Posted in Art Class, tagged Art Class, art lessons, daily painter, impressionism, Landscape, Virginia Artist on March 21, 2013| Leave a Comment »
“Miss Gaylor”
“Miss Bobbie”
Yesterday at The Southerlands Miss Gaylor and Miss Bobbie finished their paintings. Didn’t they do a fine job? And this was Miss Bobbie’s first painting. She loved the palm tree. (Thanks Linda C. for giving us permission to paint your tree.) Both paintings turned out great. Can’t wait to see what we do next week.
Posted in Plein Air, Polls on March 20, 2013| Leave a Comment »
This is how my desk looked this morning when I sat down to write this post. What a mess! It’s this way because I have been working on a few ideas for projects that I hope to decide about soon and get started painting. I love painting and as you know I try to work on a painting project every day but sometimes reality jumps up and I have to “plan” some work in order to make ends meet in this economy. So I am developing a project that I want to lead to a show and possibly a book. I am at a crossroads where I must decided exactly what to paint. And I want your input. It will be a “Plein-air” (painting outdoors) project. Please take the survey below and help me make a choice so I can finish writing my proposal and get busy actually painting. I’d really appreciate your help! And I’ll let you know more about the project in the next few weeks. Thanks!
Posted in Little Known Facts, Trivia, tagged Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft on March 19, 2013| Leave a Comment »
The FBI has set up a special web page about the theft of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum that I wrote about yesterday. They are offering a $5 million reward!
They also announced yesterday that they know the names of the two men involved in the theft but they still do not know the location of the paintings. Read more here and here. It’s fascinating!
Posted in Little Known Facts, Travel, Trivia, tagged Boston, Boston Art Theft, Isabella Gardner Museum, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Largest Art Theft, Largest Art Theft in History, Travel on March 18, 2013| 2 Comments »
Twenty-three years ago, early on the morning of March 18, 1990, two thieves dressed as police officers entered the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum while everyone outside was preparing for the St. Patrick’s Day parade and committed the largest art robbery in history. Thirteen pieces were stolen including a Rembrandt, a Vermeer, five Degas drawings, a Manet and more. The estimated value is over $500 million! Read more about the art here.
And the theft is still a mystery. The art has not been recovered and there are really no leads bringing the FBI closer to recovering the art. When I was in Boston a few years ago I visited the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and saw her unusual collection. (Read about that visit here.) But the really weird part was to walk by a wonderful painting and then see an empty frame right next to it (see above) where the thieves cut the art right out of their frame. The Board of Directors chose to leave the frames exactly as they were since Gardner had left explicit directions that the art remain as she left it.
Isabella Stewart Gardner by John Singer Sargent
The museum is fascinating in that is a home that houses a wonderful collection. Asked in 1917 about building a museum and Gardner said,
“Years ago I decided that the greatest need in our Country was Art… We were a very young country and had very few opportunities of seeing beautiful things, works of art… So, I determined to make it my life’s work if I could.”
She was a fascinating woman. I hope you spend a little time reading more about her and her museum.
Posted in Crochet, tagged Crochet, free crochet pattern, lap throw free pattern, Offset shell crochet stitch, Virginia Artist on March 17, 2013| 3 Comments »
I’m playing again with crochet. I made a lap throw with cotton yarn and used a neat little stitch that I have heard called Offset and Block or Tipsy Clusters. I like the look and it worked up quickly. If I do it again though I would only use a solid color yarn with this stitch as it shows up better. Here’s the best I can do with the pattern: Make it any length you like using a multiple of 12 stitches plus 4.
Chain to desired length. (Mine is 34″ wide x 72″ long.)
Row 1: Turn. Chain 3 (count as first dc). Skip 1 ch on base chain, *5 dc, sk 3 chs, 5 dc in the next ch, sk 4 chs, ch 2; repeat from * across ending with 5 dcs.
Row 2: Turn. Ch 3 (count as first dc). *5 dcs in dcs, sk ch 2 , 5 dcs in the first dc of shell, sk 4 dcs of shell, ch 2; repeat from * across ending with 4 dcs and dc in turning chain.
Repeat Row 2 until length you desire. You can easily change colors in the rows if you wish to use more than one color as I did with a few solid rows and a few variegated ones.
Posted in Abstract, Art Class, tagged Abstract, acrylic, Art Class, art lessons, Blue Ridge Arts Council, daily painting, flowers, impressionism, Virginia Artist on March 16, 2013| Leave a Comment »
At our young artists class this week we painted a representational abstract of a floral arrangement. We called it Spring Explosion. We use brushes but also our fingers to get the abstract effect. And yes, they LOVED that! If you have a young artists ages 7-13 contact us and come join the fun.
Posted in Art Class, tagged Art Class, art lessons, Blue Ridge Arts Council, Virginia Artist on March 15, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Shelly worked on the background leaves of her poppy painting at Wednesday evening Adult Art Class. This is a wonderful painting. Great job Shelly. Anyone else wanting to paint, come join us. We have a great time and learn something new each week.
Posted in Art Class, Tips for Better Painting, tagged color mixing, colr chart on March 14, 2013| Leave a Comment »
In our adult art classes students paint whatever subject matter they prefer. That way they get to learn while painting something they would like to have. But ever so often I ask them to do a lesson in color. Yesterday we painted a color chart. Here is Pat working on her chart. This exercise has a painter list the colors they use most (about 10 of them) across the top and down the left edge of a chart paper or canvas and then one by one you mix the two corresponding colors together and put it on the chart. This will give the painter practice in color mixing and when the chart is complete it provides a useful reference to keep handy when you need to find a particular color. It is a little tedious to make a chart but worth it for what you can learn from doing it.
Posted in daily painter, Pet Portaits, tagged acrylic, daily painter, daily painting, Dogs, impressionism, pet portrait, Virginia Artist on March 13, 2013| Leave a Comment »
A few months ago, my friend Jen posted a picture of her sweet boy Jake with his new bed. I just loved it so I asked if I could paint it. Here is my version along with the original photo. The painting is acrylic on 12″x12″ canvas. I love working with unusual angles and compositions like this. I have painted Jake before with his sister Juneau. You can see that by clicking here. Thanks Jen for giving me such sweet subject matter to work with this week. (And this painting has sold! Yeah!)
Posted in Dogs, Sculpture, tagged daily painter, Dogs, pet portrait, sculpting dog, sculpture, Virginia Artist on March 12, 2013| 1 Comment »
For several years now I have wanted to learn to sculpt. But I haven’t had any luck finding a class or instructor in my area so I just decided to give it a go myself. Last night while watching tv I started playing with this sculpting clay that I had and just kept working til this dog came out. 🙂 I think I would really like sculpting if I had the right materials. I am hoping to get some soon and try to do a few more pieces. I would really like to have some instruction and then I just want to play with it for a while. But for a first attempt I kind of like it!
The Studio 