Blog is now at FASO!

My blog is now at my FASO site, JoanneHopper.com.  The specific link is https://joannehopper.com/blog.  I got so unbearably frustrated trying to use Google photos that I just gave up.  I’m astonished at how absurdly difficult it is to locate and post pics from Google - so I moved on.  Please come visit me there.  I do apologize for any inconvenience and immensely appreciate your time and attention -
Most sincerely -
Joanne Hopper

Holiday Art Sale

Mele Kalikimaka!

Four Painters and a Potter!  Please come see us this coming weekend- December 2nd and 3rd at Deb Lynch’s gorgeous Sunnyside Art Studio on Baldwin Ave, Makawao! 

Artists include Deb Lynch, Matt Montagne, Patti and Ike Gildersleeve and yours truly - Joanne Hopper.

Paintings for sale in all price ranges and sizes and beautiful handmade pottery!  Come talk story - See you there 🙂

Slice of Iao Valley

I began this little painting on location and finished it up in studio.  It's such an awe inspiring and peaceful place to paint - even with - or perhaps because - there are so many people milling around enjoying the place too.  It's 3.75 x 10 inches, oil on panel.  Unframed.  JoanneHopper.com

Summer Silversword

This piece was accepted into Malama Wao Akua - the East Maui Watershed Partnership art exhibit at the Hui No'eau in Makawao, Maui!

I'm So grateful to the jurors Tamara Sherrill and Mike Takemoto for jurying me into the show.  A very special thanks and appreciation to Mr. Mike Takemoto for choosing my piece for his Juror's Choice Award!

I'm incredibly honored and humbled to have been included and participate in such a key conservation effort here on Maui.

Procreate Uses for Painting and Sunflowers

Been painting in fits and starts as my kids are out of school.  We're having fun swimming, hiking etc...  In between I'm working on a new series of paintings - images coming in the next couple of months.  Also doing a bit more signage etc.

Don't remember the last time I mentioned this, but for anyone interested in digital art - take a look at Procreate.  (The iPad version - though the iPhone version is quite useable).   It's easy to find on the app store.  For less than $10 it's the deal of the century.  I noticed just now it doesn't have great reviews, but I cannot imagine why.  I use it for many things - including painting.  (I also use it on iPad Pro with Apple Pencil)

A couple of the terrific uses for Procreate in painting:  it's super easy to turn your image upside down in Procreate to get a fresh perspective on drawing and values.  It's also great for isolating a color from a reference photo that may be giving you grief.  You can easily see the hue and value by picking it directly from the photo with your finger and it compares that color with the last color you looked at so you can see the relative difference between the two.

Hope you're getting lots of painting in!  Thanks for reading my blog - Much appreciated!!
J

The cherry blossoms are a wedding present for a dear friend.

Hand Refined Linseed Oil - Finished

From a bottle of raw "Flora" brand edible flax oil through three washes and four rinses - two cups of oil has become one cup of sun-thickened drying oil.  I'm loving using it!  It's a about half as thick as stand oil and takes a little more time to oxidize - a day or so.  It smells amazingly fresh - like cucumbers and linseed oil combined.  The pics below are from the process.

At times it was looking pretty gnarly and I was seriously wondering if it would ever amount to anything.

The pic above is mid process before clearing and thickening in the sun.  It just glowed...

This pan was set out in the sun every day for two weeks to thicken and clear the oil.  You can see a little calcium carbonate cloud on the bottom left from the last wash to neutralize the acid content.  As you can see in the first pic I was careful to not transfer that to the finished product.  

The second batch got it's final rinse today and will go out in the sun in the above pan as soon as the sun comes out here.  

All of the directions for doing this yourself are on Tad Spurgeon's amazing web site by the same name.  His book is called "Living Craft" which you can also find on his website.  I absolutely cannot recommend it Highly enough!!!  It's a phenomenal book - a comprehensive reference book really -  with an incredible amount of information that's not on his website.

Maui Winery

The private wine tasting room at the Maui Winery in Ulupalakua, Maui.  I worked on this twice on location and tweaked it in studio.  Would like to do a more finished painting at some point.