My Cup of Tea

 24x24 oil on linen

One of the recent deliveries to Russell Collection and framed in a nice contemporary gold frame. Its a nice transition between gold impressionist style and sleek and modern.

Its pretty cool to have my art represented at Russell Collection where they have a broad range of styles of art available, but also some of the old master's works. Its like a museum and next month they have a show featuring Pissarro and 5 of his descendants' work. Pretty cool. If you are in Austin you should definitely visit the gallery. What a legacy.

Maybe some of that magic will rub off on me.

(note: I'm updating this blog still sometimes because I have no idea if people follow it still, how they follow, or if they are moving to the new website/blog or follow on something like Bloglovin'. Technology!)

Corridor of Art

20x16 oil on linen
Ask Castle Gallery about this painting

This was painted a couple of years ago, but hasn't been seen publicly in awhile so I thought I'd share it again. Hopefully it will find a good home in Indiana.

With the Wyndhams

14x14 oil on linen

Been in a museum mood lately. It seems a good subject to paint a little larger. I keep hearing I should paint bigger but I worry that my subjects are rather intimate sorts of settings that won't lend themselves to large works. Who wants a giant chef in a busy kitchen on their wall? But I am scaling up to give several of my galleries more options. I do think I have a contemporary feel at least, and want to push that more so I can maybe hang these larger pieces on cradled panels and not frame them.

In this piece, I painted over a bad start that I had scraped and I used some palette knife just to add a little texture and move color around the background especially. I used my fingers some too.

I sometimes wonder if its cheating to use famous pieces of art in my own art. If people like the artist featured, for example, John Singer Sargent, then they have to like my painting. But, what I most like is to paint people admiring the masters, and doing what I love to do myself.

Sunny Stroll - Revised

20x16 oil on linen

Ask Tidewater Gallery about this painting.


I just shipped this painting to Tidewater Gallery in Swansboro, NC. It was painted in 2010 and had been in my gallery in Carmel for awhile. Once back here in my studio, there were certain things bugging me about it and needing fixed. So I revised it. * Gasp*  It was the first time I dared to (or bothered to) change an older work. Mostly I think its better to just paint a new one. But this was a good composition and the figures were well done and interesting... the other stuff just needed some tweaks.

I didn't like the foreground mostly and wanted to vary the rather strident orange tones. But then my changes escalated and I moved all around the figures making adjustments! Can you see all the changes? I've highlighted the big ones below and you can compare the two images. Then there were little changes like making her nose a little smaller, bluing up the sky and punching up the highlights on her shirt and his shorts to really make them pop. Its ok to use pure white paint! But, it can be cool, so add just the slightest touch of cad yellow or surround white with yellow (or another warm) to make it stand out as a "hot spot".

Saucier

11x14 oil on linen
Ask Gardner Colby Galleries about this painting

Click on this one to see it larger. I could have gone on and covered more canvas and added more details but I decided to stop. I loved it at this point - loose, fresh and gestural. This is more of what I want to do and I just have to be bold enough to do it. Hopefully, the gallery and their patrons will approve!

Gelato Counter

18x12 oil on linen
Available at Russell Collection Fine Art

We had a very fun opening reception last night at the gallery for the Femme show. What a great bunch of artists and a very eclectic show. Nine of the 11 featured artists were there. Several of my new paintings sold which I consider high praise. 

I had fun taking pictures with my iPhone apps. I used Hipstamatic on these below.  The show hangs until Dec. 22nd so do stop in to see it if you can.

 

Slow Pour

20x24 oil on panel -
Sold

Opening night tonight at the "Femme" show at Russell Collection Fine Art in Austin and I had two paintings sold during previews yesterday!
The paintings were larger scale for me and definitely harder. The other I really struggled over, but the results apparently were satisfactory! Its a good feeling to know going in that I have sales and people like what they see!

If you are in Austin do come by tonight during the reception and say hello and see the wonderful variety of work created by some very talented women!

Work in Progress

Well here it is - a little glimpse of a work in progress. Isn't that white daunting? This is my first larger "vignette". I love the intimate, slice-of-life, subject matter and have wanted try working on a larger scale. I didn't do much to alter this blank sheet of linen (I'll stretch or mount it later). I first tried sketching in with my brush but then felt I needed more drawing so went in with charcoal. And made a mess.

Once I wiped off the false start, I used my more usual method of sketching a road map of sorts with the brush and then massing in. The goal is not to create an exact duplicate of a scene, so I forgave myself little errors in drawing and eliminated some clutter.

I made some "notes" on the darks and then used my favorite little trick of wiping out the lightest lights with a little OMS on a rag. Linen is great for this reason - you can wipe it back to a clean white surface again. And clean lights/whites are important to create beautiful highlights.

 Now I worked all the darker and middle tones -most of the painting.

A little more progress being made... but its not done yet. I've left her face and clothes undone and set the painting aside today to work on a new painting while I mull this one over for a few days. I'm not quite satisfied with the "tightness" either. (Everything is compartmentalized. ?) I might even have my model come back to sit for the final touches. This was painted from a study and photos of a model. My second go at a larger work began more easily - with lots of massing in and moving around the panel.

