Shows!

I'm happy to announce two of my paintings have been accepted into shows this week. The first, Medusa, will be headed to Townsend Atelier in Chattanooga to participate in their part of Women Painting Women: (R)evolution 2013, which is a national exhibition project that involves some amazing women painters and started here. It opens in September and I'm so thrilled and honored to be a part of it this year.

The second is June Bug Portraits, which will head to Fredericksburg, TX for the 16th Annual American Women Artists National Juried Exhibition which opens November 1st. 

And here, just for fun, is a landscape that's been kicking around the studio for months and is finally done, so I thought I'd share:   

baby sebbie

Here's a quick post with pictures of the newest Sebbie I just started and a sky painting that's on the easel as well. Cheers!

pictures from the kiddie pool.

It's been hot in the studio, very hot. Put your head under the sink to cool off every half hour, hot. Consider the pros and cons of painting naked, hot. Consider putting in a kiddie pool, hot. After careful consideration, I opted for filling a paper soaking tray with ice water and soaking my feet in it between painting shifts--it works surprisingly well. Plus, I got the bonus of a good laugh when I caught sight of myself in the mirror, standing in a tray of water, pallet and brushes in one hand, glass of wine in the other--ridiculous. But I have been painting, despite the heat; I felt I'd been letting life interrupt my painting too much lately (ok, somethings can't be helped, root canals happen, pneumonia happens--but I get annoyed all the same), so I've made myself follow a schedule, and following it I have been.  Here are two pictures of works in progress, brought to this stage through blood, sweat and tears (ok, ok, mostly sweat really, and cold tea and wine). I'm having so much fun with the octopus and the snakes, I can't wait to see them finished!  

etching wonders

I've been taking a class in etching at Zea Mays printmaking studio (highly recommended, by the way, should anyone be looking for lovely people to learn printmaking with).  It's been really interesting, so much thinking about things the reverse of how I usually think (printing being a reverse image, and having to think about lights and darks almost as a negative when working with aquatint).  First I did a Sebbie, because I thought I'd start with a familiar subject.  First with black ink, and then with pretty browns and transparency.  

Sebbie and the white fox:

Then I decided to try and copy an etching by Luigi Marcon (a fabulous Italian printmaker whom you should definitely look up if you aren't familiar with his work).  I have to say my etching fell short of his, but it really gave me fabulous insight into the process.  This I also did in black and then warmer browns:

Landscape, after Luigi Marcon:

Don't worry, I've been painting up a storm as well, I'm just holding out on sharing pictures.