The eclipse and thoughts of the future

The moon and the eclipse may not be what is energizing me to take stock of what I am doing. I started looking at my life and progress in painting before my current solo exhibit. But then again maybe the cyles of life does have direct bearing on my thoughts.
This painting is for sale. "Moon Eclipse" is watercolor with matte medium and acrylics on a wood 7" x 5" deep cradled box. $98

This is a still life I set up for some Albany artists who came to paint and have lunch. We are toying with a name for our group. Shirley suggests Kaleidoscope Artists. I put my foot in my mouth saying that I couldn't spell it. But I like the word. I think it describes the diversity of possiblities we have.

I used to fancy myself as an artists' artist. In a few instances I am sure I have influenced some. My blog might help me in that direction. But I would also like to sell some. It is not my greatest love to market my work. I really like to demonstrate that I just don't hack out my paintings and want all to know the depth of my involvement. So I think for me showing my work along with my process will mean that my art will find new homes where they are fully appreciated. I do plan to put early work and paintings I did in collaboration in on-line galleries this year. I am also wanting to get my work out to venues farther away from home this year with my solo exhibit in Keizer my first step. But I am not going to make paintings just for sale. First they must be for my own satisfaction.

Lincoln City Plein Air Art Festival

I am the generic plein air artist on the Lincoln City Plein Air Art Festival 2007 poster. Last year was beautiful weather on the first weekend of October when I enjoyed painting out.

This year it was a wet on the Oregon Coast. Not conducive to exhibiting or selling. Here in the picture, I had just mopped up the water off my boxes which by the way are rainproof with a coat of acrylic medium sealing the watercolor. Well, maybe not as rain proof as I would like and could make them. There was a little bleeding and the acrylic will lift with lots of water if it is thick. Some that had just thin paint and thin multiple layers of medium were more waterproof then the ones with thick watercolor and one thick layer of medium.

I set up the exhibit at 7:45 AM and took it down at 1:00PM to participate in the quick draw, a fund raiser to support the scholarship fund of the Lincoln County Community College. There were only five other artists participating this year. I certainly enjoyed painting wet and juicy a group of people crab fishing and their chairs and fire in a very wet landscape. the high humity is very special for painting in acrylics because there is no rush to finish before the paint dries. Tomorrow I will go to the local glass gallery and take a picture of the dry painting to post here. This year they are doing a silent auction.