Sweet Charlotte going home!

Sweet Charlotte is finished!  I did the final tweaking today.  I'll actually miss this one; it really is sweet!  I'll try to get a photo of the painting being delivered to the owner.  Charlotte is her granddaughter.

Musings about Abstracts

My friend Michael Kennedy has painted a really gorgeous painting; it's an abstract piece, very colorful - I'm attracted to the shapes and colors in it, and can actually SEE something there!  I'm not wild about abstract art - I personally prefer paintings that are "of something" and tell a story, but that's just me!  Considering the prices that some abstract art brings, it's obvious that some people really value and love it!  I think I'm warming up to it though!

When I first started painting, it was very important to me that my work was very tight and photo-realistic.  I stressed over it, actually!  My attitude, as well as my art, has relaxed somewhat; now I want my paintings to BE "painterly", and figure if you want photo-realism, you might as well just take a photo and be done with it.  It's more fun to concentrate on telling the story or creating the image I have in my head than it is to concentrate on getting it exactly perfect!  After all, it's a PAINTING!  It's a rendering, sometimes from life and sometimes from a photo, for me, anyway.  I enjoy both.

On the other extreme, there are people like my son, who feel that the best paintings ARE photo-realistic, very tight and life-like.  I was awed by some paintings like that at the deYoung Museum, upstairs.  Some of the images are so life-like, it looks like you could pluck an item off the canvas!  Certainly, there is much skill in that as well!  As a member of the Oil Painters of America, I enter some of their shows (so far none accepted), and now have entered the online competition for associated members like me.  I go there and look at the entries - quite a few of them are photo-realism, and very beautiful.  Some of those works are so stunningly awesome, I wonder how I could ever even come close....

Still, painting is the thing I love to do, and will for all my life continue to do!  I do it for the fun of it, after all!  I sell once in a while, and that makes my heart soar, because I know my art is being treasured and enjoyed.  That's part of what makes it fun!

Very busy day, but SO FUN!

I finished "Debbie's Daisies" today - a very special piece!

Debbie's Daisies

It dawned on me the other night; I also remembered something Mary said at the end of the workshop about my progressive glasses!  I forgot to change to my non-progressive glasses for the demo, so it could have been brighter.  I brightened the highlights in four spots on the painting, and NOW it's finished, and framed!

Cup Alla Prima

Then, I started the Cupcake painting!  I actually started it twice; the first canvas had some kind of weird flaw in it so I tossed it out and started over.  I got the first layer of paint on; it was a special, very decadent, many-caloried, gooey kind of cupcake!




Cupcake


After that, I went to Kennedy Gallery and worked there for a while.  It was pretty slow, but there is always the art to study; being around old art as well as new art is pretty cool!

Sweet Charlotte

Sweet Charlotte is almost finished; just some small tweaking to do, some highlighting, and it's finished!  Her Grandmother is going to love it!

Between working 5 hours at the shop and 4 and a half hours at my studio, I'm sitting here with my feet up instead of going to the meeting at the gallery.  Sometimes I just plan get tired!

Debbie's Three Daisies

Had fun working on Debbie's Three Daisies today - nearly finished, just need to tweak a little in a couple of places  - probably Friday or Saturday when it's at least tacky-dry-ish.  I put alot of paint on it today, and the white takes longest to dry.  I like it so far; it's another little 8 x 8 piece.  I found that I enjoyed doing the small ones; they're just as cool as the larger ones, but small!  I can keep the prices low enough that most people can afford them too and I like that!  You can purchase an original oil painting from me for only $125 - not bad, huh?

The number of steps involved is the same as a large one; I just use less paint and smaller brushes!  Let me know what you think!

Workshop was so FUN!

My workshop was fabulous!  Carol, Elsyne, Karen, Kip, and Mary - a great group, all brave souls, so open to hearing what I wanted to share, and to trying some new things!  It was so much fun for me, too, that I will be doing it again!

My workshop Saturday

My workshop is Saturday!  I'm excited about it - getting everything ready now!  Painting, talking about painting, sharing about painting - it just doesn't get any better than that!

Much Better!

2nd Saturday at Kennedy Gallery was much better than last Thursday!  It was still pretty warm, but very lovely, nice, fun and exciting evening!  The crowd was heavy, but not too heavy.  The people were serious about art and/or find a piece of art for their home - so fun to talk to people like that!  By the end of the evening I was really getting hoarse!

My painting, "One More Shell" sold - it went to a good home, exactly where it was meant to be!  In case you're wondering, I do still have Limited Edition Prints of that one!

I'll be delivering 19 pieces to Lake Forest Cafe to be decorating the walls there for 2 months!  I'm honored and pleased about that!  My home studio/gallery is depleted to almost none, between here and the Kennedy Gallery!  Darn, I guess that must mean I need to paint some more!!!  LOL

One More Shell

Must be the heat!

The reception was really dead; I think it's the heat.  The first real heat wave, although today was in the mid 90's people still aren't used to it yet.  It's supposed to be about the same for 2nd Saturday, but I'm hoping attendance will be better!  Yet, even though not many people came through, I had a good time.  I always do!  Now it's onward and upward to the next one!

There's 2nd Saturday, and hanging my work in the Lake Forest Cafe on Sunday afternoon, which will be gracing their walls for 2 months!  That's cool!

Also, dropping off a couple of pieces at the Firehouse Store on Sutter Street in Folsom too!  I like being in more than one place.

I found out today that one of my pieces; a print of Spirit, Reflected, is now in Denver, so I can add Colorado to my list of states and places where my art is!  That's cool, too!

Finished Frosting The Cake!

Whew!  I didn't think I was going to make it!  I worked on this for about 6 hours today!  I'm considering it finished; it says what I want it to say.  I'm not saying I'm perfectly happy with it; I never am!  I love the hands doing things theme!  Our hands have alot to do with making memories!  Hands are not the easiest thing to paint.  That's one of the reasons I love doing them; it's a challenge, and I'll never get it perfectly!  One of the paintings I saw at the deYoung Museum was a "masterpiece" of a woman sitting in a chair reading a book.  It was a side view.  I could tell the painter had trouble with the arm.  I could literally imagine him saying, "Well, that's as good as it's going to get; I'm considering it done!"  It made me feel SO good to imagine that!

Frosting The Cake

I'll be taking this into the gallery tomorrow, must put a "Wet Paint" sign on it!

"Going For The Look" and "Variety is the Spice" combined show theme!

My show at Kennedy Gallery will be sort of a combined show; Celebrating the release of the original paintings in the "Going For The Look", as well as "Variety is the Spice", celebrating the variety of subjects and styles that I've had the pleasure of playing with in my work!  It's not really work, though; it's my very favorite thing to do!  Most of you have seen the red shoe, which has become my logo; here's another one in the series.  There are 7 in the series (then of course, there's the "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" series of the little shoe paintings!)

Come see Thursday night at Kennedy Gallery, 1114 - 20th St. in Sacramento,  6 - 9!



Untamed

This is a painting I'll be bringing into the gallery for the first time - been saving it for the show!  Both of these original oil paintings will be there, as will I!

One More Shell

As you can probably tell, I'm pretty excited about being featured at Kennedy Gallery!