Finished paintings, wonderful art events, failed experiments and more

So, this weekend I managed to finish the painting I have been working on:

"the Reckoning"
14"x18"
original acrylic painting by Chelsea Rose

I guess I managed to paint this piece in lil over a week.
Check out some other snapshots from the creative process:

(roughed out the background)

(outlined the main creature/subject)


(working on adding color to the creature and putting a posse of like creatures behind the main subject)
....its fun to document the creative process and be able to look back and see the artwork at its various stages. i think this has helped me really form a great procedure for pumping out artwork from my heart.

In other news Danny and I attended the 5th annual Portland Love Show artist reception on Friday night. There was over 350 artists who ended up participating and so it was really a site to see- sooooo much artwork everywhere! It was really amazing to see materialize into a show. The gallery where the artwork is hung is called the Olympic Mills Commerce center( 107 SE Washington st.) and the place was huge!!

here is Danny hanging out with his love show submission. His is the white mandala over blue and purple watercolor. I think the wall that his artwork was on was probably my favorite wall. He shared it with some pretty psychedelic/spiritual artwork, not to mention two mermaid pieces that i loved!

This is a shot Danny took of our collaboration piece- which is one of the body painting shoots from my photo shoot that Danny artfully photo shopped and colored.
see it big here.

Unfortunately my Love thy self painting was put into the explicit section of the love show which i think undermined and misrepresented the intent of the art and its truth. I didnt even know they were singling out artwork to be displayed separately and i was uneasy with the idea of my faery/goddess painting being hung along some of the art that was highly sexual.
i talked to Ben Pink the gallery director of LaunchPad and he was really understanding and helpful with everything. Im waiting to hear back whether or not they can move the piece to a different location.
crossin my fingers.
...just has made me think a lot about censorship lately, that of the naked human body. it think its important to take a critical look at society and the things it has named taboo. Its so strange that in this society violence is much more accepted in our mainstream media & art vs nudity & love. i think its time to reexamine ourselves, our beliefs and our comfort zones and get to the heart of things.

one step forward,
two step backward,
down inna Babylon

as far as valentines day goes:
Love thy Self
Know thy Self

Danny sold three out of the 5 pieces he had hung in the Culture Control show! Not bad at all for his first time displaying his artwork in an art show. He is already on his way to creating a bunch of new work and we are really having a wonderful time participating in the local art events.

It was perfectly wonderful fun to drive to Vancouver on Sunday and hang in the new art space ....The Space, fueled wonderfully by some of the amazing artists of Guerrilla-Media. It really was a treat to paint/create with such a wonderful art family.

Much love,
-Chelsea Rose

P.S.
Oh! and for those of you who were wondering. I didnt end up doing a body painting/photo shoot on Saturday. I had my model cancel. Hoping to make up for that this coming weekend on the 20th.
Read More

A much needed break from routine

Danny and I got back from southern Oregon around 6pm last night.
We took a drive down to Wolf Creek, Oregon to visit some dear friends who have recently made the plunge into natural, woodsy living straight from busy city lives.
Wolf creek is about a 4 hour drive away but each time we make the trip we are re familiarised with just how wonderfully healing a break from routine can be.

As some may recall, i have been working on what i have called Wonder's Woodsman cloak. This was a commission from my friend Wonder who is now living in Wolf creek.
I had not actually finished the cloak in time so i spent a few hours of our stay painting the finishing touches on in the back of the land's big barn.
here ya go, modeled by Wonder himself:

(full view this image to see the detail)
....this cloak started out like this:

This was my first fabric painting project ever. I actually painted down a foundation of white screen print paint since the canvas coat was so dark. This really helped the fabric paint pop and be vibrant. I was using Lumiere metallic acrylic paint for the entire coat. I really loved those paints and their shimmery vibrancy, however i was disappointed to realize you couldn't really cross blend colors( they got kinda muddy looking)...which is true for a lot of metallic and specialty paint. I still managed though.
This project has made me think about buying canvas tote bags to do painting work on. I may also start making some patches too! ( do you think that sorta stuff would sell?)
we shall see.

The land we visited is owned my Nomenus which holds a non profit church status and is known as the home base for the Radical Faerie movement. Danny and I have been on the land a few other different times during big gatherings( such as Beltane and Samhain) so it was quite a different experience to walk the land when there was only 15 people about vs 100+. and it was sooo very soothing!

