OLDS — Jen Machell is the featured artist for the Olds Art Club’s annual fall show and sale this year.
That show and sale will be held Saturday, Nov. 2 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 3 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
She’s officially been in the club for about three years, but attended a couple of classes before that.
Machell told the Albertan that some family members in the club persuaded her to join.
Also, she said, “I enjoyed the community and the classes and just getting out -- the social aspect as well as learning new art techniques and that kind of thing.”
Machell said she was not a budding artist as a kid, although there are several artists in the family, including her mom.
“I maybe had different artistic ventures,” she said. “I cooked a lot, that’s what I went to school for. So that was my creative outlet, so to speak.
“Then, about 15-ish years ago, I started getting into jewelery making, so I guess in a way, a form of art.”
Machell focuses on abstract art and likes to use mixed media, such as alcohol inks or acrylic inks as well as modelling paste to create texture in paintings or collages.
She also likes to do gelli printing.
“It’s a version of print making where you use a gelli plate. It has some give to it and you can layer on top of there different paints and then you make marks in it and then take your print off of there,” she said.
Machell also likes to work with epoxy resin.
“It gives that really shiny, glossy look to it,” she said.
Machell held up one of her pieces which was made with alcohol ink and acrylic ink and featured little mica flakes.
“I love the technique of it,” she said.
She also makes functional art; for example, using ceramic tiles to make coasters or little dishes.
Machell anticipates having about 40 pieces of art in the show, ranging from “abstract landscapy” paintings to jewelery, and possibly some gelli prints.
Machell was asked how she feels about being chosen this show’s featured artist.
“Excited and terrified at the same time,” she said with a laugh.
She’s had lots of notice – about a year to get ready for it.
However, she admitted she’s a bit of a procrastinator. That can be a bad thing – or a good thing.
Machell said generally she works well under pressure, although on the other hand, pressure can make it hard to feel creative.
Ideally, Machell would like to spend 15 to 20 hours a week doing art “but In the real world, it’s probably more like three or four,” she said with a laugh.
She works part time for a virtual health clinic in an administrative capacity.
Machell said art can serve as a kind of therapy for her.
She said years ago, when she first starting painting with fluid acrylics, art really did serve that purpose.
“We were going through some personal stuff with our daughter and it was really a therapeutic release for me to just be able to just kind of not think about what was happening and to be able to channel into there,” she said.
