Art Glut

So Laura called Monday and said she had sold three of my paintings - two framed and one matted to three different people - one new and two who had bought art last summer from the gallery. Very exciting especially since it happened in the first few days the show was up.

I've been in DC for six days and am thoroughly saturated with art - post-war american art - which is all I'm really interested in these days. Two visits to the National Gallery, the Hirshorn, the Phillips Collection and the botanical garden and Museum of the American Indian and the Building Museum have left me dazed and confused but content.

I did see some kick ass art though and much of it was new to me. Many of the paintings owned by especially the Phillips Collection have never been licensed for reproduction (I'm guessing here) not because they are lesser works but because they don't seem to need the extra money. It's so refreshing to see "new" work that hasn't been diminished by over exposure. Who ever thought Van Gogh's sunflowers would grace refrigerator magnets and lunch boxes?

This tempera and oil on canvas called Le Tournesol )The Sunflower), c. 1920 is surprisingly by Edward Steichen who was both a photographer and painter although he threw away most of his paintings when he decided to devote himself full-time to photography.

It was the brightest thing in it's room at the East Gallery and, again, I had never seen it before.

I also saw the seminal painting by Helen Frankenthaler  Mountains and Sea which was the first painting to use thinned oil paints on unprimed canvas (soak stain) and paved the way for other artists like Pollack, Morris Lewis and Kenneth Noland. I love her work and the changes she has made over a long career but as many times as I have seen this painting reproduced, to see it in person  only  confirmed what I had already felt - I don't like it all that much. It's kind of watery and blobby. I don't get it. But she represented the second wave of color field painting and opened up a whole new way to do things differently even if it meant using a technique that is bound to keep art restorers in business for a long time. Luckily, she didn't like the halo effect the oil paints created and soon switched to acrylic which probably won't eat into the canvas as readily as oil paint.

I'll try to add a link to that image but have to end now as my brain is foggier than the Chesapeake Bay.

Holly

Up and Running

The show is up and I've gone to DC for a week plus of museum saturation and family Thanksgiving.

It took the better part of two days to hang the  small works by six artists but it looks great with distinct styles and palettes all generally held together by the landscape thread.

Now that I write that - I realize I'm getting sick of landscapes. Maybe it's just being in such a vibrant part of DC - near Logan Circle - that makes me feel that way. Plus I loved the view of the New York skyline from lovely Secaucus and parts south. The blue haze on the skyscrapers looked very much like the blue haze on the Taconic Range ( if it was umpteen years ago and erosion had yet to take place).

I'm hoping I'll become more inured to the traffic noise which seems  assaultive.  And at 7 am the dogs spied a large rat running across the sidewalk and decided to give chase. But I like the vibrancy and diversity. This is a particularly good neighborhood as it  runs the gamut from  sew 'n vac  and Vegas Lounge to a ratty 24 hour 7/11 followed by a gentrifying Whole Foods, very modern galleries and chi chi residences with rooftop party rooms.

            Here are a couple of paintings that Laura didn't choose to include. She likes the pretty ones.              
            These have a little more grit.

         I'll be posting photos of DC as the week wears on. This afternoon nephew Ivan and I are going to to the Phillips Collection- he likes Rothko and I am wild about twentieth century american art

         up to about 1980.

         Okay, scratch that. The sun just came out and the C&O Canal Towpath in Georgetown      
          beckons. We'll go to the Phillips during the week when it is free. Cheep, cheep cheep.

          Holly

Whew

Miraculously I am finished after three weeks of pulling everything together for the gallery group show.
I've got everything photographed, matted or framed, signed and titled and labeled on the back, an artist's statement, numerical and photographic inventories and a postcard which came out much darker than the proof. I still have to add to my mailing list and send cards but for now I'll just put them in all the obvious places and make sure to carry some with me when I go to the Co-op for lunch.

People have been so nice to me that I feel  like I'm living a good
version of the movie Groundhog Day except it's my
birthday and I'm maybe ten years old.


At Liz's urging, I've included some of the pieces with multiple openings. She liked them and thought others would as well. It's difficult to predict what will grab someone's attention.

Her favorites were a couple of pieces that I really didn't think anyone but me would like. One was very monochromatic and still while another vibrates with color and is unlike anything else I've done. And the third she said reminded her of a scene in the Alps. I'll include photos of them when I get back from DC.

 These multiples are a little hard to see since I've cropped the mats. I've got to spend some time rigging a better way to photograph the art. I've got it on an easel now and it isn't exactly 90 degrees so the corners slope away. It isn't as noticeable on the single opening paintings which can be slightly cropped but it really shows on the three included here.

Tomorrow, as the ultimate luxury in winter preparedness, I'm having all my windows and doors professionally washed. This will be a first for me in the twelve years I've lived here and there is quite a bit of baked on fly hieroglyphics, etched spider tracery, dog nose schmut and grackle poop.

Holly

Sunrise - Sunset

Thought I'd give it another whirl today and see if the formatting issues have been resolved after a little tinkering.

I've read that the reason sunsets are better in the fall is because it's drier then. That's not much of an explanation but it's true - the sunsets are so vivid  they seem like a pop artist's rendition.

The only good thing about switching off daylight savings time is that I'm up at the same (old) time which is a  lot earlier now. Okay that was a joke but I do seem to be catching a lot more sunrises.

So  here's sunrise this morning from my deck looking east, (obviously). The intensity of the burning white hot sun in contrast to the shadowed mountains can be almost frightening. How would you ever be able to suggest it in a painting? I don't think you could do it with paint. It's molten and slick.

And here's tonight's sunset from my porch
looking southwest. The photo is tame compared
to the real thing. I see some geometry and shapes in these two shots which could be interesting to
pursue in a painting. Although I've tried this kind of dramatic silhouette before with poor results. I think it was the dark outline of corn stalks and tassels looking up at a bright blue sky. Really didn't cut it at all.

Okay then.  I still can't drag and position the text or photos. And although everything looks okay now - it probably won't after I publish. Had I known this site was so wanky.........





Holly

Yikes

And while I'm complaining - if you noticed that the text went all e.e. cummings in my last entry believe me it wasn't intentional. I can no longer drag and position text or photos and this seems to be a problem many users have.

The solutions proposed are nightmarish so I guess I'll just have to let go and go haywire gracefully. Here's a new fall painting.

                                                                     Landscape 1318




Here's hoping tomorrow brings better communication between human, software,
printer and Howdy Doody.


Holly

More show paintings

Landscape 1307


 Laura picked this for the show. It was painted
 in late summer when I always miss the ocean
 and start yearning for blinding sun, salt,
 fried clams and soft air.

Landscape 1308


This is another Laura pick - again, the
height of summer - very green, very bright.

                 Landscape 1304


                This has some graphite as well as
                the usual gouache. Fall colors
                with a wintry sky.

 Landscape 1306


This recent painting was inspired by a view near the top of Baldwin Hill. It's more realistic than most of my paintings but the evergreens are leaning in one direction which they don't do in real life and the mountains are wild and unkempt as if they are wind blown also.


 

These  and others I've already posted are being framed for the gallery show.  I've almost got

a system down for keeping track of them. All the business aspects of pulling together

my paintings in order to sell them has been frustrating and time consuming. I'm looking forward to just painting which is why I'm looking forward to winter.

    Holly