This is as yet unnamed, and is 22x28" on linen. My plan is to show it at the Russell Collection Fine Art Gallery "Femme" show opening in December in Austin. Its nice to have time to work on these larger pieces and live with them before sending them out.

If you care to keep reading, I will tell you that I my plan this year is to paint larger and slow down. I tend to work fast, but that meant that each week I was trying to create multiple gallery-worthy paintings and stressing about it. I have a lot of work available (lots of small works since the Vignettes show) and I think I can relax and really consider what I want to paint and what I want to say.

Double Latte in AIS show

I'm happy to share the news that my painting was accepted to show at the 13th annual American Impressionist Society show! The show opens in November in Indianapolis. Maybe 13 is my lucky number :)

Working Lunch

 

Working Lunch

20x16 oil on panel
Available at Tidewater Gallery

I had three larger paintings in the Vignettes show and they are a hint of where I am going next with my paintings. I want to work a little bigger. Having focused on rather small or medium sized works for the past several years, and being used to working the paintings to completion in one sitting, it will be interesting to see how I like scaling up. The goal though is to still have the intimate scenery - the vignettes of life - but on a larger scale. 

Sunny Side of the Street

18x18 oil on linen

SOLD

In The Night Kitchen

14x18 oil on linen

Ask Tidewater Gallery about this painting.

Back to promoting some of my available work at my representing galleries. This is a scene from a NYC cupcake shop. It was a rainy evening walking past this yummy storefront where the bakers were probably getting a head start on the morning confections.
You can see all the available inventory on the pages linked at the top of the blog. My website is woefully out of date but Blogger has made their blogs so useful that I can create pages for all my galleries and collectors can easily see what is available where.

I guess I will share here that I've been having difficulties communicating with one of my galleries. They are no longer shown on my links. I asked for my work to be returned to me 4 months ago. They just sent back 2 this week. I am not sure if they sold the others and if I will ever see my portion of the sales. I had to file a complaint with the BBB and threaten legal action for them to just send the work to me. This was after letters, weekly emails and countless phones messages. In all these months, I've only had one email response and once I actually caught one of the owners on the phone. They never answer during business hours. I do not actually know if they are in business or not any longer. Its a very frustrating deal.

Sometimes, no matter how enthusiastic someone is to represent your art, it just doesn't work out well. And sometimes, it goes very badly. Its hard times for galleries as well as artists. And while I might want to just be creative all the time, I know its very important to follow through with people and be a good business person. We need to work together to weather this economy. If they had just communicated with me, we could have worked things out amicably.

My advice for those looking for representation is to always talk to other artists represented in the gallery. Get their feedback about the business owner, the staff, and payment schedule. Always have a written/signed agreement or contract laying out terms of the commissions. Visit the gallery if you can. And keep in touch. Pick up the phone or email regularly to check in. Find out what is selling and what clients are interested in. And if you have any concerns, voice them and act.

Even with these things going for you though, sometimes things just go awry, as in my case. I still don't want to believe they are bad people, maybe just bad at business. I can't reach them to talk about it though...

Discussing Tonight's Menu

20x16 oil on linen

Ask Studio 47 about this painting.

Night Owls

20x10 oil on linen
PURCHASE

Another painting making a return home from a gallery. Available unframed from my studio. Its a dark scene - as in low light. But the cafe and sidewalk look very pleasant and cozy!

I haven't been painting actually, and I don't want to sound negative, but I feel like I am lately. I've been having issues with a business associate and its stressed me out so much that I can't paint. Be really careful who you allow to represent you art. Not every opportunity is golden. Can you sense my restraint here?

Weather Beaten

14x18 oil on linen

Ask Russell Collection Fine Art about this painting.

Happy Friday! I know I am relieved its the weekend. Been a frustrating week in the studio dealing with business issues. The Girl Scout cookie campaign ends this weekend too, so I will soon have a lot more of my time back for creative endeavors. The ability to quietly center and focus on painting is just impossible with too many things cluttering my mind. I bet a lot of you can relate.

Ommmmmmmm.....

Sunny Stroll

20x16 oil on linen

Ask Edward Montgomery Fine Art about this painting.

A couple of hipsters strolling Sixth Street in Austin. Its always a fun challenge trying to capture the effects of bright sunlight. Oh, that it came in a tube.

Clowning Around

10x10 oil on linen panel

Ask Edward Montgomery Fine Art about this painting

This was a fun little scene. I couldn't resist trying my hand at those colorful socks! This little gem, as well as some other paintings, are headed to sunny California to Edward Montgomery Fine Art gallery in Carmel.

Thrill of the Grill

14x18 oil on linen

I often see stories about conservators using xrays and other technology to see what is under a masterpiece painting, and to learn about the artist's methods. I wonder if that will ever happen to my work? This canvas started as a cafe scene that just didn't make it. At some point, I used some of my palette scrapings to smear over that and lay down a nice grayish ground to paint this on. Its actually rather satisfying to use that palette mud to smear over a failed painting. It also creates a really nice, smooth, oil primed surface for a new painting.

This is still the same kitchen that has appeared in the other paintings. I got a lot of mileage out of dinner at Roaring Fork in Austin. Might be time to go back now. Valentine's day?