Prints for Sale!

Hey all,

I've recently partnered with Art.com as one of their featured artists, and have released a set of prints of my work through their wonderful website.  They are high-quality giclee prints with a variety of sizes.  They would make great holiday gifts!

Feel free to check out the 'Shop' section of the blog to see more of the prints that are available!

Studio Odds and Ends

A glimpse of the studio these last few weeks:


Just finished this little painting last night.  I've got four oil paintings on the easel currently, and I'm aiming to finish them by the end of the month for my solo show in January at Northern State University.






I've also been working on some small watercolors and drawings for my Etsy Shop and to sell locally.  I've got three new watercolors at Exposure Gallery in Sioux Falls for their $100 art sale.

October

We've been working hard the last few months with school, albums, shows, exhibits, and teaching. Nate is in the middle of recording his next album, and I'm in the middle of making work for my next show. Our weekends have been filled with side-jobs, gigs, and prepping for school. October always ends up being one of the busiest months of the year for both of us.

Last weekend Nate had two gigs and I participated in Studio 301 at the Washington Pavilion in Sioux Falls. This is my third year participating in the event, and I always feel both accomplished and exhausted after it is finished. During the event, which features 35 regional artists, artists are challenged to complete an artwork in one day. I worked on a 12x16" oil painting of a horse figurine, and just barely finished it within the allotted time.

The finished piece will be exhibited for the next few months in the main gallery at the Washington Pavilion.

 I'm almost done with this guy too:

He's been such a patient model. Sometimes I can finish a piece in a few weeks, and other times it drags on for months. This one has been the latter situation. I'm 99% finished with the painting and will soon fill this space with another figurine.

 
I also am working on the second layer of this huge painting. Soon I'll have to bring it inside as the porch is getting a bit too cold to paint in.

 
In addition to the oil paintings, I've been making a bunch of small abstract pieces.  I cut down scraps leftover from other paintings and play around with color, form, space, layering, textures, etc. They are a nice meditative break in between the larger paintings and are helpful to work on when I get the urge to create something but don't have a chunk of time large enough to dedicate to working in oil.

I also celebrated my 30th birthday this month. With it I'm trying to organize/prioritize/plan what I want out of the next few years. I almost always look at birthdays as a time to take stock of what is important, what is working, what isn't, and make changes for the better. Wish me luck!

October Studio Time

I've been a bit reclusive this month as school is in full swing, and I've got some larger exhibits coming up that I'm making work for.  Here's a shot of a few things going on in my studio currently: 

I'm midway through with a few larger pieces; a strange cat, and a big brass fish (which I've been wanting to start for almost a year now!).  They are progressing slowly but surely.  

Here's the drawing for the fish - I do it on paper first and then transfer it through to the canvas once I work out the placement and value setup.  

I've also been collecting a few more figurines.  Note to self: you must finish the four you have in-progress before doing these! 

Teaching is going well.  Here's a peek into my demo board for figure drawing.  I've got some great students this semester and both of my in-person classes seem to really mesh well and contribute nicely to the classroom environment. 

Gardening has been slightly neglected this fall due to shows/school - BUT one of my peonies miraculously grew and bloomed!  Unfortunately right after I took this picture, I bumped in to the leaves and they all fell off.... 

I also found this huge toad in the zucchini patch.  I'm going to give him credit for keeping the vine borers at bay this year so our zucchini crop finally produced! 

Two days ago we had our first hard freeze, and I pulled out most of the rest of the garden.  Winter is coming on fast.  Fall is my favorite season, so I hope winter doesn't arrive too fast. 

{Teach/Studio/Teach/Studio}Repeat

I've been low on the radar lately trying to push through a bunch of paintings for upcoming shows while juggling teaching in the mix.

This duck will be traveling to the Greenpoint Terminal Gallery in Brooklyn, NY for a show curated by my pal Ryan Travis Christian in October.  Check out his stellar artwork if you haven't already seen it!

I'm also working on a second duck figurine...  I couldn't help it. :)

Alongside the oil paintings I'm also slowly printing an edition of prints.  I've dedicated a studio wall to the linocut prints. I'm thinking about saving up for a small relief press to expedite this process (currently I'm printing these by hand with a wooden spoon - it works, but it is slow and may kill my shoulder).  

My figure drawing students this semester are off to a great start - I've got all animation majors, so I'm working to create projects and exercises that really resonate with their specialization.  

