Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Large Abstraction


Untitled
Acrylic, Charcoal, and Metal Leaf on Canvas 
40 x 30

One of my submissions for a juried exhibit competition at Main Street Gallery in Tyler.  I haven't worked this large in quite some time, but I like the way it forces me to loosen up.  The gleam of the strip of gold leaf is a bit exaggerated in the photo.  It has a glaze of burnt umber on it that actually tones it down a bit.  There is also a bit of glare on the right side that is shifting the color.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

More Fruit in Limited Color Palettes

Solo Uno
8 x 8 Acrylic on Panel


Mango-Lemon-Lime
8 x 8 Acrylic on Panel

Monday, June 28, 2010

Illustration Friday - Satellite

Lunar Horizon
12 x 12 Acrylic on Panel

This weeks submission has a dual purpose.  In addition to being my IF submission, this painting will be donated to Stephen F Austin State University's art department as part of its 12 x 12 scholarship fundraiser.  I participated in this event last year and really enjoyed the event as well as the opportunity to exhibit alongside quite a few very talented East Texas artists.  I also brought home a beautiful painting by Peter Andrews, a very gifted artist and instructor at SFA.

Now if I could just get someone to offer me a scholarship to finish my MAAE degree.  If anyone knows of scholarships for middle-aged high school art teachers, with excellent grades, working on a Masters degree, let me know!

Below is a second painting that I am donating as well.  This was inspired by a bird that has built a nest in my bicycle basket.   I have agreed to let her stay there until her babies have fledged.  It is too hot to ride a bicycle now anyway.  :)

Genesis Renewed
12 x 12 Acrylic on Panel

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Illustration Friday - Paisley

sketchbook drawing - Pitt pens


I am at an Art Ed Retreat this week at SFASU so I only had time for this very quick sketch (done during an art history class).  I had a pair of paisley jeans much like these when I was dating my husband John.  He really liked me, but he really hated my paisley jeans.  I wore them anyway.  Unfortunately these jeans were ruined when I had a car accident about a year and a half after we were married.  They cut them off of me in the emergency room.  I have never been able to find another pair quite like them. 





Saturday, June 19, 2010

Tyler Artwalk - June 18th, 4-8 pm



The June Tyler Artwalk hosted by the Downtown Tyler Arts Coalition and Gallery Main Street has come and gone.  Overall it was a very positive experience.   My exhibit consisted of 7 acrylic paintings, 1 watercolor, 4 colored pencil drawings and an alabaster sculpture.   I had a much larger space than the 10 x 10 square feet I was told to expect which was nice because it gave people an opportunity to move through the exhibit more easily.  I shared a large upstairs loft space with two other artists and a lady who volunteered to set up a photography exhibit from the recent Azalea Trail Photography Competition.  People started trickling in about 4:30 in the afternoon and by 5:00 there was a steady stream of visitors until the end of the exhibit.  The only downside was the heat, the building we were in had a less than adequate cooling system, so we ended up with three big room fans to try and keep the temperatures bearable.  Also there was no elevator to the space, only stairs.

I met lots of really nice people though, including a future art teacher looking for employment, and a high school art teacher from Pittsburgh, Texas.   I received a visit from a couple of my former art students from Lindale. and found out at the end of the event. that another former Lindale student, Megan Bryant, was actually part of the exhibit at the Main Street Gallery.

I did have one critic, an elderly gentleman named Elihu Edelson who told me I was a better sculptor than painter.  I smiled and agreed with him.  He said that he had been an art critic for a newspaper when he lived in Florida.  He was charming nonetheless and the conversation became even more interesting when he asked me if I was mystical.  I then heard a long tale about how he ended up in Texas.

It was a lovely evening.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Illustration Friday - Ripple

A Spoonful of Tragedy - A Louisiana Roseate Spoonbill
2.5 x 3.5
mixed media

The folks at Illustration Friday are doing something meaningful this week.  Penelope Dullaghan has chosen the word "ripple" for this weeks theme.  She is encouraging all participants to submit and donate an ATC sized sketch card to a special project that is  raising funds to help wildlife injured by the Deep Water Horizon, Gulf of Mexico oil spill.  This project is being organized by  Kelly Light at http://ripplesketches.blogspot.com/ .  For a $10 donation you will be able to find this as well as many other original and digital artworks available.  This particular card will be sent directly from me to the purchaser when Kelly receives confirmation of a donation made to either the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies or  The International Bird Rescue Research Center .

I hope everyone who sees this blog will consider helping out by either making a donation or creating and submitting artwork to Kelly.  We all use oil.  We drive our cars, we heat our homes, we use tons of plastics and other petroleum products.  We are all responsible for this tragedy.  Perhaps this will be the thing that will help us finally decide to wean ourselves off of fossil fuels.  There are other clean options available, we just need to be willing to change.   True, it will be expensive.  It will be painful to those who need to find jobs in other industries.   But we will come to a point when we cannot afford the consequences of failure to change.  In the meantime, let's clean up this mess as best we can and save as much of our precious wildlife as is humanly possible.

By the way, the coastal marsh dwelling Roseate Spoonbill was just beginning to make a strong recovery from endangerment.  Most of this recovery was occurring in Louisiana....


Monday, June 7, 2010

Illustration Friday - Trail

Trail of Destruction
7 x 13 inches
watercolor

OK, so obviously skyscapes have been on my brain lately and I wanted to do something this week that would leave me with a potentially framable finished piece.  I started thinking of all the possible types of trails I could come up with, trail of tears, trail of dust, hiking trails, happy trails..... When trail of destruction hit me, tornadoes were the first thing I thought of.  I found a really great website called Mother Nature Network that has a top 10 tornado video list.  My personal favorite was #9 (Most Beautiful Tornado Ever)  Even though this painting is not particularly inspired by that video, I may ultimately have to do another painting.  It took my breath away.

Primary Still Life - Rome Apples on a Plate


Chroma Roma
8 x 8 inches
Acrylic on panel

Obviously color was a major factor here.  I once again used a very limited color palette.  Primary Yellow, Primary Magenta, Primary Cyan, and Titanium White The vibrancy of the color actually seemed to confuse the scanner a bit.  It is a little less flat feeling in person.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

More Clouds

12 x 12 acrylic

One more cloud painting destined for the Art Walk in downtown Tyler  on June 18th.  This was actually the first one I painted.  I kind of like the strong diagonal and the false sense of a horizon line.  It creates a compositionally strong negative space.