Italy Recap, Part 1!

So I lost a bit of blog-momentum having gone on vacation this past week, but I came back from Italy with 28 paintings under my belt--and I have more than enough inspiration from that trip to make 28 more. I also have quite a few sketches, though most of them are very rough and simplistic. They're more like preliminary thumbnails for my paintings than actual sketches.

But my point is, I finally feel like I have enough work hanging around my apartment to start selling it. As soon as I can figure out how to scan the larger paintings and get quality digital copies of everything, I'll post them to an Etsy shop--or maybe even submit them to a local gallery to sell, if I can figure out the best way to do that. If anyone out there in internet-land has any tips about selling artwork on Etsy, Blogger, personal websites, in small local art galleries, or any combination of the above, I'd greatly appreciate it!

Oil paintings I made in Farnese, Italy, laying out to dry in my craft room.

Now, some more info about my trip: I stayed just outside of Farnese, Italy. This page on Trip Advisor has a couple of decent pictures of Farnese, though no photograph could possibly do it justice. It's like the entire town has been forgotten for a couple of centuries, but inside of these medieval-looking houses people live fairly modern lives. Of course, since it is such a small town it's got a very intense community atmosphere. I have a feeling that everybody there knows everybody else and knows all about their personal lives.

We spent the week in a big, beautiful Tuscan villa, surrounded by farmland. Each room was floored with marble or tile, decorated with furniture ranging anywhere from Victorian to 1930s art-deco. Faux moldings and elaborate cornices complemented the ornately painted ceilings, and gorgeous artwork adorned every wall.  The roof and second-floor balcony offered views of olive orchards; groves full of nectarines, figs, and grapes; and even the Mediterranean coastline. Overall, the place was like a more beautiful and charming "Under the Tuscan Sun," with a rich history of occupants of many shapes, sizes, and walks of life.

The villa is owned by Signora Guglielmina Clarici, who is a brilliant artist herself. She works and lives in Rome, and comes to stay at the villa every so often when she has business in Farnese. She and her family inherited the house just before World War II. During the war they were kicked out of the house by the occupying Nazis, but they reclaimed the property after the war. The Signora is an incredibly talented painter, a very good storyteller, and one of the most charming and lovable women you could ever hope to meet.

As I mentioned before, I have too many paintings and too many memories to fit into just this one post. I'm already afraid that this one is too wordy for most people's attention spans, so I'll continue with the words another day. In the meantime, here is one painting that I was able to scan: a 6" by 6" oil painting of the Farnese landscape, as seen out of the window of our studio.

Oil on canvas, Joa Stenning, Sept. 2011

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Fine Art Fridays

The great Tim Jozwick, a scenic design professor of mine, once said that the best way to learn how to draw is by copying the masters. Therefore, today's theme will be "Fine Art Friday." Below is a sketch I did with graphite and white charcoal on drawing paper, and I believe that the original is either a Renoir or a Rembrandt. I copied the picture from a book that featured drawings by both artists, and I couldn't tell you where that book is today. If anyone is really good with their art history and can figure that out for me, I'll be forever grateful! I'd hate to credit the wrong guy.

Graphite and white charcoal on drawing paper, Joa Stenning 2008. Original  by Renoir.

After today I'll be in Italy for a week, so I doubt I'll be posting anything. I'm not taking my computer with me, and I'm not even sure that the villa we're staying in has an internet connection. I could be pro-active and schedule some posts to be published automatically, but let's face it, I'm getting on a plane in a few hours so I probably won't. Enjoy the next week of your lives without me spamming your Facebook or Tumblr feed! Don't miss me too much!

"Things that are Awesome" Thursdays

Guess what! This lil' blog has reached 300 page views as of today. Granted, at least 200 of those hits are probably my mom trying to figure out how to post a link to her Facebook page and just clicking the URL over and over again. But let's just pretend for a second that I have readers other than my mom, and give me this small moment of glory.

In other news, Thursday's theme will be "Things that are Awesome." Each Thursday, I'll talk about another artist that I admire/have a crush on/secretly wish I could trade lives with. Today's artist is Scott Campbell, better known as Scott C. Scott C. is the creator of "Great Showdowns," illustrator of "Zombies in Love," and all-around badass. If I were to list every amazing thing Scott C. has done that I wish I'd done first, you'd be reading for a really long time. Besides, you can find all of that info in the links above.

What I love most about Scott C.'s work is that his pieces are really simplistic, but not at all lacking in detail. He gives just the right amount of information to let you know who these characters are and what their relationship is like, without crowding the picture with complicated backgrounds or flashy techniques. I also love the color choices he makes in Great Showdowns! Everything is a little bit earthy and sepia-toned, but not in a hipster, instagram kind of way. It adds a unique perspective to what is otherwise a really silly, fun project.

Seriously, I beg you to spend at least the next 45 minutes of internet time-wasting looking at Great Showdowns. You won't be sad that you did.

http://greatshowdowns.com/post/7618139999/you-owe-me-fifty-bucks

P.S. - Remember "Adventures in Babysitting"? What an awesome movie.

Watercolor Wednesdays

I can't take full credit for today's theme. "Watercolor Wednesdays" is actually a project that Julie Streeter and I started a couple of weeks ago, in which we each pick a photo and challenge the other person to watercolor it by the following Wednesday. A couple of weeks ago (before Julie and I both got distracted with our apartment moves), I painted this Indian Paintbrush:

Watercolor, pen & ink, Joa Stenning Aug. 2011

I'm sure you recognize it from the banner above. This week, I challenged Julie with a big ol' manatee, and she challenged me with the photo below. To see Julie's finished product and current challenge, check out our Tumblr!

