Productivity

I have been painting almost daily. Getting ready for a show in January. I am excited about the opportunity and will post some of the new paintings here. After painting them, I must let them dry long enough to be handled for digital photography. Once I capture the image, I must resize it to a reasonable file size for the web.
This painting is small, only 5x7 inches and done in oil. It is of the American Beautyberry, a woody shrub native to the southeast.

November fog

Well, have been feeling somewhat foggy over some non art related stresses. Nature seemed to agree and when I looked outside last week, I found this vision that I rushed to paint. The working title is November Fog, but I may change this. I prefer more esoteric titles.
Click on the image to enlarge it and hit the back button to return to the page. It was a good week I completed four paintings. Using water soluable oils! Holbein is the brand. Normal oil colors can be added to mix new hues without removing the soap and water cleanup characteristics of this media. Acrylics, watercolor and gouache can also be mixed with these oils. I use Holbein acryla gouache. The oils...called Duo, can be layered over other media as well and visa versa. I missed oils very much. The quality and handling is just like what I remember with normal oils. What a great invention.

Stormdance paintings

I am interested in spirals and other patterns found in nature. I did a series of paintings with this in mind a couple of years ago.
Skydance was the first of this series.

Recovery mode

We were fortunate. Power was lost and found. Communication desolved as even buried cables were uprooted with felled trees and cell service was almost non existent. Still, we are lucky beyond words. The sketch group was disabled by a lack of power. I thought I would use quiet time to draw. Instead, I found myself using my time to figure out how to keep frozen food frozen beyond 3 days. We had no structural damage. The emotional toll is unexpected. Those who served the public during the storm are certainly stressed.
Nature is powerful. Feeling humbled by this brush with disaster, I am eager to return to the life sketch group tonight. My best hope is to channel the stress from the storm into work. Perhaps I may revive my StormDance series.

WILMA!

Not art related, but I do hope this Hurricane is gentle with Collier County. Expect to be without power for a while. As a former Girl Scout, I am well prepared to manage for about 30 days. My spouse is also a foward thinker. Our home is located outside any of the evacuation zones.
Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst.

Bird painting

Decided to play with an image of a woodpecker and made this painting. The title is Over the Rainbow and Through the Woods.
You can enlarge the image by clicking on it. Hit your back button to return to this page.

Sketch group

Found a nice group for a peer to peer life drawing experience. The group meets once a week in an art gallery filled with interesting and inspiring work. The space itself is just wonderful. Even the floors are white. Last night, despite a loud strong storm outside that made me wonder if the roof would stay on, I was so focused that I couldn't stop drawing. It was the second week of visiting with the group of local artists and drawing once again from a live model. I am rusty. The first week was ok, but my arm was sore. This week was better. My eye is coming back. Gesture, line and fluid likeness is back within my grasp. There is nothing quite like drawing from life. I have never particularily enjoyed plein aire painting because of bugs and limitations, but there is a freshness to working live and in the moment. The figure is especially inspiring to me. I will post some sketches from the sessions. I have to photograph them and make them websized first.

Sunday, September 11, 2005

A time to remember. A time to never forget. A time for prayer and learning to work together again.

Middle Age Mirror: portrait of the artist

Click on Image to Enlarge it and hit your back button to return to this page:
This painting is an acrylic and acrylic gouache on bristol board. Framed it it measures about 16 x 19 inches. The work was inspired by the seemingly inevitable momement many women fear; when we look into the mirror and see our mother.
I decided to embrace the moment versus fearing it. Age happens. My mother died at age 88 in 2002. She spent most of her life smiling. Painting her from memory and a few photo images, I caught her smile even in her last year.
I am at crossroads. I live in a beautiful area in a lovely home. As time passes, I am more than ever aware of our temporal existance.
Looking in the mirror, I hope to push beyond the surface and become more of my own person and a stronger artist.

Captured by news

I had planned on posting more about art and paintings. Lately my vision is filled with awful images from cable news. I did enter a painting in the National Portrait competition despite the feeling that any work I can do as a painter was dwarfed by the enormity of the loss of so many lives.
Then, today, the Artist's Magazine arrived.
In the October 2005 issue, there was a very nice article about an artist who also studied at the American Academy of Art. Her work is really beautiful.

It is difficult being a painter in isolation. This magazine and staying in touch with other artist friends helps with momentum. Naples is a community which has a lot of artists, especially during the winter months. There are some classes but they seem to cater to the people who want to just begin painting. The informal gathering of artists together to just sketch, chip in together to hire a model all seem to be absent from this area. Some groups do have get togethers and meetings, but the focus of these groups isn't what I had been so fortunate to have found in the Tampa area when I lived there.

So today, after reading about Susan Lyons and reminding myself people actually once paid money for my work, I am determined to think more positively. I need to find a way to start a sketch group and find some place to meet without huge fees.

I am also going to add the portrait I submitted to the national competition. I don't really think it will make it into the finalists, but I had to try. I do know I need to work more from life and must find a way to do this. I love nature and pieces about rhythm and pattern, but figurative work is always been where my heart is.

Adding a link to another Blog

I have a couple creative friends who also have a blog of their own. Check out Joy's Journal. She is a very talented writer and has published a book about building a home that is excellent. More later.
http://journals.aol.com/pagadan/JoysJournal/

Cottonmouth snake

This snake was resting very comfortably on a log as I walked past during a "swamp walk" in Fakahatchee Strand in Collier County, Florida. I think the snake is quite beautiful and was very happy to have had a long lens with which to capture this image.

This image is protected by copyright laws and is an example of my nature photography.

Decided to try Blogging as a presence on the web

As a painter of many years, I am struggling to gain recognition in SW Florida. I had begun to gain momentum while living and painting in suburban Tampa, but moves happen. I live in an absolutely beautiful area. Many retirees and seasonal residents decide to become or declare themselves artists, so many local galleries are resistant to "local" talent.

I am also a big fan of ironic humor. Carl Hiassen's POV on Florida is taken to heart.

So much for my first Blog entry.