Pen and Think

November Free Print Challenge

2009-10-29T16:49:00.005-04:00

Latest artwork: Bast of the Rising Sun

FREE PRINT CHALLENGE*
If you buy TWO or more prints products on my website's store page (www.lynnetteshelley.com/store.html) STARTING NOW and lasting the entire month of November, you will be entered into a drawing to win a FREE signed and
matted giclee art print from me.

I will draw a name randomly from any sales that ...I make from NOW through November 30th and announce a winner during the first week of December via a direct email to the winner.

Please note, the purchases must be from Art Prints directly from me on my store page (and not through any of my print-on-demand sites like Zazzle, Redbubble etc.)

FREE PRINT WITH ORIGINAL ARTWORK PURCHASE*
If you would like to purchase ANY original artwork that I may have, I
will also include a FREE signed and matted print (now through November 30). You can see myartwork at www.lynnetteshelley.com and if you would like to inquire about a particular item, I can let you know if it’s still available and the cost.

Upcoming Art Shows
If you live in or near Philadelphia, you can also see my artwork in person at the following upcoming art shows:

November 1 through December 31, 2009
Group Art Show at
Triumph Brewing Co.
117 Chestnut Street,
Philadelphia, PA;
215.625.0855.

November 4 through November 30, 2009
Solo Art Show at Infusion Cafe,
7133 Germantown Avenue,
Philadelphia, PA 19119;
215.248.1718.

Part of the Mt. Airy Focus on Local Arts juried art exhibition from Friday Nov. 6th 6pm-9pm and Saturday Nov. 7th 11am - 6pm.

December 3, 2009 through March 4, 2010
Solo Art Show at Sankhya Yoga School & Wellness Center,
1206 North 5th Street,
Studio C,
Philadelphia, PA 19122;
267.234.0196. Reception TBA.

*The actual FREE PRINT will be determined by customer's choice of available print items.

New Ebay Auctions and New Web Store Items

2009-10-23T22:41:00.003-04:00

Just a quick note that I have new items up for auction on Ebay, including latest original, "Deer Woman", which is based off of the Native American myth. Click here to see my Ebay listings.

Also on my website's store page, I have new prints up for sale for 30 dollars each, as well as some entirely new offerings - ACEO Art Cards. ACEO cards are collectible, baseball card-sized artworks. But to make things a little bit different I am offering ACEO "Six Packs" of different themes - I have an ICON Six-Pack (featuring works from my ICON artwork series), a WONDERLAND Six-Pack (featuring works from my Wonderland series) and a Creature Feature Six-Pack, featuring six of my creature artworks. Each Six Pack costs 20 dollars plus 3 dollars shipping. Check out the new store page here.

I also have a couple of art shows coming up that I'll be posting about shortly..... stay tuned!

The Philadelphia Experiment: New Music Festival

2009-09-21T14:05:00.003-04:00

Hi all
I am hosting the following festival that's coming up in October. Hope to see some of you there!

THE PHILADELPHIA EXPERIMENT: NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL
Featuring Cheer-Accident, The Red Masque, Make A Rising and Fern Knight

October 24, 2009

Venue:
The Rotunda
University of Pennsylvania, 4014 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
215-573-3234.
http://www.therotunda.org

Additional Info:
7 PM. All Ages.
FREE but donations for the bands requested
(Pay-What-You-Want Admission).

