Summer Plein Air

I've been getting out for more plein air studies than usual this summer. I really consider myself a studio painter, but I do find plein air pushes me in my work in exciting ways. I'm still working in the studio, or course--never fear--I just don't have anything I want to share just yet. But it's coming, stay tuned.

The Artist's Magazine

Delighted to share that "The Meeting" was selected as a finalist in the Still Life Category of The Artist's Magazine Annual Competition. Over 5900 entries this year! 

Vacation with paint, or, I'm sure I'm doing it wrong.

I just spent a week in Maine, ostensibly on vacation, but as I brought half the studio with me, it was less a vacation in that sense and more me telling myself, "Look! I'm outside, it's a vacation for the studio painter while you practice plein air!" Myself was not convinced. But, of course, I love painting enough I did it anyway. Mostly, I did a bunch of little studies I will be painting over, but I did do two more ambitious pieces, a focus on a single tree (which I always find difficult) and a rocky river bed with falling water (which I've always been too scared to try--I knew it'd be hard. I wasn't wrong.) And it was cicada molting season, so I painted one of them too. So here they are, my paintings, or my work-cation in a nutshell: 

Women Painting Women

I'm delighted to share that I will have a piece in this year's Women Painting Women Exhibition at RJD Gallery in Sag Harbor, NY. My work
will hang beside the works of amazing women artists including Susanne Anan, Donna Bates, Julie Beck, Melinda Borysevicz, Larisa Brechin, Lisa Fricker, Brianna Lee, Shannah Levenson, Hilary McCarthy, Ana Medina, Nadine Robbins, Omalix, Buket Savci, Patricia Schappler, and Elizabeth Zanzinger--I couldn't be more honored to be included in that company. Opening October 8th, don't miss it!

American Women Artists

Delighted to share that the piece below, "Sebbie and Oma's Teapot," has been juried into the American Women Artists 2016 National Juried Exhibition & Annual Members Show, hosted by the Bennington Center for the Arts in Bennington, Vermont, September 23 – November 13, 2016.  

IMC

I spent last week at the IMC, or Illustration Master Class, in Amherst, MA. It was an amazing, encouraging, inspiring week I'd recommend to anyone looking to go into illustration or narrative visual art. There's a picture below of the piece I worked on there, not quite finished, but nearly. It's an exciting new direction in my work--exactly what I'd hoped the IMC would push me toward. This post is failing, magnificently, to encapsulate the experience, but it was a wonderful, overwhelming, over-saturated experience, and I'm still digesting it. But I wanted to post something before the moment past. So there it is. Perhaps more later.

Adopt a painting

These paintings are looking for the right home. Ideal homes include a bit of blank wall, ample smiles and laughter, and a roof to keep off the rain (while, unlike the Wicked Witch of the West, Sebbie won't melt in rain, the canvas he's painted on just doesn't like it). Paintings make great pets; they're super easy to clean up after. Plus, bonus: unlike other pets, paintings have minimal feeding and grooming requirements. These guys are all currently hanging out at Lotton Gallery in Chicago just waiting for the right adoptive parent to come along--adopt one today!