Stephanie Peters

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  • Home
  • About
    • Biography
    • Stories
  • New Work
    • Life on the Rock
    • Icebergs
    • Urban Wildlife
    • Spirits of the Forest
    • Migration - Circle Bird Paintings
  • Natural Disasters
    • Natural Disasters
    • Volcano paintings
    • Wildfires
    • Extreme Weather: Storms, Tornadoes, Hurricanes & Lightning
  • Wildlife Pastels
    • Life on the Rock
    • Adirondacks
    • Africa
    • Arizona Desert
    • Aquatic life
    • Birds
  • Paintings
    • Series >
      • Migration - Circle Bird Paintings
      • Flying Color - Bird Paintings
      • Ocean Life
      • River Fish
      • Wildlife Paintings
      • Abstract
      • Illustrating Literature
      • The Energy of White
      • Abstract Landscapes
    • Printmaking >
      • New prints
      • Stamps
  • Buy Art
  • Contact

-Stories from the road-

Adventures, notes of inspiration, daily experiences, trips to nowhere and then somewhere, works in progress, creative discoveries, new work, tools of the trade, news from the studio, event updates, and things that make me smile or think deep thoughts...

New Series in the works: Swaying Kelp Forests

6/7/2015

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A few years ago - cannot believe it's been that long, I found a yard of bright blue canvas in the scrap pile of a fabric store somewhere in Virginia. I thought it might be interesting to paint a portrait of an elephant with vibrant colors on it. This was around the time clear gesso became popular, so there was a wave of interest in painting on any surface that could be gessoed... well at least that was what was going on in my sketch books.
 
After I picked up some stretcher bars at a local art store, I stretched this beautiful brilliant blue canvas over the bars, and covered the canvas with Winsor Newton's clear gesso... I couldn't wait for the brillant blue surface to be dry and ready for my vibrant elephant.

Although Winsor Newton's clear gesso dries clear -- it also dries a little milky if you are slathering it all over a colored canvas... Slathering is the key word. I believe one coat would have worked fine, but in this case, the clear gesso did not dry clear and there was a coat of milky white...  My vision of an elephant faded, and the canvas became a questionable experiment tossed off to the side. 

Flash forward to July 2014... I was standing in front of large aquariums at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California, watching kelp sway back and forth. Schools of sardines swirling in and out, pushing past rockfish, surf perches, and other common pacific coast fish that call Kelp forests home. If you have ever been to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, you will understand what I'm talking about --  the magic awe of the great ocean is artificially created in those aquariums. If you haven't been, perhaps these photos may help illustrate what I experienced:

Kelp Forest
surf perch monterrey aquarium
kelp forest
Maybe it was the scale of the kelp forests, or the expressions of the fish watching you watch them, that caused me to fall in a trance. I just sat there taking it all in -- the movement, the moment, the water, the colors, the shapes, and their eyes, all in. It was, with a lack of better expression, a very inspiring experience. This was probably the first time I had ever noticed kelp as kelp, and not just some gross seaweed that washed up on to the beach. 

Back at the hotel room --- well, let's be honest, on the ride back to the hotel room as my boyfriend drove, I started sketching out what I had seen, drawing the images that had been burned into my memory. Images that fueled ideas, beauty and inspired my pencil to move. Like so...


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Seasons and Cycles Exhibit

6/1/2015

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Picture
I am excited to announce that "Winter Forest" will be a part of the "Seasons and Cycles" exhibit at the Herberger Theater from October 2nd 2015 to January 3rd 2016! The Herberger Theater is located at 222 E. Monroe, Phoenix AZ 85004. For more information about the exhibit, visit the Herberger Theater art gallery page. 


There will be an opening reception on Friday October 2nd. Unfortunately -- or fortunately, I won't be attending as I will be in Page for the opening reception of my artist of the month exhibit at the Powell Museum. 
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