Another new painting

The three roses used in the other smaller paint were used again, but with a different perspective. When placed in a bleach and sugar solution, fresh flowers last a long time. This piece is a 24 x 24 oil on a masonite panel. I am using more panels now. Likely that I will be moving toward using Belgian linen in the near future.


The Key

New painting

The title is Three Roses.

Think of Roses

I have been so busy painting, that I haven't done any household chores...the garden is weedy, my hair needs cutting, but I am painting like a person possessed.
Hot off the easel, too wet to sign yet, this is one of the last three paintings I did. Working title: March Roses.

The workshop

Ok, I had planned on posting more during the workshop with Karol Kintz. But...I have been working my tail off. Good thing.
I see paintings everywhere I look...that is everything I see seems to be in painting form right now. Even the newspaper seems to be transformed. Boy is it ever hard work, yet fun and very exciting. Am painting some plumbago flowers now. I finished a painting of tropical flowers and posted it on my website. See for yourself the side by side comparison of the plumbago painting and the tropical flowers.

The plumbago flower has a very difficult to photograph and paint color. I am some paint straigt out of the tube to get the intense purple/blue hue seen in the shadows of this flower. It is a challenge to get the right feeling.

Red

This post isn't about RED tape, but about red roses.
I will be taking a workshop with Karol Kintz on still life painting. Karol (who I mentioned before in this blog) is an accomplished artist who is featured at the Knox galleries in Naples. She studied at the American Academy of Art where I studied as well. Karol also studied with the very famous David Leffel. Google his name! Wow, I would love to have one of my paintings sell for 25K or more someday...
I plan on posting a work from her workshop weekly. To begin, however, this is a small painting of roses I did as a begining point before the workshop. The format for this oil is 5x7 inches.
If you got to this page from my website, you can return by clicking here
http://www.trudybentleyrech.com/

Progress

Learned a lot this weekend about getting into being an artist as a business. Where I live in order to work professionally, one must have an occupational license and really set up with various State and Federal entities as a business. Lots of RED tape. I went to a workshop by a group of volunteers with SCORE. They are usually retired business people who have lots of experience. The Small Business Administration works through this organization.
I have a lot to learn and my target to be fully operational as a business is fall of 2006. I will first make a business plan. Nothing in art school or even college covers this type of thing. I am happy there is an organization like SCORE.

I will be taking a workshop this week. Posting a painting done to prep for it tomorrow. More about the workshop with the painting!

Website is updated

If you are reading my blog, take a moment and check out my new website....
http://www.trudybentleyrech.com

I have learned a lot. Most artists post their bio in the third person. This is the web. I want to be more informal. My Bio and formal resume will go with a package to folks who want this kind of documentation or if I am in an gallery exhibition or museum type show, but for online...I am staying casual...at least for now. What do you think of this painting? I am donating it to a charity event for Step by Step Early Childhood Development Center. They help children with developmental delays catch up. It is a great center. They use art to reach out to the young children. It is one of my favorite pieces, but theirs is a great cause. Hope it brings them much needed funding.

One more thing

New artist statement part one...more candid
Why do I make variety of art I make?
I am an intensely visual person with a huge curiosity about life science and the arts.
My artwork is about connecting both.
For example, when my subject is a person, I like to look beyond the physical shell to connect with the personality of my subject.
Capturing the physical image of the subject is fun. I see mass and form, flesh and structure with a spark of the person inside.
Painting becomes my dance inspired by vision, being actualized by my own muscles and bones.

Working on new site

Put up the site and now am revising it in a major way. Took down all the pictures. Building the site with only Contribute 3 and limited templates is frustrating, but I have learned to go around a lot of obstacles. Helps to play with software. I could envision getting Dreamweaver someday, but have some other items on my wish list, like an Epson 4800 printer. Great way to make digital prints AKA giclees with such archival qualities as to probably outlast most actual paintings.

My official website

I just published it tonight after finding a host and registering the domain name. I will have it looking better by tomorrow. Will be adding a counter to gauge traffic.

