Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Painting

Every year I agree to paint an 8" canvas

to be donated to the Spring Green Area Arts Coalition's "creative canvases" fund raiser.
The one above is for them...
although its colors are way off here.
The uprooted tree came from the Tornado.
It's nice to see the Moon.

There used to be a pine forest here,

until the Tornado.

(So curious....the painting directly above, now done, was small enough to be scanned,

the rest are photographed...and nothing really looks right.

I've got to figure this out.)

It's December 18th in Wisconsin, but no snow.
January 16th
We've had some snow.

Saturday, November 08, 2014

Holiday Art Show in Frank Lloyd Wright's Wyoming Valley School

12 strong, unique artists star in

the first Holiday Show

held in this unique building.

The opening was terrific.
A visually exciting show, well worth visiting!

Open through December 7th...

Thursdays and Fridays...3-5pm and Saturdays and Sundays 10am-5pm.

Come see the show,

and wander about this wonderful school

that kids were once very lucky to attend.

(It's just a wonderful site,

it glows

when the sun goes down!)

Monday, October 13, 2014

Paddlefish Visitation

FLO came over yesterday,

and will stay through the Fall Art Tour.

Many of you have known about the Paddlefish I carved for the

National Endowment for the Humanities Grant

Documentary "Rhythm of the River"

seeing it on television or in the news.

Well, she's here in my backyard...

after a really active summer

attending numerous events

bringing awareness to the Wisconsin Riverway.

HERE are links to it's beginning,

and to some of the events she's attended

since helping Friends of the Lower Wisconsin Riverway.

I'll tell you more later in this blog, if I find the time.

I'm trying to ready for the tour.

In my attempting some order here,

I've discovered that my 7 Pound Betty

does NOT like her routine altered.

Friday, October 10, 2014

Kelen Art in Shows!

In addtion to the Fall Art Tour, October 17, 18, 19th,
my Religionator print is in the CrossRoads CoffeeHouse show,

which opens tonight...6pm.

AND...
Next Wednesday, an art quality print on canvas of my whiteline woodprint, "I live here."

will be auctioned off to the highest bidder at the art show & auction.

Yes...there's lots going on lately!

Tuesday, October 07, 2014

Fall Art Tour 2014

This year's Fall Art Tour will find my etching press squared up and working!

It happened in early summer.

I bought it new blankets, new ink and tarlatons.

Since my collagraphy class proposal was accepted at the Peninsula School of Art,

I had to remind myself how to print!

I got out the Art of Etching by E.S. Lumsden, the book I learned from at the Chicago Art Institute,

and read and practiced the printing chapters.

I got some hints and advice from a printer at Takach Paper, and another from McClains.

I went through lots of papers, and finally settled on a couple which worked wonderfully for my plates.

I printed...printed...printed...printed...printed...printed...printed...

and finally, I saw my abilities not only returned, but better than before.

NOW I could teach that collagraphy class, no problem.

I was armed, and ready for any kind of problems students magically present.

SO....

After completing jobs promised to others,

and surviving the Peninsula School of Art's Guenzel Gallery Print Fair,

I've got a little time before welcoming the curious into my studio, #26,

October 17th through the 19th.

http://lindakelen-metalprints.blogspot.com/

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Penninsula School of Art Print Fair

At the Peninsula School of Art...

in Fish Creek, Door County, Wisconsin

this Saturday, 1pm - 3pm,

you can attend

the Print Fair with woodcut artist, Linda Kelen...(me)

This event is free and open to all families and community members.

Try your hand at your own woodcut print and take home a small masterpiece.

For more information, please visit: https://www.peninsulaschoolofart.org/events.html

or call 920.868.3455.

Monday, September 15, 2014

Guenzel Gallery Print Fair

"In conjunction with the Guenzel Gallery exhibition, Out of the Woods,

join us for a free print fair with participating artist Linda Kelen

and create a small woodblock print.

All materials provided."

It's happening this coming Saturday in Fish Creek...

Door County, Wisconsin...

so I've been cutting wood and printing the blocks as fast as I can

to show what's possible to do in a short amount of time.
I'm using 1/4" and 3/8" Shina Plywood.

I'll post them here as I finish them.

An ExLibris print

seems (to me) to be a perfect end goal

for whomever might want to pick up a knife.

So.....we'll see what happens.

Tuesday, September 02, 2014

Out of the Woods... Contemporary Woodblock Prints Show

I'm just back from teaching WhiteLine Woodblock Printing
at the Peninsula School of Art...
I'll post pictures from that later.

Their "Out of the Woods"

Contemporary Woodblock Prints show is up!

