Something Harder and Better

© Hannah Phelps

Evening Wave, Monhegan Island

white-line woodcut print, 8.5" x 17"

I know that it has taken me a long time to write about this. I think it is still sinking in. If you are a fan on facebook, get my newsletter, or personally know me, you know that my white-line woodcut print, Calm Day at Fort Stark, won first place in the 14th Annual Small Works Exhibit in August, hosted by the Washington Printmakers Gallery in Silver Spring, MD. The juror is a well-respected print dealer from New York City who has personally collected prints by Blanche Lazzell (my white-line woodcut hero). He knows the medium and is a fan of it. I feel beyond honored to have my work recognized in this way.

But there is more to this than just returning home with a gold star and bragging rights. Being the “national champion” means that I have more work to do now than I have ever had before. Strangely enough, a children's story can help me explain...

Most of you knew about C.S. Lewis’ story The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, before Disney made a movie out of it. Another book in The Chronicles of Narnia that less people know (and seems to have been skipped by Hollywood) is A Horse and His Boy. This fantasy is a little weird, but it contains one of my favorite quotes about success.

At one point in the story, the main character, Shasta, runs into an enemy army and his companion is wounded. Shasta struggles to help his injured friend reach the relative safety of a nearby hermit’s hut.  Once he settles her into a sick bed to start healing, he expects to enjoy a well deserved rest. But the hermit points out that Shasta needs to run off again immediately to warn the king of the foe’s approach. You can almost see Shasta’s shoulders slump when he realizes he will get no relief, for:

“He had not yet learned that if you do one good deed your reward usually is to be set to do another and harder and better one.” *

I have forgotten much of the tale, but these words resonated with me. And they perfectly describe the consequences of entering and winning at the National Small Works exhibit last August. 

The artists whose prints earned second, third and fourth place prizes won money or gift certificates to art supply stores. 

I won a solo show at the Washington Printmakers Gallery next August. I won the opportunity to make more prints and frame them and take them back down to Silver Spring, MD next summer. In essence, I won more work to do.

Luckily for me, creating more prints (like Evening Wave, Monhegan Island, above) is what I want to do anyway! Not that it is turning out to be easy - art making is always a challenge. Entering the Small Works show took one great print. Filling a solo exhibit means making dozens of great prints. 

And that is harder. And better.

* Lewis, C. S. The Chronicles of Narnia, New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2001, 272.


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2012 Landscape Calendars

The wait is over! 

2012 Landscape Calendars are Here!

Feast your eyes on a new image every month with this delightful calendar. Each page is a high-quality digital print re-created from my original oil paintings.

Enjoy the calendar all year and beyond as each archival print can be framed as a unique, heartfelt gift to commemorate a special event in 2012!

The calendar is 8.5” x 11” and fits in a standard frame. At the end of each month, you replace one landscape painting with a new one!

 I am offering folded acrylic frames again too!

Only $35 for twelve high-quality reproductions of my original landscape paintings! Add a frame for $12.

These calendars are a huge hit every year! Friends and family love receiving these images as gifts and you will love keeping one for yourself!

I will have calendars available for purchase at the following events in 2011:

All Dogs Agility USDAA Trial

October 1-2

8 am - 4 pm

All Dogs Gym

505 Sheffield Road 

Manchester, NH 03103

Portsmouth Open Market

October 23 & 30

10 am - 4 pm

Strawbery Banke Museum

14 Hancock Street

Portsmouth, NH 03801

NH Open Doors

November 5 & 6

9 am - 5 pm

Hannah Phelps Fine Art

325 Twin Bridge Road

New Boston, NH 03070

Or click here to purchase your calendar today! 

 

Have questions? Contact me at hannah@hannahphelps.com!

 

All images © Hannah Phelps
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White-line Woodcuts Here and There

© Hannah Phelps

Woodblock for Calm Day at Fort Stark

This weekend I will be in Silver Spring, MD to attend the opening of the 14th Annual Small Works Exhibit at the Washington Printmakers Gallery. 

My print, Calm Day at Fort Stark, will hang with a few dozen others that were chosen by juror Robert K. Newman of The Old Print Shop in New York City.  Newman is giving a talk at the reception and I am excited to hear what he has to say about his selections. I am also looking forward to seeing the other prints!

