Dandelions in the Tulips, 16 x 20 inches acrylics on canvas with maple wood frame stained dark with red trim design, total size 22H x 28W inches. Available with or without the frame.

Simply “Tulips” as a title would have been too obvious. Dandelions are persistent. Likewise, I’m pleased to have persevered through the course of painting this one; it went through many changes and I learned a lot. Gradual build-up of textures and colors, layers of piling on, scrubbing off and reapplying paint — those parts show through. Painting with pure color in Firewheels, plus grey scale drawing earlier this year really contributed to finding a way to finish this painting. Next two thumbnails show phases of work in progress:

Firewheels 18H x 24W x 2D inches acrylics on canvas, wrapped sides painted with scene extending onto the narrow frame.

Thumnails: masking medium, usually used for watercolor paintings, was applied with a toothpick, first image. After being painted it was rubbed off, revealing abstract scribbles and areas of pure color. A time limit was set for this one to be done by the end of today, something I don’t normally do, but the restrictions ensure that it doesn’t get overworked.Next, Firewheels finished and successful in that I was able to stay away from the desire to perfect everything.

This painting was showcased in The 23rd Texas & Neighbors Regional Art Exhibition, April 26 – May 24, 2008, Irving Arts Center, Irving, TX.

Firewheels, 18H x 24W inches acrylics on canvas, started

I started a small painting last night that I’ve been wanting to do since Spring, of Firewheels (Gaillardia). Masses of them come back every Spring in a nearby field.

Dancing With Trees 02, 48H x 48W x 1D inches acrylics, matt and semi-gloss glaze medium, and semi-gloss varnish on canvas, scene continues onto trim frame. Detail images below.
Layers of glaze washes used in final stages: Hansa yellow light, Phthalo blue, Phthalo green, Permanent green, Thio violet, Mars black, Cadmium red light, Dioxazine violet.
This piece is an example of work that does not reflect the original vision but is turning into something much more interesting. To help enhance the character of cedar branches I’ve dripped water, paint, glazes, and varnish across patches of color, splattered it on with a brush and also painted it turned upside down. This left sheen and textures not captured in photos; best seen in person.
Dancing With Trees 02, started August 30th – several progression details posted on different dates are combined in this post. The oil pastel with the same name, first version, posted in March 2007, inspired the painting.

Competitions, online galleries and juried exhibitions

Three works were accepted into Artjury.com’s 2007 Fall / Winter National Online Juried Exhibition: Galahs in Traffic, Mayan Bowl Chair, and Linden Sunset.

There’s controversy that entering competitions is purely about vanity. For us who need to self-promote, we understand that it’s more about career stability and advancement than the ego. Still the question of ego exists, so a little devil-artist on the shoulder is good to have because we need to stay tuned to our arts’ original meaning and purpose. Evaluation is always in order. For the most part, self-promotion is personal, often uncomfortable, and a very humbling and enlightening experience rather than an egoistic one. We need to search deep for our very best, and stay open to every opinion.
Acceptance by peers means a lot, but accepted or not, honest feedback and interaction with those who also love what they do and know what they’re talking about, or hearing from those who appreciate art and enjoy discussing it, is really beneficial. We encourage each other, and straight-forward critiques go a long way. Any kind of response helps us consider the direction we will take moving forward.
Recognition and validation are helpful because faith in this vocation waxes and wanes. Many of us ask from time to time: What am I doing this for? or: What’s the big deal about Art anyway? We are so closely involved with it as daily work that the personal and the professional are one and the same. Art is our life, and monetary or “ribbon-ary” validation is encouraging! Primarily though, motivation must be self-perpetuated. For work to work, we need to love what we do. No amount or content of external comments affects the genuine drive to create it.

If we haven’t yet captured our big break with gallery representation, it takes a long time to learn the do’s and don’ts, and it’s surprising that there are so many expectations. We need to have confidence to be articulate about our works’ intentions and messages portrayed. Self-promotion, for artists who can’t afford outside management, is the other necessary half of the job and is time-consuming, but vital.

Temporarily it seems distracting, taking precious time away from creating the art in order to write gallery proposals and exhibition entries, but since sharing and selling are the main goals, who knows more about the heart of the art better than the artist? Practice meeting deadlines, and familiarity with managing all the details means we are in control of our destiny as much as possible, helps focus clarity of purpose.
It takes diligence and fortitude to wear all the hats. We need to take advantage of every open door whether it shuts in our face or not, and a few cash awards to supplement sales doesn’t hurt a bit!

Morning moon, Lewisville, TX

Male Cardinal at the Dallas Arboretum, Dallas TX, 24H x 24W inches acrylics and masking medium on canvas, trim frame. Sold.

