Some Small Pieces

Clockwise, from top left, "Two Houses," "Tall House," "Maine Marsh."

All are minimally framed (see Tall House), all are $65, including shipping.

Please click here to email me for availability. 

In 2018, I'm going to have a selection of small pieces - oils and pastels - available at prices below $75. I'm working on creating them now, and I'm enjoying the challenge enormously. 

It's tougher for me to paint small than to paint large! But as I work on these, I'm learning. One problem I haven't solved yet is how to place these to dry, without taking up all the flat space in the studio! I can hang my wet paintings on canvas, but these can't hang until they are framed. Clearly, I need some shelf space in the studio. 

For more small pieces, please visit the Jacobson Arts website, and look under "available oils." 

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Workshop! 

I'm offering a palette-knife-painting workshop in Onancock, here on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, on Jan. 20, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. You'll learn to work with a heavy impasto, be bold and decisive in your painting, and have some fun with color, too. The cost of the workshop is $95; it's limited to 10 participants. To sign up, email me, or check out the Workshop page on the Jacobson Arts website; there's a PayPal button there. 

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Dog of the Day

It's Lulu, a/k/a Princess Yum-Yum, in a cool lid. It was on her about one second past this photo. While Lulu looks great in hats, she'd rather eat them than wear them. 

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A Final Thought

"Self-consciousness is the enemy of all art, be it acting, writing, painting, 

or living itself, which is the greatest art of all." 

- Ray Bradbury

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Happy New Year, everyone! Thanks for traveling this road with me.

Bobby, Ethel, Jackie-O

Bobby, Ethel and Jackie-O

Oil on black canvas, 36x48

Please click here to email me for price and shipping/delivery info

They say that all art that you make informs all the other art that you make, and I think I'm seeing that in my painting right now - and I am liking it. 

I've been painting with pastels for the past few weeks (you can see my pastels on the pastels page of Jacobson Arts - click here!), and so when I stumbled into a sort of smoky, smeary approach to the background of these three cows, I saw an echo of the pastels I've been doing - and I pushed at it, working my way into new and, I think, exciting territory. 

Please let me know what you think! 

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Dog of the Day

I have breakfast on Thursdays at the Sage Diner with a wonderful group of women who live on the Shore. These dogs were in the back of a truck of someone - a hunter would be my guess - who was having breakfast in the restaurant. 

Just in passing, the Sage Diner has had a sign out since we've lived here - Two Eggs, Two Sausage, Two Pancakes. That's it. No price, nothing else. Makes me laugh every time. 

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A Final Thought

"I make art, sometimes I make true  art, and sometimes it fills the empty places in my life. Some of them. Not all."

- Neil Gaiman

Penelope the Goat

Penelope

Oil on canvas, 14x14, $245

Want Penelope? Click here to email me, and I'll ship her as soon as she's dry. 

Yesterday, my friend Susan and I went to my friend Sharon's house and we painted goats! Sharon and her husband have a small herd, which they keep mostly as pets. In the past, they sold them for meat, but I think that's mostly done now. Penelope and her pals have a great life in a pretty little field , and they have warm houses and lots of friends and seem extremely happy. And I think that if you're going to have goats, you want happy goats!

Here are some more photos:

Those are Sharon's legs, above, and that's Susan, below. 

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Shameless Self-Promotion 

Don't forget your Wachapreague 2018 calendar! Click here to go to the ordering page on the Jacobson Arts website. There's still plenty of time to get yours before Christmas, and at $22, they make great presents. They are also available in Wachapreague, at Seaside Art and Antiques, on Main Street. The shop is open Saturdays and Sundays, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. If I'm there when you come in, I'll autograph yours, if you like! 

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Dog of the Day

It's Puffy! Puffy falls raptly, passionately and totally in love with things and sometimes people, on a revolving basis. For a while, she was in love with a small wooden footstool we had, and could not be separated from it. Then, it was a piece of cardboard that had fallen to the floor. Then, it was me, and she was cloyingly clingy. Then it was a big cardboard box. Then a series of small cardboard boxes. Now, this letter box. And I do believe it's a federal offense for me to have this box at home - and probably a hanging offense for Puffy to be in love with it! 

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A Final Thought

"Here's to freedom, cheers to art.

Here's to having an excellent adventure

and may the stopping never start." 

- Jason Mraz

Peter!

