Well, it feels like Christmas is just around the corner, yet I think we just finished eating Thanksgiving leftovers. We really enjoyed our Thanksgiving break of a few days, but we've been back to work now and getting a lot accomplished.

Our first job upon coming back was a really fun one too, so we wanted to share. One of our first clients, and a very good friend, Pat Kilburg, came in to get some headshots. The shots came out great and we're all very pleased with the outcome. But another fun part of the job was learning about what she needed the shots for.

So it turns out that Pat is involved in a program for artists throughout the United States called "ART in Embassies". The program's mission is to take original works of art from artists in the states, and to display it in one of about 180 American diplomatic residences worldwide. They take the program very seriously, and take extreme care with every piece of artwork that they place in a residence, which is always really cool to hear about. They've got residences in so many places in the world, some that we've never even heard of!

Our job was to provide Pat with a headshot that the organization needs, and we also got to photograph her beautiful tapestry/fabric art that will soon be hanging in an embassy residence in another country for 2.5-3 years! We got to hear all about the process, and the way everything works and are proud to have had some part in the process with Pat.





Congratulations, Pat, on this awesome opportunity!! You can see more of Pat's work in various mediums at her website HERE.

~Julie~

At the close of Open Studios...

Well it is that time - we must bid adieu to most Greenville artists' favorite event of the year - Open Studios. We were SO busy and running around crazily for about 2 months, and the last 2 weeks especially, just trying to get ready. In the end, it was all SO worth it. The truth is that we wish it could have lasted another weekend. Though we were tired on Friday night from the lack of sleep in getting the show together, by Sunday we were so jazzed up and excited at our turnout, that we could have gone a few more days! It seems to slip by far too fast, and we're already talking about what we'll do next year.

Our show this year (Eli's second year and my first year) was a series by each of us of photos on canvas which we printed, sealed, stretched, and in some cases, framed, here in the studio. We really did connect with our work this year and it was an awesome experience to participate in, as well as to see each other enjoy.



We had what we consider a fabulous turnout - about 150 people came through our studio. So many people were so genuinely interested in our art, our process, and us that we really felt very welcomed and appreciated. We had the chance to meet some great people, including neighbors whom we never had the chance to meet before. We also were very excited that some fellow artists and other long time clients were able to make it in as well. Overall, everyone seemed pretty impressed, which made all those sleepless nights completely worth it. We couldn't have asked for more, so thank you all for coming out!!!!!!



We also had a few sales which was pretty cool... it's always refreshing and rejuvenating when someone deems your art worthy of their hard earned money... so we are REALLY grateful and elated.

We've heard over the past few days that quite a few fellow artists who participated in the event did well also, and we would like to say CONGRATS to all our fellow hard working artists who are probably needing plenty of sleep right now from all of that hard work! We're honored to have participated with all of you!

So thanks again to all of you who made it out - you made the event worthwhile, and thanks to all of the artists who couldn't make it out because you were working hard to entertain the masses too - you keep us going!

In closing, we say a special thank you to Llyn Strong, for helping us SO much with this event, and making our turnout possible - we are eternally grateful for all of your support and help!

Until next time!

-Julie-

Plantation Fun

It's always fun when our jobs take us to fun places and really cool events. Such was the case this past Saturday. Earlier this year we gained a new client who owns a plantation in Taylors, SC - Lindsey Plantation. The owner's name is Estela and she's lots of fun to be around, and when you're lacking energy she is the go-to gal. She works many long hours on her farm/plantation to make everything gorgeous, take care of the many resident horses and various other animals, and just all that fun day-to-day stuff that apparently comes with running a place like hers. Honestly, I don't know if she ever stops!
Well, one of our jobs for her was actually her website, and we needed to get some more photos to keep it fresh and updated. Eli has taken a good bit of the photos on her site, but not all, so it's always cool when we get to add more.

So this past week she extended an invite to us to a Spanish Wine Dinner they were going to host at the plantation and we were asked to shoot some photos of the event to add to the website. We were more than happy to oblige! They turn the very large stable into a huge party room and let me tell you it's really impressive. All the little details are paid attention to and it's all so beautiful and authentic. One of the perks for us was getting to partake in the 3 course delicious meal catered by Table 301 including salad, chicken paella, and a delicious dessert tray, paired with a couple great wines.


