My Art Featured in this Book

I’m so excited!  My copy of Journeys to Abstraction has finally arrived and it is beautiful!  Two of my paintings are featured in this book along with an explanation of the painting process.  I am honored to be included among artists that I respect and admire.  I will definitely be ordering the following issues.  This book is published by North Light Books.  There are so many intriguing paintings and all have a description of how there were executed.  It is a treasure trove of tips and techniques that would cost a fortune to learn through workshops.  Great job, Sue St. John!  Thanks for my copy.  I love it!

Book by Sue St. John

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

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.

Classes starting

Red pail

Beginner to intermediate watercolor classes start at the Cocoa Beach Library tomorrow, Thursday, Oct.13th at 10 am.  In addition to our usual 1/4 sheet paintings, I’m going to have students create 4″x6″ mini paintings.  The mini paintings will fill the drying time involved in the larger paintings.  They will be simple and give the students the opportunity to try various techniques on a smaller scale.  There are still a few spaces left.

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. 

Limited progress and scattered attention

Small portion of new painting

So here I go off in another direction for a short while.  I can’t seem to get away from my love of geometric shapes and bright, bold colors.  I’m not loving this piece yet, but that’s part of the process.  Like I learned in watercolors, the painting doesn’t come alive until the final touches are added.  However, working on it at this point is…frustrating at best, annoying at worst.  The only thing to do is to keep on keeping on and as the dedicated professional I strive to be, that is exactly what I’m doing today.  Hopefully my limited progress will have the painting starting to turn the corner to becoming a work of art instead of just the art of work.  And remember, this is just a part of the painting.