I Have Started Six New Paintings

Today I started work on six new small paintings. Five are 8 x 10 inch canvases for portraits of my five remaining grandchildren. The remaining one is an experimental miniature 2 x 1-1/2 inch canvas as a gift to a friend.

I purchased 10 of these miniature canvases at the recent Art Materials Show. They are so small that they will require a lot of manipulation with my tiniest 0000 size brushes.

To learn more on how I paint visit "On Painting Portraits" at my website.

New Painting

Have recently finished another painting "Sunset Stroll." It is a hybrid between a Landscape (which I have not painted for several years) and a Group of people. This painting shows two people walking on the beach at sunset, and is different than what I have done lately.

My intent is to enter it in a new show at Gallery 113 next month, a benefit for a local charity "Heal The Ocean."


The image was created by scanning the painting in four sections on my scanner. And then using Photoshop Element's Panorama photo-merge feature to knit the four images together. I found several problems. The scanning of the painting directly on the glass table produced many highlights where the surface of the paint touched the glass. These had to be edited out by hand. Also, the brightness/contrast of each scan had to be closely balanced to reduce color banding between the knitted sections.

The knitting process takes quite a while on the computer, and the result is very effective. But the preparation is very time consuming, and the result is still not perfect.

More Rejection

Yesterday was jurying day for an opportunity to have a solo exhibit in any of three small meeting rooms at the Santa Barbara Central Library. This process takes place about once a year.

It is a mixed blessing to exhibit in these rooms. One room is in the basement of the Library and does not get many visitors. All the rooms have scheduled meetings which both means exposure and limitations of access for the general public. One of my friends had holes stabbed in a canvas.

The jurying process requires bringing in five paintings to be reviewed by three judges, often drawn from the local colleges art departments. There is no charge for submitting. The whole thing is run by the Santa Barbara Art Association as a community service. (As added irony, the day before I was asked if I would like to be a judge, but had to decline since I was planning to submit work.)

I took in five of my portraits. And was asked to return in the afternoon. There were many others bringing in paintings as well.

Upon returning I found, in company of many others, I had been rejected.

As background, I was told that only three artists were chosen by all three judges. The rules are require only two judges to agree for an artist to be accepted. With some thirty time slots to fill, they could only agree on twenty-eight!

As I have written several times before, an artist has to have a tough skin. Their art will be rejected time and time again. But luckily, often, someone out there will fall in love with the most disregarded painting.

New Paintings

My photographer emailed me yesterday, to indicate the digital images of my recent paintings were finally ready for pickup. When I went to pick them up a week or so ago, he was not happy with the sharpness of one image.

This time they were just fine. He must have lost money on that project. For some time I have been having digital images instead of slides. He has better lightings and a much better camera than myself. The images come out about 30 MB for each image.

The two paintings are "Annie" and "The Story Teller." They are up on my website for all to see.

My Labor Weekend Studio Tour Revisited.

Yesterday the Santa Barbara Studio Artists group had a meeting to dissect the recent Labor Weekend Open Studio Tour, and to plan for next year. Some dozen or so artists (out of 44 open studios) showed up.

They reported that the number of visitors who bought maps (the map was the key to knowing where the studios were located) was up a third from last year, and the total sales was about the same.

As I have reported in my 4 September 2007 blog, my experience from the tour was dismal. The general and my own publicity was great, but I had few visitors on the Saturday and Sunday. I put that down to the intense heat of those two days.

Though there were many out of town visitors (as reported by several other artists) they did not travel beyond the downtown core area. My studio is about four miles away, just too far for most to travel. Other outlying artists reported the same story.

The group is planning to do a similar three day event next year, though they now plan to cut off Monday at 2:00 p.m. Also, the gala opening will be back to Friday evening, not Saturday as was this year.

Another change is a move for both the gala and the exhibit of member's sample works from the Corridan Gallery to another venue close to downtown. Several people felt that the Corridan, located on the East side of town was a location where some people felt uncomfortable due to the recent gang related unrest. The Faulkner Gallery is under consideration.

Also, they indicated that they expected that the artists in the Santa Ynez valley would not participate, since they have another group forming in that area.

Next Labor Day Weekend is a long way ahead. Nevertheless, at the moment I plan to go forward with the same routine for next year. I have signed up to help them with the publicity,as I did this past year.

Art Materials Trade Show

Last Friday we took the day off from our usual routine, and went for our annual visit to the Art Materials Trade Show, this year in Pasadena, north east of Los Angeles. For us, it is quite a journey, 230 miles round trip. For the last few years it has been in Burbank, before then at the Pasadena Convention Center, to which it has returned this year. We have been visiting the show for many years (at least ten). In the past I have bought much of my materials for the upcoming year.

This year the Convention Center is under a major reconstruction. We had to park across the street at the shopping mall, and then walk all round the building to enter it from the rear. Actually this saved us money, as parking was less than the usual convention center parking (which was full when we got there).

The show seemed smaller than last year. I think it has been shrinking for several years. Gamblin was not there, a manufactuer who's products I often use and who's representatives I have found helpful in prior years. But the area was packed together with no open spaces. It was hard to tell who was missing.

This year, my main mission was to buy brushes, and I found plenty of good buys. But I saw no new materials or vendors to explore. The prices are always good, with most vendors offering show specials. The aisles were packed with buyers and curious artists, more than I remember from prior years. And this was the first day of the show, which runs through Sunday.

With the show are many classroom style demonstrations (at an extra charge), and several simpler demonstrations in or near the vendor's booths. I did not see anything there in which I was interested. After lunch across the street, we headed home.

Sitting at Gallery 113

Yesterday it my turn for my monthly sitting day at Gallery 113. The rule is that if you hang something in the gallery, should should volunteer to open up the gallery and sit to attend to visitors.

I have been doing this for years and enjoy the contact with the visitors who stroll by and occasionally come in to look at the paintings. Unfortunately, yesterday there were very few visitors who came by. I guess it is the time of year. Maybe not too many visitors in town. The Gallery is positioned in an excellent area where many visitors come to browse. Usually I will have many stop by, from all over the world.

In addition to sitting the gallery, I have also volunteered to train new Santa Barbara Art Association members in the opening, sitting, and closing procedures for the gallery. Those who make the arrangements look on the schedule when I have signed up to sit, and schedule new members to come in for training. This month was as usual, and I had one person to train. It takes about half an hour.

The training consists of showing them where the lights go on and off, how to work the combination lock on the door. How to consummate sales, and keep the records straight.

A slow day is not a wasted day, for I take with me my laptop computer and either work on my website or read an accumulation of articles I have taken from the internet and saved up for such times. Unfortunately there is not an internet connection in the gallery, so I have to save up my internet issues until I get home.