Peter

Oil on panel / 6x8

Remember me? There's been a long, long, LONG hiatus in The Accidental Artist blog, and I do apologize - and hope you all are glad to see this post in your inboxes. 

I finished up my show season in late September, and in October, headed to New England on the Farms & Foliage Painting Trip. You can see the paintings I made by clicking here, and see photos and read stories from the trip on the Farms & Foliage Painting Trip blog, which you can reach by clicking here. 

It was a joyous, color-filled three weeks in New England. I think I landed there in one of the best foliage seasons ever. The leaves glowed as if they were lighted from within.  I had spectacular weather, stayed with great friends and loving family members, and look back on it as one of my best sponsored painting trips. 

Now, I'm busily working on commissions, on the 101 Dogs project - I'm getting near the end! - and I'm applying to shows and planning trips for 2018. Also, I'm taking it a little easy, for just a few weeks. 

One of my projects for the winter is a series of portraits, and maybe portraits with a mixed-media edge. I'm pretty excited about this! My experience tells me these will be hard to sell, if they sell at all, but there's something in my heart that seems to be requiring me to paint them, and so I will, and find out whatever it is that I'm supposed to find out. 

It's good to be back! 

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Coming Up

The Eastern Shore Artisans Guild will hold its 15th annual Artisans Guild Studio Tour  on Thanksgiving weekend. This is a grand event, really fun, which takes you all over the Shore to the studios of painters, sculptors, potters, glass-makers and more. 

I'm not in it this year - but I'll be out there, making my way around, visiting studios and buying holiday presents. 

The tour is free, and it's wonderful! If you live on the Eastern Shore, you must go. And if you're thinking of visiting the Shore - especially to see some art - the Tour is a must! 

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Dog of the Day

It's three of ours! From left, Doc, Lulu and Koko. 

Want your pet to be the Dog of the Day? Send a photo to me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com

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A Final Thought

"A blank canvas... has unlimited possibilities." 

- Stephanie Perkins

Always on My Mind

Always on My Mind

Oil on canvas, 20x20

Please click here to email me for price and availability

I had a charmed childhood, in all respects. I had great parents, who loved each other and made a happy, warm home for us. We had rules, we had freedoms, we had lessons, we had discoveries. I'm grateful for them every single day, and for my stepmother, too, who makes my dad happy in their lovely Arizona life.

Mom died 11 years ago, and I was thinking of her and celebrating her when I made this painting, on her birthday, Sept. 12. She'd have loved this field, which I believe is at Buttonwood Farm in Griswold, CT.  (My friend Margaret took this photo).

Buttonwood Farm is a great place to visit in the summer, and late July is the time to go. Sunflowers stretch on for acres and acres and acres. You can buy them in bunches - the money goes to the Make A Wish Foundation of CT - you can have sunflower ice cream, and mostly, you can gaze on fields of gold for as far as your eyes can see. There are also hayrides, a cow train and great ice cream. Check their website for info. And after the sunflowers have bloomed, the cows are let into the fields to munch to their hearts' content. I've never seen this, but have heard it's really fun.

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Yes or No?

The Neptune show is scheduled to take place Friday through Sunday, on the Boardwalk at Virginia Beach, with set-up Thursday afternoon. Hurricane Maria is scheduled to show up on Wednesday and blow through - though it could be Thursday, instead. If it looks clear and safe, I'll be on the Boardwalk in Booth 2610, between 26th and 27th streets. If it looks windy and dangerous, I'll be here in Wachapreague, painting in the studio. I'll put a posting on Facebook Thursday morning. Feel free to email me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com for my status! 

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Dog of the Day 

Met this cute Pekingese at the show in Durham, NC! 

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A Final Thought

"Dream delivers us to dream, and there is no end to illusion. Life is like a train of moods, 

like a string of beads, and, as we pass through them, they prove to be many-colored lenses which paint the world their own hue. "

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Iris Garden, Wachapreague

Iris Garden, Wachapreague

Oil on black canvas, 10x10, $125

sold

As Hurricane Irma heads across the ocean toward Florida, Hurricane Carrie is getting ready for a show in Durham, NC, and a painting trip to New England!

I had a lovely time at CenterFest last year, in Durham, NC, and had good sales, too, and of course, I'm hoping for a repeat. This year, my friend, the amazing jeweler Cynthia Battista (check out her work here) will also be at the show, and that's great. It's always fun to have friends at a show.

