Winter Show

Jen Evenhus Joins Brad Brisbine in a Winter Show

New work by both artists - Cashmere Art Gallery - Jan. 12 thru Feb. 28, 2013

Opening receptions Jan. 12 and Feb. 9,  5:00-8:00pm  Music and Refreshments

120 Cottage Ave., Cashmere, WA

 

Evenhus Pastel Workshop

Are you a pastel painter? Move up to the next level in my pastel workshop next Summer at the Pacific Northwest Art School on Whidbey Island. Give yourself the best Christmas gift an artist can get - a 3-day pastel workshop on beautiful Whidbey Island, July 25, 26, 27 - Reserve your space now and pay the balance later. www.pacificnorthwestartschool.org

 

The Gift of Art

The gift of art is timeless. Art never goes out of style.

Browse through my BLOG to find the one you love or

ones your family and friends will love ~ just in time
for Christmas giving!

 

"Lavender Ridge" 18x12" Pastel on LaCarte $450 framed.
SOLD Thanks Mary Alice E of Spokane, WA

"Instigation"

Love working abstract ... gives the artist free rein to explore, experiment and discover. My resource materials for these last two pieces have been photos of apple blossoms if you can believe it ... but that's all it is - a resource - a starting point and then moving past the resource into pure creation.
"Instigation"  10x10" pastel on UArt   $225.00 unframed

"Scarlet Rush"

Back at the easel ~ Lots of layering and scrubbing on this to create the feel I was after ~ working on using more neutral colors so the intense colors don't have competition.
"Scarlet Rush"   16x20 pastel on UArt  NFS for now. This received the 4th Place Award in the Abstract category of the 15th Pastel Journal 100 and will be featured in their April 2014 issue.

"Aspen Dance" Sells in NYC

I am happy to report that "Aspen Dance" sold recently at the Pastel Society of America's 40th Open Juried Exhibit in New York City. I am sorry to see it go as I am with all of my work, but I'm sure it will have a fabulous home back East! The exhibit hangs in the National Arts Club Gallery in Gramercy Park So. through Sept. 29, 2012.

Transitional Home Project

TRANSITIONAL HOME PROJECT DONE and FRAMED
The paintings are painted, they are photographed and framed and ready to be gifted.
Ah, the feeling! I am humbled they want to hang my work to enhance the surroundings!
They will hang in a transitional housing complex for those who had been hospitalized for mental illness, where they come for short stays until they are back on their feet, and have a job.  Proud to have my art there!
Each piece is 8x10" pastel on uArt sanded paper with turp wash undercoat.

 

 "Peony Sunrise"

 

 "Peony Noon"

 

"Peony Sundown"

 

Albuquerque or Bust Project

Yes! I HAVE REGISTERED!
I'm going to the IAPS Convention in Albuquerque next June 2013 - I have wanted to attend the International Assoc. of Pastel Societies Convention for over 10 years - And - I'd like your help!
It will cost me about $2000.00 for the trip and I would love to sell enough paintings to cover the cost of the trip. If you have your eye on one of my paintings - now is the time to claim it. I will be posting some artwork here that you may like to add to your collection.
If you'd just like to donate - that would be awesome too! Click on the 'Donate' button to the right to donate $10 or more and follow the instructions. Thanks so much for supporting the arts!!

 "Summer Hike"  8x6" pastel on LaCarte  $175  framed w/double mat 
Would be a fabulous color piece anywhere in your home or office. Email jennifer@evenhusfineart.com to claim this piece. Please put "Summer Hike" in the subject line, include your name, address, ph#, and email address and I will email you an online invoice to pay with a credit card.

"Early Snow Late Harvest"

Here is another from Wenatchee Heights. I love the shapes and sparseness of the hills. At one point I thought I was done working on this. I waited overnight and looked again. Yes, it's good. I shot some photos. Looked again. No - I won't settle - my eye kept going back to places where I didn't want my eye to go. I took it back to the studio. I layered a deep yellow over the pink in the mid-ground. Highlighted the road on the left more. Added highlights to the snow fields. Put a few touches here and there, lightening a shrub here, highlighting a hill there. And pow! that is what it needed. I'm so glad I didn't settle! This painting will look fabulous with today's contemporary wall colors and furnishings.
"Early Snow Late Harvest"  14x11" Pastel on LaCarte  $275.00 unframed
SOLD Thanks Rob T. of Lopez Island
Email jennifer@evenhusfineart.com to claim this painting. Please put "Early Winter Late Harvest" in the subject line and I will email you an online invoice that you can pay by credit card. Please include your full name, address, ph#, and email address.

