Delivered to Donna's

I'm excited to have some paintings in the upcoming (month of August) show, Fresh Paint, at the Donna Seager Gallery in San Rafael. I dropped four paintings off today. The opening reception will be August 11th, from 6-8pm. Please come if you can!
Of course, this all meant that I had to finally put finishing touches on a couple of them including this one:

Begun...back in April with the collaging of a vintage tablecloth across the canvas, the bird flew in in early May, and then just sat there. (one of the benefits of this blog, I can look back & trace a work's progress) I liked the loose drippiness of the bird disappearing into the background... Anyhow, it finished up with the addition of botanical elements and butterflies, all inspired by the garden, where we've planted lots of pollinator-friendly plants. It's more tightly detailed than the direction I would say I'm currently headed in, but, that's what the painting seemed to ask for. The painting below also began with the vintage fabric seen at bottom left and top right. As often is the case when I use collage elements, the painting proceeded in response to the colors and shapes within the fabric, leading in part, to the cloud-like forms you see.
Here are the four paintings I took in.

Hey, that's my painting!

Tony's sharp eye recognized this big painting as one of mine-- done oh, 13 years ago. Seen here via a designer's website (click here to see it bigger, and not oddly compressed) I believe it was rented via Hang Art Gallery 5 or more years ago (I still have that painting) for a loft 'staging' in SF. Funny , huh?
I've been talking some lately about working more abstractly, and I bet some people who know me through my more recent paintings don't know of this period in my work. Yup, I came out of grad school almost a minimalist, and gradually the world crept back in. This piece, originally inspired by many walks in the Western Mass. woods, pre-figures the on-going paintings which I refer to as my 'stripe' series.

Opening Reception Reminder

Tomorrow evening, 4-6pm will be the opening reception for 'Three Curators, Three Artists' at the Cultural Arts Center Gallery, featuring Tony's recent work, along with ceramics by Hiroshi Fuchigami, and costume design/photography by Margaret Hatcher. More info is here . Please join us, if you find yourself within 'striking distance' of Santa Rosa!

other people's studios:

David Turner's studio in--Albany? El Cerrito? East Bay, anyways.
A couple of weeks ago my friend Pati took me to visit David's studio, because she knew I would love his work.
See more, in his garden setting, over on my garden blog.

color / texture

To see paintings, click here.
Here are a few things that have come through the camera lately...

...and then there's this:

(in progress, 30 x 40", oil, over acrylic)
This is something new I'm working on (both are details).
The blue flower is borage, a plant that grows quite freely, almost weed-like in our yard. The orange arcs were inspired by the blooming echeveria (? also known as Hens & Chicks)-- visible from my studio door.

Below, the source of inspiration:
the view from the studio door these days.
and a close-up of a borage blossom (edible).

Photos from Friday

Friday was an art-ful evening for us: we made it to Donna Seager's Gallery (San Rafael) for a slide talk by Heather Wilcoxon & Inez Storer-- once Professor & Graduate Student (at SFAI), now good friends-- these two share amazingly similar, though highly unusual, upbringings. Both were raised on Hollywood Movie Backlots, and that's just the beginning... They're showing together through the end of the month... (one of Inez' on left, Heather's on right)

Then it was over to Oakland for the Art Murmur-- the collective opening receptions for a growing handful of galleries clustered together in a formerly sketchy part of town...previously written about here.
If you plan to go to the Murmur in the future, be advised: the galleries now close down at 9pm. And they mean it. (neighbor's complaints, I guess).

So we didn't see everything.
BUT, we really enjoyed the show at Mercury 20 (once again)-- this time paintings by Margaret Chavigny and Sheila Metcalf Tobin. Sheila's include delicately rendered line drawings of flowers and plants, on woodgrained panels, Margaret's are layered out of a mix of mediums-- including collage & encaustic (click on their names to go to their websites for more images, statements, and info on their processes...)
And next door at Industrielle, our friend Elisa Carozza was hanging a small preview of her show to come in Sept & Oct.
And this other cool artist (sorry I didn't catch the name, but maybe someone will send it to me?!)


...And last but certainly not least, a retrospective mention:
The last time we went down for the Art Murmur was duriing Laura Van Duren's great sculpture show (also at --where else?--Marcury 20). At the time I was on my very short blog hiatus-- (I warn you, I feel another coming on!) so I never got to post about her show. Which really was fabulous.

(Laura & Tony provide scale)

Calling 'em Done

(left, 48 x 48". Inspired by the blue fabric collaged in the upper left)



(10 x 10": each, acrylic & collage on canvas)