French Quarter Gate

French Quarter Gate

$35.00

Price Includes Shipping

Limited Edition Archival Giclée Print Signed and Numbered, Edition of 300

Original painting is SOLD.

Image Size:  6” x 6,” (15 cm x 15 cm)

Purchase

It's been a while since I've posted!  I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving.  It seems impossible that it is the holiday season!  Where is the time going?

Prior to Thanksgiving I spent some time in the Los Angeles area.  I used to live in Pasadena, California,  prior to moving to Florida.  It was great visiting friends and exploring my old stomping grounds. I'll be posting and sharing some of my adventures out there in the next few weeks.

Since my return I painted this new piece inspired by my trip to New Orleans last spring.  This will be in the current show, "A Gift of Art," at the 127 SoBo Gallery, Winter Garden Art Association the month of December.  (Please contact me if you are interested in purchasing.)  The opening reception is this Thursday, Dec. 4, from 5:30-8:00. If you are in the area hope to see you there!

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The World of Watercolor Competition

Was thrilled to get the catalogue of the Art of Watercolor Magazine's World of Watercolor Competition Catalogue.  Congratulations to the twenty seven artists who made it all the way to the exhibition, in Narbonne, France.  There were over a thousand entries from eighty two different countries.

So honored to be included in the catalogue with so many talented artists from around the world!

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Odd Man Out Accepted to The Kansas Watercolor Society National Exhibition

My painting Odd Man Out has been selected for the 2014 Kansas Watercolor Society's National Exhibition at The Wichita Center For The Arts.  I'm so honored to be in this show. Thank you to juror Thomas Schaller, whose work I greatly admire, for choosing this piece.

I have such a connection to this painting inspired by a plein air sketch I did on Peel Street in Hong Kong.  Some of my happiest moments were sketching, painting and exploring that city and for me it's even more poignant that this piece was chosen for this show with all the political unrest that's happening in Hong Kong right now.

For all my artists friends out there who enter competitive shows, DON'T GIVE UP! The selection process for any show can be very selective and can be greatly influenced by the taste of the judge.  This painting has been rejected from two regional shows, only to be accepted into this national show!  A painting isn't bad, or you are not a terrible artist because a work is declined for a show.  I look at it as a golden opportunity for it to be available somewhere else.  If this painting had been juried into a current regional show, I would not have been able to enter it for the Kansas show!

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Good News

It's been a busy few weeks.  Where on earth did September go!  I'm finally feeling a bit caught up from having been gone in September moving my daughter back to college and attending the Florida Watercolor Society convention.  I was not able to attend the "An Affair of the Art," Disney Ryman Show out in Los Angeles, as it was going on the same time as the convention.  However, my husband who was out there on business was able to go!  He sent me  photo updates throughout  the evening and I was so happy to learn that "Balinese Lotus," sold!

I also had a painting Do You do Voodoo in the current exhibition, "The Edge of Night, " at the 127 SoBo Gallery and it sold at the opening reception last Thursday!

Do You Do Voodoo

$35.00

Price Includes Shipping

Limited Edition Archival Giclée Print Signed and Numbered, Edition of 300

Original painting is SOLD.

Image Size:  6” x 6,” (15 cm x 15 cm)

Purchase

I hope everyone is having a nice fall season.  We finally got some cool weather here in Florida last Sunday, so I have a bit of a pep in my step!

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Do You Do Voodoo

Do You Do Voodoo

$35.00

Price Includes Shipping

Limited Edition Archival Giclée Print Signed and Numbered, Edition of 300

Original painting is SOLD.

Image Size:  6” x 6,” (15 cm x 15 cm)

Purchase

Last spring when I attended the reception for the 44th Annual International Louisiana WatercolorExhibition at the Garden District Gallery in New Orleans.  I spent the weekend doing a self guided tour of the city.  While wandering around the French Quarter I happened upon the tiny, quaint Voodoo Museum.  It was so much fun, such a learning experience and a stroke of good luck, avoiding a downpour!

Upon entering the museum I was greeted by the proprietor, Voodoo Priest,  with his baby pet boa constrictor around his neck leisurely petting it while checking guests in.  The museum is a small, few room space, with more of a home-made display vibe, but very interesting nonetheless.  I was enamored with all the accoutrementused for altar displays, and the offerings of money, Mardi Gras beads and a plethora of objects!

I was also fascinated to learn that the voodoo doll was originally used by doctors as their record keeping device for theirpatients.  They would mark the doll with pins to remember one’s ailments and record treatments that were given.  Not sure how it morphed into a curse device from there.

This paining, Do You Do Voodoowas inspired by my visit there.  It will be available during the October Exhibition, “The Edge of Night,”  at the 127 SoBo Gallery in Winter Garden, Florida.

