Pink Peony

Peony. Hands down the most heady, beautiful, wonderful flower on earth! This painting, of my favorite flower, was unfortunately based on a photo...ah, but not for long as they'll be blooming before you know it!

Acrylic on 8 x 10" stretched canvas.

Water Street Art Gallery

I'm happy to post that the area's newest coop gallery, Water Street Art Gallery will be opening Tuesday, March 31, 2009! The gallery brings together 9 fine artists working in a variety of mediums. Besides a splendid display of fine art including paintings, jewelry and ceramics, the gallery has a classroom with a variety of classes being taught each month.

Located one block off Historic Route 66 in downtown Sapulpa at 16 S. Water Street, the gallery will be open Tuesday-Saturday from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Every Thursday night we'll have an open classroom for anyone to join us who'd like to come paint or just chat.

We'll have opening night shows throughout the year and we're excited to announce our first annual 6 x 6 Art Show to be held in conjunction with Sapulpa's Route 66 Blow Out, June 6, 2009. For those interested in participating in the show, you can come by and pick up your free 6 x 6" canvas! Details here.

Then on May 22 "An Evening With Authors and Art" will be a book signing featuring 8 area authors.

Be sure to bookmark our website: www.waterstreetartgallery.com and check back often for events, news and class information.

Still Life - Focus on Masses

Okay, so here's my study attempt with acrylics focusing on painting masses, not lines. Had a rough, painted over canvas and a photo of a pretty bouquet (not my usual m.o.). Anyway, it had good shadows so for this exercise, it worked.

Just really worked on masses of lights and darks and soft edges until the end. I can see how this technique, focus is really going to be helpful in the long run.

OVAC Art Studio Tour - Kick Off Party & What I Learned

So last night I had the opportunity to head over to Frame Maker Gallery for the Kick-Off Party for the OVAC Art Studio Tour. WOW! Talk about diverse and beautiful artwork from a fantastic group of area artists.

I was so thrilled to have the privilege to meet and visit with a few of the featured artists like painters Mary Russell, Lynn Clark, Kristal Tomshany and Mosaic artist Cindy Swanson. The caliber of work presented was superb and diverse.

While I had intended to go on some of the studio tours today, we woke up to a freak snow storm this late in the season! I'm sure that others will be braver than I and not miss out on the rare opportunity to visit the working studios.

However, I made sure to talk at length with a few of the artists and especially enjoyed visiting with Mary Russell regarding painting masses vs. lines. She explained that as soon as one starts a painting with lines, there's an immediate disconnect between the elements. However, when painting masses with all soft edges, saving hard edges to the very last, it creates a unity and is extremely liberating to the artist. What she said made me think of writing a speech. When one works from an outline - from thoughts, rather than a manuscript, the speech, when given is more natural and interesting to listen to. And the speaker speaks much more freely. Perhaps it's the same concept when painting masses instead of line-based details.

So, I promised Mary that I was going to go home and right away practice painting masses. This morning I got out some black card stock, a few soft pastels, a couple of landscape photos and set about on this mission. I gave myself just 2.5 x 3.5" of territory for each sketch/study. One is a fairly complex series of back-lit trees one late afternoon in Florida. The other is a section of downtown Tulsa - early morning. I wished that I had had some other darker/neutral colors to work with, but these were a good exercise. Now the goal is to keep practicing this and translate this method to larger paintings.

So, thank you Mary and all the other artists for taking the time to graciously answer my questions!

Caravan

Among my fondest childhood memories are those times spent visiting my Grandma Tannie in our little town, Heber Springs, Arkansas. A small, genteel woman, grandma taught me all about planting flowers, shelling pecans, and swimming. It was she who helped me learn how to swim underwater at Greers Ferry Lake. Visiting her little house on Searcy Street was always fun. A modest abode, it was filled with special things that never seemed to alter. To this day I still have a mental picture of every room in the house and all its contents...or at least, I think so!

Grandma had two kitchens as at one time the house was a duplex. She never used the large kitchen really. The small one had a little cream colored drop-leaf table with two pressed back chairs. Next to the table was a little notched shelf in the wall filled with trinkets. But of particular fascination to me was the shelf that held the little elephant family tea set. I used to stare at that set imagining the exotic place from which it must have come.

Many years ago my grandma had to leave her family home and I was honored to receive the little tea set as an inheritance. Wherever we move, I proudly display my elephant family tea set and think of her when I look at it.

I knew someday I'd like to include at least a part of the set in a painting and thought a whimsical setting seemed appropriate. Thus the elephants are loaded down with "goods" on a journey to market...a caravan.

The painting is acrylics on a 12 x 16" Canson Montval acrylic paper mounted to board and was painted from life with the set up at eye level more or less. I chose to keep the background and draping fairly neutral for an overall rich look.

Morning Commute

I feel somewhat better about my painting efforts this week with this quick little acrylic on paper based on a scene I saw on my way to work this week. The clouds and sun were simply magnificent and reminded me what a gift it is to be alive to enjoy such moments.

I'm finished...I promise!

This painting has dogged me from the start! Made some radical changes and am calling it done ... finally.

