illustrator

Strange days

| jennifer barrile

Caught in a moment

spiraling

falling

into strange days

(Art inspired by song, Where Is My Mind by the Pixies : cut paper on chip board, marker and ink)

The past few months has been an adjustment for me, my time spent on social media slowed down, and I wasn’t creating blog posts. Making art came to a halt during the beginning of the covid pandemic. Over the Summer months I slowly began to paint again. My weekly family outings, surrounding ourselves in nature was a saving grace.

Forever Summer

Side trip to Slaughter Beach in Delaware, before heading home from Summer vacation. Plenty of shells, rocks and horseshoe crabs wash up on this beach.

(Illustration: watercolor, ink and graphite on watercolor paper. )

My sketchbook also accompanied me on my travels.

On the beach in Ocean City, Maryland

(watercolor sketch book, watercolor markers & ink)

Enjoyed many hot Summer days swimming (and sketching) at Garrison Lake in New Jersey. Beautiful scenic cedar lake with plenty of trees to escape the sun.

(watercolor sketch book, with watercolor pencils and graphite)

As a family we spent time walking, hiking and having picnics in various parks in our area. A favorite place to visit is the Valley Forge National Historic Park in Pennsylvania.

(Valley Forge Park: watercolor markers and graphite )
(Picnic in the park. Watercolor markers on watercolor paper)

And many days spent cloud watching from my deck..

(cloudscape: Acrylic paint on a recycled canvas)

I hope this finds you well, thank you for taking the time to read my post.

Additional information for the places I mentioned in my post:

Valley Forge Park

Ocean City, Maryland

Garrison Lake

Slaughter Beach, DE

Best parks to visit in Philadelphia

Left Handed Kisses

| jennifer barrile

The music video for my song choice, Left Handed Kisses, by Andrew Bird & Fiona Apple was the inspiration for day 40 of The 100 Day Project.   Not only was I captivated by the sound but I was also mesmerized by the dynamic between Andrew and Fiona in the music video. The idea to create a quirky portrait of the singers played on repeat in my mind until I drew it out…..

 

40/100

Watercolor and ink on 140 lb coldpress paper with wood frame..

 

Pencil sketch

 

 

To view more of my 100 day project visit #100DaysOfSongsIllustrated  on Instagram.

Music Video:  Left Handed Kisses

 

(Artwork created by me,  music by Andrew Bird & Fionna Apple)

 

 

Six feet under

| jennifer barrile

During the month of August I will be posting some of my favorite illustrations from my participation in The 100 Day Challenge on Instagram

Day 85 of my 100 days of songs illustrated.

Song inspiration: Six Feet Under by Billie Ellish – “Our love is six feet under I can’t help but wonder if our grave was watered by the rain, would roses bloom?..”

 

 

In the video below I am using acrylic paint on 140 lb on cold press paper. If you notice a little difference in the drawing  at this stage, I decided to change up the figure midway through the process because the image wasn’t working for me visually.

 

 

Working with mixed media, here I am adding watercolor to lower portion of artwork.

 

Thank you for taking the time to view my art and process.

 

Previous blog posts about the 100 day project:

Day one

100 illustrations

 

*The artwork shown in the video is my creation, but the song playing in the background is not. Song by Billie Ellish, titled: Six Feet Under.

Nature of the city

| jennifer barrile

A collection of my landscape and cityscape paintings will be on display at The Cedars House, a quaint cafe in the woods of Philadelphia. The cafe is a favorite haunt of mine, when hiking the trails in Fairmount Park or sketching in nature.  My paintings are on display now through December.

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The Cedars House, 200 W Northwestern Ave, Phila., PA 19118

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Painting process of the Manayunk Trail Bridge

 

Thank you for viewing

 

Want to explore Philadelphia’s park & trails, follow the links below:

Wissahickon Valley Park Trail 

Valley Green

Day hiker map

Manayunk Trail Bridge

 

Thirty illustrations

| jennifer barrile

On the surface it may seem I just breezed through thirty 5×5″ cat illustrations, but in reality it can be comparable to Cookie cat trying to squeeze into a small space on a chair her human occupies..

Life goals!

30/100     5×5″ cold press watercolor paper.. Mixed media – graphite, acrylic, watercolor

 

Quick view of all 30 illustrations..

 

Thank you for viewing!

Plein air

| jennifer barrile

The East Coast experienced many mild weather days this winter, which drew me out of my studio hibernation to paint in nature.  Once upon a time my outdoor painting would consist of small watercolor sketches or pencil drawings. This time around I decided to try quick paintings using acrylic paint and graphite on paper, spending about 45 min to an hour on each painting.

A recent purchase and a new love, the Sta-Wet handy palette, helped make outdoor painting easier. This palette box preserves paints for an extended period of time.. The smaller version was easy to transport and keep paint fresh. My preference of paint brush is more scrubby in texture, short bristle brushes..  Sometimes you just have to make adjustments, when you can’t find what you need, I gave my brushes a hair cut..

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Since I am painting on paper, I don’t need an easel, just a hard surface to paint on.. Most of the time I use picnic tables in parks, and or invert the lid to my sat-wet palette to place my paper on. Working small 8″x 10″ or smaller means less paint needed.

Reserve your time in nature……

Supplies I bring for outdoor painting: Reusable bag to transport my supplies, water bottle, water cup (I use an empty yogurt container) brushes, pencil, pre-cut watercolor paper (small various sizes) rag, clips (to hold paper together) Palette fully loaded with paint colors (I try not to bring extra tubes of paint) large ziplock bags to package up my palette and any loose materials. I use a rubber band to wrap around my palette to keep it from accidentally opening in transport.

Hello

| jennifer barrile

Oh hello darling,  I miss you..

Yes I have been neglecting you old buddy, missed out on your ever changing landscape, your colorful words, exquisite taste of imagery, and inspiring ways.. You always had something new to say and I can always find an adventure or two at my fingertips…

Forgive me darling, my attention played on other playgrounds, it kept me away from hanging out with you..  I couldn’t resist your algorithm charm, I knew one day this gal would return to you with a spark of enthusiasm…

Have you missed me..WordPress?  … huh?

Oh your silence is cruel..

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My choice of play has been Instagram, and Facebook but I did miss writing…  My goal this year is to get back to writing and posting regularly.. I really did miss reading my favorite bloggers posts, such a great community of talented inspirational people on WordPress.

Illustration: pencil on paper

Art of listening

| jennifer barrile

The power to truly listen to that which wants to come through you can be a tough thing to accomplish. Life happens, distractions occur but finding a quiet spot to sit and let your mind wander works wonders…. When words find you in that space where your mind fades, magic happens. Sometimes we just need to get out of our own way.

Writing my morning pages brought forth this intuitive sketch..


 

 

Thank you for stopping by to view my work and videos..

Story time

| jennifer barrile

Are you falling, caught, uplifted, or maybe swinging around having fun? I would love to know what you perceive from the illustration? Feel free to comment, whatever comes to mind.

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-Watercolor, marker, on Canson cold press paper, 140 lb.

Recently I have been painting and drawing intuitively, including this art. This little illustration started with some pencil marks on paper resembling leaves which brought forth this image. No photos involved just my imagination.