Joanne Brandt Art Space

Yupo Critters

2012-01-27T17:24:00.005-06:00

I'm trying to complete a few paintings in preparation for next month, when I will be one of several featured artists at Cathedral Square Gallery. The theme will be Animal Art: All Creatures Great and Small. I've been doing some watercolor sketches on Yupo paper during my Saturday morning figure group, and have liked the loose effect as the polypropylene paper repels the wet medium and the resulting "puddles" of color. I decided to attempt a couple of critter portraits for display at the gallery. Here are two I have just completed. Come see them in person during the LoDa Artwalk on Friday, February 10th.

P.E.I. Cow No. 4 - "Cleo", Watercolor on Yupo Paper, 7 in. x 7 in. (approx.), 2012

Audubon Petting Zoo Goat No. 3 - Young Billygoat, Watercolor on Yupo Paper, 7 in. x 7 in., 2012

Hot Art for A Cold January!

2012-01-17T13:16:00.007-06:00

The Watercolor & Graphic Arts Society of Mobile sponsored a Hot Art for A Cold January Exhibit for this month at the Mobile Public Library West Regional Branch. Opening Reception was on January 5th, but the show will hang until January 31st - so check it out if you haven't already seen it! This was a non-juried/non-judged show. We have 21 artists represented in the exhibit, which gives the community an idea of the quality artists we have in the Mobile area.

I've recently been posting a little bit of the progress or methodology used for several of my recent art creations. I've been experimenting with some low-tech printmaking, and completed my 2nd watercolor monotype for the Hot Art show. The image is painted with watercolor on an acrylic/plexiglass plate which has been "primed" with gum arabic to make it easier to lift during the printing process. After the image painting was completed, I soaked sheet of Arches hot press paper (for the smooth surface) for an hour or two. After letting the paper drip and then blotting it to get rid of excess moisture, I placed the damp paper over the painted plate, laid a paper towel over that and then a piece of newsprint - then began the rubbing process to transfer the image from the plate to the paper. I use a smooth marble doorknob (purchased from a local antigue shop) to rub the print. After thoroughly rubbing the entire image area, I pull the print paper from the plate. And Ooollahlah! - a monotype print!

I really like the effect, but have to warn that this still takes some practice to get an acceptable image. I had success with my first attempt at a handrubbed monotype (see my blog entry for September 24, 2011); but my initial 2nd attempt was totally unsuccessful. I learned that it is important to thoroughly soak the paper to rid it of sizing and to make sure it is uniformly dampened; and that textured watercolor paper gave a very crude image due to the amount of detail I was trying to capture - thus this time I used smooth hot press paper. Also, the watercolor paint must be layered on relatively thickly on the plate if you want brilliant rather than "washed out" colors; and you cannot rush the rubbing process. But if you are successful, the colors are wonderful and luminous in the printed image and I believe they have more impact than if directly painted on the paper. I intend to continue to experiment with low tech and non-toxic printmaking techniques. Here is a link to a low-tech "Kitchen Lithography" video - using common materials found in the kitchen. I'll try this sometime soon and hopefully be able to post a successful print using this method as well.

Here is my set up for making the monotype print. The image is painted on the acrylic plate - paint brush; water bowl; and the marble doorknob stand ready. I placed a sheet of white paper under the acrylic plate so I could more easily see what I was painting.

The completed image on the plate. It is important to remember that the image will be reversed during the printing process. That did not matter to me with this image, but if it is important to the completed image, then the plate must be painted using a reversed image.

The completed Monotype Print: Water Lilies at Audubon Pond, Dauphin Island, AL (2011), Watercolor Monotype, 8 in. x 10 in. (approx.).

Celebrating Our Maritime Heritage: A Coastal Holiday

2011-12-19T22:26:00.007-06:00

The Mobile Museum of Art is hosting a show for regional artists to celebrate our Gulf Coastal Heritage. The show is hanging at the museum from December 9, 2011 - January 8, 2012. I entered 2 pieces into this show: my watercolor "Bayou Resilience, Bayou LaBatre, Summer 2010" (commemorating the shrimpers who helped with the oil spill cleanup); and a newly completed oil painting, "Live Bait, Mobile Causeway", which started a couple of years ago as a plein air sketch. My small painting "Live Bait" (8 in. x 10 in.) won the 3rd Place award in this show. I was pleasantly surprised and pleased that my work was juried into this show, and very surprised to win an award. There are a number of other beautiful pieces in this exhibit, so hopefully you will be able to make it by the museum over the holidays to catch the show. We should all be grateful that the museum provided this opportunity to showcase some of our local talented artists. Here is a link to the Coastal Holiday exhibition news article in the Mobile Press-Register.

I thought I would show the evolution between my original plein air oil sketch of "Live Bait" and the final completed oil painting that I submitted for this exhibit. I think this demonstrates the value of doing onsite or life sketches to enhance the immediacy of the subject.

My oil sketch was quickly painted using thin washes with the oil paint diluted with turpentine and linseed oil. The main forms and blocks of color are laid in the area of vegetation and the body of the boat. The amber underpainting shows through, which tones down most of the colors. But the areas of reflected light and shadow observed onsite are apparent.

I picked out this oil sketch from a stack in my studio when considering what I could enter into the maritime heritage exhibition. Using a couple of reference photos I took when doing the oil sketch, I was able to refine a few details and clarify the colors on the boat, in the marsh and background wooded vegetation, in the water reflections, and on the pier. I built up the color and detail with thicker paint, mixed with a little linseed oil. My challenge was to continue to paint as quickly and lightly as I could in an attempt to keep this painting looking fresh. I think I was successful in capturing the spirit of that day at Scott's Landing.

Plein Air Excursion on Dauphin Island - Nov 2nd-4th

2011-11-07T22:04:00.005-06:00

For the past couple of months, my artist friends Missy Patrick and Gail Bramer and I have been planning to spend a few days plein air painting on Dauphin Island. We decided to spend 2 nights at a Bed and Breakfast (Dauphin House) on the island and thus spend 3 days painting to our hearts' delight. We completed our trip last Wednesday through Friday. Although cool and breezy, it turned out to be perfect for some intensive plein air painting, and there were endless subjects to paint on the island. We also had a few others join us for the day the first day or two of plein air painting. This turned out to be a wonderful way to learn from each other and hone our plein air painting skills; figure out what type gear was best; and scratch the surface on painting subjects on the island. Once we started painting, the cares and worries were left on the other side of the bridge. The island has a slower pace and a definite laid-back atmosphere; and parks and scenic views abound. The days started with the hearty B&B breakfast; ended with relaxed conversation and a glass of wine; followed by seafood dinner and early to bed. As Gail said, she was suffering from DI withdrawal once she returned back to Mobile. I completed a couple of watercolors in my journal the first day; and spent the rest of the time trying out my oils and palette knife. I don't know how well I captured the scenes, but it was definitely fun trying. We are looking forward to our next foray into some intensive plein air painting, and planning some day trips back to the island before too long.

Two views of the pond in the Audubon Bird Sanctuary.

Below is marsh view next to the Ferry Landing on the East end of the island.

Below is photo of Missy and me painting the marsh scene.

Below is scene in Little Billie Goat Hole looking toward the Estuarium and the Gazebo overlooking the marsh creation site.

Below is fishing pier and weather tower on the East End, with natural gas rigs in the background. There was a grey sky as a weather front moved through for these two oil paintings on the water.

Below is bench along one of the nature trails at the Shell Mounds park. This was such a meditative place to explore.

Plein Air Painting in Downtown Mobile

2011-11-07T21:52:00.003-06:00

Last month, my friend Satomi and I decided to do some plein air painting downtown on a Thursday morning, in an attempt to capture some of the downtown "flavor" - this was in anticipation of doing some drawings for a fund-raising cookbook to be put out by the Cathedral Square Gallery. I did a couple of quick studies of The Spot of Tea cafe on Dauphin Street; and the Saenger Theatre (looking out from our sidewalk lunch at Cafe 219). A couple of weeks later I spent another morning photographing several other historic structures as resources for future drawings. I was never able to finish some black & white drawings for the cookbook (due Nov 1st), but here, at least, are the 2 watercolor sketches I completed on that beautiful fall morning.

The Art of Reading Show

2011-11-07T21:34:00.003-06:00

On my way out the door to head to the library to help take in artwork for The Art of Reading show on the morning of Oct 1st, I received a call that my Mom had just fallen and broken her leg - the same leg that was just beginning to heal from a hip implant she received a couple of months earlier. I headed straight to the emergency room, but Kathy, Phyllis, Tori and Ed came through and managed to pull together the show - in an outstanding manner. I've spent the past month or so doing hospital duty and eventually helping my Mom get back home and hopefully on the road to recovery; so am just now beginning to get caught back up on things. Here is a photo of me at the reception beside my monotype print, "Remember, It Is a Sin To Kill a Mockingbird". Kathy's wonderful photo of bridesmaid reading as bride preps for the wedding is over my shoulder.

The library staff furnished a beautiful cake, which was a work of art in itself, with a 3-dimensional artist urchin sitting atop a pile of books - I was lucky enough to be able to save it and bring her home with me. We had a wonderful selection of artwork in the show, and I commend those artists who took the time to share their love of books and reading as reflected in their artwork; and to the Friends of the Mobile Public Library for donating funds for several purchase awards (providing $800 in purchase award funds!) The show will hang at the West Regional Branch Library until December 2nd, so be sure to go see it if you haven't already. This is a bi-annual show, and already looking forward to doing this again in 2013!

Anticipating The Art of Reading Show

2011-09-24T22:06:00.003-05:00

My friend Kathy Friedline and I are working with Phyllis Jeffery and the Mobile Public Library Staff to put together the second biannual Art of Reading Show. This is a wonderful opportunity for local artists to show work celebrating the love of books and reading, and also provides for artwork for the permanent collection of the library. The Friends of Mobile Public Library will be sponsoring up to $800 in purchase awards, with the purpose of providing artwork to hang in the branch libraries. The take-in and jurying/judging of the show will be October 1st, at the West Regional Branch Library in Mobile. So I hope all my artist friends have been working on their pieces and that we will see you then.

I thought I'd give a progressive report on the piece I prepared for the show. I tried something new for me. I've always been intrigued by the printmaking process, and decided recently to teach myself how to do monotypes. I just finished reading a wonderful book, Monotype Mediums and Methods for Painterly Printmaking, on painterly monotypes by printmaker Julia Ayres, which includes very straight-forward and easy to follow instructions for the monotype process - and it is not nearly as difficult as I had feared. My favorite book and movie has always been To Kill a Mockingbird, so that was my theme for my piece.

1. I rewatched the movie and picked a scene near the end for my inspiration: Scout is walking Boo back to his house after he rescued her brother Jem and revealed himself to her. I took some liberties in my depiction of Boo, but prepared a watercolor sketch of my scene. Because the printmaking process will reverse the image, I prepared this sketch oriented on the reverse of what I wanted the final print to show. Here is my completed sketch.

2. I then prepared my plate. I used a thin sheet of acrylic plexi-glass, cut to size, and then sanded to smooth and bevel the edges and provide a curve at the corners. I then coated the working side of the plate with a coat of gum arabic and allowed it to dry. Since I was planning to prepare a watercolor print, my guidance was that the gum arabic would allow the watercolor to cleanly be lifted off the acrylic surface and transfer to the paper.

3. I then placed my watercolor sketch underneath the prepared plate to use as a painting guide, and then applied watercolor on the surface of the plate (on top of the gum arabic) to complete my water color painting. Here is a photo of the completed painting on top of the plate. I used regular watercolor, but also applied some outlined areas using a Pigma archival ink pen. The areas I want to remain white were left unpainted.

4. In order to provide a clean edge for the print, I cut out a paper mat and placed over the painted plate, and taped to the plate so it would stay in place. I then soaked Arches cover paper (cut to same size as the plate) for approximately 20 minutes. I then removed the paper and let it drip most of the water, and blotted it with paper towels so it was damp wet but not dripping. Then placed the damp paper over the matted plate and also taped on the edge so it would stay in place. Then I used my rubbing tool to press the watercolor image from the plate to the paper. I found the perfect rubbing tool - an antique marble doorknob - which has a smooth curved rubbing surface and the knob stem provides a firm grasping handle for you to hold onto while rubbing the entire surface.

5. And here is the completed watercolor monotype print (Remember, it's a sin to kill a Mockingbird). I was quite impressed with the brilliance of the colors. I think that is because the gum arabic allows all of the pigment to be transfered from the plate to the paper. The printing process also adds an interesting textural effect to the pigmented areas. After the print dried, I scribed some favorite quotes from the book around the margins of the print, and then prepared my mat for framing. The finished print is 8 1/2 in. x 11 in.

I'm very satisfied with this painterly method of printmaking, and am looking forward to trying some more printmaking techniques. Using the watercolors makes it an essentially non-toxic process, and you can complete this without any expensive or complicated equipment.

The "Come Get the Skinny" Fundraiser

2011-09-24T21:27:00.006-05:00

It's the beginning of the cultural arts season in Mobile (although I sometimes think the season never stops - there's always so much going on nowadays!) - which means it's time for the Mobile Arts Council fundraiser. This year they are doing a silent auction of artwork donated by local artists - called the "Come Get the Skinny". I have donated something a bit different from my normal work. I mentioned previously that I took a workshop/class from my friend Mary Elizabeth Kimbrough this summer on the use of acrylic gel mediums. Using some of the techniques I learned from this class, I prepared a gel transfer print of my recent watercolor of Grandaddy Goat, and adhered it to a canvas board to which I had applied several acrylic mediums to create multi-media work. This was kind of fun to play with. Here is my completed work: "Grandaddy Goat Takes His Nap No. 2". Come see it and lots of other wonderful donated work on Thursday, 6-9 PM, at the Mobile Arts Council. Additional details and representative artwork that you can bid on are on the Mobile Arts Council Facebook Site.

The Last Flings of Summer?

2011-09-23T22:28:00.014-05:00

I have some more catching up to do, and you will see that this has been a busy summer all the way through.
In August, the Watercolor & Graphic Arts Society of Mobile (WGAS) held our juried exhibition at the Eastern Shore Art Center in Fairhope. We had a wonderful juror, Paula Payne of Pensacola, FL, who is a signature member of both the Florida and Louisiana Watercolor Societies. She had her hands full, since we had 70+ entries and had to jury it down to around 45 pieces - and all were wonderful. We also had 7 prospective members showing their audition pieces in this show. It turned out to be a wonderful show, and we got some fantastic press coverage in the Mobile Press-Register. Here is a link to the article in the Sunday arts section: http://blog.al.com/entertainment-press-register/2011/08/eastern_shore_art_center_pumps.html

I entered two of my figures in this show: a pencil drawing of a Figure with Braid in the graphics section; and a watercolor figure of a Figure in Repose in the Aqua Medium section.

On August 20 the WGAS participated in an Art Expo at the Mobile Museum of Art, sponsored by the Mobile Arts Council, in the morning - showing the local community what our organization was about and our current/recent shows; and we also presented a Hands-on Demo/Workshop at the museum in the afternoon in association with the Shared Expressions Show. We worked with approximately 20 participants demonstrating various watercolor techniques on 3 different types of watercolor paper. Our left-over supplies were then donated to the museum's art education department.

Also on August 25th I volunteered to help with VSA Art Partners at the Independent Living Center. My art partner was Javier, and we painted a frog on lily pads. They will have an Art Partners show and auction on October 20th at the Eastern Shore Art Center to raise funds for art supplies for this program. This is a very rewarding experience for those of you who have not yet volunteered to paint with these very special and very appreciative artists. Any much credit is due to my artist friend Carolyn Greene who coordinates this program. Javier was a delight to work with. Here is a photo of me with Javier at work.

In July and August, I attended a class presented at Space 301 by artist friend Mary Elizabeth Kimbrough on various techniques using acrylic mediums. Learned some interesting ways to create texture, and how to transfer images using acrylic gel medium. This was a different twist for me but was alot of fun. Using some of these techniques, I created a piece for donation to the Mobile Arts Council "Come Get the Skinny" art auction fundraiser - turned the piece in on Sept 15th and the auction party is on September 29th. All of you should come out for a good cause and to bid on some really neat art!

In early September, we started back up with our Figure Group, which has just moved from the downtown Space 301 facility to a bright and spacious classroom in the Spring Hill College art department. In a future post, I will include some of my recent watercolor attempts at the figure.

And last week, Satomi Kamei, Ainsley McNeely and I met downtown for some plein air painting. Here is my watercolor sketch of The Spot of Tea, which faces Cathedral Square.

Satomi and I later captured the Saenger Theatre.