CenterFest is Sept. 16-17, in downtown Durham. There will be about 150 artists, and music, activities and food. The festival is gated, and while entry is fee, the Durham Arts Council, which sponsors the show, hopes for a $5 donation at the gates. It's the group's main fund-raiser, and from what I see and read, it's an active, vital group, important in the artistic and spiritual landscape of Durham. For more information, please click here.

My final show of the summer is the Neptune Festival, on the Boardwalk at Virginia Beach, Sept. 29-Oct. 1.

After that, I head north, on the Farms and Foliage painting trip. I hope you'll consider sponsoring me! It's fun! For $125, you get a regular travel blog from me, and a painting, and my undying gratitude - and maybe some other fun stuff from the road. You can read about it and sign up to sponsor me by visiting the Farms and Foliage page on my website, Jacobson Arts. 

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Dog of the Day

Met this cutie at the vet a while back. Adorable! 

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A Final Thought

"I dream my painting and then I paint my dream." 

- Vincent VanGogh

Pennsylvania Farm

Pennsylvania Farm

Oil on canvas, 18x18

sold

I was driving back from the show in State College, PA, this summer, and thinking about my fall painting trip, when I saw a beautiful farm like this one. In a flash, my plans expanded from painting New England autumn to painting New England (and more) autumn and New England (and more) farms.

That way, if a big storm rips the leaves from the trees early, or if autumn comes in September or November, I still will have plenty of subject matter. Farms are farms, beautiful in any kind of weather.

But what is this trip, you say? The Farms and Foliage Painting Trip is a sponsored plein-air journey that I'll be taking - ideally with you! - in October.

Here's how it works. You buy a painting in advance (they start at $125) - and you get to come along on the trip with me. I send you regular blog postings of my journey, with photos of the places I go, the people I meet and of course, a dog of the day. When I start painting - all on site, by the side of the road, painting what I find - I will include a photo of the painting, and the painting in the landscape. And I might send you some other goodies from the road, too!

When I get back, I'll put my paintings up on a web page, and you'll choose your paintings in the order in which you signed up.

For more about the project, and to sign up, visit the Farms and Foliage Trip page on the Jacobson Arts website. You can get there by clicking here!

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Dog of the Day

Well, Dog Person of the Day, really... That's my friend Carol Baney, on the red couch in our living room, covered with Koko, Doc and Lulu. Anyone who visits has to put up with our canine family, and I can tell you, it's a lot. But when they're not barking at Carol, they're delighted to have another lap to climb onto! 

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A Final Thought

"Artistic talent is a gift from God and whoever discovers it in himself has a certain obligation: to know that he cannot waste this talent, but must develop it." 

- Pope John Paul II

Carnival!

Carnival! 

Oil on black canvas, 10x10, $125

Please click here to email me if you want to buy this painting

Here's another of the paintings for the 2018 Wachapreague calendar, which will be for sale through me, and at Seaside Antiques and Art here in Wachapreague.

The carnival is a great thing that happens for three weeks in the summer. Proceeds from it help to fund the volunteer fire department here in town. It's a small carnival, with a few rides, food booths, some games, and music every night. It's really fun! And for three weeks in the summer, there are strangers in town. And traffic, too!

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Farms and Foliage Painting Trip

In October, I'm heading for New England for the Farms and Foliage Painting Trip. I'm going to start in Maine, and work my way through Vermont and Massachusetts and down into New York and Pennsylvania, painting... well, farms and foliage. 

This is a sponsored painting trip, and you can be a sponsor! You buy a painting - or more than one - in advance. You get sponsor-only blog postings of my travels, including the paintings I'm making. When I get back, you'll choose your painting(s), in the order in which you signed up. 

For more information, and to sign up, please click here to visit the Farms and Foliage Painting Trip on the Jacobson Arts website. 

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Dog of the Day

This is CJ (yes, really!), whose human is Beth, one of the great vet techs at Atlantic Animal Hospital, where we take our dogs. CJ is a great dog. How can he not be, with initials like that?

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A Final Thought

"Draw the art you want to see, start the business you want to run, 

play the music you want to hear, write the books you want to read, 

build the products you want to use - do the work you want to see done." 

