Fernando - and the Eastern Shore Artisans Trail

Fernando

Oil on canvas, 12x12

commission

If you're in Wachapreague on Saturday, April 5, please come to the Island House for a day of fun and fund-raising to help establish the Eastern Shore Artisan Trail.

The Island House will donate a portion of the day's receipts to the effort, and artists and artisans in town - myself included - are donating work for an auction and silent auction.

The silent auction runs from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.; the live auction takes place at 8 p.m., after a social hour that starts at 7 p.m.

Artists and artisans from Wachapreague and beyond have donated work for the event, which is part of the effort to make the Eastern Shore part of the Artisan Trail Network.

The network is part of the Artisans Center of Virginia, which was incorporated in 2000, as a way to serve the state's artisan community by providing funding and economic opportunities to the states craftspeople and artisans. You can read more about the program here.

So while the Artisans Center doesn't really include artists (though I think it should), an Artisans Trail along the Eastern Shore is bound to benefit those of us who make art, as opposed to craft, just by drawing attention to the bounty of creativity and talent that's here on the Eastern Shore.

I am donating a pet portrait to the effort, so if you've been thinking that you might like a portrait of your pet, here's a way to get one, and help a good cause, as well! These paintings sell for $350; bidding will start, I believe, at $200, so you might even have a chance to get one below cost.

Here's a poster of the event:

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I WON'T BE able to be at the Artisan Trail event, because I will be in historic Pendleton, South Carolina for the Spring Jubilee, my first show of the season here in the east. That show takes place April 5-6.

I'll be staying down in South Carolina for the week after the show, as the following weekend finds me in Chattanooga, Tennessee, for the 4 Bridges Art Festival, April 11-13.

My show schedule to date is up on the blog now, with my booth numbers if I know them. I'm planning on fewer shows this summer than last, though at this point, the schedule looks pretty full.

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Peter and I took a drive to Exmore and Willis Wharf on Saturday, just to get out - I realized that, apart from one trip to CVS, I haven't left the house since I got back from Arizona! I asked him to stop so I could to take a photo of the scene below, and when I got out of the car, these geese started honking and honking, creating a ruckus like I've never heard. And they are as silly-looking in life as in this photo.

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Dog of the Day

It's Smokey, a little blurry, but happy and full of life as ever. 

Long Shadows and a Great Opportunity

Long Shadows, Kendrick Park

sold

I really love this painting. On the trip, I started experimenting with some different ideas about light and shadow, and clouds and sky.  I am really excited to be painting them, discovering, seeing what works and what doesn't. 

This painting was the first one I've made in weeks. It took me a surprisingly long time to get my engines up and revving at my regular speed after I got home. The California Calling Painting Extravaganza left me utterly and completely spent, though I didn't really realize it during the trip. The drive from New Mexico to Wachapreague did seem pretty long, I will say that. 

And back home here, I'm dealing with unpacking and restocking, doing my taxes and recovering from a monumental computer crash that wiped everything away. Had to get a new hard drive in my poor little laptop. The computer crashed on Friday, and it wasn't until Sunday, while I was in the Mac store, that I remembered that I do have a cloud backup service. I've been able to get some of my stuff back already, but the rebuilding process is onerous, and I am afraid I'll have to build our jacobson-arts website from the ground up. Oh, well. Probably was time for a new look, anyways. 

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I PUT A NEW protector sheet on my phone, and I never get these things right. I believe I didn't put the protector on the phone, but instead, put the piece of plastic that came packaged to protect the protective sheet. There's no difference until you try to take a photo from the front of the phone instead of the back. That's what happened to get this photo of me. I really like it. 

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THESE NEXT THREE photos, I took the regular way, but through the window of the car while it was pouring the other day.

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And then, yes, it snowed, even here in Wachapreague. 

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Dog of the Day

Never got his name, but he was having a ball riding on the back of his humans' golf cart! 

Outside Gallup - and Happy to be Home!

Outside Gallup

Oil on canvas, 10x20

sold

I'm home again, in wonderful Wachapreague, and I could only be happier if winter were truly gone. I managed to miss nearly all of it, but since I got home late Friday, it's been sleeting, snowing and freezing-raining, all at about 33 degrees. Lovely! 

But no matter. I'm here with Peter, and the dogs and cats, here with my friends and neighbors, and with my studio and our pretty little house, here in our quiet little town, and all that has warmed me like springtime. And I had a great trip! I went from here to the Pacific Ocean and back, painted a lot, did three shows and got into a nice gallery in Tubac, Arizona, where my dad and stepmother live. The best part of the trip was spending time with them. It was great. 

Mostly, I was amazed and awed by how huge and spectacular our country is. I really had no idea that the Grand Canyon would take my breath away, that Monument Valley would call to everything in my soul, or that the mountains and plains and prairies would sparkle with such beauty and power and fragility, somehow all at once. 

All across the country, I met lovely and fascinating people. They talked to me, told me their stories, shared their lives with me, and I was touched and honored. I met a Navajo sign painter in Utah, who stopped and talked and showed me portraits he'd painted of John Wayne. I met another Navajo who fell in love with my dog paintings and confided in me about how much he wanted a husky dog, though the Navajo culture kept him from buying one. If he finds one, though, he will welcome it with open arms. 

I met Juanita and Bill Williams, both artists, from Norman, Oklahoma, and we became fast friends during the show in Albuquerque. I met a woman who makes paintings on feathers, a couple who makes jewelry from deer antlers they find in the woods, and another woman who lines the crevices in mesquite with turquoise chips, or river stones, then uses the wood to make tables and chairs and countertops. 

My friends Cynthia and Kevin came out from Connecticut, with their dogs George and Zack. Cynthia, who is a fabulous jeweler, did the show in Tubac (she and I were in booths right next to each other, which was a blessing) and we had a wonderful time checking out the area together. 

Throughout the trip, lovely people bought paintings from me, showed me their amazing art, let me pet their dogs, gave me delicious food, revived my spirit with smiles and laughter, and happily shared their days with me. 

So it truly was a fabulous trip, and an amazing experience. It was too long, though - and so the next one, wherever it is, and whenever it is, will be shorter. But my guess is, it will be no less fun, and no less full of adventure and discovery, and joy in the people and the landscapes of this great country. 

My painting in the landscape

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Here's the river in Abiquiu, NM, near where Georgia O'Keeffe lived and painted. Aren't the colors wonderful? It looked like a sunset, right there on the ground. 

These mountains were on the way out, near Animas, NM.

The show in Indio, CA - which was a bust for me - took place in the Polo Grounds, spectacularly planted and kept up. And every morning, I saw people riding polo ponies! 

Sonoita, Arizona, near where my dad and Paula live, is one of my favorite places to paint. 

I got so tired of looking at myself with graying hair that I dyed it the color that it was when I was a kid. 

There were dinosaurs all over the place out west. This grouping is outside of Santa Fe, NM. 

 

Catherine Lenoci, a sponsor for the trip and a longtime follower of this blog, visited Monument Valley not so long after I did, and took this beautiful photo. 

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 Dog of the Day

Here's Ollie, who was fostered by my friend Lori Rowe, who is a dog lover, a Red Sox fan and a fabulous painter. Check out her work by clicking here. Ollie is now in a new home, and while Lori misses him, it's a great new spot for him.