The Cathedral Square Gallery artists are working on putting together a cookbook that will feature artists' recipes as well as recipes from some of the downtown restaurants, and will include original artwork of some of the downtown historic buildings and popular eating establishments. More on this later.

Tomorrow I have Figure Group in the morning and then my Paint Day with the Mama Lisas in the afternoon. And Sunday afternoon we have the WGAS Members Meeting, and this will be my first members meeting as President of the Society. It was a busy summer and we will discuss plans for our future shows in the upcoming year.

Having some fun learning to do monotypes, and working with my friends Kathy Friedline and Phyllis Jeffery to put together the second biannual The Art of Reading Show, which is coming up on October 1st. I've completed a monotype for this show. More later on all of this . . .

Shared Expressions

2011-08-21T22:02:00.009-05:00

I can't believe it has been so long since I last posted. I took a long trip to Colorado to visit the grandbabies right after the reception for the Mama Lisa show (in last posting), and when I got back I immediately began working on putting together two shows for the Watercolor & Graphic Arts Society (WGAS) - one was the Shared Expressions exhibit at the Mobile Museum of Art - a community show of the several of the local arts organizations in the Mobile area; and the other was a juried exhibition at the Eastern Shore Art Center in Fairhope. And then my Mom fell and broke her hip and had hip replacement surgery abut 1 month ago. I've been helping her recover from the surgery in addition to keeping on top of the art goings on. Anyway, we had the opening reception for the Shared Expressions show on Sunday, July 24. Here is the watercolor painting I entered into the Shared Expressions show. I called this "Grandaddy Goat Takes His Nap". I did this painting pretty quickly (within a week), and tried very hard to keep it loose - at least it is looser than most of my recent watercolors.

Here is a link to the newspaper article about the Shared Expressions show.

http://blog.al.com/entertainment-press-register/2011/08/shared_expressions_exhibit_rev.html

Other arts organizations represented are the Mobile Art Association, the Sumi-e Society, Camera South, Azalea City Quilters, and the Coastal Clay Collective. Also three artists are honored with retrospective exhibits: Lee Hoffman and Jack Sanders, who both recently passed away, and Frances Mutchnick - all previous members of WGAS. This show will hang at the Museum until September 25th. It is a really nice exhibit - lots of diversity and some beautiful work - so be sure to check it out if you haven't alrady been there to see it.

Here is a photo of me and my Dad at the opening reception. We both made a quick run from the hospital to attend the reception. It is really amazing what they can do nowadays with hip replacement surgery. My 81-year-old mother had surgery on a Friday and went home walking on a walker the next Monday! She's come along way in the month since the surgery, and has graduated to use of a cane at times, and should eventually be able to walk without any assistance. I'm proud of how well she's doing.

My next posts will cover other activities associated with the Shared Expressions exhibit, and also the WGAS juried show at the Eastern Shore Art Center. Also, more about the Art of Reading show coming up!

Persephone and Calf, Poplarville, Mississippi

2011-05-09T23:53:00.011-05:00

I promised I would post a sequential progress series for my latest large cow portrait, which I just finished in time for The Mama Lisas show. This is a portrait of a cow and calf, taken from a photo provided by my friend and former co-worker Katie, who grew up on a farm in Poplarville, Mississippi. Katie raised cows for show as she was growing up. She says that the mother cow in this portrait is named "Persephone" - as she puts it: ". . . as in the Queen of the Underworld in Greek mythology; this calf was hell on wheels, just like her momma!" I was tickled by this story and I tried to capture their personalities in my painting. I am hoping that I was able to capture the mischievousness in the young calf - the third generation of "hell on wheels"! So here is my progress series for this portrait.

1. Free-hand drawing onto toned canvas.

There seems to be alot of controversy nowadays about free-hand drawing versus projections and tracings of images. I am of the "old school", I guess, because I really love to draw and somehow think that tracing a projected image would result in a stilted drawing. However, I actually do often use a crude grid system to help with placement and proportions in my initial drawing. In this case I gridded the 36" x 48" canvas into one-foot squares, used that for working out the relative proportions, and then free-hand sketched in the cow and calf, making appropriate adjustments based on my "aesthetic" eye. The sketch is using a one-inch flat brush with a thinned combination of burnt sienna and burnt umber acrylic paint.

2. Block out background and begin to wash in blocks of color in acrylic.

I washed in the light blue background (cerulean blue + cadmium yellow light + titanium white); and blocked in the green grassy areas (cerulean blue + cadmium yellow light + yellow ochre + naples yellow), adding a touch of cadmium red to the green mixture to hint at shadow under the cow. Blocked in some white areas on face, neck and horns, adding some cool shades of blue and violet to establish some forms and contours.

3. Build up color and mass in the mother cow figure.

I began building up layers of color to establish the mass of the cow - my palette here is primarily burnt sienna, yellow ochre, cadmium red, alizarin crimson, burnt umber, ultramarine blue and cerulean blue. I like using a relatively limited palette with lots of the earth pigments included. I apply glazes and swatches of color in a painterly and almost abstract fashion, hoping that the shapes will eventually emerge. The beauty of acrylic paint for me is that I can paint in glazes, and if it doesn't suit me, I can build over it with more glazes. The challenge is to make any "paint overs" still look fresh.

4. More layers and begin to define the face and ears of the mamma cow.

5. Further refinement of cow's face. Block in masses of color and shapes to define the calf. At this point I also tried to make sure I captured the expressions and personalities of both subjects.

6. Further refinements. I made some adjustments to the cow's rear legs to weight them more evenly to the ground, and deepened the shadow under the cow. Also filled out the calf's legs. At this point there was something not quite right about the cow's right front leg.

7. Final adjustments to front legs and hooves, addition of highlights, and worked up layers of texture and suggestion of vegetation in the grassy area.

8. Final adjustments and highlights and a coat of varnish - and it is done! Come see "Persephone and Calf" (acrylic on canvas, 36" x 48") at the Mobile Arts Council this month, during The Mama Lisas - Young at Art exhibition.

The Mama Lisas - Young at Art

2011-05-09T23:39:00.004-05:00

Somehow I missed the entire month of April! I know I have been to several Figure Group sessions in the interim, and will post some of those experimental drawings here soon. But the major thing I've been working on is to complete a large painting for a show during the month of May. My painting group, the Mama Lisas, is having a group show at the downtown Mobile Arts Council this month. We call it The Mama Lisas - Young at Art; which is a pun on us being eight "older" women who are emerging artists in the local art community. Well, some of us are emerging, anyway.

The show will hang at Mobile Arts Council, in the Green Room, from May 9 through May 27. The opening reception is this Friday, May 13th, 6-9 PM. Please come on out to see us and our art! Here is a photo of our group.Gail Bramer, Joanne Brandt, Janie Brown, Kathy Friedline, Karen McGahagin, Claire Noojin, and Jane Sawyer.

Front: Carolyn Greene, Gail Bramer, Karen McGahagin
Back: Joanne Brandt (me), Jane Sawyer, Kathy Friedline, Claire Noojin, & Janie Brown

We've been painting together for several years, and providing inspiration and moral support to each other along the way. I like to think there is a certain synergy to having other artist friends to encourage you to keep working, following your dreams, and to progress and grow in your art. And thanks also to the Mobile Arts Council for giving us this opportunity to share our art!

Entering my new decade . . .

2011-03-18T22:28:00.006-05:00

I reached a new decade birthday this week. No sense in trying to hide from it - I turned 60 this past week! I'm trying to approach it in as upbeat a manner as I can muster, and hoping that it will be a good year ahead. My dear husband took me to New Orleans for my birthday present, in order to ease the transition, I think. We spent 2 days and nights and never even entered the French Quarter - I think that demonstrates that we've been there enough times to learn about several other neighborhoods and many other treasures you can find in the New Orleans area. We ate at two restaurants on Magazine Street, and 2 on Esplanade; and visited the Audubon Riverview Park; City Park; the New Orleans Museum of Art; and Bayou Savage National Wildlife Refuge. It was a beautiful 2 days of spring-like weather. Spending time in the parks, I was missing having something to paint with. I had just recently read an article in Watercolor Artist magazine about using watercolor pencils, and we detoured to an art supply shop on Magazine and I purchased my emergency art kit: a handful of watercolor pencils and a small art journal tablet. I was then able to complete a couple of little plein air sketches - mostly learning how to use the pencil media, but hopefully I was also able to catch the spring spirit as well. Here are my 2 sketches:

There were several groups of sunbathers at the Audubon Riverview Park (located on the Mississippi River levee behind the Audubon Zoo), and I caught a couple here. The article I had read demonstrated how you could scribble the pencil pigment on the paper to create a little paper palette, and then lift pigment off the paper palette with a wet brush to apply to your painting. I tried that with limited success. I did better shading layers of dry pencil to fill in color in the painting, and then using my wet brush to mix and blend the colors on the paper. Very much a learning experience! I did not have a green pencil, so was mixing my yellows and blues to achieve the greens of the grass and tree leaves.

Here is my second sketch, of the scene in City Park behind the Museum of Art. I had a little more success this time in blending different shades of green, and also getting a little stronger pignmentation. Still need some more darks for contrast, but it is a learning experiment here. Note the ibis in the foreground. It was amazing that there were flocks of ibises in the park that were begging to be fed along with the ducks, geese and seagulls. Also several coots in the ponds. Such a beautiful day and a good feeling that the park has recovered so much since Hurricane Katrina.

We also spent some time at Bayou Savage National Wildlife Area, which is located along Highway 90 east of New Orleans. This swamp was also heavily impacted by Hurricane Katrina, with alot of salt water being trapped behind levees and killing the freshwater vegetation. I took lots of photos of the swamp with dead trees rising up to the crystal blue skies. But, there were also observable indications of recovery here as well, with new plantings of cypress, hackberries and other shrubs in the swamp. Here are a couple of photos from Bayou Savage.

Me in front of the spartina marses on the south side of Hwy 90.

One of those haunting scenes of the dead trees rising out of the impacted marshes on the north side of Hwy 90.

And before I close I just have to include a photo I took at the New Orleans Museum of Art. NOMA is celebrating their 100th birthday this year. There were several paintings from the permanent collections on display, and I really enjoyed the Modern Art gallery. I was pleasantly surprised to discover this wonderful painting by Richard Diebenkorn! My artist friend Conroy Hudlow had recently loaned me his book on Diebenkorn, an abstract expressionist painter from the mid-century who also dabbled in figurative art. I fell in love with his use of color, and was pleasantly surprised to see that NOMA had one of his figurative masterpieces in their collection. Here is the woman on the porch!

Mini Award and Sunday at the Redeemer

2011-03-14T16:32:00.003-05:00

We held the opening reception for the Spanish Moss Miniature Art Show last Friday evening. The show is being held this year at the Mobile Arts Council and is sponsored by our small local group, the Alabama Miniature Art Society. We had 111 entries from 31 different artists, including artists representing 15 different states, one artist from England, another from Israel, and 6 local artists. So this is truly an international show on miniature art. I am happy to report I won one of the local merit awards sponsored by Alabama Art Supply, for my 4" x 4" acrylic painting "Feeding Time". My Alabama Art Supply gift certificate is the perfect gift for any artist, since I love to shop there for art supplies! The show will hang at the Mobile Arts Council through the end of the month - so be sure to go by and take in the show - you will be surprised at the variety and the quality of the artwork.

On Sunday, there was another art reception at The Artist's Place, hosted by The Episcopal Church of the Redeemer. My friend Claire Noojin and fellow artist Karen Spaulding are showing their work there for the month of March. I only took a couple of photos there, but here is a nice one of Claire standing in front of some of her artwork. If you haven't been to one of the receptions at The Artist's Place, you are missing an excellent opportunity to commune with local artists and art supporters. The Church of the Redeemer considers this a part of their art mission and they usually have a showing of a local artist's work on the second Sunday of each month, 2 - 4 PM.

Weather is starting to seem like spring, so will have to get out again soon for some more plein air painting. Hope to post some photos from outdoors painting here soon.

LoDa Art Walk - Featured Art

2011-03-10T23:20:00.004-06:00

Tomorrow (Friday) is the monthly LoDa Art Walk in downtown Mobile. The weather should be great, and spring is in the air, so we are hoping for a good crowd of art lovers and shoppers. I will be one of 3 featured artists at the Cathedral Square Gallery, along with Nancy Hanrath and Conroy Hudlow. This afternoon I took my mother down to the gallery (since she is unlikely to come downtown for the evening artwalk), and I was able to take a couple of photos of our featured art. (Yes - the cows are here!) The gallery is really looking good and we hope you can come check us out.

I also have a couple of miniature paintings in the Spanish Moss Miniature Art Show at the Mobile Arts Council. And several other galleries will also be open for the artwalk festivities. So come on down for some fine art, food and music, and to co-mingle with fellow art lovers downtown.

Cathedral Square Gallery: 5:30 - 8:30 PM
Spanish Moss Miniature Art Show Awards Reception: 5:00 - 6:00 PM
LoDa Art Walk: 6:00 - 9:00 PM

Spring Plein Air Session - Spanish Plaza

2011-03-07T19:41:00.003-06:00

Last week my friend Jami Buck and I made an initial plein air excursion downtown to Spanish Plaza on a beautiful spring day. There was alot of activity downtown getting ready for Mardi Gras parades (Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday is tomorrow!), and some of the plantings were fenced in chicken wire to protect them from the parade crowds. But Spanish Plaza is a little off the beaten path and was very peaceful that morning. Here is my quick watercolor sketch I made (with only a little touching up back in the studio). I was able to catch one of our homeless residents sitting on a park bench, with the park statuary and vegetation framing him, and the busy Government Boulevard street scene faded in the background. Since that day it has been rainy and now coolish weather, but more beautiful spring weather is just around the corner and beckoning us to start back into plein air painting on a regular basis.

Last week I finished an oil painting class I've been taking at Space 301 - we spent 4 sessions on a still life and 4 sessions on a figure painting, focusing on capturing warm and cool light and shadow. And last weekend our Mama Lisas group met to paint together and plan for our upcoming show at the Mobile Arts Council in May. There is much other art activity coming this week. This month I am one of the featured artists at Cathedral Square Gallery, along with fellow artists Nancy Hanrath and Conroy Hudlow. Our artwalk reception is this Friday, 5:30 - 8:30 PM. We featured artists are responsible for providing the food for the reception, so if you can make it out this Friday come join us for some wine, refreshment and fun while observing the art. Also during LoDa artwalk is the reception for the Spanish Moss Miniature Art Show at the Mobile Arts Council. We'll be presenting the awards for the show between 5 and 6 PM before the artwalk begins. There are 111 miniature art pieces, submitted from over 30 artists from all over the country, as well as one artist from England and one other from Israel - and it is all amazingly diverse and beautiful art. You have to come see it to believe it. More to come . . .

The Challenge of Miniature Art

2011-02-26T21:17:00.006-06:00

Last year I entered the Second Annual Spanish Moss Show, and learned that I am definitely not a miniature art artist! However, that has not discouraged me from still trying my art skills in such endeavors. I learned that miniature art is not just painting small - miniature art is a skill in painting very finely and detailed with small brushes to create a smooth painting surface that hides the brush strokes. However, there are miniature art societies across the world that exhibit miniature art in many media and styles, so I think there may yet be a niche for my work. In Mobile we have established the Alabama Miniature Art Society, and tomorrow we turn in work for the Third Annual Spanish Moss Show of Miniature Art. It will be shown downtown at the Mobile Arts Council during the month of March, with an opening reception during the LoDa art walk on March 11th. There will be artwork from expert miniature art artists from all over the country, and I think you will be quite impressed with the calibre of the artwork. I attempted two paintings, 4 in. x 4 in. in acrylic as shown below. I am pleased with these paintings as small paintings, but not sure they will compare to the other fine miniature artwork that will be displayed in the show. But here are my two entries. Come on down to the Mobile Arts Council during March and see how the real experts present their work!

"Cozy", acrylic on matboard, 4 in. x 4 in. (This is based on a photo of our grand-daughter Priya bundled in her favorite afghan and blanket.)

"Feeding Time", acrylic on matboard, 4 in. x 4 in. I loved the cows in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island - here are twin calves feeding in a small farmer's yard - I also loved the blue barn/shed in the background.

