Cherry Creek Art Gallery partners with Project Angel Heart for online show

 

In case you are not on my mailing or newsletter list, I wanted to post the information on our partnership with Project Angel Heart for the month of June Fresh Art for the Heart online show. We have been off to a good start with sales so I do hope you will check out the link to view the show. There are 12 artists participating and we will donate 20% of all sales to Project Angel Heart. 

CCAG did a similar partnership for our Small Gems show back in December. Metrocaring was grateful for the $5500 we donated from our sales. I was blessed to make a sale from the day the "Fresh Art for the Heart" show opened on June 1. The happy owner sent me a photo today of where they have hung it. She said not only does it change the feel of the room for the better but the room feels lighter and brighter too! What a gracious thing to say to an artist!

Here it is: 

For those of you who would like to see a short video promoting the show:

Cathedral Rising

 

Cathedral Rising, 18x36, oil Available-contact me

This one has been a long time in the making. It is hard for me to fathom that I have been working on this painting for 2 years!! I just could not make it work for me despite many friends and family telling me it was fine. One would not think such a 'simple' scene would be so hard for me to get right. It is because it is so straight forward that I felt it had to be a certain way. Can't tell you how I studied snow, and the light on the snow at a certain time of day. No two days are the same conditions but to get a feel for it. I still did not delineate details, going for an overall sense of a bright, yet crisp winter morning.

I clearly remember this morning. My walking buddy and I were at Washington Park in Denver bright and early. It was one of those crisp but beautiful blue sky winter day. As the sun was rising. Hardly any one else at the park. It was magical. We walk the park every day, most always in the early morning. I know this park so well, yet some days it takes your breath away. 

Morning Glory - EAST

 

Morning Glory-East, 24"x24" oil - available - please contact me

 

Here is another one I started over a year ago. I think I have determined I really don't like this canvas, that I once thought I did. I have a hard time taking good photos of any paintings I do using this substrate. That alone is not the problem, as it just reveals things to me I don't want to see, which is a good thing overall. I just don't like how the paint works on this slick linen. I am currently working over an old painting on cotton and on a board substrate and those paintings are coming along swimmingly. 

As I was raising the blinds in my bedroom one November morning this scene was a beautiful reminder of how unique each sun rise is. I ran to get my phone and then ran out to the back deck, and thankfully, the sky was still spectacular. This is looking East on Iowa Street towards Downing St. That is my garage in the lower right hand corner. When I was working and had a dog that needed to be walked prior to going to work at 7 a.m. I saw the sunrise way more than I do today as a retired and a dog-less individual. So I am far more moved by them now that I see them less often, and I have always been in awe of the beauty of nature.

I painted the whole street scene trying to keep it within a certain value group; enough variety to know what it is and differentiate between the houses, but still reading overall as a whole. The lighter values help you move within this larger dark shape. but not enough to take away from the sunrise. Hopefully, they compliment each other.

View from the Uffizi

View from the Uffizi, 30x30, oil on linen

Wow! I just realized this painting has been 2 years in the making. How is that possible? A real challenge for me. It seems to be finally at a place where I like it. After many false "finishes"...

The block in

I love the block in process and felt this really got off to a good start.

Continuing to build

Mid point.

Fall is the Wrong Season as we see Spring on the Horizon

Smith Lake-Fall Reflected, 18x24, oil...available

As I walked the park this morning there was decidedly Spring feel to the air despite the temperature which was 19 degrees. The air was clear and there was a bird singing that heralds the change of seasons. That is in stark contrast to the painting I am posting today. I started this painting in early fall last year (or could it have possibly been the year before?) and finally was motivated to go for it. I never had gotten far, and had somehow lost all interest in. It is not my usual style, which is on purpose. I would like my landscapes to be more abstract which is how I started this painting but ended up being more loosely painted. I would like to believe I was listening and dancing to some lively music, but that was really not the case. More a wanting to do something completely different for me.
I have walked this park so many times I am surprised that there is no groove to prove it!

Tom Cat revisted

Tom Cat, 2019, 20x20, oil on canvas

Here is an update of a painting from last summer. I was never really satisfied with it yet I could not figure out why. Everyone who saw it remarked how they liked it. Finally, I figured out what was bugging me.  So that you can see the difference, I will post the painting from last summer.

Feral Cat, 2018

I liked the colors in the walls but somehow I felt it still wasn't quite right. Almost felt dirty rather than in shade. The other big thing for me was the cat's face. I don't know why it was so hard for me to get that right.

