Clay of the day

This is a new one, just brought home from the clay studio. I was thinking he was walking through water.

Friday’s studio shots..er… Tuesday’s, that is

Posted on April 11, 2012 by notnow

So last Friday I forgot to take pix after I had worked. Tuesday ended up being a studio day, and I continued working on the pieces I started last Friday.

Flowers! They’re outside busting out all over, and thank goodness for that because that has been the galleries’ requests this week, too.

I have been out sketching and looking as the spring beauties just keep doing their thing. I was at Fearrington Village in Pittsboro last weekend marveling at the varied and lovely gardens.




I really maybe oughta learn the names of some of these. It’s helps with titles and with answering the inevitable question –”what kind of flowers are they?”
oh well. It’s low on my to-do list.  I am doing a another version of “sun-seeking mums,” the one on the right with the big swoopy stems. It’s kind of kick to do.

I like cat-tails for that nice repetition and vertical energy I’m so fond of.

As I put things back after the stairs re-do, I’m reluctant to crowd my space like I had it before. I am trying out the easels over on the lighter side of the room.
It’s good to be back at work.

the sketchbook, the sketchbook…

Posted on April 7, 2012 by notnow

Part of my travel west included hanging out with my sister and her menagerie in Tulsa, OK. She has 6 horses and rides, takes lessons, runs a biz and her household. Phew! My one art job seems so simple in comparison.

And work I did, tho. I did some sketching while she and my niece had a riding lesson. 

This first one is compressed charcoal. The ones below are charcoal pencil. I was mostly working on proportions of horse and rider.
All the tack (saddle, bridle, etc) is distracting to me. It covers so much of the horse’s body.
I think I’d like to do a whole sketchbook just on their legs. I’d love for those to flow effortlessly from my hand.

Their faces are elegant and boney and their eyes huge and deep. All of these sketches are fast, of course, gestures made while the horses are moving and doing their thing. I haven’t re-worked or corrected anything.

And this horse’s markings! I just had to draw because they were so unusual and square! Who would believe it if I just painted it that way.

studio remods part 1–the stairs

Posted on April 6, 2012 by notnow

Before my trip out west, you may recall, I was quickly, crazily, collapsing half of my studio to clear around the perilous, precipitous stairs for reconstruction. They looked like this:  Note the small underneath space and angle of decent. 

Fortunately for me, my neighbor is David Scott of Caledonia Construction. David and his partner, Charlie Straughn, had the brilliant idea to do the stair-fix while I was out of town, so we wouldn’t be in each other’s way thru the process.
I came home to these rock-solid, easily traversed, roomy stairs!

There’s a landing I can turn around in, and I don’t have to duck to avoid hitting my head when I step down to the second flight of stairs. I can even take work up and down with ease. 

And as a bonus–check it out–they came with spacious storage underneath, too!

I’ve been running up and down them just for fun. That is, after I GOT it that these were my stairs to the basement studio. It took me a few days to stop looking for my old steep, white ones.

I’m working in half the studio, trying to decide how much finishing I want on these stairs (drywall, etc), and the other side is still mostly compressed and stacked like a puzzle.

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Show Biz–old vs new

Posted on April 3, 2012 by notnow

One of the nice things about showing in alternative spaces (restaurants, community centers, art centers) is that I can group “old” work and new work.

“Old” is not a very descriptive word. In most juried situations and in the gallery world, work over two years-old is considered “old.” Work that has been shown before in other places is considered stale by some.

It’s a word I want to be careful with because I start to believe that old work or work that hasn’t sold despite being shown many places is not good work or is somehow flawed. And along side that is the assumption that “new” is better. That refrain is thick in our very insistent, impatient, super-fast world.

Here are some paintings that are currently up at the Carolina Brewery in Pittsboro. Some are brand new, some are from last year’s work or a year before that. 

Can you tell the age of these paintings?
If my palette is consistent, and thematically, I can create a related grouping of works, then I can still put together a really good-looking show.

I remember an artist-teacher recommending to students not to sign the date on the front of their pieces. The thinking is that it could deter buyers if the piece is perceived as old. I really like it, though, when I’ve seen the date by a signature, especially when I’ve been in a museum in front of a piece I really love, ancient or recent. It’s like another piece of the artist’s story.

I am a prolific painter and  have a lot of work living in my studio. Many pieces are years-old. They still have meaning for me. They still are a surprise to people who see them for the first time; they’re “new” to them.

I will continue to remind myself that a piece’s worth is not determined by its age or the market or even whether it sells. There are so many variables outside of my control. The bigger picture for me is all of the work, the different series, the themes that appear and disappear, the cycles of subject matter and techniques, the whole shebang.