Paint Around

At the recent Arizona Art Alliance Show it was determined to have a Paint Around Event as part of the kickoff for the Meet the Artists Reception on Saturday evening. I was tapped to organize the event. Basically the event lasted for one hour. I recruited a total of 3 teams of 3 artists each. I and two fellow pastelists who had all been to Italy in the last year formed a team called the "Tuscan Trio". We painted from photos we each had taken in Italy. A second team was three watercolorists who called themselves the "Grey Scale Goddesses". They did flowers from life and photos. The third team were also watercolorists with the team name of "Two Hippie Chicks and a Redhead". They were doing fuzzy things and each had brought a dog photo to work from. The three teams set up their easels in a circle in the area of the reception. After I introduced the teams and the process that would be witnessed the event began. Each artist in the three teams had the first 15 minutes to work on their own piece. They were alllowed to have their sketch completed...but no paint could have been added prior to the event. After 15 minutes each artist moved to their right to the easel of their team mate and worked the next 15 minutes on their teammate's art using their teammate's materials. After 15 minutes each artist again moved to their right and spent the next 15 minutes working on the art of their third member using that person's materials. The last 15 minutes each artist rotated again ending up back at their own easel to put on finishing touches and sign the piece with the team name. Here are the pieces from my team:

Liz Kenyon's piece:

Barb Lang's piece:

My piece:

All the artwork from all three teams is being donated to the Paradise Valley Hospital. It was a fun time and plans are already in the works to have this event at each show.

Arizona Art Guild Show

As an emerging artist I continually evaluate ways to get my work out in the eyes of the public. I am also cognizant of building up my resume. One of the avenues I have been pursuing is to selectively choose organizations to pursue juried member status. I am currently one show away from juried status in the Arizona Pastel Artist Association. I have achieved juried status in the Arizona Art League. Another organization that I have chosen to pursue is the Artizona Art League. Juried status is granted to members who are juried into three AAG shows. I entered three pieces into the jurying process for the fall show.......and all three were juried in!! I was pleased as there were a number of artists, some very successful in their careers, that did not get pieces juried in. I now have step one towards jury status in AAG under my belt! Here are the three pieces that were juried into the show.

Left to Right - "Cortona Window", "Glorious Outhouse", "Golden Barrel Cactus"

Cowboys Artists of America

The Phoenix Art Museum is the site of the annual Cowboy Artists of America exhibit and sale. Bob and I joined Charlie and Barb Lang today in an outing to enjoy the exhibit. After a tasty lunch in the museum cafe we admired the beautiful western saddle exhibit as we meandered to the rooms holding the exhbit. Let me say.......the exhibit was truly inspiring. The majority of the works are very large and allow for close examination down to the most delicate brush strokes. The exhibit was predominantly oil paintings with acrylic, watercolor, pastel, charcoal, pen and ink as well as sculpture rounding out the works. Of course, one of my favorites is Harley Brown from the Tucson area. His pastels are truly amazing.

I spent a lot of time looking at how the artists used aerial perspective and lost and found edges. This is an area I struggle with in my own work. Looking at their work I found that so little can say so much. Details and tighter work were found in the focal areas of the paintings. I see...but now can I do!!! That is the question. We ended our visit in the gift shop where I purchased the exhibit book so that I could study the paintings further.

I will be out painting at Bulldog Canyon tomorrow morning. I am going to try to apply these insights to tomorrow's work. Wish me luck!