Audubon Artists Show in NYC

{view of Empire State Building as I head to the bus back home to DC}

This Saturday I took the bus up to NYC to deliver a painting for the Audubon Artists Annual Juried Show, hosted at the Salmagundi Club on Fifth Ave. This was my first time participating in the show and from the paintings I saw coming in, it is going to be a great show. A lot of beautiful work was accepted into the show and I am honored to be part of the show.

{some photos of the work before being hung}

{Fresh Peaches, 18" x 24" (45.7 x 61 cm), Oil on Linen}

My painting, Fresh Peaches, will be part of this exhibit, on display from September 13th to October 1st in both the club's galleries. If you are in the area, please stop in to show your support for the talented artists chosen for this year's event. The Salmagundi Club is located at 47 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, and is open from 1:00 to 6:00pm weekdays, and from 1:00 to 5:00pm weekends. The reception will be held on Sunday, September 26th from 2:30 to 5:00pm.

Hope to see you there.

Liz

PS. Fall term is about to start again at the Alexandria Art League and I have a ton of loose ends to tie up before then, so I will not post for a bit and will not have an update for the copyist work I am doing at the NGA this week. Thanks and see you soon.

Week 5: Vase of Flowers by Jan Davidsz de Heem

Hello,

I just completed week five this Tuesday and feel the progress is just humming along. This week when I arrived to the gallery the easel was missing so I had to call and request it to be delivered. While waiting I worked out a game plan for the day.

The cabbage leaf above the carnation and pea pods was the next big thing to tackle because it is so large and determines the location for its neighboring flowers.

{status at the beginning of the day}

{detail of what was completed by the end of the day}

I mainly focused on the details of the leaf, only basically blocking in the value shapes of the roses. Next week I will start to refine them some and begin to block in other flowers, like the morning glory that I covered up as the day went by.

{status of the entire painting}

A few weeks ago when I decided to break up the painting into bite sized chunks I began centrally with the glass vase and later moved down to the table and to the left. So far I like this direction and plan on working through the painting in a somewhat clockwise manner. This will leave the red tulip on lower the right {which is now a red mass} to the end. I think the red tulip may be the most difficult flower on this painting, second to the white fluffy tulip on the top and having a lot of practice time learning to work out the minute details of this painting will be in my favor.

Below is the original painting to see how much more ther is to go... While at the museum a docent came up and asked me how long it will take me till I am finished with the copy, I replied somewhere between 30-36 weeks. I hope that is all as I would like to start another painting before my year anniversary of being a copyist :)

{The original painting}

Jan Davidsz de Heem

Dutch, 1606 - 1683/1684

Vase of Flowers, c. 1660

Back from Texas

{dirt road near Castroville, TX}

Hello!

I am back from Texas and want to share with you some of the "art" highlights of my trip. The trip was prompted because I wanted to attend my cousin's wedding and to catch up with family in both Castroville and San Antonio. Luckily there was time enough to mix in a few art related excursions.

On Thursday I visited La Villita in downtown San Antonio. I knew Susan Carlin had a small gallery there and made a special point to visit her. She has been such an inspiration for me over the past few years and it was an opportunity I did not want to miss out on. {though I must admit I am more often a lurker than a commenter... that will have to change now that I have met her!}

{Susan Carlin in front of her new digs, Nueva Street Gallery}

Susan was in the midst of moving from her old gallery space to a new one also located within La Villita. She was scheduled to reopen the next day! And she still spent time with me talking about the past year and her postive experience of owning her own gallery space. She is such a generous soul!

{some of Susan's work}

{Inside her new gallery, I love the bank of north windows...}

The next day I visited the McNay Art Museum in the Alamo Heights area of San Antonio. It was a super relaxing and invigorating at the same time, if that is possible? Well, that is how I felt after spending almost 3 hours viewing the different galleries.

{the inner courtyard at the McNay Museum}

I am learning that it is close to impossible to leave the architect in me behind when I visit places, half of the photos taken at the McNay ended up being architectural oriented... {here is a link to all the photos taken}

{some amazing floor tile at the McNay}

Saturday was my last full day in San Antonio. I had plans to have lunch with my cousin, and during our initial conversation she brought up that Sara Winters is one of her good friends. So after we spent some time catching up, we invited her to join us for lunch as well. She came with her little boy, who behaved very well for a little one. I enjoyed meeting her and getting to hear the good news that she had sold a painting that weekend! I feel it is the little rewards of sharing your passion for something that makes the world so full and joyful and when someone rewards you with wanting to own your art, that feeling is just magical...

The six days went by fast. I am ready for a break, but I have already been diving into the studio. Tomorrow I will share with you the progress I made on the Vase of Flowers copyist piece today while at the NGA.

Until then, have a wonderful evening, Liz

{longhorn at sunset}