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.

The December All-Media Show at the Art League this month was juried by Maryland artist David Grafton. My painting called Young Dancer was selected. Sometimes I forget how competitive these monthly shows are; for example, this show had 737 entries and only 156 were accepted.

Over the holiday I went with my family to see the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition at the National Portrait Gallery. The winning piece by Dave Woody is a photograph with the most beautiful light and color, but my favorite piece is a painting by Margaret Bowland called Portrait of Kenyetta. There is a youtube video of some of the award winners on the competition site and Margaret talks about how the painting came about. She talks about the different influences like the model putting on the wedding dress, thoughts about the Murakami show she had just seen and thoughts about our wedding rituals. I liked the part where she said that it is upsetting that women continue to participate in telling young women they aren't lovable enough as they are and that they have to make themselves more saleable by dressing up and purifying themselves. (photo of Margaret Bowland's painting from the portrait competition site)

A few weeks ago I went to the Corcoran Gallery of Art to see the Sargent at the Sea exhibit. It was great to see the key painting, En Route pour la peche (Setting out to fish), with many of the supporting paintings that John Singer Sargent did as studies. I've seen most of them in books, but it's just not the same as seeing them in person. As a realist painter, one of the things I struggle with is whether it is okay to paint a composite of different images in one painting and this is an example where it was successful. Another example in this show was the Neapolitan Children Bathing. This is the painting of the four naked boys on the beach, one with water-wings. The show had the separate studies that he did of the boys, so you could see how he put them all together for the final painting. (photo is from the Corcoran web site)

Art saves lives. For Halloween we usually make our own costumes. For my 12 year old daughter we were talking about a tornado with lots of tulle and cows, etc., but it just wasn't feeling right and things were a little tense around the Olson house. So, with about three hours to go I came up with an idea based on some artwork I had just seen at the Arlington Arts Center by Cynthia Hron. Cynthia had these large anamorphic shapes made out of zip ties that were very cool. I explained it to my husband and daughter and they took it from there to create a porcupine-ish costume. It was a big hit and everyone wanted to touch it. Once again, art saves lives.

(Cynthia Hron photo is from the bmoreart.blogspot.com)