New Painting: Cherry Blossoms

I mentioned in a previous post that I finished a second painting since getting back to the studio.  I started these cherry blossoms last March before the big mishap, and the canvas has been sitting in my studio ever since.  My first thought was to just leave it and finish it up next spring when the cherry blossoms are out again, and I also considered buying faux blossoms and trying to finish the painting that way.  But I never use faux flowers for painting and I really didn't want to leave it sitting around for another eight months.

Because the buds were so delicate, I painted the background and the ginger jar first.  This background has many coats of paint and I knew I would not be able to paint around the blooms, so as I did with my pussy willows, I let the background completely dry and then began doing the flowers.  I got two sessions in with them before I had to stop painting.

Fast forward to two weeks ago.  I finished the hydrangeas and needed another floral painting for a show I wanted to enter.  Since I am the slowest painter alive, I knew I could not crank out another painting in two days ( my time before the deadline).  On a whim I put the painting on the easel and just started painting.  I figured the worst that could happen was I would have to wipe it out.  No guts, no glory and all that.

This is where I left it the first night.  The flower buds went right in, and I faked the ones on the wood shelf, and they went in fine as well.  I also finished up the wood shelf without a problem.  I did all that with no reference material whatsoever, so what was the problem?  The ginger jar!  The one thing that was sitting right in front of me was the hardest part of this painting.

The problem was that I decided the jar needed a few more coats of paint.  That took some time, but was not too terrible.  The main problem was that I like to have my porcelains completely dry before I put the pattern on, but in this case that was not going to happen.  Now, I could have left well enough alone and just painted the pattern on the canvas the first day, but I have to have everything just right and the perfectionist in me could never just go with "good enough".  So the next day, deadline day, I got back to it.  I painted one more coat onto the jar and then got started putting in the pattern.  It was not as difficult as I had thought it would be.  The main difference is that it is not so easy to correct a mistake on a wet canvas.  On a dry canvas you simply wipe it down and start over.  With this situation, I still made plenty of mistakes, but had to be very delicate in removing them, as well as adding the paint back to the jar from the wipe out.  I also redid the highlight about a thousand times.  I was having a tough time getting it to look exactly like I wanted it to.  It either looked like a blob of white, or it took over the whole top quarter of the ginger jar.

Finally it all worked and I got my show submission in at 9:30 pm.  Two and a half hours before the deadline!  There are reasons my hubs refers to me as 'Last Minute Frances'  :)

This is the finished painting and I'm happy to say, it was accepted into the show!  I've already started a new painting, and it's very nice to just be painting without worrying about a deadline.  I'll have show info up soon.

Palette To Palette At The Art Guild Of Port Washington

This month there was a really fun show at The Art Guild.  The subject was food, so of course this was a show I was interested in.  If there is one thing I have, it's food paintings.  I submitted two and they were both chosen.

Wine And Fruit, 16x20, oil

Fruit In A Spode Bowl, 12x9, oil

There was a very nice reception and awards ceremony and I thought you might like to see some photos of this interesting show.

As you can see, there were lots of fruits and veggies, and why not?  Both have been used by artists for centuries.  Sometimes just for their beauty, other times as symbols for something else (fertility, farming, gods and goddesses, and marriage are just a few examples).

And... I'm very happy to say that my painting, Wine And Fruit, was awarded third place!  This made me so happy for a few reasons.  It's always nice to receive recognition for your work, and you may remember that this particular painting had me tearing my hair out for months.  Getting that wine decanter right took many, many tries.  At the reception, people kept asking me about the lace, figuring that was the hardest part of the painting.  As it turned out, it was one of the easiest!  The lace went in on one afternoons work, I did a few touch ups, and that was it.  The decanter is what took forever.
But I'm so glad I stuck with it.  Sometimes I see people give up on a painting and call it done just because they are sick to death of it.  I absolutely felt this way about the painting a few times, but the stubborn Taurus in me kept going.  I do think you have to be a bit of a perfectionist to be an artist.  Just like in any other endeavor, you have to push through the bad to get to the good.  I recently found out that Winston Churchill (who was also a painter) said "If you are going through hell, keep going".  Not that painting is hell, but you get his meaning.

Thanks to The Art Guild for a great reception and to juror Susan Goetz Zwirn.  Next up at The Art Guild, the 10x10 fundraiser.  I finished my painting yesterday and will give you the play by play in my next post.

The Nippon Club Culture Courses Exhibition 2017

Wednesday evening I had the pleasure of attending an art exhibition at the Nippon Gallery of the Nippon Club here in New York City.  A friend of mine had some paintings in the show, so I got to see her work, as well as work by other members of the club.

The wiki page for the Nippon Club states that the club exists to "enhance the unity of Japanese people in New York City and to foster relationships with the American people".

The Club has a beautiful exhibition space that showcased not only the paintings, but calligraphy, photography and Ikebana (the Japanese art of flower arranging) as well.

The show is on until 5pm tomorrow.  If you are local or visiting here in New York, I urge you to stop in and take a look at this beautiful and interesting exhibition.

Members Show At The Art Guild Of Port Washington

Just a quick note to let you know that I have a painting hanging in the members show at The Art Guild of Port Washington.

