Venice Art Center Floral Show

Just returned from the opening reception at the Venice Art Center in Venice, Florida. It was the opening of the Floral Show. The last juried show of the season. I entered the three paintings shown above and am happy to report that they were all accepted. All in all it was a very nice show. A lot of oils, some photographs and a cross section of watercolors.

They had it hung by predominate flower color and it really worked well. A calliope of color. I will probably go back several times to absorb it all. They also have a great little tea room with the best homemade soups and salads.

The Strange Tree Revisited

I decided to revisit this picture and try to clean it up a it. The first tree looked like a wild golfer to me and a strange animal to others. I needed to define the darks more and ground the trunck. Also the pilings needed some work. This painting is in oil and done solely with palette knives. I have not done a painting like this ever, so it was a new challenge in this painting journey. As I explained before it is done in a different painting style than I ever used, with an underpainting of red values reflecting both temperature and value.

See a previous post to compare the before and after

Interior of the Gallery at the Gilpin County Arts Association

These are pictures from last years member's show that I took while Robbin and I were there. The gallery is in an old Jail in Central City, Colorado across the street from the Gilpin Opera House. The gallery is only open during the Opera Season and then until the first snow. Which could be as early as September.





I am very proud that my painting Mountain Poppy was accepted into their annual juried show. They had approximately 4500 entries in about 4 categories. Including sculpture and fiber art.










This is a fabulous fountain made from a water pump in the courtyard.









This view is inside the gallery and lite from above. Must have been one of the cells.

New Method and Medium

One of my fellow artists from the pastel group invited me to a plein air class conducted by Julie Hansen from Sarasota. She teaches in the Cape Cod School of color method. This was a completely new experience for me. I had studied the book by Lois Griffel many years ago and wanted to attend her school but it fell along the wayside with other good intentions.

So this was one of those opportunities I could not say no too. I am so glad that I went. Julie is dynamic and explained the method to me very clearly. Although there is so much more to learn, one lesson is just the tip of the iceberg.

Well here is the result it is in oil and done with a palette knife only, so is much different than the work that I have been doing lately. I really enjoyed the day.

Gilpin County Art Association Juried Show

I am so happy to tell everyone that Mountain Poppy has been accepted into the Juried show at the Gilpin Art Association annual show for the western states. I mailed the painting today and my daughter Robbin will deliver it the middle of the month. The show is in Central City, Colorado during the Opera season and will open May 31st.

This gallery is in an historic Jail building that has been converted to a gallery with tons of character. It is only open during the summer months and when the Central City Opera Company is open. This promises to be an exciting season with the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Co.

Their mission statement is to expand the appreciation and understanding of art, to provide Rocky Mountain artists with the opportunity to present and sell their work, and to provide financial assistance to the RE-1 Gilpin County School art program. We certainly support them in their goals and hope that you will visit when you are in the area.

And while you are on the net they can be found at www.gilpinarts.org.

Inside the Heart of a Geranium

This is one of a series of flower paintings I have been working on. It is smaller than I normally paint 12x16, but goes into the depth of the flower. I love geraniums, but find them diffiult to paint. This year I had some wonderful colored ones on my terrace outside my studio, so decided to

focus on the closeup. You want to get into them, to see what they are made of, not just the full heads, which are so beautiful.

Please see the post on Georgia O'keeffe's view of painting flower, May 2.

Here I have tried to do what she suggested, paint it big and look deep inside.

Another Beach Scene, Venice, Florida

Last Tuesday our Plein Air Group went to Service Beach Park, Venice, Florida. We have been there several times, but each time is a new adventure. This time we went into the dunes to paint looking out through the grasses. The day was not sunny, but the colors were very interesting. One of the women said that she saw more colors that day than she ever had before at that location. So no matter what the weather, it pays to go out to paint, in this case pastel.

Hollyhocks from Disney

On my birthday trip to Disney this year, I took some great pictures of flowers. This is from one of hollyhocks at the Irish Pavilion at Epcot.

It is fairly large 18 X 24 and has a three dimensional quality. I used Golden's light bodied Molding paste to create the petals and the stamens.

Georgia O'Keeffe said "A flower is relatively small. Everyone has many associations with a flower-the idea of flowers. You put out your hand to touch the flower-lean forward to smell it-maybe touch it with your lips almost without thinking -or give it to someone to please them. Still-in a way-nobody sees a flower-really-it is so small-we haven't time -and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time. If I could paint the flower exactly as I see it no one would see what I see because I would paint it small like the flower is small. So I said to myself-I'll paint what I see-what the flower is to me but I'll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it-I will make even busy New Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers. -Georgia O'Keeffe, 1976

Since taking Georgia O'Keeffe as my muse, I have changed the style and thought process behind my painting. I have allowed myself to use my digital photos and to enhance them using Picasa software program that I love. Reading about other artists they also use their own photos in various ways. It is really liberating coming from the old school of no, no photos. But in studying Georgia O'Keeffe it becomes quite apparent that she was very influenced by photography, especially since her husband was a renowned photographer. It is said that she destroyed the photos that she used for her painting.

Well, it is 2008 and digital is an everyday occurrence, most have a digital camera, and now it is up to the artist to create a new dimension in art. Not the easiest thing to do.