Art Design and Dine at the Nagel

As a fairly new artist I am discovering that if you want to create you also need to sell your creations.  That means the business side of being an artist requires attention also   The show at the Y will be down next week.  Barbara Wolf will be the featured artist for September so stop by and see her sculptures. 

 Perky Poppies 5x7

   

The Cheyenne Artists Guild has the Thirteen Panels for Thirteen Members show opening September 5th at 7 PM at the member meeting.  My panel will be a poppy retrospective.  Come by and see!   http://www.cheyenneartistsguild.org/ 

Fraternal Twins  Pastel 9x12

The other show in September is called Pastel Visions and Gail Watford and I will show our work at the Nagel Warren Mansion with the opening reception on September 8th during Art Design and Dine.  See the web site for all the locations.   http://www.artdesigndine.com/  You don't want to miss that reception as Jim offers the best Earl Grey tea and other scrumptious delights.  

Prairie to Peaks

Petunias

One jam-packed summer and it isn't over yet.  Just a week ago the Prairie to Peaks Plein Air event hosted by Deselm's Fine Art ended. 


In addition to painting in the event we hosted plein air artists Kathy Steckel   http://www.kathysteckel.com/   and Pam Archer from Crawford, Colorado . 


Sterling Hoffmann  http://sterlinghoffmann.com/from Sonoma County California also stayed with us, and he was the judge.  Hosting gives a little icing to the cake as the artists are willing to help me with my learning.  


Kathy spent time at the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens and gave me  a lesson.  She broke down the process to finding a composition with just shapes (did we hear that from Teri last week) and then choose the proper values and keep it loose.  I finished Petunias in about an hour.  
  

Kathy painted the Paul Smith Children's Village when she was here in 2009.  We loved her painting and bought it for the CBG.  The painting is in the office.  She was amazed at how the garden had changed in just two short years.  

Just Shapes

It has been a whirlwind two weeks with the Prairie to Peaks Plein air, the National Show at the guild and hosting several artists.  Teri Grotmaker http://terigortmaker.com/ was here to teach  a workshop on Plein Air 101.  After the past two years of study it finally sunk in with her workshop... Just look for the shapes, choose the proper values. have fun with the colors and wa-la a beautiful painting.

These flowers seemed sparse but the light behind caught Teri's eye and she started a value sketch laying in just the interesting shapes.

After choosing her palette, she carefully selects the correct values and begins  laying in layers of pastel.  Teri helped me really focus on simplifying the process with shape.  The value sketch is the road map that will save me getting lost in a painting.  

Between the Reservoirs

I think you know how I am not feeling Plein Air and I are working out all that well.  I have trouble seeing the shapes, the values and capturing the color in the magnificent outdoors.  Last weekend we hiked at Curt Gowdy State Park, west of Cheyenne.   

http://www.wyomingtourism.org/overview/Curt-Gowdy-State-Park/2843

Our destination was the Hidden Falls, about a three mile hike from the trail head and back, through open fields, aspen forests, pine beetle ravaged trees, pastures, over bridges and finally into the little area with a deep pool of water as it pours off a 15 foot water fall.  We visited with numerous hikers along the path as it is a fairly easy hike and the jewel of the falls at the end is worth it.

Between the Reservoirs  Pastel 9x12

While I took lots of reference photos my favorite area was on the way out of the park driving from Granite to Crystal reservoir.  The South Leg of Crow Creek created a lovely marshy area with fluffy grass.  this is what I painted when I returned.   

String Lake



String Lake pastel 9x12

 Gail is my pastel pal.  She recently attend a five day plein air workshop with Jim Wilcox in Jackson.  Her reference photo of String Lake was shared with the Weekly Art Challenge bunch and inspired me to get painting!.  I had been busy with framing for the Art on The Walls show at the YMCA.  Well actually supervising the framing since I married my framer, and that was before I knew he could be trained.  This painting is 9x12 on Wallis paper with a variety of pastels.  It will be at the show in August at the Y. 

Heron Dance

We are all so busy that the inbox becomes cluttered with email.  The one I do try to open, read and take a breath and assimilate is called Heron Dance.   Heron Dance is a nonprofit literary and art studio founded in 1994 by artist and the author Roderick MacIver.   http://www.herondance.org

He will tell you: I started Heron Dance in 1994 as a newsletter that explored what it means to live a meaningful life. The early years were exciting. They still are, but it is different now. Two years before starting the publication I had been diagnosed with a life threatening illness. Art became part of my cure; I taught myself how to draw and paint while in the hospital.  

Reflections of a Wild Artist evolved out of a life of searching, including a search for harmony with myself. The truths underlying life, the human experience, are contradictory, illusory and revealed only in glimpses. Even harder than realizing them is living them.

My work is multimedia, unpredictable: art and words combined in an effort to dig into what it means to live a well-lived life, a life that is its own work of art. 

You will find inspirational quotes, a journal question, and of course the art and philosophy  of the author.    

One of my favorite thoughts from Heron Dance
- An Open Life: Joseph Campbell in conversation with Michael Toms
You have to strive every minute to get rid of the life that you have planned in order to have the life that's waiting to be yours. Move. Move. Move into the transcendent. That's the whole sense of adventure, I think.
   
Take a moment to subscribe to Heron Dance on the link above and enjoy the art, the message and the journey.