CC's pastels on Exhibit at SAG 5 "16

I decided to put some of my Pastel beach scenes on exhibit at

 Seacoast Artists Gallery this month.

Keep it Simple 10 '13

Pawleys Island Marsh 7" x 5"

I love this this little  gem I purchased from Karen Margulis.  I have it hanging in a simple white frame ,on the white wall over the pastel workstation in my studio to remind me to keep it simple.

Art Party on Pawleys 10 '13

 

From left to right: Ann McLaurin, Annette, Karen

Spent an inspiring afternoon visiting with artist  friends Karen Margulis, Annette Going and Anne McLaurin  on the Pawleys Island Creek.
 

Anne, CC, Karen

 Sometimes hanging out on-site with other artists can be as motivating  (or more so)  than the scene we are looking at . All three  of these artists are incredibly giving generous when it comes to sharing their expertise.  

Karen discussing first strokes with Annette

 Karen  showed us her new travel equipment and volunteered to give us a painting demo

The cool thing about committed artists is that they can find inspiration even on a moody,   rainy day. Look at how much color, Karen is finding in the scene above.. I was impressed.

You can see more of Karen's beautiful work on her blog at   Painting My World

Super tide at Pawleys Island 12 '12

 

   Flood warnings have been  posted all along the South Carolina coastline today  due to a super high tide. Far from wanting to flee the in-coming tide, Bruce and I rushed to the end of our street  to see what the high tide would do to Pawleys Island Marsh. In short, it turned it into a  gigantic mirror. With no place to go, many of the marsh birds huddled together on bits of debris like a still life stranded between an infinite sea and sky.  It was beautiful.  When I finally got around to reviewing the photos I had taken, I thought I had mistakenly set my camera on a black and white setting.  They were all nearly near monochromatic.  But no, it was just that I was so focused upon capturing the photo ops before me  that I failed to notice the lack of color in the scene.  I love how the gray-scale quality of the sky and water amplifies the stark nearly abstract design of the solid objects.

Brookgreen Gardens Night of a Thousand Candles 12 '12

Once again we attended Brookgreen Gardens Annual  "Night of a Thousand Candles" Festival.
I always look forward to this holiday light extravaganza.

 I attend this festival every year in hopes of obtaining some great reference photos to use as the basis for holiday themed Nocturns I did get some good photos of the garden at night,  but this year I was a bit disappointed in the event.

For one thing, the Gardens oversold the event and it took patrons forty five minutes of stop and go driving just to get from the front gate to the parking lot.

Then the  the gardens themselves seemed a lot sparser this year than last. I understand the need for pruning overgrown plants, but why not wait until after their major event of the season is over, or at least fill the barren beds with  some annuals .They had also changed the light displays so that they seemed  quite similar from one garden area to the next.  Bruce liked that, but I thought it monotonous. I liked it better in previous years when there were more areas with colored lights

Of course there were the usual selections of wandering bagpipers, Celtic musicians, bell ringers etc.

and some beautiful  holiday floral displays.But many of those were things I could have enjoyed just as well by daylight. So I am hoping that next year the garden flower beds will be planted  and lit as well as their indoor displays were this year.

My Wall at CAG Nov.'12

I have three of my pastels of the local dunes up in the Charleston Artist Guild

Newest Exhibitor at the Applewoods Gallery

My wall at Applewoods Gallery

I was caught off guard when an opportunity to exhibit in the Sea Coast Artists Guild Applewoods Gallery opened up at the last minute.  Based on the lengthy wait list to get into this popular gallery, I had not expected to be hanging there until next year.  But I was  not too  surprised to say yes to the opening  and  rush down to the gallery to hang  a number of reproductions  my local landmark series.  I love the way my work looks dispayed  on the gallery's tomato red walls

SAG Applewood Exhibitors get ready for Art Walk

Dropped by Applewoods for lunch yesterday  and was pleased to see  how seriously the Seacoast Artists Guild Exhibitors are taking the upcoming Pawleys Island Art Walk.

I don't think there was a blank spot on any wall and the artwork was outstanding

By the way the photos were taken as the place was closing so as not to violate any customers privacy.  Normally this popular eatery is packed with tourists

Fine Art America Sold 3 Reproductions

I've spent the better part of the last week reorganizing my  2 websites.  I've added almost a hundred new paintings to both It's pretty tedious work, and  I still have a few more edits before I can publish the updated version of the website for my originals

Pawleys Island Yacht Club North

It's pretty tedious work, I would so much rather be painting

Georgetown USA

This was just the shot in the arm I needed to make it all seem worthwhile

Rice Field Workers

To see more of my work on Fine Art America go to:

http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/cecelia-campbell.html

I will put out a new post when the updated website for originals gets posted

The Red Hat

The Red Hat

I am attempting to stretch my artistic skills by having a person(s) as the focal point of the painting. This is #10 of twelve beach scenes which include people. Once I get all 12 completed, I plan to reward myself for the effort by finishing the series with some beach landscapes sans homo sapiens.

