Modern Folk Art Flower

Click image to enlarge. Click title for more information.
Size: 10" x10" x 1.5"
Medium: Oils on Canvas


This week I set up my studio to allow work on up to five paintings in the same week. Two easels accommodate two large canvases for the abstracts. And my extra-long table is roomy enough for three smaller pieces. What this means is that while paint is setting up on one piece or while I am waiting on the direction to take a painting, I can work on another that is ready to move forward. It seemed to work out the way I hoped and I have four completed works and one about half way completed. It isn't making my days longer, just more efficient.

I don't know the name of the artist who painted the piece below that was my inspiration for Modern Folk Art Flower, so I can't give him/her credit. While web-surfing one day I came accross it and it captured my imagination. Today's post is my interpretation of it.

Inpsiration piece.

Loft #10 Art for Contemporary Urban spaces SOLD

Click image to enlarge.

Size: 30 x 40 x 1.5
Medium: Oils on canvas
Date: 5/29/09


An entrepreneurial mother with small children in Seattle has been collecting my paintings and reselling them privately and in her space at Pacific Galleries. When a painting is pre-sold there is no listing associated with the blog posting. She and a few others have requested advance notification of listings. This means an early notification of an eBay auction, Yessy listing or pre-listing of a painting. LLL, keep this in mind for your gift certificate!

Update on the SDAI Summer C-note: Both pieces, Loft #4 and Starry Night #3-Sparkler, sold! This helped off-set the disappointment of Folk Art San Diego not making the Regional Show. Last Sunday I attended the take-down of C-note and the jury of the Regional. It gives artists an opportunity to watch the process of painting-selections. The juror was Larry Baza of Noel-Baza Fine Art Gallery at 2165 India St. He did pick up the painting and study it and later placed it among a small group he revisited. But in the end it was not chosen. I am looking forward to visiting his gallery.

Starry Night SOLD

Click image to enlarge.
Size: 30" x 40" x 1.5"
Medium: Oils on Canvas

I forgot to post this one somehow. It was finished 1/05/09 and was the first in the Starry Night series.

Little Folk Art Houston for It's a Small World show. SOLD

Click image to enlarge.
Medium: Oils on Canvas
Size: 5" x 5" x 1.5"



All sides are painted. This is the bottom view.

Although I applied more layers of paint and spent more time on this MiniScape than usual, Little Folk Art Houston is finally finished, and well ahead of the June 31st deadline. Waiting days for layers to dry wasn't an issue because I began so far in advance of the deadline and because its small size afforded me the space to work on other pieces too.

The building at the center left is the Elder Street Gallery and Artists Lofts space. Since I never found any good, recent photos of it, I don't know how well I captured it.

Artists will be notified of acceptance by July 18. Next I will re-read the entry details and ask the gallery any questions. I hope it is accepted! The It's a Small World show runs from September 19-October 4, 2009.

For more information about the show:
Elder Street Gallery
1101 Elder Street
Houston, Tx 77007
elderstreetgallery@gmail.com

Digital Still Life Apples SOLD

Click image to enlarge
Size: 8 x 8
Medium: Giclee
Type: Digital



This is an original, one of a kind, digital painting. That is, a painting drawn with a mouse and brush tool and painted on the computer. Drawing with a mouse lends a natural clumsiness which can produce interesting results. In this case, I liked the results. The scene is a still life of golden apples, inspired by artist Carol Marine's charming piece, Three Golden Apples.

A giclee is defined as: An image created, scanned, or imported as a digital file into the computer, and printed on a high-end ink jet printer. (I used my own) The inks used produce extremely true colors without a dot pattern.

As it happened, the eBay buyer is a resident of the ultra chic Harbor Club in downtown San Diego where, thanks to her several purchases of a painting and two giclee prints, I have now made two deliveries in the last week. Creating digital art isn't necessarily faster than traditional painting, but the materials are much less costly than canvas and oils.

Little Folk Art Houston is almost finished. I hope to show you the finished piece next week.

