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By Brooke Nuckles, 393 contributed posts
View all Brooke Nuckles's posts.
About the author:
Upcoming workshops and news from the studio. You can still register for my ONLINE class Fin Folk which begins June 6!
I am so excited to be participating with Artful Gathering again this year and offering my second online class. June 6-July 17, 2019. I poured my heart and soul into this class. I wanted to share with you my painting process from idea to finished piece and that is a tough job, as my mind is a complex web of inspiration! I will be available for live support throughout the class dates. If you click on this link: Artful Gathering. It will take you to all the information on registration, the class description and a short video, I hope you will consider joining me! Teaching on the Road I will be teaching in San Diego at Way Art Yonder Studio, August 3-4, 2019
This is a wonderful venue
Continue reading Discoveries and Sharing From Karin O’Brien’s Studio
By Sandi Whetzel, 72 contributed posts
View all Sandi Whetzel's posts.
About the author: Sandi's vibrant contemporary art has recently been welcomed in various Ashland art venues. She is most known for her art promoting the wine industry in Oregon. Fantasy blends with reality in her contemporary, sometimes surrealistic, frequently sensual renderings of succulents, abstract flora and trees and her most recent passion to expand her popular wine series. Sandi's home studio is located in Days Creek. See Sandi's listing at the Southern Oregon Artists Resource to learn more and make contact.
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| Wine on the Vine ©Sandi Whetzel For Details, click |
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(Please PIN THIS IMAGE FROM THE SITE ABOVE, NOT FROM HERE, to properly link it back to that source)
The Pacific Northwest’s regard for wine inspires me to celebrate the wine experience in my contemporary acrylic paintings. My images mirror the emotions, romance, fantasies or whimsy that consumption of wine fosters. My passion for sensual, curvy, shapes and scintillating color flows into the graceful wine vessels and alluring human forms infused in my creations.
I explore how to tickle viewers senses in ways they have not seen in typical wine-themed art. I imagine surprising, surreal wine scenarios: Sensual. Seductive. Tantalizing. Romantic. Playful. It’s almost as if I produce advertisements for the wine industry.
Cropping my wine narratives to a close-up of the pertinent elements dramatically zooms-in on an intimate view of the novel event —It suggests an engaging storyline and some mystery for the viewer. I think people are looking for a simple elegance in artwork that separates it from the ordinary. That is my goal in blending fantasy with reality. I aim to grab the viewers’ attention: “Wow! I’ve never seen anything like that!”
Most people don’t realize how much thought, creativity and risk of failure goes into each painting. Like grapevines selected for wine production, the idea for a painting is nurtured, allowed to grow and take form through pruning and reshaping. As with wine after the harvest, the images are distilled and refined before they are served up for enjoyment. My art is a visual elixirof seductive, unexpected twistson wine.
My fascination with uncommon wine themes began when I competed creatively to promote a premiere wine event. Before this challenge, I created sensual floras, usually from some form of visual inspiration. The only inspiration this time was an imposed“Wine on the Vine” theme. I pondered all the “typical” wine images I had seen, but I wanted an exceptional conceptto illustrate that theme.
As a starting point, I considered abstract wine bottles among grapevines. While sketching some robust, curvaceous wine bottles, I got a brainsmack! I could encase a cluster of grapes inside open wine bottles growing from grapevines! I was juiced!
As I continued sketching, ideas for the painting flowed — glistening highlights, colored reflections and shadows in the grapes, bottles, and leaves revealed form and transparency. I added a pearly textured moon with light radiating around it into an evening sky. The wind-blown grape leaves, climbing tendrils and the skewed placement of the wind-tossed bottles, echoed the radiating pattern of the moonlit sky. It was an elegant, serene, scene that said, “Wine on the Vine” just about as well as anything could, in my opinion.
That experience, creating something entirely from my imagination, taught me what can bewhen I trust my imagination to lead me. Because that painting was so popular, I created more wine paintings. My wine images promoted the 2004 Art About Wine Exhibit, the 2005 Umpqua Valley Wine, Art & Music Festival and the Umpqua Valley Winegrowers Greatest of the Grapein 2006, 2011 and 2013. In 2009, one of my wine images won a wine label design contest for the Downtown Initiative for Visual Arts, (DIVA) in Eugene, OR.
