Every Friday brings an opportunity for Arnica Grace to paint a person from life. Austin Visual Arts Association studios are a great place to make works on the spot. Painting together with other life painting enthusiasts makes for a friendly and fun work environment. Notable Austin heavy hitters Phillip Wade, Eve Larson, and Johnnie Sielbeck also paint in Arnica’s Friday crew.
The model brings their own clothing and in this case, props. Highly unusual to have a man in a kilt holding a crystal ball show up to be painted. What a nice change of pace!
Call the artist to arrange for purchase of this 11 x 14 image.
Anna is a finely shaded and modeled oil painting. Arnica describes the shallow space in the painting with a free hand and broad brushstrokes. Depth and dimension is achieved with transparency and color blending. This small work, about 12″x 16″ was painted at Austin Visual Arts Association studios.
This wispy elfin daydreamer will capture your heart and dreams too! Traditional oil painting layering and glazing produce rich tones and highlights. Produced at Austin’s Visual Arts Association studio, this work is sure to brighten up any space.
Thought-provoking seated pose with brash coloration. Your imagination can only begin to sense what is in the mind of this young person. Painted in oils at Austin Visual Arts Association studios, this painting will be a real centerpiece for conversation.
Austin has a ton of places to ramble around in, but you will find Arnica always coming back to Zilker Park for the Botanical Gardens. Even midwinter, there are birds, bees, and flowers, oh my!
When asked why she liked the Zilker Botanical Gardens so much, Arnica replied, “the first time Ithe cedar log bridge in the Japanese garden there, I must have been all of about fourteen years old. It was magical, it was marvelous, it was my first love. Rambling in the park found me face to face with the koi in the ponds, their glittery bodies sleekly swimming in the depths. I painted them with the first set of oil paints I had ever owned. It was fulfilling, fun, it was my first time to really see what paint could do for me.
Going back to the park lately, I went to the bridge. I climbed it again, slipping a bit, just as I had the first time. I visited the koi. They are truly monstrous these days, as large as my legs, boiling and roiling under the surface of the water, looking for the food the groundskeeper surely throws into the pond for them.
It was glorious, I am glad to have lived a life in the arts. I made a painting of the koi again, couldn’t help it really.”
So, if you keep your eyes peeled, you might run into Arnica rambling through the gardens again this springtime. A recent joiner to the Plein Air Austin organization, she says she hopes to enjoy their monthly meetups.
