Q & A with Wendy Marquis Part 4

What is your technique?

My technique starts off with observation of the rural views around me. I look for farms, old trucks, animals, and vintage buildings. Then, I photograph the subject when the light is falling on it just right…when the shadows describe the shape and dimensions. Then I come home, print out my pictures, and start drawing. Sometimes I combine elements from the different scenes that I have found. So I kind of create a puzzle for myself to solve. Then I lay down a colored wash and draw out the images with a watered down sienna color. Then I start painting in the darks and the lights in acrylics, using glazes and layers of colors…

Picture Credit: "Big Black Chevy", acrylic on canvas

Click here to learn more about this vintage truck painting

A conversation with Meg Birnbaum: Part 3

What is your technique?

I'm currently in love with using "toy" cameras. There is a real cult following for them now. Not a disposable camera but one that is a reusable 120 film camera. The most readily available one is called a Holga. They are very basic with little control options and tend to create a soft-focused and timeless/retro appearance. Whenever possible I like printing in the darkroom on matte fiber paper and then I tone the prints sepia.

Photo credit: "Chicklet"

Click here to learn more about this chicken photograph

A conversation with Elizabeth St. Hilaire Nelson: Part 7

How did you get interested in creating art of cattle?

I grew up in rural New England; we always had cows and roosters and sheep on farms which we would pass driving from one small town to another. When I was a kid, my parents took us to a lot of petting farms in our area. We would go and get a homemade ice cream at a small dairy and visit the cows, or go for pork sausage at a small farm and visit the sheep. I guess this was good family fun when I was a kid, these images give me a sense of warmth and a sense of family even today. My sister was married last summer in Amherst, MA, my family decided to stay at a bed and breakfast on the outskirts of town for the weekend. On the property, they had roosters and chickens and a goat or two, a very nice way for me to give my Orlando kids a taste of my childhood!

Picture credit: "Barnyard Friends"

Click here to learn more about this piece of cow and chicken art

A conversation with Carla Christina Contreras: Part 7

How long does it take you to get an average photograph?

Click – done. Are you talking about the total process of picking something that I will want to actually reprint? Then I would say it could take several hours. I recently was taking photographs of a piece of my photography art… it took me three hours to get four pictures I liked.

Photo credit: "Rooster"

Click here to learn more about this poultry art image

A conversation with Julia Swartz: Part 11

What else do you do besides painting?

Not much, laughing out loud. I love to play with my grand kids and spend time with my kids. I love to ride motorcycle with my husband, always taking my camera along. I love to take care of my flower gardens and decorate my house and redecorate and redecorate.

"Rooster and Hen", watercolor on paper

Click here to learn more about this chicken art watercolor painting

A conversation with Jon Ellis: Part 2

How did you get started?

When I was a child and my mother placed a crayon, a pencil, or a Bic pen in my hand I began to doodle. As time passed it became a compulsion,which I admit, probably even affecting my grades. While my first serious and failed attempt at painting didn't take place till I was a senior in high school, drawing was always a passion.

Picture credit: "Chicken Man", Acrylic painting

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