This one seems to pair well with yesterday’s painting. I wanted to do them simultaneously so as to capture, if I could, somewhat of the same, dreamy, calm, mysterious feel. (It’s actually based on a faded Polaroid photo I have in my stash.)
Day Dreaming in Cream. Oil on Arches oil paper. 2018. 12×12.
Here’s another new painting for the Gallery B show. Also inspired by the C & O Canal — late afternoon with the sun raking low across the tree tops.
C & O Face-off. Oil on Linen. 8 x 10.
I did a similar scene in gouache a few years ago, when I was first dabbling in that medium. I love the contrast between the trees in light and shadow and their reflections in the calm canal water.
C & O Autumn. Gouache.
Some of my painting pals and I (aka ‘the 7 Palettes’) applied awhile back to exhibit our art at Gallery B in downtown Bethesda, MD. We were honored to be selected for a month-long exhibit at this prestigious location during January 2017. Gallery B is a project of the Bethesda Urban Partnership, a local non-profit organization charged by Montgomery County, MD with promoting Bethesda. It gives special support to the arts in our area.
Under the theme of ‘Local Color’, we will showcase our art reflecting the lovely scenes and vistas of the Greater Washington area. Here’s one of my recent paintings of the C & O Canal that will be displayed during this exhibit.
C & O Spotlight. Oil on Linen. 11 x 14.
Gallery B is located at 7700 Wisconsin Avenue, #E, Bethesda, MD 20814. Gallery hours are 12:00 – 6:00 pm Wednesdays through Saturdays. There will be a public reception during the Bethesda ‘Art Walk’, January 13th, 6:00 – 8:00 pm. Please join us!
I learned yesterday that my entry was juried into the annual Friends of the Yellow Barn exhibit at Glen Echo Park. The show opens today and runs through December 18. The public reception begins at 4 pm this afternoon, with awards announced by juror, Kristi-Anne Caisse, Assistant Director for the Katzen Museum at American University, at 5 pm. Y’all come if you’re in the area! Original paintings make great holiday gifts!
Here’s my painting, based on the spectacular old growth Sitka spruces we saw out in Oregon awhile back.
Reach for the Sky. Oil on Linen Panel. 8 x 10 in.
After struggling (really, procrastinating) for over one year, I have finally finished a large oil painting, Mary’s Orchids.
Mary’s Orchids. Oil on linen, 2′ x 3′.
My sister Mary asked me to paint this work, requesting orchids, cherries, and a piece of pottery by Walter Anderson, the wonderful artist who lived on the Mississippi Gulf Coast near our home. She also asked for it to be sized at two feet by three feet. Gulp.
I bought the canvas panel, arranged the elements in dozens of compositions before settling on this one, roughed out a drawing on the plastic wrapper of the panel, and then STOPPED. I was intimidated by the difficulty of the composition and its sheer SIZE. I hadn’t attempted anything that large since the portrait I did of our dad for his 90th birthday three years ago.
I have at least four pots of yellow orchids hanging around the house. As each orchid lost its flowers, I’d buy another pot in the expectation that I’d be starting ‘soon’. This went on for so long, the original orchid re-bloomed! So I decided I better get cracking, especially after passing the one year mark.
Finally it is done, about to be varnished and shipped down to Mary in Houston, TX. Whew.
If you’ve got an extra minute to spend, check out the site of the Walter Anderson Museum of Art in Ocean Springs, MS. It’s a fabulous museum, built with my dad’s help, honoring a fabulous artist.
Today’s Maryland edition of the Washington Post showcases our new Kentlands Exhibit in its Going Out Guide. Congrats to Nancy Butler on the use of her beautiful painting, Difficult Run, to represent the work of the Seven Palettes! Come see this lovely exhibit anytime through September 5th.
I don’t know whether to start where I left off and come forward or where I am now and go backward. Guess the latter.
Last evening I delivered a painting to the new Bethesda office of Evers & Co., a regional real estate firm. We instructors at the Yellow Barn were invited to submit one of our paintings for display during this evening’s ribbon cutting and reception and thereafter. Here’s what I submitted from my private collection. I’ve loved this ‘baby’ too much to offer it for sale — til now.
Oranges on Copper
Working from a live model at the Yellow Barn, I made three quick iPad sketches week before last. I’m putting the best one first – you don’t need to look at the other two unless you REALLY want to.
nude 3
nude 2
nude 1
Some dear art buddies and I attended a landscape workshop at Deep Creek Lake last weekend, taught by Walt Bartman and managed by his wonderful wife Robyn. The entire group produced some lovely paintings and starts on paintings of the spectacular Fall foliage.
Here are a few of our works:
The Kensington Armory/Town Hall is the site of my third show over Labor Day weekend. The hours are noon to 4 pm Saturday and Sunday, and 9:30 am to 4:30 pm on Labor Day. There will be a public reception Saturday evening from 6:00-7:30 pm.
For this exhibit, I plan to hang four framed paintings and show 10-12 matted originals and possibly prints of recent iPad images in a nearby rack. The slide show below gives a sense of these works — but they look much better ‘in person’. Come see them!