Author Archives

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Plainly Plein Air

At this time a week ago, I was sitting by the edge of a pond, scribbling my way through a squiggly pastel drawing of a house in the woods. The occasion? My first plein air art competition. (For readers who know the Principia school area, I was about half a mile down the road at Longview Farm Park.)

A few hours later, I started and completed a little painting of a birdhouse. Since I had less than an hour and a half to do it, I challenged myself to capture my painting style during high school. (Click to enlarge.) To compare it to something I did paint in high school, click here.

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From the contest I learned and reconfirmed a few things (some of which apply to life at large, not just art):

  1. Take your time — you have more of it than you think. Like the old toy mender in Toy Story 2 says to the impatient, money-seeking owner of Al’s Toy Barn, “You can’t rush art.”
  2. Similarly, it’s better to work steadily on one thing and be happy with it than throw five things together in a slapdash run for the finish.
  3. If you’re going to paint outside, it’s so much easier to use an easel that actually has legs. (I have a tabletop easel.)
  4. (& 4B) As much as I love the outdoors, landscape art, and imagining environments for my stories, plein air painting isn’t my thing. At least not with a short deadline — I appreciate having ample opportunity to shape my drawings & paintings into detailed completion.
  5. Try new things & revisit the old — it’s good for you.
  6. Never, ever drive to run errands during lunch hour.
  7. Display your artwork next to the cookies. Then everyone will see it. 🙂

Artwork from the competition is on display (and for sale) at Longview Farm House through Monday, November 17, including during the Holiday Boutique on the 15th. If you’re in the area and want to check out the gallery, the address is 13525 Clayton Rd., Town & Country, MO, 63141.

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Pandas on Parade

Within a few weeks and without road bumps, expect to find the first pack of Pandagrams printed for purchase!

These black and white ink paintings feature panda pals engaged in potentially punny and otherwise adorable antics. Each set contains cards featuring 6 different illustrations. The première pack includes Pandaikon, Frying Panda, Baby Butterfly, and 3 more. Further details, such as the number of cards per pack, the inclusion of envelopes, and the possibility of purchasing single original illustrations to be determined.

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Panda Preview: Baby Butterfly (left), Pandaikon

To promote this panda-demic species, I will venture into the jungles and bamboo groves of digital marketing and social media further than ever before. Special thanks to a friend for suggesting some potential venues for these monochromatic mammals. Once things are underway, I will add links here for easy access should you wish to send them to others.

There will be at least 2 more packs of Pandagrams. Try guessing the other titles and offer suggestions below! (Yes, leaving comments can be fun!)

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Gallery & Goats

Good news from a budding artist-entrepreneur: I’ve just been approved to sell work on Artfinder.com. Artfinder is a gallery/sales hub that links fine artists with international customers including businesses and collectors. I think it will be a good venue for dispersing the nudes I’ve amassed from years of figure studies. Eventually I hope to design a sales gallery directly on Draws the Eventide, too.

Here is the link to my AF shop (also listed on my contact page):

http://www.artfinder.com/genevieve-bergeson (2023 update: I deleted my Artfinder account a few years ago due to lack of activity & sales. Link will no longer work.)

It also delights me to announce that the illustrations for Do You Have a Pebble in Your Pocket? have been digitized and therefore are truly finally complete. The author does not have set publishing plans, but meanwhile, enjoy this preview. (The left piece has now appeared in three main stages in this log: sketch, wash, and final painting.)

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An Artist in Retrospect

I’m sure a number of people think Racing Pajamas is my first book. In some respects this is correct. Yet a few weeks ago, I realized… *pause for effect and grammatically incorrect use of ellipses*

…I’ve been creating books my entire life.

Not just writing stories. Not just drawing pictures. Actually making books.

Certainly there were the fill-in-the-blank “About Me” books from kindergarten. (The teacher gave everyone blank, white books and had pasted sentences like “My name is … My hair is … My eyes are … I like to …” The students finished the sentences and drew the pictures and covers.) In first grade, my class received such white books again, this time completely blank; I wrote and illustrated a trip to the zoo.

Then there was the Eastbury Elementary publishing center. Every year it printed an anthology of student writings (poetry, narratives, etc.), and every student had a contribution. But the really special thing was that we could get our own stories bound individually. Now and then, the teacher would send students, usually two at a time, to the publishing center with a story we each had written. We chose a binding/cover pattern, a title font (which was printed on a white sticker), and a “This book belongs to” sticker. Later, we received our books, each paragraph on its own white page, waiting for our illustrations.

Now for a special treat–here’s mine from second grade: The Wolf Named Acorn.

It’s great fun for me to read this again (and chuckle at the childlike things I came up with, like red wolves hunting zebras and antelope). It’s also neat to note my artistic decisions and development even then. For instance, look for these as you read:

  • A wolf ear poking out from somewhere on almost every page
  • Aerial perspective (bird’s-eye view)
  • The Protestant birthday cake (orange on St. Patrick’s Day–for some reason, this one really tickles me.)

What else do you notice? Leave a comment–I’d love to know what you see, too!

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Alice Moran Makes Port

Not-so-sticky greetings from the Tar Heel State! This past weekend, I delivered the finished painting of the Alice L. Moran to my great-uncle, framed it (in a frame he made), hung it, and rearranged the furniture in the room (so the Alice & the M. Moran are more viewable). My, is he pleased.

Again, as with the M. Moran, Uncle Joe (Joseph F. Hack) designed the Alice, and at the time (1966, I believe), she was the most powerful tug in the world. (The M. Moran is similar in that it was the most powerful in the Moran fleet when it was constructed.) The Alice was assembled in Japan, then sailed to England; she is still in service in South America but under a new name. Originally she had four engines (totalling 9600 bhp), but when she went south of the equator, two were cannibalized.

Uncle Joe shared that Admiral Moran (alias “the boss”) once confided that he did not know how he was going to crew the ship since she was so powerful; he thought perhaps a Dutch, Scandinavian, or German crew. Later, the Admiral’s son took over and hired a less-qualified Spanish crew for much less money. They took her on her maiden voyage from Japan to England. There, they tore up the dry dock because they didn’t know how to handle her. The lesson? Cheap isn’t always cheaper.

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Although Alice has seen her share of toils, troubles, and disassembly, she still makes for a lovely painting.