August 22 through October 18, 2014

Kay McKinley, their gallery director did a terrific job of showing the wide range of wood printing

through work of

Mary Azarian,

Betsy Bowen,

Charles Woodruff Coates,

Ellen Heck,

Emily Hoisington,

Carl Homstad,

Brian McCormick,

Andrea Rich,

Nick Wroblewski,

me, Linda Kelen , (also my blog of woodprints only)

and Richard Steiner, who will be there in person Sept 5-10, lecturing on the 9th.
I took photos,

but the Peninsula School of Art link is great and ready right now!

And THEN....

On September 20th

In conjunction with the Guenzel Gallery exhibition, Out of the Woods,

join us for a free print fair with participating artist Linda Kelen

and create a small woodblock print.

All materials provided.

Sunday, August 17, 2014

printing, posting updates

PRINTING

Wipe...wipe...wipe....print....print....print....

My printing is improving.

Not yet ready to set up for acid etching,

I'm still doing collagraphy but have begun to tackle drypoints.

My drypoint guidance is coming from E.S. Lumsden's The Art of Etching,

paper suggestions from knowledgeable someones

at McClains Printmaking Supplies and at Takach,

and some very fine advice from the LinkedIn Engraving/drypoint group.

The rest of is just trial and error.

POSTING UPDATES

I have begun to pump life back into METAL PRINTS.

There is a new blog for the BurgerGuy,

which will probably grow slowly due to other time eating activities

I've gotten myself into.

And there is WoodPrints!

I also freelance...hired art,

this blog also is being brought more up to date.

OK...now I'm going to print some more.

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

COLLAGRAPHY!

These are not etchings...they are collagraphs.

SO excited!

Etching press squared up and working great!

These ARE the first proofs from the press in the new studio...

and with NEW blankets!

No, not the best photos, but they'd have to dry before flattening...

and I just didn't want to wait.

SO good to see this!

More later!
This next one...
I couldn't stop myself.
I was just messing around....experimenting.

I should have known better.
I grabbed a too thin aluminum plate that was lumpy...
Bent, not straight...yes, lumpy.
I'll work to get a good print of it...
and never, ever use a lumpy, bent plate again!!

Rockets....1st state.

Friday, July 25, 2014

Ex Libris

Ex Libris.

Bookplate.

Never did one before,

but thought it might be fun to do a few to generate

some thinking in the minds of those who will try their hand

at woodblock cutting and printing

in Door County during a public session I expect to be heading up.

More about this later.

I'll finish the block and print it while I work on the next one.

I will post better photos of these, once things settle down a bit.

Saturday, June 28, 2014

DogFish...whiteline woodprint

The beginning is the tricky part,

finding what I cut...always a bit scary

as I usually get going with the knife,

cutting more and differently than I intended....

so there will be surprizes....

good surprizes, bad surprizes,

and always at least one "what was I thinking".

It's a new block, larger block, and of poplar, a wood I've not used before.

It's done.

I'll be teaching at the Peninsula School of Art, in Door County.

Thursday, June 05, 2014

Linda Kelen Teaching at Peninsula School of Art

I've got so much going on,

I forgot to post about the WhiteLine Woodblock Printmaking Class I'm teaching this summer!

These are WhiteLine Woodblock prints:

The one thing I just love about whiteline prints is that no two can be exactly the same.

I'm going to try to be armed with multiple prints from a few select blocks.

Print #2 of Mill Creek at Coon Rock Road is about done now.

Paper is too wet for me to continue,

so I snapped the photo with my cell phone to show you.

Here's Print #2 of Mill Creek at Coon Rock Road,

fresh off the block.

(I'll do my homework here, and get more of these prints up for you.

Can't believe I've not posted more of them!)

This is the third print from this block

and there will be two more, one of which is already sold.

It's done, but I like to remove prints from their blocks
first thing in the mornings.

Yes.
I started a blog about this,
specifically to post the prints,
but somehow got teetered off into printing, painting, or whatever else it is that demands my attention.
(I'll make a point of loading the site with more up to date work)
I've been posting some in one of my FaceBook albums, which you can visit in the mean time.

Wednesday, June 04, 2014

Linda Kelen's Art Thrills Thousands!

The Career of my Paddlefish is still going strong.

The Annual Fools Flotilla

is happening this weekend...

June 8th

9:30AM - 12:PM

FLOW's FLO in FOOLS FLOTILLA! Sunday, 6/8/14

FLOW's FLO in FOOLS FLOTILLA!

Sunday, 6/8/14

Details here: http://www.wisconsinrivers.org/events/display/item/fools-flotilla

Bring your kids, grand kids, neighbor kids, whatever, to ride on and climb on good 'ol Flo.
She may have lost some of her youthful Hollywood movie star looks, but she still loves kids.