Treasures of Mobile Bay and Delta Area

2011-01-05T16:39:00.003-06:00

I can't believe it is already 2011! The new year is already presenting a flurry of activity in the arts community. Yesterday the Watercolor & Graphic Arts Society of Mobile took in artwork for our Mobile Bay and Delta area show, which will hang downtown at the Mobile Arts Council during the month of January. This is kind of a different type of exhibit for the WGAS organization, since there will be no jurying or judging of artwork, although the works will be offered for sale. This is an opportunity for our artists to share their love for the places and creatures that surround us in the Mobile Bay and Delta area, and spotlight why it is so important to conserve and protect these resources. Mobile is a watery wonderland of sorts, with lakes, rivers, bays, coastal beaches, marshes, swamps and maritime forests in abundance. All of this beauty and diversity was threatened this past spring by the horrendous BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Efforts are continuing to try to clean up from the spill and to study what we can do to try to recover and protect our coastal and watery habitats from this threat and future threats. This exhibit is a way for artists to remind our community of why it is so important to protect our coastal resources: habitats, wildlife and birds, and also the people whose livelihoods and ways of life are dependent on a clean and healthy aquatic system.

The exhibit will hang through January 28th, and the reception will be Friday, January 14th, 6 - 9 PM during the LoDa Art Walk. Here is a photo of my watercolor entry: "Bayou Resilience - Bayou LaBatre, Summer 2010". This painting is based on photos I took with my friend Kathy Friedline in June, when our plein air group (Plein Air South) visited the bayou to capture the shrimp boats. Kathy and I spoke to these 3 brothers on their fishing boat as they came in from searching the Gulf and Mississippi Sound for floating mats of oil (note the piles of absorbent boom material on the deck of the boat), as part of the Vessels of Opportunity program. Bayou LaBatre is the center of the local seafood economy. These brothers came from a family of 11 children, all of which along with their parents were employed in the seafood industry and greatly affected by the spill. Our hearts go out to those who were impacted by the spill and the economic tailspin it caused, especially in the seafood economy. We are impressed with the resilience they possess and have demonstrated, and wish them godspeed to get back on their feet again.

Funky Figures

2010-12-19T18:24:00.003-06:00

Yesterday morning we had the last Figure Group session for the year, and will break until after the holidays. We had a male model who had his own funk about him. I really enjoyed drawing him in his dark-rimmed eye glasses. We drew him once before last year along with Hannah who was several months pregnant - he is a sweet fellow. Here are some of my drawings from yesterday. Trying to play some more with my watercolors and keeping some of the negative space intact. I think these are each about 20-min. sketches.

Watercolor & Graphic Arts Society Fall Members' Exhibition - Last Days

2010-12-15T16:25:00.004-06:00

The Fall 2010 Members' Exhibition of the Watercolor & Graphic Arts Society of Mobile is winding down. We have been showing at the University of South Alabama Library since November 1st, and will be taking down the show this upcoming Monday, December 20th. It was a very professional looking show, if I can say so myself (I was the show chairperson for this show). I decided to include a few photos here:

This is me posing beside my pastel drawing from figure group, "Red Head".

Our Fall show was dedicated to the memoray of Lee Hoffman, who passed away in March of this year. Here is a beautiful watercolor by Lee, called "Sunset at Bridgehead". The Best of Show and a Merit Award were also given in Lee's honor.

We had a delightful judge, Diane St. Germain, who is a signature member of the Louisiana Watercolor Society. This is an example of her work. She was especially pleased with the mix of water media and graphic arts in this show.

Ben Shamback won the Lee Hoffman Memorial Best of Show Award for his etching, "Hagen's Head".

Bill Morris, Lynda Touart and Karen McGahagin shared the Members' Choice Award - first ever three-way tie!

Marie Nickerson beside her water media "Touch of Autumn" which won the Best Water Media award; and Judy Aronson beside her watercolor "Whose Shadow?" which won an Honorable Mention award.

You still have a few more days to catch this lovely show. And then the Watercolor & Graphic Arts Society will be hanging our Mobile Bay and Delta Show at the Mobile Arts Council for the month of January - our opening reception will be on January 14th during the LoDa Artwalk.

Figure Group and Holiday Studio Tours

2010-12-04T20:46:00.006-06:00

Last night I drove over to see the opening of the Eastern Shore Art Association Members' Show. I have 2 pieces in the show: "Koi Splash" and "Winter Grackles at St. Marks Refuge", both have previously hung in Mobile but not previously in Fairhope. A nice crowd for the Fairhope First Friday Art Walk. And a nice start to the weekend.

We had a new model today in Figure Group and we all seemed to be inspired by her - lots of wonderful drawings today. It's been a while since I posted some figure drawings, so here are a couple from this morning - pencil sketch and watercolor (my favorite quinacridone gold) - 20 minutes each. I was concentrating on using shadows and negative space to define the form.

After Figure Group, several of us met for lunch at Butch Cassidy's Cafe, and then on to the Holiday Studio Tour. Several local artists have grouped together and opened their studios or homes for display of their handcrafted items for sale as holiday gifts. We visited Bertice McPherson's pottery studio, Val Webb's home with several artists showing together, and Kaoru Oka's home where several artists joined to show weavings, pottery, jewelry and book art. I bought 2 pottery bird whistles from Bertice; 2 sets of beaded bracelets made by Soul of Somanya (African village women from Ghana, West Africa) at Val's house; and a hand-crafted book made by Barbara Spafford at Kaoru's house. It is a wonderful feeling to have completed a portion of my Christmas shopping with purchases from local artists friends and a good start to the holiday season.

I also have started an artist journal, although it is a habit I have yet to adequately cultivate. Anyway, here are two "recent" sketches: a small utility structure I often drive past on the Brookley Field Industrial Complex which I completed in October (I wanted to capture this structure because it appears to be threatened by adjacent construction and may not remain for long); and a colorful simple sweetgum leaf which fell from the tree in my front yard in late November. We've had beautiful color this fall, and I regret not having been able to get out for much plein air painting lately due to bad weather or my travel schedule or other art activities and demands. But hopefully soon!

Suffering from Art "Overkill" - A good thing

2010-11-18T21:37:00.024-06:00

One of my friends recently said she was suffering from art "overkill", which was a good thing. I could relate. It has been a jam-packed, hectic scene recently here in Mobile. I hit the ground running as soon as I got back in town at the end of October from a two-week roadtrip to Colorado to visit grandkids. We took in artwork for the Watercolor and Graphic Arts Society Fall Members' Exhibition on November 1st; Satomi Kamei and I hung the show on November 2nd; Allan Butt and I met the judge (a charming Diane St. Germain of the Louisiana Watercolor Society, from Slidell, LA) on Friday; and then we had the reception on Thursday, November 11th. I was the show chairperson, so lots to do in between to make it all happen (more on the WGAS show in future posting). On Saturday, Nov 6, Kathy and I took down our "Critters" Show at the Church of the Redeemer, and then a mad dash downtown to participate in the downtown Figure Group. We missed Lydia Host's Thursday opening reception for her Master's Thesis show at the Spring Hill College since it was the same night as the WGAS reception. Friday night (Nov 12th) was a big artwalk night. Several of my friends had their artwork on display. My Figure Group buddies Conroy Hudlow, Jami Buck and Satomi Kamei had their artwork in the Nudes in November show at the Blue Velvet Gallery, the new ArtOlogy gallery had their grand opening, Mary Elizabeth Kimbrough had a solo show at the Daupine Realty office downtown, Bertice McPherson had her clay show at the Mobile Arts Council gallery, and the Postcards from the Gulf exhibit was in the Saenger gallery. And that is just a few of the highlights - there is just too much now to see it all during the LoDa artwalks. I had to work until after 7 PM at the Cathedral Square Gallery, and then was able to break away with buddies Janie Brown, Gail Bramer, Conroy Hudlow, and Satomi Kamei to catch a couple of the exhibits. I then worked all day Saturday at the Cathedral Square Gallery, then the symphony on Sunday (had to miss Missy Patrick's opening reception at Gallery 54, but hope to catch it soon); and then Conroy, Satomi and I turned in our artwork for the Eastern Shore Art Association Members Show in Fairhope on Monday. Whew! My only lament is that there has been no time to stay at home and PAINT!

Here are photos of me, Satomi and Gail standing by our submissions to the Postcards from the Gulf Exhibit. Each postcard (and there were more than 80, I believe, from all over the U.S. and a few from other countries afar) was auctioned off for $50 as a fundraiser for the Alabama Coastal Foundation. There were so many beautiful and creative cards. It was amazing to see these all displayed together, and it was heartwarming to see how artists and others around the world were affected by the Gulf oil spill this summer, and that in this small way can help try to rally support for saving and restoring the Gulf habitat and way of life. Thanks to Val Webb for her efforts to make this happen.

Me with my alligator snapping turtle postcard.

Satomi with her beach scene.

Gail with her "water" buffalo.

Happy Chef

2010-10-28T23:30:00.003-05:00

My parents celebrated their 60th anniversary this summer, and we had a mini-family reunion and dinner at a local restaurant. While taking photos at the dinner I noticed the chef working in the window, and it seemed like the classical "bistro" photo op. I'd been wanting to do a "chef genre" painting and this was my inspiration. I did this painting in 2 or 3 days between hanging the Critters show and the reception trying to meet the October 9 deadline for entry into the Mobile Art Association fall juried exhibition at the Mobile Public Library West Regional Branch. It will hang until November 19th. I like that this was a fast and fresh painting, and I think I was able to capture the atmosphere of the darkened restaurant against the brightly-lit kitchen, and the concentration of the chef. I call this "The Happy Chef", acrylic on canvas, 18 in. x 24 in.

More Critters

2010-10-28T22:46:00.006-05:00

I left town on a road trip to Colorado to visit family (3 beautiful grandbabies) the morning after our "All Critters - Great and Small" reception, and could not download photos I took at the reception until I returned a few days ago. So here are a couple of reception photos, as well as photos of my 6 new critter portraits. So far, I've sold one small painting and have inquiries on another. This small exhibit has been a very positive experience.

Fellow artists and best buddies Conroy Hudlow and Kathy Friedline.

My Mom and Dad in front of the menagerie.

Artist buddies Mary Rodning and Satomi Kamei join me and Kathy.

"Audubon Petting Zoo Burro", Acrylic on canvas, 10 in. x 10 in.

"Audubon Petting Zoo Goat No. 1", acylic on canvas, 10 in. x 10 in.

"Audubon Petting Zoo Goat No. 2", acrylic on canvas, 10 in. x 10 in.

"Audubon Petting Zoo Sheep", acrylic on canvas, 10 in. x 10 in.

"Baldwin County Cow No. 3 - Robertsdale Rodeo Bull", acrylic on canvas, 10 in. x 10 in.

"P.E.I. Cow No. 3 - Belle", acrylic on Canvas, 10 in. x 10 in.

All Critters - Great and Small

2010-10-17T21:28:00.007-05:00

My fellow artist and good friend Kathy Friedline and I are currently showing our artwork at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer Artists' Place, located at the corner of Hitt and Cody Roads. We will show there for the month of October. The theme of our show is "All Critters - Great and Small". The opening reception was last Sunday afternoon, during which we enjoyed sharing our artwork with friends and family - thanks for all who were able to attend and help us celebrate our artwork with the "critter" theme. This morning there was a pleasant surprise - we had shared information about the show with the local arts editor and there was a very nice article on the front page of the arts section. Here is the link to the article.

http://blog.al.com/entertainment-press-register/2010/10/artists_express_their_affectio.html

Also, here are a couple of photos taken by Kathy at the reception, and some of the artwork from the show. (I may post some more photos of the reception once I am able to download them from my camera.)

A special thanks to the folks at the Redeemer for providing an opportunity for us to show our work as part of their art mission; and for putting together such a nice reception.

Me with my recently completed menagerie.

Gail Bramer, Kathy and me at the reception.

This is the wall plaque with a wonderful summary of the Church of the Redeemer's Art Mission Statement.

Postcard from the Gulf

2010-09-20T11:35:00.007-05:00

Today I mailed in my Postcard from the Gulf to Val Webb. She is helping to coordinate a fund-raiser for the Alabama Coastal Foundation. Artists from around the U.S. and the world at large have been requested to submit a vintage postcard with artwork with a Gulf coast area theme added on the message side of the postcard. Val mails out the vintage postcards and the artist mails it back once it has been enhanced with their artistic statement. Here is my postcard. I was inspired by the alligator snapping turtle at the Mobile Exploreum Reptile exhibit - we met there for the Mobile Sketch Crawl event at the end of July. I had difficulty sketching him during the sketch crawl because he kept pacing back and forth to focus on the visitors on the other side of the aquarium. But I was able to get a couple of good photos, and caught him in the classic snapping turtle pose. You do not want to get "nipped" by one of these guys! They hang out in the rivers and swamps along the Gulf coast, as well as further inland. I could not resist also adding a little to the photo side of the card - it was a colorful bouquet of flowers, but leant itself with a few little fishes to resemble a colorful coral reef - just for fun. (watercolor and acrylic on vintage postcard).

They will auction these cards for $50 each at a fund-raiser reception in the next month or so. Stay tuned. Here is a link to the Postcards from the Gulf.

Plein Air at Abandoned Restaurant on Causeway

2010-09-19T10:37:00.008-05:00

Last Thursday our Plein Air South group met at the Abandoned Restaurant on the Mobile Causeway to capture some Mobile Bay and Delta scenes. We had a good group, including Marie Nickerson, Jo Patton, Joan White-spunner Dixon, Satomi Kamei, Conroy Hudlow, and Jami Buck. I decided to try oils and paint as quickly and loosely as I could muster (and for me that is usually a challenge). Here is my result. I'm satisfied that I captured the colors of early fall. Also, here is photo of Satomi with her watercolor of basically the same scene. It it nice to see how we used our media differently to reflect the same view of the delta marsh and inlets. While there we saw a young gator, a little blue heron, night heron - and an osprey who landed on top of the tree in this painting. Later we saw the osprey diving and flying off with his catch. Some of the joys of outdoor painting!

A Touch of Fall in the Air

2010-09-05T21:10:00.004-05:00

The last couple of nights have had a touch of Fall in the air - the front has moved in some drier air and it has gotten into the low 70s and upper 60s overnight and a semi-cool breeze during the day. There is also a touch of excitement as football season is starting and the cultural events are becoming mobilized. Tomorrow is Labor Day, and the September artwalk is this coming Friday; and then a whole slew of activities begin. This past week, our Cathedral Square Gallery artist hung samplings of our artwork at the University of South Alabama campus library. I hung my large charcoal drawing (Life Drawing Class), and an oil painting I completed a couple of years ago at a workshop with Bill Thompson. Bill encouraged us to paint "fast and loose", and we were challenged to complete an oil painting within 30 minutes. Here is one I did in the workshop, which I really did not at the time feel was "finished". However, I recently bought a frame for it and intended to touch it up before delivering it to the gallery - but somehow the frame seemed to set it off and I couldn't decide what I would add or change. So here is my "finished" painting! I call this "Koi Splash" (16 in. x 20 in., oil on canvas). I painted this from memory, but the inspiration is from my friend Connie's koi pond. This is currently at the USA Library until November 1st.

August - This and That

2010-08-17T16:42:00.005-05:00

I can't say it's the summer doldrums, since there is still alot going on right now. So thought I'd catch up on some of the recent goings on. My artist friend Jami Buck has a solo show of her artwork at the Church of the Redeemer for the month of August. Her reception was Sunday a week ago. Alot of artist friends came out to enjoy her art and to give her moral support. You can see her artwork on her blog. I bought one of her paintings of a small boat in the marsh grass.

Also I finished my Painting in Veils class with Kimberly Krause. Our last painting was of the figure. I previously posted my underpainting, but when I started applying the glazes I realized I did not build up enough white pigment in the underpainting to capture the color glazing - I learned this was an important step. So I spent our last class session applying more flake white and tinted white underpainting. I will apply the glazes at home - I've put in my order for some glazing medium. I hope to try some more paintings at home once I've "mastered" the grisaille underpainting technique. Here is the updated underpainting. I applied white and toned white mixture to the entire figure and some of the background areas -notably the checkered floor pattern. Can't wait for the glazing compound to arrive in the mail!

Also, I've been starting a series of critter paintings for a show that I'm doing jointly with fellow artist and friend Kathy Friedline. I'm trying to finish at least six new small critter paintings for this exhibit, which will be at the Church of the Redeemer in October. Here are a couple of preview excerpts from the first two that are almost finished - four more to go . . .

Sketch Crawl at the Exploreum - Reptiles!

2010-08-01T21:57:00.007-05:00

Yesterday morning was the latest Sketch Crawl sponsored by the Mobile Arts Council. We were hosted by the downtown Mobile Exploreum, and adult sketchers were granted free admission to the Reptiles exhibit. This was a wonderful exhibit with live specimens of turtles, snakes, lizards and gators/crocodiles, as well as some great interactive exhibits teaching little known facts about reptiles. My favorite "critters" were the Alligator Snapping Turtle and the Bearded Lizard. I tried to sketch the snapping turtle, but was not successful since he kept moving - he would get a bead on the spectators on the outside of his class case, and follow them back and forth. The Bearded Lizard and Saltwater Crocodile were much more cooperative subjects. Here are my sketches and a couple of photos of the snapping turtle. You might want to go down to the Exploreum and check out this exhibit. Also, check out all the wonderful sketches at the MAC sketch crawl website.

