Thank You!

I just wanted to give a HUGE thank you to everyone who came out to the CCAD Art Sale yesterday! Thanks for supporting us artists and making the day memorable.

The early morning sun was blaring through the windows when I snapped these photos. The sun actually hung around for the whole day too which I think helped a lot for getting people up and into the sale.

Just incase you didn't get to see my booth in the morning, here it was.

People still really love the mini paintings, which was good to hear because I havn't made any in awhile and this motivated me to start again. But even more, it definitely motivated me to start working on some bigger pieces. So hopefully in a few weeks I'll have some cool new really big paintings to be posting!

So thanks again to everyone for motivating, supporting, and making us artists feel loved!

CCAD Art Sale is THIS SATURDAY!

So I feel like the art sale kind of snuck up on me this year, I can't believe it's already that time of year. I wanted to make something new for this sale, something a little more suited to christmas and the spirit of giving and all. I came up with a fun idea I think; I've been making cards with just some simple illustrations on the front, then a quote on the inside. All the quotes are some of my favorites, so of course they all are somewhat nature related, about simplifying and the likes. Here is one of the most simple cards.

The quote on the inside is "An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day" from Henry David Thoreau.

All of the illustrations aren't as simple as that one though, this one below has a bit more detail and color, but the scene itself is pretty simplified. I let a ton more of the wash underneath show through than I usually do as a way of making it seem a bit unfinished, or letting you fill in the rest yourself.

The quote in this one says "To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders." One of my most favorite taoist quotes from Lao Tzu. Then of course I have a little bit more from Mr. Henry David Thoreau, the one below says "Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?" I love that quote because he makes such a great insight into the idea of making art, even though he most likely was thinking about something completely different. So I will be selling all these fun little guys at the sale, plus a whole bunch of winter and christmas type landscapes. So if you have nothing else to do this saturday between 10 and 2 come hang out with me at CCAD!

I Miss Robots

One of my one on one students has really been wanting to try sculpting lately, so this week we finally broke out the clay. I havn't sculpted in awhile so I decided to let her choose what to try an sculpt, best decision ever. She wanted to make robots, I don't think there could have been a better choice.

We had our class and she managed to crank out a pretty cool head and body for hers, and I had just finished the head for mine. Time ran out so we decided to keep working on hers next time. I on the other hand was wayyy to into making my robot to stop. When my lessons were done for the day I quickly took out my half finished robot and went to work. Finally hunger stopped me and I had to go home, but I managed to crank this little guy out.

He says " 'Ello from robot land, and I hope everyone out there had a fantastically filling turkey day."

Watercolor Paintings from class

Last week we played with watercolors in my Paint like the masters class. The kids all really seem to like watercolor painting more than anything else so far which was fun for me. They actually sat and focused for the whole time and made some cool paintings. The only requirements were that it had to be a nature scene, and preferably something with water in it. These were two of the paintings the kids came up with.

I painted with the kids too, because there were a few of them missing so they were a little easier to handle than normal. I wanted to try something similar to a piece I did in college where there was a coy fish swimming beneath some lilly pads. That piece had been done in collage and I can still vividly remember how much of a pain it was to cut out so many scales and paste them on. I think the count was over a hundred of them by the time I was done. So needless to say, the watercolor version was much easier and much more enjoyable. This week were drawing a still life, should be fun!

"Being Coy Again"

12" x 12"

Watercolor

Oops it's been awhile

I am still alive.

Sorry about the long delay in posts but things have been pretty busy lately in the world of Quinn. First off I moved into a new house! It's really nice, but it's a bit of a fixer upper so i've had my hands full with that. I just finished painting the living room and the kitchen cupboards and drawers. We built a coffee table last night, and we are in the process of making a saloon style door to get to the basement. Next up for painting is the kitchen walls, then the ground floor will be done enough to start working on finishing the basement! Theres a lot of things I am excited for with this new place, most importantly SO much more space! I can start doing some really big paintings and get away from the tiny 2" and 3" ones I've been doing for a bit.

But with this almost month away from posting I have accrued quite a bit of things to post about, I wont dump it all out on one post but here is a quick fun one. My dad home brewed some Honey Porter this year, and he is hopefully bottling it soon. He went with the classy name, Harry Porter, can't go wrong with that. Here is what I came up with.

The last beer my dad made was pretty good so hopefully this ones even better, but with a name like harry porter how could it be bad.

In other news, my after school classes have been going really well, and that'll most likely be what I post about next so stayed tuned yall's!