As a bonus, alongside National Small Works 2011 is a solo exhibition last year’s winner, Kiyomi Baird.

If you are in the DC area, come by and see me at the Washington Printmakers Gallery at one o’clock on Saturday!

In case that isn’t enough printmaking news for you, in July I created a couple of white-line woodcut prints outside in Odiorne Point State Park during the Petite Art in the Park event - a week-long invitation to create artwork within the park. Since there aren't many more beautiful places on Earth and I loved the print I made last year(click here to see it), I pushed myself to create two this year:

© Hannah Phelps

Low Tide Seat

"plein air" white-line woodcut print, 6" x 9" - SOLD

 

© Hannah Phelps

Wave on a Perfect Day at Odiorne Point State Park

"plein air" white-line woodcut print, 6" x 9"

Lots of activity in the past month or so, which is great! I think that old famous song line should be changed to “Summertime and the living is BUSY.”

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Dog Days - Summertime!

© Hannah Phelps

First Beach Day

oil on canvas, 6" x 8"

It is officially summer and time to head to the beach.

My Golden Retriever, Coast, is 18 months old now - this is a painting from his first day at the ocean over a year ago. I named him “Coast” partly because the seacoast is such an important part of my life and my art.

Also, his mother's name is Beach and his AKC registered name is Pine Run's Shore Thing. As I have said in a previous post, dog people like me can be funny about naming our puppies.

But the number one reason that I chose “Coast” as a name is because I hope he “coasts through life” and I want “the coast to be clear” whenever he endures a health check of some kind.

The painting above shows a puppy experiencing his first crashing waves, not afraid really, but cautious.

You can see a completely different Coast in the photo below - leaping across a rocky chasm to catch up with his big sister, Hatrick:

May he fly fearlessly for years to come.

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Making Art with Bears

© Hannah Phelps

Portrait of a Friend

white-line woodcut

Spring is a good time to learn something new. That is why I very recently traveled up to Lyme, NH for the three day "Introduction to Japanese Color Woodblock Printmaking" workshop with Matthew Brown at his studio.

If you want to learn about creating Japanese prints, this is the workshop to take. In three days, Matt helps all of the students create a small print and learn tips and tricks about materials, carving, pigments, printing, paper, process - just about everything. If you don't have time for the workshop, Matt's website has some great information and links along with pictures of his spectacular prints.

Eventually, I will explain how Japanese color prints inspired some artists in Provincetown, MA to develop their own style of color woodblock prints in the early 1900's.  Now known as white-line woodcuts or white-line relief, this is the method I have been using for the woodblock prints you have seen on this blog over the past couple of years. (To see more, click here.) I took Matt's workshop because I thought it was time to explore the origins of white-line woodcuts for myself.

Yes, you will be able to see some prints on this blog sometime soon. In the meantime, I'm going to tell you a story about something else spring is good for in NH - Black Bear Sightings.

On the first day of the workshop, Matt said that he found one of his honey buckets across the road from the barn, where he knew he had left them. 

Matt suspected a bear was the culprit. 

That afternoon, he went outside to see why his dog was barking. He came right back in and asked us if we wanted to see a bear. We all went outside and there she was - across the road looking back at us. We know it was a she because she had two tiny cubs with her. She didn't seem worried even though we were very close.  The cubs scrambled up and down the trees and she just kept an eye on us. After a few minutes, they all left and we went back to our printmaking.

I have seen bears before, but this was the best view I'd ever had of a mother and her cubs. I considered myself lucky to have seen the family relaxed and playing.

The next morning I went for a walk before breakfast. On my way back, I thought someone's dark, tailless dog was walking ahead of me, but I quickly realized that it was the bear. Then I saw the cubs sort of playing around her in the road. They were going in the same direction and I wasn't very close, so I thought I would be ok following from a distance and enjoying another baby bear show.

My plan worked until I kicked a stick accidentally and the noise spooked her. She looked back and saw me. The cubs climbed up some trees very noisily and that was the last I heard from them the whole time. They didn't make a peep up there. I stopped still and she lost track of me and started moving off the road. 

She ended up sitting with her face to the road, like a sentinel. I thought that if I stayed still, she would decide it was better to leave with the babies, but she didn't.

After quite a while of waiting, I tried walking slowly down the road to see if maybe she would be cool with me, like the day before (when we had been much closer) or at least see me and make an informed decision to head off into the woods. Nope. She started walking towards me. I stopped near a tree and she lost me again and went back to her sentry spot. 

