One More Wrinkle

September Song Reprise

Oil on black canvas, 10x10, $125

Please email me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com if you want this painting! 

So, to add another dimension to the musings in the most recent post, here's a "regular" painting of the same scene as the loose mosaic of "September Song."  Your thoughts? 

My thoughts have swirled around the concept of just painting, however I feel like painting on any given day, at any given moment, and if the one painting is completely different in style and approach from the one before it or the one to follow, well, so be it. I will do what I can to make my booth at shows look like a crazy person didn't set it up, and aside from that, just do what calls out to be done. 

I had another idea, too - I have a solo show in July at the Norfolk Botanical Garden, and I am contemplating doing three views of each scene that I paint - a "regular" painting, a mosaic and an abstract. I am pretty excited about this idea! I'll let you know more as the process progresses. 

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Dog of the Day

Peter and I were heading out yesterday when we saw something in the road, down Bayview. A piece of newspaper? A box? Nope - it was Dave Shields's dog, whose name I think is Lola, though perhaps it's something out. Dave is working on a house down there, and the dog was tied to something, but loosely enough that she could lay in the sunshine out in the road. That's the kind of town Wachapreague is. Dogs can - and do - nap in the roads here.

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A Final Thought

"Art is born of humiliation."

- W. H. Auden

Three Mosaics

"Map of My Heart"

Oil on black canvas, 36x36

Please email me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com for price and availability

I STUMBLED INTO "mosaic" painting early this year, and have spent a lot of time and energy on these paintings. A year later, I find myself loving - and questioning - them. 

What I love: 

• They call to me.  I find myself seeing the landscape in bits and pixels, focusing on how to build these daubed landscapes, being drawn more and more to views that can be painted in this way (it is not every landscape, I'm finding). 
• They contain some magic, in the making and in the viewing. I can look at one of these big pieces forever, and find myself drawn in by them, by the colors, the patterns, the repetition, the rhythm, the movement through the canvas. 

What I question: 

• It takes forever to make them. 
• It is physically difficult. My poor shoulder resents these paintings and the uncountable number of daubs and strokes required. 
• I have to ask high prices for them (see above!) 

And... in the end... a little voice sometimes says - "Just Paint." Quit finessing, quit this focus on method, quit daubing, just load up the knife, make long, loose, free strokes, Just Paint. 

This is a serious quandary, and I would love any feedback you'd like to give me. 

I have started a further experiment, with these two smaller pieces. They are looser, faster, less involved, less planned. The strokes are larger, the margins less fussy, the effect - I think - entirely different. What do you think? 

Autumn Hillside, 10x10, $150

September Song, 10x10, $150

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Dog of the Day

Saw this trio in Onancock last week. Ho ho ho! 

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A Final Thought

"What is art? Nature concentrated."

- Honore de Balzac

Windy Day on Assateague

Windy Day in Assateague, 12x24

oil on canvas

Please email me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com for price and availability

IT WAS A FREAKISHLY warm day in November, and my friend Susan McGuire and I headed out to Assateague to paint. 

When I was painting in the national parks out west, I bought a National Parks pass - $85 and I am in, for the rest of my life! 

If you are 62 or older, that's what it costs, and I think that's a great deal. It costs $35 to get into most national parks, so if you plan on going to three before you die, it's a smart purchase. Like a "duh" purchase. 

It was windy in Assateague, as it usually is, and we used my giant van as a mobile wind break. We had a great time, made a few paintings, and managed to leave town without stopping at the Creamery, for the best ice cream on Earth. Usually, I'd say the Creamery ice cream is worth every calorie, but this time, we were just too cold and wind-blown. 

I'll have this painting, along with 2019 Wachapreague calendars, a book of paintings from 2018, and some other Eastern Shore pieces with me on Saturday at the Historic Onancock School, 6 College Ave., Onancock, for a little show from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Susan will be there with her beautiful paintings, and my friend Carol Baney will be there, too, with her steam-punk watch jewelry. I think we'll all have fun!  

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New Mosaic Painting

HERE'S A DAY-BY-DAY, step-by-step view of how I make a mosaic painting. 

As you can see, it's slow going. Each day, I spent hours on this painting. I think it's going to be spectacular - but it's a slog, that's for sure. 

Sometimes, especially when I am rejected from show after show, as I have been in recent weeks, I wonder if the mosaic approach is wrong-headed, if it focuses too much on style over substance. 

But I think all art is, in the end, at least a little bit about style - otherwise, we would all paint the same, and would have all painted the same since time immemorial. 

These paintings call to me. They pull at my heart and my imagination, and so I think that they must be valid, they must be appealing, they must be as much about substance as style. 

What do you think? 

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Dog of the Day

He came to my most recent show, and he was friendly enough, 

but a little scared - like so many people I know! 

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A Final Thought

"Art, when inspired with love, leads to higher realms. 

Love art, and that art will open for you the inner life." 

- Meher Baba