Make your own trophy.....

Photo by jennifer Winship Mark of Open Eye Art

Have you ever needed the perfect trophy for a contest? 

 We just spray painted these fun Halloween figures and candle holders and glued them to a black base.  We will be presenting these along with 5 others at our upcoming Pumpkin Contest for a fun corporate team builder at Skamania Lodge on October 31st.

Tips for making your own golden trophies:
Find a figure that is well defined with easy to read details
Ceramic and resins work great (soft plastics never seem to cure well)
Tape off any areas you wish to perserve
Details can be saved with brush on "miskit" (watercolorists know what this is!)
Spray with Krylon gold foil spray paint

Warning!!!! It is soo fun you will start tearing apart your house for different items you can "Midas Touch".
Have fun.....

Photo experiment....

Photo by Jennifer Winship Mark

 

photo by Jennifer Winship Mark

Translucence

Photo that Juliet and I composed that celebrates the last beautiful blossoms of summer combined with the amazing leaves of fall.  We are experimenting with the concept of translucence.

Mask and Found Object workshops in 2014!

 Mask by Jennifer W Mark

 

New Perspectives Mask Workshop

A unique way to learn to 'see' another person's viewpoint and enhance understanding of one's own and the group's unconscious bias. This workshop is an intersection of collaborative team building, psychology, storytelling, artistic expression, role-playing and humor. Participants will immerse themselves in a another person's story allowing a window into their perspective 

 Found object gilding by Jennifer W Mark and Juliet Moran

 

 Midas Touch Workshop

Discover your own creativity. Open your eyes to the beauty of everyday objects and those found in nature. Use storytelling, collaboration and the ancient art of gilding. 

 

Gilded and Neo color mural by Jennifer W Mark and Juliet Moran

Go with the Flow Workshop

Discover how to collaborate yet keep your individual creative spark.  Learn to use neocolors and gild.  This workshop will create a major art piece that will be donated to a non- profit.

If any of these workshops sound intriguing to you then drop me a line.   We are planning on running these three different 2 day workshops in June and July of 2014.

Gilding for Capital Pacific Bank

Symbol panels gilded for the Dick Alexander Board Room at Capital Pacific Bank

Juliet Moran and I gilded 5 panels to represent the symbols that had meaning for the team at the bank. We are pleased at how they turned out with their vibrant colors and simple symbols.  Because the room has huge windows we needed to come up with art that would not "glare" and that would represent the values of the board. We are busy now with the last project, a plexiglass sculpture for the lobby.

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Tree- symbolizes the board’s deep roots and underlying connections in our Northwest community.

Fern- symbolizes the board’s dedication, integrity, balance and resourcefulness. This symbol comes from the African Adinkra Tribe.

Vision- symbolizes the boards forward thinking and focus on the future of Capital Pacific Bank

Owl- symbolizes the wisdom each board member brings to the bank.

Gold- is one of several alchemist symbols for gold.  This represents the profitability of Capital Pacific Bank and its clients.

Sherrie Wolf is soo talented....

Just recently purchased another amazing Sherrie Wolf oil painting. I love this piece because it reminds me of Wyoming and of our good friend , Andrew Miller who most likely supplied Sherrie with these wonderful tulips from his garden.

Sherrie Wolf oil on canvas

Here are a few more inspiring works by Sherrie.....

Glass Write on board

open eye art glass write-on board

The beauty of this "glass write on - wipe off board" is that we can custom paint any scene on the the thick safety glass so when the board is not in use it looks like an incredible abstract work of art.

The best thing about our boards is they don't ghost like so many white boards do.

Isn't this a brilliant solution for adding function and beauty to an office?

Having fun doing a little interior design....

Close up of our "Portlandia" conference room art.

by Open Eye Art

 Just recently we (my Open Eye Art partner, Juliet Moran) finished up 

two conference room art pieces for Capital Pacific Bank in Portland.

We took the concept of what makes Portland unique and added it in 

the form of a miniature diorama complete with tiny individuals at the bottom of each letter.

In the Portlandia Conference Room at Capital Pacific Bank

Here is a wall unit I designed for Michelle Mark's cool little studio in the Pearl in Portland Oregon.

Wall unit design by Jennifer W Mark

I designed it to have led lighting back lighting the shelves.  It is a wonderful combination of black bead board, maple and thick white shelves perfectly designed to fit all of Michelle's collections .

The beauty of this piece is it can be moved in two pieces wherever she chooses to move in the future.

New Jennifer W Mark art web site is finally up!

Hello everyone, I hope you will all get a chance to pop over to check out my new website designed by the talented Michelle Mark ( yes, she is my daughter and a great designer!)
Finally I got the chance to get a new site up after my last one was stolen away!  I love to experiment with so many art styles and media and different painting techniques.  Check out the whole collection of my latest studio sessions. My new web site has a great sampling of all my favorites. 

