Award from PSNM

"The Birthday Locket" (pastel 8x6) has won 6th Place (The Colleen Howe Award) in the Pastel Society of New Mexico National Exhibition, at the Hispanic Arts Center, Albuquerque NM. Exhibit open through Nov 28.

Award from Sierra Pastel Society

My painting "Juliet" (pastel 8x6) has won a Merit Award (Honorable Mention) from the Sierra Pastel Society, and is also one of the images selected for their poster!


















The show continues through October 23, 2010, at the Hang it Up Gallery in El Dorado Hills, CA.

"Leader of the Pack" Finally Really Finished!

Remember an earlier post about my newest cow painting, "Leader of the Pack"? Well, I've finally gotten it back on the easel, and the results are in! As in Finished! Complete! I will be scanning for the prints, and framing by monday.

(To catch up on the original progress see this blog post)
Here's what I decided:
I had left it as you see here. Didn't like the tree after all, or the yellow grass on the left distance. An artist friend also commented that the shadows on the calves should have more contrast on the front calf than on the distant calves. I had known that, intellectually, but was too lazy to fix it at the time.
So I wiped out the entire sky and the ugly yellow grass, and some of the calves' shadowed sides.
Put the fresh sky in with careful layers of a subtle variety of blue violets to the right and blue greens to the left, and some darker grass on the left. Thought maybe it was done here (again!) but my eye kept going to the calf on the far left. I realized it was because he had slightly darker ears (my annoying habit of clinging to the photo reference,) and his face contrasted with the dark grass at the edge of his mouth.

SO, my VERY LAST edits were to move the sky down on the left, which I like very much, the left-flowing angle back there. Lightened up his ears, and also deepened the intensity of color on the front 'Leader's' ears to help strengthen his importance.

It's still a very soft, high-key sort of painting. And the points I've mentioned throughout are all very subtle. But I feel that it all works now, so I'm happy.

Whew! That was a long one!

"Leader of the Pack" will be in the American Society of Bovine Artists Second Ever Show and Sale at Cactus Jack's in Gruene, TX, Oct. 23-24, 2010.

"The Birthday Locket" in PSNM Show

"The Birthday Locket" has been accepted to the Pastel Society of New Mexico National Exhibition, Nov 5-28 at the Hispanic Arts Center in Albuquerque. I'll be shipping her out next month!

"Art, Magnified"

A Showing of Large Work by 9 Artists from the New Braunfels Art League.
Friday September 10 is our reception for the "Art, Magnified" show at the Richter Building in New Braunfels, Texas!
Live music, good food and great art, 6-8pm, come and join us!
I have 4 of my large cow giclees included.

The Richter Building
168 W. San Antonio Street
New Braunfels, TX 78130

Art vs. Oil Spill - Art With a Cause

Recently in my online wanderings I came across the blog of watercolor artist Paul Jackson, who has created the site "Art vs. Oil Spill", an online store featuring a collection of
artwork donated by more than 100 artists around the the world specifically to benefit wildlife rescue operations along the Gulf Coast after the BP oil spill disaster.

I was so taken with this idea, and the opportunity to help, that I sent in the images of my 6 new 'beach scenes' (birds and dead fish), and I'm thrilled with how they look on all the Zazzle store products!
Check them out! Proceeds from purchases will benefit the Wildlife Rehabilitation and Nature Preservation Society, an all volunteer registered non-profit organization.

There are dozens of products per image! See all of mine here.

(The Dead Fish Tie is my favorite!)