- Austin Kleon

You Know You Will

You Know You Will

Oil on black canvas, 30x30

Please click here to email me for price and availability

It's hard to tell, from this photograph, how bright and full of life and sunshine this painting is. This one is another of those big steps for me, a leap that brings all that I've been doing into a new light, a new place. There's a new feeling in this one, and it is something about freedom, and bliss and the simple cheerfulness of a sunny hillside on a summer afternoon.

I've worked and worked on this photograph, hoping to make it reflect the painting more truly, but this is the best I can do. In the piece, bright green dominates, and the orangey pinks of the spiky flowers hum and resonate over the green, above the blue and purple, all under a clear, sunny sky.

Unless it sells beforehand, I'll have this piece at my next show, which is CenterFest, in Durham, NC, Sept. 16-17. Click here for more info!  And if you'd like to see this piece before I leave for Durham, please drop me a line, and come visit me in Wachapreague.

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Here's a Pair that Beats a Full House

Hahahaha, it's my brother Rand (right) and his childhood-into-adulthood friend Jon, on a recent trip to Cape Cod. 

I can explain the T-shirts - the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts chose one of my paintings for their T-shirt design this year, and I gave a couple to Rand. 

I can't explain the shorts. 

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Dog of the Day

This is the dog of a friend I met on Facebook, and then later met in real life, near the Suwannee River, east of Jacksonville, Florida. It was such fun to meet her in real life! 

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A Final Thought

"I don't want life to imitate art. I want life to be art."

- Carrie Fisher

Salt Marsh Morning

Salt Marsh Morning

Oil on black canvas, 10x10, $125

sold

This is the the first of the paintings destined for the 2018 Wachapreague calendar. I think it's fitting that it's our lovely salt marsh, on a clear, bright spring morning, before the world has woken up.

The marsh is what drew me first to Wachapreague. I arrived on an October afternoon, and the thick, golden light had illuminated the marsh, below a sky so clear, so tender blue, it made my heart ache.

Right now, the marsh is a brilliant, soft green, and the water shimmering turquoise. I will paint it soon, in its summer glory. Then will come the fall, when the grass turns deep gold, and the dark boggy earth seems to be at its richest. Winter and spring look much the same on the marsh, as everything sinks in and down in the thin gray light, and all that is living in the marsh rests and gathers energy for the growth and thrill that is the summer here on the Eastern Shore.

You'll be able to get calendars through me, and through Seaside Antiques, here in Wachapreague. I'll let you know when they're available (should be October).

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I'VE BEEN AWAY, at shows up and down the East Coast, and all the way out to Minneapolis and back. I had a great time, met lots of people, sold lots of paintings, and made some new friends. Here are some happy buyers from my trip!

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Dog of the Day

It's Doc, Lulu and Koko, piled up on top of you know who - me! This is after I got back from three-plus weeks on the road. It was the best dogpile I've ever been in! 

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A Final Thought

"Treat a work of art like a prince: Let it speak to you first." 

- Arthur Schopenhauer

Manny, Moe and Jeff

Manny, Moe and Jeff

Oil on canvas, 36x60

Please click here to email me for price and availability

This painting started its life looking a little different. The sky was pretty much the same, and the road to the left was pretty much the same, and the mountains were sort of the same, but the cows were smaller, the trees were smaller, the water was smaller, and the colors - still a little out of my comfort zone - were a little more quiet. 

I wanted to like it, but just couldn't, even though people liked it, and I was going to paint over it. Instead, I really looked. I searched for what was bothering me, for why I wasn't in love with this cowscape. It took a while, but it came to me, and I was able to make the changes that are making it work. 

This is a process that's happened a few times to me now. It is still a new process, of improving rather than tossing out. And it's a process I hope I can bring to other parts of my life, including my own sense of self. 

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Shows! 

I'm sending a big thank you to everyone who came to the shows this summer, took the time to look at my paintings and talk with me! And a special thanks to all of you who bought paintings! Each sale is a miracle, and I appreciate each one very much. 

I'll be on the road for a few weeks, starting tomorrow. Here's my schedule: 

Stamford, CT, July 29-30, Harbor Point, Booth 20

Uptown Art Festival, Minneapolis, MN, Aug. 4-6, Booth 3407 on the mall

Mystic Outdoor Art Festival, Mystic, CT, Aug. 12-13, corner of Willow and East Main

and Centerfest, Durham, NC,   Sept. 16-17

Hope to see you there! 

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Dog of the Day

Pals! Saw these guys at the show in State College, PA. 

