Thursday, October 22, 2009

What's Happening?

I HAVE been painting, I just haven't gotten any to a point where I want to publish a photo for the world to see.

Friday, October 17th, our Art Guild participated in the Rogers (Arkansas) Third Friday Artwalk. From April until October historical downtown Rogers stores and shops stay open until 8 PM. There's musical entertainment, crafts vendors on the sidewalk and etc. Our guild was assigned the first floor of a vacant store and we put out our work hoping people would come in and maybe buy something. 10% of all our sales goes into our "scholarship fund" to be awarded to two Rogers' high school students. ANYWAYYYYYYY, only a few people came in and only a few very small items were purchased. I'm thinking that most people came in to get out of the cold for a few minutes. We raffle a painting for a dollar a ticket and it did so poorly that we're going to try again next week. The temperature dropped into the 40s with a brisk wind and people either stayed home or went home if they were at the Third Friday event.

October 29th through November 11th is our Guild Fall Exhibit and Sale which will be located in the Rogers Public Library. We'll be selling our raffle tickets and 10% of proceeds go to the scholarship fund. Maybe we'll do better in two weeks than we did in one stormy night. :-) We even have a reception where people can meet the artists and enjoy (I hope) some light snacks.

This week I've been making some picture frames for a friend in the Art Guild. The frames aren't perfect by any measure, but they look good, they're substantial and by golly they're pretty inexpensive! I have learned that I want to buy a power hand sander!

How do other artists transport several (some 20x30) from home to show and back home? I stacked them up in the back of our Subaru with blankets in between. But a couple of paintings still got scuffed. HOW DO YOU DO IT? HELP!!!!

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Farmer Reading His Newspaper


Farmer Reading His Newspaper 24x30 Oil on Masonite

Updated photo Nov 1 2009

A hard working man relaxing with his newspaper before his day begins, after the morning chores have been done or at the end of the day.


I think that I'm going to stop right here before I mess it up (more?). I was thinking about the left foreground - seems too smooth & bare. BUT I dislike making grass, gardens & such. I even thought about putting in his pooch but thought that was too cliche.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Dancers


Dancers 24x30 Oil on Masonite

I wanted to call this Flamenco Dancers, but it seems more ballet than Flalmenco. But what do I know? This is the third of my series of dancers - Flamenco or otherwise. I like the colorful costumes and the power suggested in the dancers' poses.

Red Colombine


Red Colombine 20x24 Oil on canvas board.

I did this from a photograph my cousins took on a cruise to Alaska.

I don't do florals very often - I struggle with them. Maybe because I don't know anything about the subject? I am NOT a gardner!

Besides, Red Colombine should be the name of a baseball outfielder!

Mason Jar


Mason Jar 18x25 Oil on canvas

I have seen other paintings of mason jars and wondered if I could do it as well. Well, I tried with this painting. The photo isn't the best but at least you can get the general idea of the piece.

I made the stretchers, stretched the canvas and have made the frame - all from scratch. It was (kinda - sorta) fun little project. The unusual size (18x25) was made to fit a picture frame from a thrift shop. That frame fell apart - literally so I made my own frame. I make most of my frames now.

Monday, October 5, 2009

I really LIKE masonite!

This is one of many reasons that I like to use masonite rather than canvas or other "soft" painting supports. Lots of people don't like masonite for their good reasons. But when something heavy fell on this finished piece (it was framed and signed) and poked a hole in it all I had to do was use my table saw and cut off six inches. Granted, I was lucky that the hole was in a place where I could do that.


The "new" piece measures 12x24












The "old" piece measured 12x30











"THE HOLE" The hole measures about 6 inches by 3 inches.

The hole sort of
looks cool in a photograph. A big bird flying by? Note the smudged signature! Oh well! What the - - - - ?