October 2021

The big exciting event for October was a trip to Chicago! Chicago is such a fun, friendly, easy going city. And it happens to be the place where Scott completed his 7th marathon! 

Post race on Michigan Avenue

My man worked so hard all summer, pounding the sidewalks up and down Peachtree Street in the gnarly Atlanta heat and humidity. We hoped Chicago would bring cooler temps and lower humidity, but unfortunately, that didn’t happen on race day. Nevertheless, he finished in 3 hours and 49 minutes and that’s most definitely something to celebrate! 

 

I loved our hotel. We had a nice little perch overlooking the Chicago river where we could watch the architecture tour boats, traffic, weather and runners. When we weren’t running around, I sat in the window and read my Francis Bacon book or drew in my sketch book. 

Of course, we also found time to hit the Art Institute of Chicago and soak up all the John Singer Sargent, Manet, Van Gogh goodness. Lemme tell ya, there’s nothing I love more than one long wall filled with Manets. 

Here are a few more snippets of my favorite pieces from the museum:

 

My two favorite paintings were the Still Life with Jug and Knife by Vuillard and Fish (Still Life) by Manet. 

I plan to copy both of these so that I can learn from the greatest of the greats. It’s interesting to me that as I was reading my book about Francis Bacon I learned that Bacon’s biggest influences were Picasso, Van Gogh, Ingres, Manet and Degas. Bacon read and reread Van Gogh’s letters and one of his favorite passages was, “real painters do not paint things as they are … They paint them as they themselves feel them to be.”

ART I WORKED ON THIS MONTH

I completed this abstract commission, which was really fun. It’s a 24h x 18w acrylic on canvas. If it looks familiar it’s because the collector really liked “Cozumel” but that painting sold during the show at the Acworth Arts Alliance, so I made one similar to it for him. He was drawn to the linear quality of the painting, as well as the reds and blacks.

I worked on a few flower paintings and I tried something I’ve never tried before … a sailboat painting. A friend of mine lives in Miami and belongs to a sailing club. He has some great photographs and was very generous to allow me to use them as painting references. 

This painting was a big hit! I sold the first one, then someone commissioned me to paint another one. I was able to customize the colors of the sail to match the collector’s sailfish. 

I’m still painting abstracts while I’m at the gallery and I keep my acrylic paints there. It’s easy for me to paint abstractly and talk, not as easy for me to talk while painting representationally. 

24x24 acrylic on canvas

24x24 acrylic on canvas … work in progress

This is my first attempt at a diptych, and I’m very excited about how it’s coming along
Each canvas is 20h x 16w, acrylic, Slick Stix and graphite

I continue to paint on Thursday mornings (Wednesdays if the weather is bad on Thursday) with my plein air friends. I’ve also started painting en plein air in Roswell with my artist friends who live in that area.

Painting at Atlanta Botanical Garden

Getting suggestions from a group of students who were on a field trip

Painting in Roswell on Atlanta Street

My painting of the East Magnolia Boutique … almost finished with this one

EXHIBITIONS

We delivered our paintings to Colony Square for the next Atlanta Artists Center show there, which is on view through late February.

The Acworth Arts Alliance is having its Small Works Exhibition. Three of my paintings were selected for the show! I decided to join AAA because they’re doing such a good job of keeping their gallery space fresh and they’re selling art! 

READING

I finished Robert Greene’s, “48 Laws of Power.” Wow. What a book. Completely fascinating. I learned so much about human behavior. A million take aways. I marked that book up like crazy so that I can go back and re-read certain passages. This is a book I should have read when I was in my early 20s. Now I’m reading Greene’s new book, “The Daily Laws,” which came out this month. And as you read earlier, I’m reading, “Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma.” Francis was a troubled and odd man, but I love reading about artists, their lives, their inspirations, their drive, how they handled success and failure, etc. This book is certainly not for everyone, but I am enjoying it.

COMING IN NOVEMBER

I’m taking a workshop with Kathie Odom. Kathie is an amazing plein air painter, and I’ve heard she’s also an excellent teacher and fun to be around, so I’m looking forward to learning from her. At the end of the month I have a workshop with Elizabeth Robbins, another talented artist who paints mostly still lifes and florals in studio. Very exciting! 

OTIS and JULIUS

Our boys *love* this time of year. We sit on the sun porch, windows open, cool breezes blowing as the squirrels chase each other up and down the big oak tree in our backyard and leaves start to fall. 

JuJu

JuJu (L) and Otis (R)

I try to get a few good photos of them each month. It may sound silly to do that, but they’re so sweet, so handsome and so much fun … I love jotting down the simplest things about them. For example, we started doing treats at night before we go to bed. I can’t even remember when we started it … maybe 8-10 months ago? Otis gets especially fired up.

Odoggie 

JuJu Bear

And because it’s always so hard to get decent photos of Otis “Wiggles” Cullen, here are a few more I managed to get. His favorite woobie is Spidey. He carries it everywhere - upstairs to bed, downstairs as an offering, then back upstairs. Spidey has a lot of miles on him. Why Spidey? I have no idea. He also loves his pickle, a yellow poofy and his turtle. But Spidey is #1.

Happy Hallloween!

See you back here in a few weeks. Have a great November and a Happy Thanksgiving!