Progression Sunrise Sold!!

It took 3 1/2 months to sell, but it sold a few days ago. I don't know if anyone would remember the 8x10 Progression One Sunrise sunrise series showing (5) stages of the sunrise. Basically it was about making a statement piece out of 8x10s....

 

 #729 Progressions One - Sunrise oil on linen sold 1/16/2013

SEPTEMBER 2012 OPENING

 As shown at September 2012 Crossroads opening

NOVEMBER 2012 OPENING 

November, Progressions was relocated over the entrance door - it sold from this location.......look how tall the guy holding up the wall is....... 

We also presented many of the studies in a double stack framed separately as shown below in a Photo taken by DC freelance photographer Rebecca D'angelo. 

In this presentation, structure is important, so we have matched frame replacements for sold works. 

  

Later... 

A few more days to enter?

Enter what you say? Of course Greenhouses International 2013 Salon due this Friday....also Crossroads opening night - lots to do over the next few days....a much needed frame order is arriving on my doorstep this afternoon. One of those has to be assembled....not difficult but it takes some time. Tomorrow will be spent reorganizing my Crossroads gallery for Friday's festivities. 

If I want to get juried in I need to get my (3) choices in order....preferably today. The maximum size allowed is 30x30...a good size for me. Whatever I put in, and if chosen, will tie the paintings up for at least four months. The honorable Daniel Greene is the awards judge - nice awards package and this year I also have the Texas gallery Weiler House of Fine Art now representing me in Fort Worth,Texas.

This will be good exposure and I won't be totally unknown in the great state of Texas anymore....perhaps well worth the entry fee of $95, shipping and related costs of attending opening night. Perhaps even a national ad is in order....Greenhouse will also have some group ads I can participate in or I can do a separate ad.

LOL...quickly doing the math it's costly to be in the art game. 

Today it's only $95 and no guarantee I'll get in anyway.....not much front end exposure other than the fee and putting a hold on (3) paintings for a month (hard part)....added note...Greenhouse also requires fresh, never before shown works.....it narrows my options to perhaps these three.

SOME SOLD PAINTINGS

 #729 Progressions Sunrise Oil on linen

 #681 James Sunset from Belle Isle 24x24 oik on linen

 #746 Koi & Lily Pads 36x36 oil on linen

Congratulations Crossroads Art Center!!!

 
Later...

A Change of Possition

As an artist my structural foundation is in place. Most of those early 2009 goals are behind me. The question I've been asking myself lately....What's next? 

I never thought much beyond the point of establishing a value for my paintings Trust Collection....Actually, I thought it would take years to do it, not the few years that it did. So "whats next" is a valid question!  

Clearly I could continue on doing exactly the same thing...painting for my Art Trust and Galleries wanting my work - a comfortable status-quo position  But, like I keep saying, this thing has a natural flow to it and eventually the next move is obvious.

Strangely, something I dismissed as no longer important, became hugely important again but for different reasons and important if I want entrance into the next sandbox......peer credits! The difference is "Serious Prestigious Peer Credits" as in BIG awards....All I ever cared about was getting juried in, it was enough to accomplish my main 2009 goals.

The next thing that comes into focus is "prestigious" academic training......out for me - so this could be a serious challenge.....here, the odds are stacked against me because it's not an option! 

In truth, I don't know if I really want to enter the next sandbox, because I got a good look at it during the WOAS event in Vegas. I even wrote a venting blog about it, not my intention and later choosing to delete it as unproductive......in my view it was the most Elitist thing I've been involved in. It made me sad and I even painted a "Muddy Sad Day Painting" as my last painting of 2012. This could have easily marked the end of the voyage for me and art....but inadvertently with that move and painting I closed the book on it, deciding to start fresh!

If I want a seat at the table, I have to find a way to make it work! One might say it's a design problem looking for a way to be resolved....since I'm not dead I'll work on it a bit:=)

Later...

