oil paintings – Page 2 – Art of Schmidt

Abraham Lincoln Paintings (for sale)

Hello Friends,

I have added two new portraits I made of Abraham Lincoln, my favorite United States President to my Etsy Shop at https://www.etsy.com/your/shops/ArtofSchmidt. These two paintings are pictured below. I was inspired to create these pieces by a day trip to Gettysburg, PA several years ago, when I happened upon a gallery owned by Gettysburg, Pennsylvania artist, Wendy Allen. Wendy Allen has dedicated many years of her life to capturing the likeness of Abraham Lincoln in a variety of fun and colorful incarnations from Andy Warhol pop art inspired to the tonal art of Pablo Picasso. Also, because Lincoln is one of my favorite Presidents, I knew I wanted to capture him on canvas.

He is an inspirational figure to me for so many reasons and he never let any obstacles stand in his way. Although he had a limited formal education and very little encouragement from his father to discover his potential and unique talents, he went on to achieve the American dream we all aspire to achieve. His step mother, Sarah Bush, provided emotional support, and books, such as the Bible, Aesop’s Fables, The Pilgrim’s Progress, and Lessons in Elocution, to help Abe with his self-guided education. It just goes to show what can happen when someone believes in you, and you believe them!

In the meantime, I am also working on some acrylic paintings of Civil War Soldiers in watercolor and acrylic. I will be posting progress photos of these paintings this week. Stay tuned!

Abraham Lincoln portrait (with green)

Abraham Lincoln portrait (with purple)

Work in Progress: Frederick Coffee Company Art Show

Hello Friends,

Here are some progress photos of the small landscape paintings I have been working on in preparation for my art show at Frederick Coffee Company in Frederick, MD in October 2017. These paintings started out as acrylics, but I was unhappy with the result, so I painted over the acrylic with Winsor and Newton oil paints yesterday. Now I am much happier with the more vibrant colors that I achieved this second time around. I used some paint chips from Lowes paint center to help me decide what color scheme to use for these paintings and I tried to match the colors as closely as I could to the paint chip samples. It was a big help so that I didn’t get sucked into the photo references I used and was able to make these paintings my own. Thanks for stopping by!

Sold! Cow in theMeadow

Hello, Friends,

I am pleased to share that my oil painting, Cow in the Meadow, sold to a client this May. If you wanted to purchase the painting but didn’t get a chance, I have reproductions of this painting for sale on my Redbubble store at https://www.redbubble.com/people/jsjschmidt2017/works/26919397-cow-in-the-meadow. There are canvas prints, iPhone cases and more with this painting on it! Iphone cases are selling for $25 each. cow portrait small

Stories We Tell

Stories are a universal element in the arts, such as music, film, opera, theater, poetry, literature, dance and fine arts. They help us to know that we are not alone, that someone else has traveled down a similar path as ours, whether it is loss, uncertainty, joy, expectation, happiness, etc. As an undergraduate art student, I spent a lot of hours making content based work, mostly self-portraits that told a story about some event I was experiencing or a feeling I was working through. I primarily used color to express my feelings. For my senior thesis, I did a series of self-portraits, which were inspired by Sting’s songs on his album, Mercury Falling. These songs dealt with subjects such as depression, in Lithium Sunset. Lately, I am feeling pulled back into more content based work, and this time I am taking my cue from songs and poetry of Sting, Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson, and Maya Angelou, among others. Here is a photo of my painting, Lithium Sunset, inspired by Sting’s song, Lithium Sunset:

Fill my eyes
O Lithium sunset
And take this lonesome burden
Of worry from my mind
Take this heartache
Of obsidian darkness
And fold my darkness
Into your yellow light. (Song excerpt from Sting’s official website: http://www.sting.com/discography/lyrics/lyric/song/178

I will post my sketches for this new series based on poetry and songs soon. For now, here is my painting, Lithium Sunset, Oil on Canvas, 2005. Enjoy!

Oil painting self-portrait inspired by the song Lithium Sunset by Sting.

Cow in Meadow

Oil painting of a black and white cow

Exhibit at the Frederick Coffee Company

Frederick Coffee Co Exhibit — Photo of Jodie Schmidt’s oil paintings at the Frederick Coffee Company.

I (Jodie) am showing my artwork at the Frederick Coffee Company at 100 N East St., Frederick, MD 21701. They will be up from February 1st to the 28th. They have coffee, food and live music, too. All of my oil paintings are for sale, unless otherwise marked. I also have art cards if the paintings are not in your budget. They are going for $12 a pack. For directions, menu or calendar of music events, go to their website, www.fredcoffeeco.com.

The Artists’ Gallery Box Show

Jodie and I have each submitted our own pieces to The Artists’ Gallery 11th Annual Box Show and Silent Auction. Opening reception is March 3rd, 5 – 9 pm. They will be on display until March 31st, and bidding ends at 8 pm sharp on March 31st. We will be donating 50% of the sales to the gallery. They provided the 8″ x 8″ x 8″ wooden boxes, and we turned them into art.

The picture’s aren’t great, so I encourage you to see them in person if you can. Jodie did five copies of master artworks, self-portraits of Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Mary Cassatt, Berthe Morisot and Edgar Degas.