Art Gifting

Or The Art of Gifting.

How about Gifting Art?  And what about donations of art?This is a rather controversial subject within the art world. Some of us donate our art to fund raising efforts, some do not.  It is a personal decision but one that is discussed over and over.  Artists are frequently, some say constantly, asked to make a donation of their work for one cause or another. 

Palm Springs 75

There many ways to make a donation and many items or situations an artist can donate. It doesn't need to be the art work itself.  It can be art lessons, time in the studio with the artist, a field trip with the artist to see what inspires their work.    Most of us have experience with all of it, so we make choices of how to handle these requests.

Pineapple Welcome

When it comes to donations of my art work I have chosen to support two causes/events, both benefit the arts in areas where I live, and it is the time of year for one of those events.

Three Tangelos

 99 Bucks, orchestrated by The Artist's Council of The Palm Springs Art Museum takes place this next Saturday. The funds generated support the education department for the museum, providing a wide variety of learning experiences for children, youth and adults in the Coachella Valley.  The funds raised give valley residents, who might not otherwise have the opportunity, occasions to enjoy and create visual arts.   This encourages budding artists and teaches appreciation for art.

Red Hot Chile

 Artist's and celebrities are asked to make a creation on a 5"x7" canvas which is supplied.  The canvases are then displayed anonymously in the Grand Ballroom at the Riviera Hotel this Saturday, April 12.  Each canvas will sell for 99 Bucks.  What a great price for an original art work.

Prickly Pear

 Last year there were over 700 canvases and probably almost that many people waiting patiently,  though with great anticipation, for the doors of the ballroom to open, allowing admittance.  It was a throng of patrons, jostling, viewing, ooing and ahing, buying the canvases as fast as they could.  It's crazy fun!

Fenceposts

 Pictured here are some of the little canvases I have donated to this event over the past few years.  This year I painted three which are not pictured here but most definitely show up anonymously on the web site gallery which shows all the work that will be available.  Click HERE to go to one of the pages of that gallery.

Three Dancing Girls

  If you want a little more info about 99 Bucks, click HERE to be directed to the Artist Council's on line blurb about the event.  If you are in the area I hope to see you there!

99 Bucks

Riveria Hotel

Palm Springs, CA

Saturday, April 12

4:30 - 6:30

To contact me click HERE

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Fence Post Triptych - Part I

Here It Is !

This is the first of three Fence Post Cactus paintings, designed to be hung together. Designed to celebrate the unique character of these fabulous plants that survive the baking and freezing temperatures of the desert where they live.

In a highly stylized presentation, this Stenocereus eruca sports wicked thorns, and wild curves.  A columnar cactus that can grow to 50' high is indigenous to the southern US and Mexico.

Come back to see the next in the triptych...it's on my easel now.

To contact me click HERE

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Delores Patencio Again, Still, Another.

Started a New Larger Canvas.

Yes, a portrait of Delores Patencio and it is giving me fits.  Into every artist's life a bit of doubt, frustration, anxiety and anger will fall. And here it is.  Arrrgggg.  I am ready to paint over the entire thing, or take it off the easel and go back to the cactus triptych I started and have not completed.  Ok, yes, this is incomplete, lots more painting to do. There will be details, high lights, low lights, etc.  However I am not sure about this beginning.  

The other day someone mentioned to me they do not like to see my work until it is finished because they don't understand where I am going and hesitate to make a judgement.  Oh boy, I am constantly making a judgement about my own work, and that is where the doubt and frustration come in, not all the time, but certainly with this painting. 

I could procrastinate and keep myself away from the easel, but in all there is to do is return to the easel and continue.  

To contact me click HERE

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To read more about Delores Patencio click HERE

Delores Patencio.

The Small Study

Another busy week, filled with painting, travel, exercise, golf, mah jongg, working with my Northern California and Nevada galleries.  Truly there are just not enough hours in the day. Who ever said that first, knew what they were talking about! I keep getting up earlier and earlier to get into the studio to paint and because I have done this, the small 12x12 painting of Delores Patencio, Cahuilla Indian Basket Maker, is complete.  Read more about her by going back to my last blog post:  http://www.pamelahuntlee.blogspot.com/

My goal was to capture her intensity and beauty as well as giving me the opportunity to know how I wish to portray her in additional paintings.

This is a study for a larger work and the canvas for that painting is sitting on the easel.  So it is off to the easel for me.  This is one of those completely full days so bye for now.  Have a great day!

To contact me click HERE

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More Holiday Art

It's A Holly Jolly Christmas

As promised, the second inspiration.  It's a long story, but I will attempt to shorten.  For years, since I was a very young girl, I have drawn and painted holly.  In fact, for my very first commission ever I created baker's dough, clay wreaths with holly leaves and berries (I was 13, and that is a completely different and long story).  Almost always I used three leaves and three berries which would show up on homemade gift tags, note cards, decoration on stationery.  It was just a way to add a little holiday color to what ever I was doing, not art, just decoration.  Doodles, almost.  I never thought of painting this subject.

A couple weeks ago while listening to Holiday music the notes and words to Holly Jolly Christmas filled the air.  The snow wasn't falling, in fact it was very dry outside, not much snow on the ground, and the thought of painting more snowmen just wasn't going anywhere.  While the music played I was standing at the kitchen sink looking out through the window at a large, lush holly bush which is covered with brilliant red berries.  Hmmmm......

The palette from my most recent Desert Plant painting was filled with simple, basic, primary colors...perfect for Holly.  I ran into the studio, picked up the brush, grabbed a small canvas and started painting.  

