"Searching for Paradise" Art Entry and Saladino Class

"Searching for Paradise"
18" x 24" Acrylic on gallery wrap canvas
This figurative work is for sale at the exhibit in the September 11-26, 09, 7th annual art show and sale, Preservation is the Art of the City, Fort Worth, located in the Fort Worth Community Arts Center. Each of the 50 selected artists will have a 36" x 72" space and can place as many works as will fit within this space. (4 pieces max.) The artists can have another 4 pieces, max. 14", in the miniature section and 1 work associated with Fort Worth preservation and not to exceed 30". A portion of the sales to to help fund preservation programming. The turquoise pattern to the left of the figure is a little too dominant so it may get a little tweaking.

Tony Saladino Critique Class July 9
I took the painting above and another I'll post later and below is a slide show of others' work from the class. Mouse over for captions.
One of the perks of attending the critique class is to sit surrounded by Tony's beautiful abstracts and see his newest works. You can view some of his fabulous work at this current show at the B. Deemer Gallery.
Tony talked to us in this class about simplify and combine parts of a painting that is not working and about it being O.K. to be all over the place before we develop a "thrust" and settle in. Similar to me taking so many workshops and I get asked about getting mixed up in techniques. I don't and guess I've been all over the board and probably still am, but if nothing else I learn I don't want to paint like that and that is a good lesson. I would love to learn some of Tony's painting methods.
He says "The painting has to have interest to grab your attention. If it's pleasing to your eye, it will be pleasing to others." One of his comments on Thursday kept focusing on how many paintings we might find in our one painting. He would take a mat and show us and then ask us to think about simplifying some of the areas and combining colors.
We had to laugh when Paula said "I hate to show my work after the simplify discussion. I'm the "Queen of Dull" and I decided to loosen up since Tony's one day workshop." We loved her busy and colorful wheels and clocks painting and especially her abstract. Check out the slide show and see the other interesting paintings from the critique. Yes, we had a good Mexican lunch together at the "Tequila Rain" restaurant. I think that would make a great painting title.

Acrylic Figure ~ Waiting to Dance ~ Burridge Workshop ~ LLS

"Waiting to Dance"
Acrylic Figure 12" x 9"
Gallery wrapped canvas

This painting was done in the Robert Burridge workshop last week. See the previous blog post for a slide show of pieces from that 5 day event.
I delivered the small acrylic painting on Saturday to the Fort Worth Community Art Center for a donation to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Art Auction and Cocktail Party. This is the LLS's third art auction and charity event that benefits "Light the Night Walk". It involves artists, cancer survivors, and community members and last year the event raised more than $30,000. More information about A Cure Through Art click HERE.
The sponsors hope to double the amount raised last year.
The Title:
It is a struggle for me to give a painting a meaningful title. On the drive over to Fort Worth I heard one of my favorite songs, "I Hope You Dance", by Lee Ann Womack and memories returned surrounding the time when I first heard the song. I named this painting "Waiting to Dance".

Wine Bottles Acrylic Painting ~ Celebration Times 5 ~ Fort Worth Community Arts Center

Celebration #1


Celebration #2



Celebration #3



Celebration #4



Celebration #5

These are 5 paintings I've completed for the Fort Worth Community Arts Show. On the right bottom is the prospectus but if you have Vista, Adobe pdf files will freeze up your computer when you try to open them. Entries are due November 15. The show is their annual 9" x 12" works on paper show and entries are not framed but sent in an envelope and are priced at $100 each. Original entries can be any size just so they will fit in a 9 x 12 envelope. The reception will be December 15 from 6-9 and the exhibition will be open December 12-27, 2008. The entry fee is $5.00 for each work and artists are allowed 5 entries. I have yet to sell anything when I've entered but a fellow Canvas by Canvas member, Barbara, has so I'll keep entering.
These 9x12 paintings are on gesso watercolor paper with some collage, stamping, and with a few touches of gold acrylic to give a little holiday bling. I decided to work on a series after the Robert Burridge workshop and I had a few rubber stamps with me and was inspired with what he had done with wine bottles. The collage is from some of the paper towels that had been stained with the acrylics in use. I began 3 of the pieces while in Corpus in October and this week I have added some extra touches and completed the last 2 paintings.

