Happy Holidays, Arty Friends & Family

 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

Hope you enjoy and find a little light.

Happy Solstice, Hanukkah, Christmas, Yule!

Quin

See more of my art here: Quin's little art shop

For the Seventh Generation Project Interview

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.

Badger & Coyote’s curious partnership illustrated

My first book illustration!

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

Badger & Coyote: A Curious Friendship

Written by Angela D. Goldsmith

Illustrated by Quineccoe J. Sweetman

To see one of my favorite short videos of Badger & Coyote together, see https://youtu.be/eo16wFhWy2E

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. 

A Labor of Love

It's been nearly a year since I last posted but here is one of the highlights from the labor of love which has consumed most of my time, The Beautiful Lives Lost Portrait Project:

We did it! Artists from the Pacific Northwest came together and made 58 portraits to honor and remember the 58 people lost to gun violence at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas last October 1st. Families were in Vegas for healing events, including our show and our tributes to their loved-ones were given to them to take home. Huge thank you to all the artists who donated their time and talents to make this special show happen and another shout-out to the JW Marriott Las Vegas Resort & Spa for sponsoring and hosting our show. We feel good about this effort coming full-circle with the portraits going home with the victims families. Thank you to all of you who also gave money and time to help get these portraits to them.

All portraits may be viewed on our website
https://beautifulliveslost.wixsite.com/portraitproject

Beautiful Lives Lost Portrait Project Slideshow from Mary Anne Funk on Vimeo.

Beautiful Lives Lost Portrait Project

I've enlisted 58 artists to help with an important project to remember those killed in the Las Vegas Mass Shooting

Visual Poem: Beautiful Lives Lost Portrait Project from Mary Anne Funk on Vimeo.

It is easy to feel powerless in the face of terrible news, but as artists, one thing we can do is make portraits of the individuals who died to call attention to the senseless violence and show they are not just another statistic. We can honor their memories and share a loving gesture with grieving families and communities. Kindness often begets kindness. We hope to continue this cycle rather than violence. #beautifulliveslostportraitproject

Quin Sweetman in Two-Woman Show

ART EXHIBIT NAME:       PASSAGES IN PAINT

           BRODERICK GALLERY

             

Baker City - September 2017

EXHIBIT DESCRIPTION:

Quin Sweetman & Celeste Bergin

Both Portland painters present Landscapes, Still Lifes, and Figures. Works include plein aire and studio paintings.

  

Broderick Gallery, 1802 Main St., Baker City, OR 97814

george@broderickgallery.com     503-703-5188 

Hours are Wed. thru Sun. from 10 to 5 or by appointment. For more about the gallery and its artists, please go to www.broderickgallery.com . 

Northwest Beauty on View

I never tire of viewing or painting the beauty of the Pacific Northwest. Here's my favorite neighborhood park and the gorgeous Oregon coast. This and 25 other paintings will be on view at the St. Johns Art Constitutional, Saturday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Spring in St. Johns, 20x16", oil on canvas, Quin Sweetman

Cape Arago, 14x11, oil on panel, Quin Sweetman

Later that evening, the painting of the Columbia River Gorge paradise 

the American Indian's called Wahclella Falls, will be on view at the 

Recycled Rain Project Show in the Ford Building Gallery, SE Portland, opening Saturday, 6-9 p.m.

"Rain Made Paradise", 18x24", acrylic/rain-water on Canvas, Quin Sweetman,
for the Recycled Rain Project Show

Artivism: My Artful Activism

Quin Sweetman, "Artful Activism, St. Johns Bridge", Oil on Canvas, 16x20"

Here's the painting I made during the protest. It was made on site, otherwise known as "Plein Air Painting" and hence, has an "unfinished" impressionist quality, which I think adds to the feeling of action. Several people have expressed interest in bidding on this work to benefit efforts to fight drilling in the arctic. I will post an auction site soon, but for now, please send me your contact information if you would like to be notified of the auction or purchase a print of my painting. Many thanks! Quin Sweetman, Artivist