On Monday I had them do an animated gesture drawing - they did 8 'frames' of drawings of their hands in a sequence, and then we used our phones to animate them using the 'Stop Motion Studio' app.  It was fun, and a good trial run for next week when I hope to do this same exercise with both the male and the female drawing models.  

LAND/FORM at Greymatter Gallery

These are some installation shots from my show at Greymatter Gallery in Milwaukee that ended last weekend.

Thanks to Zina (center) and Rachel (right) for showing my work in such a wonderful space!  It was so great to see my friends, family, and many new faces come out to the opening.

If you'd like to read up on this body of work - feel free to check out my interview on Greymatter's blog here: Interview: Cassie Marie Edwards.

In the Studio - Summertime Worktime

It has been an undoubtedly busy summer.  Strangely enough, I think this summer has been busier than the school year?  I've been getting a bunch of work together for an exhibit in Milwaukee next month at Greymatter Gallery, trying to add to my illustration portfolio, and massively reorganizing our house all at once.

I built and primed a bunch of new surfaces, and cut a bunch of homasote panels (for taping/stretching watercolors) at the start of summer.

We finally moved our amazing $50 thrifted dining set onto the porch, and ever since I've been working out there to take advantage of the cool breezes and lovely light while painting. 

Rascal also enjoys our porch time. 

I'll be sharing a bunch of the finished images of these paintings once my show is up, but in the meantime here are some sneak peeks.  

In between making oil paintings for the Milwaukee show, I've also been working on a ton of little food illustrations, here's one of my latest ones:  

There are a few more food illustrations on Behance:  CassieMarie 

Last but not least I've carved another linoleum block.  I'm kind of starting to get addicted to these.  They are seriously fun to carve.  

Wishing you all a creatively 

Black Hills

We just got back from a much needed mini-vacation.  As you may have noticed, the blog has been a little bit sparse lately.  My day-job (adjunct teaching) was really tough last semester.  I was busy, super stressed, and felt like I was hanging on for dear life and completely overworked between teaching and keeping up with my studio work.  As soon as school stopped, full time studio work commenced.  This was our first break in a long time.

We met our friends John and Heidi out in the Black Hills for some fishing, music playing, painting, and camping fun.  We love having another artist/musician couple friend to commiserate with. :)  Here are some shots from our stay at Sheridan Lake.

John and Nate serenading us while we paint.

Relaxation/Painting time with Heidi.

We really roughed it food-wise.  Tortellini and Wine.

Heidi and I caught all of the fish.  John was a champ and cleaned them like a pro.  Nate caught a wonderful pine tree.

John's cast iron cooking prowess was greatly appreciated.  Also- we had the genius idea to grill bean/cheese quesadillas on the fire.  Best. Idea. Ever.


I had a chance to clear my head a bit and paint which was great and much needed.  These are the pieces I worked on over the last four days.  I really enjoy plein air painting - it is such a different approach than much of my other studio work, and so instantly gratifying.

I hope you are all having a chance to relax and reflect this summer too.  

In the Studio and the Classroom

We are at the end of our 'spring break' - I insert the sarcasm because by the time we actually get grading and catch up work done - it is really the equivalent of a long weekend - hah. :)  My parents came to visit from Wisconsin for the first part of break, and then we buckled down and did a grading marathon this week.  I am all caught up on grading which means I had all of yesterday to work in my studio.

I got this guy done - I had previously done a small watercolor of this one, and had to do an oil painting as well. :)  It was a gift from my G-ma Joanne.

I even spent a few hours cleaning and organizing.

I've also been toying with the idea of putting together an illustration portfolio, so I've been doing a lot of preliminary doodling in my sketchbook.

My friend John Statz and Zachary Lucky also stopped by DSU on their tour across the midwest.  My husband booked them to play in a series of acoustic concerts he's been putting together for the University and the Madison Community.  I had my Design II Color students put together a series of non-representational small paintings that were inspired by their music to show on screens behind them as they played.

I loved seeing their work outside of the classroom. :)

I'm also working on another collaboration with another music faculty member.  Our next project is a landscape collage with very loose 'rules'.  Once they are finished her music composition class will make compositions based on the works.

I can't wait to see how both the compositions and the collages turn out!

Getting my learn on.

I made a tiny little animated gif yesterday to teach myself how to animate something using photoshop. 

I'm going to attempt to do something with this in one of my classes... :)