Posts Tagged ‘Oil Painting’
The Gallery Show
I belong to several galleries in the area, each in a different town. Very often the artist is required by the gallery to sign an agreement that the artist will show only at that gallery and none other within a radius of a certain number of miles.
Usually the galleries plan the themes for their shows a year in advance, so the artist knows whether or not her paintings will be appropriate for each show. There is a small fee to enter and often the gallery will accept up to 3 paintings from all who enter, depending on the space available.
Today I entered one oil painting in the new show at my local gallery. It will be on display for a month. There are prizes given, in this case none are monetary, but wouldn’t it be great if I could come home with an Honorable Mention?
On Not Being Able to Write
On days in which I do an oil painting, it’s easy to write a blog. On other days, not so much.
Take, for instance, Wednesday. I was scheduled for an appointment with the chiropractor for the last of a series of back corrections from having driven from Florida to Maryland a month or so ago. In the meantime, last Saturday I began the day with a large bucket of soap and bleach water and scrubbed my deck furniture and some of the mildew from winter that had collected on the back of the house. As a result, I had developed a stiff neck – for 4 days! The chiro fixed me up, but last night I got something in my eye that just about did me in!
This morning, I finally got the eye problem abated, after lots more eye drops! All that from someone who has been sick hardly a day in her life!
Pemberton Park, again
Today, my group decided to paint at Pemberton Park. I liked that because I could continue work on the large oil painting I started last week.
Since the park is only a mile from my house, I arrived first. Betty wasn’t feeling well, and didn’t want to paint, but came anyway for the camaraderie. Val set up along one of the trails for a different perspective. Finally Suzanne arrived, having to go the long way around because the ferry was closed due to high tide.
Two groups of children came by as we were painting. One group visited a while, the other, now so much. Suzanne and Val each went home with a nice painting, Betty felt better when she left and I got another third of my big painting finished. And we all had a great day!
The Book – Part 2
The book I received a few days ago, “Starving” to Successful by Jason Horejs, has everything in it that an artist would need or want to know about preparing a body of consistent gallery-ready work, creating a portfolio, pricing, controlling inventory, researching art markets to find the right galleries and successfully approaching the gallery for representation.
I looked up Jason’s web site at www.xanadugallery.com and found many paintings and 3D pieces (He must have a huge gallery). I even ordered some software to help me keep track of my inventory.
Oh, yes, I found out that the person who sent this gem to me is my long time friend from Illinois. She’s the one with whom I go landscape painting in the wintertime – and it’s a birthday gift! How lucky I am!
Bob’s Auto Repair Shop
Today turned out to be a beautiful day! And, since it is Monday, my art friends were meeting.
There was a red building on a nearby road that one friend was particularly interested in painting, so we all agreed to meet there. It turned out that this small building had been a car repair shop many years ago, but with its fading red paint and growing vines, was a great point of inspiration for a landscape painting.
The Web Site
I’m the first to admit that the landscape painting that I do is not in the traditional representational style, and not everyone is excited about it. So I decided to build a web site in order to find a larger audience.
I began building the site, but at one point was getting a large number of calls suggesting I try to get my money back. The inference was that the builders of my site were involved in fraud of some type. When I mentioned these calls to my mentor, she never called me again – leading me to believe there really might be fraud somewhere. I abandoned the site and contracted with another company to build me one. The difference was that with the new company, they did a lot of things I had formerly done myself, and if I wanted something done I had to ask them to do it, and this took a long time, sometimes.
When I joined the mall www.easyplacetoshop.com it became necessary to have a site where I am able to adjust all parts of the site myself. I’m not sure how all of this will work out, but I may have a different web site soon.
Getting Ready for Mother’s Day
Today was a lovely day – temps in the 70s and with full sun! I did errands in the morning, but when afternoon came, instead of doing landscape painting, I did landscape rearranging.
A week ago I had purchased some pansies, those gorgeous little plants, to spark up my flower beds. Today was the day they found a new home! Also, I have several small azaleas which are beautiful in early spring, but by now are “has beens”. My trusty trimmers made quick work of them. I didn’t lay brush to canvas, but my front lawn looks ready for Mother’s Day!
A Respite
I just had to take a few days off from landscape painting and work in my yard. After driving from Florida to Maryland, there was little time to rest when the Snow Hill Paint Out began. Three busy days of painting and 1 day of framing and hanging – and hanging around – when last Monday arrived and it was time to paint again!
My yard was calling me. Of course, the grass was ankle high when I arrived from Florida, so I mowed it – and a week later, again! Then there were the flower beds – all 12 of them – from mail box size to 5′ x 30′ of so! Because I had used a mulch designed to keep the weeds out for 6 months, there were only a few weeds compared to other years. (Even so, there were still a lot!) At this point, I have 6 beds weed free and with granules to keep the weeds out for 3 months, I’m ready to paint tomorrow!
Snow Hill Paint Out – Day 2
I met my friends today in the garden of the Snow Hill Library. Both were working hard at their landscape paintings. There were a few trees there, but none really appealed to me, so we agreed to meet for lunch and I went to Byrd Park again looking for an interesting scene.
A while later they came by and we all went to the Palette for lunch. One of the specialties of the day was catfish sliders – and we all agreed they were scrumptious! My friends brought me back to the park and set out to find some wisteria to paint. I finished my painting but will have to report later about their day.
Making a New Apartment Feel Like Home
Several months ago, I found a job in a new city and drove all the way across the country. Settling in a new apartment is always an exciting experience; the white walls present a blank canvas that can be decorated any way I like. Spending time in such a barren, sterile environment drives me crazy, which is why I immediately went online in search of some oil paintings.
My favorite kind of art transports me to a different era or at least a different physical location. If I can’t take the time to travel to distant lands myself, I can at least take a momentary journey of the mind by living vicariously through an impressionist painting. Furniture and other home decorating essentials can wait a while – the first order of business is to dress up the walls.