Day 4 Conversations Unheard

Outside the weather was getting worse. Snow was decreasing visibility by the second. I knew that every moment in my studio made my drive home that bit scarier. I painted frantically, purposely and with an entire cauldron of passion. Time was of the essence. I was thirsty but didn't have time to wait for my tea to cool and as I inhaled it, it burned my throat and woke me up even more. I was alive to paint tonight. I drove the 2 miles in the dark with snow falling to create work for this challenge. To paint everyday. And if there is anything I am dedicated to besides my daughter, it is my first child, my art. Today as I stopped at a red light and saw people scrambling through cold winds and lashes of snow to make it to their destinations - I thought, where are they going?, where did they come from?..who will they tell about today? The infinite number of conversations I would never hear. And so I went to my studio and painted them. The myriad of conversations on a winter's night. Conversations Unheard 16 x 20 Oil Inquire for purchase. Stay warm. Much Love, Liz www.liztuckwell.com create.liztuckwell.com info@liztuckwell.com

Day 3 Painting: Ether in Blue

I will forever be captivated by the poetic nature of the color blue. I don't think I have ever investigated anything else as intimately than this sublime color. Here she is married with daker and lighter hues of herself.

Ether in Blue 8 x 10 Oil

Inquire for purchase:

www.liztuckwell.com

Inspired Art Sessions create.liztuckwell.com

Day 2 Seedlings Revisited

It is so refreshing to be alive and spirited and creating in a new studio. Since I moved in, I have been revisiting work I started quite a while ago. This is why some paintings take years to finish - it takes me, the artist, years to acquire internally what is needed to create this externally.

Seedlings Revisited.
Oil on Canvas
 24 x 24
info@liztuckwell.com

2014 Starts with Green...

For day one of the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge enjoy! Eternal City by Liz Tuckwell 8 x 10 100. info@liztuckwel.com more work at www.liztuckwell.com

Sneak Peak...

I am attaching a picture sample of one of the paintings I will be showing this weekend at our three day Holiday Sale. I am really looking forward to the weekend. I love it when the hallways are buzzing with guest artists hanging their work - there is always something so special about it. Like a great gathering! Then comes the audience: I love that the building fills with those who share such a great love for the arts! I love the variety of people who appear in our studio, and engage with us about our work. And I love it when they find pieces of art that were made just for them, and happily carry them home. I love that each studio in our building is like walking into an entirely different world. Well, I am clearly filled with a whole lotta love for these shows, and I hope you are too. I am keeping this post short and sweet, as I have a lot to prepare for this weekend and it is already 3:06 am. (of course) Below is a detail of one of my newest paintings, and yes, I love this painting.

I have a great deal of new work to share and I am really looking forward to sharing it with you. Please come, bring a guest, invite others and share in art, entertainment, wine, warmth and a whole lotta love.

Here are the details for this weekend:

Flat Iron Arts Building, Studio 352

1579 N. Milwaukee Ave, Chicago

Friday, December 11th from 6:00pm until 11:00pm
Saturday, December 12th from Noon until 10:00pm
and Sunday, December 13th from Noon until 6:00pm

See you this weekend! Love, Liz

Time Warps

Currently listening to Os Mutatnes and the music is providing a lovely back drop to my evening. What a night. I mean that fully. I went to bed at sunrise and I literally awoke at sunset. I guess I got the day a bit backwards. But it was wonderful, I left the house shortly after waking up to find the most beautiful blue sky in the world. It still had traces of the sunset and what was even better is that it was hosting the most amazing full moon. It was just rising and sat in the eastern sky illuminating everything so sweetly! Ah.

When back home, I went into the hallway and found a couple wandering around the building looking for art. They were from Portugal and had heard about "wicker park". Chance had it that we were to meet and they were to fall in love with a set of three paintings I had created called "The Three Sisters", which they took with them. The night went on with a series of surprising visitors appearing in our studio. Well it is now 12:55 am, and I have just finished eating a delicious dinner, prepared by yours truly, and am getting ready to paint. Sometimes I really do have to move by my own beat. And that beat can lead to some really great chance experiences.

