Happy Thanksgiving!

My days are filled with children and grandchildren...and I'm so thankful! Family is what Thanksgiving is all about for me. I pray that you and yours have a happy one!

Brooke's painting of Daisy

"Daisy" by Brooke Piceno
24"x24" acrylic on gessoed panel

I am so proud! This painting was done today by my granddaughter, Brooke. She turns 10 on Thanksgiving Day, so her birthday present from me was her first set of professional paints, brushes and panels. I did a lot of pointing and helped her with color mixing, but she did the drawing and painting... and a superb job she did!!! I was so pleased that she had the patience to stick with it through the instructions on layers of painting. She is very talented and loves, loves, loves dogs... especially Daisy, my other granddaughter's German Shepherd.

" TAG.... You're It !!! "

We artists seem to never tire of games with each other. It's one of the wonderful things about the on-line artist community. I have been tagged by super artist Kari Tirrell.
Here are the rules:

1. Place a link to the person that tagged you
2. List seven unusual things about yourself
3. Tag (and link to) seven other artists at the end of your post, and post on their blogs to let them know they’ve been tagged.

The hardest part is thinking of stuff about myself. I think this is a common problem with artists and why we have difficulty marketing ourselves sometimes. We tend to want our art to speak for us as we look down while shuffling the toe of our collective shoe and say "Aw, shucks!" Problem is... search engines can't see pictures, so we have to use words that don't come easy for a lot of us.
Here goes:

1. I've always drawn. Drawing comes so naturally to me that I fear I discount its' value as an art form by itself. Some of my first drawings were found by my mother on the under-surfaces of tables and chairs. She'd told me not to draw on the walls but she said nothing about the furniture!
2. I envy GOOD abstract painters.
3. I have a weakness for images of Pegasus although I don't care for unicorns or other fairy-type images.
4. I can finish a dream even after I'm awake as long as have never opened my eyes.
5. In dreams I can be an animal and see my surroundings from their viewpoint, such as running through the woods as a fox, seeing through the fox's eyes. How is that possible?
6. Sometimes I "fall in love" with a certain stage of an unfinished painting and have difficulty finishing it for fear of screwing it up.
7. I have a life size concrete statue of a male angel with stained glass wings that I have needed to complete for 2 years! I was within a few handfuls of concrete to finish the hood on the robe when I ran out of the right kind of sand to mix it. Two days later I bought more sand but have never done it. Why? Weird.

OK, I've tagged seven more artists and challenged them to fess up some little known facts about themselves. They are: Kip Decker, Harlan, Debbie Anderson, Celia Henigman,
Joe Callahan, Lee Billings, Jackie Ivey-Weaver

Bunn Road

Just a note to let y'all know that I have been painting... not on canvas, but on walls and trim! We bought a little house on Bunn Road to renovate/rent out and its' progress has been S-L-O-O-O-W, especially with me taking time off to complete 30 new works for the last show. So hang in there with me... I shall return to the easel!

Also, thanks for your many prayers concerning my sister-in-law, Robin. She's still a very sick puppy, but we've had encouraging news that her type of cancer usually responds well to chemotherapy. Please continue to keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

Integration Curbside

"Integration Curbside"
14"x22" acrylic on gessoed panel

This painting definitely had a mind of its own! It started out as a traditional representational painting and turned into pure symbolism. I guess we have all been affected by the recent political scene with history being made as Obama becomes our first African-American President-Elect. As I was laying in the base color of purple, it occurred to me that shadows do not care what color the skin, the religion, the political party or any other personal attribute. Shadows are indiscriminate. Then the pavement striping reminded me of our flag. If you mix the colors of our flag or the colors of our two major political parties, you get purple... so the symbolism continues. This painting represents that the sun is rising on a nation that has reached a new milestone in reflecting the people that make up our population.

Note that these are observations... I'm a Ron Paul supporter, myself.

Please check out the 'different strokes' link to see all the other interpretations of the photo reference that Karin gave us this week. What a great learning tool this is!

What's up

What's up? Just taking a breather and catching up with family after the art reception last Thursday. My grandson, Joseph, and I went on a photo outing Friday and took some cool pictures of fall leaves, a bamboo forest, hay bales and the animals at Dauset Trails Nature Center. That evening my sister, Pam, and I did a quick tour through the Music Hall of Fame and then visited with artists Sam Zellner, Doug Fromm & others at The Arts Exchange during First Friday in downtown Macon before catching a late supper and 'sister time' conversation.

Saturday was busy with my grandaughter Karleen's baptism, church potluck and afternoon football games. Sunday my dad and Pam came out for lunch and visiting until mid-afternoon, then it's time to prepare for the upcoming week again. I did manage to sketch out the basics for a new painting that night, which I refined yesterday morning before delivering paintings to Macon Arts and the fox stone to Celia Henigman.

Celia owns ATG Studio, a fabulous stained glass creation/restoration business, with attached Gallery 51, Forsyth's best-kept secret art gallery. You walk through the double red doors of a plain Jane old brick textile mill building and BAM!... you are in SoHo! She has taken in new artwork for winter and rearranged... it is a definite must see!!!

The only downer was the news that my sister-in-law is ill and may have cancer. My husband took a day off Monday while she underwent tests to try to wrap his mind around the possibility that his younger sister could be dealing with such a horrid thing. I cleaned up half of our garden plot and planted collard & cabbage sets that I bought three weeks ago. Digging in dirt is my greatest stress reliever! We still don't have definitive news about the results of her tests. We ask for your prayers for Robin, please.

Reception at Forsyth Frame Shop

Many thanks to all who attended my reception last evening at Forsyth Frame Shop & Art Supply. Your enthusiastic support means so much to me! I took the camera to get pictures, but folks started coming in before we even got the refreshments out and the time simply got away from me. So I went back today and snapped a few of the set-up... minus a couple of items, but that's GREAT! It was so nice to see old friends, reconnect with some artists that I haven't seen for a while and meet some new folks that I hope will become familiar faces.
The response really made all the work of the last 9 weeks worthwhile!

Georgia Red

"Georgia Red"
Monroe County Art Alliance Gallery

30"x40" acrylic on deep wrapped canvas

Please see description of painting in yesterday's post below

Always Wary - companion stone to Georgia Red

"Always Wary"...SOLD
10.5"x21"x1.75" acrylic on blue shalimar stone
included with painting

First I painted "Always Wary", a piece in my 'Spirit in Stone' series. These stones are painted exactly as they are found in nature... no chipping or shaping of any kind. I incorporate the shape and texture of the stone into the painted image. Then I got the idea to make a companion painting to go with the stone. "Georgia Red" is a large painting of three red fox kits with their parents. Mama fox, the same one depicted in the stone, is now trying to catch a little nap outside the den while Papa takes over guard duty. The name of this painting is as much a reference to the red clay Georgia soil as it is reference to the species of fox. The deep woods scene with bright filtered light is very much like the woods behind my house where both red and gray foxes roam.

Work in progress

It's been almost a week since I've posted... boy, how time flies! I've been getting ready for this Thursday's Artist Reception at Forsyth Frame Shop & Art Supply. The show is all set up except for a empty spot on the wall that is reserved for this large 30"x40" fox painting that I'm working on. As you can see, it's still very much a work in progress! I thought it would be finished by now, but I've had some major changes take place in it along the way. There are still some design elements that need attention and it's been hard to stay focused. I'm hoping to post the finished piece by the end of today... tomorrow morning at least. Wish me luck! And plan on coming to the show!