Debra Blair's work in exhibition in Colorado

My friend Debra Blair, a painter who works primarily in encaustic, will have work in an upcoming show at Shy Rabbit Contemporary Arts in Colorado.

Any readers close to Pagosa Springs, go and check it out.

Visit the site to learn more. Hopefully they will soon have pictures of the installation online.

Shy Rabbit Contemporary Arts

Recent illustration: Giraffe

This is illustration of a giraffe was done for a colleague's birthday card. It is approximately 6 x 9 inches. It is a combination of media including graphite, watercolor, and colored pencil.

Painting experiments

I am working on developing some exercises or experiments that will help me loosen up. I tend to get focused on details and this tightens up my technique. This tightening results in surface that is too smooth and an absence of brush strokes.

Here is one that I have come up with. Readers please feel free to comment with exercises that have worked for you.

Paint directly from life within a specific time limit, such as 45 minutes. When the time is up the painting is complete.

I am planning on trying this with seated models. I think most of my friends could sit for 45 minutes. Especially if cocktails were involved. Working from a still life would work too.

I plan to set up the palette in advance by mixing some of the colors that I will need. For an exercise like this the panel (painting surface) will need to be relatively small 18 x 24.

A friend's request for help with an art project

Patrick Kinne is looking for help on a new project. Take some time to share your ideas with him.

http://rustytrains.wordpress.com/2008/04/24/new-project

Online Community for Artists

In Minnesota we have MNArtists.org and it is great but I find that the online discussions aren't as rich as they could be.

Please comment on your favorite online community for artists. Where do you go to post questions about techniques, about the art market, about art history, or to tell stories about yourself and your work. Have you visited other such sites? What makes one stand out?

I would like to have an active, open, and safe dialog about art making. I look forward to any suggestions and will post more about those I have tried.

Mexico

In March I had the opportunity to visit Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. I became fascinated by the work of an artist who was represented by several of the galleries I visited. His name is Sergio Garval.
His drawings are full of gesture and iconic imagery. The narrative of his work runs from folklore to scenes of contemporary life set in a post disaster landscape. The surfaces are alive with his process. This is painting. The paint lives on the surface in a way that reminds me of Pearlstein and Freud.

Visit his web site at http://www.sergiogarval.com/