Going back to it I saw a number of things right off the bat that had escaped me previously. First thing I noticed was the cat's back. The cat was a bit to thin on top which was one of the reasons the face didn't look right to me. That was easy. Then the ears. The ear on the left was too small and the space between the ears was too broad. That was easy to fix too. Next I realized I was a bit off on the nose so got that done.  This is on an island. I felt that even though it is 'said' cool light, warm shadows; warm light, cool shadows, there would be a lot of reflected light and and I wanted the warmth to come through of the ambient air. So I changed the overall color of the whitish walls in shadow. As so happens whenever you redo a painting you have to sometimes lose something you are attached to to make it work better overall. So I kept some of the rosiness of the front wall coming through but not as much as there was. I also decided to add the clouds. I think they help make it more interesting. And a few more holes in the plant to give it more dimension.

Your comments are always welcome. If you have a more creative name than Tom Cat, let me know!

Laundry Day, Florence Italy

24x24, oil on linen, available

Looking for assistance for a title for this painting. I am thinking a play on "Zest" but not necessarily. Any help would be much appreciated!

Walking around Florence on my own I spent a lot of time just taking photos. I particularly like how the Italians still hang their clothes out to dry and I keep thinking I will make a series out of these images. This is number 2 I believe. I did a larger painting a few years back of laundry hanging over a Venetian canal. I am sure hanging their washing out is of necessity, unlike myself, who still dries laundry outside year round because I prefer it to using a dryer.

The planes of these joined buildings was a challenge. I knew how to do it intellectually, but it took a few tries to get it to 'read' correctly on canvas. I think this is why I enjoy painting Europe so much. The jingle jangle of the architecture makes it so much more interesting to me. And the colors, too. I think, but cannot remember for sure, that 'Zest' was a grocery store. Interestingly enough, across the street from here was a wonderful farmers market.

A View from the Uffizi Gallery

A View From The Uffizi Gallery, 30x30, oil on linen

I started this painting before I went to Greece last Spring. After the initial block in which always gets me excited I somehow lost my way. Here is the blockin:

It was not becoming what I had envisioned. Not many of my paintings do, come to think of it. I had this conversation with my sister recently. About how hard it is for me to paint a scene the way I see it in my mind. That doesn't mean I don't like the end product...And that might be what keeps me coming back. The insatiable quest to get it to come out the way my mind's eye sees it. Or does the vision in my head change along the way? I don't know. I did have someone come into the studio a few weeks ago and exclaimed what a great painting it was, so that made me realize maybe it was done after all, at least for now. So I am posting it, finally. It does make me want to go back to Italy I will say that for it.

The lines to get into the Uffizi had discouraged me from going in when I was in Florence for a few days on my own. Then one afternoon I happened by on the way back to where I was staying and there was no line! The Museum was only open for another hour or so, but I decided to go in just the same. I think I spent as much time looking out the windows at the views of Florence than at the art...And this view towards the Duomo is just not one you see highlighted so I thought I should give it a go. I just love the jumble of tile rooftops and the construction added visual interest and a complimentary color.

New painting found new home

Urban Garden, 30x30, oil on linen in its new home

One of my recently finished paintings found a home this month. A thoughtful, generous and loving husband bought it for his wife's birthday. He told me he found her looking at it so many times online (and it hasn't been on my website all that long) that he wanted to surprise her. So I delivered it in person on her birthday and she was surprised! Both in seeing me and the painting. She was delighted and is very happy to have it where everyone who walks in their home will see it. His wife is a friend as well as a former co-worker of mine from back in the day when we worked at Emily Griffith Opportunity School (since updated to Emily Griffith Technical College). I am, of course, grateful to them both for their support of my work. Thank you Ron and Linda! I think it looks great in your front room.

For more information on this painting see the post from December 2018.

Along the Arno

Along the Arno, 6x6, oil on panel

This is not my normal style but for some reason this little scene called for something different. And it is hard for me to paint this small anymore where once it was very comfortable.
The texture comes from two things. I gessoed the panel with a paint roller which gives it a kind of knobby texture to begin with. And second I had painted this scene already. Then decided I didn't like it so painted over it again. I do like the painted over effect so I am happier with the newer version. I also decided to use colored pencil instead of trying to paint the lines I wanted.

