Miss Puss and the Fallen Flower

Miss Puss and the Fallen Flower      Oil on Canvas    20 x 20

I had not planned to do a painting of my cat with this flower arrangement. The flowers were given to me after the reception for the Pastel Society show at Carrollwood Cultural Center and I had them in my studio for decoration. Miss Puss seemed to like them and constantly jumped up on the table to examine them, sniff them, and pose with them, and I thought she was very cute, so I grabbed a new container, a white cloth, my camera, tripod and a long metal ruler. I could slide the ruler under the drapery and she focused on the wiggle just perfectly. The result of that photo session was this painting. Stay tuned...it turns out that I now have a live model willing to pose, more or less, as I place her, and a new series of paintings have been birthed. I am working on Miss Puss and the Sunflowers, which will be followed by Miss Puss and the Stargazer Lilies, and then Miss Puss and the Roses (maybe). The lily flowers are the fake ones I bought a long time ago for the Awe Painting, but found out that the real ones I was going to have her pose with turned out to be deadly toxic to cats, and so that idea was scrapped in favor of the fake flowers. But it will be OK, as I have lots of photo references to the real thing.

"Awe" 7-13-12

Progress after the second day of work. My shoulder hurts (rotator cuff problems, we think) and so I knocked off to give it a rest for a bit.

Feeling Series #10 "Awe"

It has begun, after much angst, thinking, rethinking, searching for flowers and the right container, procrastinating, having art shows to hang, and so on and on.



I ran into an old friend in the supermarket who is a painter living in my area. We chatted and I told her about "Awe" and my hunt for Stargazer Lilies which were abundant around Easter but a hard find until a few days ago in a New Tampa Publix market. I laughed about how my house smelled like a funeral home with all those lilies. About half an hour later she called me to tell me that all parts of the lily plant is totally toxic to cats and if they get the pollen on them and lick it they can die, rather quickly. Who knew? So, the upshot of all that was to cut off the private parts of those beautiful lilies and put the flowers in the guest bathroom with the door shut, so Miss Puss could not frolic with the lilies. Prior to that I knew I would have to work from photographs. I have a good assortment of fake Stargazers, but I like to work with the real thing, at least for a short time in the beginning, and then often at the end. So I had to photograph the still life, and the blown up version is on the floor next to my easel. It helps to have that as a guide, especially when I have to put the real flowers in the guest bathroom when I'm not working. The canvas size of this painting is 48 x 30. I will keep you posted on my progress.

Genesis: Passion Fruit

I think this painting is the most difficult one I've done in this series. I am still not quite sure it reads right, but I'm done with it, after many hours of labor. I'm at the finished point, where I don't have the slightest clue as to how to improve, or add to what I already have except for starting over, and that idea doesn't enthrall me at all! That shiny, wrinkly, dark purple skin nearly killed me, and the slimy part on the left is still not quite slimy enough, but it works reasonably well. Painting slime is a challenge I love! By the way, did you know that "passion" comes from the flower of this fruit where some person with lots of imagination saw a cross and nails, and named it after the Passion of Jesus on the Cross? Too bad...I thought of aphrodisiacs which shows you where my brains are!



Tropical Storm Debby

For those of you who have been to my house you know that I have waterfront property at times. Since the area drainage was improved about 5 years ago our little retention pond drains really fast, but today it wasn't fast enough for me, and as I write this at 8:00pm on Sunday night I wonder if my house will float away. I'm not sure I want to be in it when that happenes either. I'm reluctant to leave...it will be a trauma for both me and Miss Puss.

The torrential rains stopped just enough to allow a slight reduction in the water, which is now about 10 feet from my foundation, and it is coming down in buckets again. It is supposed to do this for two days!

I am sorry this is such an awful photo out my studio window, but those white things are ibis feeding at the edge of the water. It is somewhat disconcerting, and this was several hours ago.

Wish me luck!

Genesis: Passion Fruit

This is a work in progress. I'm not sure I have the left hand part of this quite right. It doesn't read quite slimy enough. The right side was so much work, and I'm tired of it! What was I thinking when I took on dark purple, shiny, wrinkles?

Genesis: Passion Fruit        Egg Tempera      6 x 8

Genesis: Habanero Pepper

Genesis: Habanero Pepper     Egg Tempera     $450

I am about to start the next one of this series...number 27. Yikes! You are welcome to say things like "OCD" or "screwy" in connection with this madness. I'm not finished with the Genesis series yet.

Black and White 2012

I am particularly proud of the June, 2012 Black and White Art Show at Carrollwood Cultural Center. We have about 140 entries in painting, photography, ceramics and sculpture. One sculpture was sent from Paris, France and a picture from Lincoln, Nebraska. We are definitely getting "out there".

I took some photographs last night before I went home, dog weary with the amount of work involved in this show. I had a remarkable turnout of help to hang the show, which was done in record time...two hours on Tuesday afternoon, but it was impossible to keep track of what was happening with teams of hangers putting up the work as fast as possible, so I had to do a lot of reshuffling on Wednesday afternoon while more helpers put up the labels.

