More August News

In addition to being one of 49 prints selected, out of 500+, for the National Small Works show at this years Washington Printmakers Gallery, my print won an award!  The juror, Brian Garner, of the Litho Shop, awarded the new Tran Van-Dinh prise to Indiana Statues.

More News!  Another print, from the Artomatic show, Lake Bruce was accepted into the Art League Gallery's annual Scapes show.  

I like this little print (5x7).  I hope to make more work from the drawings and photo I took at this small cove on Lake Bruce in Indiana.

Working again!    

Back in the Studio for the first time in a while.  Starting with a new medium, gouache, and working with an old one, ink. 


I will be showing at the Art League Gallery and posting new work to this blog.  


August Alert!  Indiana Statues was selected for the Washington Printmakers Gallery's National Small Works show.  The show runs through August.  The Gallery is located in Silver Spring, MD, in the same building as Pyramid Atlantic. 
         

Artomatic is coming to a close. It’s been a resounding
success with so many visitors, who came to see the art, or hear the music, or watch a performance, or film, and stayed to enjoy the other offerings.

In some way I really pity New York, LA, London or anywhere else that does not have a community of artists who can pull off this gargantuan event, consistently, with an all-volunteer ensemble. Artists are so very skillful, ingenious, and resourceful people. Just think of what could be possible if AOM had a solid financial base!
 By artists, for everyone.
I am so amazed with all the excellent feedback and comments I have received. That so many of them are from fellow artists, has truly made all the years of work to get to this point valuable to me. All the work I have sold has been to artists. That’s both wonderful and downright scary!

Oh I’m going to have to work soooo much harder! I have to go back to scratch and translate the sense and atmosphere I’m able to get manipulating one color, black, with more color. I’m talking oil paint here, so much easier to work with. But I do love ink and can never move to far away from it. And to do this all with Florida sunshine. Oh, this will be a fun challenge!
Special thanks to
Lenny Campello, Daily Campello Art News and
John Anderson, City Paper ArtsDesk blog.

Hello Artomatic visitors!

I hope you are having a wonderful time exploring Washington's best Art extravaganza.  I feel very privileged to be able to live in an area that supports, and so enthusiastically, an all volunteer, non-juried presentation of all the local artists have to offer.   

My contribution to the show is on the 9th floor, wayfiner 09-252.  

I've hung a group of Monotypes, see the link below for an explaination of this print method, that I have created over the past several years. Each print image is 5 x 7 inches. As you can see I work with landscapes. My principle medium is oil, but I have been work with prints, on and off for many years. I like working with black, light and grays the ink gives me. And although this may seem like a limited pallet, in reality, it actual area is a variation of greens and greys, with the odd yellow or white area. So I prefer to limit the color to focus on the design and texture of an image.


Part of the wonderful freedon Artomatic allows an artist is to show work that would never make it to a gallery wall. It's very rare that a small group of Monotypes by any artist would be shown unless they were VERY famous, think Dega, Diebenkorn, Johns. 

Here is the price list for the works shown:
1. Horse Barn Hill, $350 SOLD

2. Indiana Roads, $375  SOLD

3. Hunting Creek,* $400

4. Lake Bruce, $400

5. Belle Haven Marina, $400

6. Indiana Haze, $350  SOLD

7. Beacon Hill, ** $385  SOLD

8. C & O Canal, $400

9. Indiana Statues, $375  SOLD

Accepted in Juried Shows:

* Washington Printmakers Gallery, National Small Works 2010; Art League Gallery, 2010, Crisp-Ellert Art Museum, 2011

** Art League Gallery 2010

The price list is now posted on the wall at Artomatic.  So if you are really interested in these prints, please let me know soon, so I can put a little red dot next to the image.  As you know, the art work can not be removed from Artomatic until the end of the show.

ARTOMATIC opens May 18th, in Crystal City

My work can be seen on the 9th Floor, as you head to the area where the PEEPs dioramas are displayed.


I will be showing Monotypes that I have created over the past few years, 2007 to 2012.  Most images are 5x7, black ink on cream papers. These will, of course, be landscapes.


