Keep up with the latest art and adventures from Rene Shoemaker Art!
I am so delighted to report I am exhibiting The Café Experience in Park Slope at my favorite Brooklyn coffeeshop - Café Grumpy! Please share this news with your NY friends - I'd love to meet anyone you know. I will be in NY Feb 14-20th. Happy Valentine's Day, y'all!
Happy Holidays!
I hope you are enjoying some quiet time in the midst of all the holiday bustle.
I am--right now--deep in the discovery process of identifying all the places my art has been displayed during 2015 and documenting those shows, so I can share the information and stories with you soon.
In the meantime I wanted to share this amazing fact with you:
I HAVE HAD ARTWORK ON DISPLAY SOMEWHERE IN THE WORLD—IN THREE DIFFERENT COUNTRIES—EVERY DAY OF 2015!
This achievement would never have been possible without people like you, who have encouraged and supported me on my path to becoming a successful artist. My art in three countries! At the same time! In the same year! It is simply amazing to me and I couldn’t wait to share this discovery with you.
The satisfaction that comes from sharing my art with so many people in so many places has inspired me to share it in even more ways with you, my supporters and friends. To accomplish this, and to help with your holiday shopping, I am now making fine art reproductions of my artwork available for purchase; you can view them at reneshoemaker.com/shop. If you have questions about any of the work, need help making a selection, or want to place an order, you can contact me through the website or simply hit “reply” on this email and send me your question or tell me which work you’re interested in purchasing.
In addition to the pieces listed there, which include originals as well as prints, almost any of the artwork pictured on my website (all but the earliest pieces) can also be made into a fine art reproduction for under $100 each. My online gallery shows almost all of my artwork that has been on display since I began exhibiting 15 years ago. You may have a favorite painting or print—a piece that spoke to you when you first saw it, or that you think is perfect for someone special. If the original is still available you are welcome to purchase it, but if you prefer a fine art reproduction these are also beautiful. They are printed at a very high resolution (5,600 dpi) on a velvet fine art paper that is archival and 100% cotton. The colors are absolutely stunning printed this way—and you know how picky I am about my colors! They are work of arts in and of themselves and will arrive ready to frame.
One recent art patron who purchased a fine art reproduction (and returned to buy more!) had this to say about his purchase from the collection inspired by Athens architect Fred Orr:
Thank you!
I often use the phrase “My studio in the woods” when describing my workspace, and you may have wondered, “What does that mean?” So here is an attempt to convey what I experience on a daily basis while practicing my craft:
“My studio in the woods” means:
I have solitude while I work.
I have nature surrounding me.
I hear birds singing as I type/draw/paint.
At night, I hear the crickets sing.
When the air is clear, I can hear water rushing over a dam that is over two miles away.
If I am working at night and step outside the studio, I see an amazing number of stars in the sky.
My studio is small, and hand built. It means it is naturally “air conditioned,” except when it gets really hot, and then I use a new-fashioned air conditioner.
I am very lucky to have this special place to work.
I can take a walk in the woods - and not see anyone else - any time I want, right out my studio door.
My dog, Dexter, can lay on the stoop outside while I work inside, as he prefers watching the birds to sleeping inside the studio.
I have the space in my head to think expansively and to design.
Any anxiety I bring to my studio time is just that: imported, and I am learning to let go of it.
It means, in effect, I am living the good life, and very happy to be here.
Maureen asked: Your work is beautiful from the perspective of the architecture and everyday life graphics that you capture (read coffee cups), but I am also mesmerized by the color you use. What inspires your color choices?
My answer:
Maureen, the colors speak to me. When I look at a piece of white silk with a design sketched on it, an area of the design presents itself to me and says, “Me! I’m red!” And once I decide which type of red it should be, mix it, and paint it, that particular red informs the next color. Do I want a color that contrasts with the red, or blends with it, or complements it?
Sometimes the composition informs the color choice. For example, how many blue skies can I paint and still make each one unique? How many different colors of blue can I discover to represent a sky? Do I want the blue to be a “real” sky blue or a shocking, unusual sky blue? Just yesterday I painted an orange sky--and I’m ecstatic about it. Yes, it is unusual, but the orange spoke to me when I looked at the forest green foreground and the fuchsia midground. And speaking of foreground and midground, I take into consideration whether I want the foreground color in a painting to bring that foreground close, or to make it visually recede.
It may take up to a week to find the right color. When I’m working on a color it’s the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning and it stays with me all day. It’s like a dialogue I have with the artwork and the colors. I cannot explain how my mind “sees” a color and how I then interpret it. But if I have an idea of a color in my head, I may say to myself, “Well, that would take a royal blue, rather than a navy blue, and then I will add some lemon yellow . . . ” Sometimes the colors surprise me completely. I was so excited to see that when I mixed the forest green (which took a week to perfect) and the fuchsia, which were side by side on the painting, it created a beautiful deep maroon-burgundy, which then created harmony in the painting when I used it for the details. Divine!
Quite simply, colors make me happy. I relish them, absorb them, and study them constantly. When I am driving down a country road in the early morning (which, living in the country, I frequently do), I often stop the car so I can study the colors in the sunrise. My eyes drink in the colors; I put what I know and what I have discovered about the color into my color memory bank, and live with it for a while. I also study artists whose work speaks to me: Henri Matisse and Edouard Vuillard, for example. And sometimes I ask friends what their favorite color combinations are, or I look around to see the colors in my own environment that inspire me. And I use that information as a jumping off place to begin painting.
Now you know why I enjoy being an artist: I love the feeling of being surrounded by beauty and surprises all the time!
