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.

Indigo Bunting ~ Grackle Update

Indigo Bunting
9x12 acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas/profile 3/4", not framed

I posted a grackle 6"x6" mini for Canvas by Canvas for the Neil Sperry Show and it has been purchased by an artist art collector. Thank you Dee. Yesterday I painted at the Upstairs Gallery with some CBC members on our new collaborative work and then on this personal work from a grackle photo.
When finally getting to my recliner and opening the Fort Worth Star Telegram, I see the grackle has made the front page and it wasn't receiving very good press in an article written by Anna M. Tinsley. My fellow CBC member, Connie, consulted her book "A Guide to Field Identification - Birds of North American" and tells me it looks like an Indigo Bunting and since I am an intuitive painter and not in the least interested in painting a photographic rendering I will call this grackle an Indigo Bunting. For the bird watchers who may read this and find the discrepancies just let me warn you that I'm not painting a specific bird but these are my bird symbols.
Some points made in the front page article:
1. Two falconers, with hawks, Kujo and Blackjack, will hunt roosting grackles.
2. Hawks are rewarded with mouse meat before a grackle meal.
3. Grackles are known as "downtown's feathered menace."
4. Grackle damage and nuisance is unacceptable to the public.
5. A new attitude of "No Grackle Left Behind."
6. Grackles are loud, messy and unafraid of people (I know some people like that)
7. Some people defend the bird because the grackle eats mice and insects, such as crickets and roaches. But others say their mess outweighs any positive points.
8. I will follow this story to see if the falconers will have any luck and I'll keep painting grackles or an Indigo Bunting and let others do the grackle hazing.

Later in the evening, I watched a "tivoed" "Steel Magnolias" (1989) and find that Drum (Tom Skerritt) was in conflict with removing the birds from his trees before the wedding. In the process, he manages to cause Ouiser's dog to suffer emotional distress and lose hair, because of his methods. The tag line for this movie "The funniest movie ever to make you cry." It's a good story of female bonding and how unbreakable that bond is between true friends and about dreams being built and burnt and about bird hazing.
One of my favorite lines uttered by Olympia Dukakis as Clairee "The only thing that separates us from the animals is our ability to accessorize." So according to Clairee maybe we do have some shared character traits of the grackle.