When viewers connect emotionally with my art, when they experience it, the art is complete. I hope people feel about my art the way they feel about good wine — I hope it elicits pleasure and enhances your life experience.
See more of Sandi Whetzel’s art here 
Continue reading Sandi Whetzel’s Wine-Inspired Art: A Visual Elixir of Seductive Twists on Wine
By Sandi Whetzel, 72 contributed posts
View all Sandi Whetzel's posts.
About the author: Sandi's vibrant contemporary art has recently been welcomed in various Ashland art venues. She is most known for her art promoting the wine industry in Oregon. Fantasy blends with reality in her contemporary, sometimes surrealistic, frequently sensual renderings of succulents, abstract flora and trees and her most recent passion to expand her popular wine series. Sandi's home studio is located in Days Creek. See Sandi's listing at the Southern Oregon Artists Resource to learn more and make contact.
|
| Wine on the Vine ©Sandi Whetzel For Details, click |
|
|
(Please PIN THIS IMAGE FROM THE SITE ABOVE, NOT FROM HERE, to properly link it back to that source)
The Pacific Northwest’s regard for wine inspires me to celebrate the wine experience in my contemporary acrylic paintings. My images mirror the emotions, romance, fantasies or whimsy that consumption of wine fosters. My passion for sensual, curvy, shapes and scintillating color flows into the graceful wine vessels and alluring human forms infused in my creations.
I explore how to tickle viewers senses in ways they have not seen in typical wine-themed art. I imagine surprising, surreal wine scenarios: Sensual. Seductive. Tantalizing. Romantic. Playful. It’s almost as if I produce advertisements for the wine industry.
Cropping my wine narratives to a close-up of the pertinent elements dramatically zooms-in on an intimate view of the novel event —It suggests an engaging storyline and some mystery for the viewer. I think people are looking for a simple elegance in artwork that separates it from the ordinary. That is my goal in blending fantasy with reality. I aim to grab the viewers’ attention: “Wow! I’ve never seen anything like that!”
Most people don’t realize how much thought, creativity and risk of failure goes into each painting. Like grapevines selected for wine production, the idea for a painting is nurtured, allowed to grow and take form through pruning and reshaping. As with wine after the harvest, the images are distilled and refined before they are served up for enjoyment. My art is a visual elixirof seductive, unexpected twistson wine.
My fascination with uncommon wine themes began when I competed creatively to promote a premiere wine event. Before this challenge, I created sensual floras, usually from some form of visual inspiration. The only inspiration this time was an imposed“Wine on the Vine” theme. I pondered all the “typical” wine images I had seen, but I wanted an exceptional conceptto illustrate that theme.
As a starting point, I considered abstract wine bottles among grapevines. While sketching some robust, curvaceous wine bottles, I got a brainsmack! I could encase a cluster of grapes inside open wine bottles growing from grapevines! I was juiced!
As I continued sketching, ideas for the painting flowed — glistening highlights, colored reflections and shadows in the grapes, bottles, and leaves revealed form and transparency. I added a pearly textured moon with light radiating around it into an evening sky. The wind-blown grape leaves, climbing tendrils and the skewed placement of the wind-tossed bottles, echoed the radiating pattern of the moonlit sky. It was an elegant, serene, scene that said, “Wine on the Vine” just about as well as anything could, in my opinion.
That experience, creating something entirely from my imagination, taught me what can bewhen I trust my imagination to lead me. Because that painting was so popular, I created more wine paintings. My wine images promoted the 2004 Art About Wine Exhibit, the 2005 Umpqua Valley Wine, Art & Music Festival and the Umpqua Valley Winegrowers Greatest of the Grapein 2006, 2011 and 2013. In 2009, one of my wine images won a wine label design contest for the Downtown Initiative for Visual Arts, (DIVA) in Eugene, OR.
When viewers connect emotionally with my art, when they experience it, the art is complete. I hope people feel about my art the way they feel about good wine — I hope it elicits pleasure and enhances your life experience.
See more of Sandi Whetzel’s art here
Continue reading Sandi Whetzel’s Wine-Inspired Art: A Visual Elixir of Seductive Twists on Wine
By Sandi Whetzel, 72 contributed posts
View all Sandi Whetzel's posts.