Upside-Down Cat is Done

Mr. Upside down is finished and in good hands. It turns out the auction isn't until January, so I've got some waiting to do to see if he does as well as the last one. The previous cat drawing I donated went for over 1500 dollars! All of which went to helping the wayne county humane society grow and become a better shelter. Hopefully this years kitty goes for even more. Cheers.

Artists Row!

What a fun festival! The few days before it were busy, but I got tons of work done and had everything ready once the big day came along. I really enjoyed the whole day, the set up went well, the people were nice, and we were right near the music stage where there were some really great jazz musicians playing all day. And the best part of the whole thing; I won best in show! I got to go up one stage and everything!

Here was the set up in the morning, the weather was perfect and I got to wear my favorite Plaid as I fine tuned all the spots for my paintings.

People also really liked the little paintings again, as well as the big seascape. In the middle of the table you can just about see the first mini vertical trio I've done. Also on the far left you can make out the mini winter scene where instead of three square canvases in a row, I threw in a vertical one in the middle. Small changes to what I was doing before but I thought they were fun ideas.

Close to the end of the day I got the big surprise, I got to go on stage in the middle of the festival and receive the award from Maria Friske, whom the award is named after. It was really exciting, but then they told me to say something into the microphone, and I'm definitely not a big public speaker, so I just said thank you. Hopefully that was enough.

So overall the weekend was a success, plus the Bills won and are 2-0 now, what a year its turning out to be.

Preparation for Artists Row

Artist Row is fast approaching, this sunday is looking to be perfect weather in rochester and I'm getting excited for the festival. I've been slacking on the posts lately because of all the work I have been doing in getting ready for the show. in the past two weeks I have finished about 16 paintings, if my maths right thats over one a day. This is a quick taste of some of the new stuff.

Lately the paintings have become more like illustrations I think, I've been wanting to call them the illustrative landscapes. I think it was all those illustration classes, I can't help but make up stories for each painting as I work on it. I've also started to make a few that are more design orientated by taking the cloud shapes and turning them into something a bit more.

I will probably have one more post before the show, once I get all these little guys framed up and I have all my stuff together. wee

Lots of new stuff on the way

There's a new company opening up here in Columbus, it's called Colors & Bottles. The concept is pretty simple; an artist brings in a painting and teaches people how to paint it. And since it's geared for adults and a party type of theme, its BYOB, so that should be a good time. The painting below is the one I will be teaching, and if all still goes according to plan, I should be teaching a whole group of people all my secrets of painting in a few weeks.

Also I will be doing the Artist Row art festival in a few weeks! It was kind of late notice on their part, but it will be sept. 18th, yup thats next sunday. So instead of relaxing for a couple weeks and climbing every weekend, looks like its time to paint my face off and do some serious CCAD fashion last minute work.

Spirals in the sky

16" x 20"

Acrylic

Paintings by Aishu

So at my job we do a lot of work with younger kids, as well as kids with disabilities. I've been working with a girl named Aishu for a while now, she has autism, and she loves to paint. When she started she mostly drew cartoon pictures of things she likes, characters from Lion King or palm trees. She has made a ton of great progress though, especially the past few weeks I think she has made some amazing paintings. She did this painting about two weeks ago, I helped her mix the paints but she drew the house and did the painting all by herself. She called the piece Happy House, then when I told her to sign her name she started to write Name. She did this one just yesterday, I asked her to draw a tree, then paint it. Again I helped her to mix the paints but she did the rest by herself. This is my favorite painting she has done so far, she really liked it too.

Next week were going to try to paint a sailboat!

Upside-Down Cat

The Wayne County Humane Societies annual auction is coming up in a few months, and I'm gonna draw all sorts of kitties for it. The last time I donated a cat Illustration it sold for over 1,500! so hopefully both the pieces I am planning on giving go for even more. The Wayne County Humane Shelter is a great organization, they never put down animals and give them an amazing facility to live in until they can find a permanent home. All the proceeds of the event go to improving their facilities and increasing awareness of their organization, so to everyone who goes and supports the auction, you are awesome.

The World Famous Upside-Down Cat

10" x 10"

Colored Pencil

Back from the Adirondacks

So I just got back from another great trip to the Adirondacks, but of course I didn't get nearly as much painting done as I was hoping. It was a week and a half of mountain hiking, biking, and swimming, and most importantly seeing some of my relatives I don't get to see too much. I did ticked three more mountains off my list of 46 high peaks though, so thats always a plus.

Even though I really only did one painting, I probably took more than 100 photographs. So I got as much reference as I can handle for at least a few weeks or so. I really liked a few of the early morning pictures I took out on our lake with the dense fog making a mysterious scene. I took this panoramic photo below with five separate photos, then stitched them together in photoshop. You can faintly see the bridge my family has jumped off of into the water for years on the left hand side. The marsh in the middle is also the home to beaver family that has lived there as long as I can remember.

