Small Acrylic Landscape ~ Art Journal Pages

Small Acrylic Landscape
8" x 8" Ampersand on Gessoboard with 2" deep cradle

The plain birch plywood strips can be used as is but I decided I wanted a light stain on this one. Next time I will make a note to myself to not be in so big a hurry to get to the painting and mask off the area to protect the sides. I got a few drips and splatters but sanded them off. I bought these from a friend and wanted to see if I'd like painting on them. I think they give a nice professional look to a painting.

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What to do when No. 1 son says, "I'm leaving for China Monday?" Play sick or feign a heart attack? All of those options ran through my mind. He was going alone but meeting someone to tour some factories. On Tuesday, that little TUJ inset was a "Thank you Jesus" when he called to say he arrived. Wednesday an eye check and the last one was 2004 and there is a pattern here of not good follow up on my part. I will have cataract surgery on both eyes later, much later. Much needed broom and mop work in prep for a house guest.

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My house guest, Andy, was in for a jewelry workshop. She's the owner of Kickapoo Creek Jewelry and she brought lemons with real leaves from her sister's home. Oh, happy day, we went to DFW to welcome home our Indiana Jones. Monday is time to get away from reality and enjoy TNT's "Saving Grace" about our Oklahoma neighbors. Remember I mentioned a pattern..well here we go again - a teeth cleaning and I got the question "I hope you've been seeing another dentist since your last visit was in 2006." "Well, no. You quit sending me those cards so I quit coming." I did break off a sizeable chunk of a jaw tooth last year but it didn't hurt and I didn't have dental insurance so..and in the p.m. some CBC members hung our show at La Cima.

A slide show about the welcome home at DFW and our CBC paintings hanging at La Cima. Some of the acrylic paintings have a glare as the lighting was not the best and I had to use a flash. Enjoy.

Small Acrylic Landscape ~ Tuscany ~ Art Journal Page

"Tuscany Rental"
9" x 12" acrylic on canvas board
$54.00
This is the second small landscape I painted in the Maureen Brouillette class last week (see previous post). It is loosely based on a photo taken while in Tuscany several years ago. This small colorful acrylic landscape was fun to paint and the next class will be March 10 and it will be all about still life.

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I have been wanting to take a workshop with Anne Bagby for several years and now I'm gathering up supplies for a 3 day with her at the Artists' Showplace Gallery in March. Her just released dvd, Collage: Paper, Patterns and Glazing came yesterday and it was and is a visual treat. Now to gather up more supplies. Anne has a great section on her site about her journal pages that I know you'd enjoy seeing. Her pages generated the idea seen below.
On Saturday after good Texas barbecue, I watched "Changeling" just in time for the Oscar announcements. This is a pencil sketch of Angelina, then I am finally ready to part with my Snow White Barbie and I gave it to a grand daughter that had enjoyed her also, and a jewelry party on Sunday.
I've been thinking about an email friend that was about to throw down her brushes and give up watercolor. Then I remembered what Bob Burridge said in a workshop, "We all want to paint better. The only way to paint better is to paint a lot of bad paintings."
Check out some of these sites for some new inspiration:
A good book with some paint along exercises: Expressive Color
Free art lesson videos to watch: Jerry's
About.com Watercolor and Acrylic Painting
Now go paint some bad paintings to become a great painter - maybe even an art maestro and to see one at work check out Nicholas Simmons. I agree with his statement about a painting having a lot of interest that melds and has elements of abstraction and realism.

Maureen Brouillette Acrylic Landscape Class ~ Art Journal Page

Landscape Blue
8" x 10" Acrylic landscape small on canvas, 3/4" staple edge
This is one of the paintings I finished in Maureen's Fast and Loose class on Tuesday. The next class will focus on a still life and Maureen said "No flowers. Find something in your kitchen to use in a set up."

Maureen with a canvas board and a canvas drawn off but with circulating the room, I don't think she had time to get back to her second project. Maureen comes over from Dallas to teach these classes at the Upstairs Gallery and the next one will be posted on her web site or on the Gallery's site.

Maureen's beautiful finished acrylic 8"x10" painting.

Maryann, a Canvas by Canvas member, and her acrylic landscape. Nice painting with you, mas and Betty was there but got away before I could snap her photo. Betty is our CBC web mistress and has added two new paintings to our CBC site "Cowtown" and "From A to Z with CBC" and we're sold one of the boot paintings, Circle of Friends.

Emiko and her lovely painting and thanks, Emiko for sending me the photograph of the armadillo. I was complaining I had written a story (true) and I needed to paint an armadillo to go along with it and no photo. I've never painted this curious animal before and I've never seen a photograph of one being held like a baby either. He may end up a very impressionistic painting! To the rest of the class I'll try to get your photo next month.

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Me with a really red face at the Tony Saladino Critique, searching and losing stuff and what about as you age you start developing a 3rd eye called "the search eye" to find lost items, a new restaurant at the Highlands, Boudreaux's, and I'll be back, sooo good, tried out my new Raffine sketch book 5.5 x 8.5 with a practice rooster and with it's 100 lb. paper, I like the way it takes a wash, Maureen's class and I tried out Derwents' Inktense ink pencils, and some acrylic mini landscapes I'll post later and they are very bright and colorful and this small watercolor entry looks more like mud. Watch for them. I think I'll call them miniscapes.

