Goodness, it’s so easy for life to get in the way of blogging! Sorry it’s been such a long time since my last post, but I have so many wonderful things to share with you all! This post with be the first where I get to share some of my personal artwork with you! I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to participate in the 2011 Sit. Stay Art! Event held at the Film Exchange building in downtown OKC this year. Artists chose an animal in need of adoption as their inspiration for an artwork to be sold at the event on the evening of March 18th. Sit. Stay. Art! joined with Pets and People Humane Society in a fun way to support finding homes for many cats and dogs. I chose a two year old feral cat named Fandango as my inspiration.
Photo courtesy of Pets and People Humane Society
Older cats have trouble being adopted, and not only is Fandango older, but he has special needs. See, feral cats are cats that have spent time back out in the wild and have somewhat reverted back to their instinctual nature. These cats need love, and other cat friends, to help rejoin domestic cat life.
Being a cat lover and owner myself, creating an artwork of an animal was not too difficult for me. I watched my cat Shadow, who we adopted at Pets and People back in 2006, in her “territory” (aka my apartment) to see how she acts in everyday life. She lives just like many other cats; eats, sleeps, plays, and wanders around. Recently she has been spending a lot of time sitting at the window watching birds fly by, cars pass, and I’m sure dreaming of outside life. When I saw her perched at the window, I knew that was exactly how I wanted to portray a cat in my piece; facing away and gazing out into the world, being the watchful eye of their domain.
"Window Seat" Brittany Raeann, 2011
After deciding what to do, I needed to decide how to do it. As I stated in my last post, I am a huge fan of mixed media artworks; therefore, that is how I decided to create my piece for Sit. Stay Art! For this piece, titled Window Seat, I started off with an 11 x 14 inch canvas and began gluing red magazine scraps to the left side to create what would eventually become the curtain. The Sky is a base of blue tissue paper and glue. I then used Nevr-Dull (one of my favorite tools) over the magazine paper to create a “dulled” look which, in my opinion, creates a smoother transition between the scraps of magazine. Next I added acrylic paint and prisma colors on each side.
For the cat, I decided to draw him on a separate sheet of paper and glue him to the canvas when completed. One of my most used techniques is prisma colors on dark shades of paper. For this piece, I chose gray paper, my favorite hue of choice, and blended many different shades of prismas to create his fur. I next attached the kitty-cat to the canvas, added a few more adjustments, and voila!
Now for the night of the show! I was kind of nervous; this was the first time any of my artwork was being displayed anywhere that was not my home, a friends’ place, or school. My mom Stacey, Step-dad Ted, and sister Sydney all attended the event with me to see my work, as well as the many other amazing and cute pieces available (check out Sit. Stay. Art!’s facebook page to see some of the other beautiful works).
Many people attended and were able to view my work. I would get giddy each time I saw a potential buyer, or anyone for that matter, walk up to my artwork to get a closer look. Towards the end of the night, I had noticed a couple that kept coming back to view my piece…and I knew that meant they were thinking of purchasing. I walked away (because thing always happen only when you’re not looking…can’t watch a pot to make it boil), and when I returned, my piece had sold! I was ecstatic and decided to walk up to the couple thanked them for liking my work and choosing to display it in their home. This is a feeling I hope to have more times in the future as my art career grows.
It was an amazing experience and night, and I can’t wait to enter my work into many other shows. Thank you all for your support! I have so much more to share with you all, and hope to do so soon!
brittany raeann art 