Hosted by The Red Masque

Contact:
Lynnette Shelley (lynnette@theredmasque.com)

The Line-Up

HEADLINERS
CHEER-ACCIDENT (Chicago)
Official Website: http://www.cheer-accident.com/

Photo by Corinne Halbert

For over 20 years, Cheer-Accident have been a creative, interesting force in rock music. They constantly strive to surprise their audience and themselves with constant reinvention. Fear Draws Misfortune (released January 2009 through Cuneiform Records) is their 16th release and arguably their best release and their album which strives the furthest towards a powerful balance between personalized and unique studio techniques and the excitement of a visceral, live, well-honed rock band. Which is saying something. It is a strongly compelling and high-reaching album that uses a wide variety of ideas, styles and studio techniques, resulting in a cohesive and ambitious album of art-rock. The basic band is a trio who between them perform on vocals, keyboards, trumpets guitars, bass and drums, but they are augmented by 15 additional musicians who, each in their own way, bring their own musical gifts to the album. Fear Draws Misfortune reveals a fortuitous intersection between Cuneiform and Cheer-Accident, both of whom have long admired the other and both of whom finally decided to do something about it! This long overdue marriage, which neatly coincides with a timely (and quite lengthy) cover-feature article in December 2008's Signal To Noise magazine, promises to hurl Cheer-Accident into wider recognition.

"I could easily fill a page talking about any given minute of this album, but suffice it to say that if you've ever loved Magma's apocalypticisms, Neu!'s ghosts in the machine, or Beefheart's Dada boogie—or at least dreamed of watching the Mormon Tabernacle Choir fall down a very long flight of stairs—it might be for you." — Monica Kendrick/Chicago Reader

"...[Cheer-Accident] meld difficult, angular rock with absurdist lunacy in intentionally disturbing ways that are just brilliant." - Alternative Press

"There are few ensembles that can make noise sound both as mysterious and as strangely inviting as Cheer-Accident." - Delusions of Adequacy

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THE RED MASQUE (Philadelphia)
Official Website: http://www.theredmasque.com

Photo by Matt Romano

Founded in 2001, The Red Masque is an original avant rock band from the Philadelphia area. Part art, part alchemy, the group's experimental songwriting style is both angular and eerie, accented by freeform space rock improvisations, intricate acoustics, dark atmospherics and chunky riffs. Unconventional and eccentric in musical form, the sophisticatedly sinister The Red Masque fuses together such disparate musical references as horror movie soundtracks, rock-in-opposition, progressive rock, experimental, zeuhl, heavy rock, gothic, psychedelia, space rock, and kraut rock. The Red Masque's compositions are as intense as they are unique.

The band is currently signed with RER USA and released their third studio album, "Fossil Eyes" in August 2008. The Red Masque's live download-only album, "Stars Fall On Me" is scheduled for release in November 2009.

"From Pennsylvania hails a quartet without limitations to their purposes and without shame regarding norms and dogma within new rock." - Tarkus Magazine

"In the Nu-progressive rock underground, few bands are as respected and feared as Philadelphia's The Red Masque. Without irony or kitsch, the whirlwind that is Masque ... stalks the darkness of Hammer Horror ambience and cursedly complex musicianship (think Gong meets Bauhaus) with only feedbacking noise, sound-collage clustering and the howl of vocalist Lynnette Shelley to light its way." - A.D. Amorosi, Philadelphia City Paper

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MAKE A RISING (Philadelphia)
MySpace Page: http://www.myspace.com/makearising

Photo by Ryan Collerd

Tunneling its way out of the West Philadelphia nether worlds Make A Rising is a band that is beyond unique. The quintet's debut record is a swirling mix of violin, keyboard, guitars, drums, saxophone, trumpet, bells, whistles, and assorted noisemakers - all swelling together for subversively addictive pop gems. With orchestral crescendos combined with off-kilter vocals and fast-changing tempos Make A Rising is the sound of chaos, bliss, bravado, nerves and naivety - avant chamber rock at its most dynamic - like Daniel Johnston singing Beach Boys songs interpreted by Naked City.

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FERN KNIGHT (Washington D.C.)
Official Website: http://fernknight.com/

Under cellist Margaret Ayre's orchestration, D.C./Philadelphia quartet Fern Knight transfigures her acoustic Medieval-tinged songs with contrasting layers of 60s improv, 70s prog rock and NWOBHM - retelling the band's collective history.

