A Day in the Life of...Troy Ohlson
Really excited about our "day in the life" post today.... (drum roll!) because it features one of my favourite artists and a long term regular trader at the Makers Boutique, the fabulous award winning artist Troy Ohlson!
Troy is a multi-talented artist who creates her pieces using a variety of disciplines and techniques. When she is creating her artwork, Troy blurs the boundaries between being a Printmaker and a Painter by using mixed media techniques in her work. Collage, watercolour, acrylic, pen and ink are used in her paintings, etchings and collagraphs.The influence of each medium plays an important part in determining the character of the final piece.
Poppies and Foxgloves, South Downs.
" Enjoying the process of creation and allowing myself the freedom to experiment keeps my work fresh and exciting."
Troy’s Paintings, Etchings & Limited Edition Giclee prints have been featured in Sussex Life Magazine and Brighton & Hove Life Magazine. She regularly shows in and around Brighton and the South East – her Embellished Etchings sell well at the Affordable Art Fair in Battersea every Autumn.
Her Open House is also one of the best in Brighton, and highly recommended.
Telscombe Cliffs, Sussex Coast.
Troy is a busy lady who has kindly agreed to document one of her days for us here! Its great to see all the behind the scenes hard work that goes into each of her unique artworks.
A day in the life of Troy Ohlson
Prize Winning Sussex Painter & Printmaker
My alarm clock usually wakes me up at 7am – the first thing I do is go down to the kitchen to check on our two lovely cheeky dogs who we adopted from the RSPCA. They are not morning ‘people’!
My son is away at Uni studying Graphic Design & Illustration. My daughter has finished Uni and come back home to live while commuting to her new job – she’s usually gone before I have breakfast with my hubby, Pete.
After breakfast it’s time for a quick walkies (as long as it’s not raining cos the dogs hate going out in the rain) then it’s into my little studio to begin work. Here I am sorting through giclee proofs.
Mid morning I have a cuppa while checking my emails and dealing with admin, show bookings, etc till lunch time.
After lunch I head off to bipArt, the Printmaking Workshop I’m a member of. It’s a wonderfully creative atmosphere and I love the buzz of printing alongside other artists. Ann d’Arcy Hughes one of the Directors and Founders of bipArt has shown her Etchings and Woodcuts in my Artists Open House, the Trojan House, during Brighton Festival for many years.
My Embellished Etchings are truly ORIGINAL PRINTS in every sense, having ‘the hand of the artist’ involved in every stage of creation and production!
Here I am inking up an etching plate for ‘White Farmhouse, South Downs’.
And polishing the excess ink off ready to run through the press
It takes about a week to etch the metal plate for each image in nitric acid, gradually building up layers of dramatic deep lines, delicate swirls, and warm rich velvety aquatints. Inking up and polishing the plate for each etching in the edition takes about an hour. (usually I create a very limited edition of only 30 etchings all hand printed by me!)
Finally the plate is ready for this ‘White Farmhouse’ etching to run through the press using Somerset specialist etching paper.
Each etching is left to dry between sheets of tissue and blotting paper under heavy boards for 5 days then it’s ready for me to hand embellish back in my little studio. This one is ‘Poppies & Foxgloves, South Downs’.
And here’s ‘White Farmhouse, South Downs’ after I’ve embellished it, ready for mounting/framing.
While I’m working in my studio, the dogs are hard at work too!
As well as my Embellished Etchings, I create Acrylic Paintings and I produce a popular range of Embellished Limited Edition Fine Art Giclee of them.
Here I’m putting the finishing touches to one of my latest paintings on canvas ‘Daffodil Hill’.
I also make a range of Filigree Jewellery called ‘Treasures by Troy’ - as all the pieces tend to be one-offs I only sell them at Art Fairs & Shows alongside my Paintings, Etchings and Giclee, they are not available on my website.
On other days I may have commissions to work on, deliveries to galleries and buyers, etc.
My work can be viewed and purchased on-line via my website (details below)
...And that’s a typical day in the life of me!
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Artist: Troy Ohlson
Website: http://www,troyolson.com
Open House: http://www.trojanhouse.com
Location: Brighton
You can find Troy regualrly trading at every single one of our Makers Boutique markets at Brighton Unitarian church, 11-5pm. Our next market is 2nd March 2013 but see www.makersboutique.co.uk for more information and our other monthly dates this year.
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Goodbye, untill next time!