The Idaho Masa Rice Paper Workshop...

The Artists show off their success!

 

By popular demand...watch for more rice paper workshops coming soon...!

Four Friends Join Linda's Weekly Classes! *updated!*

I had a group of four friends who joined my weekly watercolor classes in Idaho, and they just zoomed through the first project, the classic "Black & White Rose".

Great job ladies!  You should be proud of your accomplishments.  I love how each painting is different.


Update on the four friends....

They have finished their pink roses as well!

What a cool thing to have all four paintings side by side!

I took a trip & took a class...my experience at The Bead Shop in Hailey, Idaho!

Last week I had a private lesson at The Bead Shop in Hailey, Idaho, learning wire wrapping to enhance the enamel jewelry I have been making and selling.  Tammy is an expert and I highly recommend her as an instructor on bead work.  It was so fun to learn some new techniques!

If you are ever in the Wood River Valley area, stop in and see what she has in her shop and possibly...take a class!

Here is her business info, in case you are interested...

Tammy Schofield--The Bead Shop

7 E. Bullion 

Hailey, ID 83333

208-788-6770

thebeadshop@cox.net

                           

                                                 

"Owyhee Mountains" Painting Has Been Accepted...

...Into the 40th Annual Western Federation of Watercolor Societies (WFWS) Watercolor Exhibition! This year it's taking place in Lubbock, Texas at the Museum of Texas Tech University, from April 16th to July 15th, 2015.  I'm so excited and honored.

A Day in the Studio…Strive for Personal Education over Results!

What would happen if on one of your studio days you decided to paint using the thought process of “personal education” for one of your paintings? Working toward your education and the learning you can achieve, not focusing on every detail and expecting fabulous results to frame or enter into a show but painting for the pure education and experience.

The main goal is to experiment and dig into new territory, resolving all you can on the way. If the painting is not working, continue stepping through the problems with as many solutions as you can come up with. In the end you will most likely arrive with a new fresh finish, but if not, work until you get every possible bit of education you can. If the painting is not a success your education certainly is. Keep the painting, do not discard, but use it for a reference of what you have learned, jot down notes of what you have discovered. These will be very valuable in your next works of art.

In the future you can use every bit of what you learned, what worked and even what didn't, both are equally important. Mostly we learn from our mistake, which means I should be a real expert by now! 

Some of you use this process every time you paint, painting with abandon while, others of us need to step out and be braver and bolder. (By the way you were brave if it was scary!)

All of us have a lot to learn, with never ending possibilities.  How could we ever be bored or out of a job as an artist? 

Create to see what you can discover:

1. Use new color
2. Try different textural techniques     
3. Use granulating paints, opaque colors along with transparents   
4. Have an element or principle as your focus, such as line
5. Edit out details or maybe add lots of detail in new ways   
6. Try opposites…do the opposite of what you would usually do
7. Use different painting surfaces or mixed medias
8. Paint with abandon  
9. Embrace the dark values
10. New subject                        

Be brave, bold experimental…use phrases like:

• What would happen if?    
• Problem solve to discovery 
• Creativity awaits to be discovered
•  I can do it! Never give up!                       

I continue to strive for personal excellence in my own creative path, -- pushing the limits to my best outcomes!

Keep painting and keep experimenting, on to the new in 2015!

© Linda Aman February 2015

Idaho Watercolor Society mouse & ELEPHANT Experimental Show

During the month of October, the Idaho Watercolor Society held their annual experimental show in the Meridian City Hall's Initial Point Gallery.  The theme of the show this year was so unusual, but so much fun..."the mouse and the ELEPHANT".  It was interesting to see all the tiny, the huge and the in between works of art hanging in the gallery together, and to see who painted what!

Here is an excerpt of the Nov-Dec-Jan IWS Newsletter talking about the show...

"What a fun, exciting experimental show this turned out to be for the SW Region! Displaying...through October, the show featured a variety of paint methods, substrates and materials; some came framed … some not. Traditional acrylics on canvas showed up while some artists painted on wood.  Pretty much everything was accepted, but the guidelines suggested ‘mouse’ paintings less than 100 square inches (about 10x10 inches) or ‘elephants’ needed to be a full sheet or larger. Counts for the show were 59 mice, 29 elephants and 6 in-betweens.  At the Opening Reception...there was equal interest in both sizes.  Some artists painted both a mouse and an elephant, painting the same subject in those two sizes.  If you normally paint large, painting small was a big challenge and vice versa.

...the most interesting wall...displayed the biggest elephant and the smallest mouse side by side. The largest was by Linda Aman; it measured 40” x 60” and was a painting of  “Tropical Paradise”.  Next to that was a mini mouse sized painting by Julianne Runkle Pinkston, “Codiaeum Variegatum Miniatura”, that had an image area of 1.5” x 1.5”.  Being a student of Linda’s, she chose the same plant (a minute portion of Linda’s large-scale painting) and the effect was quite astounding!

           

Linda Aman's Paintings Part of Permanent Collection at St. Alphonsus Boise, Idaho

Linda Aman Painting Part of Permanent Collection!

On November 13th, St. Alphonsus Hospital in Boise held a special dedication for the installation of art for the permanent "Art for Rehab Memorial Project" in their Rehab Center.  The reception was an honor to browse through and see the works of art from selected Idaho artists.

Jill, the foundation director, had some comments about the art being part of the healing process for not only the patients, but the families, staff, and visitors.  The art can help bring individuals a sense of engagement, beauty, distraction, imagination, creativity, inspiration, and help with healing, hope and the future.

Linda's two paintings, Dahlia & Hollyhock, are displayed in one of the hallways in the Rehabilitation Center at St. Alphonsus Hospital in Boise.

I am so honored and want to thank St. Alphonsus for allowing me to be a part of their exhibition and collection.