Scottsdale Home and Garden Expo Center

A new opportunity for artists has arrived in Scottsdale in the form of the Scottsdale Home and Garden Expo Center. The Scottsdale site is actually one of four expo centers in the Phoenix area. The four centers are permanent facilities that are open 7 days a week all year long. The difference in their expo format is that the booths are unmanned. This allows shoppers to explore and compare products at their leisure without pressure from sales staff. They can collect information on products of interest and contact the vendors to pursue their interest. Vendors pay rent for the booths.....however...artists do not. Artists put down a damage deposit which is fully refundable based on the condition of the booth when they leave. I chose to take advantage of this opportunity and see what happens. My booth was already painted a neutral color so I left it as is thinking of the many galleries that paint their walls such neutral colors. I put up paintings, put in an area rug, set up a small side table with a basket for business cards, positioned a silk plant.....stood back and took a look. I liked it...but decided the booth needs to be repainted in the near future. My paintings kind of blend in too much. A bolder, darker color will help to make them pop out to the viewer. Now.....we wait to see what happens. My concern is whether a buyer will be willing to contact the artist and come back to meet the artist at another time to be able to make the purchase. Regardless....my work is getting exposure and that is a good thing!! If you are in the area stop in and check it out.

"Cortona Window" wins Third Place

I decided to enter the Peoria Celebration of Artists juried show this year. The first step is to send up to two digital images for jurying into the show. I entered two pieces, "Cortona Window" and "Golden Barrel Cactus". Both pieces were juried into the show which is housed in the Peoria, AZ City Hall. I was pleased to attend the reception to find that "Cortona Window" had placed third in the Drawing/Pastel Division. The judges were Bob and Louise McCall. Bob McCall creates art for NASA and has the largest painting in the Smithsonian. Louise is also a well known artist. Earning an award by such quality of judges makes the award all the sweeter!!

Richard McKinley Workshop

The week of March 8th I participated in a weeklong workshop in Tucson, AZ with Richard McKinley. Richard is the instructor that I worked with in Italy last year and will be working with again in France the end of June. This workshop was for artists who have previously worked with Richard and was designed for each artist to move to their next level. Several of the participants had also taken part in the workshop in Italy including my roommate for the Tucson workshop, Barb. This made for great fun for the group as well as being able to learn from each other. We painted in several beautiful sites in Tucson including Sabino Canyon shown here with my easel. I was very gratified that Richard recognized my growth as an artist since the workshop in Italy last May. I have moved forward in recognizing and painting three to four main value masses. Richard worked with me to further define the values within each major value mass. He also demonstrated the next step which would include adding stokes that add the drama to a painting. It was a truly successful workshop.

Boot Scootin' Wannabes

I have been experiencing some health problems that have kept me from being able to go out plein air painting. This has put me into a state of "withdrawal" from being out in Mother Nature with my painting friends painting. In the meantime I have been taking a class with a friend and very talented artist on finding your visual voice. Liz encouraged the class to use the class to engage in painting a series. I had been wanting to paint a pair of cowboy oot mules I own and decided to initate a "shoe" series.

A lot of artists experience problems plein air painting in narrowing down a scene and developing a strong composition. I have not found that to be a problem. However....as I began to set up a still life with my shoes I found myself definitely struggling to develop an interesting and strong composition. After many changes and adjustments I finally settled on a setup using the shoes, a pair of jeans and a red suede jacket.

It was great fun painting this setup. I really enjoyed doing the jeans and the suede jacket. I also really enjoyed being very impressionistic on the shoes themselves. I was happy with the results....but as always I wanted to spend some time looking at the piece and deciding if any changes were needed. I also took the piece to class to get some feedback from my fellow classmates.

As a result of my own contemplation and chewing on feedback from classmates, I decided that the blue jeans needed some darkening to push them back so the shoes dominate. That helped a lot......but further review brought me to the decision to crop the top of the piece about an inch.

I am very happy with the final result. Now on to the next shoe setup!!

Painting on Vacation Trips

Bob and I recently took a four day trip to Las Vegas to take in a couple of shows. Las Vegas is about a four hour drive through some beautiful desert and a crossing of the Hoover Dam. Since moving to Scottsdale we have made occasional trips to Vegas for a get-away. Although we had tickets to see both Jersey Boys and Ka, it was also our intent to drive out of Vegas proper and check out Red Rock Canyon and other sights in the area. As such, I took my camera, sketchbook and a few pastels. Well....we did drive out to Red Rock Canyon.....and I did take some great photos....but I did not stop, set up my easel and paint. Why? Well, we ended up with much less time for exploring than we had hoped. This happens often when we travel. It is not that Bob isn't willing to pull out a lawn chair and enjoy a book or newspaper while I paint, but rather that we plan too many activities in the time we have available.

Well, I am going to look at changing the planning process...since I am the one that does all the planning and making of reservations. We have a driving trip planned the end of July into August. We are meeting our kids at Bass Lake, CA just outside of Yosemite National Park. Bob and I are planning to be gone about three weeks. Our drive to CA will include scenic roads through Sequoia National Park. We will be outside of Yosemite for a week with our kids. Our drive home will be through St. George, Utah and Zion National Park. Just think of the painting scenes just waiting for me!! As I build the schedule and make the reservations I am going to build in dedicated painting time. Hopefully my strategy will be successful! I will let you know!

Polly Revised

At the Arizona Pastel Art Association meeting last weekend we invited Judith, Spitz, a local pastel instructor and show judge to come to the meeting for a critique session. Members bring a painting they would like to have feedback on to the meeting. I decided to take the painting of Polly I shared in the last blog. As a result of the critique I made changes to the painting. Judith gave me the following constructive criticism:

1. The green pillow was dominating the original version of the painting. It was suggested that the painting be revised to take the emphasis off of the pillow. I decided to address the issue by having Polly's leg over the pillow as opposed to behind the pillow.

2. There needed to be green in other areas of the painting to provide more harmony of color. I made the green in the sheet pattern more apparent where before they were very low key. I also added a little green to Polly in her ears. Finally I added some green to the crease in the back pillow that is predominantly burgundy.

The result is a much stronger painting. Sometimes another set of eyes....especially more knowledgeable eyes....can see things that the painter just does not recognize. It provides great opportunity for growth!

Polly

With some time over the holidays I have gotten to some projects that have been waiting for my attention....some for awhile. One of those is a painting of our Springer Spaniel, Polly. We had two Springer Spaniels, Polly and Alex, when we lived in Michigan that were wonderful pets. We lost Alex at a young age in the mid 90's when he twisted a gut and died of a heart attack before we could get the surgery done to hopefully save him. We weren't sure how Polly would deal with his loss as they were inseparable. Besides that fact.....Polly was blind and used Alex as a guide dog. Polly suffered from a condition that is being bred out of the Springer Spaniels.....however....it is a formidable task as it doesn't show up until about age 2 and many females have already been bred at that age. The retina separates from the back of the eye and there is nothing that can be done. However, Polly did fine and adjusted to being without Alex. We had her for many more years. She was a faithful trooper and a loving companion. She lost her hearing and began to suffer from displasia of the hips. She finally started having neurological problems and we would find her turning in circles. With the vet, we decided her quality of life had deteriorated to the point that we needed to put her to sleep. We still think of both Polly and Alex often. I had done a painting of Alex prior to his death (see website under Animals), but had never gotten to Polly although I had a photo that I thought perfectly showed her sweet personality. She was our couch potato and the photo showed her lounging among the bed pillows. I greatly enjoyed doing the painting. It brought back many happy memories as well as the sadness of losing her.