"Cycling" and "Race": Different approaches to showing their movement

Cycling 14" X 11" Fluid Acrylic
by April M Rimpo

         Cycling

Fluid Acrylic
14" X 11" gallery wrapped and varnish
$375

Available for purchase on my website.

Race 18" X 12" Fluid Acrylic
by April M Rimpo

Race
Fluid Acrylic
18" X 12" gallery wrapped and varnish
$540

Read more about this painting on my website

Race was selected for the Georgia Watercolor Society's 2019 National Exhibition on exhibit 
March 9 through April 26, 2019.

The exhibition is held in:
Bowen Center for the Arts
334 Highway 9N
Dawsonville, GA 30534


Wondering how these paintings evolved? Sometimes you can't really tell when you look at a finished painting where is started from.  I think Cycling falls in that category, while Race is much more obvious. Let take a look.

First I created the backgrounds for the two paintings by spraying water and applying fluid acrylic paint until I had the "netting" background I like to use when painting high energy paintings. My cyclist paintings are nearly always in this category because they are so active when they flying by.

Cycling Underpainting & Drawing

Race Underpainting

You can barely see the warm underpainting that was the beginning of Cycling in the final piece. It evolved through a variety of stages eventually ending up with a fairly dark background of purple, burnt orange, and dark greens to represent the natural treed background. A lighter swath of mostly pale greens and yellows for the grasses by the road that are lit by the sun. Only the drips that cross the road remain from the underpainting.

Race at start of demo

On the contrary, I decided to start by painting the woman in Race allowing some of the underpainting to come through providing the illusion of shadows on her body. I so liked this appearance I shared the painting at the stage shown at left with some artist friends to get their feedback. They all felt the simplicity was perfect and that I should not develop the background further. My intuition had told me the same thing, so it was nice to get validation of my thinking before I went further. 

I continued to work on Race as part of a demo in a gallery where I had a solo show on exhibit.  The images below show me completing some details in the bike and reinforcing parts of her form to get to the final version shown above.



My thanks to Mala Sarkar Sehgal for taking these photos while I worked. 

Refining the bicycle

Nearing the end of the demo

Interested in learning more about April's art inspirations, tips about her painting process, or art business tidbits? Want to know when her art is in exhibits? Consider joining her friends and collectors by signing up for her twice-monthly email.

Copyright April M Rimpo All Rights Reserved. You may share my work with attribution and a link to this source site, but all other uses are prohibited.

#hocoarts  #hocoartist #touchstonewdc #bicycles #fluidacrylic

Jammin' 12" X 12" watercolor

Jammin' by Aprl M Rimpo

Jammin'

Watercolor

12" X 12"

Jazz music has been one of my favorite genres of music for quite some time, but perhaps my love of this music grew just a bit more after a visit to New Orleans during Jazz Fest. The energy at this 5 day event was contagious and we roamed around between the 21 different stages and performance venues to take in as much as we could.

Last summer the "Voodoo Threauxdown" tour come to Baltimore and my husband and I bought tickets immediately. We knew some but not all the groups who performed that night. The energy again was high. The various performers gave their all and we took it all in, loving every moment. 

This concert has resulted in quite a few paintings by me, with even more planned. I'm saving most of these paintings for a first reveal at my exhibit "Portraits of Life: The Art of Storytelling" that will feature artwork by me and Elaine Weiner-Reed. This will be one of my paintings. 

Jammin' features the saxophonist and trumpet player from Galactic.

Interested in April's artwork or taking her classes? Consider becoming a Studio Friend by signing up for her twice-monthly email. April segments her newsletter so you can select topics you'd like to hear about when you sign up. For those who include a selection of General Interest you will receive emails about twice-monthly. If you are only interested in classes, then the emails will be much less frequent discussing upcoming classes and how to register.  Thank you for your interest.

