Here’s the second painting that was created for the Joshua Tree competition.
Newer work #111
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Category Archives: environmentally friendly
Glass Outhouse Gallery – ‘Fleeting Passions’
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!
Tales from the field #9
Well, well, well. Seems like spelling is not a prerequisite for the City of Calabasas! This trash can was at the back of my booth on the weekend.
I guess someone will need to recycle themselves back to remedial spelling.
Graphene
Concrete is the most commonly used building material in the world. And now, by adding the invisible wonder material graphene to it, researchers have taken a step towards a more sustainable construction industry. The new graphene-laced concrete is two times as strong and four times as water-resistant as the standard stuff, shows a new study…
via Graphene Can Green Up Concrete’s Act — Anthropocene
Messing about in boats
I have to say that this was one painting (or pair of paintings) executed under the most hostile of weathers. No, not so much heat, but the desiccating wind. I had to stop on the second morning and go back for a short session closer to dawn on the third day, and then it was a struggle. The good news is that once I’d drawn up the letters, I could quickly go from one side to the other, painting layers, knowing full well that that my start point would be completely dry by the time I returned to it in about 25 minutes. At the end of the second day I had to quit because the paint was drying on the brush. The east side of the boat was too hot to work, and the west side, in the shade and wind, I was shivering. And I still had to figure out how to spray with an acrylic glaze with the UV component – in a stiff breeze.
Nevertheless ‘Poseidon’ has its name on its sides and today will be test launched. Eventually this boat will carry a solar powered pump which will pump water from the Salton Sea into the marina ‘fingers’ in Desert Shores, to maintain the water level and mitigate red agae. Launch day is on Sunday.
Indio Chalk Festival, Day 4 – the results
It didn’t rain at my house overnight on Saturday. However when I got to Indio, I found that there had been two hours of steady good rain there. Ugh. The city people had gotten there a little earlier and removed all the tarps to let the paintings dry. They needed to be dry before we could start on repair work, so we had a little time to commiserate between each other before we could start. Rafael’s painting – Lincoln, and Bijan’s painting (we think we read each others’ minds when we came up with such similar design ideas) had the most damage.
Some damage to the right hand corners and both hands that required a little rework. The throat dried out fine. The wash marks on the ocean wrist I just incorporated.
There were still puddles around 9:30am
Lincoln needed a nose job.
Bijan’s tarp leaked, causing a lot of damage on the neck and into the clouds.
Repair work done, just in time for the judging. Except that about 2 minutes before Kathy came by, a woman let her 3 year old run through the painting. Then yelled at me for chiding him!
The last competitor finished later in the day.
Amateur entries continued throughout the day, to the extent that there was so much judging for Kathy Dunham to do that the awards ceremony was about 40 minutes late. Here were the results in the professional category. The prizes were $2,500, $1,500 and $1,000.
1. Bijan Masoumpaneh
2. Rafael Valencia
3. Jeni Bate
The artist as part of the environment. 8’x8′, chalk on blacktop. (Photoshopped to be vertical, though you can possibly now see some of the foot damage.)
Indio Chalk Festival, Day 2.
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.
Collapse of an eco-system and the last superhero.
I’m not usually an openly political person – this is something of a political posting, but more of an ecological item, not party politics. If you live anywhere in North or Central America, this could affect you.
October’s newsletter
Please enjoy October’s newsletter – Changes.
Great news for the Salton Sea.
http://www.kmir.com/story/32944269/president-announces-salton-sea-partnership
The only sad part about this is that I think he should have done this at the beginning of his presidency, rather than the end.
Skyscapes for the Soul - Jeni Bate 