That Ole Framing Thing...

Yup...time again. Not MY favorite job. But it's show time in Florida and so time for some "presentation" ideas. The 6 paintings below show a variety of presentations...traditional and less traditional. All are wire-hung on the back.

The largest painting is going into the Leesburg Art Association month long show at the Leesburg Center for the Arts. It is traditionally framed yupo watercolor, double matted and under plexiglass due to it's size (required by this show for larger paintings). It has a dust cover on the back.

The other 5 are going into the Hawthorne Park show on March 13th which is a one-day show. The parrot is a traditional watercolor under class in a metal frame. The Sunflowers at the end is a paper painting (ala Elizabeth Nelson's style) in acrylic, gloss coated so no glass.

The one in the middle on the seat of the sofa (called Flowers and Snow Cones) is a watercolor on canvas. The watercolor is made permanent with an acrylic spray. I use 3 coats of Krylon Varnish. So no glass on that one. Apple Cake...the darker acrylic is traditonally framed for an acrylic. No glass.

Here is a close up of the "Clownin' Around" presentation. I've done it ala Bob Burridge style framing. Although this is a traditional watercolor so I had to put 3 coats of varnish on it before I glued it down to an acrylic painted canvas. You can find Bob's "recipe" for his in his last Artsy Fartsy news (google that) and then it is clear coated with Liquitex Gloss Medium and Varnish...two coats. This might not be accepted in some high end shows. So be sure to check before you do it. AND, it is what I called a "final" framing because you can never take this off and present it another way. This is it.

Art....as Sanctuary

Art Sanctuary

by Nikki Giovanni

I would always choose to be the person running
rather than the mob chasing
I would prefer to be the person laughed at
rather than the teenagers laughing
I always admired the men and women who sat down
for their rights
And held in disdain the men and women who spat
on them
Everyone deserves Sanctuary a place to go where you are
safe
Art offers Sanctuary to everyone willing
to open their hearts as well as their eyes

"Art Sanctuary" by Nikki Giovanni, from Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea. © Harper Perennial, 2002. Reprinted with permission. (buy now)

En Plein Air at Venetian Gardens

WHAT a gorgeous, beautiful, and amazing morning! We were all in shirt sleeves and there was full sun and no wind and it was about 75. I mean...it WAS perfect.

Below you'll see a few shots of me (in black shirt) doing watercolor this time. And a shot of Donna with her sketch book and Dawn painting out overlooking the bridge.

We had a terrible time deciding WHAT to paint as always.

Wonderful day. Nothing better.

Venetian Gardens is Leesburg, FL's public park on Lake Harris.

The painting is a quarter sheet of 140# Arches.

Happy Valentine's Day

You'll recognize this painting from a few posts ago...and you can scroll down to see what it looked like "before" so as to compare. I had so much fun with this watercolor on Yupo! It's often very hard to stop a painting like this. Yupo allows you to fiddle endlessly...which can be both good and bad as you know!

I have tried to slip in "just enough" darks to accent the lights and to thread the darks in and out of the painting as I did the lights. I wanted both mystery and reality in this painting...both abstract quality and realism still allowing the viewer to enter in and make the painting say just enough but not too much.

This is a half sheet of Yupo (13 x 20) and I like the color combinations a lot. I am glad I lost the original reference photo at some point so that I was freed up to do whatever. We should all probably do that more often!

I am now into the framing stage for our Hawthorne Park show coming up in a few weeks and I have to choose a painting for the Leesburg Art Association show too! Hmmmm. Not my favorite thing...framing. You hear me whine about it just before every show!

Gorgeous weather here in central FL now and we are seeing 80s in the forecast for this week for the first time since November! Yippee. The plein air group will meet this Wednesday with much happiness! Hope you all are having a great Valentine's Day!

OH MY GOSH...En Plein Air in 2011

It felt SOOOO good to be outside painting again. After a chilly start to the 2011 season in central Florida...we are now getting some of those yummy days again where you want to be painting outside!

Dawn and Donna and I met at the Lake Eustis Sailing Club yesterday and spent 9:30 to 2 there painting and sketching. Off shore breezes and 70 and sunny. Just lovely.

We were in sweat shirts but in the sun it was almost too warm! Felt great. I always put on my "Cuddle Duds" shirt under my sweat shirts when the mornings start out cool. This is a lightweight cotton underliner shirt that adds just the right thermal layering for en plein air. (You get them at JC Penny).

The first picture shows a little watercolor sketch (30 min) that I did of the club storage houses where they have their sign. Nice shadows.

The second is an acrylic (11 x 14 on canvas board) of the lovely marshy area with the white buoys in the water. I am thinking I need to lighten up the water that comes into the cove area so that it "reads" water a little more.
Last is a little shot of my set up for the acrylic painting. LOVE my white umbrella which I have had for years and years. It sure saved the day yesterday and allowed me to paint pretty much wherever I wanted to and not be worried about glare on the canvas.

We are meeting next week at Venetian Gardens in leesburg around 9 am. Anyone want to join us?

We bring our lunch and some people stay on to paint and some people take off.

A TV appearance for me!

Taking photographs off a TV screen leaves something to be desired, of course. But it is fun to remember the event as it does not happen all that often for me!!!

Here I am (doing my Vanna White imitation) on our closed circuit TV station here at Hawthorne Park in Leesburg, FL. I am at this moment plugging our upcoming all-park art show which will happen March 13.

Below you will see me interviewing artist, Cheryl Jacobs, about her art work (which was hanging on a nearby wall and was photographed as we talked about it.)

And then you will see the "host" of the show in the last photography.

The 3 of us were on for half an hour twice today (a repeated show in the afternoon for those who are not early birds).

It was very fun to do. But I am glad that I don't do it very often!

Now, off for a walk in our gorgeous FL sunshine today with 78 degrees. There are signs of spring here in Florida now! My sympathy to all of you in snow...but I have seen some of the photos and many are beautiful. I'll just look at the photos though, if you don't mind.

Yupo Demo

During the Watercolor on Yupo class yesterday I started this demo. It is just blocked out at this point. It is a half sheet.

I decided on a still life/ interior. I did have a photo for inspiration but shortly after doing the sketch I misplaced the photo...which is probably just as well.

Right now I am just looking at shapes and lights and darks...trying to connect some of the shapes and look at some of the values. Although in Yupo everything is possible. I can get back the whites and go back in with darks at any time. I think it is harder to stop painting in Yupo because of that.

I still have lots of ideas about how to manage and manipulate the paint and push the textures a bit. I want to work on the dresser so it is not stark white but is still a light. I am not too sure about the tangent line of the mirror behind the lamp...I may "fatten" up the lamp a bit. I haven't decided how the ams on the chair will work in yet. There are some books stacked on the dresser (a chance for another shape and a way to connect darks?) So many fun things to think about.

We had a really nice group at the class Monday morning. 8-10 people and lots of good discussion and we watched part of the George James Part II DVD.

Pat shared one she did after the last class and she had traced her drawing onto the yupo using a waxy carbon paper. What happened was the lines resisted the paint. It was an unexpected surprise! I will try to get Pat to send me a good photo of that as it really turned out quite uniquely. I think you could do this with wax paper too.

Happy Ground Hog day tomorrow!

Also I hope all of you are safe on this blizzard day! OH my gosh. Couldn't be happier to be in Florida right now!