Cardinals are one of my favorite subjects. On walks I see them in the open, but good photos of them are elusive, as they hide just beyond the branches so perfect shots are next to impossible. Branches here are partially in front, placed around the bird in the abstract shape of a nest. The cardinal in the painting really is that chubby. He is well fed at the Dallas Arboretum.
There were two separate applications of masking medium, used traditionally in watercolor paintings. Second phase: trying to highlight the bird’s interaction with its environment and hoping to find a way to do more than provide the expected sort of cardinal portrait. Adding Pthalos Blue wash changes the mood and the season, maybe even the time of day…interesting what one or two brushes of color can do.

 One male Cardinal returns regularly to our yard with his mate who chirps quick, sharp notes. I discovered this when thinking that our air conditioner needed servicing, and going out to see what the consistent squeaking was. The pair laid eggs in one of our back yard bushes during May this year. I half-hoped the eggs would be red! The nest was made to perfection with a tightly woven bowl of dry grass, leaves, twigs, and pieces of plastic garbage, so artfully crafted.

 
Three Photos will be on exhibit and available for sale at the City Streets Exhibition at Studio 333, Sausalito, California  October 25 – December 6, 2007

Burnt Offerings 01 – From Burnt Offerings the photographic series consisting of ten images of the devastating results after an explosion that rocked downtown Dallas on July 25, 2007, in an acetylene and propane warehouse. In the distance: the famous Reunion Tower.

Grey Phase – Dallas, Texas. With a history and reputation for competing with Houston to attract visitors to stay in a beautiful, safe, and interesting downtown area, Dallas makes room for new buildings and upgrades existing ones. This photo: Demolition on the corner of Commerce and S. St. Paul Street, across from the infamous Dallas Grand Hotel which has been vacant and in a serious state of disrepair for many years, now planned to also receive extensive renovations.

True Colors 63 – An original photo of one of the digitally manipulated images in the True Colors website series.  A cow wanders the streets of San Antonio, Mexico. Nonchalantly meandering through the neighborhood, tether rope dragging on the road beside her, it’s as if this cow has simply left for a short walk and no one, even the owner, ought to worry about her finding her way home.

 
Alain and I flew to North Carolina for three days ( a little business trip and I tagged along—he threatened to take my camera with him and I was sure I could not manage without it!) We drove around the eastern countryside between Raleigh and Washington (NC) through old, old towns (it takes a looong time for wooden doors to shred, and a looong time for conditions to be just right for vines to sprout then twirl round and round, entwined and squished between panes of glass!) …old, old farms: tobacco, cotton, peanuts.. and an interesting gas station.

 There is a lot of history in NC – fossil, human/settlers and Civil War history. We stayed at Kitty Hawk (first flight – Wright bros.) and walked the shores at various places along the narrow coast of the Outer Banks. We watched the sun rise and dolphins feed – too far away for good photos, even with the telephoto. As soon as the sun rose they swam away.

Along Cape Hatteras, groups of Grackles ate ripe grass seeds, bouncing up and down on the stems, their bodies too heavy for the tall grasses.

On Pony Island a large sand crab tried to buff up and look tough, but it was quite vulnerable there out in the open; all the other crabs scurried into holes but this one stayed, trying to hide in footprints, which offered no protection if we had been birds looking for a hearty meal.

Great fun to watch the behavior for a while. It’s clearly outlined crab-shaped shadow following it everywhere, creating a few graphic photos that are perfect resource material for drawings and paintings but do not stand alone as good photography because it was moving so fast.

Just off the 2 1/2 hr. long ferry at Swan Quarter, and sunset with a short, wide rainbow after a storm that we managed to escape and watch from the better side.

NO OLF – we were curious about this sign in many people’s yards. The following website shows a video describing how the U.S. Navy has purchased over 30,000 acres of land near the eastern North Carolina coast, planning to move their pilot training program from Virginia.

Part of the huge controversy is that over 75 families would be forced to leave their homes, many of them farming that land for generations. The human issues are enough, but the cause and effect on the wildlife and ecology would be drastic and irreparable. Thousands of ducks and large flocks of snow geese that feed in the area annually would no longer have sanctuary. The large birds would also be a danger to the jets.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XDmC1LD1Kc

Northern Delights 01, Banff, Alberta, Canada, 14H x 11W graphite, water-wash pencil, oil pastel, colored pencils on paper. 3-inch-wide white double mat and 26H x 22W inch white custom-built white wood frame with crackle finish.

and

Redbuds 03, Eastern Redbuds blooming on a foggy Spring morning in Coppell, Texas. 14H x 11W oil pastels, graphite, water-wash graphite, colored pencils, eraser on paper

Browsing for pieces to enter in a juried exhibition, I came across two drawings started in March that have a lot in common. Both scenes are low-light situations that were achieved by lots and lots of layering, scraping, redrawing, and using the eraser over pastels for blending as well as erasing. Both are experimental re: oil pastels vs. paintable water-wash graphite pencil.