Inspired by a song, a bush, and previous doodles.  It's a great time of year, and though there might not be snow, we can still have a Holly Jolly Christmas.  

Have a holly, jolly Christmas;

It's the best time of the year

I don't know if there'll be snow

but have a cup of cheer

Have a holly, jolly Christmas;

And when you walk down the street

Say Hello to friends you know

and everyone you meet.

To contact me click HERE

To visit my web site click HERE

Holiday Art

It's That Time of Year...

We are dreaming of a White Christmas, It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas, the stockings are hung by the chimney with care, we are in the meadow building a snowman....

And speaking of a snowman, do you remember the "Let It Snow" boys I painted last year?

Here they are awaiting their finishing touches.

 This one is what they looked like after the lettering went in.  It's sitting in a little easel on a counter top helping to add festive cheer to the house.  It is an annual decoration in my home and several others now.

This is the big guy I painted to hang outside our front door, and then the snow began to fall.  A talisman of sorts?

So now that it is time to paint a bit of festive cheer this year, I found myself inspired by two situations.  When I walked into the gallery of a designer who represents my work I found loads of red and green and candy everywhere, in every size, some real and some not so real. It was fun and joyful, so when I sat down to paint this is what happened:

Merry Merry Candy Snowmen

These Merry Merry little Snowmen, festooned with candy canes and peppermints are currently residing at Village Interiors in Incline Village where they are Holiday priced at $50 each which includes a black wooden easel.  They are perfect additions to holiday decorating, and can make an appearance year after year with or without the snow in the meadow.  

Village Interiors

775-831-8868

Incline Village, NV

And yes, I did say I was inspired by two different situations, so check back next week to read and see about the second.  It's a fun story.  It looks like snow might fall tonight making it seem more and more like Christmas around here.

To contact me click HERE

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Desert Art

Goal Accomplished!!!

Prickly Pear Blossom II

30 x 48

It's good to set goals and even better to reach them.  So what is a goal, anyway??  In this case it is not those upright posts through which someone kicks or carries a ball, but a desire that is important enough to a person that it requires effort to reach. Earlier this week I knew I wanted to complete this painting before leaving my studio for Holiday travel,  so I set the goal of having it done by the end of the week. 

It did take some effort.  Making time to paint during this busy month took effort, so did standing there dipping the brush into the pigment and applying it to the canvas. And it took the effort of balancing the color and values. Dare I say it took effort to claim the work complete?

Effort aside, it's done, and it is the end of the week.  Goal reached, goal accomplished.  Kicked that ball through the uprights!  Metaphorically anyway.

Time to set new goals.

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Thankful For Art

The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.
Friedrich Nietzsche 

We have passed through Thanksgiving in the U.S. when we spend time thinking about situations and people surrounding us that bring us joy, happiness, and thoughtfulness.  We then give thanks and express our gratitude.  Those of us who create acknowledge our passion, desire, and ability to make something where there was nothing before.  As artists we also realize and honor the torment under which we live, well, maybe.  Personally I am comfortable, sometimes, and greatful for the torment.  If it weren't for this torment I might not take the time to create.

The constant torment of what to create, how to create, when to spend the time, questioning the result, desiring acceptance of the work.  The questions go on and on, endless in fact.  Everyone who is successful conquering the torment has embraced it, used it to push their work forward and knows it will return over and over again.  It's the plight of the artist, but one for which we should all be thankful for it is a tool and part of who we are and part of our ability to create.  

beginning the background on my newest painting

the background painted in with high and low lights and a great deal of movement

the prickly pear paddles begin to appear

close up brushing the pigment onto the canvas

the painting as of today....loads more to do

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It's Good To Be Conflicted,

Or is it?

Do you remember earlier this week I posted about sketching for a new painting and having indecision about exactly what to begin next because I had two very different ideas swimming in my head?  After completing the last Desert Plant painting I planned to move forward with another, however I made a trip to the Palm Springs Art Museum to see the Diebenkorn exhibit (click HERE to visit PS Art Museum site with info)

                 Woman on a Porch
                  Richard Diebenkorn

and while there wandered into the Western/Indian exhibition section to see if there were new items being shown.  Sure enough, there was a great, yet small, basket display and I was introduced to Guadalupe Arenas, a Cahuilla, who lived and created in the Coachella Valley during the late 1800's into the early 1900's.  

Basket woven by Guadalupe Arenas

This woman fits perfectly into my Indian Women Portrait Series, so of course I was captivated and began to research her life and work and sketching for a painting which would represent her.

I settled on a composition but I am having problems finding photographs of her and since I want to know what she looked like to make a more accurate representation, and since I want to begin a new painting immediately, my decision was made.  The easel will hold a Desert Plant painting for now while I continue research on Guadalupe Arenas.  That conflict resolved.

Back into the sketch book to face more conflicting situations. Which plant and which composition?

 Barrel Cactus with side or top view?

 Fence Post Cactus?

Some composition of Prickly Pear?

I found myself drawing one and another and another Prickly Pear composition adding in large, flamboyant flowers much like that in the previous painting, shown below.

Prickly Pear Blossom

40x30

I believe these conflicted feelings were resolving themselves. Next step was to 'live' with the sketches for a few hours and after selecting one, paint a small canvas board.

Sketches with small canvas board painting.

These canvas board paintings allow me to work out color, movement, high and low lights as well as my satisfaction with the composition.  OK.  All conflict resolved.  Was it good to be conflicted?  Not sure, but I do know it is good to have a canvas on the easel and pigments in the palette, all ready to go.

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