Last week I finished this Christmas still life: “Are You Able to Drink from the Cup?” (14×11, oil on canvas). May the cup of your life overflow with peace, hope, joy, and love with abundance now and always!
Spending an afternoon in the studio, I finished a Christmas still life painting. It was just the right thing to do today. It is so cold and windy outside that inside creating is what my soul needed to thaw out.
While I was on vacation last week around Thanksgiving, I enjoyed a few hours catching up with friends from years ago, Scott and Megen Smith at the Indianapolis Musuem of Art.
Among his many gifts, Scott is a artist/photographer. Megen is a creative speech therapy teacher in the public school system. After enjoying lunch with them and talking about the art of life, we enjoyed an exhibit of the artwork of Matisse at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. After that, we were all a little daringly inspired, so we created a few works of art on our own… with the museum’s iPads in a wonderful imagination space… here’s my Matisse-inspired creation “Sunny Day by the Lake”…
This year I was happy to participate in the annual Sheboygan Visual Artists Holiday Show and Sale. Having just joined the group, I am getting acquainted with the members, and beginning to learn about the group and its many functions. This year I displayed two paintings, one of which I was excited to sell in the Silent Auction. Here below I am standing next to my painting, “The Falls in Spring” being displayed in the main gallery.
This evening, Thursday, November 19th, as various business people from the Sheboygan Chamber of Commerce were mingling among the art works at EBCO Works, I sat among a variety of artists doing an oil painting demonstration of a Christmas still life. As I painted, it was fun to talk with curious onlookers and share conversations about creativity. At the end of the evening, this is how far I got with the painting. Stay tuned to see it completed!
Stop by the Day Dream Café, enjoy some good coffee, good food and good conversation… and also look at some good art. Several of my new paintings are currently on display. Enjoy!
For more info about Day Dream Café, click here: http://www.daydreamcafe.net/
While I was on “vacation”–or at least a new definition of the word vacation–I began one of my business of art chores. I began to take inventory of my paintings… a least the paintings from the last 20 years that decorate my parents’ home in Illinois. Yesterday I began the ongoing task of cataloguing and organizing the details about these pieces of art. Welcome to the left-brained aspects of the art world! From the graphic below, you’ll see what a challenge this is for me. I live my life most authentically as it emerges from a “right-brained” focus.
Here below you see me entering data and numbers into the computer…. Blah… Blah… Blah… 🙂
I enjoyed a Fall Retreat with 13 other artists on the weekend of October 2-6, 2013 as we “painted with purpose.” Each evening during our wine and cheese breaks, we would talk about the day’s painting out in the beautiful scenery of the woods near the Kettle-Moraine State Park. We had two days of beautiful and sunny weather to paint the fall colors; then we adapted to the two other days of rain and fog. Painting in a tent and then looking out from one of the garages all day made for interesting shared moments with the other artists. Below you see the four paintings I completed “en plein air” [on location] during the retreat.
“Birches in the Fall,” 2013, 10x8inches, oil on board.
“In the Woods,” 2013, 10x8inches, oil on canvas.
“Maple Leaf,” 2013, 6x6inches, oil on board.
“Willow in the Fall,” 2013, 24x12inches, oil on canvas.
For four days, I joined with thirteen other artists at the Tree of Life Retreat Center in Greenbush, Wisconsin. We enjoyed significant time surrounded by the changing colors of Autumn. Those colors and patterns of life opened our eyes to this particular season in our lives and in our art. As you see, it was a wonderful setting to fill our imaginations with the gifts and wonders of life’s variety.
Alan Pape, whom you see below, a local artist and retired architect, organized and led the retreat. He opened this space of four days for us to create art, learn from one another, and enjoy good food and drink.
Below you’ll see several of my paintings in progress. We painted two days in beautiful sunshine, and two days in rain and fog. Adapting to the changing environment was part of the challenge and adventure of the experience…
It was also enjoyable to catch up with Kitty Lynne Klich, from whom I took oil painting lessons for eleven years. It was a joy to share a few days with her and other old and new friends as we shared together our passion for creating art and finding beauty even within the chaos of life.
This past week has been amazingly active for this artist! Beginning last weekend, I participated in the “Paint the Town” event sponsored by the Plymouth Arts Center. I spend four days during the week-long event painting two scenes in downtown Plymouth. Below you see my setup for those two locations:
While I wouldn’t say it was my best work, I did enjoy painting on those four days. Then I attended the community reception this past Friday, September 27th, where about 90 paintings were displayed from over 20 artists. It was wonderful to see all the rich variety of paintings and the artists’ interpretations of downtown Plymouth. Below you see Kitty Lynne Klich, the organizer of the event.
On Saturdaymorning, September 28th, I enjoyed the Farmers’ Market, and then stopped for a few minutes of poetry, slam, and break dancers at the “Poets for Change” event at the Mead Public Library in Sheboygan… see below:
I also enjoyed a visit to the Frank Juarez Gallery, 604 Erie Avenue, Sheboygan, to enjoy the latest exhibits by Melissa Dorn Richards and Angie Zimmerman. Here’s Frank Juarez at work in the gallery:
It was quite a creative and artistic week!
Marty Carney | Artist | OpenSpaces Studio 