Menagerie Boutique is open!

We're open! The Menagerie Boutique (see previous blog) that is representing my work is now open. The grand opening was Saturday, October 17th. Bob and I went to visit today and see what things looked like once everything was set up. Very impressive.....and very exciting for me! I share the owner, Cindy Keogh's great expectations for the future of the alternative gallery. Here are a couple of photos that include some of my work. Please plan to visit. It is located at 14150 McDowell Rd. in Goodyear, AZ. Lot's of goodies to buy....and Christmas is just around the corner!!

Rio Verde

Yesterday I finished the final touches on this plein piece in my studio. This is a view of the shorline of the Rio Verde at the Needle Rock Recreation Area in the Tonto National Forest. I really liked the way the sun was hitting the topline of the overhang on the opposite shore highlighting the trees and shrubs against the deeply shadowed overhang. I was also attracted by the reflections in the swiftly moving water. It was one of those beautiful fall days in Arizona that just make you think of nothing but the joy of being alive and surrounded by nature's beauty. I could have painted all day......but the growing intensity of hunger pangs made lunch climb to the number one priority. Oh well.....lots more of these days to come....which is why I love living here!

Menagerie Boutique

I recently became a participating artist at the Menagerie Boutique. The Menagerie Boutique is what I would call an alternative gallery brand new to the Phoenix area. It is located in Goodyear, which is the SW part of the valley, at McDowell and Lichfield Rd. The grand opening is October 17th. The owner is Cindy Keogh and she is approaching the sale of art in a unique and imaginative way. Cindy has two rooms connected by a hallway which will include hung art. Each of the two rooms has walls painted different colors. She has brought in a collection of eclectic pieces of furniture, some antiques, most from her home. She plans to set up vignettes with the furniture to showcase the art as one would possibly see it in their homes. I think this unique approach will appeal to customers and decided this was a venue I wanted to try as an artist. The gallery website is currently under construction, but should be active soon. (http://www.menagerieboutique.com/). Please check out this new gallery and my work there. I would love to hear what you think!

Art Challenge

The Arizona pastel Artist Association has initiated a new event this year in the form of an "Art Challenge". There are three cycles of the Art Challenge during the year. For each cycle up to 10 artists can sign up to participate. The participants are given an object or set of objects. All participants receive the exact same object(s). Each artist then has two months to create a painting that incorporates the object(s). After two months the participants bring their finished pieces in to the meeting where a discussion is held that examines the resulting paintings in terms of composition, color choices, concepts, etc. It is a learning and fun activity for both participating and non-participating members. I decided to participate in the first cycle. Our object was a glass goblet that was tinted green. This worked fine for me because I have been really enjoying painting with the colors of green and purple of late (artichokes, eggplants, etc.). After a shopping trip to AJ's grocery store, I composed and painted the painting above. My problem is that I am so happy with the results that I decided to enter it into our fall juried show. If it gets juried into the show it will not be available for the discussion at the November meeting......which means I would have to do another composition using the glass. I will have to start thinking of other compositions.....just in case!!!

Bulldog Cliffs

This is a piece I did plein air out in Bulldog Canyon in the Tonto National Forest 2 weeks ago. It just needed some finishing touches in the studio which I did this morning. Bulldog is one of my favorite places to paint. It is very much still as nature intended. You need a pass to access the area which only has a couple of 4-wheel drive roads through it. The entrances have gates with padlock codes which are given to you 6 months at a time. There is a herd of mustangs that travel this area that we have seen twice. This canyon borders the Salt River which attracts wild life. Hope you enjoy this piece as much as I did doing it.

Sunflowers

Finally finished! This was a tough piece for me. The sunflowers themselves were a gift from good friends as part of a larger bouquet of flowers. The sunflowers were so eyecatching I just knew I had to paint them. I isolated the sunflowers and the deep purple flowers that so wonderfully accented the sunflowers into a vase to take pictures. I was happy with the resulting photo and even happier with the watercolor underpainting as I shared with you in an earlier blog entry. I was actually worried about ruining such a great foundation for a pastel painting. Maybe it was that fear that set me up mentally. I like the finished piece....but it was a painful process. I painted and left it for days...painted again with new ideas and left it for days....this continued more than a few times. Some pieces just flow from the pastels with no effort.....and other pieces fight you all along the way! As long as I am happy in the end I guess I can't complain too much about those that are a struggle. I hope you like the results!!

Small Works Continued

Surprisingly I find myself having a lot of fun with the small works approach. I was so pleased with the "Artichoke" piece that I decided to try another vegetable that also uses purples and greens....an eggplant (besides....I love eggplant). I used the remaining half of the UArt 500 grit paper sample I received at the IAPS Convention in May which is 5" x 7". I went to the Wet Canvas Reference Photo section and found a photo of eggplants that met my needs. Small works are so much fun because they are not long term projects. I completed "Eggplant" in about 3 hours with a little more tweaking the next morning after "sleeping on it". I have some samples of UArt paper of different grits.......I may just have to try some more vegetables!!!