Artistic Insights from the Studio of Erica Norelius

Behind the Scenes Look at producing a small body of work   What goes into producing a small body of work? For most collectors and art lovers, the painting hanging on a gallery wall, which is the culmination of an artist's vision, is often the only step of the artistic process they see. In this article, I will document my creative process for a recent body of work, from the original concept, design process, production, and finally, details.  1. CONCEPT This summer, I learned about a local gallery looking for artists to participate in a 30-day challenge. The only guidelines were the timeline and the [...]

My last two posts, I talked about the process of creating an artwork, specifically for a client. To quickly recap, in late November I was contacted by one of my galleries, as a woman had walked in looking for some of my paintings of Chinatown. When she didn't find what she was looking for, my gallery suggested that she commission a painting. We started talking, and a couple weeks later  I presented her with some sketches of various scenes (see part 1).             The two sketches above are the two she picked out, and I quickly followed up with [...]

This post continues documenting a step by step process of a commission I worked on over the holidays. While many people see only the final product hanging on the wall, there is a lot of work going on behind the scene to pull a painting together. [...]

  This past month I was contacted by one of my galleries to do a cityscape of Chinatown for a client. In my following two posts, I plan on showing my process, starting with the sketches, the color studies and finally the finished paintings.  On Black Friday, I headed into Chinatown, walking up and down the streets, wandering through mysterious alleys, and even grabbing a bite to eat at a beautifully ornate Chinese restaurant. Chinatown never ceases to amaze me. Grant Street (think Chinatown gate) is filled with storefronts and restaurants. Dangling across the street hang strings of red lanterns. [...]