Lucy Revisited

Lucy Loves Ducky II
40 x 30

Acrylic on Canvas

A larger acrylic version of the last Illustration Friday image that I did.  

School is out for the summer and I will be taking two graduate classes, and making art like crazy! Who knows, if any of this stuff sells, I may have to give up teaching. :)

Illustration Friday - Beneath

Beneath a Pale Blue Sky: "Alchemy at the Edge"

24 x 48 Acrylic and Metal Leaf on Canvas

This is a recently completed painting that was juried into an upcoming exhibit at Gallery Main Street in Tyler, TX.  I am having a lot of fun participating in the themed exhibits that the gallery hosts, and have even resumed selling a bit of art.  If you are in the Tyler area, the show opens on Oct 28th.  Please drop by for a visit.

Large Abstraction

Untitled

Acrylic, Charcoal, and Metal Leaf on Canvas 

40 x 30

One of my submissions for a juried exhibit competition at Main Street Gallery in Tyler.  I haven't worked this large in quite some time, but I like the way it forces me to loosen up.  The gleam of the strip of gold leaf is a bit exaggerated in the photo.  It has a glaze of burnt umber on it that actually tones it down a bit.  There is also a bit of glare on the right side that is shifting the color.

More Fruit in Limited Color Palettes

Solo Uno

8 x 8 Acrylic on Panel

Mango-Lemon-Lime

8 x 8 Acrylic on Panel

Illustration Friday - Satellite

Lunar Horizon

12 x 12 Acrylic on Panel

This weeks submission has a dual purpose.  In addition to being my IF submission, this painting will be donated to Stephen F Austin State University's art department as part of its 12 x 12 scholarship fundraiser.  I participated in this event last year and really enjoyed the event as well as the opportunity to exhibit alongside quite a few very talented East Texas artists.  I also brought home a beautiful painting by Peter Andrews, a very gifted artist and instructor at SFA.

Now if I could just get someone to offer me a scholarship to finish my MAAE degree.  If anyone knows of scholarships for middle-aged high school art teachers, with excellent grades, working on a Masters degree, let me know!

Below is a second painting that I am donating as well.  This was inspired by a bird that has built a nest in my bicycle basket.   I have agreed to let her stay there until her babies have fledged.  It is too hot to ride a bicycle now anyway.  :)

Genesis Renewed
12 x 12 Acrylic on Panel

Tyler Artwalk - June 18th, 4-8 pm

The June Tyler Artwalk hosted by the Downtown Tyler Arts Coalition and Gallery Main Street has come and gone.  Overall it was a very positive experience.   My exhibit consisted of 7 acrylic paintings, 1 watercolor, 4 colored pencil drawings and an alabaster sculpture.   I had a much larger space than the 10 x 10 square feet I was told to expect which was nice because it gave people an opportunity to move through the exhibit more easily.  I shared a large upstairs loft space with two other artists and a lady who volunteered to set up a photography exhibit from the recent Azalea Trail Photography Competition.  People started trickling in about 4:30 in the afternoon and by 5:00 there was a steady stream of visitors until the end of the exhibit.  The only downside was the heat, the building we were in had a less than adequate cooling system, so we ended up with three big room fans to try and keep the temperatures bearable.  Also there was no elevator to the space, only stairs.

I met lots of really nice people though, including a future art teacher looking for employment, and a high school art teacher from Pittsburgh, Texas.   I received a visit from a couple of my former art students from Lindale. and found out at the end of the event. that another former Lindale student, Megan Bryant, was actually part of the exhibit at the Main Street Gallery.

I did have one critic, an elderly gentleman named Elihu Edelson who told me I was a better sculptor than painter.  I smiled and agreed with him.  He said that he had been an art critic for a newspaper when he lived in Florida.  He was charming nonetheless and the conversation became even more interesting when he asked me if I was mystical.  I then heard a long tale about how he ended up in Texas.

It was a lovely evening.

Primary Still Life - Rome Apples on a Plate

Chroma Roma

8 x 8 inches
Acrylic on panel

Obviously color was a major factor here.  I once again used a very limited color palette.  Primary Yellow, Primary Magenta, Primary Cyan, and Titanium White The vibrancy of the color actually seemed to confuse the scanner a bit.  It is a little less flat feeling in person.

More Clouds

12 x 12 acrylic

One more cloud painting destined for the Art Walk in downtown Tyler  on June 18th.  This was actually the first one I painted.  I kind of like the strong diagonal and the false sense of a horizon line.  It creates a compositionally strong negative space.

Illustration Friday - Slither

Acrylic on 12 x 12 Canvases

vertical diptych

Slither, sail, and soar

Across a teal blue sky,

Portent of the storm to come

Omniscient roaming eye.

Giver,

Taker,

Promise maker,

Case of do or die.

Journey on, yet stay a while

Earth pleads for your sigh.

I admit, I wrote the poem just to make what I am currently working on fit the IF word of the week.  But I was not really in the mood for drawing snakes, snails, lizards, centipedes or anything else that literally slithers.  I am also trying to crank out enough art to have a reasonable offering for an upcoming artwalk on June 18th.  

The color is very slightly off,  I took one image in the morning and the other in the afternoon.  They match up better in person.  Other than that issue, I would love to hear some constructive criticism.  I struggled over whether or not I liked the strong contrasts, (dark neutral grays, stark vibrant teal) but I worked on it almost like an abstraction.  I view it more as a formalist abstract work.  Let me know what you think.

Illustration Friday - Undone

Digitally altered photo of unfinished glue and acrylic painting

12 x 12 inches

Something very different from me this week.  This is an unfiinshed (undone) non-objective piece that I had started earlier in the summer.  I had set it aside when my focus shifted to....well things like Illustration Friday, folding origami cranes, and artists trading cards.  In this version, some of the color has been undone to give it a stronger focal point. Also for your listening pleasure, here is a link to Duran Duran's Come Undone.  I loved these guys as a teenager in the 80s.  Dang... I just dated myself.