Sisters of the Brush at Lawrence St Gallery

The final week before our exhibit at Lawrence St Gallery. The image at left is just a detail of one of the paintings I've chosen to show there. I still have to give it a title, though. I've rejected "Tiger in the Sun", it's initial name.  I want the title to somehow refer to or invoke the intensity of midsummer sunshine (yes, we DO have that now and then, even here in Michigan).  I'll need to have something thought up by tomorrow, I think.

The seven Sisters of the Brush descended on the gallery in waves on Saturday and Sunday, bringing our favorites, looking forward to seeing how Laura Host would hang them on the pristine white walls.  As a group we've been known to bring way too many pieces, and too large, so this year we made a special effort to cut back so the display wouldn't look cluttered and art-fair-like.  Well, we did TOO good a job: Laura called me later in the day on Sunday, saying, everything was hung, but that we were "short 6 or 7 paintings".  I first thought she meant they were MISSING!  No, she actually had some awkwardly empty wall sections. 

So the Sisters put their  heads together (digitally) and figured each of us could find one more painting to be included.  A flurry of drop-offs and pick-ups and transfers, and the additional paintings were delivered and hung on Monday.  It looks wonderful.

Anyway,  Lawrence St Gallery will be holding two receptions.  We expect that a majority of the 7 of us will be at each one. I'll be at both. If you are in the area for either of the following dates it would be so nice to see you there!

The opening reception is this Friday, May 2nd, and runs from 6 - 9 pm

The mid-month reception is, startlingly, mid-month, on Friday, May 16th, again from 6 - 9 pm.

More color, more color!

Recently, one of the artist groups I belong to (Birmingham Society of Women Painters) held a group critique, asking a well known local artist to come critique our work.  Most members brought in one or more of their paintings, the original, framed or unframed. This group works in all manners of media, oil, pastel, collage, watercolor, you name it.  But what was consistent  and remarkable (we all remarked on it!)  on this particular day was that everyone had just been through the same long Michigan winter.  I never saw so many colorful paintings. 
And here is my contribution to that trend. They were all stacked ready to go to the photographer, when I started looking at them (they needed some kind of title penciled on, so he knows how to name the files).  I guess I needed color, too  -   these are January, February, March, and a bit of April. FYI, the two in the center are from Kanuga.

Michigan Water Color Society Annual - Accepted!

Treepodia

I learned this week that both of my submissions were juried into the Michigan Water Color Society's upcoming annual exhibition.  How exciting is that?  I'm feeling a wee bit personally perplexed, though, because they are from the series of  mostly abstracts that I was working on all last summer and fall after my Kanuga workshop with Mike Bailey. I submitted them because I thought they were good enough, and I like them both, but since then have happily turned back from the abstracts to my floral/pattern paintings.  Now, the nod I have gotten for my abstract work seems to tell me, paint more of THOSE.  But . . . I'm not sure I really want to anymore.  So: what do I do with THAT?

Pushing the Pattern

My last post showed this painting, still unfinished as we left Kanuga.  I'm pretty sure if I had been there even one more day, Robbie Laird would have found time to reinforce a hint that I think I inferred earlier in the week - about remembering subtlety when indulging in my patterns.   Certainly a worthy goal, and one I often, but not always, should keep in mind.

In this case,  having brought the painting home and lived with it a while, it became clear to  me that  this one (like so many of mine) was about the pattern more than the flowers.  So I went with that. I've modified and pumped up and added pattern to the point where I hope it's obvious that the imbalance is intentional.

I am extremely pleased to have, from this year's workshop,  a COMPLETED PAINTING that's not a throwaway.  How rare is that?  And there are still those other starts, two of which show good possibility, plus a problem-child painting which will keep me challenged for quite a while as I try to solve the problems I created for myself as I started it.  

Here we are at . . . . Camp Kanuga!!!

Does that plant any tunes in your head?  Sorry (sort of). Anyway, it's wonderful here as usual. And the weather has blessed us with 70+ degrees the past two days and apparently for another couple of days.  The forsythia here have started to bloom, and there is a spectacular and enormous weeping cherry that gets better every day.   The picture below shows the little red schoolhouse where my "Mentor or Muse" class with Robbie Laird is being held. It's a nice long walk from the Inn, so I'm getting plenty of activity going back and forth.   Essentially the class is indeed independent study but with voluntary support and critique from Robbie.  Until now I've only known Robbie as the graceful and gracious director of Kanuga Watermedia Workshops, but indeed she is a very good teacher, mentor, muse.  I'm enjoying just the amount of support and independence that this workshop offers, and wondering how soon it will be offered again.

You can also see that, after just two days, I have a nearly finished painting that I like: this is very unusual for me, in that workshops are sort of known for pushing you in such new directions that you don't find your footing for a while. .. and certainly not soon enough to finish anything that you like.  So, I'm quite happy to have this one in the final stages, and a couple more well started, and still two days to paint.

What I don't understand is, why aren't ALL of you here too? In artists' heaven?  I wish you were!

But I don't have the Blues

It is very nice to have finished a painting, and, even better, one that I like,  just before leaving for Kanuga.   What a confidence builder!  A few weeks ago,   I took  a great number of source photos of this bouquet of white blossoms, in different blue glass vases and sitting on a variety of blue silk scarves.  This one didn't turn out the way I had planned or even what I expected (so, what else is new?).    But I like it anyway.

I'm all prepared for my "semi-independent study" with Robbie Laird at Kanuga (that's what I'm calling it, I'll report on what it actually is upon my return!).    Having chosen maybe a dozen source photos that I liked a lot, I spent the early part of March doing newsprint drawings from them.  That exercise helped me narrow down which ones held my interest.   I ended up with six favorite drawings.  I traced those drawings onto half-sheets of Arches 140, and THEN soaked and stretched the paper onto both sides of three pieces of Gatorboard.   This should give me lots to work on when I get there. 

I've never prepared so many "starts" at once before.  It has been fun and productive both.  I found my drawing skills coming back a bit as I worked.  I'm quite excited about what will come next, and pleased that I will have four days to work on all of these.    I am already wondering if it will turn into a new way of working for me.

Do most of  you have multiple paintings going at once? I'm usually sorry when I don't, because I am more likely to move too quickly and make poor decisions.  Setting things aside for a bit is never a bad idea.

Get back to work!

This will just be a short post. You will see why:  Here I am, spending a nice Sunday afternoon, browsing the blogs of my new blog friends  (do you recognize this blog?).  But, I am being observed. See that little poster up there at the right? I circled it to make it more obvious. It was recently provided by an art friend.

Wait.

I'll make it easier for you to see.

And then I'll go.  Maybe you should too?