Today is PURE JOY!!

Welcome to the new studio 313 blog!! I am so excited! Everyone has been hard at work these past two months, photographing art, designing e-cards to let ya'll you know about our great prices and dynamite art we have all been making this year.  Painting, photography, ceramics, jewelry, enamel copper miniatures--that's a lot of art from 12 artists!!!

Tim, photographer extraordinaire, and I have been burning the late night oil for weeks here designing our logo and getting our e-cards formatted so you can come to the studio and pick up a deal on a great piece from your favorite artist every Final Friday/Second Look Saturday gallery hop.  

And Saturday Suzzanna Shehata, who's lemon paintings are walking off the wall--what is it about lemons, that's what i wanna know--and I tackled this fun job of putting up our blog, with THE KARENS jumping in here or there to rescue us. That's Karen Gaski, Wyoming High School art teacher, jeweler and potter, and Karen Minzner, our newest artist, taking time from her portrait studio, to exhibit her beautiful moody black and white European photographs. 

Elusive Paintings!

What elements of a landscape catch my eye? A beautiful vista doesn't always translate into a painting, at least not for me. I can travel for miles surrounded by nature's beauty enjoying every moment, but not see a painting. Then out of nowhere a painting will show itself.  I was hiking at Utah's Arches National Park one September evening and this painting caught my eye. The clouds shifted just so.  The orange evening light flooded the plateau and range, while the foreground juniper and sagebrush remained in shadow.  It was so brief.  But enough time for me to capture some mental and digital images to take back to the studio and paint this little 6x8 oil study. Posted by Ann Geise.

Little Yellow Bowl

5"X7" Oil On Canvas

This Little Yellow Bowl has been hanging around the house for years. I actually was cleaning things out of the closet and getting things together to give to Goodwill. This Little Yellow bowl, along with a number of other pieces that I had made while taking pottery lessons, were sitting on the ledge. Its shape and color was so simple, yet refined. I loved the thickness and non-perfection of this piece. To say the least, it now has a permanent space in my home. Maybe its time to think about throwing pottery again? Posted by Suzzanna Shehata.

Karen Minzner...I remember...

Hi everyone and welcome to the new and fabulous Studio 313 blog!  I am Karen M. (not to be confused with Karen G.) and the newest member of Studio 313.  I am happy to report that my very first Final Friday, the day after Christmas, went smoothly.  Everyone in the studio was very welcoming, including offering me some Jack Daniels, Carolina's Irish Creme,Brandy, and Kamir liquor - oh, I LOVE this group!  Now that I have my feet wet, I hope to continue to see a crowd up on the third floor.  Be sure to check out my black and white photography - right now I am featuring some of my European work.  The image above, Zurich Houses, was taken on a family vacation to Europe in the summer of 2006. 

 

My husband, kids, and I are good friends with a family originally from Germany.  The family was scheduled to move back to Germany in 2005 and we promised we would come to visit the next summer.  When they ended up staying in the US (they are still here), we decided that we should all go to Germany together and make a big vacation out of it.  Four adults, four kids (two 3-year-olds, two 6-year-olds), a 10 hour plane ride, 5 cities, a gazillion hours in the car at 110 mph on the autobahn...one fabulous time!

 

My hope is that everyone will look at my work and develop some of their own memories, weather that be memories of travels to Europe, a dream of traveling, or a family vacation.  This same theme is what I hope to capture in my other photography work.  Most of my time as a photographer is spent photographing weddings and portraits.  I want everyone to look at the images I capture for them and remember their special day, their young child, the way they felt spending time with their family.  Whatever the situation, I want all of my work to make people say, "I remember..." Posted by Karen Minzner.

Yellowtail Snapper, Key West

December 29 in Key West. It was 82 degrees. These fish came up up alongside our boat to feed. How lucky can you get?! Posted by Tim Freeman.

Finding Eden

Finding the right subject matter while choosing the correct technique can make for an intriguing photograph.  My name is Francis J Michaels, a local fine art photographer here in the Cincinnati area.  While I was walking through Eden Park with some friends one afternoon I came across this fantastic setting.  This stoned road to nowhere was before me with great pillars on either side and a black fence all along it.  

I could see homes on the hillside in the distance.  I knew I had to act fast and find my shot for the Sun was going to fall quickly in the sky behind some trees.  I set up my tripod and moved it five or six times looking for my shot.  The sun was fading...  Finally, I was ready and got my settings on the camera honed in.  I ran through a series of shots, I was going to shoot a High Dynamic Range image for this scene, more highlight and shadow detail in the final image.  

Something wasn't right, the Sun.  It wasn't where it needed to be.  I had to wait a little longer, then it started peaking out from behind the trees, and... click, click, click.  I ran through another series of shots and I knew I had it.  Well, I was hoping anyway.  I wouldn't know until I did the post processing.  As you can see, I was quite happy with the results from that day, even though this image was the only one I came away with. Posted by Francis Michaels.