I’ve been rather remiss about posting newer works. This one is not-newer enough to have been hanging in the BAI before I got to posting it. I’ve been posting more on Instagram (#skyscapesforthesoul), but would like to post more consistently across platforms. If anyone has a great recommendation for a tool to allow you to do this, I’m all ears. I’ve heard of ‘hootsuite’, but would rather have a one-time purchase than a monthly subscription that they’re asking for.
Tomorrow is Black Friday and I’m a retailer so I’ll be at a show in Palm Springs. Today is Thanksgiving so I wanted to find something to be thankful for:
The flood got deeper as I continued the setup
This Thanksgiving I am thankful that:
A few years ago I was introduced to the Glass Outhouse Gallery in Wonder Valley – just east of 29 Palms. It is in the middle of nowhere, even more than I am, and has a small gallery where Laurel and Howard hold month-long 2-artist shows, and a sculpture garden made of recycled material art, created by Howard.
Four skies in the Glass Outhouse Gallery
I had a show there a few years ago with my Mixed Media work and am scheduled to have another show there with that medium in January 2021. Yes, artists do plan ahead.
The cart shows that this is a hanging day.
As I have another body of work and enough Mixed Media to run two shows concurrently, I’m on their ‘waitlist’. A list of artists who, in an emergency can put together a show in a couple days. Last week I got the call.
The outgoing artist hadn’t picked up her work yet.
I had planned to take my oils and acrylics to the show in Monrovia this weekend, but with a quick call I managed to get that changed and this body of work was available for the month.
Nice little row, the last 4 ‘diamonds’
My fellow artist is Tami Wood. We both joked that our names are two four-letter words. Her work is made exclusively of recycled materials. We’ve called our show ‘Fleeting Passions’ because we both explore ephemeral aspects of our environment.
And room for the bin, that holds paintings I did in or for paint and wine evenings that I’ve taught.
After the show in Newport I brought everything up and hung the show. Howard will pin up the prices later.
I’m surprised the one on the left hadn’t sold at Newport, it had a lot of interest.
Because of existing commitments (Monrovia), I can’t be at the reception but Tami will handle that and I’ll do my share of gallery sitting during the month.
The painting on the right is one from my house – I’m down to the last few oils and acrylics and am selling at discount prices!
What I didn’t realize until I told another friend in 29 Palms about the late arrangement, I’d scored a show during the Highway 62 Art Tour – three of the four weekends in October, and the Glass Outhouse Gallery is one of the stops. Wow, I’m sure glad I decided to go for it!
Almost exactly the right amount of space, there was only one suitable painting I didn’t put up!
I feel bless that because of various issues outside of my scope, I now have a show with both bodies of work on the Highway 62 tour – I have Mixed Media work at the High Desert Medical Center!
Mexico City’s public art is an integral part of the city’s identity and history. But in a country prone to devastating earthquakes, what is the fate of these creative monuments, asks Martha Pskowski – and is meaningful preservation possible? Mexico City is a bastion of public art in the Americas, with murals, mosaics and monuments lining its […]
via Preserving public art in a city of earthquakes — thinking city //
Before you get too excited about my achieving second place with my chalk painting last Saturday in Moreno Valley, it was a very small field of competitors. I also had a small booth at the art fair and my beloved was being the store keeper for me, while I wore off my fingerprints. I discovered fairly early on that our choice of space to set up (chosen because putting Doug under the tree in the shade would allow me to use the umbrella to keep the blacktop I was working on from melting my fingers), was in front of the band. The band (there were several during the course of the day) and the between-bands background music was LOUD. So, to relieve Doug and allow him to walk around and repair his eardrums and sanity, I hurried through my work.
The need for speed was exacerbated by wind which took the umbrella for a tumble and meant I had to chalk with one hand while quickly rubbing the chalk into the now-scorching blacktop with the other. I finished in 2 hours, and apparently was the only one who completely finished, though other chalkers, intending to take until 4pm created larger compositions.
I had a limited amount of blue, so did the surrounding ‘atmosphere’ in red, rather than follow the original, and created far less clouds than on the mixed media painting this was based on. For this it’s more about the message than the accuracy of the map.
“That the world is round reminds us that we are on the same side.”
For those of you who are into science – at least reading about it – can I recommend this blog – sciencesprings. Richard posts a lot of interesting science stuff from earth and around the universe.
From Science Alert: “This Volcano Erupted For 5 Years Straight, And The Photos Are Mesmerising” — sciencesprings
Science Alert 5 APR 2018 SIGNE DEAN You’re looking at a very rare type of lava fountain. (USGS) On 24 May 1969, a deep rumbling started within Kīlauea, the largest of the volcanoes comprising the island of Hawai’i. Looking up the slope of Kilauea, a shield volcano on the island of Hawaii. In the foreground, […]
I awoke to a cloudy sky. There had been a forecast of possible overnight rain, and I had put a tarp over my painting, though it was not big enough and I could only tarp about 60% of the finished part. As I was starting to get ready to leave, it started to rain. There wasn’t any time in which to hurry any faster. It rained a little as I drove the 40 miles to Indio. When I got there, Mamun (the city planner) was walking out to the parking lot. He said to me ‘It rained hard here overnight, it’s a disaster, it’s all gone.’ $%&#$%^. Then he confessed he was joking. $%&#$%^, Mamun!
We did have some sprinkles during the day, much of the morning I had most of my work tarped, even under the canopy. It cleared up in the afternoon, though there is still a forecast of rain overnight. Here’s the progress.
Some clouds and a bit of space going in.
All the sky is done now.
Here come the clouds – in more ways than one.
I’m hiding it from the rain here, some is blowing in under the canopy.
Space is finished, now to add space objects.
All done except for those cracks I found I can fill with chalk easily
Some of the crowds, some of the clouds. It actually got a lot** busier than this, but I was busy at that time.
Totally finished. “The artist as part of the environment”. 8’x8′, chalk on blacktop.
Let’s go check out some of the competition.
Competitor 1
Competitor 2
Competitor 3
Competitor 4
Competitor 5
Competitor 6
Competitor 7
Competitor 8
Judging is at noon tomorrow, but we have to be done by 10am.
I’ll just post the pics to show the progress. It’s hard to type, my fingers are so sore and rough!
About 11am 350 fellow chalkers arrived from local schools. These are just a few of them.
One of the city photographers was kind enough to take a pic of me working on my phone.
The trees/fingers and veins/rivers are now complete.
Underpainting for the ocean.
Ocean/hand complete with waves rushing to shore/shoulder. I used one crack in the blacktop as the area behind a wave in order to minimize the impact. Couldn’t think of how to do anything with the others.
I started adding the hair/sky/space at the bottom, but then clouds came and I decided to take advantage and work on the top of the painting, as I can’t shade that part with the canopy.
Yellow on top, black/blue under and sore underneath that.
An inspector came by.
I decided to end the day by blocking in the transitions of the sunrise part of the hair as a guide for tomorrow.
It’s always nice to see my work in it’s ‘forever home’. This one is a bit special because I got to hang it myself – and it’s one of the most difficult paintings to hang because it’s not only a 4-piece painting, but because the four panels can be rotated, all the wires and hooks have to be perfectly aligned, so that when it’s changed around, there isn’t a need to make any adjustments. Here I am with the finished installation.
“Vivaldi’s Window”. My concept of the one window Vivaldi may have looked out across as he wrote his most famous musical work ‘The Four Seasons’.
Skyscapes for the Soul - Jeni Bate 