Claude Monet

Anyone who admires Monet will feast over this collection on Flickr put together by Petrus Agricol. He also has an incredible collection of museums.....great break-time material!

 Claude Monet 1886 Port Donnant, Port Domois à Belle Ile 1b - New Haven, CT, Yale University Art Gallery

 Claude Monet 1889 Valley of the Creuse, Sunlight Effect - Boston MoFA

 C

 Claude Monet 1893-94 Rouen Cathedral, the Portal in the sun - pc

Perhaps after 1882 this is where Rembrandt and Monet lined up...just an observation.

Enjoy.... 

My 2nd painting

With my 2nd painting of 2013, it looks like I have my two OPA entries - due on the 25th. 

This will be the 1st figure painting entered by me. In the past mine were landscapes or Koi paintings. The student is a bit more polished, perhaps as close to traditional realism as I can get. Yet my brushwork still possesses my signature movement and abstract quality.  

I also work from a white canvas, because light reflects off it better and paint is transparent. Regardless of my subject, I am a light and colour painter.

#765 The Student 30x30 oil on linen (1-10-13)

#754 Free Spirits 30x30 oil on linen (11-13-12)

My 2nd painting does show very clearly my signature style and movement - more "abstract realism", a term I like and was coined by Leffel and McGraw. It's a term that seems to fit me better than Impressionism. I do have a different colour pallet than a classical or traditional painter might.....which I often refer to the end result as "stuffy"....I like colour period! Pretty much why a more traditional format was dropped in my very early years and why I gravitated to an Impressionist colour palette. Where all this collides, I'm still a representational painter.....I paint what I see. A realist if you will but in a higher key....maybe lately even a tonalist in a higher key. 

The OPA National will be very competitive this year - maybe 125 spots and several thousand entrants scrambling for those....tough odds of even getting in much less noticed.  

All we can do is enter our best, sit on our hands and WAIT!

Later....

1st Painting of 2013!

It took 5 days and a lot of interruptions but the 1st painting of this year is done! 

Or was it! I realized when I got to the end of my post....I was missing something....:=)

 #764 Gossip! 30x30 oil on linen (1-6-13)

 Black & White Conversion

I rather like using the black and white conversion to check it out.....typically I study a painting in diminishing light. If it reads well in dim light then I'm a happy camper. I find it interesting how the horizon gets lost in black and white - very close in value - I guess the camera can't pick it up.

NUTS!! One thing I have picked up tho - I need something to balance my colt and add weight  to the right side. Perhaps just a suggestion of another colt catching a nap in the sand. Perhaps a new title too...."Gossip and Naps"

 #764 Gossip & Naps 30x30 oil on linen (1-11-13)

 Detail of my little napper

 

Later....

A busy 1st week

As a designer, if the phone started ringing during the 1st week in January, it always meant we were in for a good year.....now days its email. Well that's how this year started!! Not only for me but others too!

Last night more than few of us went to 1st Friday art openings, meeting up at Glave-Kocen. It was Elbow room only at the gallery and local restaurants. This, along with more emails and invitations than normal - I think people are revving up for a good year...perhaps tired of the "cliff rhetoric" and juvenile house and Senate....clearly people are deciding to move on and enjoy life. Like this group below:=)

James Bassfield, Jenni Kirby, Chuck Larivey and Sherwin Ghaphery

In between all this activity I've been working on #764 a 30x30 horse and beach painting - actually the 1st one for the year - a painting with a lot of interruptions but working on smaller sections; getting each to a more finished state....if you will, completing a thought - not unlike my approach with my painting by the square. It helps keep the painting fresh, as if it were one complete movement. I didn't take stage photos - except a few late yesterday - primarily to see if it held up - I thought it might also be interesting to peek at a black and white too.

