Adventures in Watercolor

Art is a family thing. At any and every time in my life, I was never discouraged from being and doing everything it was that I wanted to be or do. My father was an enormous inspiration in respect to me, making sure to always enjoy and display my art when I was a young child. Every year for Christmas or my birthday I would be gifted some sort of tangible kit full of rainbow colors of clay or pastels or pencils and I would spend my rest of the year creating whatever bizarre thing would come to my imagination.

As I got older, it slowly became a total obsession with acrylic colors. As I became more professional, it became an overhaul of every media I could get my hands on!
So over the holiday, I was in my mother-"out-of-law"'s studio where I found an unused watercolor kit and some fresh paper and pads. I dove in and suddenly, hours later, I came out with a couple cool pieces. Sticking with a theme, a kept the palette warm and rustic while I utilized my favorite Micron 3 pen. Here are the final results!

Racka Ram Skull

Roe Deer Skull

I have never really dabbled in watercolor before. For some reason it always intimidated me because I've seen so many artist perfect it. I didn't ever believe I really could. I was always a "stick with what you know" kind of person, but when the opportunity presents itself, I'll seize it. A fresh, unused watercolor kit seemed to radiate with opportunity. Thus, my new obsession was born. So, in keeping with tradition, I requested a watercolor set for Christmas. I feel like a kid again.

Both are available for purchase on my website, Art By Merc, and will be featured for purchase at The Greenhouse On Porter in January!

MOXIE: the success and the aftermath

So the evening of November 20th was the most fun I've had since putting myself out there as an artist. It was bigger and better than I could have ever imagined. 

The whole evening began around 5:00pm when James and I packed up the truck with all my party-goodies.  Mallisa and I met up at the Grocery, a local family-owned restaurant/bar that I frequent (that's an understatement). They were the gracious donors of two full party-trays of delicious food and enough Sweet Water and Blue Moon to keep customers and friends happy! We packed those, and some dinner for us, up in the truck and headed a block down the street over to Sarrah's Salon, where all of our work had been on display since Sunday. Nailing up the last pieces and hanging up all of our prints, Mallisa and I popped the champagne and began our evening. 

Me, with Dr. No and "Food for Other Fish", part of my ten-piece "Surf Rock" series.

Within the span of two hours, Mallisa and I had two full waves of people, from close friends and family, to customers and connoisseurs curious as to what was going on. I was so fortunate to have so many friends supporting my art. What I unfortunately didn't get to enjoy out of the evening was the band, who we hired to play an acoustic set. Mississippi Shakedown is a fantastic two-piece rock band hailing from Hattiesburg, and they just so happen to be wonderful people who support art and community here on the Gulf Coast!

A literal PACKED HOUSE; this is about wave no. 2 of people enjoying MOXIE!

 

It was so wonderful to have so many people come out specifically to see what Mallissa and I had been up to these last few months. Everything went off without a hitch.    

All the tireless hours spent in the studio, bent over a canvas or the drafting board, were worth it. All the worries were thrown out the window. All the anxieties were over. The response and feedback I received from everyone was fantastic. We put on a great show. 

So now what?

Now I begin my foray into the world of art and business. I just launched my online store via SquareUp.com and I've begun collecting orders for prints. I had over-sold my prints at the show, so I got myself new inventory and get to go right back to the drawing-board. I've got commissions to do and orders to fill. I'll be hanging up in other galleries and restaurants in town, with hopes to sell my pieces to observers and build a client base. It's pretty amazing to be able to contact and make face-time with people who enjoy, not just art, but the artist community we have here on the Coast.

 

I have to thank a long list of people here: Sarrah, for allowing Mallisa and I to hang our art in her salon and help put on the show and help us sell our pieces; Nick at Ivey's framing for coming up with combinations of frames and mats when I was completely clueless; Clark at Shaugnessy Printing for all of the prints and posters Mallisa and I tacked up; Rachel at the Grocery for putting together food and beer for our event; my in-laws for bringing the cake and the wine and the biggest thanks of all goes to this beautiful human pictured with me here, Mallisa. Her talent goes above and beyond her art. She has taught me so much about this whole experience and whenever I was feeling any doubt, she helped me laugh it off. She is fantastic!

Mallisa and I, the creators of MOXIE

Moxie, one week away!