Floral Acrylic ~ Menopause - The Musical

6" x 8" Acrylic Floral
This is another of the Robert Burridge Workshop warm ups I did while in Corpus Christi. See previous posts in my blog about the workshop. With this painting you get an extra painting as on the backside is a very bad watercolor tree. The beauty of working on paper is the ability to gesso the turkey side and start over with acrylics. I still haven't learned "trees". Bob showed us how to paint "drip" trees and I predict a "drip" tree in my future.

Well, here we are "dressy casual" as one of the Canvas by Canvas members wrote in an email. We stopped our day early and all raced to meet at the Target at Eastchase at 4:45 PM for car pooling and an early dinner before the theater. (Our Barbara was the only one absent but was having a short Shreveport vacation.) We sent out emails to choose the restaurant and this time it was a new one for us - Sushi Axiom in Fort Worth.
No, no, this old country girl didn't go for the sushi but was looking for an enchilada and some refried beans to go with her rice but went with the Shrimp Tempura and green tea below.
We were placed in an adjoining room which was perfect for a group of boisterous women but it was only a prelude to joining lots and lots of women at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center for the play, Menopause the Musical.
MAS, our CBC travel guide, had seen it with a bridge buddy in the past week and said we had to go and now thanks, Maryann, for the recommendation. More laughs as 4 actresses took us through a lyrical celebration of women and the change. It is a stage, a passage into middle age that all women will face and this production is staged with fun parodies of 25 songs from the '60s, '70s, and '80s. Before the show one very brave man brought his companion on stage for an impromptu dance that brought cheers from the audience. One of my favorite songs was the 1964 hit, "My Guy" with the lyrics all about "My Thighs". It's been said that Jeanie Linders wrote the musical "after a bottle of wine and a hot flash." Thanks, Jeanie for a chance to laugh with our fellow sisters about our humanness and our passages and triumphs. If you can't attend, you'll get an idea about the show reading the reviews on their link page.
In the previous post, I mentioned that Canvas by Canvas will be joining Artists' Showplace as an associate. You are invited to a reception "The Associates", Friday, November 14th, 6PM to 9PM. Stop by and say hello and enjoy the paintings and live music. Nineteen individual artists form the ownership of the gallery and it provides an elite environment for local artists to show their work and take workshops from internationally known instructors. That is where I took from Nicholas Simmons and I've signed up for several more in 2009.
Now to pack for one other workshop in 2008, the Steven Quiller next week. Watch for the updates.

New Acrylic Paintings ~ Art Journal Pages

6" Acrylic Cactus Square as part of a painting for Canvas by Canvas. (At the request of Karen, the designer of this painting, my initials have been scaled down but I forgot to take a new photo. We try to put our initials on each piece but I agree this was a little overkill.) CBC is working hard getting a show ready for The Fort Worth Community Center and our October show at the Petroleum Club. You may take a sneak peek on the CBC web site to see what's on the easel.
This is my acrylic square for Cindy Y's project of the Texas Flag. This is a pecan leaf on a white background square. The pecan is courtesy of Cindy as I told her I only contracted for the leaf and she is always eager to paint on your square or your square if you'll let her and she always does a beautiful job. The pecan is the Texas state tree.
This is page 20 of my art journal, Canson Montval all media, 9 x 12, with lunch at Hoffbrau, painting boots and pecan leaves at the Upstairs Gallery, a trip to Dallas for the Park Cities Presbyterian Art Festival guidelines, a secret message tucked into a cut up greeting card that may have good news for my friend, and my old bugaboo bills.

I signed up for AT&T U-verse and we've become friends from my many tech support calls but they have been super, my scales are screaming again and I need to eat more veggies instead of Personal Pans and pancakes at I Hop, movie to see Vicky Christina Barcelona, my new notebook from Borders with a lovely design on the front by Laurel Burch.

Trying our two new items, a metal pan of watercolors, Lucas, from ASW and a Raffine sketch book 5.5 x 8.5, Lana paper made in France and it is 100 pound, 48 sheets and it took the watercolor nicely. I decided to use the Laurel Burch design on my first page and used some gold pen outlines.
This is the notebook with the Laurel Burch design from Borders. The design appealed to me so much that I had to try my hand at reproducing it in my art journals.