764-3 (3rd day)

 764-3 Black & white

 

 764-3 Detail

My photos tell me I'm on the right track....However I won't get a chance to work on it again until Sunday. Saturday will be busy judging a students show at the James Center for ForArts Sake Gallery and Studio founded in 1974 by Anne Chaddock. A very cool place for artists to show and learn art now run by Diana Robinson and Elizabeth Eubanks of Richmond.

Later... 

Back to a normal life

Today is the first normal day of the new year, perhaps my favorite because people are energized and ready to get back in the game; get rid of what didn't work and start fresh....one of the things I got rid of was Facebook - never was comfortable with social media where we are tracked 24/7 and the players complicit.....perhaps in the real world I don't want to know about other than world news.

Today I'm thinking of my next painting, perhaps the winner I'll need for OPA coming up later this month. My focus this year will be more on painting than marketing.....I'll leave that to others. I'm also going back to painting my favorite subjects in strict rotation. Aside from my Crossroads gallery walls, I have a few solo shows to paint for.....many things to paint for.

Today I'll also back up important files, file away 2012 and make new 2013 folders. My paintings left from 2009 and 2010 will be retired for the preservation of my work in a Trust.

MY FAVORITE 2012 PAINTINGS

#631 Trafalgar Square - Children's Day Trip 40x44 oil on linen (1-26-12) Donated to Richmond's ChildSavers

#641 Matador 44x48 oil on linen (3-7-12) Private collection

#645 Thunder Surfing 44x40 oil on linen - Alla prima (4-1-12) Richard Stravitz Fine Art Gallery

 #648 Koi & Lily Pads 44x40 oil on linen (4-11-12) Private collection

 

 #654 James at Sunset 40x72 oil on linen (4-29-12) Private collection

 

#657 Surfer Dude 30x30 oil on linen (5-4-12)

#669 Koi & Lily Pads 30x30 oil on linen (6-13-12) - painting by the square - OPA 2012 Eastern 

 #681 James Sunset from Belle Isle 24x24 oil on linen (7-1-12) Crossroads Art Center

 #683 Prelude 60x192 oil on linen (7-4-12 to 8-26-12)  WOAS-Vegas

 

 #688 Golden Koi 8x10 oil on linen (7-11-12) Crossroads Art Center

#691 The James 40x44 oil on linen (7-17-12) LeGrand Fine Art

#713 Sunrise 8x10 oil on linen (8-12-12) Private collection

 #733 Alan Hite 14x11 oil on linen (10-1-12) Private collection 

 #734 Alan Hite 10x8 oil on linen (10-1-12)

 #735 Free as the Wind 56x46 oil on linen (10-4-12 to 10-24-12) Crossroads Art Center

 #743 Yellow Koi and Lily Pads 36x36 oil on linen (10-21-12) Weiler House of Fine Art - Fort Worth TX.

 #749 Yellow & Black Koi 72x66 Oil on linen (11-13-12) Crossroads Art Center

#754 Morning Grazing 30x30 oil on linen (11-19-12) 

 #761 Competitive Spirits 8x15 oil on linen

Later....

Goodbye 2012

I'm glad to see it go.....it was a roller coaster year full of highs and lows....distractions from my main purpose, painting, building a body of work; a collection of paintings to be placed in a trust for the benefit of my children. Instead, my focus was split - I've been busy building value and marketing...also important. But, today is a new year, a fresh start, full of possibilities....perhaps just in time!

LAST PAINTING 2012

 #763 Carnival 44x40 oil on linen (12-31-12)

Black and white conversion

#763 was my last 2012 painting, yesterday, I didn't want to carry 2012 over so it's Alla Prima. But, I know after studying it in different light, the left-side fronds need work....my black & white also tells me so. This is a lot of painting for the 8 or 9 hours it took.....perhaps worth a few more to make it a better painting.

REWORKED 2013

#763 Venetian Ornaments 44x40 oil on linen (1-1-13)

Black and white conversion

Problem solved - the main focus is on the figures - I think a more appropriate title is "Venetian Ornaments"


Happy New Year!