A Second Sneak Preview - A Divine Bovine

I finally finished my latest (not last) cow painting and some reworking on my bull painting for the upcoming Divine Bovines cow show. I previously posted an almost complete preview of the bull painting, so tonight I thought I'd post a couple of sneak previews of my latest cow painting, using the same aspects. Here they are.



All of the invited artists have come through for the show - 11 featured artists in all. Charlie Smoke has us posted on the Mobile Arts Council calendar, and I'm hoping we'll also be in the Sunday arts section. The opening reception is Thursday, March 5th, 6 - 8 p.m.

We finished our last session of the Figure Group last night and will start back up again in April.

Sarah Palin Look-alike

As promised, here are a couple of drawings in watercolor from my Figure Group session last Wednesday. We had a new model who looked like Sarah Palin in her glasses. These were a couple of quick sketches. This week we will have the same model again, and will do a couple of long poses in order to give folks a chance to complete a more detailed painting. Sometimes, however, we do our best work when working quickly. It'll be interesting to compare the results.

I'm almost finished with my last cow painting for the Divine Bovines show - we have to turn in the artwork on Saturday! Other preparations for this show are scheduled for this week as well - sending out more notices, preparing a price list, labels for the artwork, matting the postcard artwork for signage, etc. I think this will be a great show!

A Busy Week Ending with Burridge Workshop

This was an especially busy week. So I'll try to catch up on the events of the week. Monday I met with Kathy Friedline, and Jaime Lee and Phyllis Jeffery of the Mobile Public Library so we could plan for an upcoming art exhibit at the public library - a show that will focus on Reading. This will probably be in the fall of 2009.

Tuesday I made a trip to Semmes to check out the art exhibit at the new public library, which will hang through February. Jami Buck, Kathy Friedline, Thayer Dodd and I (all Mama Lisas members) had artwork in the show, and here are a few photos to document our work.

My artwork above on far left and right.

My artwork on left and Jami's on right of Dodd & Dodd Nursery in Semmes.

Kathy's artwork: The Gift.

Thayer's floral photos above and painting of Semmes schoolhouse below.

Wednesday night I made it to Figure Group - we had a new model who was a Sarah Palin look-alike. I'll try to post some of my drawings of her tomorrow.

This week I also painted on my last cow portrait for the cow show, mailed postcards for the cow show, and ran around purchasing supplies for the Robert Burridge workshop this weekend. Saturday and Sunday were spent at the Burridge workshop, sponsored by the Bay Rivers Art Guild (BRAG) in Daphne, AL. Janie Brown and I made the trip over for the workshop. Janie and Jami are Burridge groupies, but Jami could not make it to this workshop. The topic was painting flowers fast and loose - I'm not big on flowers, but learned alot about technique and marketing ala Bob Burridge, and got to play around a bit with the medium. Here are a couple of photos from the workshop.

I think Bob Burridge loves teaching these workshops!

Me using paper towels and fingers to paint a series of warm-up paintings.

Also, here are a couple of photos from the Mama Lisas meeting at Gail Bramer's place last Saturday (Valentine's Day) - a group photo and one of Bill Bramer serving us champagne in his tux (my apologies to Bill...)

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Mama Lisas: Thayer Dodd, Kathy Friedline, Gail Bramer, Mary Beth Culp, Jami Buck, Karen McGahagin, and me (we are missing Janie Brown, Carolyn Greene, Jane Sawyer, Claire Noojin and Kay Rodriguez).

Mama Lisas and Cow Show Postcard

Today I met with my Mama Lisas painting group. Our Mama Lisas meet around once a month to paint together and otherwise give moral support to each other in the pursuit of our artwork. Today I brought my mat cutter and we all learned how to measure and cut mats to frame our artwork. We had a lot of fun. Today we met at Gail Bramer's house, and she served us cheese cake and cheese straws; and had her husband Bill dress up in his tuxedo and serve us some champagne. Not much accuracy in measuring the mats after the champagne! But all in the spirit of Valentine's Day!

Also, yesterday I picked up the postcards advertising the Divine Bovines art exhibit and reception for the upcoming cow show. I did the artwork for the postcard and Janie Brown and her former boss Bob Holberg helped format and set it up for printing. I think they turned out pretty good. Here is a copy. We'll be mailing these out next week. Stay tuned for the cow show, which will open on March 2nd, with the opening reception on Thursday, March 5th. Hope y'all will be able to make it to see the show!

Recap of recent activities

I finally finished the white bull painting and have started the last cow painting for the upcoming cow show in March. The new painting is a cow who obviously needs to be milked. These two paintings are both quite large and have been taking most of my time lately, but I do have some other activities to report. On the last Monday in January I did some plein air painting with Jami Buck and Mary Beth Culp at Municipal Park. I painted a swing looking out over the lake - and we were distracted by the geese and the kittens that live in the culverts. I'll post my finished oil sketch once I finish it up. Last Monday I placed my "Connie's Koi No. 1" painting at the Regions Bank at Old Shell and McGreagor. It will display through February and March. I also completed artwork for the postcard that Janie Brown and I are working on to publicize out upcoming cow show. I'm curating this show which will feature artwork by 10 local artists and will hang at the Mobile West Regional Library for March and April. You'll have to catch this fun show beginning March 2nd, with a public opening reception on Thursday the 6th. I'll post the postcard art once we are ready to mail it out.

I missed my figure group the last week in February due to traveling to Birmingham for my niece's wedding shower. I was able to make it to the group this past Wednesday, and am posting some recent figure drawings from my last two sessions. We all enjoyed the male model from a couple of weeks ago - he will be coming back to pose for us this week.

Prospect1 in New Orleans

I'm a little late to post these, but I was still learning to use my new compact digital camera and how to download the photos. Anyway, last month Thayer Dodd and I went to New Orleans to see the Prospect1 exhibits in New Orleans. It closed on Jan 18th, and we managed to get there on Jan 16th. This is an international contemporary art biennial, and we are very lucky that there was one close enough for us in Mobile to check it out. The purpose of Prospect1 was to help highlight the recovery efforts following Hurricane Katrina, especially the severely devastated areas in the lower Ninth Ward district. There were exhibits all over the city and it was too much to see everything in one day, so we concentrated on the Ninth Ward exhibits and installations. Here are a few photos of our favorites. We also included a visit to the environmentally responsible design new homes (sponsored by the Brad Pitt "Make It Right" foundation), which are being constructed in the areas so severely impacted by the floods following the breaches in the industrial canal levees. I think this was all a great idea - to bring the public to the hardest hit areas and show them the spirit of the people who are still in the community and why they want to rebuild.

This house was gutted on the lower floor, but all the upstairs rooms had these beautifully painted murals of marsh and swamp scenes.

Below is an installation on vacant lots in the lower Ninth Ward (note the concrete pads which is all that is left of previous homes). This is known locally as "The Ark", and is composed of salvaged plyboard and old movie posters.

I was tickled "pink" by the signage on the debris disposal container (Demo Diva).

Here is the doghouse which is where most of the residents think FEMA should reside.

Here is a row of houses completed by the "Make It Right" group. They all have solar panels and capture the rainwater for irrigation, etc. I really liked the yellow one with the asymmetrical roofline.

The installation below is pretty much symbolic of the exhibition - hoping to give them a ladder up and hope for the future.