Anne Leuck 3/24/08 Anne Leuck 3/24/08

My Candy Colored World...

Inspired by Kathy Frey's blog: "Taming the Tangle", I recently revamped my categories. She has one called "Personal Glimpse" I edited mine to "My Candy Colored World" it's just more of a focused peek at the everyday here. I also thought that made for a good name for my blog since I've always said my hues are candy colored, and as you can see here in these photos, so is my life!

In honor of the everyday..things that happened around here last week:

Home Improvement...we had the wonderful guys from Samanco working here this week, the jobs not huge, but closing the walls and ceiling back up made for a 4 day event. We now have insulation in our laundry room (the pipes froze last winter) and we have fabulous pendants hanging over the kitchen island....this will add so much ambiance to our dinner hour...not too mention dramatic lighting for our high stakes Scrabble games! Also replaced the very froofy brass fixtures that were hanging in the living rooms that join the kitchen. They are very simple schoolroom style period fixtures that echo the age of this old house. I love them...!! And a plug for Angie's List, this is how I found Samanco, they also did our bathroom rehab in our old house on Oakley....sadly that bathroom no longer exists as the house was torn down.

I hung my fun Birthday gifts from my dear pal Erica by my desk..shrinky dinks! She did a portrait of me and one of each of our hands...they are precious little talismans. She also presented me with this sweet hand sewn birthday cake! Perfect...I can take it with me on my annual sojourn.

I went to the Art Girls Pot Luck for the first time since December! We met at printmaker, Judy Zeddie's house. My big tip for the night was to get the business book "The E Myth Revisited". I went with the unabridged audio version...I have too many books stacked on my bedside table and I want to get right into this one...I can listen while I paint!

We hosted an easter brunch here for some of Rich's family, it was a fun day...my nephew Dexter made this great drawing of me and him:

My next assignment: Create a Blog Banner with art on it....I should have done that first!

Anne Leuck 3/18/08 Anne Leuck 3/18/08

65 South

I think it's finished...we'll see how I feel in the morning.

Anne Leuck 3/16/08 Anne Leuck 3/16/08

Spring Fling

Saturday was gray and chilly ... but we made the most of the Spring Fling

at Flourish Studios! The gallery lighting made for some eerie shots so I

converted many of these to black and white...these photos are some of the

lovely people who came by for the Opening. If you missed it, the show is

up through the end of April, check it out at 3020 N. Lincoln Avenue in

Chicago.

Erica Huntzinger....Pretty in Pink

With Mary Laskey, my March Newletter Featured Artist

With Flourish Owner, Dr. Julia Rahn

More wonderful folks who came out for the event!

Anne Leuck 3/13/08 Anne Leuck 3/13/08

41...Asleep in the Cascades

I had a wonderful trip out to the Seattle area last weekend for my 41st birthday. I visited my brother and his wife in Sammamish. On Friday we drove up to Lake Wenatchee in the Cascade Mountains, it was so beautiful! Every morning when I woke up I ran for my camera because the view with the sun coming up was so breathtaking. We had a great time cross country skiing and ate lots of good food. If you go, rent your skis at Plain Hardware, yes the name of the town is Plain! Photos are of my one and only most favorite brother, Carl & I and my 4 legged nephew Willie.

Prior Birthdays:

2008 41 = Lake Wenatchee, WA

2007 40 = Venice, Italy

2006 39 = Saugatuck, MI

2005 38 = Bedford, PA...enroute home from a show in Virginia

2004 37 = Punta Cana, The Dominican Replubic

If you can swing it, I highly recommend this traveling birthday idea...premise: Go to sleep or wake up somewhere you have never been before. I started in 04, you know what they say about all work and no play...this guarantees an extra little get away every year!

Anne Leuck 3/5/08 Anne Leuck 3/5/08

Artist Statement.....I finally wrote one.

I only accomplish these important things when I really don't have time. I should be packing as I'm heading out of town in the morning for my 4th annual Birthday Adventure...Premise: Go to sleep or wake up someplace you have never been on your birthday! This year I will go to sleep near Lake Wenatchee in the Cascade Moutains of Seattle at my brother's new cabin!

So back to the statement, the deadline for Chicago's Public Art Portrait Project is Monday, I just couldn't pass it by. The Proposal required a Design,Concept Statement, Resume, Slides and...sigh, an Artist Statement. I have been putting this off for too long...instead using a weird bio/statementee thing. So tonight I did it...please note this project does not involve my animal imagery so I did not include anything relating to the animal art or mission. That will be an altogether separate piece. When I have more time I will created a combination statement that ties it all together. Enough talk, here it is:

When I paint, I feel like I am on an adventure, the blank canvas or board is like the open road. It’s easiest to take a route I know well but most satisfying when I have the courage to go down a path I have not traveled before – that’s when my most interesting compositions emerge.
Based on my adventure theory, I guess it’s not surprising that many of my paintings include roads and narrative landscapes. These painted stories include a visual vocabulary of beloved shapes and patterns that make up my contemporary folk and urban pop art style. I have a constant source of imagery influenced by my dreams, daily sketchbooks and my precious adopted dogs.
Raised in a small Wisconsin town, I always dreamed of living in the big city. The energy and vistas of Chicago’s more industrial, urban views constantly inspire me. My style was surely influenced by a childhood of endless Sunday mornings sitting in a Catholic church staring at the stained glass windows. My color sense further developed every Christmas as my Mother allowed my Brother and I to mix our own frosting colors for holiday cutout cookies. Those colors still make up my palette.
Making art and seeing the joy it brings to other people inspires me, and keeps me moving forward in life, always excited to create something new.
-Anne Leuck Feldhaus

I would love your feedback. If you are looking for tips on how to write your artist statement I highly recommend visiting the very helpful sites of Alyson Stanfield, Molly Gordon and Arianne Goodwin. And most definitely check out the Smartist Telesummit for statements and so much more.

Anne Leuck 3/2/08 Anne Leuck 3/2/08

Brutus...a lovely tribute to a handsome guy

I've got lots of great process images for the creation of this fun commissioned pet portrait...and this photo of Brutus at home in Alabama with his brand new tribute painting is the cherry on top. I hope to put together a page on my website showing all the steps and maybe even do a little postcard or brochure. Right now my pet portrait information pages look like this. Jean, his wonderful owner left me a really great review at PetServicesReview.com, thanks Jean I do hope to see you in October at Kentuck!

Here's a full photo of the completed painting:

Anne Leuck 2/24/08 Anne Leuck 2/24/08

Color....finally!

I'm excited to finally be making progress on my road trip paintings. I started them last fall after our October trip to Alabama. I have been contemplating the color for a long time, but I see now that it has been worth the wait. Okay..who am I kidding, I have been scared to add color, I forget that if it doesn't work you can simply paint over it!

The ceiling is really low so I placed them on the easel horizontally... grumbling as I did it (I know there is a big lofty studio out there just waiting for me) I realized that it's probably a good thing for me to do now and then compositionally. I also work upside down from time to time.

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The red border was a bold move for me but I think it really works. I'm hanging a show next weekend at Flourish Studios and would love to have these paintings done in time...you know me and a deadline!