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Illustrated Tuesdays

I was going to make today's theme "Cartoon Tuesdays" or "'Toon Tuesdays," but I don't want these to turn into the sloppy seconds of Monday's theme. Therefore, Tuesdays will be "Illustrated Tuesdays," and these posts will be something in-between a doodle and a full-on rendered oil/acrylic painting.

This a drawing I did with charcoal (and white charcoal) on recycled paper. The shells pictured were collected in Wells, ME last summer, when I was on vacation with my family. I turned this piece in as a make-up assignment in my "Foundations of Painting" class at the School at the Museum of Fine Arts. My teacher, Abby Zonies, told us that she'd accept thoroughly fleshed-out sketches to make up for any classes we'd missed. Her thinking is that in order to be a good painter, you have to have a strong foundation in drawing, because they're basically one and the same art form.

Charcoal on paper, Joa Stenning July 2010

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Mondays Suck!

That's right, Monday's theme is "Mondays Suck." No attempt at alliteration. No real artistic merit or value in these doodles. I'm just going to tell it like it is. Every Monday, I'll be posting a doodle of one way that I'd like to be rescued from my work week. I'm using this as an excuse to practice cartooning/comic illustration, but also it's just freaking fun.

Today, I was really hoping that a unicorn would hop on up to my 4th floor window, carrying on its back a satchel full of warm, toasty grilled cheese. Seriously. What could possibly be more awesome than a backpack full of grilled cheese. And also, a unicorn brought it to you.  Who then whisks you back to your apartment for more sleeping.

I really don't understand what more a person could ask for on a Monday.

Pen & Ink, Joa Stenning 9/12/11

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"Something I'm Working On" Sunday

I've decided that I should give a theme to each day of the week, so that nobody gets bored with "this is a thing I made, isn't it nice" over and over again. It'll also force me to do something new every day--or at least re-visit why something I made before was successful. I also plan to post about other artists I admire at least once a week. Because let's be real, it's much harder to talk about yourself than it is to promote others. Plus, I spend most of my free time looking at other artists' blogs, tumblrs, flickrs, etsy shops, etc., so I might as well share all of the good stuff.  So, you get the point. Sundays will be "something I'm working on," some kind of work-in-progress.

Since I'm taking a week-long painting workshop with Will McCarthy next week in Italy, I decided I'd better brush up on my landscapes. Ironically, the prettiest thing I've seen in a while is a tiny abandoned shed behind Tim's old apartment in Derry, NH. I think I'm drawn to it because it's dark, and small, completely covered in foliage, and clearly nobody's been in it for years. It could be full of weird old treasures and antiques, or maybe the woodchucks we kept seeing have built a big ol' nest in there. Either way, I think it's cute and a little bit mysterious. Here's what I have so far:

Acrylic on canvas, Joa Stenning 9/11/11

The original picture I took is this:

Shitty cell phone photo, Joa Stenning Aug. 2011

It's a shitty cell phone camera photo, but I actually love the way the light is hitting it and causing that orange-y glow. I'm thinking of doing a glaze over the finished product to get that effect. Any artists out there have any advice or suggestions? I worked with acrylic paints on this one, so it should be dry very quickly and would easily take a glaze.

Let me know what you think! Pin It

Some advice I should be taking.

Advice, Part 1: "Your career should be whatever it is you'd choose to do every day if you didn't have to worry about getting paid for it." 
You know what I'm getting paid to do every day? Sell tickets. I sell tickets, and I talk angry old ladies out of marching down to my office and beating me with their walkers when they don't get the seats they want. Would I do that every day if I didn't get paid for it? No. Absolutely not. Never. Niet. It sucks. I keep thinking to myself, "This is what paying the bills feels like. It feels good, right Joa?" and yet, there's a great big lack of fulfillment eating away at my insides. While we were out for drinks downtown last week, my friend Alyssa advised me that my career should be whatever it is I'd choose to do every day if I didn't need to worry about getting paid for it. I've probably butchered her exact wording, since she's a far more eloquent person than I am, but that's the gist of it.


I tried to make a career out of my art straight out of college as a set/prop designer for the theater, then panicked because I wasn't getting paid enough to live like a normal human being. So, I went and found myself a cozy office job that makes me want to punch the elderly, but provides me with some stability. For now, financially, I need that. The people I work with are pretty phenomenal, the pay is decent, and even on the worst days I know that someone will make me laugh. But eventually, I would like to leave this place and make my living by painting things like this big-ass fish head:

Oil on canvas, Joa Stening Jan. 2010

Advice, Part 2: "Draw awesome stuff and put it on the internet. Do this for a while and good things will happen."
I recently read a blog post by artist & illustrator Phil McAndrew, who is basically a genius. In this article, Phil gave some of the best advice I've heard all year: "Draw awesome stuff and put it on the internet. Do this for a while and good things will happen." It sounds simple because it is simple. I don't know why I haven't started doing this already--actually, yes, I do know why. I have been way too self-conscious about my work because I don't actually have an art degree. I didn't spend $120,000 in higher education to learn how to do this stuff "correctly." Instead, I spent that money on...a BA in Theater Studies. Super. But honestly, all I've thought about for the past year is how badly I want to paint and draw for a living. It seems like the best way to start doing that is to do exactly as Phil McAndrew says: put my work out there so that people actually see it. If I don't do that, no one will connect with my work and want to pay me to make it, because they frankly won't even know it exists.


I could continue to force my boyfriend to look at my drawings for the rest of his life and say "Great job, honey, that's really cute," but I'm sure that he can't keep that up forever. And even if he could, he still wouldn't pay me. So, here is a blog that will eventually be full of my work. I hope that someone somewhere likes it.


To read the rest of Phil McAndrew's article, click on through.



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