I will have images shortly.

Spring is soooo close!

And I'm getting very close to the final transition.  I have a wonder new home, and someone is about to acquire my dear little first home and garden.  I have no regrets leaving, just that the whole project has taken a toll on me.  But the new life will repair the damage and energize me.  A perpetual Spring.

Working on drawings I hope to show at the 2012 Artomatic.  If you haven't heard of it, Google the name.  It's a wonderful experience for an artist.  75,000 will see my art! 

A year without making art

Talk about a bad itch!  I can't even look at art, it hurts so bad.  But after 60+ years of living, I know this wasted time will seem like nothing soon.  Even though an artist is not working, they are thinking about work. They are always creating in their head and heart.  


A new direction.  In January I will start slowly, going back to my basics.  My drawing.  Like my life, it will be a transition.     

Ahhh....I've been neglecting this blog a bit...

Many things are changing in my life.  And art is not the priority at this time.  But it will soon be, and at the top of the "list." 
I've done a lot of monotype work lately, and continue to show it at the Art Leagues' Gallery as well as in their Bin Gallery.  Unfortunately I forget to photograph it before I frame it, and it never looks decent with a reflection across the front.  One can check out the Art Leagues Flicker site for the latest show.  My current piece is another C & O Canal view.  I can't seem to get the place out of my head!

Moving into Fall

Over the past few weeks, I've been showing a lot of prints.  The submissions for the August "Scapes" show and the September show, both at the  juried Art League Gallery in Old Town Alexandria, were monotypes.  The Sept. show was juried by F. Lenny Campanello, who called my Landscape painting in the 2009 Artomatic, "best landscapes."  The monotypes are, of course (!), landscapes.  The smaller prints (5 x 7) are made with a wonderfully fluid soy based ink that has a deep, rich black.  I've created larger works (7 1/2 x 9 1/2), working in the Discover Graphics studio.  I used a sheer coat of graphite ink and then "paint" in the image with a deep black. It give me layers to carve out a image.  And easy to add texture.  I hope to have some good images soon.  The ones at the Art League Gallery's Flicker site are through glass. 

The image that got into the Washington Printmakers National show, and the August "Scapes" are currently at Kelley's Art and Frame, No. Washington St., Alexandria, until late next week.  



I've been working, in oil, outdoors with Bobbie Pratte.  It's so nice to be outside in lovely cool weather.  Sooooooo many less bugs to content with.

August

I know it's still July, but it's been so hot, it felt like August in June!  
I'm off to Indiana for a plein aire painting week.  Good fellow painters, good food, pleasant lodging, what more can a painter ask for?


I will also be entering work in several other shows, details when I have good news.  Stay cool! 

Busy Summer

May, June and July have gone by swiftly.  Paining at Carderock, and Solomon Island did not produce much.  But they are area I want to explore.  Had work in the Art League Gallery show in June, as well as at Kelley's A&F.  But July had been spent getting ready for several shows.

Washington Studio School Alumni Show.

www.washingtonstudioschool.com

I got 2 small pieces into this juried show that runs from July 7th through August 22nd.  Check out the work, and check out the school.  While I've been painting since high school, WSS is were it really came together.  If you really want to learn to draw and paint, this is the place to be.  Great spaces too.  The works are shown in the Widget below, Sun at Fletcher's (plein aire, 8x10) and Hunting Creek Trees (9-12).

Washington Printmaker's Gallery, National Small Works

www.washingtonprintmakers.com

Just on the off chance, I submitted work for this show and I got in!  And then I found out that only 50 works had been selected out of about 400 works submitted, whoa!  The work is a monotype, 5x7, I made in the Spring.  It's called Hunting Creek, but it's an image I have not completed before.  I liked the way it came out.

I've been so pleased with this set of prints, that I'm taking a workshop with Penny Barringer, of Discover Graphics, for a few weeks.  Different ink and paper so it's been hit & miss so far, but I finally got 2 good images.  But I think I will keep at it for a while as I love the graphic black on soft white images.  And all those ghost to play with!