The Visit

This painting got me started back painting my favorite subject: People.

It is an acrylic painting done Alla Prima style on a 24 x 36 inch canvas. I don't ever really intend on selling this piece. "She" is what brought me back to painting representationally again.

Some artists and collectors only feel oil paintings are the most desireable. I like to use a lot of different mediums to express myself. I do love working in oil, but acrylic paint has wonderful qualities as well.

Growth

The sketch group was better than ever last night. One of the artists who was there is another American Academy of Art graduate. Her name is Karol Kintz. She will be teaching a limited sized class on painting flowers "Alla Prima". The style Richard Schmid http://www.richardschmid.com/book.html uses. I started at this school a few years after Richard Schmid went there. He was already quite well known. Mr. Mosby was his teacher and mentor. Although Mosby was still there when I went to classes there during the summers while still in high school, I was enrolled in life and fundamentals classes and didn't have the honor of studying with this wonderful painter. Fortunately Mosby's influence prevailed when I attended full time. Mosby's friend and fellow artist Joseph Vanden Broucke was my teacher. Mr. Van was a wonderful teacher. I hold the distinction of winning the Mosby scholarship. The year I won, my friend David Hettinger also won. They split the scholarship between us. My growth was stunted in some ways because of life choices, circumstances and perhaps even fear of failure/fear of success. Now, I am focused and enjoying growth. What will be will be. I have to paint. I have to draw. I am eating, dreaming and living my work again. The fellowship of fellow artists really helps. It is all about growth.

Conte crayon still life

This is a fully developed Conte crayon drawing. It is in the collection of a colleague. I really enjoy working in the medium. The subject? The seed pods of the mahogany tree. This species of mahogany is native to south Florida.

Conte crayon drawing

This is a nude from one of the drawing sessions. I will post more drawings, however, I am self censoring until I have my own website. Some people find nudes offensive. I don't. I started drawing nudes while still in high school. I did medical and biological illustrations while in college and later worked as a nurse. I find the undraped human figure to be beautiful.

My Friend David Hettinger

If you look close, David has a Salon de Garage postcard in his shirt pocket. Our visit was just wonderful. His success is inspirational to me. Not only is he very talented, but he is a very good person and loyal friend. I have a picture of the two of us taken with the camera's timer, but...I like being behind the camera and not the focus of it.
More links and pictures to come. Check back daily or at least every other day. I am looking over some drawings made at the Atelier Lizio's sketch group to post. After I resize them for the web, I will select a sample to add to the blog.

Good News with Plums and Green Apples

May have an opportunity to show in a gallery not too far away from Naples. Developments will be posted once confirmed. Not a good time to sit back and relax. I don't mind being busy this way one bit.

Good show

Well, I am happy to have sold 10 pieces. I was pleased to meet a number of people interested enough in my art to purchase it. Surprisingly, the small nudes sold the best. I enjoyed the exhibition. The funds from this show will be used to resupply and further establish myself. The biggest compliment anyone can give an artist is to buy a piece of that artist's work. Thank you to my new patrons. I look forward to additional encounters with these nice people and hopefully others who decide to add my original work to their walls in the future. Sona Gallery owner, Deb Angus went above and beyond to be helpful. The gallery business isn't an easy one. It was an honor to hang work in such a nice space. Angus is also an artist. You can visit the Sona gallery site by visiting the site below.
http://www.sonagallery.com/sona.htm


Check back tomorrow for an update

Hanging the show

Tonight, I will be at the Sona Gallery in Naples later today to hang my own work. Although the space is restricted because this event has 12 other artists showing, I have a great hanging plan. All the extras are under control. I have a guest book, business cards, bio and artist's statement as well as some brochures showing past and present work. The show opens tomorrow evening. I will be happy to take some of the day to relax. Today, I am adding a still life to this blog. I am feeling a bit hungry!

Another slice of the sky...

Sky Slices

Entitled Sky Slice: Blue this acrylic painting reflects my interest in clouds. I tried to add more than on file to show the other slices, but wasn't sucessful, so I will make seperate posts.