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Disney/Ryman An Affair of the Art

I just shipped three paintings that will be part of "An Affair of the Art" Exhibition to benefit Ryman Arts on Saturday, September 20th.  I'm thrilled to be invited to be in the show again this year at the lovely home and garden in the Hollywood Hills,  of Marty Sklar  the retired head of Walt Disney Imagineering.  This years theme is "Under the Big Top," and will feature a Patron Special Presentation of rare film footage of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus, the years Herbert Ryman sketched and painted when they traveled to small towns through out the  United States.  Including the time when C.B. DeMille studied sites for the Academy Award Winning film, "The Greatest Show on Earth,"  which was filmed in Sarasota, Florida.

f you would like to learn more about this event and this wonderful cause you can click here to read my post from last year's show, and here to visit the Ryman Arts web site and to purchase tickets.  Many Disney artists and artists from the Los Angeles are invited to exhibit in the show.   You can also preview the art in the show by clicking here.

Reward, Watercolor on Archival Paper, 6" x 6", 15 cm x 15 cm

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Some Nice Press and Finishing Hope is Home

It's been a busy and exiting week!  Being the featured artist at the Winter Garden Art Association's, 127 SoBo gallery I am in two local newspapers.  The latest edition of the The West Orange Times did a lovely half page featured article! I am very honored and flattered!

The Southwest Orlando Bulletin also put my picture in with a nice write-up about the exhibition

I have also been putting the finishing touches on "Hope is Home" the painting I have been working on for Hope City Orlando.  I will be posting the finished piece next week!

I am looking forward to a little bit of down time.  Spending more time with my daughter before she heads back to school, some beach time, and then I'll start preparing for the workshop I will be teaching this fall at the Winter Garden Art Association.  The summer is flying by!

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Opening Reception for "Pick Your Passion" 127 SoBo Gallery, Winter Garden, Florida

It was a great opening reception last Thursday, well attended by about 100 people. Thanks to everyone who came and supported the gallery and me!  It has been very exciting and an honor to be featured, and especially to see my larger watercolor paintings framed and hung together!

I will also also be doing a workshop at the gallery October 16 & 17.  Teaching is something I have been interested in doing for quite some time and I'm really looking forward to it!  The workshop is called "Bold & Dynamic Watercolor."  I plan to talk about my techniques for creating my work as all as some general information about watercolor in general: papers, brushes, pigments, and ratio of pigment to water.  I will also cover how I go about designing my paintings, touching on design and composition. I welcome beginners and intermediate painters.   If you are interested click here for more information and here to sign up at the Winter Garden Art Association's web site.  If you don't live in the area, and would like to come, there is a quaint bed and breakfast inn, The Historic Edgewater Hotel, right downtown.  The hotel and the gallery are in the heart of the historic district of Winter Garden.

After all the excitement from the show, I have made some progress on the painting I am doing for Hope City Orlando to benefit victims of human trafficking.  I will post some more work in progress photos this week and maybe even the finished painting!

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Featured Artist at the 127 SoBo Gallery in Winter Garden Florida

I have shared everywhere else, Facebook, Newsletter, etc. that I am going to be the featured artist this month at the 127 SoBo Gallery in Winter Garden, Florida, but haven't shared on my blog!!  I helped hang the show yesterday at the gallery with some wonderful fellow volunteers at the Winter Garden Art Association.  The  theme for this months show is "Pick Your Passion" and is only open for members to exhibit.   The collection of work I've put together for the show represents two of my passions, painting and travel.

Although it has been a few years since I've lived there, I am greatly influenced by my time living in Hong Kong and France and traveling throughout Asia and Europe for many years. I have thousands of reference photos that are a never-ending source for inspiration!  I just wish I could paint faster!

If you are in the area, the opening reception is Thursday night, August 7 from 5:30 to 8:00. The address of the gallery is 127 South Boyd Street, in Winter Garden Florida.   The show will be up the month of August, if you can't make the reception and would like to see it.  The gallery hours are Wed. through Sat. 10:00 am to 6:00 pm.

I was getting my work framed which is such a nice feeling, not only to see it all framed which feels like the icing on the cake but to protect it as well.  I posted this photo on Facebook of Odd Man Out with yours truly standing next to it to give an idea of scale.  Many friends have commented since seeing it they had no idea it was that big!  It's really difficult when we see work on websites or in Facebook without a human standing next to it, to judge the scale of one's work.  Many of my paintings are quite large.

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New Work...Clowning Around

I took a little break from Gate of Reverence to work on this small painting. I had done a ton of research, taking photos at the Nemo & Friends Pavilion at Epcot,  to paint the Coral Reef Restaurant Menus and have wanted to do more sea life themed paintings.  This months themed exhibition at the 127 SoBo Gallery in Winter Garden, Florida is She Sells Sea Shells:  Works focusing on nautical themes and water.  Perfect!

This is another painting like Star Struck that I mounted to a cradled board and sealed with a spray acrylic sealer, thus, no need for framing with glass.  I like the idea of doing a series of these sea life themed paintings mounted this way.  I feel it would make a great collection to hang together, or to set on shelves or table tops!

If you are an artist interested in this process of framing without glass. I am in the process of writing an article on the steps and techniques, which will be available for download. I would like to experiment with a few more sealing options before publishing the article so please stay tuned.

If you are interested in purchasing this painting please contact me.  It will be at the 127 SoBo Gallery the months of June and July and if purchased then, 30% of the sales will go to the gallery, which is a non profit organization!

Hope everyone is having a great start to the summer!

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