I hope to remember the lessons I've learned from this piece...watch your values, keep you focal point clear in mind...allow selected areas of color sing...color intensity diminishes into the distance...and on and on...

Asian Still Life with Nandinas - Revised

So, we had our Tulsa Artists Guild meeting tonight with a rare opportunity to have a painting critiqued. This time the visiting artist was George Kontoupis. It was a bit daunting to take a painting that I felt in my gut had some issues - but it seemed the perfect opportunity to improve the piece. Confirmed was my feeling that the tall vase in the back wasn't working as originally painted. With some help and a few suggestions, I came home tonight and made some revisions. I like it much better now and the whole piece seems to read better. Ah, the beauty of acrylics, such changes aren't so difficult to achieve effectively! You can look below at the previous post to see the changes.

(P.S.: I did get kudos for good design.)

Asian Still Life with Nandinas

My little 5 x 5" acrylic still life was the inspiration for this new Asian-themed still life. See? So, this is an acrylic painted from life incorporating my 5 x 5 done for the TAC Gallery's annual fundraiser.

The painting is rich with a variety of textures. My objective was really to create a warmth and richness within the scene.

I chose a 16 x 20" stretched canvas and first composed the scene with washes of Hookers Green. The idea was to allow the complimentary under-painting to help the warm colors really glow.

And here's a close up detail.

Tulsa Artists to Open Studios for Art Tour

Tulsa - The Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition's upcoming Tulsa Art Studio Tour will open the studio doors of 11 Tulsa artists in 9 studios. Visitors can get a glimpse into the creative process and see art in action April 4th-5th from noon until 5 p.m. each day.

For art lovers, such access to the inner workings of artists is a rare opportunity to see the other side of the canvas. Visitors will have the chance to talk with artists, view and buy artwork, and see art being made. The tour is self-guided and presented by the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition.

The artists range from photographers and painters to ceramicists and metalsmiths, representing a variety of stages in their art careers. Tour artists include:

* Kevin Byrne, ceramics, 2316 E. 13th St.
* Glenn Herbert Davis, photography and installation, 2837 W. 21st
* Chris Owens, painting & mixed media, 3613 S. Louisville
* Mary Russell & Lynn Clark, painting, 2236 E. 6th St.
* Cindy Swanson, mosaics, 4224 S. Norfolk Ave.
* Kristal Tomshany, painting & mixed media, 1846 E. 17th St.
* Steadman and Peggy Upham, painting, emtalsmith, 28th & Lewis (Saturday Only)
* David Varmecky, photography, 1104 S. Victor Ave.
* Craig Wood, ceramics, 2733 E. 34th St.


Committee Co-Chairs: Cathy Deuschle and Joey Frisillo

A kick-off celebration and exhibit will be held at the Frame Maker Art Gallery, on Friday, March 27th from 5-8 p.m. This event is free and open to the public, and guests will have a chance to see examples of artwork from artists on the tour, meet the artists, and purchase tour tickets. This exhibit runs from March 17 - April 11, 2009.

Tickets to the tour include a map and are $5 in advance and $10 at the door. Tickets are available online at www.tulsaartstudiotour.org or by phone at 405-232-6991, or at any of the Tour studios the days of the Tour. For more information about the Tulsa Art Studio Tour, visit www.tulsaartstudiotour.org

About OVAC

* More than 3,000 artists participate in OVAC programs yearly
* OVAC has served a vital role in promoting Oklahoma art and supporting Oklahoma artists since 1988, providing training, networking and grant fundign for artists
* Other OVAC events include an annual Momentum in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, the annual OVAC fundraiser 12 x 12 Art Show & Sale and rotating exhibitions Art 365, VisionMakers, and Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition Biennial
* Professional workshops for artists make up OVAC's Artist Survival Kit (ASK) series
* OVAC features Oklahoma arts in its bimonthly magazine Art Focus Oklahoma
* OVAC's Virtual Gallery at www.ovacgallery.com is a searchable website featuring more than 300 artist's works
* OVAC is an Allied Arts Member Agency


More information: Kelsey Karper, publications@ovac-ok.org, 405-232-6991, www.ovac-ok.org

Nandinas in Teapot

Here's my latest little still life painted from life...yes, it's Nandina berries & foliage again. Hey, with a challenging square format and only 25 square inches of real estate, I had to give myself something familiar in the challenge! This is acrylics on 5 x 5" square gallery wrapped canvas. The prime objective here was to keep the main subject rather dark in value "propped" against a bright red background for some fun negative space painting.

This is my entry for this year's Tulsa Artists' Coalition 5 x 5 Show!

"Fresh Daffodils"

How wonderful it is that Spring is just around the corner! The days are getting longer and the sure sign of warmer, brighter days was the daffodils pushing their grey-green sprouts through the soil. Last week we had our first bouquet of Daffodils and of course they called me to paint them!

Painted in a loose, impasto manner this 8 x 10" acrylic is all about the glorious, cheery yellow blossoms.

OVAC

I'm now happy to announce that I'm a member of Oklahoma Visual Artists Coalition. You can see my OVAC gallery here.