Thus begins my new blog.

My old blog is available at www.artbeforethehorse.blogspot.com. if you want to know what brought me to this point.  In an attempt to reach out for community in an uncertain time, I am hoping to make some connections with like souls.  

Most of my art has a story.  Part of what I'd like to do is tell the story of their creation, the backstory, the serendipities involving these paintings, then have you tell me the story you hear when you look at them.

Thank you and I hope to hear from you.

"Waiting #5" Waits No More

This watercolor painting won a merit award at the Southern Arts Society in Kings Mountain, NC recently.  Just as it came home, I got a call from a volunteer for Safe Alliance, an organization that helps victims of domestic abuse.  She asked me to donate to an art auction that will benefit Safe Alliance, so "Waiting  #5" will be on its way to another adventure.  I hope it finds a good home.

In case you're wondering what the #5 in "Waiting #5" is about, it's the 5th in a series of "Waiting" paintings I've done over the last few years.  It's a theme close to my heart, because I feel I waited most of my life trying on different lives, occupations, interests before I found what I want to do the rest of my life. Although I loved to draw and was once an art major before I switched to English literature, I never painted a painting until 6 years ago.  When I painted my first painting, it came out whole, and I've been painting ever since.  Waiting no more.

Judgment

Entitled, "Judgment," this portrait is meant to remind you of that critical facility--both in other people, but especially, in yourself-- that judges your behavior, your talent, your values, your beliefs and finds them wanting.

Veiled

Here is another in the series of portraits I have painted from photo references taken from the online Library of Congress.

Lovely Phone Visit

I got a message the other day from a woman saying she was disappointed to learn that "A Cotton Bride" was sold. She resonated with the painting, she said.  She'd picked cotton as a child.  Did I have any prints of it?

I called her back and we must have talked for an hour.  I hope we keep in touch.

I sold "A Cotton Bride" too early.  I had just finished it and was planning on entering it into  a local show in a month or so.  I was having lunch with a group of women who all take Pilates at the same studio.  Someone asked what I was working on.  I happened to have a picture of "A Cotton Bride" on my cell phone, so I passed it around.  When it got to the end of our semi-circle, the last woman said, "I want to buy it."  She let me enter it into the show before she took it home.

I know "A Cotton Bride" is an "inspired" piece, and the feeling it evokes is strong in certain people.  It's very gratifying to in turn inspire someone else through my painting. I live for that painting that comes out of nowhere and makes you realize you were just the vehicle, not the creator. Perhaps "A Cotton Bride' is the first of a series, but every time I attempt another cotton bride picture, I am disappointed in it because it is a merely a shade beside the original.

Portrait Series

This is the first of my series of portraits done from old photographs as reference.
I went on to add some very subtle color to this, but I must not have taken a photo.
I found an new canvas size (24 x 30") that lends itself to these portraits.  I bought
a dozen of them and I have at present done 10 paintings.  I'll be posting one a day.

Telling a Story

I come from a long line of storytellers.  My father was a hoot and my sister shares many of his storytelling characteristics.  I took my storytelling to poetry, but found I didn't have words for some of the things I wanted to convey.  I wanted to suggest.  When I returned to art, it was to tell stories with images.

I call this new painting "Berets Instead of Perfume."  Can anyone guess what story I wish to tell about these two girls?  I'd love to hear your comments!

"Cotton Princess"

This is another of my paintings about cotton picking in the south.  Children worked in the fields with their parents doing as much as they were able (and probably more.)  I abstracted the cotton plants to look like victorian wallpaper in stark contrast to the lives these cotton pickers supported.  Thank you for visiting. (Acrylic on canvas, 36 x 48")

A Cotton Bride

While looking for pictures online, I found photos of slaves picking cotton.  Many of them used a huge canvas bag that trailed behind them while they picked and from the back these gathering bags looked like wedding dress trains.  Hence, my cotton bride was born.  I am now researching more ideas for incorporating cotton and its history into my art.  Throughout my art, I hope to show my respect for a people who were ripped from their land, their society, their people and who persevered with such overall dignity and forgiveness that I want to recognize them in my paintings.

