in the studio: weekly update #9

Last week was my Spring Break, so I had Wednesday-Friday off! I started three 10" x 10" paintings and one 10" x 8" painting! Hooray for large stretches of time to paint!








in the studio: weekly update #8


This week, while walking my dog, I spent a good deal of time appreciating the pink azalea blooms 
dotting the lawns of my neighbors. Next door, there is a bright yellow hose slung over a wooden fence, with several pink azaleas blooming adjacent. I've titled the non-existent painting, Composition in Pink and Gold after Whistler's Nocturne in Black and Gold. I don't have a photo to share, because I keep forgetting to grab my phone on my morning walk, when the light is right. I do however have a couple of azalea studies, a painting of Clover (a birthday gift for my friend Rachel), a selfie, and minimal progress on the end-table from last week. The selfie and azalea studies are covering up some lily paintings from winter break. 

Azaleas:
 4.75" x 3.25", oil on panel
 4.75" x 3.25", oil on panel

Clover and Azalea start:



Clover, 7"x 5", oil on wooden panel

Selfie:



7" x 5", oil on panel

Finally, the addition of 5lb weights and a cd case below the end-table, still not done.
7" x 5", oil on panel



in the studio: weekly update #7


In the studio this week, I worked on several small 7" x 5" paintings.

The first of my unmade bed was a one shot deal...

The second of my greyhound has the potential to be worked up further (if she lays down again in that spot at the right time of day. Dogs don't like to hold still. 


The third is still in progress. The lampshade moved from Thursday to Friday night, also in daylight I realized that the carpet is terribly yellow and will need to be adjusted accordingly.






in the studio: weekly update #6

In the last week, I finished three paintings...just in time for the Flagler College Faculty Show, opening this Friday at the Crisp-Ellert Art Museum. I am hoping to start a new painting this evening, not entirely sure what it will be, my only guarantee is artificial light. Here are the finished pieces, proceeded by their starts (I will upload better photos next week, aka not iPhone photos, once I have them):











in the studio: weekly update #5

Currently, my weekends and early week are the most productive. Last Saturday and Sunday, I was supposed to finish two paintings for the upcoming Flagler Faculty Show at the Crisp-Ellert Museum, opening in March. Instead, I started two paintings. This weekend, I am hoping to wrap-up loose ends, but I need direct sunlight...so I hope the clouds clear soon. In other news, I think I finished the coffee-pot/kitchen counter/sans-coffee-pot painting by allowing a kitchen towel to take the place of the coffee maker! See this weeks progress below:

A 10" x 10", oil on wood panel, started from our pile of folded laundry in the guest room:





Evening light on my bedroom's curtains, one of my favorite things:



A 10" x 8", oil on wood panel, featuring the pendant over my kitchen counter, at night. 




The Coffee-Pot/Kitchen Counter becomes the Sans-Coffee-Pot/Kitchen Towel, 10" x 8", oil:



Finally, a figure study that I completed in my figure painting class using a palette knife, and the tiny-small commission that has taken a couple of revisions (now ready to ship).





weekly update #4

In the studio this week, my kitchen countertop painting went through some big shifts. Only after, repainting my coffee maker several times, did I decide to get rid of it all together. Below is the original start to the work(sometime in January) and where it stands currently.








I was also able to finish and deliver this sweet tiny-small commission in time for Valentine's Day, a slightly belated wedding anniversary gift. This is not the tiny-small commission that I referenced last week, that one still needs a little work...which I plan to tackle after posting this. 



weekly update #3

I went out of town from Monday-Wednesday to a conference this week, so my actual painting/studio time was very limited. With my current work schedule, I have dedicated studio time on Monday and Wednesday afternoons and Saturday mornings. I try to squeeze in other times too, but those are the defined times!

This week I finished another tiny-small commission  (pending proof approval).
I started this small lightbulb study, 4.75" x 3.25", oil on MDF panel:




I also tried to make good use of my time traveling by sketching people at the airport, in planes, and lost in screens at hotel lounge.







 Bea, from memory while flying

weekly update #2

Continuing my personal challenge to post one update a week with at least 5 process shots from my studio activities the week before. This week was less productive than some but I managed to squeeze in a little studio time. Here we go.