The Figure Underpainting

2010-08-01T21:49:00.003-05:00

Last Tuesday we had a live model and created an underpainting from the figure. This time we were to chose a single color to create the underpainting - I selected my favorite Burnt Sienna, thinned with turpentine, and then hi-lighted with lead white again. I was able to create some interesting affects from the turp and paint, and also enjoyed putting in some of the background features and the tiled floor. This is a poor photo which makes the perspective look off due to the camera angle, but you can see the general effect of the underpainting/value study. This week we will apply glazes over the deer skull underpainting we created several weeks ago, while we let the figure underpainting continue to dry. Then next week (our last session) we will apply glazes over the figure underpainting.

Painting in Veils - Progress

2010-07-22T17:22:00.004-05:00

This summer I am taking an oil painting class at Space 301 Gallery, taught by Kimberly Krause, a fine young artist and friend here in Mobile. She is sharing with us a painting technique she learned from Benjamin Shamback using a grisaille and glazing methods, similar to methods used by the classic master painters (e.g. Rembrandt and Vermeer, to name a few). We first create a "monotone" underpainting, by mixing warm and cool "greys" using complementary colors (I used burnt sienna and ultramarine blue) and lead white. We were identifying the lights and shadows (values) and letting the lead white form an impasto-type underlayer for texture. I was not too sure about what I was trying to do, but apparently the most successful or interesting results come when you get various textures and "happy accidents" using the lead white, neutral shadow colors and turpentine.

The first night we created a grisaille underpainting of a deer skull and bowls - the subject matter was mostly white/neutral colors.

The second night we created a grisaille underpainting of a colorful sunflowers/mangos still life.

The third night (this week) we practiced the glazing technique over the sunflowers grisaille painting (creating a thin "couch" layer of glazing medium, with thin layers of dry oil paint then scrumbled over areas of the painting and then rubbed out, and then successive thin layers of dry oil paint lain in, scrumbled and partially rubbed off). You can totally wipe out some glaze layers for hilights. The overlayment of color glazes are supposed to provide a luminosity to the paint. Then you can apply "impasto" paint as desired to finish off the painting.

I don't think I was that very successful with the glazing on this painting, since my underpainting seemed too dark and/or my glazes were applied too thickly. But I think I now have an idea of what to do with the next painting - at least we'll see if that is the case next week. Next week we create a grisaille underpainting from a live figure model. Should be fun and a different twist.

This is a challenge to learn a new technique while also trying to learn the special quirks of painting with oils. But just practicing using oils is helping me be more comfortable with the medium, which is what I wanted to accomplish after all.

I'll post our further progress in this class after our figure session next week!

SALSA 2010, Etc.

2010-07-12T23:43:00.010-05:00

Well, I entered a couple of my cow paintings into the SALSA 2010 exhibit at Space 301. SALSA is the South Alabama Survey of Artists exhibit - a new regional show of contemporary art. My "Sweet Home Cheese Farm Bull (Baldwin County Cow No. 1) was accepted and I delivered it to the gallery last Monday; and the opening reception was Friday during the 5th Anniversary LODA Artwalk. It was a steamy but wonderful night to celebrate the downtown Mobile Arts scene. My friend Kathy Friedline, her husband Mark, and I made the rounds. Festivities were all along Dauphin Street, from Cathedral Square Gallery on the upper end; to the Art Gowns Project at Mobile Arts Council, a colorful, abstract exhibit of works by Mark Davis, Wanda Sullivan and JoAnn Cox at The Paper Wasp, and the SALSA exhibit at Space 301 on the lower end; as well as several other gallery venues in between. Street musicians were everywhere, and I especially enjoyed the Bay City Brass group. Here are a few photos from Friday night.

Kathy took this photo of me by my bull painting.

The Bay City Brass Band in Cathedral Square.

Bertice McPherson with one of her sculptures - she won an Honorable Mention award in the show!

Jami Buck's beautiful abstract piece.

Lydia Host's interesting figurative sculpture.

Mary Elizabeth's wonderful collage with a Nancy Drew theme.

Saturday we had our Figure Group and a new model (Mason), who had a lengthy resume listing his professional modeling experience - he turned out to be a great model. After our drawing session, Mary Elizabeth invited the group to her place for a light gourmet lunch followed by yummy homemade ice cream.

On Sunday I woke to discover a photo of my cow painting was posted along with a few others in the local newspaper Arts Column coverage of the SALSA show - which was a nice surprise. My artwork has now been accepted into two recent regional shows (University of Mobile Juried Exhibition and the SALSA 2010), so maybe I can now be considered an emerging artist (?). I don't really care so much if I sell my art work or win any awards, but it does give me pleasure to have people recognize and appreciate my art.

Later Sunday, I attended a video on Miniature Art at the Mobile Museum of Art (sponsored by our Alabama Miniature Art Society as an educational outreach program); and then rushed on to the opening reception for my friends Janie Brown and Carolyn Greene. They are holding a joint exhibition at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer. They had a nice show and a good turnout at the reception. My friend Kathy Friedline and I are scheduled to show here together in October; and my friend Jami Buck will show there in August. This is turning out to be a fun place to show your artwork, even if it does not provide much public exposure. I'm including a photo from the reception. Carolyn and Janie in front of Janie's artwork.

Another busy art-filled weekend here in Mobile!

Winter to Summer, and Bayou Heartaches

2010-06-08T23:16:00.010-05:00

Last Saturday I picked up my painting at the Library as we were taking down the Mobile Art Association Spring Show. I promised to post a photo of my painting I entered into this show. This is an acrylic painting, 15 in. by 30 in., titled "Winter Grackles, St. Marks Wildlife Refuge". This is based on a photo I took in January when we spent a few days in Apalachicola, Florida and had a chance to visit the refuge. This is one of my favorite places along the coast, ever since I was in college at Florida State University. I used to visit the refuge in the fall and winter and look for gators sunbathing if it was a cool sunny day. This was a fun painting to finish using my palette knife for both water and marsh grasses, as well as putting lots of different colors and texture in the fence boards.

From winter to summer - today our Plein Air South group made a trip down to Bayou La Batre to try to paint some shrimp boats. Everyone has been so upset about the Deep Horizon oil spill in the Gulf and the fear that this could totally change the gulf coast way of life, especially for the shrimpers along the coast. Bayou La Batre is the seafood capital of Alabama, and the whole town is dependent in one way or another on the fishing industry in the Gulf. We found a shady spot along the bayou to paint a few boats, and then traveled down Shell Belt Road to the mouth of the bayou. All the shrimp boats were out in the sound working for BP - BP has hired local boat owners to assist with spotting the oil spill locations and skimming for oil in the open water areas. After lunch, Kathy Friedline and I went back to the Bayou and caught the shrimpboat flotilla returning to the Bayou city docks. We talked to some of the shrimpers, who said that they had observed the globs of moussey oil passing through the "Katrina Cut" in Dauphin Island and entering into Mississippi Sound. The skimmer boats were in route to try to collect the spill. It was heartbreaking to hear the local fishermen express their frustration that things had gotten so bad and their fears that they were losing their livelihood and way of life. It is also sad to think that this spill could ruin all the wonderful coastal areas along the coast, from the Louisiana Delta, to our barrier islands, the gulf fishing industry and all the way to the Apalachicola Bay.

Our Plein Air painting group under the shade.

Three of the Bosarge brothers on their boat in Bayou La Batre.

Workers unload some oiled booms.

View of shrimp boats in the bayou.

My little watercolor capturing a couple of boats in the upper bayou near the lift bridge.

Figures and Portraits

2010-05-24T16:55:00.004-05:00

The last few days have been quieter and I am enjoying it, and perhaps getting more back to normal. Saturday morning was my downtown figure drawing group, and we had Joni for our model - and most of us just love drawing Joni - she has such interesting features. We had a good sized turn-out for the group, which was the last meeting for the spring session and a planning session for what comes next. We decided to continue the group into the summer and to rotate responsibilities of who will pose/time the model and who will line up the model each session. It is nice to see everyone want to cooperate to keep a good thing going. I'm posting some drawings from this week - one from my Wednesday night figure drawing group and two from Saturday's session.

More playing around with color with my hard pastels!

This last one is an example of having to draw what you see, not what you think it should be. Her left leg was in an interesting fore-shortened position, so hopefully I've captured what looks like a leg and knee!

Later Saturday afternoon I went downtown to the Cathedral Square Gallery for the 4th Saturday Upper Dauphin Street Art Walk. My friend Satomi asked me to join her in doing portrait sketches during the art walk. Satomi and I sat in front of the gallery to sketch and were able to get our gallery intern to pose for us, in order to entice passersby to enter the gallery. Not sure how effective we were, but we'll try this again next time and maybe recruit some other of the gallery artists to participate with us. Unfortunately I did not get a photo of our portrait sketches (I gave both of mine to the intern). But I've noticed I've been a little more effective in capturing the faces of the figures I've been drawing lately, so I've been getting a little portraiture practice in my figure drawing sessions.

Watercolor and Graphic Arts Society Spring Juried Exhibition

2010-05-17T16:12:00.010-05:00

Last Friday, May 7th was the opening reception for the Watercolor and Graphic Arts Society of Mobile. Our Spring show is hanging at the Eastern Shore Art Center in Fairhope, and the opening reception was set during the First Friday Art Walk. This is a beautiful show which will hang until June 26th, so I hope you will have a chance to check it out. There will be a second art walk reception on June 4th. Our winning artists were:

Ann Chatel Memorial Best of Show Award: Allan Butt

Best Watercolor Media Award: Marie Nickerson

Best Graphic Arts Award: Benjamin Shamback

Bea Tucker Memorial Award: Lynda Touart

Southern Art and Framing Award: Martha Ann Rowan

Alabama Art Supply Award: Bill McCracken

Honorable Mention Awards: Judy Aronson and Frances Ashcraft

Members' Choice Award: Derald Eastman

Here's some photos taken during the reception.

Here is Allan Butt with his Best of Show watercolor.

Here are Marie Nickerson and Lynda Touart, two of our award winners.

That's me at the reception (finally able to relax)!

Judy Aronson beside her "Elephant Walk" watercolor.

Janie Brown with her beautiful watercolor. This was one of my favorites, because that is me in the painting. This watercolor was inspired by our plein air painting at Mobile Botanical Gardens a couple of weeks earlier.

Lynda Touart, Ainsley McNeely and Frances Ashcraft share their thoughts on the show.

Carolyn Greene and Denise Inge.

Satomi Kamei and Ainsley McNeely.

It was alot of work putting together this show, but I had some great help and support from the other committee members as well as the folks at the Eastern Shore Art Center. Also, I had the opportunity to meet Cathy Hegman, our juror/judge. She is a wonderful artist and did a great job judging for us. We included her comments on the winning pieces as part of the reception and awards presentations.

What I Love About the Mobile Arts Scene!

2010-05-17T14:53:00.018-05:00

What I love about the Mobile Arts Scene is that it is so rich with so many art events going on that sometimes it is just too much to be able to cover it all!

I was too exhausted after the WGAS show reception and recovering from laryngitis that I was not able to make it see the play "Artbruted" which was shown at Space 301 over the weekend of May 8th. I regret having missed this play, but hopefully they will redo it one day and I will be able to see it then.

Wednesday evening I made it back to my Wednesday Figure Drawing Group. At the same time as our drawing session, Space 301 was having their weekly "happy hour" called Sippin' at the Space. I practiced figure drawing this time with some hard pastels, which I have never used before. They were fun, and somehow using them for color loosened my drawing up quite a bit. It's good to be able to experiment. Here are two of my pastel drawings from last week:

Then Friday May 14th was the Second Friday LODA Artwalk in downtown Mobile. I had worked all morning until 1:30 p.m. at the Mobile Botanical Gardens Marketplace, and got home and spent just about enough time for rest and a shower before getting dressed and driving down for the LODA artwalk. There were several great exhibits downtown. I especially enjoyed the Space 301 figurative exhibit titled "Intimate Interiors". This includes a husband and wife who live in Italy and do large classical oil painting of figures in both mysterious and mundane poses, and most of them look like self portraits or portraits of each other. Completing the familial exhibit are offbeat photos by and of their two sons. Very interesting presentations. Also checked out the Paper Wasp and Mobile Arts Council exhibits (especially enjoyed the Dr. Henri Rathle oil paintings of Mobile and New Orleans scenes). I finally made it down to the Cathedral Square Gallery around 7:30 p.m. It is a good thing I did, because there was a charming couple there who wanted to meet me because they were interested in buy a couple of my paintings at the gallery! We talked for a little while, and I learned that they are also fans of Mary Elizabeth Kimbrough. I sold them both my "Hitchhikers on the Dauphin Island Ferry" (see blog posting for Dec 5th, 2009) and my plein air painting "Dodd and Dodd Nursery" (see blog posting for Dec 7th, 2008). The purchaser said that he had grown up in the nursery business and the painting made him feel nostalgic. That made me think that you should always paint what touches you, rather than what you think will sell, because you never know when your artwork will also touch someone else in a special way.

Saturday was the 3rd Mobile Sketchcrawl from 10 a.m. 'til 2:00 p.m. at the Oakleigh House and museum. Kathy Friedline, Gail Bramer and I showed up for some fun sketching. Here are my two sketches. Thanks to the Mobile Arts Council for sponsoring the sketchcrawl events and posting the sketches online. This is a worldwide event, and groups all over the world meet to sketch at the same time and you can view the other sketches as well.

This is a gazebo in the side yard beside the Oakleigh mansion. I had fun trying to capture the lattice-work and the rotting fence slats, as well as the stately oak limb draping overhead.

These two lovely belles were our hosts guiding us through the house. They were so good to pose for me in front of the mantle in the master bedroom upstairs. Note the bed-warming pan by the coal-fired fireplace.

Then we had our monthly Mama Lisas meeting to paint together at Janie Brown's house for the rest of Saturday afternoon. The Mamas are scheduled to have a joint show at the Mobile Arts Council in May 2011, so we were excited about that prospect and beginning to make plans for that show. I hope we can all have some new artwork to display by then.

Sunday (yesterday) I had a Mobile Art Association meeting at the Mobile Museum of Art, but also wanted to attend my friend Lydia Host's reception for an exhibition of her artwork at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer. I was able to do both since their times overlapped a bit. Lydia's reception was lovely and the church had a statement hanging at the entry of the hallway defining their commitment to an arts ministry, which was very special. There were several other artists at the reception and the coordinator at the church lined up several of us to exhibit in their space between now and the end of the year. My friends Janie Brown and Carolyn Greene will exhibit in July; Jami Buck will exhibit in August; and Kathy Friedline and I will exhibit together in October.

To complete the busy weekend and start the new week, I drove out to the University of Mobile campus this afternoon to pick up and bring home my Anabel cow painting along with Kathy Friedline's artwork. The last day for that exhibit was last Friday.

Life is Good!

Watercolors and Grandbabies

2010-05-02T10:57:00.003-05:00

This has been a busy past week or so. Last Saturday I turned in an acrylic painting I completed for the Mobile Art Association Spring Exhibition, which is hanging at the Mobile West Regional Library. I forgot to take a photo of this painting before I turned it in, but hope to take one at the library sometime this upcoming week. Later Saturday night I worked at Cathedral Square Gallery for Fourth Saturday artwalk, which mostly got rained out due to severe thunderstorm warnings - but we still sold a good bit of artwork to the few patrons who braved the weather. Wednesday night the grandbabies arrived for several days visit. That has been fun so far and they are here until Tuesday morning. I also have been trying to pull together last minute preps for the upcoming Watercolor and Graphic Arts Spring Exhibition (for which I'm the designated chairperson), and we spent yesterday taking in artwork for the show at the Eastern Shore Art Center. Quite hectic yesterday, but that is because we had lots of wonderful artwork submitted - which is good! The judge will arrive for jurying and judging on Tuesday and the show will hang on Wednesday - with the opening reception on Friday during the First Friday Art Walk. Here is a little watercolor I entered into this show - which I pretty much started during last month's Mama Lisa session. I'm not sure if it will make it through the jurying process, but I've wanted to paint this family for quite a while - based on a snapshot I took through the window on our train trip between Chicago and Grand Junction, Colorado. Approximately 10" x 13" image, titled: Waiting at the Depot (Somewhere in Western Illinois). I think this is pretty much a study, and I might try a larger similar painting sometime in future.

