Weekend Art Creation and an Arts Clayton Gallery Visit

Arts Clayton Gallery made a Call For Art! This is Courtney. She's busy hanging art for the upcoming show - Champion Spirit!
I couldn't resist contributing, so I stayed home to create a picture before heading off to Saint Marys.
I grabbed a 24" x 24" gallery wrapped canvas .
Then, spent a few hours planning my design, choosing colors and creating letters/text, putting it all on a big piece of vellum to use as my pattern.
People ask why I make a pattern. Answer: I can recreate the painting so much easier next time.
Two strips of blue tape keep sharp edges between color blocks of burnt umber and yellow.Then randomly brushed on some white and a creamy khaki color. Burnt umber is nearly gone!
A wash of white on the top portion and burnt umber on the lower half. Also glued a small rectangle of fiberboard to the white part for depth. Then, randomly added burnt umber and red blobs. Some scratching with an exacto to give it that old abused look.
Ripped off the tape and added the black! Scraped on some red and white with the palette knife.
Letters are painted on! Also cut a star from heavy watercolor paper, painted and glued it on....
A bit more final fiddling, adding some aging and shading here and there and it's DONE! I had a great time doing this one!
Once the paint dried I threw it in the back of the car and sped off to the gallery.
Karen (here) and Courtney are preparing for the new show opening next week. A lot of new art waiting to be displayed....
A printmaking class next week. I hope I'll be back in time.
Brick walls make art look so much fancier!
Does this couple look familiar?
I could look at this one for hours. Click the pic for amazing details!
Handcarved angels with tin wings by Richard...
Courtney still hanging pictures!
Have a great week, folks.
Spring cleaning awaits!
Ronnie

What DO you DO?!

The blueberries are blooming. Isn't that just swell.?
And here I am needing to blow off a bit of STEAM! I thought I would be relieved when the season arrived. Instead, I'm feeling like the rope in a game of tug-a-war! I'm running up against what most artists experience. Maintaining your priorities and proper balance in your life with that old nag playing in your head that says, "Making Art isn't all that important! What you need to do is clean up that garden! Your screened porch could use a good hosing! And those windows! Ohhh (shiver)!"
I discussed this dilemma with my youngest son this morning as he stopped by to fix the computer for me.
Using the huge, log-sized branch that has fallen from the ancient oak tree in the front of his house as an example, I began...
"Drew, does that log, that's been laying in the front yard of the farmhouse, nag at you when you drive up? (Andrew lives in the old farmhouse I'm renovating.) Because it sure bugs Me!"

Basically, he said it wasn't high on his priority list. He knew exactly where it was and if he needed some handy firewood he didn't have to go all the way to the woodpile to get it. He explained it was a time saver leaving it where it fell and his neighbor was not bothered by it either.
His top priority was his livelihood (which happens to also be his passion) and those other things, well, they just weren't.

I've been making some form of art my whole life, a back burner activity that I promised myself I would someday drag to that big front burner.
So, that's exactly what I decided to do in Summer 2008. I began painting once again and offered my work to a beautiful local gallery. Next, I created the Etsy shop and this blog.
As a result, I have been encouraged by the support of the gallery, my family, Etsy buyers and all you wonderful bloggers.

With every piece of art I reveal on the blog, you all are right there with your encouragement and humor and appreciation. This means so much to me and I thank you all so much!

Arranged by Arts Clayton, one of my painting is now displayed at the new National Archives building in Georgia! Scoop magazine featured my work in their March/April edition. I've been chosen for a juried art show planned for May. I am thrilled and stunned by all this. I feel like I'm finally making art a priority.

I'm leaving on Wednesday for St. Marys to pressure wash the little yellow house for Spring, lay new mulch in the flower beds, wash windows and plant annual flowers. I enjoy this kind of thing, especially in St. Marys. I have four days to finish, be back home, then ready to start again in McDonough where I have left outdoor chores far too long.
I'm feeling a bit like a one man band! In my mind, I see myself holding art supplies in one hand and in the other a hoe, a rake or maybe a broom and my head is spinning like Linda Blair's in the Exorcist.

With Spring, all the things that were the primary focus in "My Previous Life" are rearing their eager little heads, "Pick me! Pick Me!"
This has me worried and scared that my art will be relegated to that simmering place at the back of the stove.
Could I leave a log laying in the front yard for a month? No.
Could I leave a partial pile of mulch at the end of the driveway all Winter? Yes, because I have.
Perhaps I've already begun to find balance!
It's a glorious day outside and the yard looks like hell. The Gallery has made a "call for art" to be delivered this Saturday.
I'm goin' for it!!!
As they say in Georgia, "That mulch pile ain't goin no where! It'll be there when you get back!"

Have a joyous Spring, loved ones.
Ronnie- also known as Joe's stove operator.

ps...
Two artists I know in bloggerland had very good weekends.
Folk artist Mystele
and
Author Dave Ebright
Check it out! It'll make you smile!

I'm at it again...

