Edgar Degas Dance Sculptures At The Metropolitan Museum Of Art

Happy May Day!  Spring finally sprung today here in New York City.  Yesterday it was 48 degrees, today it was 73.  So excited that winter seems to finally be over.  This past Sunday was International Dance Day, and that reminded me that I had photographed some of Degas dancer sculptures while visiting The Met this winter.  I actually have quite a few things from The Met to show you as I spent a lot of time there last fall and winter, so I'll start today with the dancers.

I just love these sculptures, so I hope you enjoyed seeing them.  Check out their gallery if you are visiting The Met. I could spend hours there just looking at Degas sculptures, paintings and pastels.

Hydrangeas In A Small Ginger Jar

Back in December I painted a small painting for the 10x10 fundraising show to benefit The Art Guild of Port Washington.  It was the yearly fundraiser and there were so many beautiful paintings for sale.

Since the canvas was small, I decided to use my small ginger jar and add some hydrangeas.

While the original set up was cute, if you've been following this blog, you know I like to fill my canvas with flowers  The single bloom was just not working for me.  Luckily, the hydrangea bush is right outside my studio, so I simply clipped a few stems, stuck them in the vase and got to work.

Now things started moving along.  It was at this point that I knew the painting would work.  Always a great relief.

The pattern going in.  Always a scary time!

And here is the finished piece.  Painting for a fundraiser is always nerve wracking.  I really wanted this painting to sell.  I told my husband that if it didn't, he had to buy it ( and that exact thing happened in an episode of Midsomer Murders, so I'm not totally crazy!)  Luckily, it did sell and the fundraiser was quite successful.  We had a great night for a great cause.

Cast Drawing At Grand Central Atelier

Hello All!

If you follow me on Instagram, you know I have been out of commission with a broken shoulder.  It will be a bit before I am back to painting, but I am going to attempt to put up some blog posts.  I am typing with one hand so there won't be a lot of text, but I have lots of pictures to show you.

First up, I did a cast drawing course at Grand Central Atelier.  Around this time last year, I was feeling burned out and bored with what I was doing.  I actually thought it might have been time to move on from painting and start doing something else.  After thinking about this for a few months, I decided to try something completely different than I had ever done before.  I had never done cast drawing before, so I decided to give that a try.

Cast drawing is completely different from my usual way of working.  It is very precise and you can spend weeks working on one little area.  It turned out to be just what I needed to jumpstart my artistic life.

Here are some photos of my progression of an ear cast.  I have reached my typing limit, but if you have any questions, leave me a comment and I'll answer there.

The above photo is where I ended the last night of class.  This was such a good exercise for me.  I'm hoping to do it again this summer.

Something Blue At The Art Guild Of Port Washington

Just a quick note to let everyone know that I have two paintings in the Something Blue show at The Art Guild of Port Washington.  I got a sneak peek last night and it is a great show, featuring the color blue in various art forms.

Here are my two entries.

The reception is tomorrow, Saturday, from 3-5pm.  If you are in the NYC/LI area, please come by.  It will be a fun time with a lot of great artwork.  Hope to see you there!

The Art Guild
200 Port Washington Blvd
Manhasset, NY

New Still Life: Blue And White With Oranges And Grapes

Hi All,

Good to be back! Things have been a little cray here and one of the reasons was the need to finish this painting.  I started on January 2nd and just finished last Monday.  The Art Guild is having a show called "Something Blue" and I wanted to enter and became completely obsessed with finishing this painting.

I set up the still life with a blue cloth and some blue and white porcelains.

I knew I wanted to add some oranges to make the whole thing pop, so I sketched them in even before I had them.  Of course, I ended up adding grapes as well (can't do a still life without grapes!).

This was the completed set up.  I blocked in the whole canvas and went to work from there.

An upside down painting is never a good sign.  I spent quite a bit of time with the t-square getting the symmetry of the three pieces done correctly.

Finally it started to look the way I envisioned.  At this point, I kept adding coats of paint and darkened up the shadows.

I gave the whole painting a few days to dry, then I put in the blue pattern on the white pieces.  I always do this part on a dry canvas because I will inevitably make a mistake, and this way I can just wipe it off with a paper towel and start again.

The last two weeks were mostly spent fussing with little things that I doubt anyone besides me would notice, but I really believe that you have to get those tiny details done correctly or it affects the whole painting.  So what did I do?  I brightened up the glass compote.  It was looking a little dull and not fitting in with the rest of the painting.  One day I got so annoyed with it that I just threw a stroke of white on it and that did the trick.  I also spent some time fixing the bottom of the pitcher on the left.  It was not as round as I wanted so I had to play with the light and shadow a bit.  I also lightened up the cloth near the cut orange to help bring the viewer's eye across the painting.  The last thing I did was brighten up the grapes to the left of the pitcher.  There was no light happening in that area of the painting and it needed some.

Here is the finished painting.  I'm really glad I kept at it with this one.  There were days when it was beyond frustrating, but it was all worth it in the end.  The painting did make it into the show!  Opening and reception will be March 3rd.  I'll post details as it gets closer for anyone in the area who might like to stop in.

Notecards Of My Paintings Available At Blake And Taylor!

You may remember my post a few months ago announcing that prints and notecards of my florals are now available through the Blake and Taylor shop in Brisbane, Australia.

I had a few requests for a direct link for the notecards, so I wanted to post it here, along with a few photos.

Ellie kindly sent me a packet of the cards and they are beautiful.  Photos do not do them justice.  The cards are printed on heavy stock and are perfect to use for any notes you may need to send.  In these days of instant messages and texts, a hand written note is a special treat and these are perfect for any occasion.

They are also heavy enough to be framed, which is what I am doing with my set.  

Here are the photos of the original paintings. These are also available as prints with free, worldwide shipping.  (The cards have a small shipping fee).

Hope you'll take a look over at the Blake and Taylor website.  Let me know if you pick up the cards or prints!