Screenprinting without using a computer

In screen printing it is typical for people to print the image on transparencies from Adobe programs such as Photoshop. I'm an artist that likes to work with my hands, and my screen printing process has eliminated the use of a computer completely.

I start by going to the place that is my inspiration, and make a colored sketch that will become my screen printed image.

I'll use the sketch to trace the different colors using transparency paper and oil based pens called Deco Color.

I double layer all of my transparency paper and trace everything twice to make sure that no light travels through my image area.

I draw all of my layers of color before burning my screens.

Then it's time to print the image to look as close to the sketch as possible. I know it wouldn't look exactly similar due to the change in medium.

Council Crest, Screenprint on BFK, September 2016

So I hope your inspired to take some extra time to get off the computer and use your hands!!

Check out my website: http://www.meganwainwright.com/
To purchase my art check out my Etsy: Store
To see more in progress images check out my Instgram: @roaming_creator

Getting Outside to Sketch!

I always carry a sketchbook everywhere. When the weather is nice I like to go out on adventures and sketch the wilderness that's surrounding me in this beautiful state of Oregon. So here are some images of on-site sketching that I have recently done.

Dougan Falls Washougal River, Washington

Council Crest Portland, OR

Sauvie Island Collins Beach, Oregon

Skidmore Bluffs NE Portland, Oregon

Eagle Creek Columbia Gorge, Oregon

Mt. Tabor Portland, Oregon

Check out my website to view completed pieces: http://www.meganwainwright.com/

View my instagram for more in progress images:https://www.instagram.com/roaming_creator/

Feel free to email me with questions: wainwrightmeganlynne@gmail.com

Purchase my art at my Etsy store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/RoamingCreator?ref=l2-shopheader-name

The Stages of a in Progress Oil Painting

Oil painting is a time consuming process, and it can take about a month or more to completing an image. I paint in layers where each stage has to dry for a week before it's ready for the next step. It forces me to think about the image that's being created, because the individual layers will transform. Then when the next layer is being created I watch as the previous layer becomes unrecognizable.

So, I wanted to show the stages of my painting Underneath the Tree's. This particular image was inspired by a moment when camping in Southern Oregon, and I found myself alone underneath some big trees. I sat in mediation as I drew a creative observation of my surroundings.

The original Sketch in which was used as a reference for the painting Underneath Trees. 

Work in Progress stage one of Underneath the Trees

Work in Progress stage two of Underneath the Trees

Completed piece: Underneath Trees, 24.5in x 18.5in, Oil painting on Canvas,

May 2016

To see more art check out my Website: http://www.meganwainwright.com/
For some work in progress images check out my instgram: @roaming_creator
Any questions or comments feel free to email me: wainwrightmeganlynne@gmail.com

How to Master Color Theory

There are rules in color theory that I use when creating a color palette for a painting.

When I'm choosing the "Pure colors" to start my palette I think about how color is presented on the color wheel. I generally pick out one of each primary(red, yellow, and blue), secondary (green, orange, and purple), and tertiary colors (yellow-orange, red-orange, red-purple, blue-purple, blue-green, and yellow-green)  along with white (my preference is Titanium White).

When placing pigment on the palette I lay things out so that like colors sit next to each other. Sometimes I approach laying out color in a creative ways as you see in the example below.

It's important for me to spend at least 30 minutes to an hour mixing colors, so that I don't paint with any colors that come straight from the tube.

Knowing about these rules can help me figure out how to mix colors and create a palette:

1. Warm vs Cool: The color will either be warm colors (yellow, red, and orange) or cool colors (purple, blue, and green)
2. Hue: The hue means pure color, but some colors need to have tints and shades (to add black or white).
3. Saturation: The saturation is when the color is brighter or duller in the color intensity.
4.Analogous: Colors next to each other on the color wheel.
5.Complementry: Colors opposite of each other on the color wheel.
6. Split Complementry: Combines one base color with the two colors directly adjacent to its opposite or complementary color and not with the complementary color.

I hope this guild helps and inspires you to mix some colors. So, Happy Mixing!!!