The story here is about the buildings. I do love the way the buildings in Italy are orderly yet jumbled. Florence has a lot of hills so it almost appears as if buildings are built upon buildings. The flower boxes are ubiquitous as well. It is one way to add color and get your hands in the dirt in a place with very little garden space.

Then and Now

An acquaintance/collector contacted me today. Here is what her email said:

I haven't seen you in a long while but did want to let you know how much I am So So ...enjoying your partings in my home on - going - ly!  I just moved one from downstairs upstairs to my office to so that I can look at it as I work at my desk.  I thought of you and how much I wanted to let you know.  Much love to you and our old investment group too!... Love... M

I have attached a photo of the one I look at now everyday in a new way...

Painting Along Cherry Creek, oil

I looked in my art files to see if I could find the images for this painting and its name. I could not! It is from before the age of digital photography! Oh My. It is my only palette knife painting and painted plein air back in the day when I was just starting to paint outdoors. It is very gratifying to know that it is still being enjoyed after all these years.

Spring Reflected, 36x24, oil on linen

And here is a painting I just sold to someone who found me via Nextdoor! One never knows how you will be found. I had responded to someone months ago who was looking for local art to furnish their office. I was never contacted from that post. Last week I had a private message from new neighbors looking for local art to hang in their new home who had seen my response. They are so happy with their new painting and it just so happens to be of their alley! Isn't it amazing how things work out? 

Urban Garden

Urban Garden, 30x30, oil on linen, available

This painting has taken most of this year to get it where I like it and the camera likes it as well. Sometimes the camera "sees" things I miss. Or it will pick out a paint color that just jumps out of the image and becomes a bulls eye. Finally, it seems we both can agree, at least for the time being.

This scene is in Urbino, Italy, a medieval walled hill town in the Marche area of Italy. Which is adjacent to Tuscany. I had read that Marche was so much like Tuscany except less tourism and less money. So of course I had to go and check it out! We were staying in a resort town off season. But this resort town was for Italians. So not much English spoken here. While at the train station trying to figure out buses or even a taxi, for pity's sake, I heard English! This is after trying French, German and English with the ticket agent in the train station. There was  a young woman taking to two others in English. She was a student in Urbino and her brother and his girlfriend had come for the weekend to spend it with her. They were all from England. She said they would walk us into town and help us get oriented as my internet was not working and the map I had found online for this seaside town was so not accurate on any level. While walking us into town (lots of pedestrian streets) she said we should take the bus on Saturday to Urbino for the market. Flea market, antiques, and normal food market was something to go and experience. I had no plans as I often depend on serendipity when traveling, so market day seemed the perfect thing to do. Urbino was all up or all down, with barely any just flat areas except the small main square. I was quite taken with it. This is not my first painting from that day going to market.

Urbino Alley, 30x20, oil on linen, available

Here are paintings I did from the seaside resort area where we stayed in one of the only hotels still open. As is usual in seaside towns, you can tell the foreigners because they are not bundled up and they are in the water, if only wading...In October it was in the mid 70's and yet you can see this bicyclist has on a down jacket and scarf...

Racked, 20x30, oil on linen, available

Adriatic Evening, 24x24, oil on panel, available

I hope you enjoyed your little tour of the Marche area of Italy. It is just south of Venice as the crow flies. But by train you need to go West to go south! Be prepared for little or not English if you decide to venture here. I liked that aspect of our 3 days there, but I know for some it is not comfortable. It sure makes it an adventure.

Cortona Italy

oil on linen panel, 15x30

Here is a scene from a trip to Italy I was on a few years back. It is in the Tuscan town of Cortona. One of the many walled used to be city states.  I was taken by the colors and the building block effect I saw as I came down a hill towards the main square. We were only there for a few hours, but in that time we went to a private wine tasting, the sprawling street market and explored many of the side streets away from the main tourist sections. Yes, there are still places in a small town to escape the disgorging of tourist buses. Even if that area seems to be shrinking daily. 

I have no name for this painting yet so if something comes to you, please let me know.

Attachments

I figured out why I was so stuck on one of the paintings I started in January this year. It seems to always be the area one is attached to that is holding up progress and/or one's unwillingness to let go of said area. So even though I haven't finished this piece yet, I wanted to post it to show how attachments you need to let go of, hold you up.

Last Saturday I had dinner with a writer friend of mine. She was talking about a new essay she had written for her online newsletter. She was lamenting that she had to cut the best line out of her latest work to make the rest of the article pull together. How her attachment to that one line was keeping it from being a cohesive whole. But that maybe she could work that cut line in some not yet unwritten piece in the future. I then proceeded to tell her I had the exact same thing happen to me! Except in paint. Her first response was oh how sad! I could not ever reuse it. Which isn't exactly true. I feel that every time this happens there is always a takeaway from it.