I waited about 10 minutes. I was late for breakfast, I hadn't told anyone I was taking a walk and I was getting nervous that I could be stuck there for a while, so I finally decided to go into the woods and give her and the road a wide berth.  I couldn't see her from the woods and when I got back on to the road, she was still there, looking right at me. She didn't come after me, so I just quickly walked back to Matt's house, glad that I didn't try to wait her out.

I survived my bear encounter, but I think it changed me a little. The family of black bears and my new printmaking knowledge are tied together permanently. You will have to stay tuned to see what that might mean.

 

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Playing Dirty

© Hannah Phelps

Painting Everything Red

oil on canvas, 8" x 8"

What is Hatrick doing with my paintbrush? Oh no, it is loaded with red paint! Maybe I can get it before -

AHHHHH, Hattie! Stop! You are making a mess!!

Oh well, if this becomes the label for the Mutt Lynch Winery’s 2011 limited edition wine, maybe I won’t mind the new decor.

Hatrick and I have entered this image in the 3rd Annual Dog Art Wine Label Contest hosted by Dog Art Today and Mutt Lynch Winery. If this painting is chosen, Hattie’s face will appear on 500 bottles of a very special blend the winery sells to benefit their local Healdsburg Animal Shelter.

This year, the contest has a theme - “Naughty”. Think Hattie is naughty enough to win?

You can VOTE for this painting at Dog Art Today!

Of course, enjoy the other 100 entries once you have clicked the link. At the  top and bottom of the page there are "Click Here to vote" links- the site tells you what to do.

Painting Everything Red is number 80.

Voting is open from today, May 16th, to next Saturday, May 21st at midnight  PST. The rule is “One computer, one vote”, so if you really love it you could find extra computers and vote multiple times if you want....

The prize includes a CASE of the wine. Maybe the winner of this contest would have a dog art party and serve some of this wine when it is ready to drink?

I guess there is only one way to find out, folks:

If you like the painting, vote for it at Dog Art Today!! 

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Mother's Day Blog Hop

© Hannah Phelps

Special Occasion

white-line woodcut

She was wearing a red polka-dotted dress underneath her warm home-made hooded sweater and fleece blanket. Maybe she started to fuss because she was hot swaddled in all those layers, but maybe she wanted to show off her dress.

It was the first time she had worn it - to Gramma’s 66th birthday dinner at a fancy restaurant. She stared wide-eyed at the wine, the antipasto, and the fresh bread as if she wished she was old enough to eat that instead of her liquid dinner.

She looked good in the little dress, of course. At three months old she could hardly look bad in anything. Plus, it is good to dress up to go out for a special occasion.

This dinner was very special - just the “girls”. Gramma, two daughters and one baby granddaughter. The only grandchild out for the first of many birthday dinners with her gramma.

Gramma was one of her first friends and, along with her mom, would always be one of her best friends. That is always something to celebrate.

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This is my contribution to Claudine Intner's Mother's Day Blog Hop. I hope you have been following along on the blogs listed below. If not, there is time to catch up and enter to win a really cool collage from Claudine - but only if you start hopping now!

- May 1st - Claudine Intner http://www.intner.net/blog
- May 2nd - Melissa Liban http://melissalibanillustrations.blogspot.com/
- May 3rd - Lynn Krawczyk http://fibraartysta.blogspot.com/
- May 4th - Ishita Bandyo http://www.ishitabandyoarts.blogspot.com/
- May 5th - Jeri Greenberg  http://www.Jerigreenbergart.blogspot.com
- May 6th - Kathleen Mattox http://mixedmessagesbykathleenmattox.blogspot.com/
- May 8th - Amanda Ruth http://bunnycarrots.blogspot.com/
- May 9th - Judi Hurwitt http://approachable-art.blogspot.com/
- May 10th - Kathleen Murphy http://kathleenmurphydesigns.blogspot.com/
- May 11th - Hannah Phelps http://hannahphelpsgallery.blogspot.com/
- May 12th - Helen Hiebert http://helenhiebertstudio.blogspot.com/ 

- May 14th - Hannah Klaus Hunter http://hannahklaushunter.blogspot.com/
- May 15th - Claudine Intner http://www.intner.net/blog/ 

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