I got myself a show -- eek!

Well, I am continuing to work to do what I need to to get better at the business side of art.  Fear of rejection, of failure, has always made doing that hard for me.  But, today I kept myself in the moment, and made calls, and I have arranged both to have a one-person show at a local tea room, and to participate in Lancaster's Fall ArtWalk.

I'm going to call my show, At Home & Abroad: Recent Works by Tracy Feldman, and it will be at the Pemberly Tea Shop, 433 N. Mulberry Street, in Lancaster PA for the month of October.  And, on the 6th and 7th of October, my show and the Shop will be one of the featured places on the ArtWalk.  I know this is only the first step of many to make the events successful, but a first step is a step: one I needed badly.  So,  yea!

 I'll keep you posted as the time nears.

Making Something Old "New" Again

Arny Feldman by Nancy Cornett
pencil sketch on paper

Recently, I discovered a bunch of family photos that we had stored away two years ago when we spent the year in Ireland.  It was a delight to see images of loved ones, and be reminded of how much I cared.  Among the photos was, however, a pencil sketch done decades ago by my younger sister, Nancy, of my husband Arny.  I love it.  It reminds me of how cute he was with a full head of dark hair.

 But, when I rediscovered this lovely little drawing, I found the glass and frame had gotten broken, and during the two years it was in storage, the matting had gotten dirty.  There was no way I was going to show it when it looked like that.  Today, I finally found  a new frame.  It's teak with a creamy white mat that I was able to put over the old, problematic mat; and the result was wonderful!  The new mat, and modern frame took something that seemed old and outdated, and made it seem fresh and modern.

I realized as I looked at it how often we create, are given,  or buy, pieces of art like this that we initially love, but as the frames age, and the mats deteriorate (or just are an outdated color), the lovely pieces we loved lose their appeal.  However, if we took the time to reframe them in a more modern frame, or at least re-mat them, many of these pieces would once again become something we enjoy displaying.  I know frames can be expensive, but if you shop well (this teak frame with mat was on sale for only  $5.99), you can often have "new" art for a much more reasonable price you would have spent for new.

I challenge you to look through pieces you own, and look for things you used to love, but now seem shabby, and/or outdated, and try doing what I did.  I'm guessing you are likely to be delighted by the result.  If you are, share your own picture of the new (and the old if you want to, too.)  I'd love to see them.

 

Working from Life

Vegetables in Sun - wide,
Oil pastel on canvas board, 17.7 x 9.7"

The three paintings in this blog were all done from life.  In the past,  I've not generally worked that way.  I usually work from photos.  I've often felt a little guilty (a little less than) for doing this.  Why?  Because most people I've talked to -- artists and non-artists alike -- assume that paintings made from life are better, more-dynamic, than those that use photos as a resource.

Vegetables in Sun - tall,
Oil Pastel on canvas board, 12.3 x 16.5"

When I look back on my early works, I have to admit that some of  my paintings had a stiffness about them.  This was because, like a lot of beginning painters, I assumed that my paintings got better the more slavishly they duplicated their photo resource. While I've let go of that mistaken approach, I still often rely a lot on photo references because freezing an image at a moment in time preserves the way the light and shadow influence the shape, color, and depth of field. Working outside in the sun complicates that because natural sunlight changes all the time.  However, over the years, I've loosened up the way I use photos.  Now,  I am happy to edit the images and composition (in my own head and the final painting) to create the visual story that I want to tell.  In fact, it isn't uncommon for me to go so far as using elements from several photos in a single work.

      Vegetables in the Sun -  wide, and Vegetables in the Sun -  tall, are two works I created on a single piece of canvas board, and  that I later cut up to create the final pieces.  I worked in oil pastels and set up each still life on my porch using some of my favorite late-summer vegetables from Lancaster County farms.  I played with dramatically changing the point of view and the composition to add an unexpected element  to the works.  I have to admit that rushing to capture the light does add a dynamism to the way I laid down the image.  I love that -- particularly the more-realized Vegetables in the sun - wide.

