Back in Action - getting show ready

Feels good to get back to the drawing table, it took awhile to get the mind back into the groove of thinking out how I want something to lay out or tell. This week is finishing touches on pieces for the Springwood Art Show on 24th August to the 26th of August. I have got three pieces finished and framed, just need the wire to hook them up...but the last piece isn't finished.

First piece, "Bourbon Street Snooze", is graphite and watercolour pencil. Just subtle touches of colour in the composition to give a slower side of the fast pace of Bourbon Street. In a crowd of many this guy was resting in a doorway like no one was around. It touched me, and I hope it touches someone else with its undertones of suggestion.

Second piece, "Quilted history", is a collage of newspaper, card paper and scrapbook designed paper with oil pastel painting of the character and gold ribbon in the quilt pieces' ditches. The art of quilting is fading away, material has become to expensive, women don't have the time or patience for it and modern society finds going to a store more convenient than making your own blankets. There is more to the history of this work than just making a warm piece to your home - it is art, history, community togetherness, women bonding and making use of your resources. 

The third, "New Orleans Blues", is a collage of music paper, acrylic paint and ink. I drew this out while sitting at the hotel in New Orleans. It is a feeling that you get while hearing music there, a sort of vibration that reaches out to touch your heart beating with it. There is no face to the person playing, and his instrument is the torch between you both.









The fourth piece is a joker carrying a bag pipe through a crowd of people. The joker is the only one in colour, everyone else blends into everything else. It takes a lot of guts for a person to come strolling around a festival full of people dressed in purple tights and bag pipes. This piece will be about being your own person even when the odds are against you. I'll post a break down of it being completed (hopefully by Thursday for the show).

The other piece completed this month I am not sure if it is telling the story to another person as I feel it. This gentleman was playing his guitar busking on Beale Street with a big man playing the drums. He sat there with this cigarette hanging out of his mouth, but never did his fingers leave the strings, ashes just fell onto his legs as he played with his eyes closed and swaying with what the chords were doing with him. If I would have had the money their CD would have been bought. The emotions from this man were compelling. I stood there drinking in his features, mood and melody. To be that close with one's art makes me want to cry. I have only painted his image, I need to go deeper into what he made me feel.






For September I will be getting more work together for the Blackheath Art Prize. It runs 28th September to 1st of October. Maybe I can get my groove back for it. I have entered the Springwood Show for the past 3 years, but this will be my first for Blackheath.

Cheers!

End of USA Travel

We are finally home and trying to settle back in. The boxes have piled up of my household goods finally sent from Mom's house to here. It will take lots of time to sort where to put it all. In the midst of Daniel moving back in and suitcases built up from our 2 months away.

I did make some great discoveries while away.

In New Orleans there is inspiration for painting in every direction, but in a dark corner at the French Market my husband found an artist busking his works. He bought me an autographed print called the "Birth of Jazz" and the man's name is Donald V. Williams. I went back to watch him at work. It was amazing watching the detail he was putting to paper without so much as a reference photo.

All over New Orleans are prints of Don Davey illustrations for sale. I bought his 1976 "Royal Street: New Orleans" whose detail of the ironwork leaves me weak at the knees and "French Quarter Nights: New Orleans" 1987 whose sax player on the side street made me hear the music there all over again.

But there was also works every where in Florida to make my eyes dart with wonder. The Shady Oak Gallery in Micanopy had several graphite artists to choose from, but Marita Parish stood out about the rest. Her detail to the animals with a slight addition of colour was highlighted by the beautiful mat work to accent and embossed seal placement on the drawing. If I had room and money I would have brought every print of hers home. 

Then there was the unusual... Brooke Olson caught my mother's eyes as well as mine. She has resurrected the ancient work of silverware jewellery. We have attempted this with some old pieces and tools, it is not easy to achieve the beauty she accomplishes. There are rings, watches, bracelets, pens and more...each have a personal touch and character. Her webpage: www.etsy.com/shop/ForkingQueen. I found her work at a Russell, KS antique shop. 

I could have followed the art trails for years with the availability in each state. We visited the Hummas House in Baton Rouge that had beautiful paintings by Gougain, Degas and more. The Edgar Degas House in Creole, New Orleans is a B&B with more to offer. The building is run by Degas' nieces and apparently where he lived while painting in the USA. The Fairhope Artist Gallery in Fairhope, Alabama gave a distinct look into the local artist's flair. The House of Blues in Orlando, Florida gave a different direction for colours with music paintings. In Memphis, TN the shops along Beale Street had more to offer than booze and music. The colours of the paintings, local artists on the street busking with portraits in pastel, stain glass windows showing the history of the people of blues in that area and Memphis Music Shop has prints so colourful your aura will fill into rainbows. 

Wherever you go on your travels near home and afar look where you would not ordinarily seek art and you will be surprised with what you find. As for me.... I have two months of travels to fill my soul and hope to relieve their magic onto my own canvas. I wish I had a year off just to fill the paper with what my mind found to dance with in imagination.