This first image is where I had finally roughed in the sky really liking the energy of it. Unfortunately, I put it in after I had already begun painting atop the block-in of the rest of the painting. I remember being intimidated by the sky in the reference, so I was in avoidance mode. Leave it until I am ready or can't ignore it anymore.

When not done in proper order, confusion results

If I had added the sky when the rest of the painting was in the same state (below), who knows where it might have gone, right? My aim is always to keep some of that block-in brushwork but it is so rare, not sure why I keep thinking that will happen.

block in as I figure out shapes and proportions

Here is the painting with the new sky that better fits the rest of the piece. The new sky actually helps the piece overall so much it almost seems like a new painting and yet I feel I was able to keep some of the brushwork I had become so attached to. I can finally go back to the rest of it now that it doesn't feel like two separate paintings. I don't think it will take much to finish. To be continued.

Starting to pull together finally

more Art hanging in their new homes

Morning Glory, 36x36

One of my first large paintings has found a new home, and doesn't it look wonderful lit up at night. It's new owner hung it right away and could not wait to share it with my son who happened to be walking my dog by her house at the time. The dog was a bit discombobulated by all the people invading his space and needed a wee bit of distraction. She is one happy neighbor. Since this is the view driving west on our shared street, she even knows who owns which car in the painting! Now that is a true painting bought for the person's relationship to the scene! I just love this photo, too.

This second painting, also 36x36, also went to a very good home. My friend, Victoria, whom I used to work with and we shared a wall at the office, was one of my best helpers. I would bring in my paintings as I worked on them, struggled with them or just needed to see a piece in a different light. We would stand together and critique, or compliment as the case may be. Often other co-workers would join us as if we were in a gallery or art show. Quite fun, really, and I do miss this interaction. And Victoria remembers my struggles with this painting. How many times I changed the color of the over arching shadow vs the pavement in the sun. She also hung the painting up as soon as they got it home and her comment was, how it makes the room seem larger as you walk right into the scene.

Oh, how I love my friends and collectors!

Cherry Blossom Promenade, 36x36

Growth and Renewal

untitled, 30x20, oil on linen

“It is with art as it is with trees, constant growth and renewal. Seeking new forms of expression is a vital necessity for art. When art doesn’t put out new shoots, it is dead.” Birger Sandzen, 1913

With this quote in mind, here is a piece that shows something different for me. I have been digging through my old works lately and I am surprised by what I am finding. Lots of good work hidden below. It energized me. My roots are more graphic and flat before I opted to move to the more representational arena.

For this painting I used a photo my son had taken of some old buildings downtown Denver. Since the same rules apply in abstraction as they do in any other painting, I was not only thinking what colors to use but also what colors were in which value group. I was also thinking about repeating patterns using the 'windows' and architectural details to break up the bigger shapes whether they were there or not. The light group is used to help move the eye around.

Here is the image in B and W to illustrate the values and how the colors group.

untitled in B&W

If anyone has a brilliant idea for a title for this piece, I would be happy to hear it. I am stumped. Thank you in advance.

Climbing the Wall - Denver Monolith

Climbing the Wall, 36x24, oil on linen

Here is a painting that has caused me great angst. One that I thought would be fairly straightforward. A man, mostly in shadow climbing a wall, mostly in shadow, and then a wall of glass reflecting...how hard can this be? Part of the reflection from the glass wall is hitting the Monolith; and the man has sun hitting him from the side, that is how hard it is. I even went downtown again to see the wall; it looks so black and dead and falling apart in real life. It is so hard for me to want to paint it that color!

So it may be 'too' blue but it is what it is for now. I need to take a break from it. Trying to make a man-made sculpture look like real stones is quite the challenge. Plus, the wall curves. Lots of things involved. Challenges are what builds character, or so I hear.

I wanted to do this picture as part of my series on people experiencing art. This is just one of climbing on public art or sculpture that I have thus far completed. This was a first and only time I have ever seen anyone climbing the Denver Monolith which is in the plaza outside the main entrance to the Denver Art Museum. I did not hang around to see just how high he was able to go but here he is at the second story level.

