Posts in Category: show
Spintop
Spintop
6″x6″ (15×15 cm) – oil on gessobord
First painting in 2015 – Spintop. It is also the last installment for Unwrapping exhibit that will be opening in Mostly Glass gallery this weekend. I am happy and a little scared. Wish me luck!
Many people ask me ask me how long this style of painting takes? I usually tell them – long. It takes a long time, several weeks. A couple or three months if a painting is larger. But how long is long exactly?!
I decided to time myself and find out. So I painted with a stop watch for several weeks, and now can report to you that this 6″x6″ painting took me 52 hours: 7 hours for composition, prep work and drawing, and 45 hours of painting. I started composition work on November 29 and signed the painting on January 27 – almost two months, but holidays got in the midst and there were literally a couple of weeks that I did not paint at all.
2014…. and it’s a wrap!
2014 is quickly wrapping up. It is a dark early evening, too dark to paint, so I am blogging instead. Facebook and WordPress are putting out these computer generated annual content reports, but they are much too silly, or artificial is possibly a better description. So I thought I will tell you what really happened this year :).
I painted 6 paintings:
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- Adagio for Three Strings
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- Ma Chérie Amour
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- Thorns on Paper
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- White Wave
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- E is for Empathy
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- Turning Time
Ok, the last one – working title Turning Time – is still a work in progress!
E is for Empathy will appear on a cover of my husband’s book A Rumor of Empathy, Resistance, Narrartive, Recovery in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy – Lou Agosta, PhD. Interesting book, check it out!
Adagio for Three Strings has won a Most Innovative award in National Oil and Acrylic Painters Society (NOAPS) Fall Show. Much too excited about this!
I had work in two shows in 2014:
– Matite in Viaggio, Centro Candiani, Venice Italy – October 2014
– National Oil and Acrylic Painters Society (NOAPS) – December 2014
I participated in my second Sketchpack project
It runs from Cape Town South Africa. Every day for the month of August I drew a small drawing. My 31 drawings traveled to Cape Town SA to participate in a show.
I have started teaching oil painting
and had a number of victims students study with me in my studio as well as online via Skype, gotta love technology!
Paul painting
Urban Sketchers Chicago
Urban Sketchers Chicago, a sketching group I started in 2012, is going strong with its monthly sketch crawls, active Facebook, blog and other online presence. The group now has nearly 350 sketchers and a wonderful unique spirit.
Chicago Sketch Seminar 2014 took place in June 2014 and was a great success. I was privileged to lead a group amazing volunteers and together we created this wonderful event. About 70 sketchers from all over USA and even one international sketcher attended and participated in 8 sketching workshops and 3 sketching activities. And one Dinner, Drinks and Drawing event!
If you are still reading this, I really appreciate!
I hope you had nice holidays so far and wishing you Happy Healthy and Artful New Year!!
National Oil & Acrylic Painters Society – show and award
I am working on a year in review post and first thought to put it there, but I am much too happy and excited and can’t wait – so here is the big news right away:
My painting Adagio for Three Strings was juried into National Oil & Acrylic Painters Society (NOAPS) fall show and was awarded a “Most Innovative” award! I am alongside several artists friends whose work I admire. How totally cool and exciting! I danced a little jig this morning when I learned this news!
Adagio for Three Strings
Adagio for Three Strings
Adagio for Three Strings
12″x9″ (30×23 cm) – oil on aluminum panel
More often than not these paper paintings take longer than I anticipate. Or hope! I think this one took two months. But I am not entirely sure, and am afraid to investigate. What if it took 3 months? Regardless, it is now complete and drying.
There are are couple of things to mention about this painting. This is my first try working on Dibond surface. Dibond is a two ply aluminum panel used for signs. It can be gessoed and used as painting subtract. I really like it and hope to use it for most of my work. It is smoother and less absorbent than Gessobord. Lovely surface!
I took the level of complexity up a notch with this painting. Crinkled music paper is great fun to paint! My gallery will be happy, I hope :). He loves complexity!
Edgewater goes to Venice
After all the fuss and bother – lost emails, language barriers, and impossibility to communicate – the spirit of art and urban sketching prevailed. “Matite in Viaggio” exhibition opened in Venice Itally yesterday, October 10, 2014. Five of my drawings are showing there!
Here they are in the covered exhibition table – photo on the left. And here they are in the exhibition catalog along with my b&w photo and what seems to be a blurb of text – photo on the right. I wish I remembered what I wrote, and can only hope it is not too embarrassing.
And I almost missed this whole excitement because I could not go, which sucked. But a friend was there and took these photos ( photos © NotNot Tana Luc). Thanks, Luc!!
Ma Chérie Amour
Ma Chérie Amour
6″x6″ (15×15 cm) – oil on gessobord
I finished this little painting of cherries in a paper bag last week. This is another installment for the Unwrapped show I’ve been painting for. It came out a nice and shiny little painting, but all I had for it in terms of a title was dull and boring.
So I posted the painting on FB and opened it for crowd-sourching for the title. My friends just ROCK! In 24 hours I had a different problem – too many brilliant titles. 40 to be exact, almost impossible to choose because there were so many good and clever ones. They even created a bit of a rift here in the studio as my husband, my daughter and I had different favorites. In the end I did the deciding – it is my painting LOL!
Thorns on Paper
Thorns on Paper
12″x12″ (30 x 30 cm) – oil on gessobord – commission
Thorns on Paper is a second commission for Mostly Glass gallery and another painting for the Crinkled Paper show planned for this year end.
I’ve been working on this painting since April, it took nearly three months, longer than I hoped. I am happy to finish and sign it. And it did not help the matter that towards the end a scratch appeared on a finished background. Could have been Elvis’ work, or I might have gotten careless for a moment – hard to tell. I could not repair it and had to repaint the background.
About the title: Everyone who talked about this painting so far calls it “Caravaggio”, which seems to be an intuitive thing to do given the book title painted in the front. Natural that it may be I find it a bit presumptuous. I titled the painting Thorns on Paper to reflect on the painting on the book cover Crowning with Thorns.
The White Wave – all finished, framed and gone
This is my final parting shot of The White Wave painting. I am packing it to go to Mostly Glass gallery.
Le Gallery Thorndale
Today I took these six paintings to their first show at Le Gallery Thorndale. Le Gallery Thorndale is a local gallery sponsored by Chicago Edgewater Chamber of Commerce.
From gallery’s press release:
Le Gallery Thorndale is a limited-time, exclusive art exhibit organized by Edgewater Artists in Motion as part of its ongoing effort to make Chicagoans explore Edgewater as an eclectic artistic community and a vibrant creative force in our city.
Location: 1106 West Thorndale Ave, Chicago IL 60660
Opening: Friday September 2, 5:30 – 8:30 pm
Show dates: September 2 – September 30
Gallery Hours: Friday – 4 pm to 7 pm, Sat and Sun – 11 am to 4 pm
If you are in Chicago, join me, other artists and art collectors for the opening night on Friday, September 2, 5:30 – 8:30 pm.