Orchard Gallery, Bethesda, MD,  Juried Show

 I got a piece selected for this great little gallery in the heart of Bethesda.  A 12x16 version of Autumn Trees that was seen at Artomatic.  The image is also in the Widget below.  I'm so glad I am able to show my work in a whole new area of Metro DC.  The show runs through the whole month of August, and the Gallery is open every evening until 8:00 PM.  There are some interesting restaurants in the area too. 

April has been May with all the flowers.

I've been out in the garden most of this month.  Planting seeds and blubs.  Hopefully we will have enough rain to make it worthwhile.  Once that's done I'll be concentrating on painting outdoors as much as possible.

I'm so pleased that the first time I submit a monotype to the Art League Galley show, it was accepted.  And thrilled that the Juror was Jack Boule, Mr. Monotype himself!  I don't have a image to show, but you can check out the Leagues Gallery Blog.  They usually have a Widget with the shows images.  It a 5x7 inch, Black on White image of part of the C & O Canal up near Great Falls.  I, of course, also have a small oil in the Bin Gallery, Twilight, from the Hunting Creek series.  It has a sky that seem unreal, but I've acturally seen something similar.  My area of Virgina gets some amazing sunsets. 

I put two pieces in Kelley's Art & Frame Gallery April show.  This closes on the 22nd.  As I'm working on another project, I don't think I'll be able to enter the May show. 

April is also the birth month of my Mother, Sister, and Nephew.  Happy B-day all!

March means Spring is almost here!  Planting time!!
Two works, both from the Hunting Creek series, on show at Kelley's Art and Framing, see location below.  Another show has one work from the C & O Canal series, at the Bin Gallery in the Art Leagues Gallery.  This small painting was the beginning of the whole series.  I created it "plein aire" at Fletcher's Boathouse area of the Canal.  The site is on the Potomac by the boat rental area.  I saw the sunlight hitting this small island of bushes through a group of trees.  There is an image on Widget below, Sun at Fletchers.

Feb. 2010 Showings

I have 3 works in a Landscape show at Kelly's Art & Frame.  It's located on No. Washington St., Old Town Alexandria.  I'm showing Canal Boats, 18x18.  Which is from the C & O Canal series at Fetcher's.  An image is below on the left.  Two smaller pieces, 12x16, Up Hunting Creek, and Autumn Trees.  These are from the area South of Old Town in and around the Hunting Creek.  I hope to put work in Kelly's shows on a regular basis.  So if you don't see a work in the Art League's Bin Gallery, check out Kelly's.

New Work for January 2010

Sorry, the image is bad, as the paper needs to be flattened.  This is on gessoed paper, Acrylic, with graphit and watercolor crayon.  The size is 15x18 1/2, to be framed without a mat.  I've called it Riverview, mainly because it's not a place I know.  Although it seems to have elements of other paintings and images I've made.

Beacon Hill sunset in Art League Gallery show

Beacon Hill is in the January 2010 show at the Art League Gallery.

This is another series I've been working on.

New Paintings

Never being satisfied, I always want to find a better way to say what I want.  I've been working with Steve Fleming the past few month in an abstract format.  I've never done abstract before and had felt I really didn't have the right kind of brain make-up to accomplish this kind of work.  But working through some simple exercises Steve showed us, I've been able to push some familar imagery in a different way.  I'm not sure how this is going yet, or even if it's the end result.  Right now there are too many possibilities, so I'm just going to keep at for a while.  Here is some work in progress.  Some of the images are black/white, and some of the color ones are not true.  I'm still trying to understand the camera too.  These are the drawing and then the first and second stage.  I'm not sure it's finished yet.

Another opening, another show...

Canal Boats is now appearing in the 'Scapes show at the Art League Gallery. This is the Leagues annual, prestigious, and juried landscape show.
There is no Bin Gallery show for August. The Art League Gallery is on the main floor of the Torpedo Factory Arts Center on the waterfront in Old Town Alexandria.