More Palm Trees in my Head

I seem to be going through a Palm phase. I have about 5 more in my head and then something fresh will appear. Actually, I could paint palm trees forever. There are a million different directions you can go with them from crazy abstracts to cotton candy. Left Palm Dancer, Right, you guessed it, Cotton Candy.
Enjoy!

2009 Georgetown Art Hop

This year only 80 works were chosen for the upcoming Georgetown Art Hop Annual Juried Invitational. One of my Empires to Ashes paintings titled Nero's Folly was accepted into the show. I loved working on this series. It was the first time I worked 100% non-representational. Trying to tell a story about past moments in history and of ancient, fallen civilizatons without the usual subject matter was a challenge. It is a wonderful and not always easy experience telling a story with line, shape and color.
Rome is burning!

Port A Gallery, Port Aransas

I'm shipping some paintings to a great gallery in Port Aransas this week. I walked in there last month to look at their art and discovered the work of some of my favorite Texas artists. I left, after visiting with one of the owners, with an opportunity to exhibit and sell some of my funky lucid landscapes. This is a great little gallery is a must see when you are visiting Mustang Island. PortAGallery, Port Aransas, Texas

Bird Watching

I am having so much fun painting tropical scenes....birds...fish....palm trees...etc. I'm sure the hot summer has something to do with it. I"m just not motivated to use any of my warm colors. Years ago in when I lived in Arizona, I participated in a two man show with a friend and I painted tons of real large acrylics and as I got in that "zone" that happens when you are doing a lot of anything creative, palm trees and birds appeared. The paintings all sold and the pictures of the art vanished in one of my computer crashes. Nowadays I use carbonite.com. I'm sure they won't mind the plug. It has saved my life twice in the last two years. Now with a new fast cpu with lots of space and good back-up, I'm covered, but with that bird watching me I'm a bit nervous.

Wanda Mawhinney at Port Townsend Gallery

One of my former students and a dear friend is showing and selling her amazing abstract acrylics and oils at Port Townsend Gallery in Washington. Wandy started out trying to paint like everyone else.....and then she discovered who she is as an artist. Wow! Take a look at this great co-op gallery and if you are ever lucky enough to visit the area and tired of whale watching, check out this gallery.

Framer's Gallery in Georgetown

The happening place in Georgetown, Framers Gallery, www. framersgallery.net will start offering art classes in September 2009. the owner Fred Bolgen has put together several artists, me included, who will teach a variety of classes ranging from making masks (Sonia Mathis, www.stingerstudio.com to instructions on framing taught by Fred, and including everything in between. I'm going to teach two classes. One will be an acrylic class that I've had tons of requests for and the second one will be titled, "The Journey from Realism to Abstraction. The acrylic class will be mostly learning technique along with some color exercises. the second class will be for those artists who are always trying to simplify their work and have a tendency to get stuck occasionally. It's been a while since I taught art classes. I'm really looking forward to it. We will have some fun with the abstracts. My friend, Nan Brown, a great transparent watercolor painter, will be teaching also.