That has me wanting to write about what I have been thinking about lately. That something feels different in the air these days. I am not sure if it is my own feeling, or if others share it, but something is changing - and for the better! It feels as I enter into the last month of 2009 (can you believe it?) there is a need to remove all the excess baggage that really doesn't work anymore. Its like the final spin cycle of the year - a time when I really really have to think about what it is that I want to be, have or become and aim only for that. Over my couple of decades, I surely have picked up some extra stuff I surely don't need anymore, and these days have me asking myself "why wear this on myself if it no longer fits?" I feel a certain joy when I ask that question because it really means that I can and will begin to re-create myself consciously. It almost feels as if time is starting over for me and I really like it.

I am also thinking a lot about my direction within my own artwork. I have been moving in the direction of working on a larger scale. I want to grow within my artwork and I feel that it is not something that should be forced, but something that will emerge itself in tandem with the new direction I am pointing myself towards. I love change. Secretly it can be a bit terrifying to move into the unknown with only your dreams and desires as your compass, but would our dreams ever lead us down the wrong path. I guess it has to do with a certain confidence within. Funny little word I have also been thinking about lately. I took it apart and thought mmm con and fide...with faith..when I looked it up online, I found this "The origin of the word confidence is the Latin word confidere (to trust, to have faith in. Hence the original meaning of confidence is literally "to have trust or have faith". So, simply put to have self confidence is to have faith in yourself, to trust oneself. With that idea in mind, I move steadfastly in a new direction, and I look forward to seeing the art that will emerge when I get there.

**Congratulations to November and December's Winners! I hope you enjoy your beautiful little paintings! Subscribe to my blog and be entered to win a sweet painting of your own. xx

The care and feeding of an artist

Listening to the new Basement Jaxx album, cooking a reminder dinner (as in i forgot to eat) while painting and blogging. I tend to whirlwind. But isn't life a wonderful whirlwind of activity sometimes. It can be so slow for a while and you think "mmm..where has all the action gone?" Only to find that within a short matter of time, it all speeds up again and you think "hey, where has all the time gone?!". I am on the former end of that stick right now, but it is a great gift. It's making me come up with all new ideas and inspirations. I am taking chances with paintings that I once felt timid to, I am re-thinking action plans, and drawing up new ones, and just being content with my home. (Update, I am now listening to the new Yacht album and checking it out...). I have a studio, its where I paint and live with my boyfriend, 20 plants, one fish, and a wonderful gallery of paintings. I love the care and feeding of all of us, paintings included. It is a friday night, and while the world of party and bar hoppers swirls outside my window, I am at home, warm and pleased.

I cleaned my fish tank today, the rocks, the filter on the bio wheel and scrubbed the algae off the sides - the poor fish was so stressed out to see this looming hand come in and out of his home, he excreted something that for a second I thought was his whole intestine! I know that is gross, but you have to understand that this is our second fish: the first one we got at the county fair in indiana with my boyfriend's little boy, Bacchus, and I really worked hard to keep that fish alive. When it died, i cried. I cried over a goldfish! After that incident, we went with Joe's little one to the Old Town Aquarium to buy a new fish, and we picked a beautiful gold fish, which Bacchus named painty, after looking around the room for a minute. So once again, I have taken on the extreme care of this fish, and it looks like the dust has settled on his stress levels tonight and I think he is happy again.

I write this because I have thought a bit about my blog recently, and I realized that I never really write on it, because I don't want to just talk about paintings, I want to talk about my life, my artist's life. And i wasn't sure if this blog was the place to do that. I realize though that it is. Why? Because everything that goes on in my life comes out in my artwork. My artwork is a reflection of all of the internal, all that I feel and think while processing the world I live in. As viewers of my work, I want to share that with you. So you can begin to know more about the work and the artist and the care that goes into it all.
Stay tuned.