Juxtapositions of the arcane and modern in her music and life drew Margaret to pen the band's fourth album (vhf), Castings, a song cycle exploring how the ancient divinatory art of the Tarot and the well-worn archetypes contained therein continue to flow through present day society.

The core quartet is rounded out by Jesse Sparhawk (harp/electric bass), Jim Ayre (Flying V/drums) and James Wolf, published Sun Ra scholar (violin). Margaret also co-scored a new soundtrack to 1970 Czech new wave film 'Valerie and Her Week of Wonders' for a ten-piece ensemble that included Jesse and Jim called The Valerie Project (Drag City).

Festival Website and Info: http://theredmasque.com/fest/index.html

Now on Ebay

2009-09-12T22:21:00.003-04:00

Finally took the much-belated plunge and am having my first auction on ebay.

Check it out here.

Up for auction is a signed and matted giclee art print of my artwork ICON III: The Rabbit.

New Artworks!

2009-09-12T21:24:00.003-04:00

Been experimenting with incorporating paper collage in my artworks lately. These latest three all use paper cut outs that I layered onto the backgrounds. For those of you who came out to my in-store appearance at Simply S.O.T.A. (State of the Arts) in New Hope in late August, the Gold Bird was the piece I was working on while at the store.

The Ascension of Leo

The Gold Bird

March Hare

I still need to upload all of my Dragon Con photos. I'll see about doing that soon.

New Items in my Etsy Shop

2009-09-11T16:16:00.002-04:00

Just got back from Dragon Con earlier this week and have been busy. I need to take the time to upload some photos from the event (hopefully later this weekend). In the meantime, I added up some post Dragon Con sales to my Etsy shop today.
Please take a look here: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6835013

Included are some signed and matted giclee art prints, as well as a couple of original artwork items. I’ll be periodically changing these items up so please keep my shop bookmarked. As always you can also check out my online store on my personal website at http://www.lynnetteshelley.com or you can email me at redeye@designbyredeye.com to inquire about original artwork sales.

I also just booked a new show for First Friday in October. More details to come!

WIN A FREE PRINT

2009-08-31T15:56:00.001-04:00

Hi all
I am starting a little contest this week. A lucky random winner will receive one FREE signed and matted giclee (archival) art print from me mailed to your abode. There will be various prints to choose from. Details below:

Please email me at redeye@designbyredeye.com with the following information:

1. Your name
2. Your mailing address
3. Your top three favorite artworks of mine in order of preference (this is just for marketing purposes to help me determine which prints I should bring to art shows etc).

***** Contest Deadline is September 8th.
**** Winner will be notified via email on September 11th.

*****View my artwork online at http://www.lynnetteshelley.com

Thanks and good luck~
Lynnette

New Website Launches

2009-08-27T18:57:00.007-04:00

In the past couple of weeks I've launched four new websites, and I've got another one still to be launched in a little bit. But here's a little bit of info about each project.

http://marthamayererlebacher.com

Martha Mayer Erlebacher is a neo-classical artist who works out of Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. I was had the privilege of getting to see her studio in person during the course of working on her website design, and can only say that her works are amazing to see in person - from the sheer size to the technical details. She wanted a website that was very modern and minimalist in design, the better to focus the viewer on her artworks.

Some examples of her paintings are below.

Also launched this week is Canadian progressive and psychedelic rock radio host, Lino D'Intino's revamped website at www.progressiverockradio.net. Lino's old site was a Frankenstein of old code so it was scrapped and replaced with a simple but cleanly-coded site with a space theme. On the new site, listeners can stream many of his archived shows, as well as check out his resource section on progressive, psychedelic and kraut rock. Check it out.

I also recently revamped the progrockdiner.com, another progressive rock radio program broadcast out of Fairfax, Virginia by Debbie Sears. Check it out.

Also this past month I launched two smaller websites for a educational non-profit More Pass Plus, Inc. and a Florida mystery novelist, Mary Kohnke.

