Sunday, November 24, 2013

"Finger Prints"

I've been an admirer of Chuck Close for a long time.  One of the highlights of my art experience was getting to hear him talk about art at a small lecture at the High Museum in Atlanta years ago.  He was so honest and knowledgeable, he didn't speak in pretentious "art speak" but as artist to artist.  I came away so inspired.  I remember one of the things he said, something like "Its always wrong before its right."  To me that is liberating somehow - when I'm struggling with a piece those words will remind me to keep at it.

So when I was working with some 12 x 12s this week, I decided to play around with adding some finger prints to the paint.  I ended up doing the entire painting with fingerprints.  It reminded me that Chuck Close had done some large paintings that way…   Here's one of my versions:


Thursday, November 14, 2013

Plein Aire fun

On Tuesday I joined the local plein air painters' group out at Cedar Point, in the Croatan National Forest.  We had a great time!  The day warmed up nicely and beautiful blue skies graced our visit.  I worked on a large! (about 43" x 62") watercolor - see below.  Still needs a little work, but a nice start.  I enjoyed working next to Janet Dixon, she is an accomplished artist and shared some good tips, and is lots of fun as well.


Thursday, November 7, 2013

New Bern Art Walk tomorrow

A detail shot from one of my paintings will appear on the postcard promoting New Bern's Artwalk this month.  They just sent me a photo of it.  It came out kinda cool:




Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Rainbow Falls

We made the half hour drive down from Brevard to the new Gorges State Park in NC last week.  Then hiked a couple miles to Rainbow Falls.  Well worth the effort!  Even the visitor center is a work of art - green building materials and lovely design.


On the road again...

We've been enjoying a trip back to the mountains for the fall color.  Internet coverage has been erratic, so I'm just now getting a post done.

Its been a great trip so far in our new "MAC."  Dear old Max (my 1999 Roadtrek lovingly called Max for Mobile Art Escape") had been sold to folks whom we hope will enjoy him for years to come.  We enlarged a bit so Michael doesn't bump his head, and also to something newer:  a 2010 Sprinter-based RV.  Its a diesel that gets 20 mpg.  To continue the tradition, we have named her MAC (for Mobile Art Condo) - but also from the childrens' clapping rhyme Ms. Mary Mack "all dressed in black... "There are have been some items to be fixed, but luckily still covered by warranty.  We keep saying "We love it - when everything works..."  Hopefully we've gotten the kinks out now.

So we poked around Brevard a few days and then went down to the Georgia mountains for a few days - hoping it would be a bit warmer.  It was, but we prefer the Davidson River campground near Brevard, so we went back.  Today we are on route home, so are staying over at the Lake Norman State Park (near the Dodge dealer where we had some warranty work done).

Today I awoke to chilly (36 degrees!) air and now its clouded over, so I set up a little studio in the "lounge area" in the back of MAC and worked on some small paintings.  Kinda cozy and fun.