Gallery Work Wednesday

 

Fresh Bales  Oil 12" x 12"

Field Of Clover  Oil  12" x 12"

Once again this year I have been juried into "The 144 Exhibition & Online Sale" at Parker Arts Center, Parker, CO.  All of the paintings had to be 12" x 12" or smaller, thus the title:  144.  Like many shows during the Pandemic, this exhibition is being held virtually.  

I look forward to the hopefully near future when once again I can attend exhibitions in person!  Although I think that in the future, many events will be held both online as well as in person.  Online events have allowed people in other states to view art that they would not have previously have had the opportunity to see.  I guess that you can make lemonade from every lemon. 

Gallery Work Wednesday

 

I am 1 of 11 local artists to have work at Kreuser Gallery, here in Colorado Springs, in their "Horizons, the Hope & Possibilities" landscape show.  To prepare for the show I painted dozens of small pieces (3 shown here).  From there I painted 6 large paintings and submitted the 2 above for my gallery wall.  

The skies in Colorado, and the entire western US, are always spectacular.  They're large, vast, open, dramatic, colorful.  The colors are ever changing.  Every time I'm outside there's another potential painting floating by over head.  I often feel that our skies are visual music.  Many of the titles for this series were   musically inspired.

"Evening Chorale" 24"x30", on the left above sold.  "Grace" 4"x8", bottom/middle also sold.  "Like Music" 5"x7" in the middle/middle and "Billowing Sails" 7"x5" top/middle have both also been painted as large pieces.  "Evening Symphony" 24"x48", on the right, is one of my all time favorite paintings.  It's our view from our mountain property.

The show is hanging until January 22nd.  If you live here in the Springs I hope that you can attend the show in person.  If you live elsewhere, check out the show online.

Here's what my painting "Evening Symphony" looks like in a room.  I love this app!

Saturday In the Studio

 

I recently had a commission that was a Christmas gift.  A friend from high school told me about the trip her daughter and a group of friends had taken to the Caribbean for her 40th birthday.  The trip was in February, just before the Pandemic.  How lucky was that!  Anyway, she sent me this picture and asked if I would paint it for her daughter.  

This photo shows how I painted this commission.  The painting is 8" x 10".  I blew the photo that she'd emailed up to that exact size.  (Was lucky there;  didn't have to deal with size conversions.)  That photo was taped to a board for easy holding.  I put a clear plastic over it and gridded it so that the women would all be in the correct proportion.  I also blew the picture up on my computer to help with details.  

The colors of the water in this piece were so much fun to use..quite a bit different than my normal western palette.  

Here's the happy young woman on Christmas morning.                                                                                 (I didn't ask her if I could use this picture, so I clouded her eyes a bit.  I think I'll text her and get permission.  She's really quite attractive.)

Covid Creations -- Post #1

It's kind of an unusual time right now.....not only with the Covid19, but with this program.  No matter what I do, it won't un-underline in the part that I see!  The button doesn't work!  And, the photos are perfectly lined up from my side.  But not when I look at "preview".  You probably thought that I just arranged them in a creative way!  Who knows what this will look like when I click "publish."  Oh well;  it's always something!!Anyway, we've all been quarantined for quite some time.   The first 2 weeks of the quarantine I happily painted away everyday.  Then, I needed a bit more to do.  I started sewing masks.  These are just a few of the masks that I made.  They all went to friends, family and donations.This was actually a lot of fun for me.  Maybe I'm a bit of a fabric scrap hoarder, but I had all of these scraps in a huge box.   Most of the scraps are from things that the kids and I made through the years.  Flannel pajamas that our son made in junior high;  shorts that I made for our daughter in pre-school;  fabrics that used to be on the family room pillows that were chosen by the kids when they were small;  on and on.  It became somewhat of a nostalgic project.  Also, I might be an elastic hoarder.  I had enough elastic to make 45 masks!  (Making ties is really time consuming.  I didn't like that!  And at that point started to lose interest;  although I persevered for quite sometime.)I'm now back to painting (and reading, going for walks, and watching Netflix.)  I've been working on landscapes for an upcoming show.  I have work in two virtual shows this weekend.  But, more about that in my next post.

 What have you been doing during the quarantine?