Blog

Thank you to everyone who came out yesterday evening for my show of batiks at The Green Phoenix 2.  I was nervous and excited at the same time like I always get when the attention is on my art.  But my neighbors, friends and family came through in support and I sold three paintings!  Liz the owner was thrilled.  Sold was Facing West, Mr. and Mrs. and Night Sailing.  I met some wonderful new people: Isabelle, Betty, Bill, Randy and Clara, you all know who you are.  Especially thank you to my husband, Steve, for being his usual charming and supportive self.  Time to get back to work!

Anyone of a certain age (over 50?) probably remembers bound volumes of classic books like The Last of the Mohicans, Robinson Crusoe, or Treasure Island.  These magical stories were the internet of our generation sending us to exotic places around the globe.  Our favorite game to play as children growing up on the Indian River in Cocoa was Swiss Family Robinson.  A dozen of us kids, girls and boys, climbed trees, swung on vines and carried knives and one machete to build our castaway home (what were our parents thinking?)  We only went home around lunch time to eat and get a hot drink of water out of the garden hose and then when it got so dark we couldn't see anymore and the mosquitoes were covering our legs and we wore dirt necklaces, we would go home for the night.  These same stories filled our dreams when we slept and we would repeat it all over again the next day, only this time we were pirates with a treasure map.  Bear with me, this reminiscence is going somewhere and it always leads to my artistic influences.

NC Wyeth and his mentor Howard Pyle illustrated most of these stories and led a generation of Swashbucklers, Castaways, and Indians.  I visited the Brandywine River Museum in Chadd's Ford, PA last weekend and was drawn in once again by large canvases of action adventures containing vivid colors and dramatic lights and darks.  Contained were dozens of Wyeths and Pyles to capture you and carry you back to a time of men with chiseled features, damsels in distress, the action of a civil war battle or men with eye patches and peg legs.   Each painting more mesmerizing then the last.  I really started to think about what made illustration unique and decided that it was the point of view.  You are viewing the scene from a bug's eye view or from up above where every action is exaggerated and the darkest night contains illumination from somewhere beyond.  Impressive indeed.

Climb up a floor and you can view Andrew Wyeth's monochromatic palette and desolate people in desolate places.  Absolutely stunning.  I could go on about Andrew and his siblings and Andrew's son Jamie, all represented in this wonderful museum, but you will just have to make a trip to Chadd's Ford and the Brandywine River Museum to see for yourselves and don't forget to bring a parrot on your shoulder.  

I would like to invite anyone visiting the Annapolis area to check out my new show that will be hanging for the summer season.  Liz Sochor is the owner of The Green Phoenix and on the 22nd of June we hung 13 pieces of my original art.  12 watercolor Batiks and 1 oil painting that goes with the theme.  The show is called "Annapolis Colors."  On July 10, a Thursday we will have a wine and cheese reception from 4 - 7pm.

Please stop by and see this unusual technique and the beautiful display they create hung side by side.  I hope they sell because I would love to see the gallery do well also.

Last week was Paint Annapolis, a week long event where 27 juried artists for around the country are juried in to paint plein air, outside.  I volunteered two days giving out information, selling t-shirts, giving water to the artists, etc.  I was a very hot humid week  I have a new respect for plein air painters as I participated in two events: the Thursday night Nocturne paint and the Saturday morning dueling brushes.  I was neither mugged on Thursday night or too sunburned Saturday morning.  I have a pastel from Thursday night of a lit storefront (a furniture Store,) but until I take a decent photo of it, I won't post it.

Saturday morning we had two hours to go out around historic Annapolis and paint.  I went to the water and did a cute little 5" X 5" of Spa Creek and all of the sail boat masts.  I checked in back at city dock in time and saw that everyone else had easels to display their work on and managed to fit in time to frame as well.  I felt like such an amateur.  At least I had put a square mat around my image.  I stood and held my little painting and someone handed me a miniature easel, so I held the painting on the easel while all the public mingled around the paintings to judge people's choice.  I laughed when people laughed at me and I told them it was performance art.  When my painting was the only one to sell, everyone had to come take a picture of me holding my art.  When the event was over, I framed the piece and delivered it to the man who bought it.  I didn't win any awards but I made a lot of new friends and earned a little cash.

The life of an artist is an interesting life...