My business partner at Open Eye Art, Juliet Moran and I  just recently posed for a photo shoot and ended up with some great pictures for our Open Eye Art site.

This is definitely my favorite. 

My good friend and amazing photographer, Sue Kieth spent the afternoon with us so we could get the perfect shot.

Open Eye Art is keeping us busy working with  unique clients on some very exciting creative spaces.
We are actively researching what aspects of spaces trigger creativity and ideation. We are exploring exciting art installation ideas that will helpget across the idea of environmental sustainability and community commitment. Lastly, we are digging deep to design an art project that has the potential to engage 3000 teachers  while  they are sipping on a glass of Oregon Pinot Noir . These are the kinds of challenges that Juliet and I have a blast working on. 

I am currently working with the Randall Children's Hospital and Emanuel Hospital.  We are in the process of  finding the perfect art pieces to complete both hospitals. The great part of this project is that I get to visit a lot of artist and galleries in search of the perfect art works.  I recently came across Alison O'Donohue's work down at the the Mary Lou Zeek Gallery in Salem.  I am so inspired by her fascinating style that I am going to commission her to do a piece based on CREATIVITY.  I cant wait to see what she comes up with.


While we were down in Salem we had to stop by and see my friend Gerry Frank and try the delicious cakes at his Konditorei.  I highly recommend that you have lunch there if you happen to pass through Salem Oregon.

This is an illustration by my daughter, Laura Mark.  She is planning on attending the Oregon College of Arts and Crafts in the fall.  We should be seeing more wonderful illustrations like this in the near future!

Next month check out my hand lettering. It seems to be my next "fascination".

Painting with Chocolate

 Chocolate Painting by Jennifer W Mark 2013

I promised after my "The Delicious Art of Painting with Chocolate" talk at this year's Portland Chocolatefest that I would post some of the painting techniques on my blog.  There was high interest in this technique for kids projects and a lot of people loved hearing about the unusual history of chocolate.
The above portrait is of young Queen Victoria who loved chocolate so much that she gave over 30,000 tins to each of her soldiers fighting in the Bohr wars of 1900 in South Africa.

How to paint on Canvas with Chocolate 

• Mix dark unsweetened cocoa powder with an egg yolk and a little water until it is the consistency of light cream.  Once this is mixed up it should be good to paint with for several hours, but no longer because it is a raw egg yolk.
• I make sure my eggs are organic, very fresh and I clean the outer shell with vinegar to kill any bacteria that might get in the egg yolk
• I separate the egg yolk from the sack by gently puncturing the sack and pinching  on to it as the yolk spills out.  If you wish to learn more about painting with egg tempera it is a fascinating technique and very ancient.  Egg tempera is one of the most durable painting processes known!
• I use regular watercolor brushes to paint with on gesso covered canvas or  gesso covered cardstock 

Chocolate Painting by Jennifer W Mark 2013
Cortez   actually discovered cocoa in the new world and chose to plant a cocoa plantation in present day Mexico.  After cultivating his crop for 10 years he finally brought all the cocoa pods and tools back to Spain to share the ddelicious discovery and make his fortune. Drinking chocolate with sugar added became a big hit with the royalty of the time. It was very expensive and exclusive.  They loved chocolate so much that they actually kept it as their little secret for over 100 years until the secret spread to Great Britain in the late 1700's.

 

 Chocolate Painting  on white chocolateby Jennifer W Mark 2013

 

How to Paint an Edible Chocolate Art Piece

• When painting on white chocolate I first temper the chocolate. Here is a link to David Lebovitz'  great post on exactly how to temper chocolate and why it is important.
• I also add what are called crystals ( which is basically palm kernal oil) to the chocolate to give it body and gloss
• I draw the image on with an edible pen. (you can buy these in the baking section at any craft supply store such as Michael's) 
• I then fill in all the darks using a good quality synthetic acrylic paint brush
• Place the piece in the freezer for 10 minutes and it should set up and be ready to wrap up as a gift or place on a dessert
• You can trace anything onto your white chocolate, but I find these strong light and dark images are the most effective.

Join me this spring for a special "Chocolate Lovers Unite" creative workshop 

at Sweet Wares in Portland.

 

What you will learn-

Join us for a fun, informative and creative class where we will focus exclusively on  white and dark chocolate and how to use it as an edible art form.   We will share secrets on how to create chocolate  creations that are not only beautiful, but taste amazing. We also will pass on some a simple tips for making everyday desserts look incredible. We will finish up with a chocolate tasting paired with a glass of local Pinot Noir. You can discover for yourself the subtle differences between some very special local craftsman chocolates and what truly brings out these chocolate’s greatest qualities.

Menu-

White/dark chocolate art piece you get to take home , chocolate dessert embellishments , tasting of a variety of wines and chocolates and a special Baker and Spice surprise.

Price- $85

Sweet Wares

Chocolate Painting on white chocolate by Jennifer W Mark 2013