The Theater Gallery is very difficult to photograph, since it is a very large venue and often is set up for cabaret style events, and at other times a formal theater with row seating for 225 people. Sometimes a small dance floor is put down, while at other times this space is used for private parties, weddings and civic events. These photos show the theater being set up for a rehearsal for a music production. Please excuse the trash can and other accessories that will be put away when our reception gets underway!

Theater West

 Theater West lower level

 Theater West Balcony

Theater West Balcony (2nd View)

Theater East

Theater East Lower Level View 1

Theater East Lower Level View 2

 

West Entrance - Sculpture and Ceramics

Star Spangled Art Show

I was presented this beautiful engraved wood plaque last Saturday afternoon at the Reception fo the Star Spangled Art Show at Carrollwood Cultural Center. I was so blown away I could only babble into the microphone. I had to finally stop and leave the stage. It was a very difficult show to manage, but I did not think it was such a trial that I deserved such an accolade. Many others had a share of this plaque and I hope I have thanked all of them. Without that help the show would not have been the success it was.

Before the show ends on Monday, June 4th I made this composite photo showing our Theater Gallery with the addition of the lovely logo Stuart Dwork gave for us to use for this show. This is the view from our stage where I was standing when I could not pull myself together when Mary Donovan and Cathy Williams handed me this amazing gift.

Have You Ever Tried to Get Your Cat to Pose?

This is MY Game and YOU are my PAWN

Oil             20 x 20             $650

The title of this painting popped into my head one day, as I was probably doing my cat's bidding, or fetching something for her. The next day I went out to search for a chess set and came up with this pretty glass one for about $5 at the local dollar store...only problem was the queen and king were missing. I probably should have taken it back, but you know about OCD people like me. Telling her just how to pose for this painting was a little tricky but she was good about it! Miss Puss is a very smart cat, sometimes...like all cats she has a variable IQ. This painting was done for the Carrollwood Cultural Center's Annual Black & White show next week...June 8th will be the reception.

Genesis: Spaghetti Squash

Genesis: Spaghetti Squash     Egg Tempera    6 x 8      $450

All the other Genesis Series paintings show fruits and vegetables in their raw condition, but Spaghetti Squash doesn't turn into "spaghetti" until it is cooked, so I had to cook it before painting this one. By the way...this vegetable doesn't taste at all like spaghetti. This reminds me of the childhood days when all weird food was compared to the taste of chicken. Parents were so dumb!

Virtual Frame

Well, what do you think? I have tried many styles and colors of frames but this one on www.pictureframes.com really was the only one that looked good. I haven't bought it yet. I can upload a photo to their website and try out most of their frames in their virtual frame shop. Pretty neat!

I think this is the one I'll go with. Black killed it, silver was worse, woods in all the brown flavors looked terrible. Really, this was the only one that worked, at least for me....and it was the last one I tried, thinking that a green frame would be worse than all the others, combined. Go figure.

Orchid Shadows

Orchid Shadows        Oil on Canvas       20 x 20   

It is finished. After my last post about this painting as a work in progress, I fussed and fiddled with it for many more hours. I wanted to insert more drama, more interest, and I especially wanted to work on the edges, losing and finding them as necessary. I have never paid much attention to that until recently, and realized that it could make or break a painting, so I paid extra attention in many places, and I think it helped, somehow.

It must now be framed and I am at a loss to know what to do to it. I have tried some various frames online and nothing hit me, so I'm now trying to figure out what will work best. Gold kills it, and black is not good either. I didn't try silver, so that might work. I'd love to see this with a liner, but I can't imagine how that will come together either, and white would not work, and natural linen kind of leaves me cold. Of course if I gave up and took it too a pro framer I'd save myself much trouble, but in the end it is always about money. This is a gallery wrapped canvas, but I'm of the opinion that my work looks best framed, except those very wide edge canvases with the painting wrapped around...that looks OK, but for the most part my work looks sickly without a proper frame.

A Pastel

Chincoteague  9 x12 on Art Spectrum Paper (unframed) $70

I have not done a pastel for a long time, having been so enamoured with Egg Tempera. I did this in my Sampling the Media Class which had only two students, and down to one on the last night....plenty of time to fool around with my own stuff. 



A Work in Progress

This is not a finished painting. I like it so much I just had to post it to my blog. I wonder why I like it so much....perhaps the color combination is satisfying to me, or perhaps it is the subject....two lovely orchids that were given to me by special people. I don't know, but it is strange how this particular painting is developing. It seems to flow and come together effortlessly. I wish all my paintings were like that! I have not named it yet, so if you have any suggestions about names please make a comment, or email me. Perhaps something like "Chiffon and Orchids"....that seems very ordinary. Anyway, something will come to mind, and if not it can always go as "Opus 1".