2019 Spring Art Invitational

Hope you can come!

Presents 2019 Spring Art Invitational Please join us on Friday, April 26th from 5:00 - 9:00 for this Special One Night Art Show of Colorado Representational and Abstract Artists at the B-SPOT in the RiNo Art District 2750 Blake Street, Denver, CO 80205 (Parking Available) Please Let Us Know That You're Coming! RSVP: art@cherrycreekartgallery.com

Jordan Casteel at Denver Art Museum

This young woman's show impressed me. Her vision and execution are powerful. The quote at the entrance to her show says:
"The question for me is, what does it mean to be a part of a community? What does it mean to really open myself up, to be vulnerable enough to stop and say hello?"
This exhibit is called Returning the Gaze. It is a look into the heart of soul of the black community in Harlem. She is not from Harlem. She went to Yale. But she discovered that introducing herself and the project she had in mind to complete strangers on the street went exceedingly well. Once one person agreed to be a model for her (she photographed them to paint later), that person inevitably led to another introduction and the domino effect.
Here are a few of the portraits that caught my eye to hopefully entice you to get down to see the show before it leaves.
These first two paintings are, if I remember correctly, the only paintings with the subject not looking straight at you. She has a strong sense of composition and graphic quality to her work.

Jordon's Mother, a tender portrait

another moving scene

There is a room in the exhibit where she is wanting to show the vulnerability of the black man who are often portrayed as violent criminals. Instead they are all naked and posed in rooms and poses of their own choosing. This is an example of the tenderness with which she treats them.

And then, returning the gaze...

Have to love the red slippers!

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.

Hunt and Peck

First I have to tell you I got a note from the Bold Brush competition held each month on line: Congratulations! Your painting, "Pictures at an Exhibition", was selected as part of the FAV15% (jury's favorite 15% of the entries) in the December 2018 BoldBrush Painting competition. 

It doesn't mean I won anything but it does mean I made it to the top 15% of entries. There are alot of entries! Always nice to get a little recognition...

Ibis, 12x12, oil on linen panel,

And then on to this week's post. I said last time that I was going to start at least one more sea bird painting on top of another plein air painting. This time I picked an Ibis. Since the other two birds are walking and upright I went for one looking for food. There was a nice swell coming in to create a pattern coming off the body of the bird. Repetition of shape is always a bonus. I am having too much fun painting shore birds and Gulf waters. I must be living in the wrong part of the country...mountains are not my natural affinity I am discovering. As I switch to a snow painting I am using what I have been doing in these smaller paintings with water to that of the snow. It has given me a new way to think about that subject. Sometimes I try to make it way harder than it needs to be.

This one is painted over another old building although this was not a barn but a post office. I am drawing a blank on the location but the few buildings in this small mountain town were all dilapidated and long abandoned. You can see a little bit of progression below. I thought I had a previous post on the original painting but I cannot find it. I can't even find a folder with images of the painting...it wasn't that bad!

I have one more shore bird I want to do but I have run out of 12x12 panels with plein air paintings on them. It might be too different to do it on a clean canvas but I will think on that.

not only the roof line is coming through but also the hillside which will mimic the swell in the water. I love it when that happens!

Photo of the old post office

To end this post on another high note I had a surprise deposit in my PayPal account. Someone bought a larger painting off my website! That is always a delight to discover.

Satisfied

Satisfied, 12x12, oil on linen panel

Here we have a satisfied Heron. I took this photo right after I saw him catch and eat a fish. I am painting these shore birds with great delight. Ah to live where they are an every day occurrence. Not that we don't see Blue Herons and lesser Egrets right here in the middle of Denver Colorado. We do. I see them at the park 1/4 mile from my house every summer. But the lake with its not so glamorous broken walls or caged rocks aren't quite as pretty a back drop as the Gulf is. With waters that glimmer and change color along with the shifting colored sand.
Here is a progression for you. I started with painting over a plein air painting from a few winters ago:

From the looks of it, I was painting over another old painting...one I must not have ever considered done as there is not title for it on the back...So the Heron is #3, oh my! I was not unhappy with this painting for having painted it on site on a cold crisp January day in record time, but really, the subject wasn't very interesting.

You can see after my initial block in over the old barn you can still see a ghost of it. In the finished painting it is much fainter and if I didn't show it to you, you would most likely not ever see it. I don't understand why I enjoy doing this so much but I know I am not alone in this. There is one more shore bird I am going to do painting over another plein air painting that isn't that great before I run out of 12x12 paintings to paint over. Stay tuned!

Goin' Fishin'

On the Prowl, 12x12, oil on linen panel

Progress has been made on my egret painting. I painted in more than I had originally intended but there you have it. From day to day what we are going for can change. Everyone seemed to really like the daffodils coming through the egrets body so I left some but not as much as I had thought I would.
I still like it and overall, I think more people will like it this way too because they won't know any better!

Here is a bit of the progression. The image below is where I first stopped. I could not bring myself to 'ruin' what I felt it had going for it and everyone who saw it in this stage said to leave it alone! Eventually it just called out for more trust in my abilities and more paint. This first block in was where I stopped and had a hard time wanting to mess with it. It looked very oriental in style and the shapes coming through the light wash were an interesting element.

Original block in on top of still life painting

Here is the next phase when I finally decided I had to make it more a painting as I had originally intended before I got distracted by the textures and color showing through:

First foray into trusting my gut

I wasn't sure if I wanted to let go of the daffodils in the image above. Ultimately the whites were competing too much. The bird was not coming forward and being center stage. I then was asked by a new acquaintance if I would be willing to film myself painting for a project he is working on. I know he is a musician but I didn't ask what the project was. He has been generous in sending me recordings from the class we are taking together. I did not think to record the lectures until weeks into the class so I felt I owed him a return favor. I picked this painting as it looks good on film and I had only a few touch ups to do. Once I got going I changed my mind and saw the daffodils coming through as a distraction.