Live Painting & Upcoming Events

Last Saturday (Sept 8th, 2012) I set up my new easel and painted outside the shops at 757 N. Milwaukee Street for Shop Second Saturdays promotional event.  There was very little foot traffic for the 3 hours I was there, but I managed to get a great start on the painting I've been meaning to do for a while now.  After about a total of 7.5 hours of painting on this piece, I'm calling it done.

The beginning:

 After 3 hours:

 Finished piece:

"Single Track" 
Acrylic on wood panel, permanently framed with a used bicycle tire, 25" diameter, September 2012

Next week Saturday, Sept 22, 2012 I'll be painting live during the Wisconsin Ave Bridge Celebration in downtown Milwaukee.  It's a free event - come check it out!

Friday, September 28th from 5-10pm I'll have a booth set up at the new Alterra on KK & Howell Ave in Bay View for Bay View Gallery Night.  I'll have a bunch of my new work with me, including mini paintings, a few full-sized paintings, some mini tree block paintings, and some bicycle-themed jewelry and keychains I've been working on.  Stop by and say hi!

"Full Moon Rising"

It's been a busy last month.  Ran a new barefoot 1/2 marathon PR in 2:55:00.  That was the Summerfest Rock n Sole on June 23.  A week later I spent vacation time biking and running with family in 100+ degree heat.  Last week I was kayaking and camping in the lovely BWCA.  Not sure how many river miles I put in, but just to keep running in the mix I ran in between loads on the portage trails in my water shoes, sometimes with water still in them.  Got in some swimming, took lots of photos, tested my painting skills using guache (opaque water colors), and made it out just shy of a few drops of rain starting to fall on the windshield of my car.  Once home and unpacked I completed my new business card design from start to finish.  And to top of the end of a great 2 week vacation, I painted this picture today.  I'll be dropping it off, along with a few other works, this week to The Waxwing in Shorewood.  Opening Night Reception is Friday, July 20th, 6-9pm for anyone interested in seeing my new works in person.  They'll be on display for sale through September 18th or so.  After that, contact me if you're interested in buying any of them - I will have my new website up and running by then!  www.ArtByKelli.net

"Full Moon Rising"
July 2012

acrylic on canvas, 20"H x 16"w

Live Painting June 9 Recap

For those of you who missed my live painting this past weekend, here's a few of its stages taken over the 3 hour session.  The completed painting took about 6 hours total.  I've been playing around with some yoga themes lately - this one features 3 different poses.

  "Side Staff, Tree, Warrior"

by Kelli Busch, June 2012

Acrylic on canvas, 36"h x 20"w

"Treeple"

"Treeple"
acrylic on board, 5'x4'
painted by Kelli Busch and Greg Schoeneck live during Art Milwaukee's "Wedding" Gallery Night After Party event at the City Center, April 20, 2012.

"Wedding" event you ask? That's right. The wedding of 10 artists on 5 canvases in the time span given of approximately 3 hours. Each pair of artists were put together to create a unique work of art together on one board.

Attempting to capture the different stages of our painting, I took a photo roughly every 15 to 20 minutes. You'll notice there are only 5 photos; after only about 2 hours of painting we were asked by a couple if we could stop because they liked the piece so much they wanted to buy it how it was in its current state. Eager to acquire the painting they put cash in our hands and our paint brushes took a bow, signing the lower right corner to make it official.

Stage 1:

Stage 2:

Stage 3:

Stage 4:

Stage 5, finished piece:

"City Commute"

The Tool At Hand: Milwaukee Challenge
Guidelines: Create a piece of artwork using only one tool.
Exhibition date: Saturday, March 17th at Sweet Water Organics in Bay View WI.

Here is the finished piece I created for this challenge:



Title: "City Commute"
Date: March 2012
Size: 24" x 32"
Materials: Acrylic paint, 16, 20, and 22 gauge wire on stretched canvas
The One Tool: American Painter Golden Nylon Round #3 Paintbrush
Concept Idea: To create a bicycle silhouette made out of wire using a paint brush as my tool for shaping the wire. This wire sculpture will then be attached to a stretched canvas which I have created the scenery/backdrop for by using that same single paint brush.

I spent about 4 weeks working on this piece. The background was first painted black, and I worked the rest of the colors up from that. The brush I used was very small; I picked it so I would be able to get a slightly detailed painting, but also force myself to use many layers of paint to build up the colors of the scenery. Once I had the painting completely finished, I started working on creating the wire bicycle sculpture. My original idea was to just have the silhouette of the bicycle attached to the painting, but after I finished the bike and held it up to the canvas I realized it needed to have a rider to give the whole piece a sense of action. Luckily I had chosen a small brush, who's thin handle provided a starting point to wrap the wire around to create hair for the rider. Safety first - the rider was also given a helmet. The final touch of wire added to the piece was the radio tower I attached to the top of one of the buildings. This helped connect the city scape in the background to the wire bicycle rider in the foreground.

No piers, wire cutters, or tin snips were used (or harmed) in the making of this piece. Guidelines adhered to; mission accomplished.

One Week Painting - Feb 12, 2012

Here's a recap of my first "One Week Painting" I completed at the Art*Bar in Riverwest.

Last week's painting, done by someone else:


Start of my painting:


Finished painting:


View from the floor:

North Point Lighthouse, Milwaukee, WI

It started as a pre-rainy autumn day paddle on the Milwaukee River. It was too "warm" not to be outside on a fall day in Wisconsin. After the test of arm strength carrying the kayak farther from and to the car than I put miles into paddling, I headed towards the lakefront to take a few more photos. I stopped at Lake Park and admired the view of the lighthouse from the leaf-covered ground. Snapped a few reference pictures and made it back into the car just before the sky opened up.

A month or two passed and it was time to paint live again, this time for the Young Milwaukee Holiday Gala. Going through my photos I came across the day I went paddling and decided it was time to put it on canvas. The background started out black, rough outlines penciled in, and the negative-space painting began. 3 hours in to it I realized I wasn't going to finish it during the event. A few more hours the following weekend and the painting is complete. Hope everyone who watched me paint enjoyed the evening, and to those of you who wanted to see the finished product, here it is.

New Project: Wrist Warmers

After contemplating how to speed up the time it takes me to knit a pair of wrist warmers, a friend of mine mentioned she'd recently seen a pair of felted wrist warmers that were really cute. And although I don't know how to felt, I do know how to sew. And it just so happens that I had some fleece left over from the ear-flap hats I made last winter season. I made a quick test sample and had a few different people try them on for size. A few more measurements of hands and wrists and I narrowed down my pattern to two different adult sizes: one that is small to fit narrow wrists/hands/arms or snugly fit the average woman, and one which is large for women who prefer something with a little more room (and as proven by my boyfriend will also fit men). Each pair is adorned with a iconic button, anything from flowers to monsters, and with all hand-crafted items, no two pairs will ever be exactly alike. Each pair will be sold for $10. To see what I currently have finished, click on the link "Wearables for Sale" on the side of this page.