"Hope" is Home

I went by the hospital today because I heard that "the giant" had made it to its resting place over the mantle of the fireplace in the Wellmont hospital lobby...it is my hope that it will bring a feeling of peace and tranquility to all who enter--for whatever reason.

Workshop in July

I am thrilled to have my mentor, Richard Palomino (or Lilla Duva, his "pen" name) come over from France to hold a workshop in Kingsport July 22nd-25th. He is self-taught in the Old Master technique of layering with his own handmade mediums and hand ground paints. He will begin with a value drawing (here is one he has done of me) in charcoal and white and create the painting based on that. He only works from life and is really a treasure trove of lessons, most of which he learned on his own through trial and error. There are still a couple of spots left!

Arts Crawl on Thursday!

I'm excited about Arts Crawl next Thursday! There will be more venues this year and lots of great food. We will have live music at the gallery and Sherrie's Cafe and Catering. Go to www.kingsportarts.org to get tickets.

ALIVE with Spring!

The gallery feels so ALIVE now with warmer weather and new displays, thanks to Michael. Here's the latest one above--he is like a found object magnet--constantly coming in with "new" old things to add to the beauty of the gallery...and we just got in another shipment of beautiful Craven porcelain that so nicely fills up this latest aquisition. And notice the lavender sprigs next to the lavender painting--Mary's idea--I have the best peeps!

Come by for Earth Day next Thursday--lots of cool stuff going on, and Happy hour from 5-7 with music, wine and munchies!

Lavender Fields Forever

This one was fun...I had such a good time with the palette knife on the triptik that I did the sky the same way in this...I'm dreaming of Provence!

Loosen Up!

If you want to loosen up your painting, something I am constantly striving toward (much to the chagrin of my classic mentor), try a palette knife! This is one canvas in a triptik I'm working on--a first for me--which has been SO MUCH FUN to paint! It started out as a conventional painting, brush-style, and quickly became a palette knife painting for some reason. I was trying to cover more ground with the sky and then my palette knife just wouldn't stop...I love the texture of it and the challenge of being this loose and putting down the right color the first time. And the sky was great fun--I started the right side with a mixture of blue black, by Winsor Newton--a great muted blue that mixes well with white with no neutralizing necessary--and white. Then began on the left side with a mixture of cad yellow medium, cad red and white and spread it right into the blue, continuing on over for some cloud effects. Wet into wet--it really was a cool effect and one I will employ often for nice sunset skies. Be prepared to use a LOT of paint for this type of painting technique.