Update: Plein Air Today covered my painting and wrote a nice piece about Artful Activism http://www.outdoorpainter.com/parting-shot-activism-art-artivism/

Painter on the Scene as Greenpeace protesters hang off St. Johns Bridge to block ship's passage - KPTV - FOX 12

Well, I decided if those protesters were going to "decorate" our bridge so beautifully, I could show up and paint it, at least.  Somehow it led the 11 o'clock news. My mom would have loved it! See the news real on this link:



Greenpeace protesters hang off St. Johns Bridge to block ship's - KPTV - FOX 12

Photo from Huffington Post Article

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/07/30/greenpeace-suspend-portland-bridge-stop-shell-ship-arctic-drill-oil_n_7902020.html?1438255407

I'd like to help with this effort so let me know if you're interesting in purchasing this painting or a print to benefit Greenpeace's efforts to stop drilling in the Arctic.

Painting for a Good Cause

My painting was juried into the Cascade AIDS Project Art Auction: pARTy

Quiet Contrapposto, Oil on Canvas, 20x24", Quin Sweetman, $1200

I'm happy that this painting will be sold to benefit a good cause. Cascade Aids Project helps in the fight against HIV/AIDS and also provides important services to people living with the virus. "We depend on the Art Auction not only to fund our work, but to build community in the fight against HIV and to keep awareness of the epidemic alive. This awareness is key to conquering the virus." Last year, 1,500 people attended the Art Auction. We always enjoy this gala affair immensely. Find out more and get tickets at: http://www.capartauction.org

Iris Galore

The beautiful irises in my yard are all in bloom and my friend's daughter stopped by to spend the afternoon so of course we painted. Fun Day! When she left, I used her leftover acrylics to have some fun with two little panels and my yellow irises.  I think I like them better than the one I made of the purple one as they appear more loose and fresh. What do you think?

My little painter friend, Lexi

My little oil of my other, purple/burgandy iris

¡Carnaval!/Carnival Show at Woolley and Peoples Art Galleries

While I was away painting the Oregon Coast, my paintings were featured in two fantastical shows. We missed the opening events but you can still see this fun show thru Sunday:

¡Carnaval de Cuba!, Oil on Canvas, 24x30", Quin Sweetman

Harlequin's Carnival, Oil on Canvas, 20x16", Quin Sweetman

¡Carnaval!/Carnival Show at Woolley and Peoples Art Galleries

Carnival: A multi-media exhibit celebrating everything that surrounds the classic and modern romantic traveling carnival: circuses, clowns, bearded women, amusement rides, freak show and side show acts, jugglers, etc - really anything to do with the idea of CARNIVAL.

This is a joint partnership gallery show between Peoples Art of Portland Gallery and Mark Woolley Gallery at Pioneer (next door to each other), celebrating 2 similar themes: Carnival (sideshow/circus) at Peoples and Carnaval! (the festival of dance/masks) at Mark Woolley at Pioneer Gallery.

3rd Floor, Pioneer Place

700 SW 5th Ave., Suite 4110, Portland, Oregon 97204

http://www.markwoolley.com/

http://www.peoplesartofportland.com/news.html

All dressed up with nowhere to go

Happy Friday!

Here's a little palette-knife painting I did of my constant studio companion. (Pardon the glare but I wanted to show my new Thumbox easel with a work-in-progress.) I'm really excited to have this handy little, lightweight easel for smaller paintings like this. Back to the cat:  I like to think of him as a mascot sometimes. He follows me everywhere; rather more like a dog. He was "making eyes" at me and reclining in a manner which reminded me of "paint me like one of your French girls." So, I obliged. Our other cat is very sweet but skittish. I'll paint her soon too so she doesn't feel left out.

"Boudoir Cat" oil on canvas/panel, 6x6" Quin Sweetman