Much appreciation for a great article!

Many thanks to Karen Hendricks of Hendricks Communications for her fine article about my work on the Handmade in PA blog! Check out this link to the article:
http://www.handmadeinpa.net/2013/06/civil-war-fine-art-beyond-the-battlefield/

One-Day Painting Giveaway

This past Thursday, June 13,  was the annual One-Day Painting Giveaway at my Gettysburg gallery. I start a small painting at 10 am, work till 5 pm and every guest is invited to enter his or her name in a drawing to win the painting at the end of the day. I advertised that I would be painting an iconic Gettysburg scene in honor of the 150th anniversary, so I chose an 1863 photo of the gatehouse at Evergreen Cemetery to use as the basis for my painting. I was able to include  here a few photographs of the various steps of this painting, rendered with Neocolor II watersoluble wax pastels and Inktense watercolor pencils, as well as the finished product along with the photo used as the basis for this painting. A couple from Canada were the winners of this painting and seemed to be quite pleased!

 

 

 

Getting back on track

It's been so long since I've posted -- life has been very hectic this year and I'm struggling to keep on top of everything. Better late than never, I guess...as far as posting is concerned.

Today's painting  -- created in several types of water media -- was done at the Quick Draw event on the square in Gettysburg, part of the Gettysburg Festival. Quick Draw is a timed painting session; two hours start to finish. It's a lot of fun but a real challenge. I'm calling my painting "Things Are Looking Up" -- it shows a portion of the Gettysburg Hotel in the background, complete with 150th Anniversary banners.

Dusk at Devil's Den

I'm very pleased to announce that my watercolor and colored pencil landscape, Dusk at Devil's Den, was accepted into the CPSA (Colored Pencil Society of America)'s Explore This! 9 online exhibition. With this acceptance I earned my CPX Signature Status, and just received my certificate and pin in today's mail. You can view the exhibition at http://www.cpsa.org/view-explore-this-9.

Study of Walt Whitman, Step 2

This is going quickly, and I'm really enjoying it. Walt Whitman has such an interesting face!

Work-in-Progress: Study of Walt Whitman

Had a little time to work on this, in-between stuffing myself with Christmas cookies!

Witness Tree at Devil's Den

I've been in a bit of an artistic funk this year -- I keep working but often find I am not as satisfied with the results as I would like. In an attempt to break out of this negativity, I decided to create a small landscape based on a portion of the Devil's Den area on the Gettysburg Battlefield. I had recently read an article indicating that the tree depicted here is one of the few remaining "witness" trees -- meaning, a tree that is confirmed to have been present during the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, and that is what spurred me on to choose this particular location.

Recently I received some very good news regarding this painting, done in colored pencil on PastelMat: it is one of only 101 works selected for the exhibition, America's Parks Through the Beauty of Art. In addition, it was chosen as one of the Top 50, and will be part of a travelling
exhibition, moving from Missouri to New York to Wisconsin, beginning in March. Folow this link to read the juror's statement: http://www.outdoorpainter.com/whats-current-and-whats-coming/americas-parks-exhibition-begins-tour.html. While I realize that being pleased with our own work is what's important, not the opinion of a juror, this was a welcome "shot in the arm" for an artistically-uncomfortable year!