Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Jumped on the Etsy Bandwagon!


I was referred by contemporary artist, Jessica Torrant, to a fabulous new site for all things artsy called Etsy! I will soon be closing up shop with Ebay and moving all large works to my Etsy store. I have already met tons of wonderful people and have had such fun breezing through all the wonderful stores featured there. In the meantime, you will be able to find some of my smaller most recent works here,
Link

at www.meghanhenley.etsy.com. Check it out!

Featured Painting: "Eye Candy", Watercolor and Ink, Meghan Henley, 2006.

Friday, November 24, 2006

Making Original Art Affordable!




Annually, I travel to the quaint town I grew up in, Walhalla, SC, to be a part of the Walhalla Civic Auditorium Showcase of Artists. I am so proud to be a part of this wonderful, charming holiday exhibition. The Showcase features artists and craftspeople from all over the world during the holiday season. The Showcase is to support the Holiday "Tour of Homes" for historic downtown Walhalla. It is such a beautiful, quiet german town with the famous "Steakhouse."
Each year, I try to create small works that are afordable to most everyone so that I can extend an offer of quality, original fine art to anyone with $10 in their pocket. I even go further to make sure they will fit in standard frames and matboards. This way the customer won't take it home and place it on the dining room table and never actually have their original, signed artwork professionally framed and hung. They can just put it in a frame found most anywhere and hang as soon as they get home. Original art is also such a wonderful idea for a holiday gift. Just thought I would share some of the small Sgraffito paintings I have done recently in preperation for the show. The paintings are acrylic on 4x6 Metallic Wallcovering with pencil. For more, please visit:
Link

Sunday, November 19, 2006


"Rockettes", Meghan Henley, 2006.This year's holiday card design is ready! Please contact me if you are interested.
www.meghanhenley.com

Thursday, November 16, 2006



I do hope I am not boring you people with all this "Sgraffito" talk. Just thought I would share some more...


I am working with Eva Magazine, Knoxville's local Women's magazine, on a piece about my Sgraffito work. Thought I might post how my scratching started.

I had been struggling for a long while with my style; not really knowing which direction I needed to take, when I realized that I was most interested in actually including the viewer in the process of my painting. I just didn't know exactly how to go about this.

In a fit of frustration in my studio one day, I took my palette knife to the canvas and began removing the oil paint from the canvas. Below the paint was my underpainting using oil pastel and pencil. The effect was marvelous. I realized this removal of the paint added much more interest to the overall effect of the painting. I also decided this was how I would be able to involve the viewer in the process of my forming the work. The viewer could actually see the technique; layering, removal and final result in each of my paintings. I even began to transform the images in front of my eyes by removing the paint and surprising myself with a fresh viewpoint that I was previously unaware of. After much research on the internet and books on painting techniques, I realized I was interested in Sgrafftio Painting. The word sgraffito derives from the Italian word "sgraffire" which literally means "to scratch". Although I began using a palette knife, I started to explore different ways to remove the paint. I have used old credit cards, paper clips, forks, pens and pencils.

I now actually use the scratch marks as the linear elements in paintings. I also sometimes scratch away portions to reveal shadowing. My latest focus of sgraffito is what I refer to as "building and painting out." Layers of glaze and paint are built in steps. I usually end up painting out most of the composition in the last stage of work to reveal what I think of as the final piece. I enjoy the freedom of Sgraffito and each time I create a work, I feel more involved with the composition because I work in stages with the glazes. I am glad I am finally able to show the viewer the process in which I am so interested.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

I am greatly inspired by Austrian painter, Hundertwasser, who was also intriqued with the Austrian Baroque era's voluptuousnous. He broke away from the spirit of the human form and began focusing on the pieces that make up life and shaped and formed compositions from his ideas. Hundertwasser's compositions are compelling, mainly geometric type forms and based on his idea of "vegitative painting" and organic inspiration.

http://www.kunsthauswien.com/english/hundertwasser.htm


Klimt, of course, may also come to mind as his style can sometimes be seen in both my work and Hundertwasser's. Klimt's mosaic styled geometric collections seem to interest me. I enjoy his use of repitition but feel it is sometimes too much for my own style. I prefer to paint landscaped compositions including the geometric designs.

http://www.expo-klimt.com/