University of Mobile Juried Exhibition

2010-04-18T23:00:00.006-05:00

Today was the opening reception for the University of Mobile Juried Exhibition. This used to be the "Art with a Southern Drawl" exhibition, but they dropped that name around three years ago. It is still a regional juried exhibition, with artists from Virginia to Texas invited to submit their work for consideration. I was very honored to have my divine bovine painting, "Anabel (Nova Scotia Cow No. 2)" accepted into the show. Three of my artist friends were also accepted into the show and I've included photos of us with our artwork below. This show will hang until May 14th, so go on and check it out if you get a chance.

Me with Anabel. She looks huge on my dining room wall but not so big in this large atrium. (photo by Kathy Friedline)

Kathy Friedline with her little frog "Visitor".

Conroy Hudlow with his "Navel Oranges".

Ardith Goodwin with her charming collage, "Miss Charlotte Goes Shopping". (photo by Kathy Friedline)

Mary Elizabeth Kimbrough came out to wish us well. (photo by Kathy Friedline)

Spring in Mobile

2010-04-17T23:16:00.005-05:00

The past couple of weeks in Mobile have been extremely springlike and beautiful. We have finally been getting out for some plein air painting. A week ago Friday, my friend Jami and I drove to Baldwin County for the Weeks Bay Plant Sale (to see our friend Thayer who is a master gardener and runs the Dodd and Dodd nursery), and took the opportunity to do some plein air painting along the Fish River near Weeks Bay. Here's a photo of me painting (still tweaking on this painting).

Then Thursday morning this week, our Plein Air South group convened at the Mobile Botanical Gardens. We had 8 or 9 of us show up and the weather was just perfect. Most folks were focusing on the beautiful blooming azaleas, but this striking red maple in the rhododendron garden caught my eye. This is pretty much abstracted impressionist style - you really have to stand back to appreciate this small oil painting. I mostly used my palette knife. It is a little crude, but I kind of like it due to the combination of colors - the red maple and the golden orange native azalea blooms in the background.

And this morning we had our Saturday Figure Group session down at Space 301. We had Hannah again, and she is now about 8 months pregnant. She was fun to paint, and this also seems a spring-like subject (signs of new birth and all that). I picked out these sketches to share because they seemed to show some progress in me trying to figure out how to use the watercolor to capture the skin tones and shadows, and they were fun to do.

This was a fun conte pencil sketch!

I have my Anabel cow painting in the University of Mobile Juried Exhibition and the reception is tomorrow (Sunday afternoon). I'm hoping to be able to make it over there for the reception, but I also have to make it to the Watercolor and Graphic Arts Society meeting to discuss the upcoming Spring show. After the WGAS show, I'm hoping to slow down and not be so over-commited - so I'll have more time to paint. I feel like I'm spending too much time on the administration of art rather than art-making. We'll see how that goes.

Where did the month of March go?

2010-04-02T12:33:00.006-05:00

I decided I was overdue for a blog entry and just realized I missed the entire month of March! I think I unconciously took a spring break and decided to slow down for a few weeks. But I do have a few things to report.

I sold my "River Shack" plein air painting on March 22 to someone who lives on Dog River and whose house location was in the background of the painting. You just never know! The interesting thing is that I had painted this scene almost exactly one year ago last spring. I put in the Cathedral Square gallery last summer, and it had hung there since. My husband and I went to the River Shack to celebrate over lunch.

I entered my "McNally Park Regulars" watercolor into the Eastern Shore members juried exhibition and it hung through the month of March. Just went over to retrieve it earlier this week.

I also took an evening "paint-party workshop" from Lydia Host on March 18th and most of us painted sunflower still-lifes, practicing with a venetian red underpainting - and trying to keep it loose and fresh. It was a fun evening. Here is my completed sunflowers which I called "Put Your Best Face Forward!" (8"x10", acrylic on canvas). It is now framed and at the Cathedral Square Gallery.

I did get out a couple of times to do some plein air painting - once at the Environmental Center with Judy Aronson, and once at McNally Park with my friend Jami Buck. Here is the finished "Spring's First Bloom" (8"x10", oil on panel) adjacent to the lake at the Environmental Center. I'm still working on the McNally Park creek painting, and will post it once I finish the tweaking.

And I learned that my cow painting "Anabel: Nova Scotia Cow No. 2" was accepted into the University of Mobile juried exhibition - I'll deliver it later this month.

Now hopefully I'll have time and inspiration for some painting in April!

New Figures

2010-02-22T22:42:00.004-06:00

I've been experimenting lately with various watercolor hues in my figure drawing sessions. I'm struggling with how to create shadow and light in the skin tones, and most of the time I'm rushed to complete the watercolor sketch in the time allotted. I've been using light pencil sketch to capture the pose, and then filling in with the watercolor washes. Here are a few of the recent attempts. I'm using mostly quinaquidone gold, cerulean blue and cadmium red, and occasionally ultramarine blue and alizarine crimson. I'm hoping to eventually get more comfortable with color, but I think these experiments are at least making me paint a little looser, and hopefully I will soon learn better how to use color for flesh tones and shadow.

I like the stronger colors in these first two, but maybe it's just that they relate better to the background colors.

These next two seem to have grasped the light and shadow contrasts, but the colors are too washed out.

These last two seem to be my "blue nudes". I think if I had more time I would have tried a golden wash over all to see if it would have moderated the blue hues somewhat.

Figures in February at Wellborn Ideas, Etc.

2010-02-20T20:58:00.009-06:00

February has been a big month for art this year. On February 8th I delivered my charcoal drawing ("Life Drawing Class") to Wellborn Ideas (downtown on Dauphin Street) for a Figure Show they are holding this month. My friends Jami Buck and Conroy Hudlow also had figure paintings that were accepted into this show. I went downtown for the opening reception during the LODA artwalk on Feb 12th - but crowds were sparse that night due to snow (!) here in Mobile and a couple of competing Mardi Gras parades through downtown. I went back last week with my camera and was able to get a few photos. This show will hang until March 8th, and they are open during weekday working hours if you want to check it out. Others in our figure drawing group (past and present) that also have pieces in this show include Devlin Wilson, Kimberly Krause-Jones and Sharon Jones (no relation).

Here is a view of several of the art pieces as you enter Welborn Ideas. My drawing is the first on the right. I almost forgot to mention - I entered this figure drawing into the Eastern Shore Art Center along with my "Blossom" cow painting, and both of those hung there for the month of December. The "Best of Show" was the large colorful abstract figure in the center of the photo.

Conroy's painting is above on the right.

Jami's painting is above on the right ("Hot Flash").

Kimberly's triptych figure in primary colors is above; and Sharon's figure sketch of the young couple from a recent figure drawing session is below. My photo of Devlin's piece did not turn out, but I think I recognized the model as "Dawn" from our earlier sessions.

I forgot to mention on my blog earlier, but I entered this same charcoal figure drawing ("Life Drawing Class") and my "Blossom" cow painting in the recent Eastern Shore Art Center Members Show and both hung for the month of December.

And the other BIG news is that I sold my "Yard Sale Tractor" painting earlier this month to a nice lady in New Orleans. She had seen it at the Cathedral Square Gallery, but I was out of town that day, and she wanted a quote for shipping it to New Orleans. I mailed it to her on Feb 2nd. I had lots of comments from fellow artists and tractor lovers on that painting, which she said will grace her son's bedroom. I hope they enjoy it as much as I enjoyed painting it.

Art with a Heart for Austin Elementary Art Program

2010-02-20T20:49:00.003-06:00

Last month I was asked by Jan Horton, who teaches art classes at Austin Elementary, if I would be willing to donate a painting for a fundraiser they had on Feb 11th. The purpose was to raise funds to support the art program at the elementary school, and donated pieces would be sold at a silent auction at the Mobile Botanical Gardens. Here is a fun painting I did to donate to the silent auction. I wasn't able to attend (this was the night of winter storm warnings and miserable weather here in the "sunny south"), so I hope it sold. This is called "Big Catch" (acrylic on canvas, 12" x 24"), and is based on a snapsnot I took of the egret at Scott's Landing one day when we were plein air painting. The bird is a successful fisher, but I think this fish was taken from the bait bucket and given to the bird by the marina manager.

Spanish Moss Miniature Art Show Opening Reception

2010-02-20T18:23:00.010-06:00

Hello again! It's been awhile so I have some catching up to do. The Spanish Moss Miniature Art Show was a success! We had 78 pieces of art, a majority from expert miniature artists from all over the United States, and some very beautiful and amazing artwork. There was a wonderful article in the arts section of the Mobile Press newspaper, as well. I learned that I am definitely not a miniature artist - true miniature art is intricately detailed and minute, smooth surface, etc. But I may be inspired to one day become a miniature artist after seeing some of the beautiful work in this show!

Here are some photos taken during the judging and during the reception, which was held on February 5th. The show will hang until Feb 28th, so there is still time to check it out!

Here is Ben Shamback of Univ of South Alabama judging the artwork.

Mary Rodning with two of her sumi-e inks in the black frames.

Kathy Friedline and me in front of display that includes our artwork. Hers is in upper left, my three are on left and right (llamas, cow and goat).

Frances Ashcraft (show chairperson) and the staff of Southern Art and Framing who hosted the show at their gallery.

Spanish Moss Miniature Art Show

2010-01-31T19:31:00.003-06:00

Yesterday I helped our newly formed Alabama Miniature Art Society take in artwork for the Second Annual Spanish Moss Miniature Art Show, which will hang Feb 5-28 at the Southern Art and Framing Gallery here in Mobile. The reception and awards presentation will be this Friday, February 5th, 4:30 - 6:30 p.m. Come on out and check out the miniature art!

I don't think of myself as a painter of miniature art, but I had entered a small pen and ink in the previous Spanish Moss show which was accepted, and therefore became eligible to participate as a member of AMAS. There really are specific criteria for judging miniature art. The AMAS group will be educating local artists (including myself) and the public on criteria and procedures for miniature art production and shows. The first Spanish Moss show allowed any art of size 8x10 or smaller. This year the show limits artwork to 25 square inches (e.g., 5 in. x 5 in.), so we are gradually bringing our rules to conform with other miniature art societies. I entered three pieces, all 5 in. x 5 in. acrylic on panel. They include my "Mini Cow", "Petting Zoo Goat", and the recently completed "Petting Zoo Llamas" shown below. These probably are not true miniature art, but they were fun and relatively quick to paint.

Infinite Possibilities. . . . Memorium

2010-01-17T22:09:00.003-06:00

This was a bitter-sweet week for me. I received very sad and tragic news regarding the loss of two young friends: a former co-worker who died suddenly and unexpectably from an infection, and a young promising artist and new friend who showed promise. Both were shining stars with bright futures. Joseph Mwanzia had entered his artwork in our Art of Reading Show (the first art show he'd ever entered) and won one of the library purchase awards. He was born in Kenya and had come to the U.S. only a few years ago to further his education. Kathy Friedline and I got to meet Joseph during the reading show, and encouraged him to join the Mobile Art Association, where he met many new friends. Here is a photo of Joseph and his girlfriend in front of his winning artwork, titled "Infinite Possibilities". It makes me sad to think of Joseph and Maria, their lives cut so short when they both had infinite possibilities before them. We will miss them both.

Duo Show at Michael's Downtown Cafe

2010-01-17T21:39:00.003-06:00

My friend Mary Elizabeth Kimbrough asked Jami Buck and me if we would be willing to place some of our art at Michael's Downtown Cafe, and we of course jumped at the chance. This is a small restaurant, but Michael has a great reputation with foodies in the Mobile area. Mary Elizabeth and Lydia Host had a duo show here several months ago. I hung three of my cow paintings, and Jami included several colorful abstract paintings. Several of us are planning to have lunch there this week for a viewing party. You should check it out if you get a chance, and enjoy a wonderful lunch at Michael's. I think our colorful artwork really brightens up the small space inside. Here I am hanging the artwork last Wednesday. And here is Jami with her large abstract with the fiery colors.

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

2009-12-12T23:57:00.003-06:00

It rained last night and all day today. My rain gauge shows 4.75 inches so far just today and the rain is still pouring! Yesterday morning we met for plein air painting at Stephanie Morris' place in Belle Fontaine, but it was so cold, damp and windy that we ended up painting inside looking out. Last night I spent some time at the Cathedral Square Gallery for the December LODA artwalk before heading to a Christmas party with my former office friends. Then today was my work day at the gallery. I promised to post the other mini painting I completed which is hanging at the gallery. This is a goat I photographed at the Baldwin County fair a couple of years ago. This is 5 in. x 5 in. acrylic on panel board. I sketched some Llamas for another mini painting while in the gallery and hope to finish painting it in the next couple of days. These are fun because they are fast to paint. Hope you all are staying dry!

Mini Art????

2009-12-10T23:19:00.003-06:00

This month the theme for Cathedral Square Gallery is miniature art. Also, the Spanish Moss Miniature Art Show is scheduled for February. I decided to practice painting in miniature to get ready for the upcoming show. I was pleasantly surprised that it was not as difficult to paint small as I had feared it would be. It was actually fun to be able to complete a painting in a day's time. I also really liked painting on the Ampersand panel board - seemed smoother than canvas, but there is still a little texture and a gessoed surface - more conducive to finer detail. Here is a five by five inch panel in acrylic. I called this "Mini Cow". I have a second one I'll post tomorrow. These will both be at Cathedral Square Gallery tomorrow for the LODA artwalk.

One Down and Another to Go...

2009-12-05T21:16:00.005-06:00

Today Kathy Friedline, Phyllis Jeffery and I took down the Art of Reading exhibit at the West Regional Library. This was a great show, had alot of support from the community, and with help of the Friends of the Library added several beautiful pieces of artwork to the Library's collection for display in the various library branches. It was really sad to see that wonderful show come down and expose the empty walls of the library. But at the same time we were taking the artwork down, Bill Morris' group was taking in artwork for the next show - the Bird Show! This show should be hung by Monday. Kathy and I both had artwork to enter into the Bird show. Kathy had a wonderful ceramic tile painted and glazed with a pelican raku style; and a photo of the one-legged seagull that hangs out at the River Shack on Dog River. I did an acrylic on canvas painting of a group of seagulls: "Hitchhikers on the Dauphin Island Ferry". Looks like it will be a good show with lots of variety of birds. Should be up for December and January, I believe.

I'm working on a few "miniature" paintings to place in the Cathedral Square Gallery this month - shooting to complete them by the LODA Art Walk next Friday. They are mostly based on a menagerie of farm-type animals I saw at the Baldwin County Fair in Robertsdale. I'll post some of those when I finish. Meanwhile, here are the Seagull hitchhikers.

Plein Air at Scott's Landing

2009-11-24T18:13:00.009-06:00

We had five folks participate in our Plein Air South group this past Friday at Scott's Landing (Jami Buck, Conroy Hudlow, Loren Chavez, Stephanie Morris and myself). It was a beautiful day and we were visited near the end of our session by the "pet" egret. Here are a couple of photos of our group and my attempt to capture the bait shop. The trees in the background were a beautiful fall palette. It was a beautiful day and we were visited near the end of our session by the "pet" egret.

Loren, Stephanie, Conroy and Jami at work, with onlooker nearby.

Conroy and Loren at work.

Here is Stephanie with her lovely painting of the marsh and the Tensaw River.

I've been trying to simplify my compositions and paint more loosely in oil. I'm getting there, but still could play with more and thicker application of paint. This one needs some more work back in the studio.

Jami has some really beautiful photos of this egret on her blog site. I have a photo from last summer of the same egret, and have been trying to finish a "portrait" painting of it - but am not quite satisfied yet with it. I'm also starting another "bird" painting with a group of laughing gulls from a photo I took last fall on the Dauphin Island Ferry. Both of these are due December 5th for a bird show that Bill Morris is curating. I'll post these once they are completed.

Mama Lisas, Figure Group, Plein Air and Mobile Art Association

2009-11-15T22:58:00.007-06:00

Today I was one of two artist presenters at the monthly Mobile Art Association. My topic was "Evolution from Government Biologist to Artist - A Work in Progress". I outlined my efforts to prepare for the transition from a career biologist to being able to pursue my art activities full time. as well as the various activities I've been participating in. I've received much support from MAA and from my Mama Lisas painting friends. There really is a lot of opportunity in the Mobile arts community and I have found the artists to be very supportive of fellow artists in the community. Joseph Mwanzia was the other presenter. We all enjoyed his story of how he came to Mobile from Kenya, and how he was able to rekindle his interest in art. He is one of the winners of a purcase prize from the Art of Reading Show, which was his first show in Mobile.

