Art Hoarders or Collectors?

Filmmaker Megumi Sasaki has made a documentary about Herb and Dorothy Vogel, art collectors who have amassed over 2,ooo works of art in their lifetime on postal clerk's salary. The focus of the majority of their purchases have been of minimalist or conceptual works. This looks really interesting and I am glad for collectors....but....I'd call it hoarding. Some folks hoard food, some cats, some clothes. The Vogels obviously hoard art. What is the point of buying art that is put away in stacks of boxes or shoved under beds?

See the trailer here.

A little touch of gold

I outlined the yellow scroll design with metallic gold paint, to give it that classic gilded touch.

Now I begin the plants, it will probably take me a few days to paint all the flowers and grasses. The plants will be in a variety of greens from the green I have painted first to strong yellow greens like in the leaves of the trees.

The plants I have started painting first are made with emerald green and white. It looks really blue  against the bright yellow-green background, but that color is true to the hunting paintings.

Getting there

I painted hairs on the deer to look more like the deer in the hunting paintings, it also has the benefit of looking stylistically more different from the smooth painting style of the little deer. I also darkened up the shade side of the antlers to give them a little more definition.

When I work I usually leave my paper cartoon under my fabric and slide plastic underneath the fabric to create a barrier to the paper. Dry cleaning bags work great because they are thin soft plastic, easily smoothed out and less like likely to show creases.

The filigree scroll pattern was painted with an ocher brown transparent paint diluted with a lot of textile medium (colorless extender) that made a nice soft creamy yellow color.

It probably looks like I am getting close to being finished but I still have a lot of painting to do. I need to add gold to the scroll work to give it definition and I still have all the flowers and grasses to paint on the ground.

FCCA hanging at the Historic Silversmith house

Sunday was a rainy day to transport paintings, but we did it and the FCCA show is hung and looks fantastic. Anne has one side of the space and I have the other. Our work is drastically different from one another, but I think it works great. Something for everyone, I hope.

The Member's Gallery in in the basement of the house. You can see the old beams in the ceiling supporting the main level floor. Because the basement walls are stone, our hanging system consists of a wooden strip all the way around the top of the walls and using fishing line to suspend the works.

Because this is an artist run organization, Anne and I will also be responsible for the food and drink. This is something I really enjoy, so I am looking forward to a trip to Trader Joe's for great unique food and good, inexpensive wine. The upstairs gallery is also opening a juried show and it is First Friday, which means the area galleries are also opening shows, so we should have a lot of traffic.

The gallery is housed in the Silversmith house in densely historic Fredericksburg. Built in 1785, the house sits right on the Rappahannock River in old town. In 1961, in danger of being torn down, it was bought be the Historic Fredericksburg Foundation and eventually became the property of the Fredericksburg Center for the Creative Arts.

Thanks to everyone for sending well wishes for the show.

60's deer painted

I painted the little deer using opaque paints with white because I wanted him to feel more like a solid object, since those figurines were always made of glass or plastic. I also wanted it to have a brighter cheerier look than the more serious painting referenced background so it is painted using a warmer more colorful brown.

Base painting for large deer

Saturday night I managed to get the big deer painted. I used a transparent brown textile paint and used varying amounts of textile medium (Jacquard; colorless extender) to lighten the color. I plan on painting brush stroke hairs over the majority of the deer similar to the way the animals are painted in the hunting paintings, but I will probably tackle the little deer first and come back to details after.

Humane Society Blog Post

Not much that needs to be said....
As a person who loves animals and as the they are the focus of my work, I cannot turn a blind eye to these issues. I share so we can all be informed.
May we not ever tolerate the cruelty, abuse and neglect of any living being.

Humane Society Blog: October 30th


I am off shortly to hang the FCCA show.......