Winner!

Recently I subscribed to Susanne Clark's blog, No Naked Walls. Susanne is a wonderful painter and printmaker residing in the Atlanta area. I met her last year at a local art association meeting and was impressed not only with the pictures of her art that she showed us, but also with her as a person. You can imagine how thrilled I was to be the July subscriber winner of one of her Kimono collagraph prints!
I lived in Japan for over two years as a dependant of an Air Force officer many years ago. My father was stationed in Tokyo and the experience of living there totally influenced my life and art. Susanne’s print brought back many wonderful memories. It will hang harmoniously in my home and remind me of the wonderful life I have lived and that I am a winner!

In The Limelight

The Atlanta Artist’s Center show at Binder’s Limelight Gallery will be running until August 28, 2008. I feel fortunate to have two of my paintings in the show, the painting above, Chinese Laundry, and a small mix media collage. Stop by if you have a chance.

A New Day

It’s been an interesting experience painting with the Chroma Atelier ® Interactive Artist’s Acrylic™ paints. I’ve recently learned they were made in Australia and have been around for a few years. I didn’t know they existed until I went to the demonstration and I have been eager to paint with them since then. Finally I had the time to test them by painting an abstract and record my experience. The painting was fun, but making the video was something else. First it was too long, plus my arm and hands were in the way of the camera. A true amateur! Only a fool would continue, but I’m stubborn when it comes to having a previous investment in something. The only solution was to cut the video by capturing clips, (there must be an easier way than the way I did it). I ended up with a slide show! It would have been smarter to start another painting and photograph each individual step. I’m still having problems creating a video file that can be seen clearly.The printed information on the slides is hard to read in such a small format. If you double click on the video you can go directly YouTube and this video, then click in the lower right corner to view it full screen. Unfortunately it's still a little blurry. Hopefully, in time, I'll learn how to improve on my video skills!

Motivation or Inspiration

I wrote in the previous post about my search for the motivation to move my body into the studio and paint. It took the Atlanta Artist’s Center show at Binder’s Limelight Gallery submissions deadline to push me to do so. I vowed to stay there until I had three painting framed and ready to deliver to the show committee. I’m happy to say two of my pieces were selected. Deadlines and success are certainly motivators, but inspiration may be a more desirable one. It comes without bribery. It’s the rush of something new and springs from the creative center of one’s soul and imagination. Case in point: recently I went to a product demonstration of a new acrylic paint, Chroma Interactive Artist’s Acrylic. These acrylic paints are said to have the best qualities of both acrylics and oil paint. Meaning they have a long open time so they can be blended and corrected like oils, but they can also , with medium added, dry very quickly for over painting! This is an acrylic painter’s dream. Excitedly I brought home the reminder of my samples and stored them in small air tight palette with a sponge. After almost two weeks the paints have remained moist and creamy. This is inspiring! With the AAC show behind me, I’m eager to go to my studio and start creating with these new paints. I will update my results in a future post.