Heading out on a new adventure!

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go!  I fly out today for South Africa.  Will first do a safari for a week in Botswana.  From there will head to Capetown, the peninsula, the garden route, and wine country.  If the technology cooperates, I will post photos along the way...woo hoo!  Can't wait to see the spot where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet...and in a fun little twist, I'm leaving on the fall equinox and arrive on the spring equinox!  Pretty cool.

Show opening at Carolina Creations!

I'll be taking down the Moving Colors show at the Craven County Arts Council this week, but will be installing a new show at Carolina Creations in New Bern on Friday, July 1.  This smaller show will be of North Carolina Landscapes - seems like a fitting follow-up to the Moving Colors images from the cross country trip.    Be great to see you at the opening during ArtWalk on Friday, July 8th, 5:30 - 8 pm.

If you missed Moving Colors and want to see it, you'll have another chance!  It will be "moving" to the Alamance Arts Council in Graham, NC next year - it will be on display in their beautiful gallery for May - June, 2017.

Here's one of the landscapes for the Carolina Creations show:

Croatan Contrasts, acrylic on canvas, 24" x 36"

One of the new Moving Colors series in the show...

I hope you'll get a chance (if you haven't already) to swing by the show at the Craven Arts Council.  It will be up through the end of June.  I plan to be there for the June ArtWalk on June 10, 5-8pm, if you want to stop by and say "Hi!"     : )

"Turquoise Turbulence"

Nice write-up in the New Bern Sun Journal about last night's ArtWalk

The New Bern Sun Journal did a nice write up on my Moving Colors show and all of the other cool stuff going on in the New Bern art scene.  What a fun night!  Thanks to everyone who came out for ArtWalk!

Click here to see the article.

Show's going up!

Isn't is amazing how much better a painting looks on a bright clean gallery wall than it does drying flat on one's floor!  hah!

Getting the show up at Craven Arts Council this week - hope to see you at the opening of Moving Colors this Friday (May 13)  5 - 8pm during the ArtWalk in New Bern.  Yay!

Jon DaBurger of the Craven Arts Council helping me hang paintings...

Moving Colors Press Release

Here's the press release the Craven County Arts Council & Gallery published for my upcoming Moving Colors show:

A quickly recognizable style shows the unique creativity of an artist.  Many artists hope to achieve this; and from May 13 to June 30, The Bank of the Arts proudly hosts one such artist's output:  Sally Anger.  "Moving Colors" opens officially with a reception during ArtWalk on May 13, 5 - 8 pm…and continues throughout the month of June.  So what is "Moving Colors" all about?

One of the joys of creativity is the chance to experiment and try new things.  Artist Sally Anger shares her love of art experimentation with the delight of seeing new things while traveling.  Both were combined into a four-month cross-country trip.  She also felt that she needed to do it alone.  (Well, not entirely, her dog Theo went along to keep her company).

The trip was inspirational, Sally relates.  While crossing the country she made daily paintings, drawings and musings.   She came away with greater appreciation for the beauty that surrounds us and for the power of art to focus it.

"Moving Colors" is a show about the adventure – not just the trip, but the inner journey.  One of her goals was to chronicle through art not only the beauty witnessed in the people and places she went, but also the emotions they invoke.  The theme tying the show together is the concept of “flow” – the flow of many beautiful waters, flow of ideas, of paint, of emotions, of conversation, even of traffic, and ultimately the flow of life through time.

The show will be held May – June 2016 at the Craven County Arts Council and Gallery (Bank of the Arts) at 317 Middle Street, New Bern, NC.  

Getting closer to Moving Colors

Wow!  May snuck up on me!   Imagine that.  It's been so busy getting ready for the show... But everything is on track and I have a fun new series to incorporate into my Moving Colors show. I'll be installing the show next week at the Craven County Arts Council, for the opening on the 13th.  Here's the latest…onward!  ~ sal

Moving Colors

As you know, I've been working this last year on this show about my cross country travels, which I've entitled "Moving Colors" (which will be at the Craven County Arts Council - Bank of the Arts in New Bern in May - June. The opening is scheduled during the ArtWalk on Friday, May 13 from 5 - 8 pm.   Hope to see you there!...The show is evolving from a travel documentary of paintings created along the way, to larger paintings worked up from the studies. Then I realized it would be so cool to push it beyond to more of the reaction and emotion to the beauty of the journey. So that's what has swallowed up my time for awhile now. Here's a recent painting inspired by ….well, let's see what you think inspired it along the way…what do YOU see?

