RIP TS Applegate

this isn't a sign, but it's something i had to, unfortunately, draw last week, regarding one of my dearest and most important friends ever, app. i'm writing a graphic biography about this boat that he built on orcas island, and him, and a lot of other stuff. his contribution to the world was enormous, and he was under 5 feet tall.

Common Ground Community Land Trust

these are faily self-explanatory; this neighborhood needed a bit of identification, and i was able to provide. i always love to make "non-commercial" signs.

village arts locally crafted on lopez island

We had this collective craft shop for a couple of years, maybe around 2015 or so.

vivid salon, lopez island

vivid salon is now open in a new location in lopez village, behind lopez bookshop and the holly b's complex. 

Lopez Center

hand-painted address sign

sew what!

Village Arts: locally crafted on Lopez Island

Coming March 29!

Village Arts locally crafted 

....on Lopez Village! we are opening our doors Easter weekend with pottery, glass, jewelry, textiles & fiber arts, photography, letterpress, and more. This is a small collective of artists, some of them formerly of LoCo, who are now occupying the homestead water tower. 

more info coming soon...

...this is the fourth or fifth sign i've painted for the tower in about 10 years! i also had my painting studio in the second floor room, 10 x 10 feet or 3 x 3 meters, for a couple of years. i'm excited to be in the tower again! this is my true 'hood in the village, and we will be busting out with the hula hoops again in the old plum orchard, so come play this summer!

a sign for my studio door

lillestol/knutson family tree

a sign for my other studio door

i've really been drawing more than painting lately. it's so frickin' fun! and, i can do it on my couch while i'm watching movies at night, in my jammies. i'm working! really! i love winter.

the hamlet

i'll post better photos soon, of the 10 signs i finished in january for the senior housing hamlet in lopez village.
many thanks to ronni, my flexible, occasional employee, for helping me paint and keeping me company in the studio! we painted 7 small parking signs that were identical, and therefore tedious.

here are some of the signs in place:

else's invitation

wow this was a really fun project! i didn't make much money on it but i did learn a lot about my markers.

slow art studio

i finally got to paint some signs for myself; my  new studio on dill road.
stop on in, if you can catch me there! i'm getting quite a bit less work done now that i'm not working at home in my jammies.

center church sign restoration

a lopez historical landmark finally got a facelift. i also painted a new one for the bottom, but it's not hung up yet.
update: the bottom sign was hung up, as well as all of the parking signs i made. it looks good! there was a bit of a snafu on the color of "white" that i used, but it seems to have worked itself out. i try not to use "white white" because it's sort of glaring on the eye. but white isn't always white, and i need to pay closer attention. lesson learned! sometime i need to take another pic on a cloudy day....

inside passage counseling center

i made this out of a recycled real estate sign, from a pile of them that were donated to me once. it saves me time & materials, and the client money. it's 2' x 2', and i added the handle.
i can't recycle just any old piece of plywood, for longevity reasons, but these are heavily painted, thick exterior wood and are in excellent condition even after heavy sanding.

...and two more for heather. i designed this logo over the summer,  and at the time i knew it would be really fun to paint with the gorgeous colors. it was! heather's office is in anacortes, so it will be more of a challenge to get 'on location' shots for these.

illuminated aviary

well, since i moved my studio out of the bus (my house) and down the road, i had to come up with something to do in my 'downtime' in the evenings (anita, you were totally right on). i still like to watch movies and stitch books together at the end of the day, but here's what i've been working on just for fun lately; combining my favorite medieval, celtic and art nouveau styles with birds from my own yard (the mourning doves come in the summertime, but everyone else is hanging about right now). i don't know if i'm going to do the entire alphabet; i need to start working on the "applegate project"!

revel in wintertime

check it out! i got my drawing on the holiday cover of the local food co-op rag, which i'm pretty proud of...but the artist credit just says "Brenna Jael"...no last name, no web address...which was really WHY i agreed to spend 20 hours on a drawing for a $75 credit; exposure to 10,000 people in the skagit valley.
no harm done; i googled "brenna jael" and there i was, of course....sometimes it's nice to have an unusual name.
also, i traded the credit for 4 months of advertising.
i know it's just fire paper, but still, it's a small thrill.

by the way, i did print some cards with this image, that i'm selling, and i can make larger prints by request. check my etsy shop BBearproductions, or if you're on the 'Pez, they're for sale at LoCo.

sally by the sea

i painted these last spring, but sally recently got them hung up out by the road, so i stopped by for a photo shoot. despite the fact that she lives on a very quiet country road, and it's dead winter, the "open" sign has apparently attracted a lot of walk-in traffic already.
i hope this works for me at my new studio!!!

here's a link to sally's etsy shop, where she sells extremely cool screenprinted goods:

sallybythesea.etsy.com

one more for Isabel's Espresso (two sides)

a couple of favorites

2 of my favorite signs from around the island, that i did not make:

because of this one, i have that song stuck in my head all the time. you know the one.

but this is my all-time favorite sign. or poem. whatever you want to call it.

custom family tree illustrations in pen & ink

 two family trees i recently had the privilege and pleasure of drawing...

there's still time before christmas to have one made for your family.

contact me through
slowartlopez.com
or BBearproductions.etsy.com
to order your own!

 although the process generally takes only 7-10 days,  i cannot guarantee christmas delivery for orders taken after december 3. thanks!

PSOR, updated

these are replacements for 2 of my first-ever-signs for ron (the business owner), that i painted in 2000 or so. the old ones were peeling badly, as they face due south, with absolutely no protection from sun & salty salish sea wind.

since i didn't go to "sign painting school", and am 100% self-taught, i've learned a few things the hard way. i used to think you could take any old scrappy piece of plywood and make it into a sign.

you can, but the paint won't last.

i know, it's sad, because recycling old plywood is good! but i want my work to last more than 10 years, certainly.

so now, i only use high-grade plywoods in my work. i know it's not "job security" for me...but neither is a bunch of local businesses with scrappy, peeling signs.
the old ones were starting to embarrass me.

on to another unrelated, but related topic: huge, loud and excited congrats are in order for ron and robert who can FINALLY get legally married in washington state (not to mention my own mom and her partner, if they want)! many of us here are very happy about that. i know this has nothing to do with sign painting, except that ron paid me to paint these and that's part of the story i'm telling.

get over it already!