Help select the next 3 limited edition prints
I need your help choosing my next limited edition prints!
It's time to select three more paintings to create limited edition prints, and I would love your help choosing which ones to make! I created three different limited edition prints last October, and 8 of the 12 available sold within a couple of weeks.
I am creating prints of 3 more paintings from my Rock Creek Park Collection. Like their predecessors from Fall 2024, these prints will be 6x6 inches with a one inch border, signed and numbered. They are printed with archival inks on fine art paper and will include a Certificate of Authenticity.
Here are the options for the Spring Limited Editions:
To cast your vote, please leave a comment on this post with THREE (only 3!) paintings that you think would be perfect for a limited edition print.
Tell me which paintings you think will make the best prints to offer for spring!
Wondering how limited editions work?
When an artist creates a limited edition of prints, they select a set number of prints that will be created at that size. Once those are all sold there will never be another reproduction of that print at that size. For this reason, limited edition prints increase in value as the available number of remaining prints decreases.
Open Studios at DC Arts Studios!
This Sunday, November 3rd, DC Arts Studios is open to guests from 1-5pm.
Many of our resident artists (including me!) will have our studios open, with work in progress on view, plus original works and other art for sale (oh and snacks!). It's a great opportunity to see artists at work, and find a new treasure to bring home!
The address is 6925-D Willow Street NW (we're across from the Takoma CVS)
DC Arts Studios has provided a vibrant and collaborative studio community for artists in and around Washington DC since 1979.
Meditative Collage Class
Meditative Collage Level One is a three-class series, meeting on Sundays from 1-3pm on Oct 27, Nov 10 and Nov 17 in the Artists’ Lounge at DC Arts Studios, 6925-D Willow Street NW.
Abstract collage is a terrific entry point into creative art making, and an ideal practice for cultivating mental wellbeing though arts. Learn composition techniques and explore materials for creating engaging collage pieces in a supportive environment with artist Katie Jett Walls. The class will include short readings from books such as Your Brain on Art, Big Magic, and Conscious Creativity.
Class is $99 + $10 materials fee
Week One (10/27): Intro to collage materials and techniques | Inviting Creative Play Into Your Life
Week Two (11/10): Intro to Composition and Color Concepts | How the Arts Contributes to Mental Wellbeing
Week Three (11/17): More on Composition and Collage Structures | Keeping Up Your Art Practice
Email me at katiejettwallsartist@gmail.com to request info and to register for this class. Max of 8 students so register today!
Mother’s Day Gift Guide
Mother’s Day Gift Guide for Mamas who like Art!
For all the moms who love engaging with art, here are a few ideas for gifts they will love! The books are available locally at People’s Book in Takoma Park, and all the other suggestions are available from me! You can purchase them, OR purchase a gift card from me for Mom to use as she pleases on any piece of original art currently available. Use the contact button at the top of the page or email me at katiejettwallsartist@gmail.com to arrange purchase!
Spring Open Studio at DC Arts Center
Spring Open Studios at DC Arts Studios will take place on April 28 from 1-5pm! More than a dozen local artists will be showing work and welcoming guests into their studios for the afternoon.
I will be one of a dozen or so participating artists at DC Arts Studios’ Spring Open Studios on April 28th.
Painters, fiber artists, and photographers will be hosting guests in their studio space, demonstrating their work, and offering original art as well as gift items for sale. Guest can explore the work spaces of local artists, and support local business/arts in the heart of Takoma Park.
I’m working on a few smaller pieces as part of my Rock Creek Park series. I’ve got several pieces I’ll be offering at a special price for those who visit my studio - doing a little spring cleaning before I leave in June for several weeks travelling out West.
If you’re free and in the neighbourhood on April 28, please do come by!
Arts & Artists Book Club at DC Artists Studios
DC Arts Studios hosts a bi-monthly book club for readers who want to explore more about arts and artists!
Led by yours truly, Katie Jett Walls, our book club meets in the Artists’ Lounge at DC Arts Studios, located at 6925-D Willow Street NW, just around the corner from downtown Takoma Park, and only a couple of blocks from the Takoma DC metro station. Next book club meeting will be on Sunday, April 14th, from 5-6:30pm
DC Arts Studios hosts a bi-monthly book club for readers who want to explore more about arts and artists!
Led by yours truly, Katie Jett Walls, our book club meets in the Artists’ Lounge at DC Arts Studios, located at 6925-D Willow Street NW, just around the corner from downtown Takoma Park, and only a couple of blocks from the Takoma DC metro station.
Next book club meeting will be on Sunday, April 14th, from 5-6:30pm, and the book we will discuss together is:
9th Street Women:Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art by Mary Gabriel
"These individuals are brought to life by Pulitzer Prize finalist Gabriel, who shows how each defied social convention and professional boundaries to create new creative forms and attain equality with their male counterparts. . . .A must for modern art historians and enthusiasts." ―Library Journal
Purchase your book at PEOPLE’S BOOK in Takoma Park for 10% discount!
“The Insomniac” in the Willow Street Gallery
My abstract self-portrait painting “The Insomniac” has been selected for inclusion in the upcoming Willow Street Gallery Show, “The Narrative of Portrait”. Please join us at the Opening Reception on Friday, November 10th, 6-8pm!
There will also be a Panel Discussion on November 17 (6-8pm) and a portrait demonstration by artist Jonathan Ege on December 1st.
On Sunday, November 12 from Noon - 5pm, our studio collective, the DC Arts Studios, will be hosting Open Studios - multiple member artists will have demonstrations and artwork for sale, lots to see, and refreshments too. Come by while you’re out to visit the Farmer’s Market around the corner!
Later that same weekend, on Sunday November 12, you can visit my studio along with studios of other member artists, at our Open Studios event from noon till 5pm.