"Crimson Truth"

"Crimson Truth" completed this morning - 11x14" Pastel on LaCarte
The strokes in the water give this depth and I really like the layers in the reeds...
 $525 framed w/double mat  SOLD Thanks Don L. of Wenatchee

"Day Before Yesterday"

 

How fun is it to get back onto a large sheet of LaCarte - this is 30x22" - the only down-side is you literally watch your stick of pastel disappear as you drag it across this huge size! Ah well, that just means I need to make a trip over the mountains to the Dakota Pastel store!

Playing with color, line, layers - I like the rhythm of this piece and the colors are delicious - would make a fabulous conversation piece in your living room, entry, or even in your office!

"Day Before Yesterday"  30x22 Pastel on LaCarte $1425.00 framed SOLD

 

Once in a Lifetime

My daughter and I were blessed with sightings of over 20 deer this evening  . . . hands empty of camera and telephoto . . .  but I plan to sit silent, fully armed with camera and tripod, tomorrow evening in hopes of capturing what we experienced: a doe with twins; a small herd of doe and fawns followed by two young bucks on a hillside in deep blue shadow; a large herd in another meadow surrounded by aspen tipped in gold, the 4-point nonchalantly grazing atop a hill while three fawn dashed across a lush meadow, into the aspen and back out again, while two young buck locked horns. No - seriously. Once in a lifetime experience!

"Skyline Sentry"

One of the most fun things about being an artist is that you get to "create." This painting was "created" in my imagination. I used photo reference I shot almost 10 years ago of the deer - two separate shots that I "put together" and then "created" the landscape design around them...
"Skyline Sentry" 12x9" pastel on Canson  $475 framed.
To purchase email jennifer@evenhusfineart.com to claim this painting. Please put "Skyline Sentry" in the subject line. Please include your full name, address and phone #. I will then email you a PayPal invoice with tax and shipping added. You do not need to have a PayPal account, just a credit card.

I've included this black and white image for you to see the composition/design

and values better.  Take note, too, of the areas of black - how they punctuate the piece.

"Blue Grade, Dusk"

I just love the shape of deer. They are beautiful and built for bounding over logs in a forest or through a wheat field, and jumping over a barb wire fence from a stand-still. And I love their trust as they pause and look your way . . . and then there are those ears!!!  I have included a B&W so you can easily see the design and values; and there is an enlargement so you can see the strokes and colors.
Be sure to click on each image to see it full size.
"Blue Grade, Dusk" is 12x9" pastel on Canson Mi'tientes turquoise. $225.00 unframed.
Email jennifer@evenhusfineart.com to claim this painting. Please put "Blue Grade, Dusk" in the subject line and I will email you a PayPal invoice with shipping and tax added. You do not need to have a PayPal account to purchase.

"Summer Hike"

I love using these "hot" colors - they give the feeling of the heat we are experiencing here in Central Washington. And the mountains and plateaus are heavy with wheat crops and the hills are turning brownish yellow without the rain we had this spring.  I am again showing the B&W image below to show you the values - dark, medium, light, with variety of each.
"Summer Hike" 8x6" pastel on LaCarte $100.00 unframed.  Email jennifer@evenhusfineart.com to claim this painting. Please put "Summer Hike" in the subject line. I will then send you a PayPal invoice with shipping and tax added. Thanks!

"Wild Side of the Fence"

My challenge was to keep this abstract and loose. I really like the different colored shapes and the light "fence" strips cutting through the landscape. I wanted to bounce the warm against the cool areas and to keep other areas neutral.
"Wild Side of the Fence"  24x18"  pastel on LaCarte   $575.00  unframed
To purchase email jennifer@evenhusfineart.com and put "Wild Side" in the subject line and I will email you a PayPal invoice with shipping and tax added.

