ArtofDay feature

I am fully entrenched in holiday mode (I had plum pudding for breakfast!!! – loving Christmas leftovers)  but I just had to drop by, to share that my work was featured on ArtofDay today. Thanks for the mention, I love having to opportunity to share my work with new people!  

"Namaste"

Kylie Marie Stevens

90 x 90 cm

oil on canvas

2010

SOLD

This is the piece that is featured; unfortunately the image on the site is a bit blown out (my fault, not theirs) it looks a lot more like this in real life.  

Drop by and check out the other 17 artist featured; there is some really interesting work in this bunch. 

I hope you are enjoying the festive season, I’ll be back to more regular posting next week.

Our builder has let me in on a little secret…..

They are ahead of schedule, fabulous news!  BUT it leaves me with a dilemma….  

Our beautiful dream house has lots of huge doors and windows, so we can take in the view of the tree tops we are nestled amongst.....  That means not many walls for me to adorn with paintings.  

So I have to find new homes for heaps of my paintings.  To that end I am doing a little editing of prices (read – slashing prices ridiculously!)  in my “Paintings Available for Sale” album over on facebook and adding lots of new paintings to the album as well.

Do pop over for a little look, please feel free to send your friends over too, I’d really appreciate your help with spreading the word about this one!  I’m starting to panic about just how many truck loads, my studio supplies and paintings are going to take up in the move…

Happy Dancing…

“Circle of Friends”

Kylie Marie Stevens

Encaustic on canvas and timber

300 x 290mm

2010

$90

I just love a great painting day…. The ones when the painting actually exceeds my expectations.  I had one of them today and I am so in love with this one!  

Mesmerising…

There is calm returning to my studio.  I am finding my feet and my confidence painting with encaustics.  The wax is so surprising and enchanting to work with that it has been worth all of the heartache, disappointments and doubts of learning to work with them.  I really love this one; it just feels so comfortable and calm to me and shows a glimmer of where I may head with this ethereal medium.

“Mesmerising”

Kylie Marie Stevens

Encaustic and imt silver leaf on canvas and wood

300 x 290mm

2010

$90

I like the other piece I painted this week too...  I popped it up over here and there is a bit of a debate about the title going on.  I’m still not sure what I will call it, but I am so thrilled it has engaged people.



Bones

I took a call the other night about a commission… a gift for an orthopaedic surgeon… something about bones...

I just happened to have this piece in my studio; I painted it a few years ago on a “bad back day”.  After a few emails back and forward it turns out it will be perfect.  How nice to have just the right thing on hand! 

Home Grown

Today I delivered one of my favourite paintings “Abound”, to The Ipswich Community Gallery.  It will be part of the Home Grown exhibition. 

It’s the first group show I have ever been a part of, so needless to say I am very excited and just a little bit chuffed!  

I’m really looking forward the opening event on Sunday; it will be very exciting to see my artwork displayed along side the creations of so many of my talented peers. 

Blogging Blah’s…..

I anticipated a bit of a slump, post my exhibition, but I thought I had planned cleverly enough to sneak past it…

I made plans to escape on a little camping break soon after the opening and I put off starting my eagerly awaited launch into encaustics until after our return from camping.

And as much as I loved the camping and the encaustics are all that I hoped they would be I am still in a bit of a blogging and inspiration blah.  The rest of life is swimming along just fine and I am still creating… mostly experimenting and learning with the encaustics.  I’m just not feeling those bolts of inspiration.

I’m normally so keen to blog, with my head full of more posts than I have time to share.  But lately I’m just not feeling it, I’m so out of touch in my blog reading and I have been seriously considering just closing down the blog and walking away.

In my heart I know this would be a mistake.  I value the friendships I have made through blogging to much and I know that being part of blogging community brings me inspiration and motivation.

I just need to give myself a kick in the pants and get back into the swing of things.  I know many of you must have been through this sort of thing before.  How did you pull yourself out of it? 

So my creative space is full of doubt…  Perhaps a little blog surfing around creative space land will provide me with the kick start I need???  See you at Kirsty’s.

Pondering…

Last night I attended the inaugural Philosophy Café in Ipswich.  It was a really enjoyable evening, vibrant conversation, good coffee and an engaging speaker (thankyou Gil!).

