Bye Bye Blue

Today I went to The Arts Center to help take down the Robert Stackhouse and Carol Mickett exhibit. All the paintings were removed, wraped in plastic. The signs peeled from the walls. And sadest of all was the piles of blue wood that were once a beautiful instalation piece. It came down much faster than it went up, too fast. There will be new things though. There is a new exhibit coming of Jun Kaneko's work. This also looks to be very interesting. The following is the information from The Arts Center website about this exhibition.

Jun Kaneko is a prolific artist who learns by process and through the dialog between maker and object, a distance he is constantly challenging, achieving an intimacy with his medium where his bold hand can seem invisible. Mainly identified as a sculptor, Jun Kaneko also works on equally technical and innovative levels in glass, textiles, bronze, paper and canvas.Kaneko came to prominence during the contemporary ceramics movement of the 1960s and 1970s along with colleagues and teachers Peter Voulkos, Paul Soldner, and Jerry Rothman. He has taught at some of the nation's leading art schools including Cranbrook Academy of Art, the Rhode Island School of Design, and Scripps College.His work is included in more than 40 museum collections including Cranbrook Academy, Detroit Institute of Art; Philadelphia Museum of Art; and the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery. This exhibition is an extensive representation of Jun Kaneko's work in ceramic sculpture, drawings and paintings over the past two decades. Organized by Smith Kramer Fine Art Services.Synovus, Stanley, Everett and Hough GalleriesMarch 7 - May 10, 2008.
http://www.theartscenter.org/exhibits/0308/jun_kaneko.htm

New ACEOs

Title: Henna

Size: 2.5 x 3.5 inches

Materials: Acrylic on illustration board

Year: 2008

Title: Pebbles

Size: 2.5 x 3.5 inches
Materials: Micron pen on multimedia artboard

Year: 2008

Title: Condensation

Size: 2.5 x 3.5 inches

Materials: Acrylics on acrylic paper
Year: 2008

Title: Circles

Size: 2.5 x 3.5 inches
Materials: Acrylic on illustration board

Year: 2008

More ACEOs. I have fallen in love with making these little ones. Now everything I make seems to be getting smaller. Once a week my mother and I get together for a walk and then breakfast. While we were waiting for our food at breakfast, I pulled out all these little pieces to show her my latest. She was surprised I had a whole gallery in my purse. I had given my husband a couple. They are sitting in their little protective plastic sleeves on his desk. I suggested he put one in his wallet in one of the picture slots. He said he didn't want it to get ruined in there. I reminded him it is only a 2.5 x 3.5 inch piece of paper.

Available for purchase in my Etsy store.

A Little Rain And Snow

Title: Rain or Snow

Size: 6 x 6 in

Materials: Acrylic on stretched canvas

Year: 2008

Yesterday I spoke to my father, who lives in Indianapolis. We always compare the weather between Indianapolis and Tampa. Last night, the weather was miserable there with snow, sleet, and freezing temperatures. I shared that earlier that afternoon I got in the car and the temperature gauge on the dash read 91 degrees. This morning I woke up to gloomy skies and heavy rains. This seemed like a good day to share a recent small painting I did called Rain or Snow. As always, this and others are available through my Etsy Shop.

New Etsy Shop Items

Hi everyone! I just wanted to let you know I have some new items in my Etsy Shop. Hand-painted and hand-printed cards are now available. Here is a sampling.

Painting With Lizards 101

I am a night owl and work at night. This evening I was working on my computer and kept hearing a noise over in the corner. The cat was going crazy. She was on the table, off the table, on, off, on, off... I went over a few times and didn't find anything. Then she sat there staring at the corner for what seemed like hours. When I was done with my work on the computer, I decided to do a little painting before I headed to bed. I grabbed a jar of paint brushes. Then I saw one move. Of course I jumped a little because that was not a paint brush, that was a lizard! It is common in Florida for these to get in the house. The cat especially thinks it's great. I took the jar out to the patio and set Bonnard free. (I named him after one of my favorite painters, Pierre Bonnard.) The cat got out as I was doing this, and the last thing I saw was a blur of white fur running off into the dark night. I hope Bonnard survived the chase. Can you find the lizard in the picture? Look for the tail.

ACEOs

Title: Speckled 1

Size: 2-1/2 x 3-1/2 inches

Materials: Acrylic on Strathmore Wet Media Paper

Year: 2008

Title: Speckled 2

Size: 2-1/2 x 3-1/2 inches

Materials: Acrylic on Stratmore Wet Media Paper

Year: 2008

Title: Speckled 3

Size: 2-1/2 x 3-1/2 inches

Materials: Acrylic on Strathmore Wet Media Paper

Year: 2008

Title: Speckled 4

Size: 2-1/2 x 3-1/2 inches

Materials: Acrylic on Strathmore Wet Media Paper

Year: 2008

There are a couple of things I am obsessed with, the color lime green and dots. The lime green one can get out of control. If something comes in lime green, that is my first choice. Its probably a good thing that not everything comes in lime green. Dots, dots, dots. I find it kind of meditative to paint dots. I could go on and on, and I do until I run out of room. Now I have a new obsession to add to the list, ACEOs. This stands for Art Cards Editions and Originals. They are little collectible pieces of art, pocket sized. They are the size of a baseball card, 2-1/2 x 3-1/2 inches. They can be any medium. I have always been amazed at the variety of these cards and the craftsmanship of the artists. This week there was a flood that made its way into my art closet. (Yes, there were tragedies.) Everything was emptied out and took over my work area. I resorted to working on these small pieces of paper. Now I am absolutely obsessed with these. I guess there is always room for one more obsession. These four are a series I titled Speckled.

As always, these are available in my Etsy shop.

Art-Not Just For People

A couple years ago I gave my mother a hand-painted floor cloth I made. Today she sent me this picture. She keeps the floor cloth in her office, and her cat has decided to nap away the day on it. Art, not just for people anymore.

Glass

Title: Glass
Size: 20 x 20 inches.
Materials: Acrylic on stretched canvas.
Year: 2008

Someone recently asked me how I go about doing a painting. They wanted to know if I have it all planned out or if I just start painting. I had never really thought much about my process until that question. I realized that if I do have a plan, sketch, etc. it NEVER turns out like I planned. Then it becomes a struggle, me against the painting. Recently, I have kind of gotten into this rhythm of having an idea of what I want the painting to feel like and then go where it takes me. In this particular painting I wanted a watery feeling. This resulted in a stained glass look and then of course with my usual strong line design over it. I love using acrylics because they can be anything from fluid and watery like watercolors to very thick and textured. I have found them to be the most versatile for me and work well in combining these two styles in a piece like this.

The original of this painting is available for puchase from my Etsy shop, and prints in many sizes and paper choices are available through my Imagekind shop.

Dark Water

Title: Dark Water 3

Materials: Acrylic on Masonite and then further work done in Photoshop and Corel Painter.

Size: 36 x 24 in

Year: 2008

Title: Dark Water 2

Materials: Acrylic on Masonite

Size: 36 x 14 inches

Year: 2008

Title: Dark Water 1

Materials: Acrylic on Masonite

Size: 36 x 24 in

Year: 2008

My husband is a musician and has just finished recording an album. He picked out a painting I did for the cover of the CD and had a name picked out for the album. Then he changed the name of the album, and the picture he picked out just didn't make as much sense. We mulled over other paintings and ideas. I then volunteered to come up with some other ideas. Here are a few of them. The name of the album is Dark Water. What will the cover be? I guess you will just have to wait until the album comes out.

Prints

I now have prints available on Imagekind. My originals are still available on Etsy. Thanks for looking!

Click here to see my gallery.