"Whispering Ridge"

"Whispering Ridge" is a study in design. This piece works because the composition is super strong. It's eye-catching too because of the strong colors - red, orange, purple . . . and pink!  All in one small landscape!  I drove up this morning in search of designs in nature. Up to the heights I went and stopped on a hairpin turn, parked and looked out. That's it! Of course the landscape in front of me is always just a jumping off point - I change colors, move trees, and create my own story. This could almost be a novel - don't tempt me!  Here again I wanted to check the values and was pleased to see that I am spot on as you can see below. I almost like it better in black and white! You can clearly see the design without the color  . . .
"Whispering Ridge"  8x6"  pastel on LaCarte  NFS

"Desert Heights"

 "Desert Heights" is a plein air piece done this afternoon in the heat of Central Washington in summer. I like the contrast between the warmth on the hills and the cliffs below. To cool it down a bit, the sky asked to be blueish green and I obliged.  When this piece was almost complete, I wasn't sure the values were correct, so I shot a photo of it in black & white - a perfect way to test your values - get rid of the color! And yes, they are good... as you can see below.
"Desert Heights"  8x6"  pastel on LaCarte  SOLD

"Spring Blush"

PERSEVERANCE PAYS OFF!
So, after many attempts over the years, I finally produced a painting of apple blossoms where they actually "feel" like apple blossoms. This went through several modifications before I arrived at this point - it has the fragility of a blossom, it has the "color" of an apple blossom - which isn't really pink, but as you can see - a combination of pink, blue, purple, yellow, and white. Ha! Finally!
"Spring Blush"  8x8" pastel on LaCarte

"Cot Harvest"

"Cot Harvest" 5x7 Oil on panel. Go to my gallery on Daily Paintworks to bid on this painting. Bids begin at $85.00!
The challenge with any painting is to create a great composition with whatever subject matter you have. I really like the placement of the cot surrounded with the stems and leaves and the negative space works to enhance this piece as well.

"Early Cot"

"Early Cot" 5x7" Oil on panel. Bids start at $85.00.

Go to http://www.dailypaintworks.com/Artists/jennifer-evenhus-2146 to bid on this painting.
Apricots are a favorite fruit of mine, not only for the taste, but for the memories. I grew up in a home sitting on half an acre overlooking the... Columbia River and the Cascades. The house sat at the top of the lot and then the lot sloped down to a flat area where we had a garden and five apricot trees. My 3 siblings and I built tree houses, had cot fights, and spent many summer days enjoying the ripe fruit from those trees.

"Abrupt Arabesque"

"Abrupt Arabesque" held my attention even after leaving the studio - haunting my dreams with its mystery and depth. My inspiration, believe it or not, was a photo taken up Icicle a year or so ago, of leaves and rocks at the edge of a stream. I loved the patterns in the image, but knew it would not remain "leaves" and "rocks." I blocked in the image, it was still leaves and rocks.  I blocked in the colors - still leaves and rocks.  Frustrated, I stepped back to ponder my next move. Painting is often like playing chess. Deep thought required. Skill and fearless moves are master. Make it or break it - my favorite move - is what this painting needed. So after a night pondering and a morning waiting, I entered the studio, knowing what I needed to do. The image below is the before painting - that point when the painting needed something but I wasn't sure what. Compare the painting below with the completed painting above. See what I mean? The upper left corner changed. The middle yellow area painted over, more highlights. I darkened the small yellow spot at top middle right. Added more yellow area to the left middle. A spot of yellow to the bottom.  All these subtle changes "make or break" a painting. These "made" this painting.  24x18" on LaCarte.

Abrupt Arabesque - Before

"Lavender Ridge"

"Lavender Ridge" went through a ton of transformations until we arrived here. The poppies threatened to steal the show several times throughout this process, becoming too large in the foreground, assuming that it was all about them, but it's not, it's all about the lavender field and the distance trees. So they were scrubbed out and repainted several times until almost invisible, much to their chagrin! The composition is very dramatic with the forest diagonal echoed in the ridge.
18x12" on LaCarte $450 framed. SOLD Thanks Mary Alice E. of Spokane, WA

"Trailhead" Progression

I promised you the "Trailhead" progression video. Look closely to see subtle changes, and enjoy the violin music of one of my fav musicians, Peter Lee Johnson - violin cover of "The Only Girl" by Rihanna.

"Trail Head"

"Trail Head" took several detours before arriving at this place. I scrubbed off half of the initial sketch, moving the lily pads to the bottom, leaving the center to breathe. To keep the two groups of objects connected I made a point of using oranges and greens found in the lily pads in the group of rocks. I like how the water has depth and a touch of mystery. 
"Trail Head"  SOLD   12x18" on LaCarte

"Sand Dune Daisies"

"Sand Dune Daisies" was painted from my time at our NPS Camp Casey paintout last summer. I've taken artistic license to create a sense of place that reminds me of our trips to the ocean each summer as a child. The challenge here was to get the horizonal feel of the daisies among the tall grasses without them being too overbearing. I like the composition - which I changed from what was actually there. I like the whispy feel of this piece and the suggestion of lavender in the foreground.
"Sand Dune Daisies"  18x12" on LaCarte  NFS - going to a show!