One little aside has had my head swimming ever since…  Whilst discussing what is or isn’t art, an audience member voiced her opinion that communication (or a desire to communicate something) was a key ingredient she used to measure if something was art.  I have always held a belief that passion was a necessary ingredient in art and now that I ponder it, communication hits a chord and rings true for me as well.   

“Is Communication the Key?”

Kylie Marie Stevens

Encaustic and collage on timber

235 x 290mm

2010

I’ve put together this little encaustic collage whilst I have been pondering this morning.   I’ve never worked with typography in my artwork before.  I’d love to know what you think… Both about this little piece and what you think art is…

Wishing you a soft beautiful Monday morning…

I wish you could smell this one, it’s divine.  

smitten with wax…

I have never been so challenged by a creative medium, but the beauty and the possibility of encaustics have me oh so smitten.  The smell is divine, the texture is dreamy and I am determined to master this.

I have played with including pastel between layers of wax…

Surfacing

Encaustic, pastel, paper and timber panel

235 x 290mm

I have melted, blown and glazed…

Hazy Days

Encaustic, pastel, paper and timber panel

235 x 290mm

I have embedded twine and stamped texture…

Gentle Lands

Encaustic, twine and timber panel

235 x 290mm

And last night I carved the surface with my lino carving tools…

work in progress

Encaustic, cheesecloth and timber panel

235 x 290mm

The texture for carving is just sublime; I have never carved anything with such ease.  I just want to spend every waking moment in the studio!  

I’ll catch up with all you creative types over at Kirsty’s this afternoon.  I am heading off for a site meeting with the builder now, to decide where all of the power points and plumbing will go.

We have a roof!

Well most of a roof!  Next week we should get windows – check out the size of those windows holes– we love them!  It really is going to feel like we are living in a tree house.

I have been hiding away in the studio….

Playing and learning.  Not only are the encaustics challenging, but photographing them is a nightmare.  Apparently the camera (and the scanner) can see right through the subtle white glazes….  

This is as close a representation as I can get for now…..

Hazy Day

Kylie Marie Stevens

235 x 290mm

Encaustic on paper and timber panel

2010

So much to learn….  You can check out the other piece I worked on today over here.  

Hot wax + naked flame = fun and experimentation in the studio……

Did I get your attention???  Sorry nothing kinky going on here!  I’m immersing myself in experimenting with encaustics.  I have fallen in love with this ancient and ethereal medium and I am determined to master it.  

Hopefully by next week I will have something beautiful to share with you, but for now it’s all mess and mistakes!  It’s all so exciting though; don’t you just love the buzz of learning something new?  My head is spinning with possibilities, I just need my skill set to catch up!

I wonder what the other creative types are up to today.

I’m back…..

I was away a little longer than I expected, but I feel the break has really done me good!  We spent some time camped by a river and some time hanging out at home.  I feel refreshed and keen to get stuck back into everything.

The first order of business is to draw the winner of my “lucky door prize”.  I used random.org to draw the number and Kelly Thiel is the winner with the 7^th comment.  I felt a bit funny about it at first as Kelly is one of my very favourite bloggers (she is a fabulous sculptor – you really must check out her work) and she has been such a big support to me lately.  But then I realised I have so many favourite bloggers, that it was very likely that what ever number random.org came up with they would be one of my favourites!!!!!  So Kelly the surprise lucky door prize will be jetting its way across the globe to you very soon.

I have been experimenting and playing with encaustics. I have been keen to give them a go for a couple of months, but I made myself wait until all of the exhibition work was done.  I think I am in love with painting with hot wax and naked flame!  More about that in another post…..

ps I was going to add a nice picky of our river side retreat, but I am getting a weird sign in to “Google Cloud Picker” message followed by and error message when I try to load a photo.  So for now – no piccies.  I have Googled the problem and found that I am not the only one suffering.  Hopefully it is all put right soon….. I’ll be in trouble if it isn’t what is an arty blog with no piccies?????  If you have had the same problem and found a solution, please share.  

Unplugging for a bit…..

I’m going to take a little tiny technology break… Spend some time with the family.   Everything is wonderful at the moment and I just need to soak it all in.  

I'm sorry I haven’t got around to thanking all of the lovely folk who attended my exhibition opening yet, both on line and “in the flesh”…I want you all to know I appreciate you so much, xxx.  