Check out my website for images of my paintings: http://www.meganwainwright.com/

For some more in progress images check out my Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/roaming_creator/

To purchase some of my original art check out my Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/RoamingCreator?ref=l2-shopheader-name

Feel free to email me if you have any questions: wainwrightmeganlynne@gmail.com

#walkinginthewilderness #colortheory #oilpainter #pdxart #gamblingcolors #gambling #palette  

Introducing my Etsy Store

I am proud to introduce my Etsy store to my friends, family, and supporters. https://www.etsy.com/shop/RoamingCreator
The store includes most of my more affordable art that are made through screen printing, letterpress, intaglio, small oil painting and stone lithography.
These are a few examples of the art that you'll find on my Etsy:

Listening to the Ocean, Megan Wainwright, 9in x 6in, screen print, June 2016 (Price listed: $5)  

Prehistoric Shells, Megan Wainwright, 6in x 9in, screen print, June 2016 (Listed Price: $5)

Pine Tree, Megan Wainwright, 12in x 9in, Woodblock Print, June 2016 ( Listed Price: $10)

Life, Megan Wainwright, 7in x 5 in, Linoleum block, November 2014 (Listed Price: $5)

Reclining Figure, Megan Wainwright, 7in x 6.5in, Lithography, March 2014(Listed Price: $5)

This is Not a Pipe, Megan Wainwright, 6in x 7.5in, Woodblock on Letterpress, November 2013 (Listed Price: $5)

All of these images and so much more original art is up for sale!  Also, if you see something you like and can't afford it email me (wainwrightmeganlynne@gmail.com)! I'm always open to doing trades or working out some deals!

I'm excited to invite you to check out some art and support a fellow artist!

To see more art check out my Website: http://www.meganwainwright.com/
For some work in progress images check out my instgram: @roaming_creator

My Current Artist Inspirations

I started to do some research of how other artist have used the sky as a source of subject. To my surprise other artist had some very interesting ways of abstracting the vast blueness above our heads.

Georgia O'Keeffe, Sky Above Clouds III/Above the Clouds III, 1963, Oil on canvas , 48 x 84", Private Collection, © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York.

 I have been a fan of Goergia O' Keffe's painting for awhile, and I was excited to reintroduce myself to her painting Sky Above Clouds III/Above the Clouds III . I admire the way that she abstracts nature as if it's communicating a sensation. She has admitted ",the abstraction is often the most definite form for the intangible thing in myself that I can only clarify in paint."

Wheatfield with Cypresses, 1889, Oil on Canvas, 28 7/8''x 36 3/4'' (73.2x 93.4cm), Vincent Van Gogh, Purchas, The Annenberg Foundation Gift, 1993

Vincent Van Gogh's painting Wheatfield with Cypresses inspired my paintings in it's texture and boldness of marks. I have been mimicking his impasto style of painting by laying thick layers of color on the canvas.

Skyspace, James Turrell, Yorkshire Sculpture Park

I had a chance to experience James Turrell's Skyspaces when I studied in Philadelphia at the academy PAFA.  On a field trip the teacher drove my class out to a meeting house called Chestnut Hill. We arrived an hour before sunset happened. When the performance started we watched as a whole in the ceiling was reviled. The reminder of the ceiling became illuminated with LED lights and they changed colors that complemented the sky as the sunset. I'm impressed with his ability to bring the viewer into reality, and to make that actual moment the piece of art. I'm trying to capture that same idea where the viewers perception of space is present in the here and now.

I'm open to letting my interpretations of the sky to keep evolving. To use my experience as a tool in the creation of my art.


Check out some of my other sky inspiration at my Pinterest:  https://www.pinterest.com/wainwrightmegan/artist-skys/

Check out my website to view: www.meganwainwright.com
Look at In Progress Images and Updates on Shows: https://www.instagram.com/roaming_creator/

Showing my Paintings at Stumptown Coffeehouse

I've been honored to show my oil paintings this last April and May in SW Portland at the original Stumptown Coffehouse! My solo show titled Walking in the Wilderness was my first professional art showing since I graduated a year ago from Oregon College of Art and Craft.

I was truly honored to have worked with May Barruel a Portland art curator. I learned a lot from her about installing my art, and editing down pieces so that the show was viewed cohesively. She encouraged me to make new paintings for the show. So in the months preparing for the show I created Strawberry Mountains, Exploring the Blue of Distance, and Underneath the Trees. When all of my current and older paintings where installed at Stumptown I was able to see the space transformed.

