Evelyn Zoss Art Studio

03/25/2026

I might tweak a few things after I let this sit for a few days. I know some things need adjustment on some branches.. But it is mostly complete.

03/22/2026

03/16/2026

In Process:
Currently I decided to have a little fun with a small 8x10" acrylic painting of a snow scene from home in Ky. It's my first time painting snow (about time!). I have a ways to go yet, but thought I'd show you a little of what I've been up to....and it needs finishing.

There's been a lot going on with things here at home and also with Dad's needs and trips to Ky. I hadn't picked up a paintbrush since around October. That needs to be remedied. :)

12/17/2025

Just having a little bit of colored pencil sketching fun....I plan to eventually do a painting.

10/07/2025

October musings.....

September was a month of no painting for me. I was catching up on loose ends at home since I'd focused on the preparations for the camp auction in August.

And as some know, my elderly father had been diagnosed with skin cancer on his head back in early August. So he was going to radiation treatments over at Pikeville, Ky. I went down to be with him and take him to treatments the second half of September. He's doing good, and I'm back home in IL.

Our family farms, so my husband and son are in the thick of harvest right now. The need to be an actively involved farm wife becomes necessary during harvest.
But I do plan to get back into the studio this week to begin planning for a painting to submit to the Peoria Art Guild member's show in November-December.

An interesting and kind of wild scenario unfolded at the camp auction. I submitted prints and the 2 original paintings, one 9x12" and one 16x20". The smaller painting was unremarkable in my estimation; I felt it was lacking in color definition. So I wasn't very emotionally invested in it, except for the subject it presented----the big rock on the camp playground where friends hung out, down thru the decades.

The prints and the larger painting sold. Then the little 9x12" came up for bid. A couple sitting behind me had decided they were going to get it for their daughter, no matter what. She wanted that painting very specifically. But a camp staffer decided to also begin bidding on it. She realized the couple was determined to take it, so she kept bidding higher and higher against them.
You know how that bidding competition builds at an auction, with everyone cheering you on? It got very funny! And that little painting went for $3,000. I could not believe it! I thought it would go for maybe $50. It's not that it was extraordinarily beautiful. But it held something precious in camp memories and experiences. And that's what sold it.

So while sitting there in disbelief after it sold, the thought based on a verse popped into my mind, "Despise not the small things." Don't project smallness onto the things you're called to do, not even the most insignificant thing your day holds. The verse is from Zechariah 4:10--"For who has despised the day of small things?" ...Speaking of the plumb line being used for the new temple. The plumb line was a small part of actually building, but absolutely crucial for establishing correct measures for sound building.

And the camp auction sold many, many items, some small, some large, but they were all important for raising funds for the viability of the camp.

Most important things are "built" one thing at a time that end up creating a whole.
And how we handle the small things indicates our readiness for greater.

08/14/2025

These are prints and the 2 paintings I'm bringing to the Bethel Camp auction this Saturday.

08/08/2025

I will be taking this completed 16x20 inch acrylic painting of Window Rock Ridge, to the Bethel Camp auction for next Saturday, August 16th.

My camera bleached this photo out slightly. The greens are a little darker and background trees don't appear as white on the actual painting.

07/29/2025

Sneak peek on a new painting I've started---I have a long way before this is finished. But it is the scene as you climb up on Window Rock ridge, on the Bethel campgrounds property..

I will be putting this painting on the Bethel Camp auction on August 16.

07/10/2025

I'm about ready to take this to get it printed. 16x20" acrylic painting on gallery wrapped canvas.

06/17/2025

Ok, I tweaked it with some additional shadow to guide the eyes back into the painting. And adjusted the background.

So this is 9x12", not 8x10. (Evelyn, get it right! 😄 ) I plan to frame it and put it on the Bethel Camp auction, and get a few prints and cards made also.
Next is deciding on what the subject matter will be for the larger painting I want to do yet for the auction.

Have some that have come to camp called this "the courting rock"? ☺

06/05/2025

I was having fun with new Golden brand acrylic paints. I might still tweak some things on this; not entirely satisfied with it.

This is a small 8x10 inch canvas. I will be donating it to the Bethel Camp auction in August. Everyone who's been to camp knows this spot. I will probably get prints made of it.

When I was 4 or 5, I remember climbing down to the lower edge of the back side of this rock's overhang every summer, to pick mulberries hanging over the rock. Nature's playground is the best.

I plan to do another, larger painting for the auction if all goes as planned this summer.