Wynetka Farm Barn - as painted on site

Wynetka Farm Barn, 14x11, oil on canvas  Available

Tuesday is the Plein Air Artists of Colorado (PAAC) day to paint in and around Denver each week. It has been years since I have been an active member. This year I am endeavoring to go out more, this being the second time I have actually made it.

I am posting the painting as it was when I walked away from the scene. I do plan to do a few minor things to it to "finish" it. Example: the fence posts do not have their slats in them. The grasses on the hillside were mostly dead but I like the contrast of the color so I doubt I will get into that, but the tall dead grasses along the pond's edge, which I started to put in, might get a wee boost.

It was a beautiful morning before the wind started to softly, at first, blow around 10 or so. It changed the reflection mightily over the time I painted this, approximately an hour or so. That is what is so wonderful about painting plein air. You must get it down quickly before the conditions change! The light, the wind, the clouds, etc etc. There is something magical about painting outdoors and every time I do get out, I wonder why I do not do it more often.

Note: this photo was taken with my phone on my easel inside. I totally forgot to take a photo of it on the easel with the scene in front. It is fun to see that, I know.

I chose this scene because it was fairly straight forward. It divided the panel into almost equal thirds; the shape of the barn is a rectangle; the roof is a parallelogram; the barn was nice and white against all the color and I liked the white Winnebago (even if you can't tell, that is what it is) repeating the white of the barn, and the dark window within the white, opposite to the window in the barn.

French Village - around the Church

The Rectory, 20x16, oil on panel

We were doing a river cruise of our own making along the Yonne River in Burgundy, France. The Yonne River has locks. We had rented a small yacht that slept 8 for this river trip. One day we got behind schedule and knew we  would miss the last lock of our day. (The lock keepers are government employees and having lived in France as children, my sister and I knew that the locks would close down on time, if not earlier!) Instead of risking it, we 'docked' in a small village called Gurgy sur l'Yonne. We only spent one night there but I have painted now at least 4 paintings from that pit stop I was so taken by it. We had River Fog that night; there was a dinghy docked in front of us; the town was so quaint, as if time had passed it by. I know most people will not relate to this subject but it is so the France of my youth.

I started this piece close to 9 years ago. It is a simple subject but it has been hard for me to get it to a place I liked. I never thought it 'bad' just not as interesting as I would have preferred. When my husband walked into my studio the other day and exclaimed what a cool painting, I knew I had finally arrived. He has never been to France and so the painting was liked for itself and not his relation to it as he had none!

Why was it so hard to make interesting? Trying to get the brownish grey stucco of the buildings to be more than than just that; I kept trying to think of how to layer and what to layer to make it more of itself. There are so many layers on this painting now the stucco looks real enough.

Urbino Alley, Italy

I don't believe I have posted this painting before. This painting was started in 2014, or possibly early as it is from a trip I took in the Fall of 2012. It is one of those "problem children" we artists sometimes give birth to.  It is a LOCAL TONE with light and shadow. What I mean by that is, since most of the subject is in shadow, it is painted with more flat surfaces, not impacted by light. But there is that streak of sunlight coming in on one side which produced some reflected light on the opposite building which can get tricky, so I just downplayed that reflected light. It was causing confusion, so it had to go. I also had trouble with the light coming down on either side of the bridge. I could not seem to get past a candy stripe effect on the street, so I finally down played that contrast as well. I will not publish all of the phases this poor painting has gone through, but suffice it to say, it is now the best it has looked. Darkening down all the values did make a huge difference. I also ended up redrawing the whole bottom left side so that the lines from the doorway did not go off the edge.

Urbino Alley 2014, 30x20, oil on linen

Urbino is a wonderful medieval walled town in the Marche region of Italy. I wanted to go to this region because one, I wanted to go to the Adriatic and two, I heard it is very similar to Tuscany in terrain but much cheaper! I found this to be true, especially in the off season. Heard very little English. We took the bus to Urbino for the day, as it is not an easy place to find lodgings. I enjoyed staying a half block off of the sea, so that was no problem. A pit stop on the Adriatic was a good way to take a needed break during our trip. Started in Paris (crowds), then went to Venice (more crowds) and from the Adriatic we headed to Rome (even more crowds as the day we arrived in Rome was the Marathon AND then Pope Benedict was canonizing 9 saints from around the world so Think BIG Crowds and the city shut down to normal traffic!). No crowds in the off season in a beach resort town Here is the post of the painting I did from one of my walks on the beach. The town on the Adriatic where we stayed was called Pescara.