Which Came First ....?,
watercolor and acrylic on canvas, 8 x 10"

    The final work I have here is a more-standard still life, set up under studio lights.  It's a topic I normally wouldn't do, but I was working to complete a Daily Paintworks Challenge  about painting a broken egg.  I have decided that one way to get back into painting is to do more of these challenges.  I chose the broken egg challenge because I knew it would really test me -- since I had no idea how I was going to do it.  It took me a couple of days to come up with the idea of breaking an egg on an image of a chicken so I could call the work Which Came First ...?  This work was my second attempt to complete the challenge because painting egg shells is ... challenging.  If you look at the original watercolor of the chicken, you'll notice I simplified and darkened the tail a lot so as not to compete with the main subject of the painting -- the broken egg.

       You can go to my gallery on Daily Paintworks.com to participate in the Auctions for the two larger works (bidding starts at $35 because they are larger, and will be priced higher after the auction), or you can pay $15 for the challenge painting.

    Enjoy!

   

I'm Back!

The More Things Change ... 1,
watercolor on canvas, 8 x 10"    

 This summer I accomplished a lot:  my husband and I went on a 4000 mile road trip to see loved ones and attend a math conference; I completed some major home improvements, including re-doing my studio; I helped my husband organize and run a math conference;  we also hosted numerous guests; etc.. The thing that I let fall by the wayside, however, was my art.  I was so busy "doing" that I let creating and blogging slide.

My husband has just started back to school, and that has given me the final push I need to get back into art and blogging.  I started with this two- painting series of banana peppers called, The More Things Change ... 1 and The More Things Change ... 2.  They are painted from life in my newly re-done studio.   ... 1 is a watercolor on canvas, and ... 2 is acrylic on canvas.  ... 1 is a landscape view of the peppers and ... 2 a portrait view.

I decide to do a 2-painting series to recapture the joy I get from adding texture to paintings.  In the spring, I had been painting exclusively in watercolor. I love the luminosity possible with those paintings, but the nature of watercolor paints means that textures in watercolors are only created using illusion. However,  I was reminded of how much fun I sometimes have adding a real textural element to my paintings when I was choosing which works to display on my walls before our many visitors arrived.  Thus, I've decided not to limit myself to watercolors for a while. That is why The More Things Change ... became a two-painting series -- one in watercolor and one in acrylic.

The More Things Change ... 2,
acrylic on canvas, 8 x 10"

The title of these paintings was inspired by a conversation I had with the little Amish boy who sold me the subject of these paintings.  I asked what was the heat difference between the peppers.  He patiently explained that  all the banana peppers I had chosen came from same plant.  However, he went on to explain, as each pepper matures, its color changes and the pepper gets hotter.  That idea that things so apparently different could really be the same underneath fired my "reality with a twist" passions, and gave me a title for these paintings: The More Things Change .. which I assume the viewer will know is an an expression that ends with, "the more things remain the same" and which is true of these peppers that seem on the surface to have morphed into entirely different things, but in reality remain the same vegetable.

If you are interested in buying the pieces, they available on Daily Paintworks.comhttp://www.dailypaintworks.com/Buy/Auction/73270. For a couple of weeks, I'll be auctioning them -- minimum bid starts at $15 plus shipping.  The price will go up when the auction ends.

Wondering about the green you see in the side of  ... 2's photo? It is paint from the side of the canvas. I painted the sides the green of the bottom pepper, and really liked the way it looked peeping over the side, so I decided to leave it.

