Great minds... I can only hope

Waxwing Poetic

Vera Curnow

Tri-Focal

Vera Curnow

With this being the 20th anniversary of the CPSA, I was thinking back to the beginning of the group and Vera Curnow came to mind. My first contact with Vera was 20 years ago when she wrote an article to the Artist's Magazine wondering if there were any other colored pencil artists out there. I was down here in Florida doing my thing... coloring away. I was thrilled to see that there were other people as in love with the medium as I was so I wrote to her, along with the others who were saying "hi - we're out here". She founded the organization and I've been a member ever since.

Vera has been an inspiration to me on so many levels - her work, her drive and energy, her creativity, her teaching ability and her willingness to take chances. She's the one who taught me to paint with colored pencils using mineral spirits - this was revolutionary for me! It changed how I worked and opened up a whole new way for me to play. Working with a brush again brought me to working with watercolor and colored pencil which led to doing colored pencil on canvas which led to doing..... acrylic on canvas - acrylic without colored pencil, hmmm...

A few years ago Kelli and I had the opportunity to go to Vera's gallery in Indiana and teach a workshop. It was great fun to see what Vera was up to. Not only was she doing colored pencil, she was also doing acrylic. She has the same love of texture that I do and I was thrilled to see that we were going down the same road. I had an argument once with a woman online. She was telling me that you can't change your style or subject matter in your work - that would mean you were unfocused and immature. What a bunch of BS. Of course you can. If you feel the need, then by all means go for it. I still work in colored pencil, I just expanded my horizons to include other things. Vera works in a variety of media, is she unfocused and immature? I don't think so!!! Just take a look at her work above. If you want to see more of what she does visit her at http://www.veracurnow.com/ If you want to see what she created when she started the CPSA go to http://www.cpsa.org/

Thanks Vera for being an inspiration to so many,

Peace,

Carlynne

Wish I Could Remember

Hi All,



I want my cats life. All he really does is eat and sleep, two of my favorite things. Doesn't he look sweet in this pose? Don't let that fool you. His full name is King Tut and he really thinks he is a king.



I would love to have his ability to fall asleep on hot cement or lumpy mulch any time and for hours at a time.

And if I can't have his life or his talent for sleeping, I just wish I could remember how I set the camera to get the ethereal effect in these photos. I love the way they turned out, but do you think I could do it again. Uh-uh. My best things are accidents. Now, how to paint this............any suggestions?

Peace and love and cuddly kitties to you,

Kelli

You just never know

You just never know what you're going to paint on. Before it was life size horses for the Horse Fever project. Then it was a giant aluminum butterfly for Kaleidoscope. Now it's a hubcap? Artists work on all sorts of canvases, this is just another one. This is for a new art project "Landfillart is an international effort encompassing one-thousand-forty-one (1,041) artists to claim a piece of rusted metal garbage and create fine art." See what they're all about and see some of the completed hubcaps - cool! www.landfillart.org I got my hubcap in the mail yesterday so next step is to prep and prime. I'll keep you posted on the progress.

Trinity

7x5

And here we have a painting on paper! Back to a little more traditional art form. This is another oil pastel landscape that I just listed on Etsy. It's a scene from northern California, the Trinity River near my Uncle's house. I love it up there, what beautiful country! I've lost count on how many times I've painted this same scene and the piece looks a little different each time. Sometimes there's a place that just speaks to you. This is one of those places for me. Each time I paint it I go back there and visit for a little while.

Have a wonderful Friday

peace,

Carlynne

It was a pleasure - kind of

Well, this morning was my last radiation treatment. What a great feeling to now have that in the past. In a previous post I showed you these beautiful bird of paradise from the lobby of North Florida Radiation Oncology so I thought I'd put up a couple more. I'm bringing up the cancer center again because I want to share with you just how wonderful these people are. I can't remember ever being in a medical facility that made me feel so cared for. I want to say a very special thank you to Laurel who took good care of me and kept me company while waiting for treatment. Laughing is always a good thing. Dr. Hayes and Jen Stover, her PA were absolutely outstanding! I just can't say enough good things about them. It's so difficult to go through this kind of diagnosis, surgery and treatment so it means the world to a patient when the doctors and staff can make you feel so calm and comfortable. To go from terrified on the first day to hanging out at the Bella Cafe in the lobby (great coffee by the way, roasted on site) says a lot about a facility. If you or a loved one has to go to NFRO you'll be in good hands.

Tomorrow I'll talk about art stuff,

peace,

Carlynne

Painting Update

Happy Tuesday everyone. I thought I'd give you an update. This is where I am right now on the acrylic painting. Did you think those geometric shapes were just going to be white? I might leave some of them white but the reason I'm doing the white layer first and then painting color on top is to brighten the color a bit. I'm using Interactive acrylic here which I love for the liftability (is that a word?) but they don't have the covering power that I'd like sometimes. The white helps to block out the base color and let the bright colors shine. More to come later, hope you all have a fabulous day.

Peace,

Carlynne

What a weekend!

Wow, it's early. What am I doing here? My "amazing hubby" - that's his name from now on - had to go on a trip this morning so I got up to see him off. I couldn't go back to sleep so here I am. My brain is trippin' from all the projects I'm working on at once. That's not a bad thing, not at all. It's exciting to me. My problem is I want to work on them all at once, so yesterday, I did my darndest to do just that. Up top you see the start of a new acrylic piece in the earth series (coming to a gallery near you - if you live in Ocala or possibly Jacksonville).

This is a little 5x7 oil pastel with colored pencil. I'm starting a series of these mini landscapes for Etsy so look for those soon.

Some of you remember this one - Prairie Light - from the book. It was project 6. It's now listed on Etsy.

Yesterday was one of those days - I was having such a good time in the studio, the energy stayed up all day and I got a lot done, not only painting but computer work and even a little organizing. Amazing Hubby will be gone all day so guess where I'm headed? What a weekend!

hope you're having fun,

Carlynne

The skin just got a little bit thicker

Well, I realized tonight that I've made it. I made it as a professional artist. No, it has nothing to do with income, my career in general, whether or not all my income comes from sales of my work, who buys my work or how many galleries represent me. It has to do with the thickness of my skin. Tonight my hubby told me that one of my texture pieces reminds him of a macaroni project - you know, the kind kids do in school. He hates it - literally! Oh well. The fact that I can say "oh well" is big. I don't know about other couples out there but for me it's a little different being married to another artist. It's fabulous to share this common interest. I love being able to go to art shows with him. We love finding art supply stores, museums and anything art related where ever we go. He's my biggest champion - always pushing me, cheering me on and supporting whatever I want to do. In a word, he's amazing! But..... once in a while, when you're married to an artist you have to be ready to hear it - the criticism. A few years ago I would've had a hard time with that. Tonight, it didn't bother me at all! It was really ok. I've also gotten a lot of positive feedback recently so that helps to balance things out.

So, today's advice....when you hear something positive about your work - relish in it. Pull it out and revisit it so it can help you through the rejections that are bound to come. After a while the skin thickens up and you can take it. Get comfortable with what you do and who you are. Then when you hear criticism you can take what's useful and leave the rest behind.

No, I'm not tossing the "macaroni" project. Can you guess which one it is? I posted it on here not too long ago. When I get it done I'll post it again. You can tell me if it needs something else - some beans maybe?

have a good weekend,
Carlynne