"Heading Home"

July 27, 2013

The above picture is new, taken from an old picture in an ancient photo album I bought off eBay some years ago.  I had always liked the picture and felt I should let it remain a photograph, but it called out to me in a period of art-drought and the painting almost painted itself, for which I'm very grateful.

What do you do when you are in a period where you can't paint or whatever you paint is so bad you feel you'll never paint again?

Birds Watching

So, here is another painting containing birds.  The man is cutting bait or cleaning a fish and the birds have learned that they might get dinner if they are patient.

"Baiting the Hook"

I finished this painting just last week.  Another of my pier fishing paintings.  This one is 36" x 36."

"Portrait in Tennis Shoes" Accepted in Anderson, SC Juried Show

I am pleased to announce that my painting "Portrait in Tennis Shoes" has been accepted into the 38th Annual Juried Show for the Anderson (SC) Arts Center.

"Breakfast"

My latest almost-finished painting is called "Breakfast."  It is another in the large series of paintings I am making from photographs taken on a Myrtle Beach, SC pier.  I should also post my "Birds Watching" so you can see my continued fascination with the birds and fishermen/

women who cut bait, eat their meals and fish on the pier everyday.  The pier becomes a microcosm with its own food chain, its own mystery, its own dependency and relationships.  I am fascinated and hope you'll find my paintings interesting as a result.

"Mother and Child" Selected for Juried Art Show in South Carolina

I am pleased to announce that my entry, "Mother and Child" has been selected for Artfields juried show in the city of Lake City, SC.  If you'd like to learn more about Artfields, go here: www.artfieldssc.org --quite an ambitious project where vendors in the town have volunteered to host the 400 artworks selected.  So while my entry will be displayed in the Hub, where people will go to register to vote for their favorite artwork, you can also find art professionally displayed in restaurants, barber shops, dress shop and a stable, to name a few.  There will be 3 prizes totaling $100,000, an astronomical amount for an artist, to be sure. I'm excited to participate in a project that may help revitalize a rural community.

Mother and Child

When I attend the November Spring Maid Watermedia Workshops, I am drawn to the fishermen on the Spring Maid pier.  I have done a series of paintings of the photographs I've taken.  Whole families come out in their winter gear to fish, and I find it not unlike a play being performed for my benefit.  I wanted to paint this little boy and his mother and call it "Mother and Child" so that my viewer can consider its implications of the nativity, the idea of fishermen, the whole layered possibilities of the premise of fishing--people's passion for pulling something unknown from the ocean. I'd love to hear your comments.

"Hooked: Three Generations"Sells.  Heading to Charleston.

Look out Charleston.  One of my "Hooked" Series is heading your way!
I am so excited to know that "Hooked:  Three Generations" has been
sold and will hang in a home in Charleston, South Carolina.  The buyer
has promised to send a picture when it's installed over a credenza in her
dining room.  This painting was also selected to be in this year's York
County (SC) Annual Judged Competition.  This painting is part of a
series of 6 paintings I made from photographs I took in Myrtle Beach,

South Carolina a few years ago.

Gone Fishing

"Hooked - Three Generations"

"Hooked - A Helping Hand"

"Hooked - The Morning of the Blue Heron"

These latest paintings (out of a series of five)
were from photos I took of people fishing off
a pier in South Carolina.  I inadvertently lost
the originals when I posterized them while
using Photoshop.  I was intrigued by the light
and shade that morning and the colors I saw.

"The Present"

     In keeping with the holidays, here's a painting I got as a bonus--one that painted itself.  Don't you love it when that happens?  I am increasingly using the process to guide me rather than having a photographic reference, using random marks to find the image which I coax out of what's there.  In this case, I tried to paint a nonobjective abstract, but this young woman intervened.  Thanks for looking and may you have a wonderful Christmas!

Gift Bearers

I recently submitted this painting to the online contest sponsored by University of Georgia.  Their "Kress Project" (Google it for information) is a collection of Renaissance religious paintings and altar pieces which they asked artists to respond to in any medium.  I was inspired by the three Madonna pieces and chose a revisionist view of wise women bearing gifts.  I hope you like it!