"Showoff"

And another late night painting. I will post a video of the progression this painting took - it was quite a mess to begin with, but that's half the fun - to see if you can "pull it out" !
"SHOWOFF" Pastel 8x10" on LaCarte

On Guard

"On Guard" 12x9" pastel on LaCarte
This is a good character study of our cat Trix - she has this attitude of "are you talkin' to me?"
Love how this came together - layered the pastels so the cat's body would have depth and lots of color underneath, using the orange of the orange to bring warmth to her belly. I emphasized the shadow areas and exaggerated her lines, especially those around the head. I like how the tail is "floating" in the air as if she is twitching it with annoyance.

"Saffron Ridge"

"Saffron Ridge"  pastel  8x8"

My second Plein air piece Sunday before last ... Was not working ...way too "geometric" so worked on it some in the studio and it pulled me toward total abstraction...I scrubbed off areas to simplify it ...added some white areas...scrubbed more and POW!! Love it

Plein Air Sunday

"Vineyards and Valleys"  10x8"  pastel on LaCarte
The hills in our valley have become almost an obsession for me - perfect resource for my abstract work. Late this afternoon I packed up my supplies and headed over the hill overlooking the river and hills. The late horizontal sun shaped the hills and created outstanding highlights. Love how this one turned out.

Saint Laurent Winery Exhibit
Saturday, May 19
1:00-5:00pm

Come out to see my large and small oils
and enjoy their annual barrel tasting event.

Bring your friends and make an afternoon of it.

Directions: Go south on Wenatchee Ave. toward Malaga;

turn right toward Three Lakes, follow the signs.

4147 Hamlin Rd., Malaga. Phone 509-888-9463

PSA Pastelagram Featured Artist

My abstract work is featured in the Spring 2012 issue of the Pastel Society of America's Pastelagram. It was an honor to be one of six artists to be featured and an ever greater honor for them to choose my abstract work to feature. I have been having such fun with the abstracts - that truly is where my passion is . . . at the moment! Hopefully you receive the Pastelagram, but if not perhaps you can read a bit of this if it's sharp enough.  If not, and you want to read the article, I can get it retyped and put into a PDF for everyone.

Plein Air Friday III

Third plein air piece - diff location. Mountains surrounding the Wenatchee Valley - loved the blues here. Easy to get carried away so neutralized the blues with bits of green, brown and purple. Love how the shadows on the snow "reads" well. "Colockum Snow Fields" 12x9" on LaCarte.
$175.00 available on my Daily Paintworks site.

Plein Air Friday II

Second plein air piece from same location. My goal with these is 1) great composition 2) exaggerated color 3) a sense of place. Thanks Norm and Beula for letting me set up my easel on your road!
"Sage Bluffs 12x9" on LaCarte   NFS - going to a show!

Plein Air Friday

Had the most fabulous plein air painting session today. Just minutes from my home. We do indeed live in an enchanted place! These images of the paintings were shot by my smart phone so aren't as crisp as they really are. This first one is called "Sage Melodies" - I kept it pretty abstract, but if you think sagebrush, shale rock, and scrubland - you'll "get it." 12x9" on LaCarte 
$175.00 available. Send me an email jennifer@evenhusfineart.com with the title in the subject line along with your name, address, and email and I'll send you an invoice.

Art Display Panels

ART DISPLAY PANELS - FOUND!!  

I will be at the Saint Laurent Winery on May 19, 1-5pm during their Barrel Tasting event. 
Plan to come out, taste some great wine and see great art!

"Ebey's Inlet"  8x8" oil on panel

"The Heights"

"The Heights" is that large diptych I was working on some weeks ago. Put the finishing touches on it this afternoon. Quite a challenge - it began as an abstract piece - but then the abstract ground made a perfect beginning for this landscape that is really quite abstract, especially if you step close. This is oil on linen and is 72x30" - love working on linen. This (and other large format oils) will be on display at Saint Laurent Winery May 19 during their Barrel Tasting event. A perfect centerpiece for your living room. $2400.00.  SOLD

"Diamonds in the Rough"

"Diamonds in the Rough" 12x12" Pastel on LaCarte Museum