Somehow the last quarter of this year has just sped by – in a whirl of art shows I admit, so not too bad – but it really is too long. So:
In September I sold my first ‘new work’. My painting, Red Sprites sold itself on opening night of the Live Worms Gallery show. That was very affirming.
Because I still had another month of my painting workshop, I was concentrating on painting more than ever. I just checked and I actually created 26 new paintings and 3 more that were 50-50 collage & paint. It just felt like I couldn’t stop. 14 of those were pure abstracts – the last 3 below are the collages with paint on top.
During and after those, I went on little creative sidetrips! In experimenting with a style of light painting and black outlines I discovered I was creating florals – and then some trees! So I kept going and made 7 of florals and two ‘blues trees’ squares which, though completely imaginary, made be think of driving through the French countryside. They were really fun and I’ll probably do more:
And finally, I decided in light of the approaching holidays, I would make some small decorative pieces, each a solid color with some gold or silver paint and fancy paper. So far five are complete, three of which are sold, and one more (aqua) is in process. Here are the two that are complete and unsold at this writing.
So that brings me pretty much up-to-date. November and the first half of December were crammed full of preparing for shows, including an Open Studio that lasted one and a half weekends. That was quite an experience since I tried hard to display as much as humanly possible of my photo art, collages, and paintings all while continuing to live, eat, sleep and even paint a bit in my not-very-large apartment. It was worth it though. I loved being able to explain the stories behind the work, and chat with people I rarely see, especially in my own living room.
I also participated in an Artists Holiday Fair in downtown SF that required my presence for three very long days – but it was a beautiful space and full of art and art lovers. I will do it again! And I had pieces in two other gallery shows and, in a third gallery, two weekend popup shows.
I am now languishing in my solitude and feeling it was an exciting, creative, and highly developmental year. If you want to see any of the works in this post in larger sizes, pictured in rooms, and with descriptions, check out my online store site.