Spring didn't sprung this weekend. It's cold and drizzly.
So, I decided it's a good day to try once again to produce a masterpiece!!!
Throw on a red "frame" and some hair...and a bit of skin.
How 'bout a cat?! I figure if I want to sell this thing it has to have
a CAT!
Poke holes and wire on some old readers that i was saving in a drawer for something really important...
some lightning bolts. Some hearts. A designer paper dress. A faux brass plaque.

And she's done! I had a good time doing this, however it was a very difficult process that took a great deal of time (this I'm not kidding about), skill and training.
Warning! Don't try this at home. Save yourself a whole lot of trouble and Buy it at my Etsy shop. : )
Have a good time out there, you all. Whatever you're doing.
later gators,
Ronnie

Brit Blast from the Past

My sis went to England this week. This has me reminiscing on a trip I took with my sisters to England this month two years ago. One of the first pictures I took. He looked so English that I couldn't resist.
We stayed here with a handsome Barrister and his family. A lovely three story townhouse. They treated us royally (no pun intended) and fed us in English gourmet style.
First day out we ended up here in front of the Dusty Fox Pub. We're holding each other up after a few too many stouts! Me on the left.
We chatted up a storm through the village with big sis, the photographer, trying for the perfect shot.
A walk through the countryside.
A house I'd dream of living in.
The Barrister sends us off with The Full Monty. The traditional English breakfast.
Next, we stayed here. Fawsley Hall. There in the mist! What a gorgeous place.
Accommodations were astounding! We were jumping for joy when we walked in! Wow!
We positioned our chairs at the window overlooking the garden for our morning tea and decided we were pretty darn lucky!
We were so thrilled we decided to document the moment wearing our new hats. Yeah, that's Cary Grant. He spent the night with us too! Little sis in the good guy white hat, me in the elegant black. I positioned the camera at the foot of the bed and set the timer. The first two shots were of me flying through the air in a blur, the billowing comforter and then the quick SMILE! NOW!
After waaaay too much to eat and drink we took a walk in the morning. We found this fisherman by the pond wrestling an extraordinary fish! He was not interested in the least by our attempts at conversation! Good Morning! Whatcha got there?!
Grumble grrrr...#@!*X&#... a pike. It's a PIKE!
Striking the goofy adventure pose in the cemetery.
Then there was the night at the lovely Carriage House Inn! Less than stellar! That phone is a fake and I swear the mattress was stuffed with cardboard boxes! I guarded myself from the slimy headboard with the extra pillow! But we had fun here talking stupid sister stuff and laughing 'til we conked out for the night.
On to London! Westminster Abbey!
Trafalger Square....
Buckingham Palace. We knocked. No answer! Italian girl wanted the gate all to herself.
On the train heading for home.
There were a pile of pictures, but there are things to do here in McDonough, so I'll say goodbye for now to my thoughts of England. Have a good time in England, sis! Get well other sis!
Have a fab day, folks!
Ronnie-in a small town in Georgia USA

DRUM ROLL, PLEASE!

Recognize this style? Hmmmmm?
If you don't, you are seriously out of the loop!
It's by Sandy Mastroni!
She is celebrating over 200 sales on Etsy this week!
She's having a giveaway for a chance to win this charming art pillow as a thank you to all her loyal friends in blog land.
HERE! HERE! GO HERE! Help Sandy celebrate. I hope you get lucky!

Dance Around! It's James Brown!!!?

The Arts Clayton Gallery is holding a big fund raising dinner this month at the National Archives. They needed, "visual art as it relates to music".
This 30 inch round beveled canvas that I found on my trip to Atlanta several weeks back was screaming, "Me! Me! Use me!
So, I did.
I started out by excruciatingly pencil drawing three concentric circles and then got out the black paint. I usually plan my paintings on paper first, but this time, I didn't have a clue where I was going except that James Brown was screaming at me too! "Please, please, please, please!"
I loved James Brown as a kid. I went to what was probably one of his first concerts, held in a grubby old city auditorium in Atlanta in 1966. A friend's brother had to drive us, because we were too young to drive ourselves.
The place was packed and when James came out on the stage followed by The Amazing Flames, everyone jumped onto the wood folding seats, teetering there in their loafers for the entire show.
The Flames wore shiny, lime green suits with pegged pants and short suit coats. Carefully coordinated James wore the tightest, hot-pink, shiny, silk suit that I had ever laid my young eyes on. On his feet where those famous, magical, black, pointed toe, ankle high boots...boots that aided him in sliding in any direction upon the stage floor, never having to lift his feet even an inch. It was as if he had ball bearings on his feet. I was star struck. Owwwww!

Which leads me to this...James Brown memorialized or demoralized on my big round canvas.
The act of painting that blue neon stripe and trying to keep it straight (round) was a religious experience.
I was pleased with how James' likeness turned out and my son and his friend agreed, "THAT'S James Brown!" This was comforting.
Next, I hand drew the letters and "energy lines" on paper...transferred them to the canvas...then painted them and...
Here he is. It looks much BIGGER in person! Click the pic to see the bling in his eye.
When I delivered it to the gallery on Saturday the ladies all screamed with excitement when they saw him! Just like when James was alive and dancing.
To Feel Good click below to see James dance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgDrJ5Z2rKw
Have a super week, folks. : )
Ronnie