Art Events

This painting, Sunlit Pears 2, (Casein on watercolor board) - (previously featured on my blog) - was accepted into the Woman's Art Club of Cincinnati 115th Annual Juried Exhibition. I feel it is a strong painting and was thrilled when it was accepted into the show, even though it did not win an award.

They had 275 entries and only accepted 58 artworks - having seen the exhibition list, I'm in some very good company! A friend of mine had both of her paintings accepted into the show, and she also sold one! (I’m so happy for her!)

The show is the inaugural event at their new Woman's Art Club Cultural Center, 6980 Cambridge Avenue in Mariemont, OH, and is open Thursday-Sunday through May 18.

In addition, Greater Cincinnati Watercolor Society opened our annual spring show which will continue daily through June 15 at Evergreen Retirement Center, 230 W. Galbraith Road, Cincinnati, OH. I’m happy to report that all went well from registration to opening – since I was the Chairperson this year!

The painting below is one of the paintings in the GCWS show - Frank's Apples, watercolor on Arches, and I have received several favorable comments on it - that the apples look freshly polished, that you could reach out and grab one and give it a bite! That certainly makes me feel good about it!

If you are in the Greater Cincinnati area, hope you get a chance to stop by both of these shows!

In addition, tomorrow is our Greater Cincinnati Watercolor Society monthly meeting and we will have a nationally recognized, award winning artist - Steve Blackburn (www.learnwatercolors.com) - to present our program. Steve has a unique miskit and paint pouring technique that he has perfected and he creates some amazing paintings. I’m looking forward to seeing him again. I have attended 3 of his workshops (so that should tell you what I think of him!) He’s an amazing artist, great teacher and all around good person.

I’ll be bringing one of my students with me to the meeting. Her name is Valia and she is from Russia, having moved here in the past year with her American husband. She paints in acrylic and oils and wants to learn watercolor – she has a lot of talent! She is eager to meet new people and wants to find artistic outlets in the area so I thought it would be nice for her to come to one of our meetings, and get to see a great presentation, too!

Alan's Post Office (New Trenton, IN)

A couple of years ago our local Postmaster retired suddenly due to illness. He was a warm and friendly guy with a real great sense of humor and everyone in town loved him. We were sorry to see him go. As a token of our appreciation for his years of service I painted the post office on a half sheet of paper and our new Post Person (she does not like being called Post Mistress!) asked everyone from town to sign the painting (so many signatures it covered front and back and you can see some of the signatures around the building). I used my “artistic license” to put Alan’s name and the year of his retirement on the sign. When we delivered it to his home he was very touched. A copy of the painting hangs in the post office to this day!

Last year a painting friend asked if we would like to paint pictures for an auction, using photos taken by her granddaughter, a medical student, who had travelled to Africa. All benefits from sales would go to fund a mission for AIDS patients. Even though I'm not a portrait painter I selected these two photos. I'm told that all of the paintings sold (even these!!!).

The painting at the top was done with watercolor, the one on the bottom with fluid acrylics.

The Kennedy Heights Arts Center Spring Guild Show is coming up - April 12 is opening night with a nice reception from 6-8 p.m. - wine and munchies - makes a nice evening.

The show is only open on Saturdays (10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) from April 12 through May 3.

This is one of my paintings entered; the apples in a bag on the previous post will also be hanging.

Hope you get a chance to stop by.

Peony, 14x18, Fluid Acrylics on Canvas.

Casein - Applies in a Bag on Lace

This is my most recent casein picture – and my husband paid me a very high compliment – he said he didn’t think I could improve on it! Wow, very high praise indeed! He even commented on the depth in the shadows – perhaps he really is “Mr. Art Critic”!

I like to paint in series and apparently I now have a “thing” for lace and fruit – hmmmmmm!

It’s good to be painting again and, even more good news – finally got my Kodak Easyshare to work – only 3 calls to Kodak (read that 3 hours on the phone) and the receipt of a CD from them – but it’s working – thank goodness!

And – the best news – my husband bought a laptop and one of those wireless cards – which works on my computer also. So I now have semi-high speed internet – hey, anything over 24.0 bits per second is fast (yes, that’s correct – 24.0) – so if I get 200+ I think I’m flying and it’s already been up to 500+. I can even see videos! Hallelujah!

