New Art – Illustrations, a small painting, teasers in October


A round-up of what I’ve been drawing and painting lately.


New illustrations for An Alchemy of Dragons.

I decided to take pity on you all for once and split my longer chapters into two parts for easier reading on teensy-beensy little phone screens. Of course, each chapter still needs at least two illustrations, so that means more art!

Chapter 4 has been split into Chapters 4 and 5, with two new images. You can see these in the novel text, here, and get a close-up look in the Artworks Gallery, under Illustration, here.

jfries-alchemy-ch-4b-initial-10.15.23-72dpi-1

jfries-alchemy-ch-4a-dragon-10.18.23-72dpi-2


Chapter 3 is also going to get split. I need to do one new image for that. I’ll probably default to Ch. 3, Pts 1 and 2, rather than edit all the other page titles after it.


A Small Botanical Painting


Dog roses from my garden, pastel on paper.

I actually don’t work well with pastels in the traditional way, as a dry medium. I apply them wet, like watercolor paints. It gives me an interesting matte finish, like a more ethereal gouache. I intend to write about my process in the near future.


Teasers

Coming Next: The first illustration for Chapter 6 of Alchemy. Here’s a sneak peak of the sketch.



Still Inside My Head: October is the month for lunar art, don’t you think?


I’m thinking collage for this one.

Why, yes, I do take photos of the moon with a rubbish old point-and-click camera with no filters or proper settings, from my studio window in the middle of the night. Doesn’t everyone?

Poem on a Rainy Afternoon, October 7, 2023


It’s been dark all day today
Dark sky
Dark light
Dark rooms whispering dark news

But the soft air invites a sweater
And the birds
talk with me
among the dogwood leaves
in the rain
outside my window



Heavy clouds all day. It was too dark to mix colors, too dark to photograph art. The news of the world was pretty damn dark, too.

But then I fed the wild birds on the porch roof outside my studio window. They were waiting for me, as usual – sparrows and mourning doves, house finches in their subdued red, jays in their glamorous blue. So much gossiping and yakking while they ate.

It didn’t matter that I couldn’t understand what they were saying. Sitting with them, listening to the rain and their voices, feeling that soft, damp, early autumn chill, it gave a strangely profound sense of perspective.

It felt real. It felt good.

So I wrote about it.

-Jen

Magic, Moons, and Masks

Happy October! Tonight, the full Hunter’s Moon is shining side by side with Jupiter at its closest and brightest, and Halloween is coming up fast.

I’ve always been inspired by things associated with this time of year. Magic and the occult. Myths and monsters. Dreams and the night. The masks we wear and what lies beneath them. And above it all, the beautiful, changing, eternal Moon.

To start the celebration of my favorite month and my favorite season, here is a selection of artworks I’ve made through the years, exploring these themes.