Lights Camera Action...Work in Progress

Lights Camera Action (Work in Progress... gonna sleep on it)
12 x 12
Acrylic on canvas

Felt oh so good to be slapping paint around today... Got out a canvas with some paint already on it and just started painting. I was working on 7 paintings at once... my favorite way to work! This one needs some areas simplified... but I need to think on it a little bit.

Enjoyed the most glorious sunny fall day today... Heading out for a walk right now, to enjoy the last little bit of it.

Aspire...and your art can too match your sofa...

"Aspire" work in progress...
24 x 24
acrylic and pencil on canvas

About this painting: The gold sections are Daniel Smith's gold gesso (which is addicting to use...but really hard to use 'well' I think) and will eventually be covered in gold leaf... we'll see how that goes...LOL

"Real Art Doesn't Match the Sofa"
I don't know where this phrase came from... probably from a frustrated artist.... I can almost hear the conversation as they are looking at the completed and commissioned floral painting...

patron (holding her couch arm sleeve thingie): "shouldn't that rose be a more lipsticky mauve rather than the purpley mauve you've painted?
artist: "If i change the color then that rose will not fit in with the rest of the painting."
patron: "Well, see here in the fabric...it really is a more lipsticky mauve."
artist:"But that color wouldn't look right against the greens that you provided with the paint chips."
patron:"I really thought that the rose would match this lipsticky mauve color in my sofa..."
artist:"Real art does't match the sofa."

Yup... I can imagine where the phrase came from... But, I think it puts up a barrier....
It makes the average person feel intimidated... It's as if artwork coordinating with furnishings is soooo not cool...
And I completely disagree....

Furnishing a home is an art... A room is a composition.... I would not place a piece of art in a spot that didn't look good.... If the pattern on my sofa looked awful with a fabulous painting above it... I would move the painting, or the sofa.

I know I'm being literal with this saying... and that's probably not what the author meant...
But we shouldn't be flippant and roll our eyes at someones "unsophisticated" tastes... It's never good to make someone feel dumb...

As artists need to try to educate and lead... (Especially here in the US... where art education is so sadly pushed to the bottom of our schools' curriculum.) We need to try to entice our friends and family into our artistic circles... to show them what we see and feel, with approachable language and an open and welcoming attitude.

"Real Art is for Everyone"

Website Work Woes and other stories...

"Thought Process"
11 x 10
Acrylic on Paper
not for sale at this time

For the last 10 days I have been working on revamping my website. Hours and hours were spent on it... It had hundreds of pages under the "paintings" category, with subheadings that included~

• Taking the High Road Series
• Landscape
• Faces and Figures
• Animals
• Gouache Ink Resist (including a demo section)
• still life
• abstract
• My Year of Paintings Series...

So Friday morning... I excitedly push the "publish" button and we are off and running, for a couple of minutes... then the "serious error with SiteBuilder" screen comes up.... AAAAGGGGHHH!!!!
I want to throw up.

Luckily, I had saved most everything on an external hard-drive (I had learned that hard lesson a couple of years ago) So I spent more hours importing files into the fresh (uninstalled then reinstalled) SiteBuilder...and re-doing the links ( they didn't work when I put the pages back in) And stopped with just my current work posted. Someday I might add some of the stuff back in... but for now I'm calling it "good enough".

So... you are probably asking..."Why doesn't she hire this done so she can just paint???" Here's why~

• the expense
• the flexibility of adding pages when new work is done...immediately
• I would drive a designer/programmer crazy with my indecision and waffling. (I drive myself crazy)
• I don't want to hunt for or interview website designers.
• my very strong 'self reliant' tendencies.
• and...."I can do it myself" said the little red hen. (rolling my eyes here)

I'm not saying that these reasons are good reasons... but they are my reasons.
I drive me crazy.

Distractions and Diversions... and some juried show advice

"Distractions and Diversions"
12 x 12
acrylic on canvas (framed)
$250

Was delighted to hear that "Distractions and Diversions" received a prize in the Crystal Lake Art Center's All Media Show! The reception is the 11th, and I'll be there with bells on. :)

I submitted 2 paintings... the second one ("It's Complicated") got "declined"... which was a lot easier to shrug off since I won a prize with the other one... LOL
I'm usually quite philosophical about entering shows and try to remember the following~

I consider it a success if I:

• fill out the form correctly
• have color corrected, great photographs of the painting
• select the best 2-3 available paintings that look good together
• get all the labels in the right places
• get the jpg's the correct size
• get the jpg's labeled correctly
• have everything in or postmarked by the deadline
• just having the "ca-hones" to enter a juried show at all!

After that... It's out of my hands.... so fogetahboutit!

Having been a juror before, I know what a difficult job it is. Jurors are most often artists themselves.... They know how each person will feel when they get their results. It ain't easy to curate a show. Remember, the juror will be judged by every person that entered! They are either brilliant or a horses patoot, depending on how they filled out your jury results form!

So....My sage advice....

Try not to get too amped if you get in, let alone receive a prize...
so then on the flip side...

When the inevitable "declined" letters come... you can be Scarlett O'Hara~
"After all.... tomorrow is another day!"