Hope you and yours are well. The short days and long nights can be a struggle for me but it's nice to have seasonal distractions such as twinkling lights, cookies and this gnome with a Christmas tree hat I painted in watercolor, just for fun. Do you have any tips/traditions that help you?
Festive Gnome, Watercolor, 12" x 9", Quin Sweetman
My work from “Badger & Coyote: A Curious Friendship” book
The rough sketch (gestural) to get a sense of feeling I’d like to convey in this commissioned Mother’s Day painting gift
The finished painting commission, 14x11”, oil on canvas
See more of my work via Instagram and Etsy via the tabs above or https://quinsweetmanfineart.etsy.com I’m currently seeking gallery representation so original work may only remain on sale on Etsy for a limited time.
Fun chatting with artist, Kendra Larson and designer, Ashley Larson, who co-host a podcast called "Art Gab". Check-out my interview and others at http://stumptowncreative.com/episode-32-quin-sweetman (or click link in title)
Of course, my favorite recent episode they did was on my hero, painter Emily Carr, but I am honored to have also been on the show. Kendra and Ashley are sisters and I so appreciate their relationship and banter about art and general life in the Northwest environment.
Cape Arago (Shore Acres), Oil, 24" x 48", Quin Sweetman
Thanks to Randy Pijoan for taking the time to interview me and the John Daniel Teply Gallery for featuring my work in the For the Seventh Generation Project.
You can see my interview here or copy/paste: https://youtu.be/IjuNVgtFfu0
This 2x4-foot painting is one of the larger paintings I've ever done and I am thrilled to be showing it as part of this important project.
This July we will be exhibiting For the Seventh Generation paintings at the Lincoln City Cultural Center. My painting is currently for sale to benefit this important work and coastal conservation.
A primer on the For the Seventh Generation project:
For The Seventh Generation is about connecting with place over time. We are forming a one-hundred year arts organization whose reason for being is the ocean. We want to make art that functions at the center of human life, not at its edges. Our showcase event is the For The Seventh Generation Project, The one-mile Pano-Mural for the Washington, Oregon, and California coasts. Our guiding sentiment is “Above all else, a healthy ocean.” The lengthy time aspect referred to by the title is from a notion that we need to think within a longer time frame to address our problems. We need to make choices not just for ourselves and our generation, or for our children or even our grandchildren, but to acknowledge that this is the only planet that any of us will ever have, for all species, for all life, and that we share this planet with the future. Our decisions should reflect that.
Imagine 1320 paintings by 1320 artists to go with the 1320 miles of the Washington, Oregon and California coasts. These paintings, each four feet in length, when put together end to end, and in geographic order, offer the viewer an opportunity to walk the Western coast. As each artist revisits their location (which we encourage them to do once a year) a new painting is generated. Each year the pano-mural recreates itself. This is a resonant relationship with the coastline, which also recreates itself each year. The For The Seventh Generation pano-mural is different each year from the one before, as new work is painted, new artists join in, and the artwork that is sold is no longer exhibited. It is designed to be passed on to other artists and other generations. In fact, because of the timespan involved, those that begin the project today cannot know the fruit of their efforts, for they themselves will, of course, have passed on. We are a generation beginning something the results of which will never be known.
By the very act of going to their locations and painting, the artists become sentinels of their locations. They are watching and observing what happens. Over time, they become chroniclers of the coast. As a group, they become a community of coastal watchers.
A friend of mine asked me to do sketches to illustrate her prose about the curious partnership between badgers and coyotes. This was quite a challenge but I worked to keep the sketches simple as this phenomenon, noted originally in American Indian folklore, is rarely seen by humans so images are scarce. Much had to be imagined to place them together and on the Columbia Plateau in our region of the Pacific Northwest.
A few pages of Badger & Coyote: A Curious Friendship
Original sketch by Quin Sweetman for Badger & Coyote
I hope you enjoy our mutual effort. If you would like to get a copy and support our work, please visit Two Rivers Bookstore in St. Johns, Portland https://www.tworiversbooks.com/ , or My Etsy shop at https://quinsweetmanfineart.etsy.com or send me a direct message to order.