Where did the time go?

Things have been so busy lately that I’ve not been able to keep up with blogging.   Art Gallery of Viera’s move and getting settled in, followed by my search, as Central Brevard Art Assoc.’s scholarship chair, for a recipient for the 2012 Youth Scholarship Award has thrown me way behind.  But here is a pic of our new gallery location.  It is so nice now to have all of our artists able to present their work in their own individual space.  Tomorrow, I’ll be removing my work from the Cocoa Library, and I’ll be bringing new work to the gallery next week.  My recent 1st Place Award at Titusville Art League’s show has me totally excited to get busy creating some new work and I just found out that Paula Steere will be starting her Life Drawing classes at the Satellite Beach Rec. Center this coming Tuesday.

Lots going on in my Art World

First off, here are pics of my work at the Central Brevard Reference Library.  These will be on display through Wednesday, April 25th.

Coming up this weekend is Titusville Art League’s 48th Annual Spring Show.  Registration is tomorrow, Thursday 29th from 10 am- 8 pm.  Awards reception will be Saturday 30th 6-9 pm.  Be sure to check it out at The Parrish Medical Center at 951 North Washington Ave. (US 1)  I have a new painting I’ll be entering there so you’ll have to let me know what you think of it.

On Saturday, April 14th, Art Gallery of Viera will host a reception for “Imagine” from 6-9 pm.  Don’t miss the fun!  We’ll have a few guest artists exhibiting with the members, and you’ll really like their work

An exhibit of my acrylic paintings at the Central Brevard Reference Library

An exhibit of my acrylic paintings

For the Love of Art

This weekend I will be at the Cocoa Beach Country Club for the Central Brevard Art Association’s “For the Love of Art” show & sale.

Hours are: Saturday, February 18th,  10-5  &  Sunday, February 19th,   noon-4       All are welcome.

And a follow-up on my last post, my acrylic painting “Tempest” received a Merit Award at the Strawbridge Art League’s “Vision 2012″ show last weekend.

Hope you all have a lovely Valentine’s Day.

Vision 2012 Art Show

My acrylic painting “Tempest” will be among the artwork on display at the Strawbridge Art League’s Vision 2012 art show.    The show, at The Henegar Center for the Arts, located at 625 E. New Haven Avenue in Melbourne, Fl.  is opening  on February 11th at 5:30 pm. with an Academy Award style ceremony.   Tickets for the show are $5.

A free reception follows at 6:30   Come join me for an evening with the art and artists.

Tempest

New Book!

I’m so excited!  I finished my first picture book of my paintings and I’m expecting it to arrive on the 20th.  It’s titled “Driven to Abstraction”, subtitle “A Voyage of Discovery”.  I can’t wait to see how it turned out!  It’s full of pictures of my recent abstract paintings.  If you’d like to check it out, here’s the link.   www.blurb.com/books/2886765   Hope you like it.  Let me know what you think.

New artwork on display now.

Night Tide

Masquerade Ball

My latest series of paintings is on display now at Art Gallery of Viera, located at The Avenue, Viera.

The Celebration Series includes “Masquerade Ball” (at right), “Opening Night”, and “Bon Voyage”.  Mingled in with these larger paintings are some of my smaller acrylic abstracts including my latest works, “Humanity Sea”, “The Crossing”, and ”Awaiting the Storm”.

Last weekend, one of my small abstracts, “Night Tide” above left, received a Merit Award at Strawbridge Art League’s juried show, Water.  It can be seen at the Henegar Center for the Arts, located at 625 E. New Haven Ave. in Melbourne, Florida through January 22nd, 2012.

This weekend, I am exhibiting with the Central Brevard Art Association at their 6th annual Heritage Isle Holiday Art Show.  The show is at the Heritage Isle Community Clubhouse, (a beautiful ballroom setting) at 6800 Legacy Boulevard, Viera, Florida. To get there, take the Wickham Rd. exit from I-95 and go west past the traffic circle. Continue west and you’ll find the Heritage Isle community on the right side of Wickham. The show will be open Saturday, November 12th from 10:00 am till 5:00 pm and on Sunday the 13th from noon till 4:00 pm. 

 

 

Finally

Bon Voyage

I think the thing I like best about doing a series of paintings is that you can set a goal and (hopefully) achieve it.  The feeling of accomplishment helps me get through whatever other stuff I have to do.  This is a short series, but it seemed like it took forever.  I guess that makes the taste of being finished even sweeter.  Bon Voyage completes my series that has included Opening Night and Masquerade Ball.  All bright and festive and so different from the work I’m doing the rest of the time.  For some reason, I feel like having a glass of wine.

Two out of three ain’t bad

Opening Night

Finally, the second of the series of three paintings I’m creating for a showing at Art Gallery of Viera is completed.  These are nice sized paintings, bright in color and fun.    I think after my third one though, I’ll be happy to get back to the abstracts I’ve been working on.   For some reason, I couldn’t resist going off on this tangent.  I guess they satisfy my need to work with geometric shapes and bold colors.  Again, the short attention span rears its ugly head.  OK, so maybe not so ugly.

Calling it a Painting

Masquerade Ball

 

Finally, after many, many long hours, layer after layer of paint, I’m finally ready to call this one done.  It’s a fun painting, full of bright colors, and a feeling of jubilation.  Can you feel the excitement, the beat of the music?  I always feel like celebrating after completing a new piece.  Especially one that challenged my imagination as much as this one has.  Why is it that the creativity simply flows some days (or weeks) and other times you have to dig so deep to get it down on paper?  Perhaps it was the difficulty of changing gears.  The abstract acrylics I have been doing have been more spontaneous, less labored.  Working on this piece, while using the bright colors was fun, I found capturing the feeling, the movement and euphoria of a party was, well, exhausting.  After all that, I sure hope you like it.  Feel free to leave a comment and let me know if you’ve encountered such difficulty and how you overcame it. 

Up-sizing?

Nothing I can use here

When I began my new series of paintings last year, I started small.  I worked on 10″x10″ illustration boards which resulted in framed pieces where the image size was 9″x9″.   They have been very well received.  They have sold well and have been accepted into juried shows and even won an award.  All the while, it seemed everyone wanted to see bigger works.  So now I’m working on 20″x20″ canvases.   (I know, I know, that’s not very big either) I had to switch to canvas because illustration board bowed.  The new surface is not the issue, as I have done some of my small pieces on canvas.  (And they have sold well, too.)  The problem I encounter, unlike when I was painting watercolors and just used larger brushes to create larger works, is that it’s hard to translate the random tools I use, into a larger version.  Each item is unique, mostly salvaged from the trash.  So I guess it’s back to the trash to try to find larger items that will give me similar effects.  So, if you see me rummaging around in a trash can, please be kind and don’t laugh and point.