"It's Elemental" at Szozda Gallery

detail of Evening, Blue and Gold, now at Szozda Gallery

It's a "Night 'n Day" arrangement, I really love these together

Just before the reception

Wednesday before the lighting was finished.

Four in a row

Fred Wellner, Animus Ferrum, 2010, acrylic on canvas 20 x 20

I'm exhausted! We've been in the middle of a heat wave (along with everybody else it seems), tipping into the high 90's and touching 100 (which is a rare thing for Upstate NY), so the turn out at the opening wasn't as good as hoped, but better than I expected because of the heat. It was a good time overall, I talked to a lot of people about my painting process, inspirations, and of course, the weather...more pictures to come as I've been promised a few from friends who were snapping shots throughout the night...Caroline did a good job hanging and lighting the show, and the space is lovely, my Fred and I feel so fortunate to have such a wonderful venue and advocate for our artwork! The exhibition is up until August 28th, and our book, Elemental is for sale there as well. We've had excellent press the week leading up to it, and we will be doing events throughout the month, possibly a demonstration of our painting process in the gallery, possibly a collaborative effort melding both of our processes together...it might be messy, but it would be a good time.

We still have the rest of this month and next month left on our lease on Moonlighting Gallery, and have our monthly reception on Friday night, July 29th, I have a couple of small new pieces that I kept aside for that, and I have some older ones to fill in the gaps that I left behind. I thought I'd mention here that we've decided to not renew the lease (for various reasons), which also includes disbanding the partnership (amicable), but I'm remaining positive about the overall experience. We learned a lot by doing than by not doing, so it was worth the investment of time and money to do it. It's going to feel good to slow down for a bit and plan for our next project...one being a book of our drawings. I wouldn't mind exploring a new shared space at another time, making it more like a working studio space than a gallery space, a place to work on larger projects and room for storage, but nice enough to throw a reception and invite people in to come see what we've been doing lately...I see it as an investment...but right now, I want to put my feet up and rest, and dream about new paintings...have you ever noticed that paint doesn't work well when it's way too hot...or is it just the heat exhausted artist having trouble applying the paint? Maybe both.

Press for the upcoming show at Szozda Gallery...

Thursday, July 14, 2011, "Neighbors", the Post Standard (Syracuse, NY) we got a full page spread featuring three of my paintings, but not all of it fit on my scanner...

...so here's the rest of the piece from Thursday's "Neighbors"

My Fred's painting made it into the "Stars" section of the local Sunday paper

We dropped off our paintings on Sunday and tomorrow the soft opening happens, and then we'll be attending the Third Thursday event at Szozda Gallery, and then the opening reception on Friday night (whew!) It's also going to be in the low to high 90's for the next few days too...oy, I fear that people will wilt and not show up...but it is an air-conditioned gallery, so maybe they'll come for the A/C and snacks! We're very excited...it's going to be a very nice show...

Painting some more...

There is more than blue going on in the sky... 627/2011, acrylic wash, monotype, rice paper on canvas, 40 x 16 inches

My latest painting evolves like all of my paintings do, with an under wash of color to add depth to the next layer, with my Blue Sky series, I select warm tones, burnt sienna, yellows, greens, turquoise, purple, orange...the washes of blue radiate differently...oh, but it was hard to paint over this under wash...it was so beautiful it almost hurt to cover it up...

"The Wash" stage...yes, that's my little portable studio table, it's just an old drying rack with boards on it, easy take down and put away...yup, my porch floor is paint spattered (that's okay, I need to repaint it anyway)

but I did...
Here are some detail images for comparison...

detail of top wash

detail of top finished painting

It was a fun painting to make, larger than I usually do...it's mighty pretty...it really glows in my dining room, can't wait to see it in the gallery!

I've been a busy lady this week, my vacation has been very productive...wonderful...a little bit of everything happening, a little bit of everything getting done...a show with my Fred and I is coming up this month at Szozda Gallery, Its Elemental! opens on July 20th with a reception on the 22nd, and runs through to the 28th of August...so I'm making more new work to add into the mix as the following week is yet another reception at our little Moonlighting studio...

Seth Apter at The Altered Page has the 5th Edition of The Pulse up and running this weekend, and as always, inspiring, beautiful bits of this and that to look at and read about...love it!

I recently found out about America: Now and Here, which is a traveling exhibition currently on view in Detroit until July 24th (was in Kansas City in May) that has pulled together artists of several disciplines, visual artists, poets, playwrights, filmmakers, and musicians, it's going to be on a two year tour of the country, it's going to Chicago in October. For more information where to catch the show or to join the national conversation here's a link to their website: http://americanowandhere.org/

There are more paintings on deck to work on, I'm feeling quite satisfied (mostly), yet itching to keep going...