Small Landscapes ~ Preservation is the Art of the City ~ Art in the Garden

Blue Landscape #1
5 1/2" x 7 1/2" Acrylic on paper, not framed
If you see a #1 then you know there are others on the way. I painted 4 in a series of warm up exercises on Monday after working on my Canvas by Canvas square for the Portofino painting. I drew "C", top right in a 9 square painting with sky and some trees and I liked the color so I used the palette for 4 more studies.
Portofino Square (Watch for it on the easel soon at Canvas by Canvas)


This week I received my acceptance letter from the Preservation is the Art of the City show, 6th annual, to be held at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center, September 9-27, 2008. It is a juried show limited to 50 local artists and judged on how the work would mesh with the existing mix of art in the show as they add a few new artists each year. Jury day was in March at Thistle Hill and with a percentage of any sales for the preservation programs at Historic Fort Worth, Inc. Artists can contribute up to 4 pieces of original art, 4 miniatures, and one theme piece. I mailed in my contract this week and there are about 5 more steps until the show and the awards presentation. Shows take months of work planning and preparation on the part of the organization and the artists.
Another large show some of the Canvas by Canvas painters attended this weekend was the very large Cottonwood Art Festival in Richardson.
I've received notice yesterday from the Fort Worth Garden Club, Inc. that my giclee, Diadem, has been accepted in the 2008 Art in the Garden show and sale to be held from September 5-7 in the Deborah Beggs Moncrief Garden Center in the Fort Worth Botanic Garden.



I have an Art hint:
At the Mel Stabin workshop in San Miguel, Mel gave us a "magic eraser" to try out and I've been searching for one ever since. I finally found it in the cleaning section of Krogers, a 2 pack Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, and it is great for lifting watercolor mistakes or lightening an area (not mentioned at all for one of the uses). We did plein air landscapes (I like figures) and that isn't a favorite of mine but I love watercolor. A watercolorist that I've found that does wonderful landscapes is Minike Reinders and she gets great detail in small works of 5" x 7". It makes me want to try some of my San Miguel landscapes in watercolor. Maybe soon. At present I continue with the acrylic landscapes because I can keep painting over until I am comfortable with them or just put them in the "turkey" pile. The Blue Landscape may make it into the Preservation Show.

Acrylic Landscape Warm-up ~ Annual Spring Gallery Night

Acrylic Landscape #1


Acrylic Landscape #2


Acrylic Landscape #3


Acrylic Landscape #4


51/2" x 7 1/2" Acrylic on paper, no mat, no frame, no shipping charges

The two previous posts have discussed the Robert Burridge workshop at Dena's Ranch and how we "warmed up" with some painting exercises. Bob had completed a larger painting similar for Dena and he said we could use some of his Gold Holbein paint to experiment with. I loved his colors and tried some similar with some alcohol and paint splatters. I've never been a big fan of landscape painting or plein aire painting because painting trees and just perspective in general has been a bugaboo to me so I've signed up for the July 7-11 Burridge Plein Aire Experience in Cloudcroft.
The workshop will be done in watercolor out in the field and then with acrylics back in the studio so I will have much to learn. Bob is an encourager to artists and his teaching style is entertaining and informative. One morning at Dena's when we'd had to many coffees, Dr. Pepper's and Cokes and we laughing out of control and generally horsing around, instead of getting a little discouraged with us, Bob calmly said "I love your enthusiasm" and I'll never forget this kind of attitude as he makes taking risks easier.
Saturday night found 6 Canvas by Canvas artists Betty Taylor, Barbara Hackney, Maryann Stephens, Karen Foster, Cindy Yandell, and Nancy Standlee out on the Annual Spring Gallery Night. Next year we want our members, Connie Michael, Margie Whittington and Cindy Campbell to join us. We met in Arlington at the Upstairs Gallery where our friends, Maureen Brouillette and Joel Sampson, were having an opening of their mixed-media work, Double Entendre. In the slide show, you will see some of their work. I brought along my T.A. (travel assistant - Garmin Navigational device) and Cindy Y drove us to the Rebecca Low Sculptural Metal Gallery and Studio. I quickly decided maybe my art supplies didn't take up so much room after all after checking out her supplies out in back. Carotta, the door greeter, issued an alarm if you touched her "headlights" or rear bumper. Other artists are represented at this gallery.
Next was Galerie Kornye West where we viewed contemporary work and works from the 19th through the mid 20th century.
Artspace 111 highlighted more than 50 works of some of the most progressive artists in Fort Worth. There are several photos in the slide show taken here and they provided valet parking.
I always wish we'd started earlier so we could go to more galleries but we had the reception at The Fort Worth Community Arts Center and just had to take our photos by our work. FWCAC is in it's fifth year of serving the Fort Worth community as an exceptional venue of all of the arts. The CafeART will open soon to offer a delightful light fare menu, coffee and WiFi in a friendly environment.
Food always figures in anytime we get together and after a variety of great snacks at the galleries, we decided on the Blue Mesa on University Drive for some light fare of our own, their Painted Desert soup.
Thanks to the Arts Council of Fort Worth and Tarrant County for providing and operating the FWCAC. Canvas by Canvas will be having a special exhibit there in the summer and you will be sure to be notified.

Mouse over for captions of the slide show.