Apples in a Bag on Lace, Casein, 16x20

Competition Entry

I entered a picture into the Creative Catalyst Productions online show. By my count there were 115 entries - and I won an honorable mention! – so I felt good about that! Check it out at: ccpvideos.com/artshows/.

The judge was Janie Gildow who has some amazing colored pencil work and has written some very informative (and beautiful) books. I had originally thought to enter a picture of marbles – until I saw her picture of marbles and thought otherwise. Figured she would think I was copycatting her to get entered – and let’s face it, compared to her marbles mine were nothing special.

My picture is of my grandfather’s shaving mug and roses on lace and is casein on watercolor board.

More Beginning Casein

Here are a few more of my very first caseins. I was starting to get a handle on blending, and I think the blue/white one looks the best. My daughter likes them (they were from some pictures she took in Venice) so at some point I will just hand them over to her.

The black here was black casein mixed with the emulsion, so it looks somewhat like acrylic.

Sorry about the photos - I can't crop them since my Kodak still is not working. After an hour on the phone and no matter what she told me to do nothing worked, the tech finally got the drift that I had downloaded the update via my dial up, so finally the solution is to send me a CD to download from. If that doesn't work, I'm going to re-load my old, original version and live with the consequences ("Well, ma'am, that's your choice, but you won't be able to get tech support for that older version") but I won't worry if it comes to that since I never had any problems with the old version.

Like I said previously "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" - so why, oh why, didn't I listen to my "gut".

I've got another casein pretty much done and maybe some day I'll be able to take it's picture, download it to the computer and upload it to my blog and you will be able to see it (ahhh, some day . . . . . .)

And while I'm on the topic of computer stuff, here's another bizarre thing (is it just me???). The color had been "off" on my computer for a few days and I've spent lots of time trying to get it back to the way it was. Well, all of a sudden, a little bit ago, the screen kind of "blipped" and my color is all back to it's original color!!!

I'm just to old for all this!

Casein 3

This image is my mother's fiestaware pitcher on my grandmother's garden quilt, with roses.

I think the roses are a little too red, but once it's varnished you are DONE! So, they will just have to remain that way. I had some trouble getting it dark enough on the neck of the pitcher, but with the help (push!) from some friends, I kept going and going and going and finally got it dark enough.

I just finished another one that I'm pretty happy with, which I will live with, get a couple critiques and then varnish and (hopefully by then my Kodak will be up and running) put it on for your review.

Greater Cincinnati Watercolor Society (GCWS)

This Wednesday was the monthly Greater Cincinnati Watercolor Society meeting. It was “out with the old and in with the new” as we installed a new president and paid tribute to our out-going president, Sandy Maudlin, whom some of you know.

I was in Sandy’s first watercolor class she taught in this area, so I’ve known her many years and have watched her grow as an artist and a teacher.

Some years ago she was invited to give a workshop in Savannah, GA and she invited me and another friend to go along to act as “go fers”. (What the heck – a free trip to Savannah – I’m in!!) I can still remember sitting her paintings up around the room and being absolutely amazed at the progression they represented. There were the paintings I had admired a few years before alongside her more recent endeavors – it was like watching an evolution - just amazing!

While I will probably never achieve the same level of art that Sandy has, I can now see that same progression in my own paintings!

No matter where our lives take us, my thanks to her for opening up my world in ways I could never have imagined all those years ago.

And, by the way, congrats to our new “Madame President”, Shirley Knollman, who I know will do a great job. Shirley is energetic and gregarious and will make the next two years of the GCWS a fun ride!

Casein 2

Another of my casein paintings. This was actually my first series painted with casein.

I had purchased some watercolor canvas in pad form and found that I hated it! What to do now with all those sheets? I decided to try the casein out and had my husband cut me some small pieces of plywood over which I stretched the watercolor canvas and began painting. Not too bad.

These pieces were also created with the original sampler pack of paints, wherein I immediately realized how different the paints were compared to watercolor. They dried quicker, and did not blend the same at all! However, after some struggle I managed to create these pear paintings and I was hooked! Following these I painted some leaves (which sold) and some Venetian masks and then some cute little quilt squares which also sold.