Accepted to Huffhines!

It's shaping up to be a busy fall! I got the letter at the end of last week that I was accepted into Huffhines Art Trails in Richardson. This is a 2 day art fair held at the end of October. In the meantime, I'm painting for Lakewood Summer Art Faire and getting ready for Fall classes.

Unfortunately, not much of my art "job" lately has been painting happily away in the studio. Since, like most full-time artists, I am self-employed, so I wear all the business hats around here. I have been working on marketing and organizing issues this summer. I'm also starting to branch out my web presence with joining an on-line gallery (www.boundlessgallery.com) for my collages and I'm looking into E-bay as an art sales possibility for smaller works and another on-line gallery for larger works.

Why on-line galleries instead of traditional galleries? So I'm in control!! *insert crazy laugh here* Ok, I'm only partially kidding. First, I want my artwork to be available to me for art festivals and exhibits instead of decorating gallery walls. Second, I want to be available to my collectors through shows or direct contact via the internet. Accessibility is important to me. I'm not creating this art in a vacuum, it shouldn't be sold that way either. As always, artwork is available for purchase by contacting me directly.

On a less artsy note, I'm also recreating my website and the cataloging of my artwork before it gets too much more out of control. I do my own web development and I'm having to take a bit of a learning curve to switch from Frontpage to Dreamweaver. I also use Access to catalog my work and I'm going to learn MySQL (trip to HalfPrice books tomorrow! woo-hoo! love that store!) to convert that database over to a non-Microsoft product as well. Why am I sharing all this? Because if you are a former student or avid collector, you may be wondering why no new Student Galleries or even updates to my own Gallery have appeared since early Spring. This major conversion is why...so bear with me and my painful catch up in my Web Developing skills (its been 9 years..that's what I did to earn money to buy art supplies before my son was born!)

Anyway..all text and no picture is not-artistic and downright boring as well. Here's what the Bodhi & horse picture looks like on my easel right now. It is in stage 3...blocking in major shapes and values. My goal is to have this painting complete and hanging at Huffhines so I need to speed up that 4 month estimate I made last blog!

Have a great Labor Day weekend! Happy grilling!

What I mean by LARGE

Last week I referred to working on some large format acrylics. So what is large and why paint that way? This spring I did painted Last Two Beachfronts which was 22 inches by 48 inches. That was not my largest painting, Evening in the Bay, is two inches larger at 24 inches by 48 inches. I have several paintings that are 24 inches by 36 inches, not as large, but still not small.

So, why so big? Why do any artists do big paintings? So they can charge more? Fill more wall space? Large paintings are definately more impressive. One of the comments I hear most from people who have viewed Da Vinci's Mona Lisa (30 inches by 21 inches) in Paris is "I couldn't believe how small it was. I thought it would be bigger." Big art definitely dazzles us. The well-executed use of pointillism (painting with small dots) in Seurat's Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte is even more impressive when you consider the painting is almost 7 feet by 10 feet large.

For as long as I've been studying art seriously (about 18 years now) I've liked working large. Am I trying to impress? Maybe...what artist isn't? My husband (at 6'4") may argue it is a Freudian thing (I'm 5'2"...almost!)..aiming for large when I'm not. Hm..interesting but I'm quite comfortable at my height.

Painting large is a way for me to make art more interactive. Sculptor Louis Nevelson called her creations "environments" instead of sculptures and I've always remembered that distinction. When art becomes more than the wall decoration, it captures your thoughts, makes you remember or dream...you begin to experience the art instead of simply viewing it. That is impressive.

My latest and largest piece has been a long time in the making. I began to work on the composition in my sketchbook over a year ago and finally stretched the canvas to paint this past May. It will be a painting of my son at about age 4 feeding one of the horses on my parents' farm. It is a warm moment full of trust, innocence, and home.

Thankfully, I have a large easel, but this size (36 inches by 60 inches or 3'x5') seems to be pushing the limit. Note the stepstool, I have to use it to draw or paint the top comfortably. I've also found I sit on it when I'm working towards the bottom.

It will take a while to complete, I'll have many smaller works finished during the process. But I'm not in a hurry. I'm further along than this picture but I'll keep you updated as I go.

Recharging the batteries

Since this spring I've been working exclusively in acrylics, including some very large acrylics. I've loved it..but the past 2 weeks I've had the overwhelming urge to dabble in collage. I love doing collages! I think I love collecting stuff for collages even more than doing them! Anyway..here is one I did this week, Tidal, which includes a PAD (painting a day) from earlier this year.

Whenever I do a collage, I try to incorporate a piece of existing artwork or I create a new painting or drawing for the collage. Sometimes my collages (such as Tidal) are "double-signed"..once on the painting and again on the collage. Will this increase their value one day? like defective stamps? Who knows..right now..I know that taking bits and pieces of texture and color and creating mini-environment gets my creative juices flowing..and puts me back in front of the easel! That's (to me!) is priceless.

Summer Camps are done..now enrolling for Fall

Summer camps were a blast this year. I had a lot of new students and lots and lots of projects! This is a photo of one of my students making a "sandcastle" out of marshmellows and graham cracker crumbs during Surf's Up week. We even turned snack time into art time!

Now on to fall! I've had the Fall Class Schedule out for less than 2 weeks and the K-1 afterschool class is already full! I have a feeling this is going to be a busy fall too! Fortunately for me...busy=fun! Deadline for registration is August 24th so I can get supplies ordered in time. I'm offering Homeschool classes again this fall. Wednesday is a definate and is half-full..we'll see about Tuesday. I've also had several requests for an adult watercolor class. I'm trying to work it into my daytime schedule (no night classes this fall). If you are interested, let me know!