Contact April and see more of her art on her website

Copyright April M Rimpo All Rights Reserved. You may share my work with attribution and a link to this source site, but all other uses are prohibited.

Creative ART Coaching - How did we get here?

Elaine Weiner-Reed and I met nearly 20 years ago in an art workshop sponsored by the Laurel Art Guild and taught by Joe Mayer. He was a very well known and accomplished artist in Maryland. I don't recall the exact title of his workshop, but in essence his workshop was about finding your artistic voice. He had images of a wide variety of famous artists posted on the wall. He had us decide which of these images spoke to us the most and told us to think about why. He, of course, gave a great deal of other input that day. We were to do a painting from our own reference material in a style consistent with the image we selected.

Elaine and I were sitting near each other and interacted a little during the day. By the end of class I remember Elaine looking at my painting and commenting that I should definitely pursue that direction in my art because she loved the result. 

It turns out that Elaine and I supported the same customer in our day jobs, but we didn't discuss that at that first meeting, nor did we have any interaction with each other in a business relationship.  Our only continuing connection was through the Baltimore Watercolor Society, since we were both members.  Even that connection was fairly superficial, but I knew I really enjoyed her company from the beginning. It wasn't until about 5 years ago that we reconnected and became friends. 

At that time I had retired to pursue my art full time and she was planning to do the same. We spoke one day at an exhibit reception and discovered our common backgrounds and paths forward. We started to meet with each other periodically and a great camaraderie began.

Our paths into art and our direction in our work are extremely different but we are equally driven by our new art career paths and give ourselves wholeheartedly into this adventure. 

Our endeavors overlap in our desire to share our art and expertise through our blogs. We've both participated in numerous National, International, and solo exhibitions. I spent the first four years in my full time art career refining my skills by painting five days per week, spending countless hours reading art marketing and business blogs, attending art business webinars, and participating in a two year Art Business Academy lead by Jason Horejs of RedDotBlog. Apparently the results of this hard work were noticed.

Over time organizations have reached out to me to give presentations on a variety of art business topics. I recognized that the time spent preparing to do a better job on the business-side of an art career positioned me to help other artists.  I designed a few two-hour presentations and full day course, which has morphed itself into a course with three, half-day sessions. 

Elaine has been called a critical thinker, problem-solver, and "idea person." One of her strengths lies in helping others discern and fine-tune their unique voice, personal style, and creative vision. Elaine is a contributing author for the creative living-focused blog Live An Artful Life, her art-related blog posts include a three-part piece From Artist to Art to Art Shows, Building Bridges with Art, and Risking Everything For A Great Painting. She has participated in over thirty five International and National exhibitions.

Elaine and I have grown to understand that bringing our vision and expertise together results in a partnership that is greater than the individual pieces. Our different perspectives on art and the horizons that can be achieved allow us to offer a unique experience. We are now offering Creative ART Coaching.

Creative ART Coaching with Elaine Weiner-Reed and April Rimpo is designed to be an  interactive session focused on helping serious artists looking to bring their art and their art business to a new level.

If you feel stuck in achieving your professional goals, whether it is increasing your exposure through shows and exhibitions, planning a solo exhibition, building a portfolio, finding a gallery, or understanding what people mean when they say they are looking for "a consistent body of work," our goal is to provide you with insights on how to get beyond your current hurdles.

Our first Creative ART Coaching session is scheduled for May 15, from 1 - 3:30PM Eastern Time. This session will be held at Slayton House, 10400 Cross Fox Lane, Columbia, MD 21044, in the Bill White Conference Room. Click here learn more about our coaching session.

More information about these coaching sessions will be announced through my email newsletter. Sign-up here. April segments her newsletter so you can select topics you'd like to hear about when you sign up. For the Creative ART Coaching session, select Interested in Creative Coaching.

Contact April or see more of her art on her website

Copyright April M Rimpo All Rights Reserved. You may share my work with attribution and a link to this source site, but all other uses are prohibited.