Just a few pages of my current sketchbook as I practice & plan for more plein air sessions.
On A Cliff's Edge
“Cove at Midday” Lauren Elyse S, 2021. Oils on clayboard.
Literally. Finally got out to plein air with my new, lightweight set up yesterday. Could’ve done without the sand wasps about my ankles.
Sway
If you’ve never seen a Matilija Poppy in person, I highly recommend searching one out and experiencing it. They’re majestic and dreamlike.
If you’d like a custom Ex Libris bookplate designed for yourself or as a gift - message me.
Note: permission to use this bookplate is exclusively given to the person it was designed for. As the artist I retain all rights to this original design, it’s not authorized to be distributed, copied in any way, or used in any way other than expressly permitted to the recipient for marking out their personal library books.
Reaching Into the Void
“Reaching into the Void” digital illustration, Lauren Elyse S, 2020
Don’t ask me, I don’t even know anymore. This year has broken open my brain and weird things are coming out. Letting everything take shape rather than trying to bend it to my will has been a really strange process. Gonna let it ride because, why not?
Wake Me When
There’s a good chance if you fall asleep around me you’ll wake up with a portrait of your slumbering.
Hedonistic Delights
Detail: Flower in a current work in progress commission.
Detail: Flower in a current work in progress commission.
There’s something distinctly sensual about working with paint. I think it has a lot to do with its lush fluidity. To be a painter, it is my opinion, you're usually some shade of hedonistic. Or an automasochist. Some days it seems a fine line. (Especially ones where you spend a whole day trying to materialize a flower in oils only to be beat back at every try until a last effort where you swear you've lost your touch / eye for it).
But I digress. This post is about hedonism, mostly, as there's near nothing - for me - more pleasurable than a flower rendered in oils in luxurious strokes. I like to paint my flowers in one pass rather than layered with drying time in between - linseed oil added for that extra gloss and movement. For me it creates a more energetic feel when swipes of paint slide through one another, catch and meld to bring out a subtle color blend, and in the wake leaves the high relief and impression of my brush's intentional path. It's definitely trickier to prevent colors from muddling in this approach, but the reward is that of a painted flower vibrating a bit more on the canvas. Though more punishing in practice, I love a little chaotic, purposeful energy distilled into pigment, worked through to figured petal and leaf.
Detail: “Other People’s Lives” oil on canvas.
Detail: “Other People’s Lives” oil on canvas.
Lost and Found
Mood.
Would that I could
Oil on panel, 2019
Question: can an artist base their entire career on paintings of candles?
tangle
January’s almost gone and this is the first bit of art I’ve done yet in 2019.
Adult responsibilities… goooo away.
Dark Mysteries
Inktober aims.
Apothecary’s Darling. 2018, digital
Be Wary What You’ll Find. 2018, digital
Melt
"Melt" digital painting, 2018.
Here's a piece inspired by Mughal carpet designs, the scent of flowers on a warm wind, and one of my favorite colors - persimmon.
The Stormy Sea at Night
"Turner-esque Nocturne" Digital Painting by Lauren Elyse S. 2018.
I don't remember the first time I saw Turner's abstract atmospheric paintings, but I do remember how they made me feel. It was like a lightening bolt - they woke me up. The energy in them is insane. I particularly love Fishermen at Sea and, related in style, Whistler’s Nocturne Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket. My worship of a stormy sea rolls deep, and so here is a little digital painting in the vein of Turner with a mind towards Whistler.
Finally
"Heatwave" - digital illustration 2018. Lauren Elyse S. For limited edition prints, click here.
New digital work happening.
Lately
"Camerieri in pausa fumo"
Gouache on paper.
"When the Campaign is Won" acrylic on paper.
Prints!
So it's years overdue, but I've finally got the proper camera to clearly photograph my work - so this means, prints! I'm especially thrilled because now I can share with you my favorite paintings I've done. Pick up prints in my shop.
"Other People's Lives" Click the photo to grab the print!
"Mind vs Mouth" Click the photo to grab the print!
Finally, West
Been back in California a few months but I feel like I've just gotten here as I'm only now finding time to create. Finally being able to get this painting onto canvas after thinking about it for a year and a half has been a relief.
Where the Sea ends.
"Two Ends of the Sea" Acrylic and oil on canvas panel, 2017.
Back to this. More coming this winter as I force myself into hibernation (my preferred state of being, to be honest.)
Inktober 2017
Trying to see it through the whole 30 days of inktober this time around. Here's the last week - didn't mean to, but I think I've hit on a theme here. Let's see where it goes?
If you want to follow along with my daily drawings, my Instagram is where it's at. (Where's day one you ask? Good question. You'll have to get to my Instagram to see the time lapse of it. It's a bit NSFW)
California, take two.
"I keep coming back" Ink & watercolor on paper, 2017.
It's been about seven years but I'm back in California and I'm pretty stoked about it. Sorry for the silence, the move was a three month long odyssey. So anyway, here's some new work.
Back to Brando
Been about a year since I was totally bent on Brando's intense gaze. High time I got back to it.
To see more in this series begun last year, click here and scroll down (there's quite a few). I have no excuse for focusing so hard on his gaze apart from being forever in love with expressive eyes.