This is one of four large scale panorama's I've taken in the town of Newcomb. The full size of the photo's are all around 72" by 24", so someday I want to get them printed large scale and have some really cool, amazingly big photo's of one of my favorite places in the world.

Its My Burffdayss

So todays my birthday! 23 fine years on this planet of ours. It's kind of a weird one though, 21 was awesome, 22 was still kinda sweet, then 23? but hey a birthdays a birthday right? There's nothing to complain about when theres cake and presents about.

To celebrate, this weekend my family and I are heading up to our place in the Adirondacks to do some hiking, fishing and relaxing. Im planning on staying up there about a week and a half, so I'll be doing a bunch of mini paintings from all around that region. So there should be some cool new landscapes for ya'lls in few. In the mean time here is a fun painting I just finished and put up for sale on the Etsys.

(3) 8" x 8"

Farm Sunset

Acrylic

Climbing Trip This Weekend!

So it's been a few weeks since I've been able to take a climbing trip outside. This weekend we are headed to the New River Gorge in West Virginia to do some free water soloing! The weather is supposed to be in the nineties all weekend so swimming, climbing, and relaxing sounds like the right idea to me. Anywho, even though it seems like I have been lazy and not posting lately, I have been hard at work. I have been editing photos for etsy and taking care of shipping and stuff all week. Plus I had to re-do my site a bit and add a link everywhere. I wasn't quite ready for how long it was all going to take but I think I got it under control now. Way too much computer work this week and not enough painting. That's not to say I wasn't able to crank something out. Here is a winter scene I did while pretending my apartment wasn't a hundred degrees.

Winter Farm

7.5" x 3.5"

Acrylic

I liked the idea of putting a taller one in the middle of two squares. This gave me a bit more room for the details on the house and foreground, but the outside two kept that tiny amount of land that I like. Hope ya'lls like it too! And now I'm off to West Virginia.

My Etsy Account is open!

So it wasn't too bad getting my etsy account up and running, check it out here. It's still a bit of a work in progress so if any of you who have been using it a bunch already have any tips for me I'm glad to hear them. I'm running a coupon too, I decided the first two weeks that the shop is open I will sell everything at 50% off, so if any of you po-folks have wanted a painting before but couldn't afford it, now is the time. I also am doing local pick ups if you are around Columbus and don't want to pay shipping. Here are a few pictures of the stuff on the site. Check out the site and tell me what you think, and favorite or like it or whatever etsy's thing is. Thanks ya'lls.

The Corn Hill Art Festival

So last weekend was the Corn Hill, and I really enjoyed it. I wish I could have walked around and seen some more of the artists but I was busy In my booth both days. I got tons of great feedback from the community and everyone was really nice though. Here are some pictures of my booth set up on the second day.

I was on a corner spot so I left two sides of my tent open. This set up was crucial the second day because it was so hot and I had my chair hidden in the shade of the corner.

One question people kept on asking was if I sold my work online, and unfortunately I had to keep on saying no, not yet at least. That is changing fast though, I plan on having an Etsy account open in under a week, and to promote the new site I am letting the first two paintings that sell go at 50% off! So if you want some, you better get them while they're hot.

And the last thing I wanted to share is that my latest big painting "Flooded Fields" sold at the Corn Hill. I was really proud of that piece and I'm glad it's going somewhere it'll be appreciated. Here is the piece with its proud new owners. Thank You!

New Paintings

So another mass painting release in store for all you fine folks today. I think I've been having too much fun with these trio's lately, I just finished two more yesterday as well. These ones are all kind of variations of an idea I've had for a cool type of sky. This first one really pushes the idea of a hot sunset over an ocean.

Ocean Sunset

(3) 3" x 3"

Acrylic

These next three are some of my most favorites that I've done so far, especially the middle one with the haystacks. That one was actually the first I did with those sunset colors inside the blue sky, hope you like them. This may be the last post I can do before the Corn Hill Art's Festival this weekend. I'll be sure to take lots of photos and I'll most likely be doing a big post next week choc full of rambling, pictures, and good times.

Field Sunset

(3) 3" x 3"

Acrylic

Haystacks

(3) 3" x 3"

Acrylic

Fall Farm

(3) 3" x 3"

Acrylic

New Paintings

So these aren't actually new, but I finished framing a bunch of the small ones I posted before so I figured I would post a bunch at once. I cranked out a bunch of new stuff today too so I'm finally feeling like I have atleast close to enough for the Corn Hill sale. weee, just about five more days to go.

