We spent a little time in class learning about color wheels. We painted color wheels, talked about why they are important, and then spent some time mixing neutral grays.
Here is a little video of the lesson:
Value Studies
We took a few minutes to do some value studies during our first class back after the holiday breaks.
Value: Value is the amount of light reflected from the surface. Value creates depth in a picture making the object look 3 D.
Highlight: Brightest spot where the direct light hits the object.
Light: As the surface curves, it gets less light and thus becomes darker.
Shadow: The side away from the light source that does not receive direct light. It is not entirely black because it does receive light from the surroundings.
Reflected light: The light that bounces off the surface the object is sitting on.
Cast Shadow: Darkest dark that gets lighter as it moves away from the object.
Monday Night – Teen Art
We are Open again and expanding our Monday Night Teen Art Class
Monday Nights – 6:00 to 8:00 PM
Grades 8th – 12th
COST: This is a weekly enrollment class. $45 per student for every class you attend—no charge for missed classes. Please give 24 hours notice of any changes due to medical reasons. Invoices are sent at the end of the month. All supplies included.
Classes will consist of fine art instruction with exploration of diverse mediums while learning basic art concepts such as drawing, shading, color mixing and composition. Our high quality projects are carefully developed to maximize success while building self confidence and encouraging creative thinking. Some mediums which may be explored include watercolor painting, ink printing, contour drawing, felt art, mixed media and 3D art.
Weekly classes beginning June 7th but you can start at any time.
Includes all class materials.
Class size limited to 8 students to ensure individual instruction.
Contact us to Enroll
Observational Charcoal Drawings
There has to be something countering acts of destruction with acts of creation. Gates
Back in the Studio!
It is so rewarding to be back in the studio with students.
This little community centered around Picket Fence Art Studio completes the well-roundness of my creative life.
And we need this. We all need time to create and refresh, now more than ever. And I need it.
I wanted to share some step-by-step directions for those of you who cannot attend an in-person class. Send me pics if you complete the project.
Stay well, and stay creative!
Jamie
Working on tinted paper, use charcoal and follow these steps to create a value drawing:
- Use tinted paper and draw big rough shapes. Check accuracy with:
- Negative Space
- Horizontal Lines
- Symmetry
- Diagonals
- Verticals
- Lightly apply vine charcoal to the entire drawing – holding the vine charcoal on its side color over the whole drawing.
- Create a 2-value drawing -squint and erase all large light areas.
- Squint and color in darkest darks.
- Adjust middle values drawing into the image using your kneaded eraser. Readjust the lights and darks as you work on the middle values.
- Pick your focal point and emphasize with higher contrast, sharper edges, and more detail.
- Lastly, apply the highlights (lightest lights) with white Conte crayon. Note that highlights will follow the form of the object.
You can purchase all of the supplies you need for this project on Amazon at the following links:
- Vine Charcoal
- Compressed Charcoal
- Kneaded Eraser
- Conte Crayon – White
- Canson Drawing Pad – I LOVE this paper.
- Workable Fixatif Spray
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Golden Hour – New Oil Painting
That Golden Hour, when the day gives way to the night. Inspired by memories from a trip to that other-worldly place Iceland. Cannot wait to revisit you.
Oil Painting by Jamie Lightfoot Eppenauer
Oil on Panel 16 x 20 $1,600.00 USD Available
Visit my Oil Painting Gallery.
Octopus Island – New Painting
Octopus Island, Oil on Panel 18 x 24 $2,200.00 USD Sold
Artist Comments
The Last Ferry Home
The Last Ferry Home
Oil on Panel, 8 x 10
$600 Available
I have always loved the ferries that serve as transportation here in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. For a girl from the landlocked Midwest, the idea that you could take a boat to work or on a weekend trip was new and wonderful and exciting to me.
Life is such an unusual thing. Just the fact that we live and that we eventually die is a miracle of sorts. Or maybe, it’s just the opposite of a miracle. One thing is certain: life is unpredictable and can be confusing and hard to understand.
I remember when my Grandfather from Nebraska passed away. He had a terrible cancer that was eating up his insides. He had a successful life in the standards measured by society: a nice house, big family, successful business, and an active member in the Catholic Church. He was in the Navy during WWII and very proud of that fact. But the last time I saw him alive, he told me, “all I ever wanted to do was retire, get a little fishing boat and spend my days on the water.” He was 80 something but passed away before that happened.
Truly living life is rejecting the ideas that society espouses about the achievements of a happy, well lived life. And I do believe that if you have lived the “perfect” life and strove toward meeting the expectations that the outside world places on you, you might also leave this life with an empty hole in your soul.
This is the constant battle of this world where there are too many distractions.
I picture my soul (or God) as a person swinging on a little hammock in my heart. Life goes much better for me when I choose to sit and listen to this voice. It never tells me to conform to society, to spend my day at the mall, to watch the news on TV all day long, or to buy more for myself so I have less to give to others.
Listen to the voice in your soul. Listen to the direction that it tells you to go. And then go that way before the last ferry leaves.
Wine Tasting with Friends
New Painting –
Wine Tasting with Friends
8 x 10
Oil on Panel, $600
This painting will be on display and for sale at the Small WORKS, BIG Drafts infused with Poetry event on Thursday, Nov 15 from 5:00 – 8:00 pm at the Hopheads Taproom in Woodinville. Hope to see you there!
Friday Afternoon
Friday Afternoon
8 x 10, Oil on Panel
$600, Available
Remember that sunny Friday afternoon a couple of weeks ago. It was at the end of a stretch of Indian Summer and we all knew the rain was coming soon.
I played hooky that afternoon and ate lunch at an outside cafe. The city was hoping as everyone knew the rain was coming soon.
Lunch turned into an afternoon of wine tasting; savoring the last bits of sunlight. It was already starting to get chilly. You knew the rain was coming.
And it did.
The next day.
As the world seems crazier and crazier, I have been trying to focus on finding the goodness in each day. The goodness in people.
The sunlight before the rain.
This painting will be on display and for sale at the Small WORKS, BIG Drafts infused with Poetry event on Thursday, Nov 15 from 5:00 – 8:00 pm at the Hopheads Taproom in Woodinville. Hope to see you there!
Picket Fence Art Studio 
As our summer trip to Desolation Sound was coming to an end, we made a quick run to Refuge Cove for ice and wine. We then went through the Hole-in-the-Wall towards Octopus Island for one last summer night with the Flotilla. It was so incredibly hot, and the water was so so so cold.
Hunter took Alex and me for a long dingy ride to cool off from the heat and to collect some driftwood. We always enjoy our conversations.
Each boat in the flotilla spent the afternoon decorating pieces of driftwood with memories of summer in Desolation Sound. I painted a picture of our ship on the driftwood, and we all signed it.
Early evening we gathered at the secret cabin to hang our talisman and, of course, have some wine and appetizers. I would tell you where it is, but it is a secret.
As the sun was setting, we all dinged back to our boats for dinner.
The boat lights illuminated the undersea activity as we enjoyed one last night of cocktails and very vivid conversation. And lots of laughter.