After the food was served the partying started with a performance of 3 lovely flamenco dancers doing a few numbers (one of the dancers was Estela herself - didn't I tell you she has energy!). We took our leave shortly thereafter, but had such a great time! It's these fun occasional jobs with great food and fun people that make a REALLY long night of work totally worthwhile.

Well, I guess that wraps it up for now!

If you want to check out more about Lindsey Plantation click here.

-Julie-

The time is fast approaching!

Well folks, most of us that are participating in Open Studios this year are all too aware of how close it is right about now! We have less than a month before the actual event, our 12x12's are due next week, and I know that we have SO much to do! But there's always time for a blog post!

We've been pretty busy these last couple weeks with plenty of people ordering cards, cards, cards! It's definitely the time to do it if you need some in time for the event so keep that in mind!
The fun thing for me is that I get to watch Eli design these really cool cards for people and I'm constantly amazed with what he comes up with. I know from experience that crisp clean images, the perfect text, and awesome formats don't come easy for the rest of us, but he sure does make it look easy. Anyway, he's been doing cards of all sizes for all different categories of artists so the work has been pretty varied. I'm actually the first person begging to see them as they're finished because I love to see how each person's differs and always seems to fit each artist's individuality. Here's just a sampling of what he's been up to as of late...

Lastly, I'll just throw a little reminder out there that if you need cards for Open Studios then you might want to get in pretty soon so he can start working on them - the longer he has to dedicate to making them awesome, the better they'll be!

Note: Open Studios is just one of the many events Eli designs cards for, and he can pretty much design all types of cards for all occasions, so don't hesitate to call us for whatever you may need!

Until next time,

-Julie-

Bev's Portrait

Well, after some planning and waiting on the weather we finally got to the mountains for (our friend and fellow photographer) Bev's photo shoot. We were all really eager for this shoot - we've done plenty of on location portraits before but this was our first with some new equipment that allows us to go anywhere we want to shoot and still use all of our lighting equipment. So we went out to the mountains with our gear in tow and had a blast!


As you can see, Eli had fun balancing pretty precariously on rocks in the water, with his tripod getting some attention from fish. I was behind the scenes keeping a 'handle' on things...making sure Bev was the only one in the water! Nothing like electrical cords, strobes, and batteries on a small sand bank.


After some convincing from Eli, Bev was willing to get barefoot in the VERY cold water for some great shots, and we were all very pleased with the results...


This was not only another great portrait shoot, but is a great example of how we are now able to go out and shoot people in so many more locations!

Check out where the final image was used and Bev's photos at ExpressionsbyBev.com



Until next time - Julie




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Busy Week

Well, it’s been a really long time since I’ve had the chance to post anything here. It’s been really busy here for a while now, between working and getting ready for Open Studios it's been pretty hectic. No complaints though, it's how I prefer things.

All attempts are being made to do a weekly or twice-weekly post from now on. This week we got a new website up for a client and friend. A fellow OS artist and photographer...Bev Peeples. We put a good deal of work, here at the studio, into putting her website together. From choosing photos, fonts, and colors, to logo designs, bio rewrites, and an upcoming portrait we’re doing for her bio page. We “unveiled” it to her over the phone last night and she was really excited about it!

Take a look at what we did for Bev at www.expressionsbybev.com, as well as her photography.



Back to work, more very soon (really this time). Oh, one announcement...for those of you who haven't met her, Julie is my girlfriend, a fellow photographer, and is also working with me at the studio to help the place grow. Starting with this post I'll be handing over the reigns of the blog to her. More on that will be on the website very soon.

I've been super slack about updating this blog lately, but I had a really big shoot today and wanted to post about it. It was a collaboration between Danielle (the jeweler), Shantel (makeup), Josha (the model), Julie (the lovely assistant) and myself doing the lighting and photography. It was a project that had been in the works for a couple months and one I was completely looking forward to. I'd shot once before with each of the people involved, but never all together. It was a really laid back shoot and I was really happy with the images, as was everyone else I believe. I'm posting some of the preparation and quick edits of my favorite two images of the day. More soon (sooner than last time)...

