Shifting Seats

First of all . . . happy news for me. My two entries into the BSSS Juried Exhibition: Interiors and Still Lifes were accepted--both of them. That show will take place in mid September, and I will post more information and photos on that event when it takes place. You can see my two entries if you take a look at my last post, Love is Blind.

Shifting Seats  6" x 8"  drypoint and pastel on BFK Rives 

I'm teaching myself printmaking, specifically, Intaglio drypoint, using a water based Akua Intaglio ink and Akua plexiglass printmaking plates. I have a small etching press I purchased from Dick Blick and a couple of scribing tools. And off I go into a whole other world of image making. Like so many art forms or life's ventures in general, there's more to it and more to know than is initially apparent. It's safe to say I'm working my way along a huge learning curve. But I have wanted to learn printmaking for some time and there have been no classes available locally. A first effort, above, marks a start. Technically this is a mixed media work as it includes both a print and soft pastels applied over the print.

As a general aside, history has taught me beyond a doubt that when I want to learn to do something bad enough, I can and I do--especially these days with internet and YouTube it gets easier and easier. Never short change yourself or your ability to accomplish a difficult task. In my life it's been raising dairy goats and other livestock, hand spinning yarn from my own sheep and llamas, building fences and pergolas, growing lettuce hydroponically (and this from a then 50+ year old city girl.)

I could go on and on with more examples of nailing that learning curve, but for now I have much more to learn and do in printmaking before I can produce satisfactory work.

Love is blind

Sailors  18"x 24"  oil and cold wax on canvas

The deadline for submissions to the BSSS Annual Juried Art Exhibition - Interiors and Still Lifes here in Staunton, VA was today. My abstract still life was completed and submitted in the nick of time.

There is this thing painters do to themselves all too often--they fall in love. They fall in love with their painting, and like falling in love with another human being or a pet, or a new couch, love often blinds us to an important overlooked truth. Like, this painting isn't really all that successful. or I can't keep a cat--I'm allergic to cats. or I don't need a new couch nor can I afford one.

Is this a successful still life or is love blind? We'll see. There is also one other overriding truth in the art-competing-with-other-art arena . . . the jury, or in this case, the judge. And in every case humans, like it or not, naturally harbor preferences, biases, likes, dislikes.

I submitted a second, smaller pastel in addition to the oil.

Light Reading  10.5 x 10.5 pastel on sanded paper

Updates on the competition will follow in early July. Wish me luck.