I worked on this commission piece, a tiny-small 2"x 3.25", oil on mdf panel.



 I think I finished this painting of my bedroom doorway, 10" x 8", oil on wood panel.



Here is the first pass and the final painting (all iPhone photos, my apologies)






I also started a new 10" x 10", oil on wood panel, landscape of the empty lot across the street from my house. The light is spectacular from 4-5:30 right now, obviously there is still lots of greenery in Florida this time of year. 






Hopefully, I will manage to squeeze in more time next week!

weekly update #1

This spring I am teaching the Fine Art Senior Capstone, and as part of the class, students are required to post 5 process shots from that week's studio production. To try to set a good example, and to force myself to actually attempt to maintain this blog I am going to do the same. Below are the works that I spent time with this week in the studio.

First up, is a work-in-progress shot of an 10" x 8", oil on wood panel, featuring my messy studio and nice morning and early afternoon light.


Next, three little studies, each is 4.75" x 3.25", oil on mdf panel. The plant painting was completed on my stove while making dinner or following kitchen clean-up over a couple of days. The two work-out hoodie selfies were made pre and post Sunday night's episode of Girls. 




 Finally, I started (and I think finished) this 7" x 5", oil on wood panel. Another selfie, painted while standing in my bedroom, featuring light from my bathroom.



Find Ourselves on Familiar Ground

If this painting looks a little textured, here's why....

Final work, Find Ourselves on Familiar Ground, 10" x 8", oil on canvas, 2014.

 The first painting was started on February 23, 2014, and the "final" work was completed on September 16, 2014.
drain study no.1 and no.2

drain study no.3 and selfie no.1 (a very cropped shot, for modesty)

selfie no.2 (gardenia's in my hair, Joan Didon reference) and start of kitchen/leg painting

initial set up, featuring my fake slip, two tea towels tied around my waist. wishing I had a white cotton slip, making due with what's around the house....

next steps

realizing I don't like my foot placement, or the length of my "slip", kitchen-floor-dance-steps

now everything is more or less making sense, except that I am "falling backwards", my arm needs to move forward to be aligned with my left leg.

Where I finally landed, the craggy surface holds many lives.

Select 2013 Installation Views

Remember Where We Parked {January 2013}
Solo Exhibition at the Florida School of the Arts in Palatka, FL










Moments in Bloom {July 2013}
Solo Exhibition, Wynn Bone Gallery, Annapolis, MD






Highway Gallery {August 2013}
Group Exhibition, Florida Mining Gallery, Jacksonville, FL 







Fall Exhibition {October-December 2013}
Plum Gallery, St. Augustine, FL





Juried Exhibition {December 2013}
Blue Mountain Gallery, New York, NY (Juror Andrea Wells of Tibor de Nagy Gallery)






the routine


the routine, oil on canvas, 24" x 20"

The following painting was a real challenge. Most paintings that I make go through transitions, ebbing and flowing throughout the process. This one in particular seemed elusive and constantly throwing me unexpected curves. In the end I am happy with it. I am still determined to get a painting of Marc with a branch complete at some point, but it was clearly not going to happen on that canvas. I am a firm believer that I just need to show up, and the paintings will eventually take care of themselves. The physical texture of the paint and the marks on the painting surface tell me what to do, or quite frequently what I am not capable of doing. Sometimes surprising things can happen, especially when this conversation is preformed on a regular basis. The Routine, the title for this painting, is as much about my niece preforming a horse riding exercise as it is about the act of painting itself. I hope you enjoy a peek into what was a very frustrating process.




























the end



The Highway Gallery


I am pleased to announce that several of my paintings will be exhibited in the Second Annual Highway Gallery Exhibit at the Florida Mining Gallery located in Jacksonville, Florida. The physical exhibition will run from August 2 through September 19th. The opening reception starts at 7pm this Friday, August 2. The Highway Gallery's Exhibit will then continue to be on display on various digital billboards in the Jacksonville area over the next 12 months. For more information about the exhibit, you can visit the Florida Mining Gallery's website or facebook.