My painting, Silver Bowl With Lemons And Grapes, is hanging now along with work from many of our members.  The reception/awards ceremony is this Friday from 6-8pm.  There will be music, food,  wine and there is a rumor that the sun is actually coming out.  That alone is a good reason to come out and join the party!

The Art Guild Of Port Washington
200 Port Washington Blvd
Manhasset (LI),  NY

Hope to see you there!

My Orange And Yellow Roses, Up For Auction!

I'm very excited to let everyone know that my painting, Orange And Yellow Roses, will be up for auction tomorrow night to benefit the education fund of The Art Guild Of Port Washington.  The Art Lovers Fling will take place tomorrow night at 7 pm at The Village Club of Sands Point (LI).

The Guild will be honoring its founding members, as well as artist Antonio Masi, president of the American Watercolor Society.

There are many other works of art available in addition to show tickets, museum passes, a golf outing at The Village club, art lessons with various teachers and many more auction items.  If you are in the NYC/LI area and are interested in attending, you can purchase tickets on the website or pay at the door tomorrow evening.  It promises to be a fun night for a good cause.  Hope to see you there!

American Artists Professional League's 88th Grand National Exhibition

I wanted to let everyone know that my painting, Valentine's Day Roses, is hanging in the American Artists Professional League's 88th Grand National Exhibition.

Valentine's Day Roses, oil, 16x20

The reception is taking place Sunday, November 13th,  from 1-5pm at the Salmagundi Club in NYC.  If you are in the area, please check it out.  There are many beautiful works of art including paintings, sculptures and drawings.  If you can't make the reception, the show will be hanging until November 18th.

Hope to see you there!

Salmagundi Club

47 Fifth Avenue,

NYC

Visual Trick Or Treat At The Art Guild Of Port Washington

Happy Halloween!  Today is the perfect day for this post.  The Art Guild of Port Washington had a very fun show this month, Visual Trick/Visual Treat.  The show was centered on fall, Halloween, and artwork that could "trick" the eye.

Of course, we started out by decorating the gallery and then put on costumes ourselves.

This guy was hiding in the corner

Normally the staff hands out the awards, but this time we had three witches to do the honors.

Yes, that is yours truly in the cat costume.  Check out the boots :)

The giant pumpkin showed up a few days later, but I had to post it.  It weighs 125 pounds!

This was one of the most fun receptions I have ever been to.  Everybody had a good time and there was some great artwork.  Thanks to The Art Guild for a great evening.

Have a great Halloween, everybody!

David A Leffel, The Mastery Of Light Retrospective Exhibition

Last weekend, I was lucky enough to attend the opening reception of David Leffel's retrospective exhibition at the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art in Malibu.  It was a fantastic exhibition and it was great to see so many of David's paintings all in one place.

There were two rooms filled with portraits and still lives.  There was a great turnout and it was so fun to see everyone from The Artists Guild as well as workshop participants that I've met over the years.

As you can see, David has done many self portraits.  I have never attempted it and don't know if I would, but I always like to see how other people do it.

After taking a look at the paintings in the small room and catching up with some friends, I went into the large exhibition room.  This is where all my favorites were hanging.

This is a large portrait that David did years ago of Sherrie McGraw.  I was lucky enough to see this a few years ago during their Taos workshop and it is one of my favorite paintings ever.  I was so excited to see it again.

Do you recognize the couple in this painting?  It is John Mellencamp and Elaine Irwin!  John is an amazing singer and songwriter, but he is also a painter and took lessons from David Leffel.  When John and Elaine married, David was in attendance at the wedding and he was commissioned to paint this portrait of the couple. Sadly, they are now divorced and rumor has it that Mellencamp is dating Christie Brinkley.  Just to fill you in on the gossip :)

I love all of these still life paintings.  The light that travels across them is so beautiful.  A good reminder to myself that I need to pay more attention to that.

David signing books

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A beautiful book was published for the exhibition and David spent almost the entire reception signing them.

Me with the man of the hour

Tim Newton and Jackie Kamin.  Tim is the chairman of the Salmagundi Club here in New York.  It was so fun to run into him at the show.

In the middle of all this, a crew was filming the reception!  They have been working on a documentary about David Leffel for the last three years.  The director told me that it should be finished up in a few months and then they will start submitting it to festivals.  I can't wait to see it.

Such a sweet story behind this painting.  I love the fact that he wanted to paint someone who had lived life.

Check out this close up.  The colors of the white vase are amazing.  So often we think a white vase has to be white, but adding in all the surrounding colors makes the vase look so rich and helps integrate it into the rest of the painting.

Tim Newton,  Jeremy Lipking and Gregg Kreutz.

My favorite pic of the night.  Such a sweet photo of David and Sherrie.

This was a fantastic exhibition.  If you are near Los Angeles or want to do a fun friends trip to LA for the weekend, you should definitely pay a visit to the show.  There were a bunch of us who got together with friends and made a fun weekend out of it.  I had never been to Malibu and it is absolutely one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.

The day after the show we did some sight seeing around Santa Monica.  A beautiful, fun place to hang out for the afternoon.  It was so fun to see the pier in person after seeing it several times in movies.  The perfect weather did not hurt either, especially since spring is only making sporadic appearances here in New York.

 

Hope you enjoyed this look at the exhibition.  I'm off to the studio now to try to finish up at least one of the three paintings I am working on.  Have a great rest of the weekend!