Tuesday, September 29, 2015

CenterFest fun

Had a great show at CenterFest in Durham last week-end.  My new big painting that I posted in the last blog post sold right away!  The couple that bought it is building a house which won't be completed for a year, so I'm holding onto it for them. So exciting!  I'm working on more in a series like that one, I have so many ideas of different  ways to approach it flowing out of my head - can't wait to get to work on them…  But first, I need to finish up some commissions in October.

The light streamed into my booth while this lady was checking things out.  Kinda fun.


And this gal came through and one of her friends pointed out that this painting looked a lot like her - her doppleganger!  Pretty wild.


Ever since getting back from the cross country trip I've been antsy to take another one!  I definitely must have that wanderlust gene.  Now a friend of mine has invited me to go to South Aftrica!  I'm so excited.  We haven't worked out the details even of when to go yet, but I'm going.  Woo hoo!

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Kinda like this...

I was working on a forest scene last week - actually it was a painting I had started a year ago and liked the start - with soft greens and lights on a 4' x 5' canvas.  It was a combination of acrylics and collage of tissue paper.  I decided to try to finish it up for the CenterFest show in Durham this week-end.  I worked on it for several days and it was ok, but I found it boring.  I shared it with my mom and even she agreed that it wasn't very interesting…  here's where we were at that point:


 OK, it was "nice" but blah…  so I decided I'd just start over - I gessoed over the entire canvas and decided to paint a face over it… I got a nice under layer of color on once the gesso dried, and then thought that maybe I should remove some of the thicker areas of tissue paper before painting the face.  But when I started to scrape away the tissue, I got a lovely surprise - a very interesting mixture of colors and the more I worked on it, the more I liked it.  Ended up with a composition that works too.  I love it!  It has an Asian feel to me…


Transmigration - 4' x 5' Mixed Media 
Acrylics and collage on canvas


Have a couple more canvases started to try this approach - working hard to get them ready for CenterFest.  Then October is the month I need to work on some paintings for patient people waiting for commissions.  Its going to take awhile to get caught up with those and galleries wanting new work.  Its a nice problem to have - I'm not complaining!


Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Does good food lead to good art?

I wonder…

I know that when I'm eating well, then the paint seems to flow better.  Who's to judge whether the work is better?   I dunno  ; )

Anyhow, the shrimp are running in the river - in October they'll be big enough to start catching enough to freeze, but I kinda like the smaller sweet ones.  My cousin's wife Linda got a good shot of me throwing the cast net this week-end :


Got enough for lunch!   Yay!

And this morning I made my spicy Thai shrimp soup.  That hits the spot.



All this is helping me work in the studio, but not ready to post anything yet.  I'm busy at work though, so that is a good thing.  Will keep you posted...

Friday, September 4, 2015

Soul of a Woman...Latest WIPs

The organizer of the Soul of a Woman show at the Carolina Artist Gallery in Morehead called me to  see if I was entering the show.  I wasn't planning to, have too much on my plate right now, but when she called I looked at the painting I had just finished and decided to enter it… I called it "Wandering Soul."  The show opens with a reception from 5 - 7pm Saturday September 19th.  (I'll be at the CenterFest show in Durham that week-end so will miss the opening, but plan to get by to see the show later).

Wandering Soul, 3' x 4' Acrylics on Canvas

Then I went to a figure drawing session at the Beaufort Art Market (my first time there - that was pretty cool) and got jazzed painting the figure.  When I got home, I got out a 3 x 4 ' canvas and started playing around.  Here's the Work in Progress (WIP) - Fun!




Sooooo good to be back to work in the studio.  I need that!  Also getting going on a couple commissions, and some large watercolors on the "flow" theme…stay tuned.