Paint Rehoboth

This past weekend I participated in the annual Paint Rehoboth competition. We started with a reception on Thursday night at the Aerie Art Gallery. On Friday and Saturday the 30 artists in the competition painted all day. It was very windy on Saturday and I had to hold my easel with my left hand while painting with my right hand. I also got some sun. I have a nice apron string tan on my neck. I painted four paintings and then entered my two favorite on Sunday for the exhibit which was from 2 - 5.

I noticed that I am getting braver about my painting locations. On Saturday afternoon I painted Penny Lane which is a pass-through alley with lots of cute stores. There were so many people who stopped to talk to me while I was painting. The kids are awesome.

Curves Show

I had a piece accepted to the Curves show at the Art League Gallery in the Torpedo Factory. It was juried by Warren E. Perry who is a curator for the National Portrait Gallery. The exhibit contains works that are based on the human figure. My piece is called Jalene Sitting. I painted it in the open-life class that I attend weekly.

Sherrie McGraw Workshop

I attended the 5 day Sherrie McGraw workshop sponsered by the Council for the Arts of Herndon. It was held in Herndon at the Coomber School of Music which is this great old building space attached to a Barn. Sherrie did demos for figure and still life and students in the class could choose to work on either or both. I choose to work on figure the whole week. Sherrie is a good teacher. She took the time to talk to each one of us individually and worked with us on the things that were important to us. I was working on giving more space around the figure so it draws the viewer into the scene instead of my usual close-up view. I was also using Sherrie's palette of colors and the medium Maroger to see how it felt. I like using Maroger but I can't really use it in my studio at home or at open-life classes at the Art League because of it's strong smell.

At the end of the week there was a reception and Sherrie gave a slide show talk about the progress of her career throuhout the years. It was a great week.

Trip to California

I just got back from a trip with my husband and youngest daughter to San Diego and Laguna Beach. We stayed in La Jolla at the Valencia Hotel for the first few days and then the Laguna Cliffs hotel at Dana Point. It was a great trip because we had a variety of experiences.

In La Jolla we really enjoyed walking along the beautiful rocky beach. There is a seal beach and we saw many fat baby seals (pups?). We had great weather so we hung out by the pool.

The picture is from the day we took the ferry over to Catalina Island. We took the bus up to the airport on the top of the island and walked back to town. It was a beautiful walk, but we were afraid we were going to miss the ferry back so we didn't slow down. Every time I stopped to take a picture I had to run to catch up! Apparently they brought over 14 buffalo in the 1920's for a movie and then let them stay. Now there are over 400 and they roam all over the island.

Elephants in D.C.

This week I was feeling a little depleted so I decided on a whim to go into D.C. to see the elephants walk through town on their way to the Verizon Center for the circus. I don't know why seeing things out of their element is so exciting, but it is. They stopped in front of the Capitol so we could take pictures. They were also joined by clowns and horses. It was just what I needed.

Chester Dale Show at the National Gallery

I love Washington D.C. because most of the museums are free. It is so nice to be able to pop in to see a show without feeling like you need to stay all day. I went into to see the paintings from the Chester Dale collection. There are paintings by Degas, Van Gogh, Manet, Picasso, Matisse, etc. and currently you can see the images on the National Gallery web site. For this exhibit I was allowed to take pictures so I took a close-up of Degas's Four Dancers. I love the way Degas doesn't feel the need to fill in every detail like on the dancer's arm.

HerStory vs. History

The Art League Show for March is titled "HerStory" and is meant to honor women throughout history including the present. The show was juried by Barbara Rachko. My painting "White Bikini" was accepted. Lately I've been going to open-life classes to paint models and then alternating that with painting from one of my photos. I took many photos this past summer in Italy.