Artist of the Year Competition

Excited that I have an opportunity to compete for the New Braunfels Art League Artist of the Year. Eligibility depended upon winning a 1st, 2nd or 3rd place award in one of the monthly shows of 2017. Participants are required to display 3 paintings as a body of work to be judged for the honor of Artist of the Year.

I created a new series for the competition entitled Scenes from Above. The painting above is one of my 3 entries and was used on the poster. As you can see, it is a different view point!

Hope you can at least drop by to see the show during the month, if you are unable to be there for the award ceremony!

And the Big Winner Is..........Not the One I Thought!

South Padre Pals

12" x 16", Pastel

As I have said forever, art is so very subjective. What pleases one, is nothing special to another. Friday night proved that. South Padre Pals has been featured in the advertising of the Texas Show at the New Braunfels Art Gallery, even included in the July Texas Monthly Magazine. So when I was notified that I had won a ribbon in the show, I thought Pals would be the winner. And it was the recipient of an honorable mention in the drawing category!

Imagine my surprise, though, when my second entry was named as the first place winner in the drawing category. That entry was Evening Reflections, a painting that I only decided at the last minute to enter! So.... many thanks to the judge for choosing my two entries worthy of awards and NBAL for allowing one artist to win two awards!

Evening Reflections

6" x 12", Pastel

Pinch Me!!

So..... awhile back I turned in my painting, South Padre Pals, to Tom Bender to be considered for the poster for New Braunfels Art League July Texas Show. Imagine my surprise when I was told it was in this month's Texas Monthly magazine!!!  Many thanks, Tom Bender! I am so thrilled and humbled!

Hoping you can get by the NBAL gallery in; the month of July to see this fabulous show. The reception and award ceremony is July 8th from 5-7. Stay tuned one of my 2 paintings entered has won an award!

I will post a close up of the painting at a later date, waiting to see if it is the prize winner.

Calico Couture

Calico Couture

12" x 12", pastel

The Artoberfest Art Show of the New Braunfels Art League opened on October 2. I am pleased that this painting was juried in and will hang (unless sold!) until Nov. 11 in the gallery.

As I have said before I am not a cat person, but somehow some of my best paintings have been of cats! The cat belongs to one of my nieces and just seemed to be posing for me on their sofa with bright sunshine illuminating the scene.

Caffè Italiano

Caffè Italiano

16 x 16, Pastel

A new show opened at the New Braunfels Art League Gallery today and the theme is, Contemporary-Anything Goes! The painting above is my entry and is featured on the postcards announcing the show! Just notified that it is an award winner, but won't find out until the reception June 6th 5:30-7:30pm!!

You may remember that I posted a study of the same subject, 5in x 5in. a while back. I decided that the subject would be better in a larger format and set out to make it happen. Thoroughly enjoyed painting this, so totally different from my usual subjects. Love the abstract shapes, shadows, reflections---I know, who is this woman?? I could almost smell the cappuccino as I painted the residue in the cup.

As told by the title, the reference photo was taken on my trip to Italy. There may be 2 more paintings there--showcasing the other cups not pictured here.

Hope you can make it by the show. It runs through the end of June.

Living a Fairytale

Italian Farmer

10 x 8, pastel

Some of you who have been following my blog since the beginning may recognize this guy. He was formerly titled, Citta Della Pieve Farmer. I entered him and 3 other paintings in the Small Works for Big Holidays show at the NBAL gallery, and that title was too long.

I have a bad habit of tweaking paintings and then NOT taking an updated photo of them, such is the case with this painting. Oh, well, on to the fairy tale. This painting received 1st place in the show!!!  The judge was, Vi Dunn-Harr, a fabulous artist (Google her). She was very encouraging with her comments. She spent several minutes sharing her wisdom with me. I just feel so blessed to have great artists, Angie Banta Brown, Rita Kirkman and now Vi Dunn-Harr willing to guide me in my quest to be a better artist.

Basset

Basset

7 x 5, pastel
Click to Bid

This is a smaller version of an earlier post. It was started as a demo while working at the NBAL gallery months ago. Unfortunately, I forgot to take my reference photo--bummer. So I painted it from the photo I had on my Blackberry's tiny screen. Think it turned out OK though.