The weekend: Part 1

I spent some of Saturday photographing some of Teri Goddard's scarves. I did more than I'd talked to her about shot wise, but I think she'll be ok with that. Most people like free stuff. I ended up doing about 12 shots where I was supposed to do 3. To my defense I couldn't decide which would work best, I'm only going to put one on here for now because she hasn't seen them yet. It's the last shot I did, also the most complex. Probably the most lights and modifiers I've ever used in a single shot. I like it though, I think it came out very commercial/print ad looking. Which is why I left room at the top and bottom, it could be cropped many different ways to work on a card, poster, website...anything.

The other big thing for the weekend was a trip to Atlanta. Julie and I went to the Botanical Gardens and Ikea to celebrate our 3rd anniversary. I'll get a few photos up on the next post...probably tomorrow. That's all for now!

Finalizing

Today was all about getting things completed. I've had a lot of open projects here, and today, I got 3 or 4 of them done. Still 3 major ones left, but thats what tomorrow is for. It's been a great year, a lot of really awesome things have gone on, and unfortunately some really awful ones. A good one this weekend, Julie and my 3rd year anniversary, were planning to celebrate by adopting two little ones. Gerbils of course. Were planning to name them Peepoepowitz and Smachimo (somebody surprise me and get that reference). Come see them in a week or two, they'll be the new studio mascots. I'm putting up random photos tonight. We got bored here at the studio last night and made some funny images using my nikon, a tripod and an old TLR camera. Enjoy.

I'll post some work images tomorrow, I'm finishing up a really cool piece for Ron Gillen, still finishing those pottery pieces I mentioned in my last post...I may post the final design for the brochures I did for Joe Ambuhl as well. I want to see what he thinks of them first. That's all for now!

Cards and Collages

Today and yesterday were fun. I've shot a bunch of flat work in the past couple days and I spent this afternoon designing cards for Julie's aunt in Illinois (image) using one of Julie's Chicago pictures. Earlier (maybe yesterday, I can't remember) I did a collage of all the pieces I'd shot for Jane Tukarski over the weekend, I believe it's going to be the image for the front page of her website. Tomorrow I'm shooting scarves for Teri Goddard and I may try to get around to shooting some pottery for Tom Seelos, an out of town artist. Another client of mine from Atlanta was up for a show in Anderson a couple weeks back and dropped off some of Tom's work. Images coming soon on those.

I'm thankful for the new studio, I never could have handled so much work at the old place. Here I'm efficient enough to get all these shoots done and still have plenty of time left over for quick jobs...so please don't feel like you need to wait to bring me work till I'm less busy, I still have a 1 to 3 day turnaround on most things, 8-12 days on cards. Thanks everyone!

Mondays!

This has been a great week starter here at the studio (not to mention an awesome weekend). Lots of fun things to photograph. Over the weekend I photographed Janina Ellis's mom's artwork (Jane Tukarski - janetukarski.com), and then she had me make 2 posters. They're 20x30 in frames for her show booth, and she ended up loving them...enough to buy the 3rd one that I'd made to put up at the studio! I plan to replace it though, so come check it out in a couple days. Prices for those will be coming soon (somewhere in the 25-75 dollar range, depending on some options).


Today I'm working on brochures for Joe Ambuhl (jajpaintings.com). Joe has a studio down the street in 10 Central Avenue Studios. He gave me permission to have fun with the concept for the brochures, always my favorite thing to hear when I do cards and such. It motivates me to try and do something much deeper than just image/bio/title on solid background. I normally don't show designs that aren't finished, but I really like where this one is going...i'm calling it fun/majestic...a little over the top, but Joe said he was cool with that. I like having the artwork play a double role in print, so having the two matching paintings magically floating the letters seemed like a no brainer.


Oh, the other fun thing today was shooting some counter top samples for Tammy Goben. Many may recognize her work by the countertop on my desk here that she graciously made for me. She makes them out of special paints and epoxy over any kind of solid material (mostly mdf). They're really impressive to see in person, the 3d effect from the layers of epoxy and paint is very cool! This photo hardly does them justice (not assisted by the fact that this one is pretty rough still, edited just for the blog).


There are some more projects I'm starting on tomorrow, I'll post when I have some images.

Tax Day!

