JUNE ART SHOW

I've been working on getting the title card information from the members of the Greater Cincinnati Watercolor Society for our June show.  The chairperson and I collect the paintings and registration forms and $, have the regular monthly meeting, and the show is hung - all Wednesday!  We officially start with an artist's reception Saturday, June 4th from 5:00 pm - 8:00 pm.  (I am the official photographer for the members and their awards - we are offering a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 3 honorable mentions - during the reception, too).

Greater Cincinnati Watercolor Society Exhibit

June 4 – 19, 2011

At “The Barn”

Woman’s Art Club Cultural Center

6980 Cambridge Avenue

Mariemont, OH 45227

The show runs from Saturday, June 4 through Sunday, June 19. During the week, the show will be open from 9:30 am – 3:30 pm. On Saturdays and Sundays, the show will be open from 1 pm – 4 pm with 2 of our members sitting the show.  If you're in the area, stop by and see the 84 paintings!
 
My two paintings in the show are:
Shadow Me and A Difference of Opinion. 
 
If you do a search at the top of this blog, you'll see the paintings.

So, I meant to get back to Green Madonna, but just haven't had the time or inclination this past weekend. 

GREEN MADONNA, STEP ONE

Step one of a painting I'm working on. 


I'll let you decide what the imagery means.  I know what it means to me.




Green Madonna
22" x 22.5"
Arches 140# cold press paper




For all those in the U.S., have a great Memorial Day weekend.  If you're travelling, be safe!

DAY TRIPPER

My favorite brother-in-law and I went to the Cincinnati Art Museum on Tuesday.  We toured the first floor (the Cincinnati Wing and the American rooms) then stopped and had a wonderful lunch in the cafe.  Then we toured the second floor.  Before we came home, we stopped at the Krohn Conservatory to see the Butterflies of Brazil exhibit.  It was a sunny day and warm and I had a very good time talking music (he's a musician) and family and art and everything in between.

I hadn't been to the art museum in a long time and it was nice to slowly go from room to room, visiting "old friends" and seeing work I didn't remember seeing before.  Here are some photos I took.

The Quadroon Girl
by Henry Mosler (American)















Venetian Lacemakers
by Robert Frederick Blum (American)









Don't have the name of this one.  Itwas so light, like a watercolor (but it was oil).















Eve Hearing the Voice
by Moses J. Ezekiel (American)




And one of my favorite paintings, Van Gogh's Undergrowth with Two Figures, is being cleaned.  They have a station set up where you can watch from 2-4 pm but we weren't there at that time so it was hard to get a good photo without flash in the dark cubby where they have it set up.  Here is a link to the process and what they are doing to bring it back to how it was when Van Gogh painted it...

http://www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org/absolutenm/templates/ArtTempExhibitions.aspx?articleid=1069&zoneid=65

The conservator can only work for 3 hours at a time, it's such painstaking work, so it will not be ready to show again in the collection until July.

Wednesday I had to go in again and sit through voir dire (where each attorney questions potential jurors before accepting them onto the jury) to be picked for jury duty.  This is the third time and I haven't been picked yet so it basically takes a half day each time and then I get to come home. 

And last night, storms and wind and lashing rain and wind and another rocking and rolling night with severe thunderstorm warnings and tornado watches up until this morning.  No damage here but another restless (but lucky) night.

WORKING ON UNFINISHED PAINTINGS

Well, I didn't do a good job on that skirt and will have to work on it some more before I can call this one finished.  But here it stands at this point.


A Woman's Pain
Half sheet (15" x 22")
Saunders Waterford 140# cold press paper.

And I see that I made my left eye much larger than my right eye in the self-portrait (and didn't see that until this morning when I was taking the photo).  My eyes are small and "squinchy" so my right eye is pretty accurate and the left I made too large (wishful thinking?).

Oh, well, I don't think I'll bother with it as it was just for me and I've taken it as far as I can go right now.  Maybe I'll let this one sit for a while before I return to it. 

Speechless:  An Expressive Self-Portrait
Half sheet (15" x 22")
Saunders Waterford 140# cold press paper


I think the only one I'm happy with and feel is finished is this one...










