Final Touchs

I have several new landscape paintings heading to the gallery for the "Out of the West" Colorado art show I am exhibiting with 2 other artists at Around the Corner Art Gallery in Montrose Colorado. The Montrose art exhibit opens Friday, March 4th and the art show continues through March. Dan Deuter and I are Montrose artists, Barbara Churchley is a Cedaredge artist, all of us western slope artists living to the west of the Denver metro area.

Often for me, the finishing of the paintings can be quite trying and frustrating as I try to resolve problems in a painting where the solution isn't always clear. But now I am happily just about there so it's off to photograph and frame the paintings, then deliver to the gallery.

"Art is the thing an artist does.



It’s not the medium or the oil or the price or whether it hangs on a wall or you eat it. What matters, what makes it art, is that the person who made it overcame the resistance, ignored the voice of doubt and made something worth making. Something risky. Something human.


Art is not in the eye of the beholder. It’s in the soul of the artist."

~ Seth Godin

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Facinating quote that invites an intriguing discussion about art. I believe that art begins in this way... it begins as a solo journey by the artist seeking to express something that outwarding may be seen as frivolous and non-essential. Often an artist's voice of doubt can easilly overcome a creative act by calling itself the logical voice of reason. To be a spontaneous act of creation, doubt must be stamped out so the art can be made possible.

Once the art work is revealed to others, I feel the painting or sculpture becomes transformed and redefined by the eye of the beholders. It doesn't truly become defined until the response from the artist is joined with the response from the viewers.

New Beginnings

I've left the small 6x6s for now and have been focusing on large paintings for a show at Around the Corner Gallery that opens the first Friday of March. Here's "San Juan Shimmer". It is a 24x26" original oil on panel and will be showcased in the Western Art Collector magazine coming out soon and will be viewable in person at the gallery. Was a joy to paint alla prima, meaning that I completed the painting in one furiously energetic act, sliding and scraping paint around, revealing hidden colors, mixing on the surface to create new colors, living in the moment. It truly was a being in the zone moment filled with flow. Now why can't all painting days be like this?

Reflections on the coming year

Every artist dips his brush

in his own soul,

and paints his own nature

into his pictures.

~Henry Ward Beecher

This is the time that so many of us pause for reflection on what went right or wrong in 2010 and set goals for 2011. As an artist, we are continually trying to understand and reflect in our art the world as we see it or the world that could be. It doesn't matter whether it is the dead of winter on December 31st before the new year or the middle of a hot July. At any time of the year I find myself trying to rationalize the making of my art and place it on a scale to measure the worthiness of this painting or that, the merits of making art that attempts to re-interpret a place of beauty, to bring serenity to the viewer. Making art solely because I want to express the beauty I find in nature is quite an idealistic aim but one that I gravitate and aspire to. I'm not trying to change the world, make a political statement or bring to light a social injustice.

So the simple truth is that my artistic goal for 2011 continues to be to create paintings that stir the soul to a place of rest and feeling of peace and tranquility for those who view my paintings. I'll strive to continue to develop my skills, trying to paint spontaneously with fresh, color loaded strokes. Oh, and of course, it would be great to find another gallery that would provide the perfect collaborative atmosphere for my work :) 

Guess I better get to work and quit talking.

Happy New Year to all!

Visited my favorite gallery, Around the Corner Art Gallery in Montrose, CO, and dropped off this and another small cradled panel painting.  "Rustic Rico" is an original oil, 6x6 with 1 1/2 inch sides that are also painted as you can see by the 2nd image. It sells for $85, a great price for an original. I love these old mining shacks that are so common through the Colorado mountain mining towns. The waves of golden aspens in the background were so incredibly intense when I saw them, I am still in awe.

This thing called social media

It's winter and although not as cold here in Colorado as these winter hares huddled under the tree, with the short days and cold nights it's difficult some days to feel charged up and creative in my cold studio. So while not creating, I'm trying to wrap my non-technical mind around blogging, twitter, and all the many ways one can now share their art on the internet. How overwhealming is that?!

For those of you who discovered this blog and enjoy my paintings, I've added Subscribe options on the Upper Right of this blog. You can either receive an email when I add a new painting/posting or you can subscribe to an RSS Feed. I promise to never send you postings too frequently ... that might cut too much into my studio time! Hope to hear from you soon.
Best,
Gina

Today is the final wrapup of all the loose ends for this weekend's "Art on Trout Road" show in

Montrose, CO. It's exciting and nerve wracking at the same time. Too easy to fill in the time with details I think I need to complete but may not be important at this late stage. I do need to title the new paintings, make labels, get together with my fellow artists to move furniture and hang the show. Then tonight, make cookies... All is good & will surely come together. Just hope the weather holds out through the weekend!

Here is one of the 6x6 original oil paintings. The house is in Rico, CO, where I took a landscape painting workshop with Jill Carver during the San Juan mountain's most magical time of golden color at September's end.