South Shore Living / March 2011 / Girls Just Wanna Paint

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Girls Just Wanna Paint

12 local artists celebrate creativity and friendship online

It’s 6:30 on a Tuesday night, and while the rest of the Sandpaper Building appears quiet and dark, Mary Sheehan Winn’s Rockland art studio is buzzing with activity. Colorful canvases decorate her studio’s bright white walls and a chorus of cheerful voices echo against the historic factory building’s high ceilings. One by one, a series of acclaimed South Shore artists arrive, each carrying a tasty appetizer to share, and one 6-inch by 6-inch painting.

With their artwork arranged along the studio’s back wall, the artists gather for an informal critique, each taking a turn to explain their creative process and offering one another bits of feedback.

“This month’s challenge was glass,” Kelley MacDonald tells me, gesturing towards the series of paintings that depict a pair of reading glasses, a bottle of perfume, a flower vase, and MacDonald’s own creation, a martini glass with starlight mints inside. “As you can see, we all come up with our own creative idea for how to paint each topic.”

The monthly art “challenges” are the creations of twelve acclaimed local artists, who each contribute a monthly art post to the Girls Just Wanna Paint Blog.

A South Shore resident for close to 21 years, MacDonald came up with the idea for the Girls Just Wanna Paint blog as a way to keep in touch with her artist friends after she moved to Rhode Island. Already an avid artist blogger, MacDonald suggested to her friends that they create their own art website where they could each post photos of a monthly “challenge” painting for all to see. To make the experience even more fun, the women would then plan a day to get together at one of the friend’s homes or studios to share their artistic creations in person.

MacDonald’s idea was well received by all members of the group and in July of 2009 the Girls Just Wanna Paint Blog made its online debut. Established art bloggers like Sheehan Winn were already comfortable with this form of social media and everyone in the group agreed the challenge was a fabulous idea on an artistic level as well as a social level. For some individuals, however, the practice of posting photos of their artwork on a regular basis took a little getting used to.

“It was a bit like herding cats in the beginning,” admits MacDonald with a chuckle. “But now everyone is on the same page and the camaraderie has really solidified us.”

The group’s first challenge was to paint a starfish—a topic that seemed appropriate given the women all lived close to the sea. Before long, however, the members began choosing more interpretive themes, which tended to elicit more creative artwork.
The topic “Spirit,” for example, inspired a wide range of images, including a dog with “holiday spirit” wearing a Santa hat, an image of a figure emitting “spiritual energy,” and a painting of a marching band, depicting “school spirit.”

Currently, 12 local artists post original paintings each month on the Girls Just Wanna Paint Blog. In addition to MacDonald and Sheehan Winn, group members include South Shore artists: Sally Dean, Paula Villanova, Lisa Daria, Nancy Colella, Page Railsback, Tori Brega, Jeanne MacFarland, Franny Andahazy, Bonnie Hobbs, and Joan Brancale. In addition to the group blog, many members of the group also maintain their own personal art blogs, often painting one painting a day.

The group sets clear deadlines, which help motivate the artists to be consistently creating new art. Being connected to so many talented individuals also keeps them grounded.

“Most art challenge groups don’t actually meet, but we do because we’re all friends,” says MacDonald. “We’re all serious artists who have helped one another to grow artistically, so it’s personal and professional.”

To anyone who is wired into the art world (or just web savvy), the concept of artist bloggers is not brand new. However, the essence of blogs have come a long way since they were first created and used primarily as digital diaries. These days, blogs are an important marketing and social networking tool used by individuals in a wide range of businesses. In the art world, blogs provide endless online gallery space and, more importantly, makes art accessible to viewers from all over the world.

“The internet has really been a boon to artists,” says Sheehan Winn. “It’s leveled the playing field and taken out the middleman. It’s also given art lovers the opportunity to really know the artists who created the work on their wall.” On a local level, the popularity of art blogs has grown in leaps and bounds in the past few years.
“When we first started the group only two of us had our own blogs, and now half of us have them,” says MacDonald.

The act of posting photos of their artwork can be nerve wracking, as it exposes their work to the masses. But in the end, the act is freeing, as well as educational, as many artists receive constructive feedback from artists across the United States who read the women’s blogs on a regular basis. The added exposure created by the blogs can lead to increased art sales, and invitations to participate in art related events, but most of the members of Girls Just Wanna Paint Blog say they do it more for the sense of community the group brings.

“Being an artist can be very isolating,” says MacDonald. “Most of us work from home so the group gives us a good excuse to get out of the house and spend time with one another.” Conversations oscillate between discussions of light and dark in the paintings to family news—what the children have been doing and where they will be traveling to paint this year. Like all great girls’ nights, the evenings are also about sharing good food, good wine, and good company—and, of course, the shared passion for painting that keeps the women coming back.