Fritos, Yes, No

Fritos, Yes, No
Oil paint on Panel
16" x 16" x 1.5"
2018
$400.00

My latest food obsessions painting, Fritos, Yes, No, has just been posted to my website. This is the fourth painting I've created exploring my love/hate relationship with food. Fritos, are without a doubt, my favorite lunchtime snack food. The saltiness, the oil, and the corn taste are all irrefusable. But, alas, it is these same qualities that make them so bad for me. It is so frustrating. So, when I do get a bag of Fritos they are gone in a minute. I shorten the ecstasy to not prolong the agony. Does it work like that?

Gathering Resources for My Botanical Paintings

With the launch of flowerartgallery.com, I thought I would share with you how I go about collecting resources for painting flowers. Mostly, I walk my dog. Just as my landscapes are about a place in Northern Minnesota that I love, and my still lifes are about the food I eat (or don't eat), my botanical paintings are about where I live. I walk my dog twice a day every day of the year. here she is sitting patiently waiting to cross a street. She's a good dog.

Over the years I have planted many different flowers in my yard and have made paintings of them, but I also peruse my neighborhood and study flowers. There are gardens I watch and make sure to pass by almost every day. There are others that I watch on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. In this manner I come across some amazing flowers of which I take numerous pictures.

Now, I wish I could peruse all of my neighbor's gardens, but many of them I don't know, so I have a rule to make sure I do not bother them. In order to take a picture or check out a flower in a yard on my dog walk, I have to always leave one foot on the sidewalk. It is a fun challenge at times, but really, people love to plant flowers and there is a great variety along the sidewalk.

I also live near Como Park, Saint Paul, Minnesota. There are several gardens and flowering trees in and around the park, as well as an entire conservatory of plants. I used to work at the conservatory and once had the person in charge of the conservatory's orchid collection take drawing lessons form me. So, if I don't have an orchid I want in my studio or house, I go to the conservatory and work from their collection.

When I do take pictures, I often am getting down in there to get details. Sometimes this means shooting through a chain-link fence or being at ground level, like in this photo. One time I was extremely interested in getting the underside of some flower leaves, so I laid down in a garden bed on an alley, to get the perfect shot. The owner came out of his garage to find me laying amongst his flowers. He didn't say anything - just looked at me. I introduced myself and that I am an artist that makes paintings of flowers and that his garden was particularly beautiful. He signaled me to follow him. I followed. He led me around his garage and through his backyard. We entered into his next door neighbor's back yard that didn't have a stitch of grass - nothing but flowers. He said "Go ahead and take pictures. I'll let Francis know its okay if she wonders what's going on." He stood guard for the next half-hour while I took pictures of all kinds of flowers. From that summer forward, when I would walk my dog I would see him outside at his patio table and he would invite me over, pet my dog and give me a beer while we talked about life. When the beer was done, Delilah and I would finish our walk. As I have said before - art is not my life, but a vehicle for it.

And the Winner Is...

The winner of the recent art give-away is Lori Heeter. Every couple of months, I have a give-away of a small art piece to those who sign up for my newsletter or respond on my Facebook post.  Congratulations Lori! Next give-away will be just before the upcoming online auction. Stay tuned here or on my Facebook Pages:
Mark Granlund Studio
Flower Art Gallery

New Website: Flower Art Gallery

Over the years I have equally enjoyed making oil paintings of landscapes and still-lifes and watercolors of floral subjects. Looking at the images in this newsletter, you can see that I paint in different styles for the different media. Not only our my styles of painting different, the works are different in intent. The oil paintings, to me, our objects not images. They are each a unique vessel that receives my energy and perception and are then deepened through your experience of them. The botanical watercolors have always been paintings that have been associated, for me, with teaching people how to paint and art prints that are created for the Minnesota State Horticultural Society. They are a more community and genre driven art than my oil paintings. So, for me, in many ways, they are serious paintings that are more flexible in terms of being open for a variety of formats. To this end, I have created a separate website for my botanical paintings that will provide an opportunity to buy prints and select products with the images on them.

Currently, fine art prints, greeting cards, mugs and buttons are available. Oh, those buttons - I have been doing those for years and now you can buy them straight from my website. If interested in a print, you can see a preview of the print on a wall of a color of your choosing. The print, framed or matted, will appear in proportion to its surrounding furniture, etc. It is really handy in helping determine if the work will look good in a room like yours. 

In the coming months, I will be adding flower paintings and new products. I'm very excited about this development and feel it can be a consistent way for people to engage with my botanical work.

Link: flowerartgallery.com

Current Exhibit and Upcoming Onlie Auction

I currently have a few of my Sinkside Compost Series paintings in Animal, Mineral,Vegetable on exhibit at Wargo Nature Center in Lino Lakes, Minnesota. The show also includes Kat Corrigan and Bronwyn White. The show is in the display cases in the middle of the center and will be up until September 2018.

Later this summer will be an online auction with artist Gregory Graham. It will be a whirly-twirly event with all pieces painted with gouache on paper and they will be in 5" x 7" frames and ready for hanging. The auction will take place during the Minnesota State Fair, thus the Spaghetti Eddie's painting that I created for this event. I haven't painted people since The Book of Bartholomew project. It has been fun to tackle people again - that just sounds wrong. You get what I mean. Anyway, it will be a lot of fun. More info to come.

Winter Morning - Oil Paint on Canvas

Winter Morning
Oil paint and charcoal on canvas
60" x 36"
$3,800

My landscapes are moving to a looser style with a greater variety of paint applications. The canvas in part of this painting is simply primed canvas with charcoal. Other areas are very thin drip washes, while yet other areas are thick strokes of paint. It is a very vibrant and active painting to look at. The image comes from Rainy Lake in Northern Minnesota. In the summer, I often stay in a cabin wherein the bed has a north facing window next to it. The sun comes up right in a spot where it angles in the window and shines right on the pillow. I can't tell you how many times I have woken up between 4 - 5am with that sunrise hitting me right in the eye. Often I will get up and take a photo and then go back to sleep. This painting is a winter version of this sunrise with active horizontal wintery clouds and the sunlight reflecting off the snow covered lake.
 

The Winner Is...

If you follow my Facebook Page, you know that every few months I have an Art Give-Away. The latest give away, of an oil painting of a daylily, was won by Lori Heeter.  Thanks to all who shared the post (and my art) - it reached 1,800 people. The next give-away will be in July.  Stay tuned.