tiny bit of progress this week is shown below.  I still have a lot of work to do, and I may or may not get done with it today, but here it is.
Picture
My sketch books are full of future ideas.  I hope you enjoy seeing these progressions as much as I enjoy sharing them.

AM
0 Comments

Watercolors revisited

6/25/2015

0 Comments

 
Since my last post, I managed to find some time to work in my first medium, watercolors.  It was good to get back to something that, some 30+ years since my first lesson, still felt so natural to me.  I have done a few watercolor paintings here and there over the years, but not seriously as an artist until now.  I enjoyed the fluidity of the paint, the freedom to pull my brush across the paper, the softness of the color--all things I don't feel with acrylic paint.

I felt as though Mr. Looney's spirit was guiding me, reminding me about method.  I could see in my mind his wrinkled, bent fingers selecting, opening, and squeezing the paint tubes into the pallet, telling me what colors would work best for the painting of a duck flying over a foggy bayou early in the morning.  I'm painting other things now, of course, but I will never forget that first session when he led me to believe I showed true talent and promise. 

It took me a long time to believe it, but better late than never.
0 Comments

 When it rains, it pours. 

6/11/2015

0 Comments

 
While I had every intention of doing the Lakeside show this weekend and had my spot reserved, I had to step back and take inventory of my time.  When I did so, I realized I had already far surpassed the limit of things one person is able to do at one time.  I have always had a problem with spreading my time too thin, saying yes a little too often, and it is time for me stop and reevaluate my priorities.  Time is money, as they say, and I'm just about broke. 
 
There are still many talented artists, some more talented and experienced than I, who will be selling at this show, so I still encourage readers to attend and browse. 
 
More to come...
0 Comments

Painting in Nature

6/6/2015

0 Comments

 
Today I had the great fortune of attending a paint-out, which is an outdoor painting field trip of sorts.  Artists get together in an outdoor setting, preferably in a pretty, natural location, and either paint what they see (plein air painting) or paint something planned but enjoy the inspiration of their surroundings.  Our setting today was at Woodlands Trail in Belle Chasse, Louisiana.  It's a typical South Louisiana wooded area next to a wide canal with migratory bird watching and a nature trail.  It's located at the end of a gravel road off Belle Chasse Highway.

Even with early morning temps of 80+ degrees, we were surprisingly comfortable under the permanent wooden gazebo there.  We enjoyed the sounds of chirping birds, buzzing bees, croaking bullfrogs, the occasional plop of a turtle or fish jumping in or out of the water, and a nice breeze that kept us cool.  It's a lovely place, despite the construction going on nearby, and I recommend visiting and walking the trails if you have the chance.

I enjoyed the company of two artists I already know and met two new people.  It was quite nice, and I was glad to get out of the house for a change.

Here's a picture of my unfinished painting.  I hope to complete it this weekend so I can add it to the upcoming show.  Happy trails. ;)
0 Comments

New Works in Progress

6/6/2015

0 Comments

 
In preparation for an upcoming multi-artist show at Lakeside Shopping Center in Metairie, Louisiana, I've been painting as much as I can.  I hoped to have a whole show's worth of brand new paintings that haven't even been on the site yet.  Of course, I usually work on several paintings at the same time and rotate working on them, so not every one I'm working on will be there next week.  I haven't made as many as I would have liked.

Sometimes I like to hide my work until it's really complete, but then, as the saying (paraphrased) goes, artists seldom finish works, but just abandon them.

Since some collectors or art enthusiasts enjoy seeing the works in progress, I'll share some I've been working on lately.

The first is a pet portrait I chose to do for nobody in particular.  I love painting animals, and pugs are so "cutegly," this was the perfect choice.  Pet portraits are some of my favorite paintings to do.
I am always working on the underwater series.  Two are already done and in my gallery, but there are 6 already sketched and planned out.  There is a little story to the series, but I'll wait until they're all done to share that.  Here is one I just recently started.  As you can see, I don't often stick with my original placement.  I paint, I step back and look, then I repaint to balance what doesn't look right.  The details will fill in later, but I like to get basic placement right before I move on to the special touches.   This one has a long way to go and has changed significantly since these pictures were taken.
My treble and bass clef paintings are possibly my most popular.  I customize them for commission clients, but these sketches show one I designed completely from my head.  I'm thinking the snake will be a copperhead.  Copperheads are such beautiful but dangerous snakes.  I guess my art sort of reflects the strong woman I strive to be:  Beautiful but strong and never to be underestimated.  That's why my mermaids are half shark.
So, there you have it, a little preview of works coming up.  Hope to see you at Lakeside Mall Sunday afternoon.
0 Comments

    Anne-Marie Landry

    I'm a Louisiana native artist, writer.

    Archives

    June 2022
    April 2022
    January 2016
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

AM Landry Art

Home
Browse the Gallery
Store
News/Events
About/Contact
Blog
© COPYRIGHT AM Landry. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.