Flooded Farm

(3) 3" x 3"

Acrylic

Lost in the Woods

(3) 2" x 3"

Acrylic

Full Moon

(3) 3 " x 3"

Acrylic

New Painting

So here is the big new painting, if my memory serves me right its about 2' by 5'. I liked painting just from imagination, I think it helps get some fun slightly different colors in the mix. But I also have been feeling the lack of plein air painting getting to me lately. I suppose its time soon to get outside and paint what's really out there. I do wish I could paint this size more often, it's just hard to find the time as well as space to get into it. This is the last big canvas I have right now though so it may be my last big painting for awhile, atleast until I can get home and make some more stretcher bars. I hope yalls enjoy this one as much as I do though, I wish there was an ocean just like this somewhere so I could kick back in a lounge chair with my feet buried in the sand and just soak it all in.

Ocean Sunset

2' x 5'

Oil

New Painting

This one ended up a bit more realistic than some but that seems to be the trend lately. I've been making the actual landscape more realistic but taking the colors more freely. Maybe the bright summer colors are making me do this but no matter what the cause I'm having fun. I just finished a huge painting last weekend with this slightly new kind of style so you'll see what I mean soon enough.

Distant Mountain

3" x 3"

Acrylic

New Paintings

Linear Night

3" x 3"

Acrylic

New Paintings

Heres something a bit different for y'alls, I have always wanted to see the northern lights and never have so I decided to pretend like I was there by painting it. It was fun.

"Northern Lights"

2" x 3"

Acrylic

New Paintings

Arizona Sunset

2" x 3"

Acrylic

New Paintings

Heres the Ocean Fire trio all framed up. weee.

Ocean Fire

Acrylic

Growing up

So with my first big arts festival fast approaching, Im starting to feel like Im back in CCAD and I am working like crazy right before an assignment is due. The Corn Hill Art Festival is just about three weeks away now so there is going to be a flood of new stuff getting done; mostly small paintings and those trio's I had up before. Here is something different though, its a wee bit bigger than the 3" ones, its 2' by 5' and was super fun to paint.

I have been doing a lot of driving lately and I see these little farm houses and silo's in the middle of wide vast fields. Last weekend as we were driving back from Kentucky, it had just rained and the fields were flooded and the reflections of the sky were beautiful. Here is a detail of the the business in the middle.

I sure hope ya'lls like it, I tried to stay loose with the paint but couldn't help getting a bit detail crazy right there in the middle. This is my first big one I've done for the sale but there's way more to come. I suppose this is the start to another painting release extravaganza!

New Paintings

Ive been doing a bunch of the small trio paintings lately and I've been having a lot of fun with them. I've finished about six or seven of them so far so I will have a good selection at The Corn Hill Arts Festival. This one is a bit of something different though.

Woods

Acrylic

New Paintings

Full Moon

Acrylic

New Paintings

Fire in the sky

Acrylic

New Paintings

So I know it's been awhile since I've been able to post anything, but its not for lack of painting so I thought it was high time for another new painting release extravaganza! Lately I have been focusing a lot on the mini paintings because they did so well at the CCAD art sale. People also seemed to want a bunch that were all in the same style so here is the first of a few triple mini's I did.

Overcast ocean

Acrylic

In other news I just found out last week that I am going to be participating in this years Corn Hill Festival in New York in July. Its a weekend long festival that has been happening in Rochester as long as I can remember. It features over 400 artists and vendors and last year they had over 200,00 people attending so it's quite a hefty get together. I have gone to this festival just about every year since I was a kid and there are always so many inspiring artists so Im just happy to be out there peddling my wares and meeting the nice folk. I'm definitely super excited about it and it's motivated me to paint like crazy lately so hopefully you'll enjoy all the new stuff.

Painting

Blue Skies

3" x 3"

Acrylic

Back to painting

Blue Ocean

3" x 3"

Acrylic

A Puppy!

I just about finished this new pet portrait. I havn't drawn an animal in a long time and I think I was going through withdrawals or something because once I started working on this I pretty much didn't stop until it was done.

The CCAD art sale is in two weeks, be there or be square!

Something New

I think the painting release extravaganza has had a very good run, but I think its time for a mini break. I've painted just about every day for the past two or three weeks, except for my sweet trip back to ohio a few days ago of course, and the colored pencils have been beckoning me back. Last night I started a new pet portrait,and there is talk of starting to work on my children's book again, so new things are on the horizon. In the meantime here is a still life of some marbles that I have since lost.