In the mornings Danny and I would get up and take hikes on the various trails around the land. Our favorite spot is called the sun alter. Its a semi vigorous uphill hike that ends on a high up rock and tree grove shelf where you can look out on the expanse of land below while being up high amidst the misty pine tree line. Its the perfect place to bring a drum- the earth and the air pulsate with each beat and the mist in the tree lines seem to dance and weave in gracefull sweeping response!
But when the crisp chill and the misty wet started to sink in the bones we would make our way to the heart of the sanctuary which was garden house.

(my favorite place to sit and drink tea in the garden house...gazing out toward the fields and the trees)
There you would find the wood furnace ablaze with a bunch of happy faeries within drinking tea, baking treats, conversating, singing, dancing, and playing. However during out stay the land was having its bi-annual meetings so it was largely all business( which was a big change from what we normally see there!). Everyone on the land but Danny and I were held up in the library via conference call with SF hashing out the plans for the faerie lands, projects, new rules, bright ideas and much more. It was both intriguing and inspiring to see an independent community at work.
Plus, the land was left entirly to us! and it was such a treat to roam.

...so it was wonderful to run away to the wild woods of southern Oregon. Now we are back in Portland at work.....but we will be back on the land to play, most certainly.

There is a lot to get done this week. Danny and I have to submit our artwork for the Myths and Legends show as well as the 5th Annual Portland Love show.

Ontop of that this weekend i have my 4th body painting photo shoot to do!
If you are in Portland Oregon this weekend feel free to drop by T.Ruth Artspace(2403 NW Thurman , Portland Or 97210) this Saturday. I will be in the art gallery painting a model from head to toe starting at 10am-ending at 5pm. Come on in, see the process and check out the artwork on display at t.ruth artspace gallery. I believe there will be free hot coco for all!

Hope to see you there!

Peace n Love to all,
-Chelsea Rose
ChelseaRoseArts.com
Read More

Sold my first Painting+ SALE highlights and news

With only one day left before my solo show is taken down I finally sold one of my bigger paintings!

This morning as I was getting ready to get on my bus to work I noticed I had a missed call and voice mail. It turns out it was Tiffany Ruth the gallery owner calling to say that last night a woman walked into the gallery and bought one of my paintings. Apparently the women said for the past 2 months that the show has been up shes been window gazing and was really drawn that that particular piece. I'm so very pleased that she was compelled to buy the painting for herself and its a very exciting thing for me to know that it will be going to someone who will cherish it. So in the end I feel this art opening was a very good thing. Its sparked both mine and Tiffany's fire. She is thrilled that the show was successful, her being a new gallery owner on the scene and all. In the end we sold the piece above and 6 smaller acrylic/pen and ink paintings I did specially for the show. Coolness!
Come Thursday I will be going to the gallery to reclaim my unsold artwork. My goal is to get all of it into various local cafes, boutiques, bars and restaurants because i hardly have room for all of it in my tiny lil apartment and it really doesn't do any good to have them locked away in my lil cave anyway.

Danny designed me some new business cards that match the art portfolio website he made for me( http://www.chelsearoseart.com/ )....and these business cards will hopefully help me accomplish spreading out some of my artwork to the local business.
here is a comp so you can see what they look like:


I am very pleased with the way they turned out. We ordered them the other day so they should arrive in a few weeks.

In the meantime we are still doing our Holiday SALE in our etsy shop
So far we have sold 3 of the same exact thing during this first week of the sale:

the hot seller is: "Love thy Self" 5"x7" print of one of my original pen and ink drawings.
Its interesting that we have sold three of the same in a row...im curious to know what is drawing people to that particular print of mine.
click here to view the listing for this print.

Right now all of my art prints are on SALE!

Original price: $7
Grab them now for the Holidays for only $5
They come sealed in a crystal clear plastic sleeve to keep them safe. My prints are made on archival canson artist card paper( has a similar feel to watercolor paper). Makes a wonderful card, gift or decoration.
....So thats the featured SALE item for today!
Sale will be running through this month so please feel free to take advtanage of the prices!

Much love and best wishes, always!
-Chelsea Rose
Read More