The New York report

I haven't been doing much painting lately, but we did spent a wonderful four days in NYC recently. The last time we were there it was wintertime and boy does the city really come alive in the summer.

Our first stop, The Guggenheim Museum. I had never been there before and so I was fascinated by the architecture and layout of it. I snapped this shot before I realized I was standing next to a giant "NO PHOTOGRAPHS PLEASE" sign.

D'oh.

Our next adventure was renting a rowboat in Central Park. What fun that was. Isn't Polo all New York with his stingy brim on? Of course, we had to quench our thirst with cocktails at The Boathouse afterwards. Yum.

As we walked through Central Park, we came across the back of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and I noticed this structure on the top that looked like a giant boat made out of reeds and people were walking on it. I keep meaning to check their exhibits to see what this is all about.

The next day we ventured over to Chelsea, hoping to visit some galleries, but they were all closed (it was Sunday but I think we forgot cuz we were in vacation mode). Double D'oh.

But we stumbled upon this really great new addition to NYC--The High Line. They've converted an old elevated rail line to this wonderful park that spans several city blocks and gives you a whole new perspective on the city.

Can you see the guy standing at the bottom of the stairs looking down at the street through the giant windows? Cool.

Along the path, there was this piece of art/sculpture by the artist, Richard Galpin, that you had to experience by looking through this viewfinder.

Here's a photo taken through the viewfinder. Very graphic and abstract, kind of a cool idea.

Below is the description if you can read it. I'm hoping they plan to put more artwork up there. It's would make a great open air sculpture garden.

I took lots of photos for painting inspiration so get ready to see more of NYC as interpreted with a palette knife coming soon.

Plein Air Workshop

Come On In, We're Open

Oil with a palette knife on artist board

8" x 8"

Click on the image to enlarge
NFS

Last weekend, the husband and I participated in a Plein Air Workshop taught by the talented and creative artist, Kim Morin Weineck. She started with a short lecture and handed out all this fun stuff to help us get inspired. And look at the cute bags she made for everyone that contained fun art supplies to help us out with our planning and sketching.

It was a little grey out but the rain held off for the most part. We set up in Norwood Center and I decided to paint the front of Julie's store which is so cute. Here is Kim all set up to paint (and keeping pesky people from parking there and blocking my view!)

Lately I had been painting a lot from photographs and you forget how the photo is somewhat already cropped and composed for you, so Kim reminded us when you paint on location, it's important to plan what you are going to paint by sketching it out first. Here is my page of possible compositions. I decided to go with the square format.

And this shows my setup after I had worked up my sketch onto the panel.

And of course, I had to include some close up shots of the painting.

What a fun day all around. Here's a link to see Polo's painting.

How blue is your sky?

Is That Our Hotel?

Oil with a palette knife on cradled artist board

12" x 9"

Click on the image to enlarge
SOLD

I've been staring at this painting for over a week now wondering if the color I used for the sky is right. During critique, some fellow artists thought it could be a little brighter or darker. So I did an experiment in Photoshop trying out different options before I actually committed to changing it. Of course these won't show the palette knife texture, but it helps to show different values and shades of blues.

Deep blue

Bright blue

Soft  blue

Grey day

It's interesting to see how it changes the feel of the painting, isn't it? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Photos from the show

I wanted to post a few photos from our show last weekend. Here we are in front of our hard work.

My family portraits can be seen in this shot.

The crowd enjoying the scene.
I love this cute photo of Kim, the gallery director, and Julie, the gallery owner, with Nancy peering in through the background.

To see all the photos from our show posted on the gallery's site, click here.

And as a finale, a happy happy birthday to my cute man who celebrated his birthday today.

Man down

Last week as I was routinely setting up for my weekly painting class, I pulled out my collection of palette knives from my tote and saw this:

Oh no! I tried and tried to bend him back into shape, and even started to paint with it but I couldn't revive him to his former glory. I finally declared "I think I'm gonna have to put him down."

This knife was "Dad" in my palette knife family portrait. How devastating for the family.

Ideas from my fellow painters started to emerge as to how to memorialize him. They felt my pain. Should he be bronzed? mounted? framed? made into a decoration for my work area? I will keep you posted. In the meantime...

RIP

My painting's new home

The first painting to sell at our show which started last Friday night, was this one, my big painting of Berkeley Street in Boston. Sarah, it's proud new owner, sent me these photos of the painting which she has already hung up in her house. Doesn't it look fantastic in this spot she chose? I think it has found a wonderful new home.

Countdown to the show

Tonight's the night! I know a lot of this blog's readers don't live in the New England area, but I hope that if you do, we'll see you at Custom Art Framing and Gallery 9 in Norwood from 6-8pm this evening.

Things are really heatin' up. Last night, the Gallery preSOLD my giant 36" by 24" Boston city scene painting. Woo hoo. I am so excited and thrilled.

And, get this, Julie has also set up a live feed so you can watch the show even if you can't be there in person. How exciting is that? Click here for the live feed link.

Sweet Cindy Lou

New Haircut

Oil with a palette knife on cradled artist board

4" x 4"

Click on the image to enlarge
SOLD

Cindy gave me the cutest picture of herself when she was younger. I just love the expression on her face. So happy with her new haircut and her pink and blue outfit. I also like the petite size of this painting. So sweet.