The featured paintings include Swimmer and Living Room with Tent, along with several others.

Swimmer, 12" x 16", oil on canvas

Living Room with Tent,  24" x 36", oil on canvas



Cover Art: "Blue Eyes When" for "Picked Strings" by Liz Robbins


I am pleased to be a part of Liz Robbins' newest publication of poems. Picked Strings is an audio chapbook of poems, written and read by Liz Robbins. You can listen and download this book at EAT Poems, click here or here. I created the painting Blue Eyes When, as the cover image for this collection. For obvious reasons, my favorite poem from the collection is An American Artist Marries. 


Here is the history of the cover painting, as always I am better at documenting some steps more than others. This painting started by covering up an older work, with a source photo change towards the end.

                  
                                          

Blue Eyes When, 12" x 12", oil on panel


Placeholders

In anticipation for my upcoming exhibition Moments in Bloom at Wynn Bone Gallery, I would like to share the process of painting Placeholders.


Unlike many that I share, this painting came together very easily. The painting is based on a source photo taken in my backyard with my sister mimicking a ritual of hanging laundry. This act took both of us back to experiences we shared at our maternal grandparent's house. Memories of times spent at "Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw's house" fill our hearts with warmth. Martha's namesake is that of my maternal grandmother, and technically that of my mother as well. Her fair skin is also a legacy of those genes. My grandparents lived their entire lives in Chester, South Carolina. Their modest house featured a vast and open backyard, lots of green grass and a wooded area with swings and picnic tables. Entire summers were spent in that space. We feasted on "Chilly Willy" popsicles and homemade peach ice cream. They always had a large garden, I shucked buckets of corn and snapped many peas under those trees as a child. Nostalgia is certainly the right word for my feelings about that place.

I hope you enjoy Martha as a placeholder for those memories.








Placeholders, oil on canvas, 24" x 24", 2013

Sometime in September

Here is the recap for Sometime in September, oil on canvas, 30" x 40", 2013.






This is when, I decided that the character on the left should be facing the other way. So of course she turned into me. What is ironic about this, is that she is the entire reason I was drawn to the photo in the first place. OH WELL!



Final Painting!
Sometime in September, oil on canvas, 30" x 40", 2013

Sleep Now no.1, no.2, no.3

Since September 2012 I started a Facebook Artist's Page, if you haven't "liked" it already I encourage you to do so (shameless, I know). With its inception I have taken to posting updates on my painting process there and have fallen off on posting the progress here. With that in mind, I am going to attempt to start posting the end result of paintings, with the steps leading up to them here. Consider this a "total" recap. With all attempts that I make to record my process, the photos are erratic. Some paintings are better documented than others. Additionally, some steps have significant documentation, while others go for weeks without me taking photographs of the process.

Below are the photos of the paintings Sleep Now No.1, No.2, & No.3. Each of these paintings is based on a photograph of my mother sleeping with myself or one of my two siblings. In actuality I am not sure if each of us is represented, but in my mind we are. No.1 is definitely me, No.2 has been fictionally assigned to my brother leaving No.3 for my sister.

Sleep Now No.1, oil on canvas, 16" x 20", 2013:






Sleep Now No.2, oil on canvas, 16" x 20", 2013: 



Sleep Now No.3, oil on canvas, 16" x 20", 2013: 










Remember Where We Parked

I am very happy to share the installation shots of Remember Where We Parked, the show closed yesterday at Florida School for the Arts at St. Johns River State College. It was a fantastic show and I would like to give a special thanks to Sarah Alexander, the gallery director, for making it possible.





















Here are several close-ups of pieces completed over the winter break for the show:
Sleep Now #1, 16" x 20", oil on canvas, 2013
Sleep Now #2, 16" x 20", oil on canvas, 2013
Sleep Now #3, 16" x 20", oil on canvas, 2013
The Deep End,  24" x 24", oil on canvas, 2013

TS 158 (somehow I missed this number a while back)
TS 169
TS 170 
TS 171 
TS 172
Finally, this painting was deemed "finished" for the show and is definitely NOT. Let it be known that no painting is safe upon arrival at home!