New Painting at CAG Gallery 4'14

Goose at Swan Lake

Last week, The Charleston Artists Guild sold one of my wildlife paintings.  Today I took a painting  in to fill the space on my wall.  It is a  9" x 12" oil of a Canadian Goose sitting on a Cypress Tree root.  It has always been one of my favorites in my wildlife series.  First of all, because it is actually the first wildlife I ever attempted in South Carolina, and second because I love the story behind it.

Swan Lake Iris Gardens is a County Park in Sumter ,South Carolina.  It is famous not only for its beautiful Japanese Iris which grow throughout the cypress swamp but for being home to all eight of the world's swan species.  I timed my first visit to the Park with what should have been the peak of iris bloom.  Ironically, there was barely an iris  blossom to be seen any where in the park.    Eventually I found out why.  All the swans were nesting in the iris patches.  Every so often one would lift its neck up and munch on the tender buds of what would have been an Iris flower.  The only blooming Iris I found that day were by this one goose.   Presumably, it too had build a nest nearby, and was protecting it from the swans, which allowed the Iris a chance to blossom.

My Wildlife Series at CAG Gallery

In any case,  my 'Goose at Swan Lake'  looks mighty fine amidst my other wildlife painting at the Charleston  Guild Artists Gallery

CAG sells another of my paintings 4 '14

Great White Hunter 8" x  12" Oil

Thank you ,  Charleston Artists Guild  Gallery for finding a good home for my painting of the

 "Great White Hunter"

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.

How to capture a butterfly without a net 9 "13

Once again..We're in the midst of the annual butterfly migration . Thousands of monarchs are headed south for the winter.  They're so beautiful to watch as the float by like little fairies.  This is a quick ( 1 hour) pastel study of a monarch resting on some goldenrod. It was done en plein air at the campsite we are staying in in North Carolina.  When I was a kid, the camp counselors taught us to catalog the smaller wildlife we saw by netting it and pinning it in a box. This little 7" x 5"  study seemed so much better an option for capturing the creature

Food for the soul 9 '13

I spent the morning filling out the registration forms  for art shows, and taking photos of the paintings I plan on exhibiting this fall ... you know -- doing  all that important but tedious stuff that is the business side of art.  Just when I felt my soul about to implode from boredom, my hubby arrived home with some photos he'd taken of  a spoonbill feeding in the Litchfield marsh. A quick painting one of them put the blues behind me.

It's going to the birds 9 ' 13

I have a great exhibit grid in the SAG Gallery at the Market Common this month.

I put 10 new paintings on display. They're right by the main window so everyone walking by can see my artwork .  All ten are oil paintings of low country bird scenes.

New Artwork at CAG 2 '13

I went to Charleston today with some new paintings for my wall space. I almost drown getting there in the torrential downpour we were having, but it was worth it. My  wall looks really nice with the wildlife paintings I did at Hobcaw Barony/Wynyah Bay, Huntington Beach SP, and Magnolia Gardens.

Another V Day Painting 2 '13

I was browsing a yahoo article about heart shaped natural wonders, when a photo of some swans caught my eye. ... and reminded me of a small painting I had done of some local swans for V Day a few years ago. I started scouting through my archives and sure enough.... I pulled out a 5x7 swan painting . It was of a different species,  but the emotional intent is the same.

Photo above from:

http://news.yahoo.com/photos/amazing-heart-shaped-wonders-slideshow/love-hearts-in-nature-photo--702047975.html

Second is of my painting
  Have a Happy Valentines Day

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. 

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

New Paintings at Charleston Artist Gallery

B.B. Kingfisher I

Yesterday evening was change-out at Charleston Artist Gallery. Swapped my spring flower paintings for ones of marsh birds

Birds in Art Exhibition at Brookgreen Gardens - through 4/22/12

I stopped by Brook green Gardens this morning to do a photo shoot of some of the spring bloom.... but  instead, I spent the morning admiring the  Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum of Wausau, Wisconsin, traveling exhibition: of " Birds in Art."  .   It was truly a great exhibit showing  a wide range of birds species presented by some of the best artists on our planet.  ( Sorreeee ...  no photos allowed in  or of the exhibit)  I  whole heatedly recommend a look see if you are in the area. For particulars go to: http://www.brookgreen.org/exhibitions.cfm

Introducing My Fine Arts America Website

I have created a website with Fine Art America specifically for those who are interested in purchasing reprints of some of my original artworks.  Check it out at:

http://cecelia-campbell.artistwebsites.com/

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/

More paintings for Charleston Artists Gallery

"Avocet"  8"x8" Oil in  Floating  Frame

I've been working hard to complete some new painting of  salt  marsh birds for the Charleston Artist Guild Gallery before the wildlife show opens next month.  Here are a couple of the completed series.