About the author: Sandi's vibrant contemporary art has recently been welcomed in various Ashland art venues. She is most known for her art promoting the wine industry in Oregon. Fantasy blends with reality in her contemporary, sometimes surrealistic, frequently sensual renderings of succulents, abstract flora and trees and her most recent passion to expand her popular wine series. Sandi's home studio is located in Days Creek. See Sandi's listing at the Southern Oregon Artists Resource to learn more and make contact.
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| Virtue in the Vines 16×16 acrylic ©Sandi Whetzel |
During one of my “all-things-wine” modes of thought, I saw a simple line-drawing — an eyebrow, eye, nose and lips bordered on the right side by a large comma-shaped line defining a woman’s cheek and chin. A long curved line like the left half of a parenthesis mark stretched below the right side of her chin, forming the right side of her neck. Large generic leaves flowed around her facial features like hair. Leaf veins separated the leaves into sections like locks of hair rippling down her right cheek, exposing the line of her neck. A large leaf swooped over the left side of her face obscuring her left eye, cheek and neck. The facial shape and the slim exposed right side of her neck resembled a woman’s face inside a wine goblet. Well, I was in “all-things-wine” mode — an inspiration for a wine painting was hatched.
I intended to create a similar style painting of a woman’s face shaped like a wine goblet with loose outlines of grape leaves representing hair sweeping over one side of her face and neck. The exposed side of her neck, expressed as a vertical curved line, formed the goblet stem. After I outlined her eyebrow, eye, nose and lips, my passion for a sensual, rather than an abstractportrayal took over. I might paint an abstract image inspired by that line drawing I saw sometime, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it this time.
I ditched the idea of making her face and neck resemble the shape of a wine goblet. It would be more sensual to render her facial features realistically, as well as reveal her bare neck and shoulders–I was seduced.
I sketched many grape leaf shapes until I was satisfied with the way they layered around her face. While sketching I observed an awkward symmetrical placement of two same size leaves that resembled horns coming out of each side of her head — thank goodness for the ability to re-do acrylic shapes. I also avoided a halo effect circling her head. It was a delicate balancing act to arrive at the most pleasing leaf configurations.
To add abstraction and a little mystery, I rendered her in shadowed reflections of the grape leaves in light and dark shades of green. To create a serene, earthy quality, I painted the grape leaves realistically; dominating in greens with color accents in the leaves and grapes only.
Choosing the painting title was difficult. I considered Vine Goddess, Goddess of the Vine, Venus and Venus of the Vine. They were all a little too obvious. Just as her focused engagement with viewers intrigues, I wanted more than an apt label to engage viewers. I thought about the beauty from within her and the vineyard — virtue came to mind. I liked the ring of Virtue in the Vines. Besides honor, integrity, purity, love, value and worth, virtue also means innocence, morality, chastity. I reasoned that her demeanor, as well as her unclothed appearance, might suggest something other than virtue to some. However, I liked the ambiguity Virtue in the Vines might foster. Conversely, the grapes have not been touched; not harvested; not made into wine — she is pristine; untouched; innocent. She is Virtue in the Vines.
See more of Sandi’s art here . Upcoming Exhibits: Gallery NorthWest, 625 SE Jackson St., Roseburg, OR, 8/1/13 to 8/31/13. Opening Reception: 4:30 – 7:00 pm, Fri., 8/2/13 ~ Henry Goes Wine: the Grape Escape at Henry Estate Winery, 687 Hubbard Creek Road, Umpqua, OR, 8/17/13. For tickets and schedule of entertainment, click Sandi will will show some of her extremely shiny prints on metal. Be one of the first to see this sleek, contemporary new print media. You won’t believe the depth and richness in prints on metal! vine goddess metal prints
Continue reading Passion Morphs into Virtue: Artist, Sandi Whetzel’s Recent Painting
By Sandi Whetzel, 72 contributed posts
View all Sandi Whetzel's posts.
About the author: Sandi's vibrant contemporary art has recently been welcomed in various Ashland art venues. She is most known for her art promoting the wine industry in Oregon. Fantasy blends with reality in her contemporary, sometimes surrealistic, frequently sensual renderings of succulents, abstract flora and trees and her most recent passion to expand her popular wine series. Sandi's home studio is located in Days Creek. See Sandi's listing at the Southern Oregon Artists Resource to learn more and make contact.
