Newer work #89

“Daybreak on earth”‘s name is inspired by the beauty that I am still seeing in ‘Dawn off my back porch’, and the fact that the Salton Sea is drying up.  Some day in the not too distant future there will be no water reflection.  And it’s not just here right in our lap, it’s everywhere.  Climate change is observable in our lifetime and will eventually render the planet utterly different than we know it.  But it is still worth getting up in the morning and seeing what the world has to offer because as far as anyone knows, there are no dawns and sunsets in heaven.

“Daybreak on Earth”, 9×12″ refractured watercolor on panel. $110. The poem written for and painted into this painting is: Daybreak in heaven never looks like this! Heaven has no day and night

Skies Exhibition.

I’m happy I was accepted into this online exhibition and received an Honorable Mention.  The couple who run this are local and I’m hoping that at some point I will be included in the in-gallery shows.

The 3rd Annual Skies art exhibition is now open. Thanks to all the artists who participated and congratulations to the winners and finalists including Best in Show winners, James Griffin (Traditional), Pavlos Evangelidis (Photography & Digital) and Diana Fernández (3-Dimensional). Click HERE to see the exhibition. Also visit our YouTube Channel on September 8th to see the exhibition videos.

“Sunrise with Creosote” Oil on canvas 30×40″. $1500.

Newer work #88

Haven’t posted newer work in a while.  This is one of a series of smaller paintings on panel that have needed to work on to replace sold work.  (Darn, could use selling a few of the larger ones, I’m battling the balance between inspirations for larger pieces vs. storage space….)

#1398 Snowbirds. 9×12″ refractured watercolor and poetry on gallery-wrap panel. Poem written for and into painting is: Summer into fall we fly to our other home winter into spring

Sunday morning on the front porch

Mary started out as a friend of a friend on facebook and then took my Painting for Absolute Beginner’s class, then became a very close friend.  Shortly after that class, a couple years ago, I helped her create a painting for a friend.  I hadn’t realized that she had not had time since then to pick up the brushes.  A lot of life had happened.  A few weeks ago I went over to help guide her through another painting.  This time she has a new home with a wonderful front porch.  We have to paint out on the front porch because she has cats and I have allergies.

A little cramped on that table but we make it work.

Mary lives quite a way from me so we get our painting stints in sporadically and yesterday morning I was able to swing by for a couple hours before her grandson’s party and my reception for her to make progress on this sunset.

We weren’t able to finish yesterday but hope that we will do in the next session.  She made good progress.  Part of the challenge has been vision issues.  Mary recently had major eye surgery.  She can see colors better now, but the amount of light is difficult for her and towards the end as the sun came over, she had to resort to the shades.

Still needs a little work in the middle, and all the clouds at the bottom need to go in.

 

The Puppy project

Riverside Art Museum is holding a fundraiser called Art Bark in the Park to which I applied and was assigned a pup. I decided to paint the pup in oil – a skyscape with lawns on the bottom of each paw with dogs on, and my sonnet about dogs painted into the clouds.  So far I’ve done the sky and the lawns.  I will need to wait a week or so until that is dry enough to add the dogs and poems.  I didn’t know until I picked up the dog that I was getting a beagle.

The blank canvas. I’d had to fix the undercoat in a few places. The difference in undercoat color won’t affect the painting.

My fellow artist Mary Foote came over to see this as a demo so took some photos of me in action

I was showing Mary how to blend clouds in oil

Photographed this one at an angle to get the entire dog in.

And it’s possible to paint on the back, so I have another canvas to dream up!

A show goes up.

It has been a little while since I blogged – sorry – busy then away for a while.  Actually ‘off the net’ which pretty much equates to vanished!

Tuesday June 4th I set off for Escondido Municipal Gallery where I hung a solo show in a single room that, when I first stepped into it seemed small, but yes, the dimensions did work out as the plan said and all the paintings I bought fit in nicely as planned.  Actually I had some extra space on the outside I hadn’t know about, but that was easily handled because I brought more smaller paintings than I thought I’d have room for, so it ended up perfect!  Just took me two hours instead of one.  Then it was pedal to the metal to catch the plane (which was eventually cancelled and I ended up leaving the next day, but that’s another story entirely).

Box city arrives

…and a little table for promo materials and a bin.

Now it’s starting to take shape.  At this point one of the local artists came by and liked my work and wanted to buy a book. 

…line em up!

You can see that I like to work barefoot where possible.

Now that looks like a show

One on each side of the door

Looking good!  Books and cards went into the gift shop at the front.

The back wall is concrete and the gallerists gave me special nails that go in the wall, my regular nails were turning into L-shapes!

I spent so much time getting the quadtych level! It’s so much easier in a booth.

Almost ready. One more sign to go up, and that box of nails to go back into storage

Indio Senior Center

May 1st I went over to Indio Senior Center and hung 21 paintings.  Or more accurately, Nancy Vance, the community program administrator hung them after I opened boxes and set them out against the wall.  And we put up the prices and signage and photographed the show.  In 45 minutes.  Talk about knowing what we’re doing!

Looking good!

And we had compliments before we’d finished.

…from the other direction…

The fastest hanger in the west, Nancy is going to put them on their facebook page.