Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Original Art Oil Painting Figurative Interior Still life Abstracted

Fifty Years Later
18x24 Oil on Canvas



Robin and I were best buddies at age 4. We lived on Miller Drive in Lawrence, Kansas. When I moved away at age 5 we promised to stay in touch always. Right.  Right? Well, crazy, but it turns out we did.  We wrote letters, then later, made audio cassettes to send each other.  We did this year after year all the way  through high school, then lost touch.  But about 5 years ago, Robin got in contact with me.  She was living in Austin.  I had lived in Austin in the 80's, and it turns out we had been living there at the same time but did not know it.
Finally, last summer,  I made a trip back to Austin to visit several college friends and while there I looked Robin up.  We met for drinks and appetizers at a wonderful Mexican restaurant overlooking the lake.  We talked and laughed for hours, both of us amazed that 50 years had gone by.  And that we'd actually stayed in touch over a lifetime without having seen each other in all the intervening years.  Funny thing, I left knowing that Robin would have turned out to be a very good friend, had we lived in close proximity.  We had quite a bit in common.  Crazy.

Thursday, April 20, 2017

Abstracted paintings, figures,Matisse,Diebenkorn,exhibits art shows,acrylics Smashburger

There are certain things in life that are best experienced alone.
Smashburger immediately comes to mind. ( Partly because I haven't had breakfast or lunch yet and am very hungry) and largely because it's not a pretty thing to watch me eat one.  And it's just so exquisitely delicious that one wants to be fully present to take it all in without distraction. ( order the Colorado with the soft egg bun)

A friend once told me to get a room with my Starbucks apple fritter!
You get the picture.
( then she had the gaul to go online and look up the calorie count on those things and completely ruin the whole experience for me)

The Diebenkorn exhibit, eye candy at its finest, falls into the "best to do alone" category.
With over 60 paintings by Diebenkorn and 40 by Matisse ( sensory overload?), it will be nice to go at my own pace, linger as long as I want before my favorite pieces, and just soak it all in silently. 

Exquisitely delicious.  

Needless to say, I can't wait!
( and I get to see an old college friend while in SF, so I will get my people fix! 😄)

The four paintings below were inspired by these two amazing artists. They are on sale for a limited time.

Lady at Rest, 8x8 acrylic/ Birch
$ 95.00
 (The board is ever so slightly warped so I have significantly discounted this. Behind a frame I don't think it will even be noticeable.)


ship or pick up


Jenny, 20x16 acrylic, $ 495.00



ship or pick up

Table Setting 24x24 Mixed Media $ 750.00


Shipping or local pick up

The Cellist, 36x12x1.5 acrylic  $925.00


ship or pick up

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Artistic Success or Success in the Art World: How to become successful acrylic paintings




Defining (redefining?) Success 

I have an art marketing accountability partner. We talk weekly , encouraging each other in marketing our art and in brainstorming ideas.

One question we ask ourselves is, "what's the end point anyway.... what are we after?  What exactly is success?"  We need a clear view of what we're after so we can set our aim and reach it, right?

Is success attaining a certain yearly income with our art?  Is it gaining respect and fame in the art community?  Or finding  representation in the top galleries in the country?

All of the above would be nice, but the more I ponder this, I think it's the daily grind, the process itself, that really matters. 
In  looking back on various achievements in my own life, it's been the arduous process of becoming that's been more interesting and fulfilling than the actual attaining of the goal.

For instance, all the long hours of studying and training to become a doctor were, it seems now,  more satisfying to me  than the daily ins and outs of actually being a doctor.  All of the hours of practice in becoming a musician were more captivating and rewarding than finally being a musician in a band, stuck in smoky bars until 2 am and playing to a crowd that wasn't really listening to the music. Raising children to become independent adults was so difficult at times that I sometimes thought I couldn't wait to have an empty nest. Now the nest is empty and I realize raising the kids, despite some tough times was, without question for me, the most fulfilling thing of all. How much better to have embraced every single moment,  then to waste one of them wishing for something in the future!

Taking this back to art, what I've concluded is that, in large part,  success is found in the daily doing of the thing.  And that success can be lost the moment artificial goals supplant the unbridled joy in the daily doing.
I'm truly grateful that I have the opportunity at this point in my life to be able to paint every day.

As for the smaller part, well, supplies, workshops and classes, just to name a few items, are ridiculously expensive.  The painter does need to sell art in order to continue making art. ( and the spouse is only willing to hear and accept, "you have to spend money in order to make money" so many times before he kicks you out the door)
With that in mind,  are you in the market for a piece of art? ðŸ˜‰

On Sale:

Ken Caryl, Stylized
12x12 acrylic, framed!



shipping or pick up