Second in Series of Lancaster Central Park Pictures

Library in Late Winter
Watercolor on Canvas
10 x 8"

Library in Late Winter -- This little watercolor on canvas is the second in a series of paintings I’ve done based on feedback I got about photos I posted on my blog.  It’s of the winterberries against the Shuts Environmental Library on the grounds of the Lancaster County Park.  In the 1700’s, the original owners of this federalist style farmhouse probably owned the land on which the county’s Central Park now sits.  I believe the home was derelict for many years, and I am so glad that that instead of tearing it down, they turned it into the environmental house in 1991.   You can see a distant side view of the same building in the background of my previous painting, “Oh, You Nut ... hatch.”  

I’m also going to post it on my gallery on the Dailypaintworks site. 

 Hope you enjoy it.

Daily Painting -- Oh, You Nut ... hatch

Oh, You Nut ... hatch
Watercolor on canvas
10 x 8"

 Late this winter, I took a number of pictures while on a day out in Lancaster County, and I posted them on this blog and on my Facebook page.  I asked people what they wanted me to paint some day.  I got a number of responses about what people liked, and then promptly got too involved doing business-related things on the web to remember to do that.  Yesterday, I was thinking, "What to paint today?", and I remembered my commitment.  So I looked over the pictures people said that they liked, and this is the result.

This picture is of a white breasted nuthatch hanging from a pine limb at the Lancaster County Central Park. I love watching these natural acrobats zip up and down, and around and around a tree. They're easily distinguished from other small birds because they hang upside down as they quickly circumnavigate the tree to unearth bugs underneath the bark.  I think this behavior of acrobatically arching away from the tree is their way of getting a general look around.

Shuts Enviromental Library
Lancaster County Central Park

For people who are interested in how I make compositional decisions when I paint -- particularly starting with photo references, I've provided the two photo references I used to create this piece.  I'll share the process I went through with this little painting.

I looked over what people said they liked and thought would make interesting paintings.  I also considered comments they offered.  A couple of people liked the pictures of the nuthatch, but when looking at it, I agreed with one comment that said the background was dull.  If you look at the photo of the nuthatch below, you'll see what I mean. The colors are dull and their values too close to that of the bird to be as eye catching as I wanted.

Original of nuthatch

   I quickly realized that a logical alternative background   would be one located within the Lancaster County Central Park where this nuthatch shot was actually taken.

I chose the long view of the park's environmental library (pictured above) as the new background because it was interesting, but also distant enough to remain secondary to the nuthatch in the painting.  If you notice, I chose to paint building and its surroundings in softer focus, and with paler hues than the original to keep viewers focused on the bird.  I also slightly altered where the little evergreen branch was in the foreground, and placed my signature in a way that visually linked the tree limb and the little branch.  In so doing, I provided a visual path down the limb, along my signature, up the branch to the nuthatch.

I'd welcome any comments or suggestions about this -- or future work. If you want to look into purchasing this piece, go to my gallery page on Dailypaintworks.com

Daily Painting -- Little Ball of Fur

Little Ball of Fur - Watercolor on Canvas, 12 x 12"
I'm posting it as a "Buy It Now"  option
on my Daily Paint Works Auction for $60

This painting started out as something else.  I had an image of my nieces' black cat that we took on this wonderful cushion.  However, as I painted it, the color I got wasn't a black I wanted, but it was a chocolate brown that I liked.  So, I decided to go to make the animal that color.  However, after a little while, the painting seemed to beg to morph into an image of a puppy.

It's strange.  That doesn't often happen when I'm painting.  Normally, I have a pretty clear image of what I want when I start a painting.  But, this painting's "call" came to me made me remember hearing something various authors have talking about.  Writers said that sometimes as the wrote, certain characters just forced them to change how they, or  the story evolved.    So, in the name of artistic flexibility, I lengthen a leg here, lighted an shadow there, added a highlight on the puppy's snout, and out came this cute little ball of fur.  Enjoy.

Later today I'm posting it on my DPW gallery page as an experiment, I normally post works as part of an auction.  However, I'm going to try the "buy it now" option and price it for $60.00 to see how that works.

I'd welcome any comments or suggestions.