King fisher  8" x 8" oil  in Floating Frame

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

New Paintings in the works

New finished paintings for wildlife series waiting to be framed.

Lest you think all I have been painting for the past two months is  playful miniatures, let me assure you I have been busy.    I decided  to get a head start on the work I will need completed when the South Carolina Wildlife Art  Exhibition opens in February. Since Nov 1,  I have completed six  9" x 12" oil paintings of marsh birds.

Three Wildlife Series works in progress.

I have three more marsh bird scenes in progress.

( For those of you who are wondering... I often paint the background first, leaving the bird itself until last... So the red bird shape will become a white egret... the white bird shape a red-wing black bird (after I complete the background) and the rice gate will have a blue heron added to a post..)

And after I complete the marsh birds, I 'll try painting some mink, river otter, alligators and other SC wetland critters from photos I've collected at Huntington Beach State Park.

Magnolia Plantation and Gardens Photo Shoot 11 '10

As a belated Birthday gift, Bruce took me to see Magnolia Plantation and Gardens just outside of Charleston SC. But spent most of my time in the gardens.  The place is huge.... walkways wander off everywhere.  One could spend days exploring the place.

 It is a pre-revolutionary plantation and boasts the oldest established horticultural gardens on the continent.  The house and grounds have been in the same family for over 300 years.  Starting right off with the first owner,  formal flower gardens were planted and cared for as carefully as the rice fields.  Each successive owner added to  size of the gardens  and enhanced the number of species collected.  They were careful to balance art with nature by providing habitats to protect the native wildlife.

I took lots of photos of the statuary

and of the wildlife

                          Even at an off season like late November, the place is spectacular.

I was especially impressed with all of the subtle shades of gray and purple and green I saw in the  water gardens.  If I painted some of these scenes I would probably be accused of faking it.
can't wait to come back in the spring when all of the azaleas are in bloom

Yawkey Wildlife Center March 2 '10

Several Artists had told me about what incredible photo ops the Yawkey Wildlife Center  on Cat Island offered  for artists who wanted to get some reference photos of  primitive barrier islands around the Winyah Bay. I decided to follow through with a call to their visitor information center, and soon found myself on a guided tour .

Invited tour guests are asked to meet at a dock on the banks of the Intercoastal .  The wait provides an interesting place to all of the large ships traversing the waters in an out of the Georgetown Harbor.

  I hadn't realized there was that much large shipping on the Inter-coastal.Waterway.

Eventually a small boat arrived at the dock to taxi us across to the Island.

Once on Cat Island, we were introduced to our Tour Guide and 

loaded into vans.

The tour began immediately as our guide began to explain the various ecosystems and subsystems we were passing through..  Much of it was forested land, but there were also a lot of early colonial archeological sites along the way.

Like this grave-site  of the Hume family (above)
or the rice chimney below

I had hoped to get some really good photographs on this trip. The guide did not have a problem letting us out of the van, but warned us that even this early i the year, the insects were voracious.
He was right.  I took the photo below then decided that discretion was the better part of valor.

The remainder of my pictures were taken from the within the insect proof van.

 We drove down the dikes that separated the former rice fields while the guide explained  what life was like for slave and master alike on a rice plantation.

  He also explained how  dam projects on the Santee River had reduced the out flow of fresh water allowing more sea water to come in with the tides and salinating the soil so it was no longer arable for crops. Today the fields are seeded to help act as a sanctuary for migrating birds.
and the canals act as protected havens for some of the largest alligators in South Carolina.

Everywhere  we saw evidence of a healthy ecosystem where the nature had begun to reclaim the land and wildlife was flourishing

As a final stop we drove to the point on the island where we could look across Winyah Bay at the  Lighthouse on North Island.

I was disappointed that I hadn't been able to get better pictures, but I gain an immense appreciation for the place. I did take a lot of photos, and I am sure some of them will serve me well for jogging my memory of the place. should I wish to paint it.