When It Rains, It Pours!

A Descriptive Adage

Here I am in the middle of three commissions, working on them simultaneously, getting a bit scattered, finding my center, and then it starts to pour.

It's a good pour, but it is a bit drenching.  I am not complaining; it's all good.

Before I left for Mexico I was deep into these three commissions, and just before leaving I picked up three small canvases to paint for the Artists' Council of the Palm Springs Art Museum for their fund raising event, 99 Bucks.  More about that event in a later post.  This adds three small paintings to be created.

The small canvas I painted for 99 Bucks last year.

Then two days ago I receive another commission.  Great!  It fits into my schedule.  It's for the new, under construction, state-of-the-art, rural cancer center in Truckee, CA.  Click HERE to be redirected to their web site.  I am one of a few artists who have been commissioned and will create a painting based on my Sticks and Stones Series.  Click HERE to be redirected to that series pictured on my web site.  The painting will be a rock cairn;   the palette will be jewel tones;  the meaning will focus on balance, clarity and power.  You will see it on this blog. This adds one more to the queue of canvases to be painted. Up to six now.

And then, just today, I receive a package in the mail from Placer Arts.  I had received an invitation from them to create a work of art, with a box they provide.  Title of the exhibition:  Outside The Box.  I thought I would receive a small, already constructed box with which to work.  What a surprise to get a mid sized, flat package!  Curious.  Another surprise to open the package and find the tidy bundle of wood slats!  Love the way they were tied together with simple twine.  This is going to be an interesting challenge.

The top slat is about 8"x28"

Do you get the deluge that's going on here?  As I said, it's all good!  

The Gallery Wall commission is nearing completion.  My goal is to have it installed by the end of this week, and I will post photos once it is done.

Now,  just in case you would like to read the definition of 'adage' and get a bit more info about what it is, click HERE.  As for me, I will just get back to the studio and enjoy the pour.

Serendipity

It's a Great Word

Serendipity

Saying the word makes me feel like jumping up and down, or skipping around the room or across the lawn.  Yes, yes, I do have lawn outside this time of year.

Serendipity is good fortune.  So when I was invited to head south into Mexico to paint for a week I thought the invitation serendipitous.  As you know, if you read this blog, I have been working on three commissions simultaneously.  That can get a bit hectic and I can get a bit scattered.  With sketchbook, watercolor paints and brushes I headed south thinking I would draw and paint palms because that is one of the commissions, palms.  I would have a chance to step away from the studio, relax and center myself.  I would focus on palms.

Serendipity is an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.  So even though I declared I would be painting palms, in Palmilla, I discovered, quite by accident,  I wanted to paint pineapples while there.  A beautiful pineapple sat in the kitchen upon our arrival.  One of these commissions involves a pineapple painting, so what a great way to get to know this fruit, one I have not painted previously, one that had been in my scattered thoughts, one that needed some attention.  I would draw and paint this fruit.

As is typical of the way I work, I sketched the fruit in detail and then painted these quick watercolors to give me working knowledge of the pineapple and how I might like to present it in the final painting.  

Check back to see how this all comes together...there is apt to be more serendipity taking place and maybe just a little skipping.

And Speaking of Apples....

Another Apple Painting

This one is titled, A.

All these green apples.  There is a bit of a double meaning here, is there not?  Green Apples?  The color green, and/or the reference to organic?  

While I do see loads of green colored apples in the markets, I don't see many organically grown apples in the markets.  Why is that?

Apples....all started with Eve, the Greek gods quibbled over the apple, it helped Newton discover gravity and it made Steve Jobs loads of money.  How much do you know about apples?

Apples, known as a cleansing food, contain fibre, antioxidants and fruit flavonoids. The most important of the flavonoids contained in apples is quercetin, which has anti-inflammatory as well as anti-cancer actions. Apples contain vitamin C as well – more so in green apples than in red ones. Apples can reduce blood cholesterol levels, counter constipation and diarrhoea, help joint problems and help prevent diseases in general. Apples are best eaten raw, as cooking them can reduce the flavonoids by as much as 70 percent into the cooking water. It is also a good idea to eat the apple unpeeled as flavonoids are contained in or near the skin.  It's better to eat them if they are naturally or organically grown, but you will have to look for them.

No more speaking about apples.

It's back to the easel and apple painting for me.

Letters and Apples....

The Alphabet and Apples

Of course the letter A is for Apples.  Haven't we heard this since we were children?

Since one of my current commissions is a gallery wall with  groups of paintings, several are apples, and since I have this fascination with words and letters, words keep showing up on the canvas.

The word 'alphabet came into Middle English from the Late Latin word alphabetum, which in turn originated in the Ancient Greek alphabet, from alpha and beta, the first two letters of the Greek alphabet. Alpha and beta in turn came from the first two letters of the Phoenician alphabet, and meant ox and house respectively.

Ok, I get the using the first two letters of the Greek alphabet to form a word to represent the group of letters, but the whole ox and house meaning is a bit random...

My studio is filled with apples.  Apples sitting on the table, apples in bowls, apples perched on the easel.  Next to the apples there are bowls of letters.  Letters are on the floor.  Letters are strewn about.  For now I am using the letter A.

Absolutely, A is for Apple.

The last of the Pomegranates...

It's The Same Composition

But It's a Different Palette.

I painted four of these pomegranate compositions, each a little different from the last.  One is a collage...the one shown above.

There have been other pom paintings and some of them will now be framed and hung on a gallery wall which was commissioned for a new home in the Southern California dessert.

I am moving on to green apples which will be another part of the gallery wall.  Check back to see how this all comes together.

A Visual Artist I AM...

Not A Verbal Artist

I have a fascination with words, probably because I don't use them very well.

Sometimes my speech is a bit halting as my brain searches for the words I want to utter (it's kind of a clutter in there).  But give me some brushes, a canvas or paper and I can pour forth the creativity without thinking (I guess the clutter moves aside).  Words are wonderful things, primary communication, but art is the same.  I frequently tell people, 'I am a visual artist, not a verbal artist'.  I communicate through my work.

When a recent commission became a painting that required words on the canvas I began to think about other works I have created which incorporate words.

There have been collages which included newspaper and magazine clippings 

and hand painted words on canvas, but now I am intrigued with applied letters, like in this small pomegranate painting:

So a twist develops in my work.  Words and more words.  Not all my work will incorporate words, or will it? Does this make me a verbal artist too?

More Pomegranates...

Continuing the Pomegranate Paintings

2x2"

I am inspired by another artist who paints the same subject over and over, in a variety of sizes.  

7x5"

 I am working on a commission....an entire wall that will be several of my paintings, about nine to be more or less exact.

8x10"

There will be groupings of work, and one of those will be pomegranates, in various sizes, both watercolor and acrylic paintings.

8x6"

Check back to see more pomegranates and how the wall comes together.