Fort Worth Community Arts Center ~ CBC ~ Karl Umlauf

This is one of the Canvas by Canvas' newest paintings and can be seen "On the Easel" on the home page.
Yesterday found some of the members hanging our show at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center Art Cafe. Excusa if some of the photos are a little blurry or off centered as our main concern was getting them hung, centered and 58" from the floor.
Karl Umlauf will have a show in the main gallery area. To read more about the artist, check out the June FWCAC newsletter. Other sites of interest would be the Gallery 2 David Dike Fine Art and Estates and David Dike Fine Art.
Classical station WRR 101.1 FM has the event on their arts calendar and will be announcing other details.

See some of our paintings below and please visit the FWCAC and check them out in person as they will appear a lot clearer than in this slide show. Mouse over for captions. If you're not familiar with our work, we are a collaborative group of 9 artists and we each will paint an individual square and look closely at the paintings and you will find our initials somewhere on each square.

FWCAC Biennial Show 2008 ~ Acrylic Floral Warm-ups ~ Burridge Workshop

Acrylic Floral #2

Acrylic Floral #3

Acrylic Floral #4

5 1/2" x 7 1/2" Acrylic on Paper

These are warm-up exercises I did at the Robert Burridge Workshop. See yesterday's post.
Bob has developed this way of working with warm-ups and cool-downs. He likens his warm-ups to the practice of an athlete with a stretching exercise or a musician playing some scales before the actual performance. As a painter, he's getting ready to paint and this is a loosening up exercise first thing in the morning on a toned canvas or paper. He completes multiple paint sketches of the same subject and each day will choose a different subject and then paints 3 to 6 small paintings. Not all of these will be little gems and some can end up in the turkey pile but this will teach about color, subject matter, and "how to paint". Bob works fast and loose, lets the small paintings dry, goes back and adds the wow! His method is explained in his "Loosen Up: Workbook and Studio Notes", a 130 page book on pages 71-74.
These are floral warm-ups 2-4 that I have posted today that I completed at the workshop at Dena's and will post 5-8 later.
Saturday is Gallery night in Fort Worth when the art galleries will be open and the party moves from gallery to gallery. I'd like to invite you to begin at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center and see my painting, "Delightfully Timeless" and the work of Canvas by Canvas, The Red Lantern. Gaile Robinson, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, art and design critic, has written a story with a photograph of the artists. This show is open to the North Texas community and no one gets a rejection slip and works are hung as they arrive. Prices are ranging from $15-$5,000 so there is something for all art collectors in the area. All Canvas by Canvas artists are in the panoramic photo except Cindy Y and I. We were both in the Hill Country on separate trips and we missed out. Look for Barbara Hackney, Karen Foster, Maryann Stephens, Cindy Campbell, Margie Whittington, Betty Taylor, and Connie Michael. Read the article and see the photo online. Be sure and click on the 360-degree view link so you can see the photograph. Oh, I see Colleen, Soon, Marie and Jo Ann, also. Do you see a familiar face? You can see "Delightfully Timeless" by the exit doorway, to the right and there is a piece of sculpture pointing to it . If you're a painter, try some of Bob's warm-up techniques and I'll see you Saturday night somewhere on the art gallery walk. More information can be found at the Fort Worth Art Dealers Association.

Vail Mud Season ~ 9 x 12 Works on Paper Show ~ FWCAC

$100.00
8 x 10 Acrylic on Illustration Board
On an April trip to Breckenridge, Co. with a side trip to Vail found little activity. It seems that April 23 was the first day of mud season when for a few weeks things close down for a face lift with store repair and carpets cleaned. The melting snow and higher rivers signals it's time to put away the skis and convert the inventory to bikes. The streets were easy to navigate and some street maintenance was in progress with a few stray visitors enjoying the cool, cloudy day. Most of the retail stores and restaurants were closed. I took this photo of this sparse scene and painted this popcorn stand without people to depict this time of year.
Vail Mud Season will be entered into the Fort Worth Community Arts Center's 9 x 12 Works on Paper Show and pieces will be due November 15. The work can be any size must it must fit into a 9" x 12" size envelope, unmatted and unframed and be priced at $100. Each artist is limited to 5 entries at $5.00 an entry. I plan to work on 4 more. The Reception and opening is December 8 and the show runs until December 29.

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Eat Well ~ Paint Your Food ~ Laugh Often