I should have motivated myself and made this two posts, oh well...it's tax day and I don't feel like it. It's been an amazing week. I really feel like I'm starting to come into my own. I've felt re-energized...and just in time, because I've gotten some really cool jobs lately where I get to put a little of myself into the thought process.

Yesterday I was over at Phil Garrett's studio shooting images for a book proposal, I wanted to do the absolute best I could because I really want it to happen. I had so much fun shooting Patti's book, but I feel like I know a lot more after going through the process than I did then and want another shot at it. Here's one of the images from that...

philgarrett.com

We can pretend this is a different post altogether.

This morning I got up and payed my taxes (:| yay). I was ready to photograph something when I got to the studio. Janina Ellis left a couple of her mom's ivory (legal ivory) pieces so I could get some ideas before she brings more later for the actual shoot. I wanted to challenge myself and since most of the pieces are an off white, I thought I would shoot on a white background and see what would come of it. I got one shot done before work took over my day. I'm not sure if this is the look the final shots will have, but we'll see. More soon...

janetukarski.com

I've been pretty slack about posting here. Things have been busy, although much less stressful now that I'm all moved in and working at the new space. I've been doing some new projects, a run of prints for a local corporate place doing reproductions of a Charlie Pate piece...also some new jewelry images for Llyn Strong, for a Greenville Journal ad I believe. Not to mention a series of images of some of the structures Deno Contos and his company, Benchmark Trails Inc., have built at the Conestee State Park on Mauldin Road. I've also been scanning lots of my negatives for the portrait project I've been working on. It's been a great month though, working with lots of my long time regulars and some great new clients. More soon (sooner than last time)
Eli

Oh, I also wanted to post a picture of the really awesome countertop Tammy Goben made for me. She came in one day when I was building the desk structure and offered, it's really amazing what she's capable of. Thanks again Tammy!

Well, the opening happened and it was a huge success. Thanks everyone who came and made it such an awesome time (and birthday!). We estimated 80-100 people came. I feel very lucky about everything! I have the support of so many wonderful people and I get to work with some awesome artists on a daily basis. Thanks everyone!!! If you didn't make it by, give me a call and stop in when you can.

Oh, and Pat Cato of the Artist Guild Gallery won the raffle. I will be doing more of those in the future though, so watch out for that.

Quite a day! Drove to Atlanta to the Whitespace814 (.com) gallery to shoot a show of 20 new pieces by Tommy Taylor. Everything went flawlessly, which was great. It's a very cool gallery, and it's always fun to get away for the day, even if it was a quick trip. When I got back I started back on the studio work. I'm making a big desk/hutch thing and I'm learning to drywall as I go. It's going pretty well. It should be done by Wednesday if all goes to plan (so Saturday probably). Now I'm finishing a big email invite for Flat Friday (this Friday, the 19th) and the opening next Friday (the 26th). Phew!

So last night Julie and I got the inside doors covered in fake frosted glass (left image). It took a lot of time, but I think it came out pretty nicely. Then earlier today I got to shoot some jewelry for the first time here. Some pieces by Dori Baumwart (metalifics.com), made for the American Heart Association auction. The image on the right is a rough edit of one of the pieces. 16 days till the opening also, I may actually have everything done by then. We'll see...

Monday

Well, in the past couple days I managed to get my desk temporarily set up (till I finish building and painting it) and the hanging system is up on the main walls. Today I shot Emily's piece and April Harrison dropped off a bunch of pieces. I hope to get a big announcement email done later tonight, soon I'll be able to relax and enjoy the new space...one more weekend I'm betting.

It's still a construction site on weekends, but it technically looks much better than this as of right now. I am calibrating my monitor and starting to shoot as soon as I get there tomorrow (Monday). An Emily Clarke painting then some jewelry I think. More soon...

The New Place

My plan for this blog is to show a little more about what I do. I will be posting about whats going on at the studio...new projects, who I'm working with and whatever else seems relevant. I have just moved into a new studio and am using the move to make a fresh start. My website has been updated (eliwarren.com), I have started accepting credit cards and the quality of my work is increasing with the added space of the new studio. I'm excited to get back to work after moving and building all last week. The image for this post is pre-move in. I'll post soon with what it looks like now.