In support of Southeastern Wildlife Exposition 2 '14

The February 14 – 16, 2014 Southeastern Wildlife Exposition is a major event in the South Carolina and Charleston calendar.  I am helping to support the event by exhibiting  a wall of my paintings of South eastern birds at the Charleston Artist Guild.

WIP Day 4 Foreground of Rice- fields on the Ashley 7'13

Today I finished the grasses and water in the foreground and foreground tree, widened the waterways in the middle-ground of the Rice fields so that they function more as  lines of direction in the painting.  At this point  all of the colors and values are as I want them.  You can clearly see the contribution of the red underground in the sky and the marsh.  It is what makes the sky appear purplish in the upper left corner,and the underside of the cumulus-nimbus clouds  warm ; it is also what adds the warm glow under the distant grasses in the middle ground of the rice-field. the clouds  All of this was achieved  by applying a thin glaze of color over the red ground rather than a thick layer which would cover it.

 I am still deciding whether I want to pull out the small  tree in the right lower corner more or leave it less defined.  .  That is where staring at it while it is sitting on the easel  in my living room comes in.  My husband calls this process "grocking". (Apparently that is a term used in some sci-fi book for which means "to deeply study an object  so as to fully know its nature")..  Sounds like a pretty  good description of what I will do next to me.

See all three earlier posts  in in this process beginning with the first on July 16th

My Paintings are now in the SAG Applewoods Gallery 7'13

July 1st was art change-out day at the SAG Gallery at Applewoods. Applewood's owner, Amy Vlahos, is a great supporter of local artists, and has provided wall-space for thirteen of SAG's artists. I replenished my wall space with lots of paintings of local landmarks.

Working Large Workshop: Thursday 3"13

 Bill jumped right into instruction on the first morning of the workshop with a demonstration of how he  proofs his concept on a small  canvas before  working on a large one.  Above you can see how he taped  a reference photo to the side of his easel, then loosely sketched out the design in a thin blue wash onto a toned canvas.   He then filled in the design with large blocks of additional color which were build up from dark to light.  This gave him the first rough layer of the final painting.  

Stopping there, Bill asked each of us to put a thin wash of color upon the canvas supports we had brought with us, and select a reference photo  ( from his collection or one our own) to use as the basis for our first painting.

 I had already selected my reference photos and toned my canvas with red iron oxide prior to arriving at the workshop, so I set up my  workstation and began painting.  By lunch time I too had my design roughed in and was ready to start applying  the first large blocks of color.

But first things first.... a group lunch at the Saluda Grill.

After lunch, Bill gave us a demonstration of how to wrap a canvas onto a stretcher frame.

That was a learning experience for me.  Not at all difficult ( if you are 6'+ like Bill).  It gave me more confidence for  how I can work if I can't find the size canvas I need locally.

CAG Wall Updated 1'13

It's  been too cold for out of door activities , so I decided to  drive to refresh my wall  at the Charleston Artist Guild Gallery with some bird paintings before the Wildlife convention opens next month.  ( Just wish I'd snapped the reference photo AFTER I straighten the paintings and took the ID labels off  SIGH!).

Just being in the gallery gives me a morale boost.  It is so nice to hang out with people who like art. 

Seacoast Artist Guild Awards Ceremony Oct '10

The Seacoast Artists Guild of South Carolina, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing excellence in the visual arts, opened its judged 9th Annual Fall Art Show and Sale with an elegant awards ceremony held at the Inlet Square Mall in Murrells Inlet on Wednesday evening, October 10th.

Congratulations to Artists and Recent Winners 

of the Seacoast Artists Guild Fall 2012 Show and Sale

Professional Category 2 Dimensional Art

 2nd Place:  “Morning Mist” by Richard Nelson

3rd Place:  “Gentleman Wearing a Dark Hat" by Sharon Sorrels

Hon. Men: “This One’s For You” by Paula Robertson

Hon. Men: “ ’57 Chevy” by Barnie Slice

Hon. Men: “Why I Like Blue” by Nora Mackin

Hon. Men: “Flash of Green” by Denny Stevenson
  
Professional Category 2 Photography

2^nd Place:  “Tunnel Vision” by Pat Walsh
3^rd Place:  “Sunflowers at French Market” by Sandra Anderson

 Hon. Men: “Weathered” by Sandi Blood
Hon. Men:“Front Street Boardwalk” by Bill Barber 

Professional Category 2 Open

 2nd Place:  “Pinnacle” by Richard Cash 3rd Place:  “Autumn” by Marlene Askins Hon. Men. “Pack Mule” by Richard McGrath Hon. Men. “Killdeer” by Richard Cash

Non-Professional Category 2 Dimensional Art 

2^nd Place “Pondering” by Linda Aptt
3^rd Place:  “Diana” by Linda Aptt
Hon. Men: “Diamond in the Rough” by Joyce Lincoln
Hon. Men: “Far Eastern Impressions #5” by Ulrike Morollo 

Professional Category 2 Dimensional Photography

2^nd Place: “Baby Willy” by Christine Lizzul
Hon. Men: “Paris Architecture” by Nicholas Mariano 

 Click Here to See Photos of the Awards Ceremony

This season, fall in love with the Creative Spirit of your local artists. 
     Not only will you receive an original and inspiring work of art, your purchase will support 
     Training & Educational Art Programs at our local schools and help fund Scholarships to be awarded to 
     gifted art students.  For every $100 spent by customers in art 
     purchases, the Seacoast Artist Guild will donate $25 to its training and scholarship fund. 