I will draw to lucky draw prize when I return to the land of blog.  I won’t be gone for long – promise.   

Shadow Shot + House Update + Exhibition Excitement

While this shadow shot may not be a spectacular photo, it marks a very exciting moment.  My Curly Guy and I are standing together for the very first time, on the floor of our new home!  

We have waited so long to see what it would look like up high in the trees where our home will be nestled.  It is spectacular!  We can’t wait to live here. 

I am so keen to get around and check out some shadow shots… It has been so long since I played along…  I have been immersed in preparations for my exhibition.  It opened on Friday night and I had such a fabulous opening night.  

I also had an online opening night so if you want to pop by and check out the show, just click here. There is still time for you to enter the “lucky door prize” on my Online Opening Night post, if you hurry, it will be drawn on Monday.

What a fabulous night!

I was spoilt with flowers from my Curly Guy and two of my wonderful girlfriends.

I was joined by a crowd of family and friends.

And I sold paintings!

Thanks to all of you who dropped by the online opening and left such sweet comments.  Sorry I haven’t been able to reply to you yet, I shall make it my mission over the following days.  

I will announce the winner of the “lucky door prize” on Monday….. And hopefully I shall have some photos of the night to share then too.

I’m on such a high!!!

OPENING NIGHT

Welcome to the online opening night of

Emerging, an exhibition of free flowing abstracts

by Kylie Marie Stevens.

This exhibition physically opens at Drawing Point Gallery, Ipswich, Australia, at 6:30 on the 22nd on October 2010, the same time as it goes live on line.  I have chosen to do this for two reasons….  Firstly to honour and include all of the wonderful folks I have “met” online who have supported and encouraged me on this journey. 


And secondly to use this opportunity to share my works with as many people as possible.  You could help me on my quest to share this collection, by clicking one of the little "share" buttons at the bottom of this post, I would really appreciate it. 


Here it is is, the Emerging collection, raise you glass and wish me well as you enjoy the show…. (just press the arrow play button)

The artist Bio that accompanies the Emerging exhibition….

Kylie Marie Stevens has been painting for 20 years and is largely self-taught. While working at selling art materials and fine art prints in her twenties she experimented widely with both medium and style.

Many of her paintings were produced as exercises as she sought to master various materials and techniques, developing her knowledge and skills.

In her early thirties Kylie progressed to painting commissioned pieces for corporate and commercial premises as well as teaching adult art workshops - deconstructing the art process for novice painters.

When she paints from the heart Kylie’s works are often a homage to nature and the diminishing “untouched landscape” for which we are all responsible. 

The paintings in Emerging are abstracts and as such are open to many interpretations. For Kylie personally however they are expressive of different times, places, people and moods.

In the Adrift series Kylie was seeking to access her purest form of inspiration: a virtually subconscious vision, effortless and filled with joy. Reconnecting with this experience after becoming a mother has reawoken her ambition to share her art in public.

A huge thankyou to Anna for all of your patients and help writing this.

Feeling peckish?  These are some of the tasty treats we are enjoying at Drawing Point Gallery tonight...

 Avocado and Cherry Tomato Wonton cases

Cheese and Chive Blini with Pesto Cream and Prosciutto

Banoffee Tarts

Vol au vents laden with...
 smoked salmon, dill and cream cheese;
feta and rocket pesto
and hummus with kalamata olive

Thanks to Amy and Helen for offering your culinary skills to the event, I really appreciate you catering for me (and I am sure my guests will too!)

I’m having a surprise “lucky door” prize, exclusive to the online opening night.  To enter just leave a comment on this post and you are in the draw.  Make sure you leave your email address if you are a “no reply at blogger” type!  

If something in the exhibition has caught your eye and you want to make it your own, you can contact the gallery on ph: 07 3812 1188 or email: kateroberts@arttimesupplies.com

So many wonderful supportive people have cheered me on in this journey.  I can’t express how much your support and kind words have meant to me.  I don’t think I would have been able to take this step, without you backing me.  Thankyou.

There are a lot of sad, lonely, empty hooks at my place today….

I won’t be creating anything in my creative space today, but I am packing up a bundle of my creations and hanging them for my exhibition…Gee the house is going to seem empty without them. 