I am working on a website now for a kitchen remodeling company but that most likely will not launch until sometime in September.

Upcoming Events: State of the Arts and Dragon Con

2009-08-27T11:23:00.003-04:00

THIS SATURDAY, I will be giving an in-store art demonstration at Simply S.O.T.A. (State of the Arts) located at 26 N Main St., New Hope, PA 18938 from 1 PM onwards. I’ll be working on the March Hare from my new Wonderland series as well as selling matted and signed giclee prints and a few originals. So if you are in the area, please stop by and say hi.

A few days later I pack up my rental car and head south to Dragon Con in Atlanta, GA (a 16 hour drive for me!), one of the largest fantasy / sci-fi conventions in the world (attendance is estimated between 35-40,000 annually). I will be bringing 33 original artworks for sale, as well as a large selection of matted and signed giclee prints. Dragon Con runs from September 4-7. For more information about DC, see their website at http://www.dragoncon.org.

More information about all of my upcoming events, please visit my website at http://www.lynnetteshelley.com

I am also going to be announcing a contest here shortly where you can win a FREE signed giclee print from me. Stay tuned for details!

Latest artworks:

A Little Bird Told Me

Minerva

The White Rabbit

Queen of Hearts

The Mad Hatter

Revamped Website; Signed Giclees for Sale

2009-08-12T11:07:00.004-04:00

The Cheshire Cat

I revamped my art website a little earlier this week, and added in a new FEATURED PROJECTS section that includes my ICON series as well as my new WONDERLAND series, which is inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. So far I've completed the Queen of Hearts and The Cheshire Cat. I am planning out the Mad Hatter now.

In addition, I completely scrapped my old web store, which was confusing, and simplified it. I am now offering for sale select signed and matted giclees (archival art prints) directly through my site (purchase through Paypal) for $35. You can also specify whether you want a cream or black matte.

Check out my new store here.

Later today I am off to deliver some giclees for retain at a shop in New Hope, PA. More info later.

August Art Events and Tardy Postings

2009-07-31T17:45:00.009-04:00

I have been REALLY bad and keeping this blog up-to-date lately, so to make up for it I have an extra long post today.

First up: I have several exciting art events going on in August. Not only is it my birthday month, but it's the two year anniversary of my having gone back into the art and design world full-time and working for myself. Considering the precarious state of affairs of the economy, I feel privileged to be able to make a living doing what I like to do best.

August 7, 2009 | First Friday Arts Fair on Main Street in Doylestown. Sidewalk Art Sale in front of Main St. Baptist Church at 57 S. Main Street, Doylestown, PA. 6-9:30 PM. I will be vending some signed giclee (archival) art prints, as well as featuring a couple of original works. Partial proceeds to charity.

August 14-September 3, 2009 | 12th annual group Juried Exhibition “Inner Essence at Tyme Gallery, 17 W. Eagle Road, Havertown PA. Opening art reception is August 14 from 5:00 to 9:00 PM. I will be featuring my artwork "Icon III". Visit Tyme Gallery's website at http://www.tymegallery.com

Through September 7, 2009 | "Art of the Gecko" Art Show and Sale, Academy of Natural Sciences, 1900 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy, Philadelphia, PA. Gecko art show runs in conjunction with the Academy's live gecko exhibit. Artwork exhibit consists of various local artists' displays of gecko creations – look for my work entitled “Golden Gecko”. Visit the Academy's website at http://www.ansp.org

In addition to the “Golden Gecko” on display in the museum, I now have three original artworks in the Academy’s gift shop: “Conjoined: The Geckos”, “The Lizard King” and “Butterfly I”. You can view these artworks on my gallery page at http://www.lynnetteshelley.com or see below. In addition, signed and matted archival art prints (giclees) of these artworks are also available for purchase in the gift shop. Please note the gecko artwork will only be on sale in the gift shop for the duration of the gecko exhibit only; however, “The Lizard King” and “Butterfly I” will be on ongoing featured item (until sold). Prints will be on sale indefinitely.

