another self-imposed commission

Posted on February 18, 2012 by notnow

I heard from my brother that his girlfriend had been frequenting my blog and sighing over the “mums painting.” “Is it available?” he asked. Uh, yes, but…it’s six feet long. “Oh, well…” I could paint a smaller version for you, I offered.

So I did. This is the in-progress shot of “mums” from a previous post. I’ll have to take a new pic of the finished one. It’s 48″ x 72.” 

photo of painting of mums in progress

And this is the small version, 12″ x 16.” It didn’t quite fit on the scanner so these are details. I haven’t heard back yet how the surprise went. This is actually closer to the what the finished giant one looks like than the above in-progress shot.detail of acrylic painting of flowersphoto of detail of acrylic painting of flowers

 

 

Posted in things often painted, works in progress | 1 Comment

destruction to creation, part 1

Posted on February 16, 2012 by notnow

A new chapter of posts is ahead! We are having built (awkward sentence, yes, but WE are not the builders) a new painting space for me. To make some space for that, three of our gi-normous old trees had to come down. This is the first time for me to say “yes” to this process.

I highly recommend Tyndall Tree Service here inphoto of tyndall's truck Pittsboro, should you need him. Very careful, organized, timely, and oh so good at spacial relations (calculating where those trees would fall).

 

photo of tree guy way up in skyOne of the trees had a triple trunk. One was a huge poplar covered in ivy. And one was the gum tree that was leaning toward our front porch. My husband has worried about that lean for years.

photo of allen in cherry-picker trimming tree

photo of tree in driveway

When the 10-hour days was done, the trees were carried off, leaving us a big pile of chips, some extra logs for the Wildness to use and Rick feeling accomplished. And yes, I contacted  a few wood-turners I know to see if they wanted the wood (of which there is still plenty just not huge logs), but no one needed any more wood.

logs being loaded into truck

photo of rick with tree stump

 

Posted in great services, the Art Pit | 1 Comment

a day of learning and reminders

Posted on February 13, 2012 by notnow

Saturday I spent at UNCG at the Southern Entrepreneurship in the Arts  conference. It was 300 folks, all ages, all art forms, and a range of topics from getting started, to how to collaborate, to ‘wow-look-at-what-these-folks-do’ kind of things. The opening speaker was Beverly McIver, Greensboro native, NCC Durham professor and ever-more-famous painter.

Beverly’s message was about valuing yourself and goal setting. She uses a journal/scrapbook model to collect pictures of things she wants– get an assistant, get grants, awards, museum exhibs, house, car, etc. (I wrote these down, yes, these sound good to me. ) She stressed that her goals might not be our goals but having them helped focus your work and energies. She also reminded us to notice if we were being “haters,” jealous, envious, those things that can get in the way of seeing things clearly and being open to people and opportunities. Very good reminder.

The other thing I took away from the day, and it was a message repeated by several different presenters, was get out in your art community. ‘If you want to meet art buyers, art folks, curators, etc., go to openings!’ ugh. This one will be a challenge for me, hermit that I am.

But I’m pretty organized, and I can put things on my calendar. SO, decide my goals, look at the paths (or what I think those are), and start putting those steps on my monthly to-do’s.

And you thought being an artist was only about making things….  :)

photo from everglades studio

After the residency, the other work begins.....

Posted in amazing teachers, Field trips, great services | 2 Comments

mark-making!

Posted on February 10, 2012 by notnow

This magical word means just what it says–to make marks. It shows up in the art world because it is sometimes the best descriptor for the process of painting. It doesn’t matter the tool….it’s making the mark.

Today’s studio session was a wet- and-sloppy mark day. I took these while things were still wet, too. I’ve got plant forms buzzing in my brain, and the work I’ve done recently in watercolor, the outside studies, is in all of these pieces.

acrylic in progress, still wet

 

red and green marks in acrylic

Marks like these black ones against the blue and white and red against green are very exciting.

I’m thinking about trees in water but we’ll see what shakes out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sketches I did at Duke Gardens last fall, the ripples and reflections overlapping with the birds on the water, are coming through in a couple of these.

two paintings, acrylic of birds, trees and water

The egrets in water is from the trip I made last summer to Corpus Christi, Texas. Sometimes, things perk for a long time! I did a watercolor then, started this small one and have just begun a very big (60″ x 60″) version of the idea.

acrylic of egrets in water

Lots of layers of marks means lots of nice color surprises later.

acrylic start of trees and water

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This last pic is a beginning on board with very wet glazing liquid slapped on top of charcoal lines. I want to keep the charcoal lines and the liquid will seal over them. Some very lovely marks.flower beginning on board, reds and greens

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clay of the day

Posted on February 7, 2012 by notnow

As the day of love approaches, I thought it would be a good fit to put up one of my couple pieces, “Smooch.” It was part of a group I made last spring of couples in blankets. This was the first and the best. my sculpture of a couple cuddling in bed.

Posted in sculpture | 1 Comment