Just one more sleep until my opening night’s….  That’s right I am having two opening nights at once.  The regular “in the flesh” one at Drawing Point Gallery and my “online” opening night, they will both open simultaneously (fingers crossed auto posting works its magic for me!). 

So if distance keeps you from coming along….  Join me celebrating this milestone right here in the blogsphere, your invitation with all of the details is right here. I hope you will raise your glass for me from your corner of the globe and leave a comment on the “Online Opening” post to go in the draw for the “lucky door prize”. 

Wish me luck that the hanging goes well, so I can grab a moment to do a little My Creative Space surfing this afternoon….

We have poles AND bearers….

The dream house is progressing along again this week now that we have had a break from the rain.  We should get a floor this week and maybe even some of the wall framing.  Exciting times! AND only 2 more sleeps till my opening night…

Your invite…

You are invited to the online opening

of

Emerging

Friday the 22^nd of October at 6:30pm

(Eastern standard time – Queensland Australia.  Time zone converter here)

No need to RSVP, just drop on over here to Chasing Purple Dreams.  The online opening, including a slide show of the exhibition, will go live at the same time as I open the doors to the exhibition at Drawing Point Gallery.  

There will be a surprise “Lucky Door Prize” just leave a comment on the night to go in the draw.  

I am hoping to be able to include recipes from some of the yummies that will be on offer as well…. I am so lucky to have some fabulous cooks who are also fabulous friends catering for me on the night.

I will also have the gallery’s contact details available just in case you have to make one of my original paintings your own!

So I hope you will raise a glass and wish me luck in my first solo exhibition regardless of how many miles are between us.

Please feel free to share the invite to this online opening anyway you like… I am happy for you to post a link on your blog… or you could push one of those little “share” buttons down near the bottom of the post…  I’d love to be able to share my exhibition and my work far and wide with as many people as possible.

Look what I found in the gully at “The Dirty” today...

(a light on words post for Blogtober 17!)

For Friend’s Afar…..

Blogging and connecting with folk on Facebook is fabulous, but there are a few little down sides….  Like the disappointment that all of my far flung friends can’t be a part of my exhibition opening….  But I think I have a solution.  Unfortunately I haven’t won the lotto, so I can’t fly you all in to be at the opening!  But I can give you an online glimpse…

Pistacia Vera Kylie Marie Stevens oil on canvas 1060 x 910 mm

2003

So I’m thinking…online opening….  With a slide show of the exhibition pieces scheduled to auto post at the same time as the exhibition opens… 

A “lucky door prize” for a randomly drawn commenter…

Any other ideas on how you could feel included?  

Would you like copies of the recipes for the yummies that my fabulous friends are making for the nibbles? 

Should I include the galleries contact details – just in case someone wanted to purchase from the show?  

Would you help me to promote it on your facebook pages or blogs?  

Meet "Creative"…

I wanted a way to celebrate and commemorate the milestone of my first solo exhibition….

“Creative”

Mitsy Sleurs

from the “99 Feelings” – project

7.5cm high

unfired ceramic

Purchasing this sculpture form ArtMind’s Etsy store was just perfect.   “Creative” is from Mitsy’s 99 Feelings-project and I have loved her from the moment I saw her.  Of course it helps that 9 is my favourite number (so it follows that 99 is a fabulous number too!).  The shape of these little babushkas is just so perfect to me and I instantly connected with the way Misty has expressed feeling creative.  To purchase another artists work as I embark on this exhibition seems like good karma and I shall continue this tradition to mark future milestones in my artistic career…

And don’t you just love Mitsy’s”Happy Girls”?  She pops one in with everything she sells.  I am thinking mine is going to hang from my rear vision mirror as and “out and about” reminder of my achievement while “Creative” will live on the shelf above my studio desk, where it is safe from little hands and where I can see it as I create.

Do you mark milestones with a little something?  I haven’t done it before, but I really like the concept.  A friend of mine recently chose a diamond ring (for her husband to buy her) to mark the milestone of completing her PHD.  She completed it whilst also being a Mum to two kids under 3 – what a huge achievement.  I am so proud of her!