Blues

Still going gonzo for the show, but the spring is so beautiful I have to take a walk around the yard several times a day just to admire.  This was a scene from just a few moments ago.  So beautiful.

Rising Wolf

If you read my last blog post, you'll recognize the underpainting of this mountain scene.  That's what I saw in the abstract layers of paint that I posted.  I love to see what appears to different people out of the same textures and colors… This reminds me of Rising Wolf mountain where I camped in Glacier National Park.

Just for fun...

I've talked to some of my friends and have mostly decided not to post every painting that is going in the show - have to have some element of surprise… but I will share a few, as well as the process. 

So, here's a start from the splashing paint I mentioned in the last blog.  I did this one several days ago and have gone on to the next level with it, but I thought it might be fun to share this and challenge you - what do you  see in it?  Does anything emerge out of that abstraction?   

I like it as is and thought about leaving it as is, but then something appeared to me and I brought it forth.  What do you see?  I've posted it in several orientations - that's what I do when I'm trying to decide what I see…I rotate it around and study it.   I'll post what I saw in a few days… By the way, its 3' x 5'.  

Its fun to play with imagination.  The possibilities are limitless.

p.s. to those handful of people who have seen what  I did with it, kindly hold your tongue(s)…  tee hee.

Full tilt boogie for the May show!

The paint is literally flying as I go full tilt preparing for my Moving Colors show at the Craven Arts Council & Gallery in May-June.  Sorry to neglect my dedicated blog followers!  Here's what I've been up to:

This week I've been splashing paint around - using Golden Fluid acrylics and a variety of mediums.  Its great fun and every once in awhile something really cool comes out!  For those that don't, well, there's always gesso!  I just gesso over the ones that don't work and start over… and a nice thing about this is I can do it outside in this gorgeous spring weather…stay tuned.  : )

Moving Colors

I was telling my pal Sam about having "cleared the decks" of commissions and other work and am ready to spend time preparing for the May-June show at the Bank of the Arts in New Bern (Craven County Arts Council & Gallery).  He replied:  "I can just see you in front of the big south window moving colors around…"

And it hit me:  That's what I'm going to call the show:  Moving Colors.  It fits perfectly!  One does move color around on the palette, the colors have been moving with me across this country, I plan to do paintings with flow of water - more moving color, AND I'm hoping the colorful paintings that I do will be moving (as in the emotional sense) too.  Thanks Sam!

So I rolled up the carpet in my living room and put down some old scrap carpet so I can make a mess and have converted the entire space into a much bigger studio.  I have different "stations" set up - one area for sorting out all of my notes, one for drawing, one for acrylic painting (and the sunroom, when its warm enough, for oil painting)… and two cork boards to post ideas and reference material.  So excited!

I spent today organizing the piles of notes, memorabilia and painting studies and re-reading most of the blog and journals to refresh my memories.  Here's a shot of the "creative mess."

One idea that has occurred to me is to have a sort of travelogue of the trip with funny anecdotes and such at eye level in the gallery.  Then the next level up I'll display the studies and paintings I did along the way…then the next level will be larger realistic paintings from the studies…then I hope to also do some abstract works that capture the emotions/light/essence of the experience of the place.  What an exciting challenge - hope I can pull it off!

…and I've been trying to figure out how to incorporate music into the show.  Think I got it figured out. I'll create a website with links to videos of the songs I enjoyed along the trip - will number them according to a number by the painting to which it relates.   Then visitors to the show can bring their smart phones with earphones and listen to the songs if they want.  Cool!

New Year, New Work

I've been busy trying to get all caught up with commissions and the galleries so that I can dive full time into the preparation for my upcoming show May-June, 2016 at the Craven County Arts Council & Gallery.  (Mark your calendars, the opening will be Friday the 13th of May).

I took this one to them yesterday.

Rhapsody in Blue, 36" x 48"

And I also took this one in to Fine Arts at Baxters:

Optimistic