Upcoming Events

September 4-7, 2009 | Dragon Con Art Show, Grand Hall West located in the Atlanta Hyatt Regency, Atlanta, Georgia. I will be featuring over 30 original artworks (and 80 fine art prints) for this convention, which is one of the largest annual Science Fiction and Fantasy theme conventions in the world. See http://www.dragoncon.org

Sales

To purchase prints, tshirts or other art merchandise, please visit http://www.lynnetteshelley.com/store.html. If you don't see something available as a print or t-shirt that you would like to purchase, please let me know and I will square that away. To inquire about original artwork sales or commissions, please email redeye@designbyredeye.com.
In the future, I will be offering signed and matted prints for sale through my site. Stay tuned….

I have been very busy this month but here are just a few recent works, including some commissioned work. I have wrapped up my ICON series (see www.lynnetteshelley.com/featured.html and I plan on starting a new series based on Alice in Wonderland. I am already planning out a Red Queen portrait. Stay tuned for details....

Coinjoined: The Geckos

Butterfly I

The Lizard King

Bengal Tiger

The Garden

Garden II

The Water Horse

Icon V: The Magpie

2009-07-05T12:16:00.002-04:00

Fifth artwork in my new ICON series.

Nightflight

2009-07-05T12:14:00.001-04:00

My cousin Brian is studying to be a pilot and he is currently putting in his flight hours. He sent along this video of a recent night flight. Check it out.

Latest Works

2009-07-01T17:48:00.001-04:00

Icon IV: The Fruit Bat

"Impala and Bird"

"Red Fox, Gold Birds"

Art of the Gecko

2009-06-24T19:28:00.002-04:00

Just a bit of news on my end:

I will be featuring some gecko artwork at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, PA, USA from July 25 through September 7, 2009. The Gecko art show runs in conjunction with the Academy’s live gecko exhibit (see http://www.ansp.org/geckos/highlights.php). Opening night reception and sale is July 24, 5:30 to 7:30 PM.

This art show came about when the Academy put out a call for local artists to take 12” “blank” resin gecko sculptures and decorate them in whatever manner they wanted. I painted my gecko gold and then embellished with paper and foil cutouts, which I then coated with some layers of Modge Podge (a type of sealer) to keep in place.

Having not worked with any sculptures before, it was a bit of a challenge for me to work in 3D. I have some more ideas of what I would do differently if given another chance, but overall, I think the result is interesting. I call him “Golden Gecko”. Below are some photos:

It is also looking likely that I will be in a juried art show in the Philadelphia area in July. Details TBA soon.

Icon III: The Rabbit

2009-06-24T19:25:00.002-04:00

Third artwork in my new ICON series. Prints are available for purchase here.

Logo

2009-06-24T19:21:00.004-04:00

Hot off the drawing board: New logo I designed for a start-up childcare/tutoring facility that is slated to start operations next spring. The client chose the colors and wanted a logo that projected diversity. Their name, Alpha-Philia, means Beginning Friendships.

Icon II: The Panther

2009-06-12T22:26:00.005-04:00

I've been busy all week working on a logo design for a client, but I found time to finish up a second artwork for my new ICON series. This one depicts a regal panther in royal purple hues set against a golden background. You can purchase a matted print, poster or canvas print or card of Icon II through my RedBubble site. I have a bunch more of my artwork available through that site as well. You can also buy a tshirt featuring Icon II through my zazzle shop.

I was at the art store the other day and picked up some 18K gold leaf, so expect shinier artworks to come ;) Also I am in the midst on working on a project, that, if all goes well, will be at a new exhibit on Geckos at Philadelphia's Academy of Natural Sciences this summer. Details TBA.