For photos of all of the show entries click Here

Seacoast Artist Guild Fall Show Success is well earned 'Oct "10

Thanks to the Show Coordinator, Sandi Blood, and the SAG Board of Director who helped to make 

The Seacoast Artist Guild Fall show a Great Success

Most people never get to see the  hours and hard work that goes into  such an event.
Sandi started months ahead of time planning for the event and securing the facility.

Publicity Chair, June Groft and our webmaster, Mike Covington worked ours to get the advertising in place and word out on the internet

Eugenia Tibbet coordinated food donations, and organized the general members to serve it at the Awards Reception..

  Keeping track of the expenses and sales fell on on Treasurer Walter Cushman's shoulders

This show is the largest and most impressive collection of art and fine art craft the Guild has ever sponsored.   Over 80 artists signed up and participated.  Just organizing the entries and collecting and organizing the artwork was a labor of love. It took  all hands on board to set up the exhibits included paintings, photography, fiber arts,  jewelry, and  3 D crafts in this massive room..
Thanks again to our hard working Board of Directors, it all paid off .  The show was a great success.

You can learn more about this fine show and the Seacoast Artists Guild at

http://seacoastartistguild.com/

New Paintings at CAG Oct 1

Pastel Paintings from Dunes Series

Sunday, Sept 30th was change-out day at the Charleston Artist Guild Gallery.  Here's my new paintings. They show off well against the neutral green wall.

"Mini art" -- little sales with big results

Each year the Seacoast Artist Guild's members donate miniature artwork painted on 4" x 4" or 4" x 6" gallery wrapped canvases.  They go on sale at Applewoods, a  popular local restaurant donates the space by their entrance to display the artwork, and collects &  processes the sales for the Guild.  The money is used to support art in the local school districts, and to provide art lessons for local youths.

I painted these eight little gems for the cause.  They'll be on sale from November through Christmas . 

14361 Ocean Hyw,  Pawleys Island SC

Busy busy busy - new paintings at Seacoast Artist Gallery

September through December is always a frantic time of year for the artworld.  It's been virtually non-stop for me.  It began with a refresh of my space at the Seacoat Artist gallery  with some small acrylics paintings  of sky-scapes and beaches.  I had started this series a year ago, but none  of them  had never been exhibited before in public. It will be interesting to see how they do.

New Paintings on my Website

I finally got around to posting the past two months worth of new paintings on my website.   There are new oils paintings in the "Local Landmarks" series, and in the "State Parks" series.  And  you can check out some of the new work I have been doing with Golden's Open Acrylics in the "Nocturnes" and "This Side of Paradise" Series.  Enjoy.

How to Survive a Heat Wave 6 '10

We're in the midst of  a record breaking heat wave... Seven continuous days with temperatures above 90  degrees was the past record for June days in this area.  We've already more than doubled that, and there is no end in sight.  Several days last week broke the old record for highest temperatures on record.   With what is called "the heat index factor" (which means humidity, heavy air pressure, and lack of clouds), mid-day feels about 10 degrees hotter than what the thermometer is reading.  Nights aren't much better.  About the lowest it has dropped to is 80 at night.  Thank goodness for AC.  Well almost.... ours went out  for several days last week.

"So how does one survive one of the worst heat waves on record without AC?",  you ask.

 My answer:   Seal of as much of the outside heat as possible, eat fresh (no cooking) , drink lots of fluids,  stay in the coolest rooms, do minimal movement, and have lots of fans blowing into the room you are using.  The  other trick is to do something that takes your mind off of the temperatures.   In my case,  I painted beach scenes.... lots of them. You can see a one of them below.  The rest will show up on my website as soon as I can get them loaded..

One of the projects on my list of to-dos this year  was to paint a series of small format paintings that I could take to local sidewalk shows.  I  also had been wanting to experiment with a minimalist and almost abstract approach . I decided to work upon a series of big skies with clouds reflecting onto the wet beach.   I guess all of that water and cool colors seemed the right thing to think about when it was really hot.  I got eight  8"x 8" canvases painted while the AC was out (about two a day).

Only one of the five days we were without an AC, did I find it too hot too work in the studio. I had been painting near a window so I wouldn't warm up the studio with artificial lighting.  When the temperature reached 98 outside the heat radiating in through the blinds on the window was overwhelming me.  I retreated into my husbands office  and sketched out a 16" x 20" beach scene to scale to paint on another day.