I returned last Friday from a 10-day road trip to Colorado to visit the grand-babies, and we took a slight detour on the way back through New Mexico, passing very near Abiuqui where Georgia O'Keefe lived and painted in her later years. It was absolutely beautiful there! When we returned I checked out the Mama Lisas exhibit at the Barnes & Noble "La Galerie du Loo" (formerly the Bathroom Hall Gallery). My Yard Sale Tractor and Old Barn at Kaiser Farm paintings are hanging there. We will hang there during November and December. Thanks to Kathy Friedline for arranging for this and getting my artwork there while I was out of town!

Thursday night I attended the Figure Group at Space 301. We were discussing the possibility of starting a Figure Group session on alternating Saturdays (similar to a setup at Eastern Shore Art Center in Fairhope). Cindy at Space 301 was very supportive of this activity. The artists in the group plan to rent the 301 facility and hire a model for the session(s); at a cost of $15 per session for each participating artist. We plan to start the Saturday sessions on Dec 5th and continue into the new year.

And on Friday, we started back up with our plein air painting. Three of us met at the Beachcomber Boatyard. There were numerous sailboats, shrimpboats and boatyard scenes, but I was somehow taken by a small skiff in the boatyard with the marsh in the background. Here is the scene with my small painting in the foreground. I was inspired by S.P. Goodman's website - he had lots of small very simplified plein air painting - just the suggestion of shapes with swabs of color. That was my inspiration anyway. It was a bit "freeing" to just quickly sketch the scene instead of trying to methodically capture all the details. We'll see if it carries over into next week's painting efforts.

More Catching Up To Do

2009-10-18T20:52:00.005-05:00

I have some more catching up to do. On October 8th we had the opening reception for The Art of Reading Show. Due to the generosity of the Friends of the Mobile Public Library we were able to grant 4 Purchase Awards for this show (Lindy Hawthorne, Karen McGahagiin, Joseph Mwanzia, and Jan Horton), as well as five Honorary Merit Awards (Billie Goodloe, Jaime Lee, Fran Newmann, Ardith Goodwin, Benita McNider). I noticed today that the Mobile Register posted the winners of the awards in the Sunday's arts section, which is really a good thing. Kathy Friedline, Phyllis Jeffery and I really enjoyed working on this show, and have received many positive comments on the quality of the show. So I hope you will be able to check it out. Kathy and I disqualified ourselves for consideration for any of the awards. But here are photos of each of us with our artwork.

On October 9th, we had the opening reception for the Mobile Art Association show at the Mobile Arts Council downtown, which was during the LODA Artwalk (I entered my tractor painting into this show). I also worked the counter at the Cathedral Square Gallery during artwalk, but was able to spend a little time at both venues.

On October 7th I participated with my last session of the Downtown Figure Group - we just have not had enough participants this fall to keep it going and to be able to pay the models. So on Saturday,October 10th, I drove to Fairhope with my friend Conroy to check out the Fairhope figure group at Eastern Shore Art Center. It was a great experience, very down to the business of figure drawing with a good group of artists and a good model. This group is moderated by Ron Thompson. We are hoping we can sustain a similar group in Mobile. Here is one of my drawings from the downtown group and a couple of drawings from the Fairhope group.

I also found out last week that I was accepted into the Watercolor and Graphic Arts Society!

I have started a bird painting, hopefully for the bird show being coordinated by Bill Morris for December. I have a couple of other ideas for bird paintings that I hope to be able to complete by then. Hopefully will be able to show you progress on these paintings before too long.

Then today I attended the Mobile Art Association monthly meeting. Had two interesting presentations by Jeff Knighton (on home-made scratchboard techniqued), and by the Yamato(?) Magnolias (Yuko, Satomi and Kaoru) on their collaboration for an upcoming show at the Mobile Arts Council blending Japanese and Southern cultures in their artwork.

Fall seems to be a busy time of year for the arts...

The Art of Reading Exhibition - Reception Tonight!

2009-10-08T00:29:00.002-05:00

I've been working with my friend Kathy Friedline and Phyllis Jeffery of the Mobile Public Library over the past few months to put together an exhibition of artwork celebrating the love of books and reading. We took in artwork for the show this weekend and hung the show on Monday. It will hang at the West Regional Branch Library through December 4th. It is really a beautiful show, and you can tell how much books and reading means to so many of us by viewing the artwork and watching the reactions of the library patrons as they view the artwork. The reception and awards presentations are tonight (Thursday). We are using entry fee money to assist the Library in purchasing artwork to hang in the library brances; and the Friends of the Mobile Public Library have also donated several hundred dollars to assist in building a permanent collection of art for the library system. Here is a copy of the exhibition Announcement and Invitation to the Reception. It is open to the public, so hope to see you there!

Some Catching Up to Do

2009-10-07T23:46:00.006-05:00

I just got back from a 2 1/2 week roadtrip - we drove up to Massachusetts and stopped several places in route to visit with family and friends. While I was gone, my friend Kathy Friedline picked up my artwork from the Shared Expressions show at the Mobile Museum of Art (Thanks, Kathy!). Here is a photo of the finished painting (earlier photo was posted of the incomplete underpainting). I call this Baldwin County Cow No. 2. This was a really pretty cow we discovered last fall when driving through Baldwin County looking for some plein air painting sites. This is acrylic on canvas (30-in. x 40-in.)

I got back just in time to help pull together the last minute plans for The Art of Reading exhibit at the West Regional Branch Library, and spent Friday and Saturday accepting artwork for the show. I had to frame my painting for the Reading show and varnish another painting I had just finished for entry in the Mobile Art Association at the Mobile Arts Council downtown. Both were due Saturday but at opposite sides of town - and I had to be at the libary all day Saturday. Fortunately my friend Karen McGahagin agreed to deliver the painting for the downtown show for me (Thanks Karen!). Judging and inventorying all the submitted work for the Reading show was completed on Saturday, and then hanging the selected artwork on Monday this week. I then worked Tuesday at Cathedral Square Gallery. And showed up for Downtown Figure Group session tonight. Then tomorrow is the opening reception for the Art of Reading Show. And then LODA Artwalk and staffing of the counter at Cathedral Square Gallery on Friday evening. Phew!

Here is the Watercolor/acrylic painting I submitted for The Reading Show. This is called "One, Two, Three . . ." and is watercolor/acrylic on paper. This is son-in-law Christian reading to grandbaby Priya. She loves reading books!

Here also is the painting I entered into the Mobile Art Association Fall Juried Exhibition. This is acrylic on canvas, 16-in x 20-in. I call this "Yard Sale Tractor". Someone had placed this old, beat-up tractor by the street with a For Sale sign on it. It kind of looks like Fall to me. Hopefully it will cool down soon and start feeling like fall again around here.

Washington Square Oak - finally complete!

2009-09-04T20:47:00.004-05:00

Earlier this summer our plein air group met in Washington Square for some painting - we especially picked this site because it was shady and thus cool enough to continue our painting sessions into the heat of summer. I painting the large sprawling oak in the square, and pretty much finished it on site, but there was still some "tweaking" to do. My friend Jami had expressed an interest in the painting "as is", but in my usual manner I continued to tweak it to the point she was despairing of some of the "fine-tuning" I had done. Today we met for a raining afternoon exercise in finishing up several paintings from our plein air sessions. I was able to make a few adjustments and finish this painting - under the watchful eyes of Jami. She purchased this at the end of the session - so I have now declared this one completed! Here is the final version. An earlier version is included here in my posting on June 8th. Relatively subtle changes, but it is better now.

Watercolor and Graphic Arts Society Show

2009-08-30T20:15:00.004-05:00

My good friend Janie Brown asked me a few months ago if I would be interested in joining the Watercolor and Graphics Arts Society. Of course, I was interested. You have to be nominated as a prospective member and submit two watercolor paintings for consideration by the society members during their Fall show. I decided to enter my "Life Is Good" watercolor, and then just finished this other watercolor a few weeks ago for my second submittal. This is a fellow I often see riding his bicycle to McNally Park, with his Shitszu riding in the back basket. Last fall, several of us were doing some plein air painting at McNally Park and this fellow rode up to observe what we were up to. My friend Jami Buck took some photos, and agreed to share them with me so I could do this watercolor. I call this "McNally Park Regulars". It is framed 24" x 18" (image approximately 18" x 12"). The two watercolors will be hanging in the WGAS show at West Regional Library beginning Monday, August 31, and through the month of September. Looks like it will be a really good show, so go check it out. The public reception and awards are on Thursday night, September 3, 6pm-8pm. At the end of the month, the prospective members find out if they were accepted into the society or not.

I Spy - Through a Child's Eye

2009-08-18T17:13:00.005-05:00

The Cathedral Square Gallery theme for August is "Through a Child's Eye". I did this quick watercolor sketch, with acrylic background, based on a photo of grandchild Silas. I loved the sideways glance and called this "I Spy...". I hung this watercolor along with the "Priya Loves Cherries" at my space at CSG, as examples of children's portraits I'd be willing to do. We'll see if there is any interest. I'm having fun with the watercolor because it is so quick. I seem to be so much more methodical and slow doing the acrylics and still trying to become more facile with oils, so right now watercolor is my "happy" medium.

Priya Loves Cherries

2009-07-27T19:36:00.003-05:00

During my Mama Lisas group painting day on Saturday I started a portrait of our grandbaby Priya who just turned 2 years old last month. This is supposed to be a companion piece to the recently completed Life Is Good portrait of her brother Silas on his 2nd birthday (he'll be 4 years old in November). Priya is wearing her sweatshirt with cherries on it, and spent this summer selling fresh cherries in her wagon in the park in Lake City, Colorado. Priya has the rosiest cheeks, and I wanted to capture their "russety" color. And I especially like the rasberry/fuschia color of the background. I may have over-worked this a little, but could not help myself from fiddling to make sure the likeness was more true. . .and still there are a couple places I might adjust before I frame this. This is watercolor and acrylic on paper (watercolor for portrait and acrylic only for background). The newest grandbaby Levi now needs a portrait and I'm debating whether to do one soon or wait for his 2nd birthday. . .

Figures, Figures... and hopefully more to come...

2009-07-25T23:00:00.004-05:00

We did not have plein air painting this week, but I did make it to both Figure Group on Wednesday and Figure Drawing Class with Ben Shamback on Thursday. We had one of my favorite models for Figure Group - she has such an expressive face and has done great holding a pose. Here's my attempt to use watercolor and also apply some of the principles I've picked up in the Figure Drawing Class I'm also taking. We had pretty good turnout and hopefully will get enough artists to show up for the next couple of sessions before we disband for the rest of the summer. We are trying to figure out how to continue Figure Group into the fall and to determine where we will meet. More to come, I hope.

Thursday was our last session for the Figure Drawing Class. I've truly enjoyed this class and it has been a great refresher on drawing the figure: we've addressed contours, gestures, core vs. cast shadows, planes, etc. Although I missed the session last week, this week and last consisted of drawing one pose for the entire 3-hour class. Here is my attempt to apply all the principles we learned these past few weeks, plus Ben advised me to "lay in some of the background" to provide a reference value for the shadows and highlights on the figure - I kind of got carried away doing that. But it is amazing how many adjustments and improvements you can make over a 3-hour period. I think I'm about done with this one and am pleased with how it came out - only a few tweaks needed... This is charcoal (jumbo vine) on drawing paper.

Today I hosted my Mama Lisa painting group at my house. We had 10 of us participating in our monthly painting session and it was great fun. I started another watercolor portrait of grandbaby No.2 - I'll post when it is finished. It will be a companion piece to "Life is Good".

Boats and Figures and Art Walk

2009-07-12T22:14:00.005-05:00

Had a fairly busy week last week. Tuesday we had our monthly membership meeting at Cathedral Square Gallery, and I took two figure drawings downtown to hang in my space (Seated Madonna and Reclining Madonna, which I had previously hung at Chez Giselle). On Wednesday morning our plein air group met again at Scott's Landing. Here is the Live Bait boat I painted on site with oil on canvas (8"x10"), along with a photo of the scene I was painting. This is not finished yet, but I did get pretty far along - probably will just adjust the highlights and shadows and add a few other touch-ups. Trying to keep it simple this time.

Wednesday night I drove downtown for Figure Group, but our model did not show up this week (Bummer!). We did have a group discussion about the need for more participation and ways to get the word out to recruit more members into the group so we can continue to pay for models and rent for our space at Space 301. So any of you out there that haven't been coming or have always wanted to draw the figure from life, come on down on Wednesday nights! It's a wonderful opportunity to practice your drawing skills, and a very affordable way to provide for a model on a regular basis. You really can't beat it!

On Thursday I took my Silas watercolor portrait to Southern Art and Frame shop for framing. And we did have our Figure Drawing class with Ben Shamback on Thursday night. This week we focused on drawing planes to define the shapes of the figure, and shading the figure based on the planes. Ben brought a great book about a British artist (Eane Uglow) who is expert at using planes to define the forms of the figure. Here are a couple of my drawings attempting this exercise.

Then on Friday night I manned my space for my first Art Walk since joining the Cathedral Square Gallery. I did not sell anything, but we had a good crowd and I enjoyed talking to the visitors to the gallery. A few folks were interested in the dog and chicken painting (Vision Outside Fellini's) and asked whether I did pet portraits - which is something I would truly love to do.

Latest Figures...

2009-07-06T22:26:00.004-05:00

Since my last posting, I've been plein air painting at a friend's house on Dog River and at the Blue Gill Restaurant on the causeway, and attended two sessions of figure group and two figure drawing classes with Ben Shamback. I haven't completed the plein air paintings to my satisfaction yet so will post them later. But here are a few of my latest drawings from the figure drawing class. The male figure from 2 weeks ago was concentrating on depicting "overlapping masses"; and the female figures were from last week's class when we were beginning to experiment with shading of core shadows vs. cast shadows. I like my last drawing since I seemed to have employed both the overlapping masses and shading in this one. (I also liked our model's new haircut.) Still trying to get the knack of it. My fellow classmate, Conroy Hudlow, did quite well with the "shadowing" technique - you can check his drawings out on his blog. We are loving this class!

Life is Good!

2009-06-23T22:41:00.005-05:00

On Saturday, my Mama Lisas painting group met at Claire Noojin's home for some companionship painting. Mamas who participated included Claire, Jami Buck, Kay Rodriguez, Gail Bramer, Kathy Friedline, and myself. I brought a couple of snapshots of the grandkids and decided to start a small watercolor portrait of Silas, the oldest. He will be 4 years old in November and the photo I picked out to paint was from his 2-year birthday (I think). I loved the pouting expression on his face, in conjunction with the logo on his hat: "Life is Good". And so it is. This is approximately 9 in. x 10 in., watercolor and acrylic on paper. It was a good feeling to be able to finish this portrait in just a couple of sittings. I am now inspired to do a few more quick watercolors.

Another Hot Day of Plein Air Painting

2009-06-22T20:48:00.004-05:00

Today was another scorcher! We had planned to meet this morning at Scott's Landing since it has a couple of shade trees and a covered gazebo next to the water. This turned out to be a good site for the weather. There was actually a comfortable breeze while we sat in the shade. The temp was at least 97 degrees with a heat index of over 100. But we were quite comfortable until about noon, and then the breeze slowed up and it began to feel HOT! Our plein air group started to meet last September, and Scott's Landing was our first site. It seemed nice to return today. Here is my watercolor painting completed today - mostly in the field but finished up back in the studio when I got home. I think this is just about done. We were complaining about the white pickup truck that was parked in front of the bait shop and blocking our view, but after I decided to include it in the painting, I decided it was one of my favorite parts of the painting.

Next week we have arranged to meet at the Blue Gill Restaurant - they offered to let us set up on their covered deck and paint - with a great view overlooking the marsh.

Hot! Hot! Hot! at Battleship Park!

2009-06-19T20:12:00.007-05:00

Mobile and surrounding areas are in an extended heat wave - it's been in the upper 90s with heat index over 100 for the past couple of days, with more to come through the weekend. In spite of the heat a couple of us actually made it out to the Battleship Park on the causeway yesterday. Our Plein Air South group has been meeting through the summer months and have tried to locate shady areas to paint in order to escape the heat. Ainsley McNeely, Suzy Fox and I met yesterday morning and we trekked out onto the birdwatching pier adjacent to the park. There are covered pavillions on the boardwalk with interpretive signs to assist in identifying the waterfowl. At the end of the pier is a double-decked covered pavillion. Suzy and I camped out on top and were able to catch the warm breezes, which almost made it bearable, and the sweeping views of the marsh and bay. Ainsley stayed sheltered below for more intimate scenes of the marsh. Here's my watercolor which was completed on site. I had fun using brushstrokes to depict all the different marsh vegetation, and lost my No. 4 sable brush overboard while adding the crane structures in the background. I'm also including a photo of the marsh view for comparison purposes. I'm not sure if I will do any more to this - maybe just a few extra detail touches in the foreground.