The abstracted landscape paintings give the space that feeling I get during my hikes. My bold palette and thick brushy strokes gave the room a liveliness. I hope that my viewers are brought to new and unexpected realms of imagination.

Currently, I'm preparing for some more shows happening around Portland. So, stay tuned!

Check out my website for updates: http://www.meganwainwright.com/

Follow my instgram for in progress shots of my art: @roaming_creator

#walkinginthewilderness #oilpainter #abstractart #portlandart #artandaboutpdx #gamblincolors #stumptowncoffee

How to Paint with Texture

 Lately texture has added a three dimensional quality to my two dimensional imagery. 

Detail of "Strawberry Mountain", 45in x 31in, Oil on Canvas, Work in Progress

My technique is to use an oil painting medium called Cold Wax. Once the medium has been mixed with the paint I sculpt shapes using a flexible pointed tool (purchased at Blick Art Supplies), a palette knife, and an old short hardened brush. 

Now, it's all about experimentation! Here are some examples of the way that I use texture when oil painting. 

Detail of "Strawberry Mountain", 45in x 31in, Oil on Canvas, Work in Progress

Detail of Fallen Tree, 14in x 11in, Oil on Canvas, 2/7/2016

 View more of my images at: http://www.meganwainwright.com/ 
Also see more in detail works in progress at my instagram: @roaming_creator https://www.instagram.com/roaming_creator/

#walkinginthewilderness #gamblin #wip #oilpainting #portlandart #pdxart #texture #coldwax

Megan Wainwright's Thesis Gallery Show May 2015

Five Places for Summer Plein-Air Paintings and Hikes

I'm eager for the weather to get just a little bit nicer, because this summer will be all about Plein-air painting! 

1. Twin Lakes

Location: Bowl of the Woods (Mt. Hood National Recreation Center) 

I visited these lakes two years ago on my first backpacking trip. Since then I've been dreaming about the moment of return to this magical location. The blue lakes and green forest would make a painting of lush colors and loose brushy marks. 

Photo By Ryan Pierce

In Progress Studio Images for the Painting "Exploring the Blue of Distance"

It's been a long winter in the city making me ready for the summer hikes and backpacking trips that fuel my creativity. Despite this feeling of being stuck I still have found my own ways of "Walking in the Wilderness" without being in the nature. On a sunny day (which is rare for Portland) I find myself starring into the sky. The blue is always endless as if I could spend my entire life wondering into that distance.

My Observations of the Sky

When I started my research for this painting I was surprised to read that Rebecca Solnit was also spending a lot of time thinking about the sky. In her book "A Field Guild to Getting Lost" she explains her feeling of the sky in a theory she calls "The Blue of Distance". For Solnit the color blue represents a space which is unreachable and yet desirable. She explains in the book, "blue the color that represents the spirt, the sky, and water, the immaterial and the remote, so that however tactile and close-up it is, it is always about distance and disembodiment."page 159

My practice includes a lot of time mixing color. Here you will see an image of my palette for the painting "Exploring the Blue of Distance".

An in progress image of "Exploring the Blue of Distance" painting  

Exploring the Blue of Distance
Oil on Canvas
38in x45.4in
Feb 2016

To view more images visit my website http://www.meganwainwright.com/
To view more of my work in progress visit my instagram @roaming_creator

#walkinginthewilderness #wanderlust #oilpainting #gamblin #gamblincolors #painter #inspiration #wip #pdxart #portlandart #contemporaryart

Oil Painter and Printmaker Inspired to Make Images of Nature

I paint landscapes that are documenting my experiences with the northwest wilderness. To structure my images I use resources of sketches, writings, photographs, and found materials from my hikes or backpacking trips. Through the process of manipulating an image, a different kind of representation occurs. By using abstraction, I investigate new ways of seeing nature.

As I walked into the wilderness I entered a moment of being more aware of the simple forest. In the surroundings mountains extended for miles both directions and wrapped around my body. I looked up and saw the tall Douglas Fir Trees with branches that made shapes of various triangles. Than I glanced down at the decayed natural materials that created an asymmetrical pattern beneath my moving feet. When making the images I let myself get lost and trust my instinct. Rather than creating a photorealistic image, I make an illusion that brings the viewer to unexpected realms of imagination.