First Paintings of New Series on Beach Scene

After a week of rousting through my references photos and making notes on all possible subject matter for a  series I am starting on Beach Scenes, I finally gave in and  picked up a paint brush.

Team red white and blue taking a break

My first attempt was  to paint a set of Red White an Blue beach-riders I had seen resting  against a  beach fence last week.  The subject excited me, but the execution was painful.  Even after drawing the bicycles a dozen times in my sketch book,  the painted rendering looked off- kilter to me.... I wiped down the canvas and repainting the scene twice before I  felt it was okay.  Even, so, I may still elect to edit portions before I put a coat of varnish on it.

"Hot Flash"

 As usual , the second painting went a lot more quickly, and with far less grief than the first.  I love the way the colors gave the sense of how warm it was on the beach that day...

Wildlife on display at Island Art

 I dropped by the Pawleys Island Art Gallery today to see how 

business is going. Very well indeed .

Here's  how my new  wildlife series looks installed at :

Island Art Gallery

10744 Ocean Highway

Pawleys Island, SC 29585

843 455-0336
http://www.pawleysislandart.com/

Sunset over Hywy 17 SB

This evenings sunset

More wildlife paintings completed

Three Wildlife Paintings in progress

Remember this photo I posted of  the Wildlife paintings  I was working on last week? 

 Two of the three are complete.

Egret in progress

Here's a closer look at the process.  A lite coat of Cadmium red light acrylic was used as a mother color over a gessoed artist panel... After the acrylic dried, I sketched in the main shapes.  Then I used ultramaire blue, alizarine crimson, and Cad Yellow Dark oil paint (plus minimal Titanium White) to block in all the main shapes.  After that dried, I when back and refined the values in those areas using the same paint hues.  Finally, when I was happy with the background,  I painted in the egret using white tinted with the colors in the background.

Finished Egret on a Post

I used the same process in working on the Redwing Blackbird.

Red Wing Blackbird in the Cat-tails

Brookgreen Night of a Thousand Candles 12 '11

One of my favorite things to do during the holidays is to visit Botanical Gardens at night.  Quite a number of them decorate with special holiday light shows and have all kinds of family oriented holiday activities .   We visited the Lewis Ginter Gardens in Richmod on this trip, but Brookgreen Gardens  in Pawleys Island SC  is still  my favorite.

 

Dec 3^rd  was the opening night of Brookgreen Gardens Night of a Thousand Candles.  I and my camera spent the evening documenting the spectacular beauty of the gardens at night.

Every year, for three weekend evenings,,  Brookgreen Gardens come to life  with holiday spirit amid the soft glow of more than 5,500 hand-lit candles and countless sparkling lights.

   

The sculptures are even more beautiful at night than they are by day. They almost seem alive

  The  sculptures in the pools and fountains appear to be dancing

The  heritage oak trees take on an other worldly look and seem even more ancient and massive at night

 

It's a wonderful way to celebrate the holidays while collecting nocturnal  photo references for a local landmark

The Georgia's Bulldog Mascot was fun to paint.

About a year ago I spotted a cute garden statue of the Georgia Bulldog Mascot.  I took a photo for reference, but didn't get around to painting him until last month.  It just seemed appropriate for the beginning of the football season.  This   12" x 12" is now at Island Art in Pawleys Island.

Calm before the Storm Irene 8 '11

Looking west from Pawleys Island towards Pawleys Plantation

It is incredibly peaceful this evening as we wait for Irene to move in tomorrow
Wouldn't this make a great painting?

Seafarer Series installed at Island Art Gallery

 A whole new set of my paintings were installed at the Island Art Gallery.  All but one of them were clustered together to form a grouping  based around  a "seafarer" theme.

 The remaining painting was placed on an easel just inside the entrance so it could be seen immediately when one entered the gallery

 The majority of the paintings are about boats... fishing  boats, sailboats, oyster boats, row boats.. etc.  but had no trouble slipping in a bit of humor   such as a boat full of pelicans

 or throwing in a bit of seafaring infrastructure such as the North Island Lighthouse or the Pawley's Island Yacht Club.

Island Artist Gallery Reception 5_21_11

CC by her art ( on my right)

Island Artist Gallery held a reception for all its artist on Saturday evening. 

We had a great turnout of both guests and artists.

Great turnout!

The camaraderie between artists was great.

It was fun to talk about our art and explain how we work and what inspires us. 

Its also a great place to learn the latest buzz.

Have you heard.....

And of course we had to check out the competition.

I wonder how the artist did that...

Where are all the guys you ask

Most were hanging out by the food and beverage tables, of course.

BJ accompanied me to the reception