Northampton Dawn

 Northampton Dawn

Oil on canvas, 10x10, $100
sold

My first show as a working artist was... a success! Three paintings sold, but one was my biggest, and at $1,500, my most expensive. The family that bought it loved it, and I couldn't have been happier!

It's a tough time to be selling art, and that was clear from all that I saw around me on this very steamy weekend. People were happy to be looking, but were careful with their money, and well they should be.

My 100 Cubed project (the 100 100-square inch, $100 paintings, like the one above)  was a hit at the show, in terms of generating interest, being something that could help me open a conversation, and also as art at a lower price.

The whole show has prompted me to work to develop other pieces at even lower prices. I am thinking small paintings, but also books and notecards. Not every show allows these, but many do.

So on we go!

To everyone who came to the show and stopped by my booth - family, friends, collectors and new customers and friends - thank you!

Here's the field I painted Saturday morning, with my painting in front...

What a Welcome!

Cover of Cal, The Hartford Courant weekend events magazine, May 24, 2012. 

This is not some little part of the cover, but the Entire Cover

My brother called on Thursday morning, as I was busily trying to finish things on my last day of work.

"Carrie," he said, "you're not going to believe this."

Rand lives in Hartford, and has The Hartford Courant delivered. My sister-in-law, Molly, was going through the paper, and when she found Cal, she let out a little shriek.

The main story in the calendar section is on the Paradise City Arts Festival this weekend, and the entire cover - except for a small ad at the bottom - is my painting of Marco Polo.

What a gateway to the next part of my life! What a welcome!

It was surprisingly sad to leave my job at Patch yesterday. I cried, and I had not expected to cry.

I expected to be scared. I expected to be nervous. I didn't expect to cry. And I sure didn't expect the largest paper in the state to be the giver of such a gift.

Marco Polo, the painting

Heading Home Again

Heading Home Again

Oil on canvas, 30x36

sold

Well, we are heading home again, or maybe I should say, heading to a new home again.

I have given notice in my job at Patch, and Peter and I are moving to Wachapreague, VA, on the Eastern Shore. With what one friend called "the guts of a burglar," I am going to make my living - our living - by making and selling paintings.

I should be scared - and for a while, I was - but now, I am not. Now, I am just raring to get through these last four days of Patch and launch myself out into this new part of life.

So a little bit more about where we're going... Wachapreague is a tiny village, with a year-round population of about 200. I found it when I was driving back from North Carolina in October. Just felt I should turn down this certain road, and when I got to the end of it, there was this village, and I felt oddly and with certainty that I was coming home.

Wachapreague is about an hour from Virginia Beach, across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.

It is on the most pristine salt marsh on the Eastern Seaboard, (here's a map of the town and the marsh...) and one which is extensively monitored, as the Virginia Institute of Marine Science is located in Wachapreague.

So ... my last day of work is Thursday. Friday, I head to Northampton for the Paradise City Art Festival (I am in booth 837, in the main building). The show is Saturday through Monday. Please come! It's a phenomenal show, with tons of great art and craft, and good food, too!

And send good luck my way. Or, as my mother would have said, "Jingle your bells for me!"

Clamshell Driveway

Clamshell Driveway

Oil on canvas, 16x20

sold

I love this painting! I've tried to figure out why this one has captured my heart so resoundingly, and honestly, I am not quite sure.

Part of it, I think, is the sky. I am a sucker for a big sky in real life, and also in paintings. I love seeing a big sky, I love being under one, I love the feeling of smallness, of humanity, of being a dust mote in God's eye. I can't explain this, but I've come to know it's true.

And this is a good sky, with pretty clouds - and a tender feeling of the field coming to life.

This painting makes me happy - and I am sure that someone will buy it, and it will make them happy! Come see it and other new work at the Paradise City Arts Festival in Northampton, MA on Memorial Day weekend. I'll be in the big building (first time! I am usually in the small barn...). My booth is Number 837.

Sunflower Bouquet

Sunflower Bouquet

Oil on canvas, 18x18

Please contact me for price and availability

Artist and art teacher Ronet Noe (check out her work at her blog, The Eclectic Hen) gave me a bouquet of sunflowers on Saturday when we painted together. (See us in the photo below).  I love them, and they're here in the house now, brightening this very gloomy Monday.

The vase of sunflowers, and a couple big paintings of sunflowers inside Center Framing & Art on Saturday, drew the attention of many passersby, including Katie Eslinger, who runs Lovely Is This Life, offering holistic nutrition and wellness counseling. She shared her love of sunflowers with me, and told me a story of love and family that brought tears to my eyes. It is personal, so I don't think I should share it here, but it was a moving story, and has made its way inside my heart.

One of the lessons from it is that the sun comes up every day, and it's our choice and our decision what to make of the day that greets that sunrise. If we keep waiting for things to be easy, waiting for the path to be completely clear and uncluttered, we could be waiting for a long time.

I am always moved by how free people are to share the meaningful moments of their lives, if I am open to listening.

Jojo Painting Slideshow!

So this is fun, huh? I am going to make an actual video of me painting, but yesterday, while painting at Center Framing & Art, I made this little slideshow.

Hope you enjoy!

Here's the finished painting, too:

Springtime in CT, Part II

Springtime in Connecticut, Part II

Oil on canvas, 10x10
sold

Remember I said that a thing was happening to me about abstracting paintings? Well, again, when I was in the middle of Springtime in Connecticut, Part I, I got an idea about a way to pare down the painting, make it more abstract, winnow it to something closer to its essence.

I put the painting down on the grass (a very large cow was standing about 3 feet away from me, watching intently), pulled out another canvas, and got to work. When I finished this one, I put the other one back on the easel and finished it.

Sometimes interruptions can ruin things for me - but recently, these interruptions of inspiration have been fun for me - and step by step, they're taking me down some new path.

So bring it on!

***

On Saturday, the very talented Ronet Noe and I will be painting in front of Center Framing & Art, 56 Lasalle Road, West Hartford Center! Please stop by and say hello, if you're in the area. You can check out the gallery and frame shop, too!

On Memorial Day weekend, I'll be at the Paradise City Arts Festival in Northampton, MA. If you're planning on going, click here to get to the website and get discount tickets. The first two people to tell me they're going will get tickets from me for free! (They usually give me four tickets to give away, so these are good for you and a friend/spouse/date/or your mom!) 

Springtime in Connecticut (or... Sucked In Again)

Springtime in Connecticut

Oil on canvas, 16x20

Please contact me for price and delivery options

Every year, I get sucked in by pink!

Cherry trees, dogwood trees, azalea bushes - they burst into pink bloom across all my landscapes and they call to me. I paint them, happily and enthusiastically - and then I find the paintings jarring, disturbing... pink.

I suppose the thing to do is to keep doing it, since it seems to be so clearly a calling of my heart and soul - and just say, well, they're pink because you've painted them pink, and if they seem to pink, well, that's it. That's the deal with spring. It is altogether too pink, too yellow, too bright. Altogether too lovely.

***

Will you be in West Hartford Center on Saturday? I will be! I'll be painting on the sidewalk in front of 56 LaSalle Road, all day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. One of my paintings (Marco Polo, a favorite) was featured in the Hartford Courant on Sunday, as part of the run-up to the Saturday fund-raising event. Exciting!

If you do stop by, please introduce yourself.

And don't forget about the Paradise City Festival in Northampton on Memorial Day weekend!