I had a couple of hours to recover yesterday afternoon before heading back downtown for the first session of a Figure Drawing Class at Space 301 Gallery, which is being taught by Ben Shamback (an art professor at University of South Alabama). This is going to be a great class - some of us from the Figure Group are participating in order to refresh our skills and glean some new tips. Here is one of my charcoal drawings from the first session. We were practicing getting our proportions correct and using convex lines in our drawings.

No Circus Today, and Catch-up on Plein Air

2009-06-08T20:49:00.004-05:00

The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus arrived in town last week, and are camped out in the Civic Center parking lot until the end of next week when the circus performances begin. This is a 2-week layover that allows the performers and many of the other staff to take some vacation time, so nothing much is happening until they all get back in town. But the elephants and "lions and tigers and bears", and various circus trailers, are all sequestered in the parking lot. Several of us plein air painters (Lydia and Tracy Host, Jami Buck, Laura Worsham, and me) tried today to get inside the compound so we could do some plein air painting of this unusual subject material - but to no avail. The nice fellow we talked to said that we could try again next week when the managers (those who can make a decision) come back into town. So we'll be there with our most persuasive manners employed. Stay tuned.

We then headed for Washington Square to squeeze in some painting. Laura Worsham documented us with her ready camera. The rest of us sketched or painted. I tried out some new "interactive" acrylic paints I just mail-ordered, trying to paint on gessoed watercolor paper. I was not impressed, as the paper/gesso combination just ate up the paint - too absorbent! By time I got home, I was a frustrated artist - so instead decided to finish the oak tree painting I started a couple of weeks ago when Jami Buck and I went to Washington Square on our own. I loved this grand old oak with it's huge limb reaching all the way to the ground. The challenge was to depict the various colors in the shadows on the trunk, showing the twisted musculature of the trunk, as well as the mossy bark and resurrection fern growing on the limb. Here it is - I think this is pretty much finished - but may need to add a little more color on the limb to reflect the foreshortening. This is oil on canvas, 8 in x 10 in.

I also "fiddled" more with my River Shack painting I started a couple of months ago. I decided to inject a little life into the painting by adding some pelicans on the dock posts. Last week my husband and I took a drive down to the coastal areas and photographed some pelicans so I could include what I hope are some realistic pelican poses. Here's what I hope is the final product. This is oil on board, 9 in x 12 in. I'm looking for a frame for these two paintings and may take them down to the Cathedral Square Gallery this week.

Another "Baby Step" Forward

2009-05-30T22:33:00.005-05:00

Today I hung some artwork at the Cathedral Square Gallery. This is an artists' cooperative gallery located downtown on what's known as Lower Dauphin Street (LODA for short). My artist friend Mary Rodning is a member and has been encouraging me to join for sometime now. I was hesitant to try until I had time to accumulate some artwork. I finally put my application in last week and learned on Thursday that my artwork had been accepted. I decided to start with a smaller space and maybe graduate to a bigger space once I get my feet wet. However, I learned that much of my work is such a size that it fills up the smaller space quite quickly - I could only comfortably fit 5 pieces on the wall (4 ft wide by 8 ft tall). No room for the cows! But this will allow me to take time to create new work and be ready for another rotation of artwork in a few months time. I think participating in the gallery will be a good opportunity for me to learn about the business end of art. The CSG group also has alot of fun during the LODA artwalks every second Friday, and other community art events or fund-raisers throughout the year.

Here is a photo taken after I filled up my artspace. I still need to add my name plate and a few things, but this is basically it for my first setup.

Figure Group, Joe Jefferson, and Plein Air - and New Grandbaby!

2009-05-18T23:24:00.007-05:00

Several things to report as happenings over the past few days. Last Wednesday was plein air painting at Five Rivers and then later that day we had Jay-Jay as our model again at Figure Group. He is new to modeling but does a fantastic job. Here are a couple of my watercolor sketches from Wednesday night.

Thursday I gave my friend Kathy Friedline my Old Baldwin County Barn watercolor to place in the Joe Jefferson Theatre lobby for these two weekends while they are running the play "Company". Kathy does a great job finding venues for local artists to show their work, and this is just one of them.

Saturday morning we learned we have a new grandbaby - a beautiful, robust, little boy - making Grandbaby No. 3 (no name yet!). He was born at home in Lake City, Colorado. Can't wait to see him in person, but 'til then we are savoring the photos. I think he looks like his grandaddy Burkett.

Sunday we had our May meeting of the Mobile Art Association with a nice presentation by Ernest Kirkland and Bill Morris regarding using Photoshop (or similar programs) to assist in composing a painting. Also got a preview look at the Shared Expressions show at the Mobile Museum of Art. This is a combined show of all the local arts organizations (MAA, Mobile Watercolor and Graphics Society, Camera South, Azalea Quilt Society, Sumi-e, Etc....). The opening reception is this Thursday evening, 7-9 p.m. You should really try to check it out! The show will hang all summer until September.

Today (Monday) we held our plein air painting group at the Stewartfield Avenue of the Oaks on the Spring Hill College campus. I tried my oils this time. Here is the result. I will need to work a little bit more on some darker values, but am satisfied with the composition and the house for the most part. I painted beside Joan Whitespunner Dixon today - we were both struggling to get the colors and shadows and the green resurrection ferns on the trees - I think she finally figured it all out - I'm still struggling a little here.

VSA Partner

2009-05-13T22:57:00.004-05:00

Last week my artist friend Carolyn Greene invited me to participate in the VSA Partners program this year. Yesterday I showed up at the Fred Delchamps (M.A.R.C. ) center (Carolyn is the art teacher at the center) to paint with a Very Special Artist partner - his name is Terry. I showed Terry several photos of cows and completed paintings of cows to pick from as references for a cow painting we could complete together. He immediately fixed on the cow angel painting I did for the Divine Bovine show, so that was the subject for our painting. Here is a photo of Terry and me with the completed painting. He was so proud that he called in about a dozen folks from the center's hallways to see his painting before I left - Carolyn said he called in another 10 or so after I left. It was really gratifying to help with this project and see someone so excited about what he had done and so proud of his accomplishment. I'm glad Carolyn gave me this opportunity. The VSA Partners auction of the completed artwork is scheduled to be held at the Easter Shore Art Center in Fairhope around June 25th.

Artists in Communities South at TASTE

2009-05-11T17:41:00.008-05:00

Last week I received a reminder from my friend Mary Elizabeth Kimbrough that the Artists in Communities South group was sponsoring an exhibit at the hip wine bar TASTE on Old Shell Road. This exhibit was also to sponsor music and poetry by local artists. The exhibit focused on women artists in the local area. I turned in my artwork (Nova Scotia Cow No. 1 -Maggie) on Friday afternoon. This was the closest to bar-art I could come up with. The exhibit was from 5:30 p.m. until 9:30 p.m. on Saturday night, and artwork was judged by Chris Davis of Southern Living Magazine and Nancy Raia of Eastern Shore Art Center. I arrived around 8:30 p.m. and met up with artist friends Jami Buck, Mary Beth Culp and Ainsley McNeely. I learned that the ceremonies were completed around 6:30 p.m. and most everyone else had already gone home. But was pleasantly surprised to learn that I had won the first place award! Jami had received an honorable mention! I enjoyed a glass of white wine. Then we all took our paintings off the wall and went home. Interesting concept for a party!? Here is a photo of my prize: candy shaped and painted (realistically) to look like makeup and other girly things. Obviously a work of art itself!

Plein Air and Figure Group and Other Goings On

2009-05-07T22:27:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was Wednesday - our Plein Air Group met in the morning at the Five Rivers Center on Mobile Causeway; and we had Figure Group in the evening at Space 301.

Ainsley McNeely is helping get our plein air group better organized with a new Plein Air South group website on Yahoo.com. Check it out. Those joining us yesterday were: Missy Patrick, Jami Buck, Lydia Host and Ainsley. We enjoyed our session in the shady wooded area along the nature trails. This was a different challenge, due to the dim light and filtered shadows. I attempted a grand live oak tree. I tried this in oil, which I'm still trying to figure out how to use. This will require some touching up before it is finished, but this is what I captured in the field. I hope to be able to add lots of colors in the shadows.

Also attached are some recent watercolors from figure group. I'm trying to add more colors for the fleshtones and shadows. Base color is still quinaquidone gold, my favorite watercolor tone to sketch with. We have two more sessions this term.

Also, on Monday I turned in my latest cow portrait (Baldwin County Cow No. 2) into the Mobile Art Association portion of the Shared Expressions exhibit, which will show at the Mobile Museum of Art from May 15 until September. I think this time my painting made it into the show. I did not get a photo of the finished painting (finished just in the nick of time for turn in!). But here is reference photo and the preliminary sketch/underpainting on the canvas. I liked the aqua background against the amber colors of the cow. I thought this was a really pretty cow with her spotted face. This is acrylic on canvas, 30 in. x 40 in. I'll try to get a photo of the finished painting soon.

Plein Air Painting at Mobile Environmental Studies Center

2009-04-30T13:05:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was a busy art day for me. We met at the Environmental Studies Center on Girby Road for plein air painting in the morning. We had seven of us: myself, Missy Patrick, Lydia Host, Mary Elizabeth Kimbrough, Gail Bramer; and two new folks for our group: Marie Nickerson and Ainsley McNeely. Marie had been trying for awhile to join with us, but schedules were a problem until yesterday. Ainsley has started a Lower Alabama Artists Plein Air Group and a Yahoo Group website (pleinairsouth) to try to get some organization together, for group plein air sessions, and future shows and plein air painting trips. Hopefully we get something started here.

Here is my effort to capture the pitcher plant bog at the center. I found it was relatively easy to get the colors and shadows on the paper, but very difficult to capture the essence of thousands, if not millions, of pitcher plants, lilies, orchards and pincushion plants - A bog is so very diverse! Will try to see if I can still do that in the foreground without flubbing it up.

Here also are a few photos from our outing.

Below, Gail is getting up close for some botanical drawings.

Below gives an idea of the diversity of plant material!

Marie enjoys her spot in the shade.

I also made it to Figure Group last night, but will post a drawing later this week.

Disappointment, but Life Goes On

2009-04-27T21:45:00.003-05:00

Well, the watercolor of the Old Barn at Kaiser Farm did not get juried into the Mobile Art Association Spring Show. It is always a disappointment to spend time and effort to prepare for an exhibition, and not make in the show. Most of us have had this experience, and we all know that it is just the individual taste of the judge, and if another judge on another day we may have made it in - but it is discouraging just the same. My best response is to just pick up and work on something new, and that is not a problem right now for me because I'm behind and want to finish a painting for the upcoming Shared Expression community arts exhibition at the Mobile Museum of Art. I have to turn in a painting for this show by next Monday, and have alot to do on this painting by then. At least I know it will be fresh because I don't think I'll have time to rework and overwork this painting! It is another cow painting that I was not able to complete for the Divine Bovine Show. In the meantime, here is a graphite sketch from last week's Figure Group. We had the Sarah Palin look-alike model again (sans glasses this time).

Kaiser Farm Barn Watercolor

2009-04-24T16:07:00.005-05:00

Here is a simple watercolor I just finished a few days ago, based on some photos taken during a plein air session at Kaiser Farm in Baldwin County last October. We painted in oil an 100-year- old rustic barn that day, but I was intrigued by this other white barn on the property and the juxtaposition against the red shed. Mrs. Kaiser indicated this barn was also very old, but had been covered with white aluminum siding to protect it from further dilapidation. The bones of the old barn are still there, and the shadows and light on the white siding made a nice portrait of the structure, I think. I just picked this up from the frame shop and intend to enter it in the Mobile Art Association Spring Juried Exhibition tomorrow morning - will hang at West Regional Library I hope.

Plein Air at Five Rivers

2009-04-22T22:19:00.005-05:00

Seems like I've been on a hiatus from painting. We took a couple weeks to drive out to Colorado and back to visit the grandbabies - got to see snow, had a wonderful visit with the family, and got to see the southwestern vistas in route. However, once I returned I did indeed finish a small watercolor of an old Baldwin County barn that was based on a plein air excursion last October to the Kaiser Farm with Missy Patrick and Gail Bramer. It is at the frame shop being prepared for entry in the Mobile Art Association Spring juried exhibition this weekend. I had a great day today plein air painting with Missy, Jami Buck, Lydia Host and Lydia's sister-in-law Tracy Host. Beautiful weather and pleasant company! We went to the Five Rivers site in the Mobile Delta. The others did wonderful vista paintings of the marsh - I did a close up of the shoreline behind the visitors' center. I tried to paint oil on board without having primed it - which means the surface was so slick paint would just slide off unless I applied it with a palette knife. So here is my impressionistic palette knife painting. The water really was a kind of ochre color near the shore. Bull tongues predominated. Lydia says good bloggers post both the good and the bad...

I also made it back to figure group tonight. Will post some figure drawings later this week.

Divine Bovines Gets Some Press!

2009-04-05T20:11:00.005-05:00

Today's Sunday Mobile Press-Register had an article in the Neighbors Section featuring art exhibitions at the public libraries. And the feature exhibition, complete with 3 color photos of artwork from the exhibit, was the Divine Bovines Show. The headline stated that the "Library walls sing with color, whimsy of 'Divine Bovines'"! Nice article about the role of the library in the community and the cooperative efforts between the library and local arts organizations. Here is a link to the article: http://www.al.com/press-register/stories/index.ssf?/base/community/1238923086193390.xml&coll=3

Back in the Groove with Figure Group

2009-04-04T17:46:00.006-05:00

Thursday night was the first session of Figure Group for this term. We were all glad to get back in the groove but feeling a bit rusty after a month off. Here are a couple of pencil sketches anyway. We had our favorite expert model -Dawn. By now she can instruct the new members on the class protocol and is ready and able to suggest different poses or adjustments of poses we all can appreciate for the next sketch. She always provides such elegant poses.

On Friday we celebrated my artist friend Jami Buck on her 50th Birthday with lunch at Zea's. Mary Beth Culp, Gail Bramer, and Mary Elizabeth Kimbrough all joined us. Here is a photo of us charming young gals (me, Jami, Mary Beth, Gail and Mary Elizabeth) provided by Mary Elizabeth. Our gracious waiter took the photo.

I've started a new cow portrait, and am hoping I will be able to finish by May 1st for the Shared Expressions Show at Mobile Museum of Art. My challenge is that I will be out of town for 10 days in April, and will really have to be disciplined to finish this one. Discipline is not my strongest feature, but we will try...

River Shack Reprised

2009-03-25T21:16:00.004-05:00

The biggest dilemma for most artists is knowing when an artwork is done - or when to quit messing with it! Here is the plein air painting I started last Thursday. Since foul weather this week is keeping us inside, I spent some time last night and a few minutes tonight "finishing" this painting. Hopefully I did not overwork this piece. You can compare the "finished" version with the fresh painting accomplished in the field in my posting for last Friday, March 20. I may still need to fiddle with the rocks and the pier. . .

First Day of Spring and Plein Air Painting Resumes

2009-03-20T19:37:00.003-05:00

Today is the first day of spring. I saw on TV this morning that it was snowing in New York City. However, here in Mobile it is in the 70s and flowers are blooming everywhere and the pollen is thick on every surface outside. I volunteered at the Mobile Botanical Garden spring plant sale this morning, and seeing all the plant material folks were buying has inspired me to get back into my gardening. The theme this year is to plant edible plants (I think to help make it through the plummeting economy), and so far I've purchased a lemon tree, fig tree and three blueberry bushes. Think Spring!

Yesterday we started back into plein air painting. Jami Buck, Gail Bramer and I met at the Beachcomber Marina on Dog River. I decided it would be good to work on some recognizable landmarks, so my subject yesterday was the River Shack Restaurant - which we sampled for lunch after a morning of painting. Here is photo of me working on my painting (oil on gessoed board), and the result to date. I was pleased with how much I was able to accomplish in a couple of hours. This needs some finishing due to a few white patches still remaining, but I will try not to overwork it. Will try to get back out again next week for more plein air.

Divine Bovines: The Cow as Art - Opening Reception

2009-03-07T19:42:00.015-06:00

Thursday was the opening reception for our Divine Bovines: The Cow as Art show. I've taken the last couple of days to rest up from all the preparations and the celebrations, but decided I better hurry up and post some photos from the reception! The show is at the Mobile Public Library, West Regional Branch. I want to especially thank Phyllis Jeffery and her staff for making this possible and for helping out with the logistics, drinks and some of the eatables for the reception. The show is beautiful and diverse. Thanks to all 11 artists for participating. (And thanks to Jami Buck for helping with the photographs! )

If you haven't been to see the show yet, please make a trip to the Mobile West Regional Branch library, 5555 Grelot Road, and check us out. This show will remain until April 24th.

