I finally finished a new painting for the Austin Pastel Society Annual Juried Member Show. Each artist can enter three pieces and I had hopes of three new paintings. I picked two others from last year to enter. I made the deadline of January 12. Yay! Please check the Austin Pastel Society website to see all the entries.
Sendero
Pastel on Pastelbord
11 x 14 inches
Aubergine and Company
Pastel on Pastelbord
9 x 12 inches
Salsa Fixins’
Pastel on Pastelbord
12 x 6 inches
These will be shown with museum glass against the painting in dark wooden frames. They are all for sale, but will be on hold until the entries are announced and then until the show is over in May.
Some years my paintings have been accepted and some years they haven’t. I look at entering shows as a learning experience. Judging one type of work against another is hard work for the jurors. So much depends on the photos of the work, the mood of the day and the ideas and experience of the judge. I try not to worry if my work doesn’t make it. Most of my entries were purchased at some point and live on in someone’s collection which makes me feel good. It is nice to share my work and hope the viewers get as much enjoyment from it as I do painting.
I will remind you again, if you are planning on entering a show you should read the great article by Enid Wood in the Austin Pastel Tortillon, http://austinpastelsociety.org/Default.aspx?pageId=1436941 news magazine, on our APS website. You will learn some things. Enid is an award winning artist, http://enidwood.com/ so knows what it takes!
By the way, I edit the publication, so if you have any ideas, questions about pastel or our group (if I don't know the answer, I will find an expert who does) , or if you have articles to submit. Just let me know. My contact info is on the sidebar. The next issue will be out about the middle of February.
As I was getting my entries together for the Austin Pastel Society Annual Juried Member show, I looked back and my productivity over the last few years. The numbers are paintings or donations that were suitable for framing or finished works. If I made a photo box with original paintings I counted that as one painting.
- 2009 - 45
- 2010 - 43
- 2011 - 26
- 2012 - 20
Wow, I have really cut down on my painting time and efforts haven’t I? I attribute most of it to the Bastrop Fire that destroyed our home and was a life changer for us. I am hoping that now we are in such a lovely home and have replaced our “stuff” that gets us through the day: furniture, dishes, TVs, clothes, gadgets, linens, STUDIO, etc., that we can get back into the flow of living.
Artists do better work when we are steady and productive. When I don’t paint for a time, it is like starting all over. Of course part of your experience doesn’t ever go away, you just need to recover it from the storage bank in the brain. Just throwing the paint on doesn’t really help too much either. Practice and dedication to improving does seem to work. However, I try now, after all these years, to play at some point and just throw some paint or pastels on for fun. This gets the creative ideas flowing and gives you freedom to experiment.
My sketching is the same way. If I just sit and sketch with no goal or idea in mind, I get bad perspective and scribbles. If I pay a bit of attention to the lines and objects at hand, my sketches come out better and have added to my storage bank and make it easier the next time.
If you have any questions about the way I work or how I do something, please comment. I had to put the terrible word verification for humans back on the comments block. A while back, Blogger was blocking spam very well, but lately much has been getting posted and I was spending too much time deleting the spam. Bear with me and hopefully we can get the word verification removed again.
Thanks to all my followers and readers over this past year. I do appreciate the support and friendship. My goals for this year are to get more paintings and painting tips on my blog. See you around.........
7 comments:
I noticed the verification thangie and wondered.
Thanks for the pep talk. I need to get into the swing of things. I want to do a workshop sometime - hoping that will help.
Bag Blog, yes, one of those robots figured me out and I was way too much clutter. Rats! We do need pep talks. Painting can be lonely and workshops tend to encourage us and revitalize us. Maybe we will see one we could do together sometime.:)
More paintings for the win! I like all three posted in this post...perhaps the eggplant the best for some reason. It probably has to do with the colors! :-)
Your three pieces are really lovely. It is a shame that when something interferes with our creative time it makes it that much harder to get started again!
Joanna, you are right .. purple and green. Love it in tree landscapes, too.
Joan, thank you. With all the encouragement from you and family I am coming around. I feel a bit guilty that I don't use my beautiful studio more...
These all look great, Jo - I especially love the eggplant. The colors are wonderful!
Hi Regina! Thank you. When I first heard aubergine we were in Bolivia at the British Embassy and they were selling 'Aubergine' in a jar. "What IS that?" I asked. "Pickled eggplant." I was surprised. We saw it after around at restaurants. Argentines, and I guess other Europeans, eat it as an accompaniment to steak/beef. You get some before the meal with your bread like we get salsa and chips.
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