One week today until my exhibition opens…… 

 

Itchy, but optimistic…

I am itching to get playing with my paints again.  I haven’t had any Little Guy free time for painting in weeks.  I have one more painting day before the exhibition and before that long awaited day arrives I need to find time to stretch this beautiful linen on to the custom sized stretcher I had made.   I have a good feeling about the painting for this canvas, perhaps it will even end up the star of the show (not to put any pressure on myself or anything!!!!).

There is still lots of work to do before my big day (just 8 days till opening night!), so I shall probably continue to be a bit of a slacker around my Blogtoberfest posting.  But do drop back by tomorrow as I want to share a very special little something I purchased to celebrate and commemorate my solo exhibition milestone…

Its Thursday once again, so you know where we are all headed…Make yourself a cuppa, there is tons of creativity to immerse yourself in! 

AWOL for Blogtoberfest – the excuse…..

Ok I just dropped of the blogging band wagon for a moment there.  I just have so many jobs on my pre exhibition to do list that I just let it slide, sorry!  The on top of the already hefty to do list, unexpected jobs keep cropping up.  Like spending most of Sunday afternoon cleaning the studio for the visitor I am expecting in less than an hour…..  

I contacted some of the local press to see if they were interested in writing a little something about my exhibition and one of them is!  She is on her way, here… in about 45 minutes…..  My stomach is twisting and turning, I’m excited and scared all at once...  What have I gotten myself in for????

Blogtober 8th

Today is gloomy, drizzly, my back is out and I have a headache. L If it wasn’t for Blogtoberfest I wouldn’t have posted today… Sorry for the whinge!

Lucky I captured this little sunshiny shot earlier in the week, hopefully sharing it will brighten your day and mine too!  

Where’s all the art????

While you might imagine the lead up to an art exhibition would mean lots of paint and canvas, there is not actually that much creativity in my space at the moment…..

15 days till opening night and most of the work I am doing includes this diary.  Writing to the press, getting invitations out into the community, collecting paintings and applying for a group exhibition later in the year have occupied me this week.  Along with the excitement at The Dirty….the holes we celebrated earlier in the week are now full of cement and we should soon have poles rising into the air.  

I hope your creative spaces are exciting and abundant today, so that I can pop by and live vicariously through your creativity!

Blogtober 6th.... and already a pretty lame excuse for a post!

No time for a proper post today…. Here’s a photo from my garden this morning… So that I don’t fail at Blogtoberfest already! How are you going with the posting everyday???

Dream Home Update….Holes!!!

It’s so exciting to see things happening at “The Dirty” (Little Guy calls our block The Dirty – so cute!).

We have holes!

The surveyor’s markers that we were so excited to see in last week are now out with holes in their place.

This pile of steel will go into the holes today as they are filled with concrete.

We were a bit worried on the drive out to The Dirty last night as it was raining.  We didn’t want to face delays or have to have water pumped out of the holes…. But the rain soon stopped and then we were rewarded and reassured by this little piece of magic.

It’s going to be such a special place to live, I just can’t wait.

Well here we are, Blogtober 5^th…  I’m doing ok so far.  How about you?  I wonder what stage the house will be by the end of Blogtober???  Exciting times.



Still untitled….

“Embraced”, “Nestled”???? I’m still not set on a title for this one, but I am sure that I love it!  It’s the third in the “Namaste” series and it would make a really lovely pair with “Grace”.
 I have another painting in this series brewing away in my head and my heart….. I’m just waiting for a few uninterrupted hours to bring it to life.

A star shaped, flower shadow, on our front path….

One of my Little Guy’s favourite songs is “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, so he was quite chuffed when we spotted this star shaped shadow on our path.  Want to see what the other shadow chasers are up to this week?  Then just pop on over to Hey Harriet for a shadowy journey around the world.

Dream Home update...

One of the things we like about the land that our dream home is being built on is the trees.  We plan to keep the bush at the back of the block quite natural and add native plantings amongst the tree to enhance the beauty of the bushland. 

When we bought the block the house site was already cleared and our designer has worked the house beautifully into the space.  Unfortunately one, small tree had to go, to provide access to the back of the block.  This morning we cut it down and it became our first wood pile for the new fire place.  It was quite satisfying to spend the time out there working in what will become our yard. 

I’m looking forward to more time spent out there this weekend, but this time planting!  We picked up a nice little collection of natives, free from our council.  They are destined for planting along the dry creek bed that our deck will overlook.  I can’t wait to live there!