"It is the child in man that is the source of his uniqueness and creativeness, and the playground is the optimal milieu for the unfolding of his capacities and talents." ~G.K. Chesterton

What's new, cupcake?

Chocolate with Sprinkles

Oil with a palette knife on cradled artist board

4" x 4"

Click on the image to enlarge
SOLD

You may remember a similar painting that I submitted to one of Karin Jurick's Different Strokes From Different Folks challenges. I enjoyed "icing" the cupcake so much that I went back and painted two more. This time, chocolate! Here is the trio of cupcakes as well as Karin's reference photo.

And finally, a chunky delicious close up. 

Yum.

Sepia toned palette knife painting

Clara, Park, Lavonne, and Chunky

Oil with a palette knife on artist board

10" x 8"

Click on the image to enlarge
SOLD

Kristin sent me this wonderful old photo from her family album and she told me that she remembered the photo being of a sepia color so I tried to replicate that with my paint color choice. What a great photo to paint and what an inspiration for Kristin too. Here is what Kristin had to say about her photograph:

“This photo shows my grandfather (the older boy, Park), his sister Lavonne, and their little brother Paige Wilbur, who went by the affectionate name of “Chunky” for his entire life. The mother in the photo is my great-grandmother Clara. The characters of Oscar, Lavonne, and their little brother Morris in my book called The Book of Story Beginnings, are based on Park, Lavonne, and Chunky. Park, like Oscar, was born in 1900.”

For those of you not yet familiar with Kristin's first book, here it is.

She also has a new children's book out that you might want to scoop up for early Christmans gifts.

A little Christmas in May

Christmas Morning

Oil with a palette knife on cradled board

12" x 9"

Click on the image to enlarge
SOLD

This painting was done from a photo submission to my Call for Inspiration back in January. This photo was in black and white but I could picture the color of the the wrapping paper, the decor, and of course the pink hair rollers, so I thought I'd try to recreate the scene in color. Thanks Sherry for submitting this nostalgic photo reference. I hope you don't mind that I rearranged your family's living room a bit, but I really wanted to paint that great TV without the rabbit ears coming out of your head. I hope you enjoy it.

For the show in June, I've asked people to write me a quick memory of their photo so I can have it posted with each painting. Here is what Sherry had to say about her picture.

"Sparkling and blinking lights and tinsel, anticipation and excitement and the smells of the dolls. Is there any stronger memory than the plastic smells of dolls in the early 1960's? I can see too that my mom was battling my frizzy hair even way back in the day! If I've learned nothing else, it is that sponge rollers do not work in my hair. And still, I get excited by the glittering lights and the tinsel and wake everyone up on Christmas morning because I cannot contain my enthusiasm!!"

She is quite the writer. If you haven't checked out her blog, she did a wonderful post today about her painting and, well, it made me feel so great. It's flattery like that which fuels me, keeps me going, knowing I'm moving in the right direction.

Large Boston painting reveal

Looking up Berkeley Street III

Oil with a palette knife on 2" cradled board

36" x 24"
SOLD

This past week I took a couple of days off of work so I could have a two day self imposed painting marathon. Although I was completely fried by Friday night, it was worth it. I was able to finish this large painting I have been working on for awhile now, phew. As well as finishing up a few others that will appear in later posts.

I had previously posted several stages of this painting and this time I was hoping to get a better sense of the size of this painting when I photographed it. The one above is on the easel which kind of shows the scale, but then I recruited Polo and shot this one too. What a hoot. Here is my painting with a hat and legs.

And here is a detail.

And an abstract close up.

It's now ready for it's debut at our June 4 art reception and show. 

Happy 50 Lynnie!

My sister Lyn turned 50 this year. Woo hoo, sister. She still has got the spirit and energy of a, well I don't know, someone MUCH younger! She lives in Texas and recently got certified to teach adaptive yoga. She wants to help war veterans and others who can still benefit from the healing and strengthening powers of yoga, but might need adaptive versions of the yoga poses . There is no holdin' this sister back!

This week, our family surprised her with this painting, called Tri Yoga, by the talented artist, Jill Pankey, also from Texas. It's large, 3' by 4', and so full of color and energy, just like my sister.

Jill had done a similar painting which is currently hanging in a gallery in Santa Fe so she offered to do another version as a special surprise for my sister's birthday. Check out Jill's website and her other paintings. They celebrate woman of all shapes and sizes and well, they are just so much FUN.

Thanks Jill.

A few Mini Masters for Mothers Day

Mini Morisot

Oil with a palette knife on unstretched canvas

Click on the image to enlarge
$65 unframed

Mini Cassatt

Oil with a palette knife on unstretched canvas

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$75 unframed

Mini Renoir

Oil with a palette knife on unstretched canvas

Click on the image to enlarge
$50 unframed

Mini Renoir

Oil with a palette knife on unstretched canvas

Click on the image to enlarge
SOLD

In honor of Mothers Day, I thought I would gather a few selections from my Mini Masters series to showcase today. Have a great day all you mothers out there.