Our featured artists include Joanne Brandt (me), MissyPatrick, Bill Morris, Janie Brown, Mary Elizabeth Kimbrough, Fred Marchman, Bertice McPherson, Kathy Friedline, John Cleverdon and Lydia Host. Charlie Swan is missing due to his delay at another reception at the museum. (photo by J. Buck)

Kathy and I present the Divine Bovines: The Cow Show cake, provided by Phyllis Jeffery of the library. Note the postcard design on the cake. I was asked to sign a release form for the postcard artwork before Wallmart would use it on the cake - that was the first time I experienced a copyright issue with my artwork! (photo by J. Buck)

Here are a few photos of the artists and their artwork.

Me with three of my cow portraits. (photo by J. Buck)

Me with my two newest cow portraits: Anabel and Sweet Home Cheese Farm Bull.

Janie Brown with her two pieces: Moo-Light Magic and Hall County GA Cow. (photo by J. Buck)

Kathy Friedline with her two very different pieces: pen and ink on paper bag (her green art); and acrylic painting titled "Dairy Aire" for obvious reasons! (photo by J. Buck)

Missy Patrick with one of her Baldwin County pastoral scenes with cows. (photo by J. Buck)

Fred Marchman with his wall sculpture: "Got Horn?" (photo by J. Buck)

Lydia Host's Painting-a-Day cows.

John Cleverdon and his veal cows. I especially liked the small woodcut print (Penned-up Veal Calf). (photo by J.Buck)

Charlie Swan with his bovine caricature: Diva Bovinea.

Bertice McPherson with barrel-fired clay piece: The Attempt. (photo by J. Buck)

Mary Elizabeth Kimbrough and friend. (photo by J. Buck)

Mary Elizabeth's contemporary piece (Western Civilization II)

Bill Morris relaxes with Ernest Kirkland. (photo by J. Buck)

Bill's western cows and buffalo.

My Mama Lisa buddies: Jami Buck, Gail Bramer and Claire Noojin. (photo by J. Buck)

Divine Bovines Reception Thursday, March 5th

2009-03-04T23:12:00.002-06:00

Divine Bovines Exhibit Reception

Thursday, March 5th, 6 pm - 8 pm

Mobile Public Library, West Regional Branch, 5555 Grelot Road

We hung the show on Saturday, and it really looks great. Y'all come on out to see the exhibit! The show will hang until April 24th. Featured artists include: Joanne Brandt, Janie Brown, John Cleverdon, Kathy Friedline, Lydia Host, Mary Elizabeth Kimbrough, Bertice McPherson, Fred Marchman, Bill Morris, Missy Patrick, and Charlie Swan.

I'll try to post photos from the reception and show in the next day or so.

Enjoy!

A Second Sneak Preview - A Divine Bovine

2009-02-26T23:41:00.005-06:00

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

2009-02-23T23:34:00.008-06:00

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

2009-02-22T22:09:00.007-06:00

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...)

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

2009-02-14T19:44:00.003-06:00

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

2009-02-08T18:27:00.007-06:00

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

2009-02-03T15:22:00.004-06:00

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.

Chez Gizelle Figure Group Show

2009-01-25T22:28:00.012-06:00

Today our Figure Group delivered artwork for a show at the Chez Gizelle hair salon. Lydia Host arranged this showing opportunity. I assisted Lydia and Mary Elizabeth Kimbrough in the hanging of the show. Many in our group participated, including Lydia, MEK, Kathy Friedline, Claire Noojin, Jami Buck, Gail Bramer, Bill Bailey, Terry P., Conroy Hudlow, and Devlin Wilson (I think I remembered everyone?). It's a good show for the space. Here are a few photos.

Here are my two watercolors next to Terry's ink drawing waiting to be hung. I entered two drawings of the pregnant model, and called them "Seated Madonna" and "Reclining Madonna" (both were included in an earlier blog posting).

Lydia and MEK begin the hanging.

Here's some of the artwork after we completed the hanging. I think this show will hang at least through February.

Still Life with Baby Silas

2009-01-11T19:20:00.003-06:00

I thought I'd continue with the third generation of my family portraits I've completed in recent years. I've already posted my husband, his daughter (my beloved stepdaughter), and now for her first born - our first grandbaby Silas. Amanda sent a photo of Silas sleeping on their bed with some winter light streaming in through their window. I loved the photo and the shadows on the sleeping baby, so decided to paint it like a contemporary still life - abstracted background with baby sleeping as though on a kitchen table top. At least that was my concept. Here is "Still Life with Baby Silas", acrylic on canvas, 12"x16", completed in 2006. This painting was started and mostly completed during a couple of painting sessions with my Mama Lisa painting group. This reminds me that I am behind on my family portraits - Amanda had a precious little girl, Priya, a year and a half ago, and is now expecting number three in May. I guess I have some catching up to do!

Sunhats

2009-01-10T16:53:00.007-06:00

It is a rainy day and I'm still recovering from bronchitis. I thought today deserves a bit of cheer, so decided I'd post one of my previous portraits. This is a painting of my stepdaughter Amanda and her little second-cousin Claire. I called this painting "Sunhats". This is acrylic on canvas, 24"x30", and was completed in 2004. I entered this in the first People's Art Show at Space 301, which was in the summer of 2005. I had fun with the folds in the clothing and Amanda's hair, as well as the hats.

Mobile Botanical Gardens and Semmes Library Grand Opening

2009-01-08T22:11:00.010-06:00

Happy New Year Y'all!

I've been distracted by the holidays and then under the weather with bronchitis, so am very behind with my blog. I have a couple of events to report, however. Tuesday last week (Dec 30th) Jami Buck, Mary Elizabeth Kimbrough and I gathered at the Mobile Botanical Gardens for some plein air painting. We each picked a view inside the herb garden arbor area. Mary Elizabeth did an amazingly colorful fun piece, and Jami did a pretty view of some trees (both are posted on MEK's blog). I was so slow getting everything together that I basically just blocked out my scene of St. Francis of Assisi under the kumquat tree. This was right before I got sick; so I will post the finished (after) painting (oil on board) when I can get myself back together enough to finish it. In the meantime, here is photo of MEK and me discussing our work; and the before view of my painting, compliments of MEK.

I took photos of Jami and MEK with their paintings with my new compact digital camera (Christmas present!), but unfortunately due to my unfamiliarity with the new camera they did not take. I'm still learning how to use this simple little camera.

Wednesday last week (Dec 31st) I delivered my painting of the Dodd and Dodd Nursery greenhouses for a small art exhibit as part of the grand opening of the new Semmes Library. This show was organized by Mary Rodning. They did a wonderful job on the new library, which was formerly a Walgreen's Drugstore, and designed an area near the front to display rotating artwork. Here is a photo of Phyllis Jeffery of Mobile Public Library with some of our artwork behind her. The Sumi-e/Haiku foldout on the shelf is by Mary and Charles Rodning (photo compliments of Mary R.). Jami Buck's painting of Dodd and Dodd Nursery trophy trees is peeking out from behind Phyllis' head. Phyllis has been great in sponsoring public display of local artwork in the city's libraries.

I missed our first session of Figure Group tonight, but hope to be well enough next week to catch back up with my figure artists!

The Prodigal Cat and Progress on My Cow Painting

2008-12-28T20:01:00.005-06:00

I'm enclosing a photo of my "prodigal" cat tonight. She's been gone for two months (since 1 Nov) and we found her at the old house site by the bay tonight. This is the 14th time (if I've counted right) that she has disappeared from the house we are living in now and returned to our old house on Bay Front Road. Our bay house was damaged during Hurricane Katrina. We immediately moved to a house approximately 2 miles away, with the intention initially of repairing the bay house. Although the bay house was repairable, due to the uncertainties of building permits, FEMA rules and high insurance, and we ended up selling the house. However, our cat Abbie apparently continues to want to go back home by the bay. She has repeatedly disappeared, sometimes for several months at a time - and we always eventually find her back at the old bayhouse. One time she was gone for 7 months! Anyway, we found her again tonight after going there to call for her. She seems quite comfortably back at home with us tonight. Thinner but not too much the worse for wear.

I'm also including some "teaser" previews of the cow/bull painting I've been working on. I'm still working to finish this painting hopefully by the new year. I have another one I need to start and finish prior to the end of February to be ready for the upcoming cow show.

Christmas Eve Bonfires on the Mississippi River

2008-12-26T21:55:00.000-06:00

I hope y'all had a good Christmas so far. We spent a couple of days in New Orleans so we could see them light the bonfires on the Mississippi River levees. During a visit to New Orleans last year a week before Christmas, my husband and I drove up River Road north of New Orleans and saw them building the bonfire structures on the river levees. We decided this year we would go back and watch them actually light the bonfires. This is a tradition practiced every Christmas Eve by several small towns along the river, and legend has it that the lighted bonfires were meant to guide Santa safely down the river with his Christmas loot. Anyway, we settled in at a small town called Gramercy -really there are three towns in a row - Gramercy, Lutcher and Paulina - that all have a concentration of bonfires. The locals also set off fireworks during the event, which makes it very festive. Some of the bonfire structures were also laced with firecrackers for additional sound effects. One was built to resemble a bulldozer. Here are a couple of photos before the lighting, during the lighting, and showing off some of the fireworks. You might want to catch these festivities next Christmas Eve.

Man with a Chainsaw

2008-12-21T18:16:00.000-06:00

I've let the Christmas holidays distract me - what with shopping for gifts, addressing christmas cards, christmas parties, etc. I've also been trying to work more on my large cow painting, trying to finish it before the end of the month so I can start another one and complete it in time for the cow show in March and April (I'm organizing a cow show called "Divine Bovines", with 8-10 artists showing their artwork on a cow theme). Anyway, in order to not let this blog be dormant for too long, I thought I'd post an older painting. I've said I like to paint people, so here is one of the "portraits" I painted of my husband in his favorite venue - chain-sawing! He loves to work in the woods sawing down dead timber or making up firewood. Lately he's been clearing an area on some property we own down by the bay for a potential house site. This painting is called "A Man and His Chainsaw" (2001), acrylic on canvas, 24" x 30" (one of my favorite size formats). I loved painting the squinting expression on his face, the denim for the overalls, and the shadow on the storage shed in our back yard. I named this after a painting in the Mobile Museum of Art, that I've admired for some time, of a depression era farmer/woodmen in his overalls and straw hat titled "A Man and His Saw". But this painting is sans hat.

Figure Group Display at Space 301!

2008-12-13T23:20:00.000-06:00

Last night (Friday) was the December LODA Artwalk, where the galleries on and about Lower Dauphin Street stay open late for a communal reception. Thursday night was also our last session of Figure Group for this term. Space 301 asked us to display artwork generated during this fall term for the LODA reception, and most of us participated. We set the room up similar to one of our sessions, and mounted samples of our work in various creative (and not so creative) ways. Here's a photo of the layout of the room, and some samples of our artwork. Artists whose work is displayed below include myself, Gail Bramer, Kathy Friedline, Mark Johnson, Mary Elizabeth Kimbrough, Claire Noojin, and Missy Patrick (I did not get photos of all the artists' work - but Lydia Host's work is displayed on Mary Elizabeth's blog). As you can see, we have so many different styles. Our sessions start back up in early January.

Nostalgic Chair and Pear

2008-12-09T20:41:00.000-06:00

Nothing newly completed to post tonight, but I thought I'd post the painting I entered in the Chairs and Pears exhibit this spring at the Mobile Regional Library. This was a themed exhibit organized/curated by Kathy Friedline. Kathy asked many of the artists in the community to prepare artwork including either chairs or pears (or both). Kathy had done quite a few delightful paintings of pears, and a recent one of several pears cavorting and hiding around a stuffed armchair, quite amusing and fun. It sounded like it would be a fun theme for an exhibit. Anyway, the art community responded royally and we had a lively and fun show. I did this painting of one of the adirondak chairs my husband made for me when we lived in the bayhouse on Mobile Bay. I named it "Nostalgic Chair and Pear" because this chair was washed away by Hurricane Katrina, along with most of the yard and the back of our house. He had sized the chair to my body, and prepared the slant of the back to be most comfortable for me. I really miss that chair. The pear was to add a bit of spunk. This is 24" x 30" acrylic on canvas.

I used a quick and loose painting technique over a sienna underpainting, similar to the technique taught by Bill Harrison in Fairhope, based on a workshop I took with several of my Mama Lisa friends). Oh - the Mama Lisas is our group of "seasoned" ladies who decided to paint together on a regular basis. We usually meet monthly at one of our homes, and paint whatever strikes our fancy. We provide motivation and inspiration to each other to keep on working to improve our artwork. Kathy Friedline is one of our Mamas. Jami Buck, Gail Bramer and Thayer Dodd, who I've been plein air painting with, are also Mamas. I'll also mention the other Mamas from time to time in this blog.

Dodd Nursery and some recent Figure Drawings

2008-12-07T21:35:00.000-06:00

Last Wednesday we met for plein air painting at Thayer's nursery (Dodd and Dodd Nursery). Thayer and Tom Dodd specialize in native plants and we were treated then to a tour of the greenhouses and some of Thayer's stock plants. Here is the painting I did of several of the greenhouses and rows of vegetation stacked in front. Not much was blooming this time of year, but it was amazing all the different colors in the vegetation and the different textures - more challenges for the plein air painter! This is oil on 9" x 12" gesso board.

I also promised to post a couple of recent figure drawings - here are two from last Thursday's group session. These are in watercolor - I really love painting with Quinacridone Gold, since you can produce such a wide range of tones. This is our volunteer model, who did a great job on the spur of the moment. She seemed very relaxed and was also very talkative, we all had a great chat while drawing! We decided she should indeed keep her glasses on, and that was fun to draw as well. This Thursday will be our last session until after the first of the year. We've had alot of fun this time.

Miniature Art Show Closes, Plein Air and Figure Group

2008-12-05T19:59:00.001-06:00

Dr. Java Coffeehouse was so good to sponsor the first annual miniature art show for the State of Alabama, called the Spanish Moss Juried Miniature Art Show of the Southeast. This was a wonderful show of small and miniature art, all pieces to be 8" x 10" or less, with many truly high quality miniature art pieces from all over the U.S. and several other countries. I hope you had a chance to take in the show and a cup of java. The Dr. Java folks should be thanked for taking the initiative and their special efforts to sponsor this show - which was of great benefit to the local arts community. The show closed on Dec 2nd, and I picked up my artwork on Wednesday afternoon. This is just a simple little pen and ink (image size is approx. 4.5" x 4.0"), but I thought it looked like the pears were having a conversation just between the two of them. Sorry about the quality of the photo, which was taken with the paper under glass, but you can get the impression of the piece.

Wednesday morning I also met with Jami Buck, Missy Patrick and Thayer Dodd at Thayer's nursery in Semmes (Dodd and Dodd Nursery) to do some plein air painting. We painted the green houses, rows of plant stock, and surrounding landscapes under cool and partly cloudy conditions. I'll post my oil sketch after I do a little touchup on it.

Thursday night was our weekly figure group session and I'll post some sketches from our session in my next blog posting. We had a great session, even though our official model did not show up. One of our artists who had shown up for the first time last night agreed to pose for us, and she did a great job of modeling. I think some of our artists were truly inspired last night! Also, Devlin Wilson, who serves as our group moderator, announced last night that Space 301 wants our figure group to display samples of our work during the LODA Art Walk next weekend. So we will be on display! We have a good time and accomplish some good work during these sessions. Check out Mary Elizabeth's blog to see some photos of our group and sample artwork from the sessions.

Koi

2008-11-25T16:53:00.000-06:00

This is Thanksgiving week, and no plein air painting and no figure group this week. I am working on my large white cow painting, trying to finish it this month! So nothing new this week to post. Instead, I thought I'd post a painting I did of my hairdresser's koi fish that I entered into the People's Art Exhibition at Space 301 this summer (July-September). The fish were fun to paint, but the water was a bit challenging for me. This is acrylic on canvas, titled "Connie's Koi No. 1". I love Connie's wonderful little garden with lots of beautiful flowers and exotic plants, and two small koi ponds. This is a composite of the fish from the two separate ponds. We can recognize the individual koi fish in this painting. Shortly after this painting was finished, the koi in the lower right corner died - so this is sort of a memorium.

I also did a quick little pen and ink of Connie's koi for one of the Mobile Art Association meeting announcement postcards earlier this year. Here it is as well.

I have taken a slew of photos of Connie's koi fish and hope to eventually start a series of koi paintings. They are so colorful and lively - you can't help but show movement in your paintings.