Loft #12...SOLD

Click image to enlarge. Click title for more information.
Size: 30"x40"1.5"
Medium: Oils on Canvas
Dated: 06/09/09



Good news #1: Got my external hard drive working again just in time for this week's post. I needed to have access to all my painting files. And after a week of troubleshooting my old keyboard and two non-Apple replacements I am back at work with my new Apple keyboard and able to type again.

Good news #2: Waiting, the painting I posted last week, was selected by jury for the upcoming SDAI Regional show. Modern Folk Art Flower was entered as well, in the One Foot show, but I still don't know whether or not it was accepted.

Waiting. On View at SDAI Regional Show Through 8/23/09

Click image to enlarge. Click title for more information and views.
Size: 20x16x1.5
Medium: Oils, Acrylic And Paper On Canvas.
Date:07/08/09
This painting will be on view at the San Diego Art Institute's Regional show through August 23rd. Dr. John Marciari, Curator of European Art at the San Diego Museum of Art is the juror.

There are two paper parts in this collage/painting: the lining of the shoe and the chain-linked fence. The most challenging aspect of this entire piece was the fence. The painting had been moving along well and was finished, except for the fence. I found the image I wanted to use, printed it out, carefully matched the fence parts, glued the pieces together, sprayed the paper with a protective coating, carefully cut out the dog's hind quarters and glued the entire piece to the canvas. It looked perfect. And then it happened.

Right before my eyes the paper buckled and puckered! After waiting a week for the oils surrounding it to sufficiently dry, I wet the paper and removed it. The next week was spent printing and reprinting the paper until the background colors were the exact right shade (I ran through two ink cartridges); spraying and re-spraying the protective coating because it kept leaving spots on the paper; cutting and re-cutting the dog's hind quarters out of the paper to fit exactly, and then finally gluing it back down. It would have been faster to build a chain-linked fence and install it on the painting! Even the tiny little paper shoe-lining was cut a number of times to get just the right shape and angle! Although I could have painted these elements, in the end I am glad I used the collage-method because it adds interest and I like the outcome, at last.

On another note, yesterday an artist-friend took me to a gallery in La Jolla he rightly thought I would enjoy called Quint Contemporary Art . It was founded in 1981 by Mark Quint, whom I remember from high school and I have been intending to visit it ever since. I'm proud of Mark for managing to open and continue running a gallery and doing it this well. Afterward I was treated to a delicious lunch on the patio of the Museum of Contemporary Art a few blocks away. It was an inspiring afternoon and a perfect break.

Loft #11. SOLD

Click image to enlarge. Click title for more information.
Size: 30 x 40 x 1.5
Medium: Oils on canvas
Dated: 06/08/09


Just to show you I am really and truly working on multiple paintings, here is one of the new Lofts.

Pop Art Woman Portrait-SOLD

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Size: 16 x 20 x 5/8 framed
Medium: Oils on canvas board
dated: 6/15/09



This is the Pop Art Portrait I wrote about last week. The painting/collage of the dog is still in progress. It would have been finished but for the buckling of the collage paper. So once the oils are dry enough I can wet the paper portion to remove and replace it. Paint seems to be taking longer than ever to dry. I even had a customer contact me yesterday about a painting that had arrived with the shipping materials embedded into it. This could only be due to the paint being insufficiently cured after what was a normal amount of time. This is a first.

MOdern Folk Art Flowers SOLD

Click image to enlarge. Click title for more views and information.
Size: 10 x 10 x 1.5
Medium: Oils
Date: 6/10/09


The smaller pieces that I am now painting, to round out the rotation of five ongoing paintings, seem to lend themselves more to figurative abstracts or folk art.

In that vein this week I also finished a pop art painting of a portrait-collage I made in 1992, and am well underway on a painting of a dog. Not only do I like this new rotation plan but it is fun to paint on smaller, more manageable and less expensive, medium sized canvases and in a more figurative style.

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

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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

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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.