Chalkin’ It Up: Street Art Challenge Response

I put the challenge out there and YOU have answered! From Coast-to-Coast, street art has been flowing-in as folks all over are taking on the Street-Art-Challenge I put out last month. It’s been such a joy watching all the clips, photos, and videos of your artwork come in over the last month from YOUR STREET to MY STREET, offering such meaningful connection during this strange time. BIG Thank you to all who participated…here’s a compilation of a bit of what I received:

In more news…

Here is a video showing how I begin the process of a painting with mineral paints and gold leaf.

  1. I mix natural minerals from the earth with walnut oil along with softened natural beeswax.
  2. It is applied by using different tools: paintbrush, eco-friendly thinner, palette knife, or rib.
  3. In this painting, handmade and recycled papers are applied with a hand mixed plant based glue and left to dry thoroughly.
  4. The charcoal pencil is used to create a basic sketch of images on the surface.
  5. From here the background and foreground areas are worked with paints to create varying thicknesses of richness in color.

Finished Work is up at this online gallery:

Home Project, Osborn Woods Gallery, Nevada City, Ca. 

Home is Within: Home are the Stories from Within;
who I think and believe I am. 

RuggeJ_StoriesfromHome

Meet Me in Italy!

I’ve been invited to teach in Italy!

This June,
join me for an Earth Art Immersion at

Cascina Rodiani – Green Hospitality

Click to Download form for Details

REGISTER on ‘Workshops’

 

Workshops!

Oh how I love to do workshops! I meet so many interesting and enthusiastic people loving art and different art techniques. I love the sharing and connections everyone makes.

Workshop6

Recently I invited a few artist friends over who wanted to learn how to apply gold leaf into artwork. I was looking forward to working with them. Yet I discovered a dynamic that was different from other workshops. In doing these I get a lot of questions, interactions and discussions occurring around my demonstrations.

There was one woman and the rest men in this group. It was so silent, I began to feel nervous. Wow! That was something I didn’t expect! I had to laugh at the situation. My only female artist made a Workshop4JPGcomment that went into answering a question she had for clarification and assurance of the process. During this, one male artist even turned his back, did some more work on his art piece while glancing back over his shoulder so as not to seem too rude. At first it would seem it was just the difference between males and females, but I began to realize it was the artists attending. All the men were accomplished artists. The woman had very little experience painting, let alone, being introduced to gold leaf into an art piece.

Also, the male artists really wanted to get moving along with their art pieces…they knew what they wanted to do. The woman, new to the processes and creatives around her, held her own, one to be admired for her determination to create something different than what she has done before. Altogether, it was a wonderful experience and I enjoyed the varied approaches each applied to their individual pieces and the camaraderie that emerged in the few hours invested in the workshop.

— Upcoming Workshops —

Hat Ranch Workshops

Featured Artist: Nevada County Arts Council

We mostly see Jennifer in supportive roles, cheering on fellow artists, quietly shouting jen mixingout a cause, always in service to her community.

Still waters run deep, though, and a glimpse into her working life as an artist shows a serious, driven commitment to her work, and a passion for color and technique.

Tell us about your art form and medium, Jennifer.

I use oils on 2D wood surfaces. I collect natural minerals, grinding and mixing them with oil and cold wax then paint onto the canvas covered with different papers and textures. Using pallet knives, brushes, and charcoal pencils I draw and paint.

 

Many Hands Make a Masterpiece

It was a great time having our Art group come by to visit my studio. We laughed, had wonderful conversations, food and interacted to create an art piece together. We mixed red ochre, yellow ochre, and mica gold as our colors. We used recycled paper on a masonite board, 18 x 24″, for our canvas. Then we went paint-happy on our hands…with gloves, of course. What a bonding experience!