FLYIN' DOWN THE HIGHWAY

Yep, it does look like it’s flying! Could it be my lack of painting expertise at that time????
This was the car that caught my attention before the farmer drove out his yellow classic! (See my previous post “Bill’s Beauty” on November 4).

VIEWPOINT 2009 - GCWS PARTICIPANTS!

Here are some of the Greater Cincinnati Watercolor Artists whose paintings were in the ViewPoint 2009 show. (Carolyn Hibbard, from my prior posting, is also a GCWS member).

First we have Rhonda Carpenter - who we all know and love! Rhonda is just below her beautiful watercolor painting of a macro hydrangea blossom "Am I Blue".

Next is Joan Miley by her watercolor painting "Veggie Copia".

Then we have Wynne Bittlinger by her watercolor painting "Guilty" - the lower painting of the dog.

And last, but certainly not least! - is Susan Grogan with her watercolor batik "Schwan" - the lower painting.

Not shown here are Bob Nowicki who won an award with his painting "Crossroads", an acrylic collage.

Kay Worz entered a watercolor "Guarded Moment", painted in her signature style.

And as mentioned - Carolyn Hibbard entered her watercolor "Bloomin' Beauties".

VIEWPOINT 2009

Well, the ViewPoint 2009 show has finally opened and will be open to the public the next two weekends - November 14-15 and November 21-22 from 2-5 p.m. at the Cincinnati Art Club.

The photo above shows a friend of mine, Carolyn Hibbard, receiving her award! A list of all of the awards can be found on the Cincinnati Art Club website - (just click here or on the link to the right side of my blog - then click on ViewPoint on the left side when you get to the website). That's me on the right with the paisley top - not too bad of a photo for a change! The person handing out the awards is Donnita Geary who was an unbelievable help throughout this process.

In case you are interested, I've also got a few photos of some of the process "behind the scenes" at a national art show!

Here we have my husband helping bring in the shipped works. Finally, a photo of him from behind - payback for all these years of him taking my photo from the back!

Then we have the crated works which were shipped - the farthest from Petersburg, Alaska, although one may have travelled more miles. That painting was mistakenly shipped to IDAHO before it made it's way to Cincinnati!

And I picked up a painting from UPS that turned out to be the 2nd place award winner!

The following photos show all of the works after they had been uncrated and all of the hand delivered paintings dropped off. Thank goodness I didn't have to hang them! That was the work of Sharon Saluga, Dave Klocke and Judy Clubb! And they did a marvelous job!

The opening on Friday night was well attended, and several of my friends won awards!

I'll have a short rest period now, and then have the whole procedure for next year!

This process proved to be alternately nerve wracking, exciting, frustrating and fun - and I got to meet many helpful, kind, interesting and talented people. Hopefully all will go well next year!

LOOKIN' AT A '31 CHRYSLER

This is the front only of the same car as “Bill’s Beauty”. (See my previous post “Bill’s Beauty”).
Sadly, I was not as organized then as I am now (???) - thanks to digital camera and computer - makes it a lot harder for me to actually loose things - and I would be hard-pressed to locate my old photos. But, if I do find them some day, I think I may repaint some of these old cars and see if I can do a better job now.

BILL

“Bill’s Beauty” is an old Chrysler.
One day, I was driving down the local highway past an old (1800’s) and beautiful home that I always admire. On that particular day the sun was shining and it glinted off the windshield of an old car for sale, so I pulled into the drive and looked around. Seeing no one, I started to take some photos of the car. Just then a man came out from behind the barn and I introduced myself and told him why I was trespassing (!) and taking photos. He wasn’t upset at all, and asked me if I’d like to see another car.
Well, he took me around to a building behind the barn where it was clear he liked to restore old cars! He proceeded to pull a tarp off of a lump and there was a beautifully restored old Chrysler. He asked if I’d be interested in some photos of it, and when I said “yes” he proceeded to fire it up (what a “purr” that engine had!) and drive it out onto the front lawn where I took several photos.
The first painting painted from those photos sold before I could get a picture of it! However, I still have this one in my “collection”!

I painted an old, red VW which is titled “Dead Bug”.
Seems like anyone who ever owned an old bug takes a liking to this painting, but it also seems like they all had a different color bug! I did paint a yellow bug for someone who saw the red one and wanted a gift for a friend who used to have, of course, a yellow bug.
People will ask me “Do you have it in green (blue, yellow, etc.)” as though the painting is like a sweater in a store. Unbelievable!

I'll be pretty busy the next week and a half or so finalizing the ViewPoint show, so I thought I would put up some of my older work, starting with my series of old cars. (Sadly, I began painting the cars prior to obtaining my digital camera and so don’t have a photo of all of them).

* * * * *

It all began with an old Buick.
My friend saw it parked at an herb farm we were visiting and she came running for me to take a photo.
There it stood, in all its glory, with a water bag hanging from the front fender. But just as I took my photo the owners approached, so I left, not sure if they would be upset that I was taking photos of their car. However, the photos turned out so well that I eventually painted a few paintings of that car.
About a year later my car paintings were being displayed in a gallery in Rising Sun, IN during the local car show. To my utter disbelief, the owners of the old Buick walked into the gallery, having seen the painting of their car in the window. (Small world!) Well, they didn’t purchase that painting, but they did later purchase a smaller one of just the front of the car, as well as ask me to make name tags for their annual car club get together using the painting of their car.
“Day Trip” ‘37 Buick, Watercolor