Blog

I’m sending my wishes to everyone for a fabulous 2016 filled with health and happiness.

If 2016 is better than 2015, I can expect a grand year!

My painting of My Grandmother’s Churn, which was exhibited in California, has been juried into the Fifth Annual Women Painters of the Southeast Exhibition and Sale. So it, along with another painting, Sean the Sun God, will be traveling to Abingdon, VA, this spring. I was honored and humbled to have both of my paintings accepted into this show.

The little 6 x 6 of Sammy, my sweet pup, was juried into the Randy Higbee Gallery 6” Squared Exhibition and Sale. So Sammy (the painting) traveled to California for that fun show.

In 2015 I completed a charcoal drawing of my husband. I intended for the drawing to be the preparatory sketch for an oil painting. However, I was pleased with the drawing and decided to leave it in that form. I’m glad I did, for it was accepted into North Light Books Strokes of Genius: Expressive Texture to be published in 2016. The drawing was also my winning entry in the 2015 Tennessee Top Ten Competition, sponsored by the Portrait Society of America and Chantel Barber, PSoA’s TN Ambassador. Dawn Whitelaw was the juror for the competition. How humbling to be included in the group of Tennessee portrait artists!

I also included the charcoal drawing of Carl in the body of work I am creating, Where Are They Now? Children of Vietnam, 1968. When Carl served as an Infantry Officer during the Vietnam War, he took snapshots of some Vietnamese children standing behind a barbed wire fence near the Cambodian border. Since I first saw the snapshots, I’ve been compelled by their expressions and their circumstances to paint them. The portraits of the first ten children were completed in oil. I’m completing the portraits of the next group in graphite and charcoal. Volume I of Where Are They Now? Children of Vietnam, 1968, can be purchased at http://www.blurb.com/b/6717424-where-are-they-now

The year of 2015 also held wonderful opportunities for learning. In addition to participating in workshops with Mia Bergeron and Teresa Oaxaca, I participated in the annual conference of the Portrait Society of America. Yes, I felt like a kid in a candy store! I was also able to participate in another year of study with Susan Truex. I’ll be forever indebted to her--such talent, generosity, and kindness she offers her students. Every time I pick up a paint brush or stick of charcoal, I hear her words: value, shapes, edges.

Happy New Year as you continue to make and enjoy art!