I’ll have a variety of new and older works available to view and purchase, and I’ll probably be working on a painting throughout the afternoon if you’d like to watch!
I would love to see friends and colleagues at one or both events - your support and enthusiasm have been inspiring to me since I began this whole painting journey.
Stay in the loop about my art related projects and happenings via my newsletter [click here to sign up].
Summer artist residency in Utah
“…I met [my] goal, and finished the residency with a sense that I had levelled up my own skills and widened the possibilities for what I can create. I left feeling creatively nourished, confident that I’d spent my time well, and excited about what I’d made. “
A highlight of my summer travels out West was an artist residency at the Thunderbird Foundation Maynard Dixon home.
Maynard Dixon is well-known American landscape painter who travelled extensively through the Southwest in the mid-1900s. His interpretations of the desert are among my most favorite works of art. When my family visited southern Utah in 2022, we visited the property in Orderville where he settled in his later years with wife Edith. Their log cabin is decorated with items that belonged to the couple, and reproductions of Dixon’s paintings.
The home, studio, and accessory buildings are maintained now by the Thunderbird Foundation, and open to visitors to tour, year round. They welcome artists for short residencies in the home and studio. I was fortunate enough to secure three days in July 2023 for myself!
And so, taking a pause from my family and our camping adventures, I embarked on my first residency as a painter. My husband and son dropped me off at the property on a Sunday around noon.
I’d brought a few paints and my sketchbook along on our trip, but I also shipped myself large birch panels and additional supplies specifically for the residency. I set up my supplies in Dixon’s spacious, windowed studio and got some opening layers down on the panels. For the rest of the day I alternately painted, enjoyed a big salad for lunch, took a short nap, watched birds on the grounds (yellow warbler, Cooper’s hawk, hummingbirds) and did an exercise from my painting mastermind group (Art2Life Academy). I baked a small frozen lasagne for dinner, read Tony Hillerman on the patio while it cooked, and then went back to the studio after dinner with a glass of wine to paint more before bed.
Day two was my one full day of solitude. It would normally take me a lot longer to make progress on new pieces, but the uninterrupted time and the invitation to focus really seems to enhance productivity. Ideas flowed and creative steps just presented themselves to me. I finished two pieces that day - they were nothing but a blue background when I woke up that morning, but by the time I retired for the night, they were finished. They also would be the first two of this series to sell. I had two more in process to work on the following day.
Between creative periods in the studio, I enjoyed coffee and a bagel for breakfast, made a salad again for lunch, took a short nap and had a second coffee (iced, it’s hot outside). A slow dinner break with a glass of wine and some reading refreshed me enough to put in another couple of hours before climbing into bed.
I started bright and early on my third day - with a “deadline” of around 3pm to clean up and pack away work before being picked up by my family. Again, I was surprised by how much I was able to get done in such a short time, with dedicated space and freedom to follow my flow. I finished the two remaining pieces - one of which I reworked entirely based on an idea that came to me in the night.
My goals for this time were to channel my feelings for desert spaces into paintings that used my own abstract approach to interpret these landscapes that have seduced me, and feed my senses. I met that goal, and finished the residency with a sense that I had levelled up my own skills and widened the possibilities for what I can create. I left feeling creatively nourished, confident that I’d spent my time well, and excited about what I’d made.
I am grateful to the Thunderbird Foundation for the opportunity. My heart is fullest in the desert, and creating these paintings there where I most love to be made me feel brilliantly alive.
How do I know when a painting is done?
Abstract painting is a journey in a wilderness with no path.
Abstract painting is a journey of trust.
I finished three more paintings this week.
Or at least, I stopped making them… covered them over with a final coat of gel medium and cold wax… I took photos of them… I told a potential collector I can bring them by for viewing. I won’t change them any more now; but I’m not really ever sure they’re done. Finished.
Abstract painting is a journey in a wilderness with no path.
My current series of work, Inner Architecture, is a study in form. I know when I begin to paint that eventually I’ll begin to create variations of this form and those variations will become the anchor for the composition. I know that I’ll experiment with the colours, layer after layer, some will be intentional and others will be fixing what isn’t working for me. I know that I’ll draw into the paint with oil pastels, I know that I’ll paint over the markings, and scrap paint back off to find them again. Each painting that I’ve made has been a walk into uncharted space: a blank birch panel onto which I apply color and forms until something inside my soul has come outside of it, into the painting.
Abstract painting is a trail blazed for another to follow.
There comes a point in each painting when I’ve placed down all of the creative footprints that I can. Now it’s time for someone else to follow, and I think that my trail can take you to a destination that will enliven you.
Abstract painting is a transfer of energy from me, to you.
I was intrigued by an Instagram post from Seattle artist Marjorie Thompson this past week. She wrote “To finish a painting I want to achieve a certain refinement. I’m the only one who knows what that means, and honestly I really don’t know what is I’m looking for. But I do know that I keep going until I feel that I’ve come to the place where it feels right…an intersection… of interest, design/composition, and color harmony. Do you have words to describe refinement in your art?”
I do. In my work, as I replied to Marjorie’s question, “…it’s a sense that, to do anything else would begin to smother the energy of it. That’s how it feels for me when I reach the point of calling something finished.”
Truthfully, I could keep painting, keep refining and changing and adjusting for an eternity on a single painting. A journey with no path can be an invitation to wander forever. But within each painting lies the energy that first brought hand to brush, brush to pigment, pigment to board. The first rush of creation: ideas flowing from within to without. To bring it to a finish, I must sense that it’s a path you can follow, that the vista is one you’ll enjoy along with me. That my energy in creating it is present to energize you when you look at it.
Washington DC based artist creating abstract paintings for home and office, interior design, and home staging. All work is for sale by the artist unless otherwise noted.