Painting Through Winter
Some recent portraits and winter landscapes
Hi Everyone,
It feels like a while since I last connected with you all! Happy March! I hope this newsletter finds you well. As we move into to spring, I wanted to share what I've been up to since my last update at the beginning of the year. It's been a busy few months filled with artistic exploration, lots of snow, travel, and some exciting projects.
Back to Basics: Life Drawing & Studio Practice
As I mentioned before, I've been trying to spend more time drawing and working from life, and attending the sessions at Buena Vista Studio in Roeland Park has been a fantastic experience. It's been incredibly inspiring to connect with other artists and dedicate more time to honing my drawing skills.
Every Monday they have a portrait group that meets to draw a different sitter every week. The sitter isn’t paid but does get to take home all of the portraits.
Here are the portraits from the last couple portrait sessions I attended. Since we only have an hour it’s always a stressful but fun challenge to work quickly and keep things simple.
Here is an example of all the different styles and mediums from the group that attended a few weeks ago. We always need new volunteers to sit for an hour, so let me know if you live nearby and would like to sit sometime!
Recent Portraits
In addition to my personal work, I've been busy with some exciting commissions:
First up is this Bengal cat I had the pleasure of painting in oils.
I have been trying to loosen up with my portraits a little more and like the way this one turned out.
Abbey Road Crossing Commission: My biggest project in the past few months has been this large-scale 24” x 36” oil painting portrait/cityscape inspired by The Beatles' "Abbey Road" album cover. This is a commission for someone living nearby and has been a fun challenge. The scene fits somewhere between portraiture, landscape and a cityscape, and presented some new learning opportunities that I enjoyed.
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Utah Trip
This year has also included some travel, which has provided fresh perspectives and inspiration. We enjoyed a fun cruise to the Caribbean, which offered a chance to relax and escape the snowy weather we’ve had this winter.
More recently, I took a trip to Utah, where I spent time in Salt Lake City, Provo, and Park City, visiting family and exploring the art scene. I have been working on a series of winter themed paintings that I will share more about soon. Here are a couple of small sketches from the trip:
This little snowy stream is near Park City. It is just a small 5” x 7” sketch.
This is a little 4” x 8” view of Mt. Timpanogos right after it snowed. I didn’t think much of it when I saw it every day growing up, but it looked pretty amazing after living in the Midwest for the last 10 years.
Here is one final winter scene for now in pastel. I will share more about the trip and my winter series in a newsletter soon.
Art in the Park
Finally, I'm excited to share that I'm helping to organize the Art in the Park event on May 3rd this year, and I'll also be preparing to have my own booth again. I'm looking forward to connecting with the community and sharing my work in person. If you live nearby, I would love it if you stopped by! I will share more details soon.
Thank you, as always, for your continued support and interest in my art. It means so much to me.
Best,
J. Grant Merrill