I am also currently working on having some giclee prints made of Icon I and II as well as The Puma (see below) for retail sales. For those of you who may wish to purchase a giclee online, I signed up with a new webstore on ArtistRising.com. This site features standard giclee prints on matte paper for reasonable prices. Check out my gallery and store by clicking here.

ICONS

2009-06-01T20:08:00.004-04:00

Icon I: The Ram

I started working on a new series of artworks earlier this week, and I completed the first one earlier today. The series, called ICON, is inspired by the stylized portraiture found in religious icons, as well as in art nouveau. I have also started experimenting with adding colored foil embellishments to the mixed media artworks.

My first ICON portrait is The Ram. Other animals likely to be included in the new series are a rabbit, a fox, a magpie, bull, and some sort of big cat (perhaps a cheetah or lion).

You can buy a card or print of ICON 1: THE RAM on my Red Bubble site.

I am also now working on getting giclee prints created of five artworks for my upcoming show at Dragon Con. Read about it and view selected artworks on my exhibitions page on my website.

Artist Profile: Joseph Barbara

2009-05-19T14:35:00.004-04:00

I joined the online art gallery/artist community of Redbubble a few weeks ago, and since that time have been amazed at some of the quality of work on the site. So I'm profiling one artist who I met virtually, and whom I think is deserving of some recognition for his talents.

Joseph Barbara is an artist from the island of Malta in the Mediterranean. Click on this link to visit his Redbubble profile. Visit his official website here.

A self-described "dream colour expressionist", Joseph's work vision is unique and colorful. Works vary from the surrealistic to the mythical to prismatic to abstract.

Some of my favorite images are below:

Pendragon

2009-05-19T14:32:00.003-04:00

Finished "Pendragon" last night. It is one of my smaller works, measuring 8 1/2 x 11" and is made with ink and gold paint on recycled paper.

Melusine, Edward Gorey, and Pendragon

2009-05-18T15:30:00.003-04:00

I finished another artwork a few days ago. Entitled Melusine, the image depicts the mythical water spirit, who had the upper body of a female and the lower body of a serpent or fish or sometimes even a dragon, depending on the story. Read one of the Melusine myths here.

This is another piece that will be coming with me to my art show at Dragon Con this September. I was organizing my list of artworks last night, and it looks like I'll be bringing 32 pieces with me. I am working on the final five now (no cylons involved lol).

For inspiration, and just because I think he's awesome, I went to the Edward Gorey exhibit at the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, PA (they are most famous for their Wyeth collections). Unfortunately, the exhibit is now over, but while there I saw some excellent original works of well-known and not-so-well known Gorey works, as well as preparatory sketches etc.

So I am going to try my hand at pen-and-ink work next, in honor of Gorey. I started one last night, which I am calling "Pendragon."

CaddyCorner

2009-05-13T13:43:00.005-04:00

I recently updated professional sculptor Bernard Corman's website with a photo gallery of his latest project, CaddyCorner. CaddyCorner is a life-sized, surrealistic homage to a vintage Cadillac, 18 months in the making, that has to be seen to be believed. Check out the photos here: http://bernardcorman.com/featured.html

Above photos by Jeff Gross.

You can also see some behind-the-scenes footage of the making of CaddyCorner via youtube. The completed sculpture was shipped off recently to a Kuwaiti businessman.

Part 1

Part 2

Serpent's Egg

2009-05-11T20:47:00.002-04:00

Another new one. This one measures 8 1/2 x 11"
Serpent's Egg

I also got some better scans made of my last three works:

New Artworks: The Puma and Crouching Gryphon

2009-05-07T19:46:00.007-04:00

On a roll here the past couple of days:

The Puma

Scanned Detail

Full image (11 x 14"). Working on getting a better photo or a full scan on a larger scanner.

Work-In-Progress

Work-In-Progress

Work-In-Progress

Crouching Gryphon

I am working on perhaps a couple more pieces and then I should have all that I need for the upcoming show at Dragon Con in September. I will most likely be bringing about 30 artworks for the show.