Virtue in the Vines 16×16 acrylic ©Sandi WhetzelDuring one of my “all-things-wine” modes of thought, I saw a simple line-drawing — an eyebrow, eye, nose and lips bordered on the right side by a large comma-shaped line defining a woman’s cheek and chin…
Continue reading Passion Morphs into Virtue: Artist, Sandi Whetzel’s Recent Painting
By Sandi Whetzel, 72 contributed posts
View all Sandi Whetzel's posts.
About the author: Sandi's vibrant contemporary art has recently been welcomed in various Ashland art venues. She is most known for her art promoting the wine industry in Oregon. Fantasy blends with reality in her contemporary, sometimes surrealistic, frequently sensual renderings of succulents, abstract flora and trees and her most recent passion to expand her popular wine series. Sandi's home studio is located in Days Creek. See Sandi's listing at the Southern Oregon Artists Resource to learn more and make contact.
“Mmm …” 12×24 acrylic ©Sandi Whetzel
Originally uploaded by sandiwhetzel
This tempting, sensual wine pairing will make it’s artistic debut at the 43rd Annual Umqqua Valley Wine, Art and Music Festival in Roseburg, OR, Sept. 8 and 9, 2012.
“Mmm …” he’s thinking as he reaches for the wine bottle. But what is she thinking? If you could see a close-up of her facial expression she might be thinking, “Mmm, he’s cute. I’m looking forward to him choosing me.” Or, she could be thinking, “Mmm, could he be the one? Should I submit, or hold out for a better offer?” It just might be a shift in the power play between them. What’s your wine fantasy?
When I came up with this concept for my most recent painting, I realized it was a pretty simple composition that needed a little more detail other than the man’s hand reaching for the beautiful wine on a plain table. The addition of the checkered table cloth provided the necessary detail, as well as a little Italian restaurant ambiance. In the bargain, the treatment of the table cloth added a sense of depth perception leading up to the wine bottle and beyond. You might not realize how much thought and planning is required in the composition and execution of paintings I dream up.
Besides great wine and food and various artisan creations, festival attendees will be treated to thrilling music performances by the Lloyd Jones Band, DK Stewart Band, and Velvet Whiskey. For entertainment schedules, directions and ticket information visit here
Admission to the festival Saturday, from 11 am – 10 pm is $10 and Sunday from 11 am – 5 pm is $5. Children ages 12 and under are admitted free. There will be free wine sensory and cooking with wine classes, as well as the Cool Rides Car Show. Other activities include Umpqua’s Got Talent Finals, Motorcycle Show, Wiener Dog Races, German Band, Wineries, various Artisans, Beer and Food Booths and Family Fun Activities.
Lloyd Jones, Portland, OR roots artist, combines New Orleans rhythms, the simplicity of Memphis music and the rawness of the blues, all for the 21st century. This music is not about louder and faster. It’s about time, meter and groove.
DK Stewart has been a guiding force behind several North West bands that have gone on to national acclaim. Tributes to New Orleans, Chicago blues, East coast swing and rockin’ boogie woogie can be heard in all the original music by this thrilling band.
If you attend this festival I hope you’ll stop by to see my art in my booth 10A and introduce yourself. I’ll be serving up 6 new refreshing varietals among my growing series of wine acrylic paintings. It will be a dose of visual intoxication without guilt or consequences. You can see more of my art here
Continue reading Tantalizing, Artistic Wine Pairing at 2012 UV Wine, Art & Music Festival
By Sandi Whetzel, 72 contributed posts
View all Sandi Whetzel's posts.
About the author: Sandi's vibrant contemporary art has recently been welcomed in various Ashland art venues. She is most known for her art promoting the wine industry in Oregon. Fantasy blends with reality in her contemporary, sometimes surrealistic, frequently sensual renderings of succulents, abstract flora and trees and her most recent passion to expand her popular wine series. Sandi's home studio is located in Days Creek. See Sandi's listing at the Southern Oregon Artists Resource to learn more and make contact.
“Mmm …” 12×24 acrylic ©Sandi Whetzel Originally uploaded by sandiwhetzelThis tempting, sensual wine pairing will make it’s artistic debut at the 43rd Annual Umqqua Valley Wine, Art and Music Festival in Roseburg, OR, Sept. 8 and 9, 2012.”Mmm …”&nb…
Continue reading Tantalizing, Artistic Wine Pairing at 2012 UV Wine, Art & Music Festival
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