Been Busy Painting

For the last month, I've been painting non-stop, preparing for a couple of opportunities. One is the annual Art on American Avenue show/sale here in Oracle. Last year, our first in Oracle, Jim and I were invited to participate in this event. Each year, a temporary location is leased by a group of artists who get together to display and sell their work. It was a great way to meet Oracle artists last year and we're both happy to be able to participate again this year. We have a great space, wonderful light, and it's heated, which is a big improvement. I bought nearly all of my holiday gifts at Art on American Avenue last year.

In addition, a Small Works exhibit is opening tonight at the Duley-Jones Gallery in Scottsdale. I will have at least one, maybe several paintings of water reflections in the show. The gallery is located on Main Street and the opening is from 7 – 9 pm tonight. The work will be up through December 23.

Can a Painting Be Too Pretty?

A painting in progress, part of the Water Reflection series I'm working on


As I was motoring along, painting enthusiastically, an unbidden thought came into my head. I had a clear memory of doing a paint-by-number painting of a lake with a swan floating in it, complete with a reflection. I was probably about 10 years old. Usually, I'd get frustrated with those things, as I didn't particularly like staying in the lines, and I'd end up tossing the unfinished masterpiece into the garbage. I stuck with this particular one, and once completed, my proud mother had it framed.

So here I am, painting away, and it suddenly struck me that this image had some similarity to that old paint-by-number. Can a painting be too pretty? When does a painting become a cliche? I can't tell if I've crossed the line or not. What do you think?

New Temporary Home for Nooks & Crannies Series

A group of my paintings across the hall from the rest of the exhibit.



Welcome to "Nooks & Crannies" at the Tucson International Airport Lower Level Gallery. I'm proud to have my work shown with the drawings of Rhod Lauffer, Tucson artist.



Here I am, taking a closer look at one of Rhod's interpretations of "Nooks & Crannies". His drawings are beautifully rendered in graphite.



A view of five of my paintings.



Four more paintings.



Another view, with Rhod's drawings, too.

Thank you to Jim for taking the photos. The show will be up until December 10.

Captivated by the Reflections

Painting in progress

I took a bunch of snapshots of rowboats at a dock at Pinnacle State Park, in Utah (on US Route 89) this past summer and am only now starting to work with them. I love to paint reflections, any kind of reflections. In fact, I remember trying to capture the edges of a dock and water reflections in a painting when I lived in Santa Barbara and was taking my first studio art classes. Painting something like this turned out to be way beyond what I was capable of at the time (okay, it was 30+ years ago). Way more than 10,000 hours of practice later, I'm still finding the process challenging!

A detail of a painting in progress.

An overview of the same painting


The two paintings, waiting for me to get back to work, as soon as I've posted this blog!

Tucson Airport Reflection Painting at Tucson Int'l Airport

A few paintings resting before installation takes place.

A few days ago, 16 of my Nooks & Crannies series of paintings made their way via our intrepid Honda Element to Tucson International Airport.

More paintings.

My work is being shown with Rhod Lauffer. He had already dropped his drawings off, so I didn't have the opportunity to meet him. The trolley on the left has Rhod Lauffer's work stacked on it, ready for installation. His website shows some of his wonderful paintings. You'll just have to come to the show to see his drawings of airport/airline related Nooks & Crannies.

Yet another view of the gallery space.

It was fun to see the Tucson Airport Reflection painting in the gallery space since the painting was created especially for this exhibit.


The exhibit is located on the lower level of the airport will be up until December 11. I'm anxious to drive back down there to see how the work looks on the walls!

Glow

Living in Oracle for a year and a half makes us virtual newcomers. We have found this to be a welcoming place. In particular, the artists here (and there is quite an artist community for such a tiny town) have been generous and welcoming.

One of our favorite regular activities in Oracle is to visit the Triangle L Ranch on Saturday mornings to enjoy the local farmer's market. You never know what you might find there; friends, interesting veggies, live music.

In addition to the usual Saturday activities, the annual Glow art festival at the Triangle L is a must see and do. A labor of love by volunteers in the community, orchestrated by Sharon Holnback owner of the Triangle L, Glow takes place on the first full moon (around late September or October) in the Fall.

Jim has been doing some video using his super dooper Canon 5D Mark II, and has been experimenting with sound. In fact, he's taking a class at Pima Community College on incorporating sound into video. Glow was the perfect place for him to bring his equipment and have some fun experimenting. Now you can have fun watching his 6 minute video. And keep an eye out for Glow next fall. It's well worth the visit!

Glitter, Glitter, Everywhere

There is glitter and then there is glitter. This is what I found out last weekend while visiting Old Town Cottonwood, in the Verde Valley.

After a great lunch at Bings, a redesigned gas station in retro style, where I had a burger, fries and a chocolate malt (the malt was to die for), we wandered across the street to The Art Institute Glitter.

My association with glitter is probably like yours–messy glue and hunks of red or blue glitter everywhere but where you want it. This is one of my earliest memories of art making in elementary school, and not a fond one. Other memories are of glitter and my own children. Again, mostly what I remember is their frustration and a big, big mess to clean up.

So, with some trepidation, I approached the rather large Glitter Institute. Jim practically needed to shove me through the door. My image of heaps of glitter to wade through could easily become one of my recurring nightmares. So in we went. What I discovered was an awe inspiring array of colors of glitter so fine it was almost powder, subtle and gorgeous. There are 400+ colors of ultrafine, microfine and glass glitter in addition to glass beads and other cool stuff. A series of charts give an idea of the range available.

While there were the expected examples of Halloween pumpkins and glittery Santa Claus in the snow scenes in the shop, there were also samples of work using glitter that was quite inspiring, moving across the line from tacky into art.

The friendly president of Art Glitter, Barbara Trombley, explained how the glitter is made and gave a little demonstration of how it's used. There is a special glue that can be applied with great control in thin lines. It is permanent and the glitter adheres to it without going all over the place (at least when Barbara uses it). Barbara offers classes and has even written a book.

It seems that there is an alternative to tacky, tacky glitter. Any material of good quality, when used by an artist, can become a thing of beauty. So much for my snobbery. I'm currently brooding about how I might add glitter to my array of art tools.