WHAT???





19" x 19.5"
Arches 140# cold press paper



Have a good day and be safe, wherever you are.

A ROUGH NIGHT

 A rough night.  The wind whipping the rain against the windows for hours with flashes of lightning and rolling thunder made for sleeplessness.  I imagined a large ship rolling with the waves and water rushing over the deck.  I've been reading a lot lately and a lot of the novels have boats, water and seaside homes as themes. 

Today, I sit, exhausted but not sleepy (that seems to be my typical state lately).  Sitting in the sunroom with the doors/windows open and the breezes blowing through hard enough to make my old once-fat-but-now-very-skinny-cat walk sideways across the room. 

Baby birds vibrating with wing flapping and squawks for food after a rough night perched wherever they could hunker down through the storm.  Mama has her hands full with a brood of three all vying for attention. 

For me, a loss of sleep; for those in Missouri, a devastating tornado and a loss that cannot be imagined even though the images are shared on all the national news channels.  The statistics are unbelievable when some weather person states how many tornadoes and how many have lost their lives so far this spring; and how many more months we have to go before the threat of tornadoes and major storms is over.

I hope you all can hunker down and weather the storms - more predicted this week for the Ohio Valley area and parts of the midwest.

WHAT???

He looks like he's in your face asking, "What???"  Hence, the title.


I started this one by brushing white gesso on the watercolor paper and then drizzling on black gesso and spritzing it and rolling over it with a foam roller.  I liked how the shapes became loose feathers in places so it had to be another crow painting. 


Of course, he has to be much darker to really stand out and that will be the next stage.

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend.  We actually had a sunny day Friday and another Saturday - 2 in a row is pretty good for us right now - and now we're supposed to go back to rain and thunderstorms. 

LIGHT

Traveling Light

by Linda Pastan


I'm only leaving you
for a handful of days,
but it feels as though
I'll be gone forever—
the way the door closes


behind me with such solidity,
the way my suitcase
carries everything
I'd need for an eternity
of traveling light.


I've left my hotel number
on your desk, instructions
about the dog
and heating dinner. But
like the weather front

they warn is on its way
with its switchblades
of wind and ice,
our lives have minds
of their own.

SPEECHLESS: AN EXPRESSIVE SELF-PORTRAIT

It's not the image I'm after,
but the feeling.

More work to do on the eyes and nose before it's finished.

A WOMAN'S PAIN

Something new I've been working on...

Half sheet Saunders Waterford cold press 140# paper.

BROKEN FINISHED

I finished another painting I'd started a few days ago. 

Broken - from a photo taken of a robin's egg on a wall at Shaker Village in Kentucky.  I wish I had been a bit more delicate with the robin's egg.

SUNDAY SHARING

I see I have three new followers and am very pleased to share their blogsites with you.  Two are friends already, and one is a newcomer.

1.  Alessandro Andreuccetti's work is fresh, bright, lovely, and it made me very happy to take some time and scroll down his site and see his present and past work.  You will enjoy it, I assure you!

2.  My friend, Suzanne McDermott is a woman of many talents, including painting and singing and composing.  She has a beautiful soul and a giving nature and I think she's very special.  You'll enjoy seeing her creations, reading her meditative posts, and hearing her songs.  Visit some of her many blogs and see her sketching and her landscapes, too.  We have not met in person - yet - but we will!

3.  Marilyn Bishop is a local artist.  I have had the pleasure of going to her home to learn printmaking techniques from her and while there, seeing her beautiful monoprints and watercolor paintings.  She is always exploring and experimenting and creating works that are truly her own originals.  I have one of her monoprints hanging above the computer in the work room and it never ceases to bring me pleasure when I sit back in my chair and rest while looking at it. 

I hope you take the time to visit all three of these wonderful, original artists.

NAUTILUS FINISHED

I'm still working on some unfinished paintings. 

Nautilus is done now. 

I think I may do a larger version and make it more loose and wet-in-wet...this is just a 1/2 sheet trial painting.

LIVES PAST - FINISHED

I had to do some house cleaning (yep, I have to do it once a month, whether it needs it or not! ha ha)  And this painting just kept staring at me!  So I had to go back and finish it.

