I have been busy this summer. Just got back from a workshop in Stonington Maine. Tremendous time, great class, beautiful weather, and of course lots of painting. Really enjoyable time.

I have painted flowers forever. I tried to move to other subjects...but continue to return to florals at some point during the work day. Can't decide if I am just lazy... not wanting to face a new subject or just like the shapes and colors. Guess I should just give up the struggle for other subjects and get happy painting florals, until I move on.

After working in wholesale for so many years, (where you only produced what was on the clip board)...its been interesting and rather hard to decide what to paint on a given day. Sounds silly, but continues to be a problem for me....too many choices.

I rather like the loose forms for now. I will probably look back at these pieces and wonder what I was thinking.

This was a commissioned watercolor. I used Liquid Frisket for some of the spots on the octopi and for barnacles on the ship and pots.My clients told me several interesting stories about their experiences with these shy creatures. A baby octopus in a tide pool climbed up Christie's hand, over her shoulder and back into the water when she placed her other hand into the pool. Before climbing up her hand he tapped her finger twice as if to say "Hello". When he went back into the the water he tapped her finger once again, as if to say "thank you". Another experience was about an octopus in a lab. Across from his tank was a tank of fish. One morning when the scientists returned to the lab. The octopus was in the fish tank and the fish were gone.

20×30 palette knife, oil on canvas www.alisonvernon.com

Three of my paintings have been accepted into the Women's Caucus for Arts "Illustrated Women" exhibit which opens next week.

The exhibit opens on August 4 at the NACUL Center Gallery in Amherst. Please stop by if you're in the area.

Jackie

A scant few oak leaves had just begun to color. The oaks grew along the edge of a Sierra trail in a place that would have been awkward to set up to paint. I photographed them for later work in the studio, framing the scene with the camera as I intended to paint it. It was horizontal with a great deal of the dusty greens of late summer/early fall and the yellow leave in the lower left hand area, in a text book example of one of the perfect focal point locations. However, I did not like the first painting effort following that plan. There were large amounts of dark areas, with the eye drawn to the bright leaves and staying there.

In the next effort I went to a vertical composition, using only one third of the leafy area I had originally painted. Now I had something I like and hung on to for quite a while before offering it for sale. Even though vibrant yellows are much more centered, the image isn't static, as it's predecessor was. I've given some thought to why this painting works. I think two things give it a sense movement. The first is the physical composition, the second is in the context, the choice of detail of subject matter.

Flow is implied in two ways. While there are many interesting negative shapes to keep the eye moving, the circular sweep of leaves and twigs is particularly effective in that regard. Color patterns also flow around the painting in circular pattern, with traces of yellows in the largely dark green and red-brown areas, and bits of green lingering in the yellow leaves at the right. Secondly a few leaves can remind us of the circular sweep of time. Many paintings place us in a season, as a picture blazing with red and gold leaves would do, as an orchard full of blossom would do, or as bare tree limbs reaching the sky do. By showing the beginnings of transition from summer to fall, this one taps into the continual change brought by the passage of time.

15 to 18 pieces is what they wanted and between the present and when I first learned of that information, I lost track. A few of the paintings that I was doing were no longer good enough I felt to display in public for all to see. So, they will be available for sale on here as soon as I get myself together. I was ripping my hair out trying to remember the names of paintings and the sizes and the mediums and whether they were framed with glass or an acrylic panel or nothing at all. I could no longer think. I am trying to price all of my pieces so they sell because I need the room. And I guess I need the money. Winter is quickly approaching even though it is currently 95 degrees out. The other guy I am showing with... can find him here: http://www.paintingsbymandeville.com/index.html has his stuff priced twice the amount of which I do... and they are giclee nonetheless. I hope it doesn't make him angry. But, then again, I can tell he is more meticulous than I am-spending much more quality time than I do. I am somewhat narcoleptic so I am always falling asleep or just plain lazy. I cannot be that way anymore but even though I might have an entire day to piddle around in the studio or the wood shop, I find it hard to do anything when I have to work the graveyard shift. I don't want to get dirty.

I have currently entered this as one of the entries in the Light Space and Time Abstract competition for the August Juried Competion. The winners of the competition will have a lot of wonderful perks including the featuring of their artwork in the Light Space and Time Gallery for the month of September.

This painting is currently for sale as well.

Today, our co-op gallery (Corner Gallery, Ukiah) started an online forum exploring ideas for salesmanship, and selling art in our gallery, and upping sales in general.I plan on posting some good ideas we come across here on artid as well.If you are a member of artid, you are probably a little more savvy than many brick-and-mortar gallery artists when it comes to social networking, but, who knows? you might like some of the ideas for talking to potential customers. I have already received some interesting one-on-one sales techniques from one of our members who worked in sales in the San Francisco area for a railroad! These guys were not goofing around when they approached potential clients, and I was impressed on what he wrote. (I'll post his letter, later, with his permission.)
Also, as a note to artid, I am suggesting to any of our gallery members who don't have a website, (yeah, I know unbelievable these days!) that they open a gallery here, on artid and take advantage of this innovative place!
Later, gators
Susan

Living in Alaska for 16 years, you become very aware of the wildlife. I painted this after a day of hiking in Denali National park. The mountain in the background is Mt.McKinnley. The reddish-orange flowers are typical of the tundra up there. On this particular day we saw 5 of these rams. That coupled with the magnificense of the terrain was very inspiring.

24×30 Palette knife, oil on canvas. www.alisonvernon.com

Feel the salt water spray. See the good natured fun. This is one of a series of prints created from original watercolors to celebrate sun, sand, and sparkling blue water under the summer sky. These two boys haven't a care in the world ... and are definitely not thinking school will be starting soon!

I know this may not be a big deal for a lot of you, but to me it is and I would like to share. I entered two of my paintings in the professional art division, at the Stanislaus County Fair in Turlock, Ca.. My entries were Sailing and Old Tree, I was awarded first place on both of them in their division, and the "Old Tree" recrived "Best of Show". This really made my day.

These two abstracts were meant to be compliments of each other. Primary One and Primary Two, are both 12" squares and painted on gallery wrap canvas. Both are framed individually in natural colored wooden float frames giving them a nice finished look.

Great look hung side by side, over and under, or flanking another piece or a mirror.

Perfect for all the modernists who love clean primary color.

The Nice Rendition exhibit is 74 pieces of original calligraphy by 60 artists/calligraphers,each interpreting a song lyric by Cheryl Wheeler. Chery's music is playing in the background while Cheryl fans and other visitors take their time carefully looking at each and every piece. The exhibit,s accompanying 159 page full color, hard cover book,Nice Rendition is selling well and so it should. Cheryl gave a concert on the opening night of the conference to a wildly receptive audience of calligraphers many of them hearing her for the first time. She came over to the exhibit later that evening and signed books. It was so refreshing to see so much good energy in one room.

The Faculty Show is stunning as usual,Carl Rohr's "Frankenstein, The Monster Speaks" is standing out literally (19 × 47) as one of the most amazing pieces, made entirely of cut paper on a background of a variety of vintage Italian marbled papers. In direct contrast, Pat Blair's "Pretty Rain"is a calming, glittering study in delicacy.

Both traditional and contemporary and experimental lettering are well represented here as well as techniques from raised gold to walnut ink bleach and metal like this sculpture by Carol DuBoch. As the sun goes down the calligraphers will gather for a dance performance by Lorelei Chang "Ink Passions, DancElight" the luminaries will be lit in the courtyard and the libation consumption will begin. Perfect end to a perfect day.