Want your pet to be the Dog of the Day? Send me a jpg at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com

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A Final Thought

“Some people are born to make great art and others are born to appreciate it. … 

It is a kind of talent in itself, to be an audience, whether you are the spectator in the gallery or you are listening to the voice of the world's greatest soprano. 

Not everyone can be the artist. 

There have to be those who witness the art, 

who love and appreciate what they have been privileged to see.” 

- Ann Patchett

.

Feels Like Home

Feels Like Home

Oil on black canvas, 16x16 

Please click here to email me for price and availability

I get mental blocks about the names of things - and sometimes of people, too.  I seem to have a particularly slippery spot in my brain for the names of shade plants. I just had to look up "hydrangea," which is what these are, in the painting above.

I can describe them completely, in terms of color, scent, the feel of the blossoms and leaves - but I can't seem to hold their name in my head.

The same holds true for astilbes and hostas. I love all these plants, love to see them, love to grow them, love to paint them - but I just can't remember them.

Maybe part of painting for me is to strengthen my visual memory, in places where my brain memory just doesn't make it?

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Wickford Art Festival

Unless the hydrangea painting sells beforehand, I will have it with me at the Wickford Art Festival this weekend, July 8-9. I'm Booth 82, on Elam Street at the junction with Spinx. It's such a fun show, in a beautiful little town. For information, check out WickfordArt.org.

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Dog of the Day

Cute! 

Want your pet to be the Dog of the Day?

 Send a jpg to me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com 

(ps, your pet doesn't have to be a dog...) 

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A Final Thought

"Color is my daylong obsession, joy and torment." 

- Claude Monet

Today's Forecast

 Today's Forecast 

Oil on canvas, 15x60

sold

I was inspired to paint "Today's Forecast" from a photograph that a collector of my paintings posted on Facebook.

The photo was of her own cows, whom I've met - and painted, too! And she ended up buying the painting, so it feels like it has gone full circle.

I love the photograph so much, though, that I might make another somewhat like it, in a different format. We shall see.

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Speaking of Cows

One of my paintings has been chosen as the art T-shirt for the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts! This is a huge show, one of the top shows in the country, and I am honored that a painting of mine has been selected. 

The festival takes place July 13-16 in State College, PA. I'll be in Booth O-20, on Fairmount Avenue. For more information, and to reach the store where you can buy a T-shirt, please click here. 

The weekend before the State College show, July 8-9, I'll be at the Wickford, RI, Fine Arts Festival. I'll be on Elam Street. 

This is a marvelous fine-art show, in one of the most charming villages in Rhode Island. I'm really looking forward to it! For more information on this show, please click here. 

And the final weekend in July, the 29th and 30th, I'll be at a show in Stamford, CT, a new show for me. For info on that one, please click here. 

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Dog of the Day

It's Loki, a sweetie who lives with a dear friend of mine in Arivaca, Arizona. 

Bet he's staying inside this summer! It's been 110 and hotter out there. 

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A Final Thought

"Dream delivers us to dream, and there is no end to illusion. Life is like a train of moods, 

like a string of beads, and, as we pass through them, they prove to be 

many-colored lenses which paint the world their own hue." 

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

If Wishes Were

If Wishes Were

Oil on black canvas, 40x40

Please click here to contact me for price and availability 

This year, this solstice, I am feeling the full, sweet breadth of summer. The days stretch out, thick with heat and humidity, a mist of it in the distance, softening the edges of the future, the edges of the past.

This solstice, I feel the sweet breath of summer, close on my neck, brushing my hair, pushing hot against my arms and feet and broad, working shoulders. I stand out in the daylight, under brilliant sunshine, in this June that feels like July, and the heat pushes into my bones, and draws the sweat and salt from me as it pulls the paintings from my heart and from my soul.

This solstice, this spring, this summer, has been about flowers, the warm deep earth, the grass growing like thoughts in a sleepless night. These days of heat and light have brought a bounty of beauty to me, and I've seen this world in ways I never had, in the slimmer, slighter, paler weeks of winter.

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Dog of the Day

This shy guy didn't mind the art show, but felt safer hiding behind his human.

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A Final Thought

"If it weren't for greed, intolerance, hate, passion and murder, 

you would have no works of art, no great buildings, no medical science, no Mozart, 

no Van Gogh, no Muppets and no Louis Armstrong." 

- Jasper Fforde