Done! 

9 1/4" x 24 1/4"
on Saunders Waterford coldpress 140# paper

Of course, now the nautilus is saying, "What about me???"  So in between some laundry, I'll go back to revisit it and get in those darks and try to get it more watery and flowing inside those sections.  Wish me luck - and have a wonderful weekend.

INTERESTING BLIP IN THE DAY(S)

Well, most of you probably know Blogger was down for a couple of days - from Wednesday, I see.  They deleted all the posts from that time onward so comments and posts were not put on and are now missing.  So it's like being in a time warp, which could be fun if you now are singing Let's Do the Time Warp Again!!! from The Rocky Horror Picture Show :)

We get a do-over on this one.  So stay tuned and I'll share what I had scheduled that is now dancing in the blogosphere somewhere...

I hope your blogs are up and running and all is well after the recent glitch.  And I have to say that Blogger does a pretty outstanding job for a totally free service that normally works perfectly (nothing is perfect, we know that).  Hey, do you think it had something to do with Friday the 13th????

BROKEN

Something that feels protective and safe can really be fragile and easily broken.
But by breaking something, you may set yourself free.

I seem to be starting paintings, but not finishing them.  Maybe starting is enough for now.

NAUTILUS

The swirls of the nautilus can mean the whirling dervish that is life.  Curving onto and around itself, the line molds towards a center.   Where does it start and where does it end? 

This is a small study for a larger painting. 
I still need to go in with darks to bring out the lights and the glow.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

Happy Mother's Day

to all those who are presently

mothers, grandmothers, step-mothers;

and to those who have been mothers

in their past lives :)

May your children bring you daisies and fresh-bloomed summer dandelions to hold under you chin to see if you like butter.  May your grandchildren think you are the coolest grandma ever and smile whenever you walk towards them.  May your step-children accept you into the family with open arms and come to love you as one of their own.

May your life be important to those who love you.





NATIONAL PUBLIC GARDENS DAY

Today is National Public Gardens Day.  Get out and walk in a public garden.  Look at the spring flowers blooming.  Smell the lilacs!!!! 

http://nationalpublicgardensday.org/

And if it's raining in your area, maybe visit a public garden online - not as good since we can't have the smells and sounds but better than nothing. 

Better yet, take your painting kit out to a public garden and paint something :)  Most of all, enjoy your day.  It's the only May 6, 2011 you're going to be given so make the most of it.

LIVES PAST - STAGE 2

Close-up view...

Today is the monthly meeting for the Greater Cincinnati Watercolor Society.  Our guest speaker/artist will be Ken Landon Buck.

LIVES PAST - STAGE 1

I began painting this one.  It's a long horizontal format and I'm working slowly. 

A closer view shows the pomegranates and the skulls as they are shaped.

It was not a happy time around here this past week for reasons I won't go into right now (afterall, this is a blog, not a diary).

We did have 2 whole days!!!! without rain - and now it's back :(  Oh, well. 

SUNDAY SHARING

I've finally gathered a few new followers to my blog and I always enjoy sharing new work so here are some new art bloggers you may want to check out:

1.  Ricardo Marrero paints some bold and beautiful watercolors based on his home in the Canary Islands!  Go over and see the work he's doing.

2.  Maria Jose Barrera, from Spain (I think), has done some really large, really amazing work.  Scroll down and see the size of the painting of the tree trunk!!  I think she has an affinity to trees of all kinds.

3.  Miriam of Magi d'acqua, is Italian.  Here work on the first pages had me saying, "Wow!" and then "Wow" again - colors so bright and bold they jump off the page; big painting on the page so you almost step into them!  Go see - right now!

4.  Kerstin Lungmuss "Rizi", of Germany, has a wonderful sense of humor that shows in her paintings.  They all made me smile and I think you'll smile, too, when you see them.

5.  And last, but not least, Lizzy of Lizzy's Quilt Blog shares her artful quilts.  Being very sewing deficient in all ways, I really admire anyone who can do this - but she's taken quilting to another level and truly made it art.  Check it out.

I hope you take some time and explore these bloggers and see what they have to offer.