It's inching closer and closer. Mallisa and I are on a collaborative journey to bring MOXIE to life. I couldn't be more pleased. We are pulling out all the stops in order to make it the best possible show we can! I am thankful for the continuing support I've been getting from all of my friends, old and new, whether it be on social media or IRL. There are a lot of people awaiting the excitement. I've got butterflies in my tummy, ha!

Back at it...?

Ideas pop up in the strangest of places.
I was sitting at my desk looking through my favorite Instagram account, @theweirdandwonderful, and saw a female Rhesus macaque skull pictures on their site. It took me back...waaaay back to my late college days of pouring over paleo and physical anthropology books. That is when my love affair with skulls took place.

Concept sketch on a sticky note, sitting at my work desk

I remember an old sketch I did of a female Australopithecus skull I found in one of my old textbooks. I remember just shading and highlighting my way through the page. It was so fun, yet so technical. This skull was unique. The skull had dimension and purpose. It was more or less a challenge for me, but a challenge I loved and wanted to perfect. 

To this day I still challenge myself with skull art. There is nothing scary or macabre about skulls to me. They belonged to someone or something once. To a creature with its own personality, and habits. That's how bone is built. That's how skulls should be expressed in art, to me, at least. 

"Late Bloomer" acrylic on gallery canvas, 10x10"

So I reverted back to an idea I had over the summer. I was going to stop pretending that I somehow needed to impress myself with new challenges, but, instead, go back to the things I am familiar with. I needed to find comfort in my art because my attempt to reinvent myself in some weird, impossible way was not working. After all, I am doing this because I love it. Why not continue painting or drawing what I love?

Marker markers markers

I have fallen in love. And I'm obsessed. Prismacolor markers have me all starry eyed.

They have been a great addition to this particular project I've recently dived in to. As in my last post, I finally got my prints back from the printers and I'm now working on hand coloring them to fit in to the original theme of my show, overall. So far I've had a lot of positive feedback over them and I'm really pleased how each of them is turning out. 

But these markers... I swear!

They come in a million different colors and they are so smooth and blendable. At first, I went ahead and purchased the highly pigmented ROYGBIV color scheme, which, I believe, was 12 markers. I tried them out on the prints and WOAH! I was amazed. But then I started looking at the kinds of pictures I had drawn and where I wanted to go with them. That meant I needed more. I took the plunge and purchased about 30 more markers, ranging from milky shades of white and neutral grays, to beautiful jade greens and turquoise hues. 

I couldn't be more pleased. It feels and looks really professional and all the colors I chose really bring the picture some life. Here are a few examples so far!

I asked my friends right after I drew this to give her a name. I'm not so good with giving my pieces titles!

This is a piece I just recently sold to a good friend! This turned out so much nicer than I expected it would. Those markers have changed so much about the way I see color now.

See more on Facebook or my Instagram!

Facebook.com/artbymerc and Instagram: @mmaexetoile

Back from the printers

Got a few more prints from the printers today! I'm officially selling hand-colored prints via Facebook, for now. 

Feeling pretty great about this show in November. My new markers come in on Monday, so I'll be ready to get to work as soon as I get them! So pleased with the way everything is turning out right now. 

I'm all smiles. 😄

Blank pages don't necessarily mean a lack of inspiration...

It has been quite the year for me. I've put a lot of things on the back burner in order to feel confident about my show next month. I started this journey back in March and I feel like within just the year itself my skills have been trained and perfected and my creative mind has released itself on to all the pages and canvases I've finished. I still have some lurking unfinished projects, but for the most part, I've got a solid group of pictures that is more than enough to fill up a small gallery. I wanted to be overly prepared just for the purpose of easing my mind. It's truly a wonderful feeling to look back on the year and consider the struggles and "lightbulb" moments I've experienced. I've matured in my art a lot and I'm getting closer to being able to relax and have people enjoy all the work I've put in to this project.

The theme of my paintings is "Surf Rock", inspired by my love of music, live entertainment, the beach, Hawaiian shirts and "wet" guitars. Motifs include a lot of high saturated colors, skulls, flowers, and jellies and octopuses. It's been fun getting all the pieces to become cohesive and I think the theme fits in to the ways see the world. 

I then started a new project with my sketches. I tried to remain cohesive to the rest of the theme, yet expanded on my skills a little more in order to really find my artistic structure. I enjoy my recent project the most, but will always have a soft spot for painting. 

So here I sit with a beer and a blank page, not necessarily hoping to find something to draw, but relishing in the idea that I can relax, not stress, over a blank page. This is a wonderful feeling and I can't wait to show the world what I've done.