Update-Houston Elder Street Gallery It's a Small World

Click image to enlarge


My camera is back on the job and just in time for a visual progress report on the miniscape of Little Folk Art Houston, which will be my entry for the It's a Small World miniatures show at Houston's Elder Street Gallery. Still quite a long way to go before it's finished. Due to the specifications for true miniatures, I am adding more tiny details than I normally would for a miniscape.

Update-Elder Street Gallery Miniatures Show MiniScape

Making slow progress on the MiniScape for Elder Street Gallery Miniatures Show, It's a Small World. Life is full of interruptions lately which makes painting slower than usual. On the other hand the frequent breaks are welcome. My stamina for the little scapes has diminished since the last one I painted. (December's Folk Art San Diego, I think?) I would have posted a photographic progress report but I don't have my camera back yet. Oh yes, and the repair was $100.00. I told them if it needs repairs again I am switching to Kodak!

I found a wonderful little brush for MiniScapes this week. It's a 20/0 which is quite fine and works well for these tiny details. Too bad I didn't see this brush when I first started painting MiniScapes.

Houston Elder Street Gallery Miniatures Show Update

Size: 5" x 5"
sketches on paper

I thought it might be fun to post the progression of the MiniScape painting I am working on for the Elder Street Gallery Miniatures Show, It's a Small World, September 19, 2009. Since I still do not have my camera back from Canon, nor even the diagnosis (because it took until yesterday for it to arrive there) I will not be showing the actual painting yet. Instead I have a couple of sketches of an early pencil drawing and the final, colored sketch from which I am working.

Pencil sketch

I worked on the sketch for a couple weeks, looking at images of Houston and trying to understand its personality and style and how it is laid out. Although I like the sketch, I am not so certain about the painting thus far.

Final colored sketch

And I keep questioning whether I really want to put so much effort into it when in the end it may not be accepted by the jury nor even be considered a true miniature, with all the technical specifications and requirements.

Here is one of the primary satellite images of Houston from which I am working.

At least I have plenty of time before the June 30 deadline, which is worth a lot in itself.

Eclipse__Abstract Expressionism. SOLD

Click picture to enlarge. Click title for more views and information.
Size: 40 x 60 x 1.5
Medium: Oils on Canvas


As the song says, "the waiting is the hardest part". What a mystery abstract painting has become to me. It asks me to be spontaneous, to listen, to respond, to pay attention, to evaluate the unexpected, to make decisions, to be unafraid, to ponder, to be lead and to wait ...and wait...and wait...and wait.

Then at a certain moment the painting reveals itself to me and surprises me with the wonder of its own true soul, that which it was before I began and fills me with an awesome and indescribable joy.

I added the keywords "abstract Expressionism" next to the title because I read that it may help Google find the image.

trying to get a good photo of this painting was frustrating and I spent most of the day at it, until my camera broke and will need to be sent back to Canon AGAIN. If it requires replacement AGAIN, I think I will switch to Kodak.

Oh yes, and this painting used to be Loft #9.

Update - And Elder Street Gallery Call to Artists

No painting to post today. Monday I decided to paint over Loft #9. I am letting the painting set the pace, which is much too slow for me! As someone once said to me: "I want patience and I want it now!" That sounds like something I would say.

It requires restraint on my part not to jump ahead of the painting and impose something on it. The alternative is I wait to hear its side of the conversation. Right now it seems to have paused to consider what it will say next. I am politely waiting. Maybe by next week I will have something to post.

Meanwhile I have also been working on a miniscape for the Call to Artists from the Elder Street Gallery, Houston. The painting may be no larger than 5" x 5". Strictly speaking, a miniature is defined as having:

"* A high standard of draughtsmanship and composition.
* Mastery of miniature technique in chosen media and palette.
* No subject larger than life, portrait head no larger than 2" (5cm). In a top quality miniature every single detail is itself miniaturised, leading the eye down and down, so that with high magnification you may see the immaculate fineness of the brush strokes."

I researched the term "miniatures" in paintings. They are usually delicate, intricate and detailed pieces one might expect to see on a large scale. But they are tiny. So before starting this project I contacted the gallery to make sure folk art abstracts would even qualify and sent in a sample of my miniscapes. They said it seemed like a good idea.