Christmas Gazebo

 Christmas Gazebo, Wachapreague (above)

Moonrise (below)

Both are oil on black canvas, 10x10

Available at Seaside Antiques and Art, Main Street, Wachapreague

I love our little town. Love it in the winter, when it's deserted and gray (though I am one of the people who deserts it, for at least part of the winter)... I love it in the spring, when the birds come back and the azaleas bloom and dogwoods are everywhere. I love it in the summer, when it's at its busiest, when the second-home people come in, with their dogs and their golf carts and their vacation outlooks. And I love it the best in the fall, I think, when the salt marsh turns gold, the birds start to fly south and the mornings are crisp and rich with the scent of the marsh and the sea air. 

I love how quiet it is here, how peaceful. A neighbor's Canadian cousin, staying here for a month, said that the anxiety that plagues her constantly at home is just gone here, and I know how she feels. 

***

HEATHER MACLEOD a talented artist I'm lucky to have as a friend, seems always to be brimming with fun and interesting ideas. I've become increasingly interested in one of her ideas, and I hope you will be, too. 

In about a week, I'm leaving on the Big Skies Painting Trip. I'm heading to Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota to see our beautiful country, explore some of its lesser known places and to paint. You can come along with me, well, virtually. Sponsorships start at $125 for a 10x10 painting, and for special, sponsor-only blog posts, some goodies from the road, and my eternal thanks.  

But say you'd like to support me, and support the trip, but don't really want a painting. You're not crazy about the West, you don't have room for another painting, you just don't want more stuff or (gasp!) you might not be really crazy about my paintings (it happens, I know, and that's OK). Or there could be a million other reasons why you'd like to support the project but not end up with a painting. 

Here's where Heather's idea comes in. She said I should make some paintings and just leave them, for random lucky strangers to take home. The only price for them would be to send me a jpg of the painting in their home. At first, I was skeptical, but the more I thought about it, the more I delighted in the idea. 

So I'm going to do it. I'm going to leave a few paintings for random people to bring home. I'll put a note on the back explaining the process, and I'll see what happens. Would you like to be a part of this fun scheme? You can go to the Big Skies Painting Trip page on the Jacobson Arts website, click on the Abandoned Art PayPal button ($100), or email me for more info. If you sponsor a painting, I'll ask that the eventual owner of the piece send YOU an email, too. So, fun! We will see what happens! 

***

Dog of the Day

Would this be you, if you were a dog? 

***

A Final Thought

"Well, art is art, isn't it? Still, on the other hand, water is water! And east is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does. Now, uh... now you tell me what you know." 

- Groucho Marx

Sunset, Mystic

A Facebook friend, Geneva Renegar, has turned out to be a wonderful photographer. She started not so long ago, well into adulthood, and she often takes and shares truly amazing photographs.

This was one of them, a sunset in Mystic, CT. She didn't use any filters or any digital magic to color the photo - it was what it was!

I asked her if I could make a painting from the photo and she agreed. This painting is sold, I believe - as long as the buyer loves it in person as much as on the web.

It was great fun to make this painting! Mystic is a place I know, so that helped. And I love orange, so that added to my fun, too.

The painting in the inset is one that just sold at the show in Pennsylvania. I made it after the Charlie Hebdo shootings. It's a painting unlike any I've made, and I had trouble finding a spot for it in my booth. But the series of shootings of black men by police, and then the slaying of the Dallas police officers all were happening at the time of the show, and I thought it was the right time to hang it, as a prayer for peace.  I was delighted when it hit home with a couple from Annapolis, and I had the great pleasure of delivering it to them and seeing where it would hang in their home.

***

SOMETIMES I CAMP at shows, and while I'm on a painting trip. This is me camping at the show in Crozet. There was another camping area, but it was concrete, and loaded with campers - I loved waking up here in this field, hearing the birds singing, seeing the dawn inch up over the trees, lighting the big lawn and the big sky. 

I hope to do some camping during my upcoming Big Skies Painting Trip, in late September/early October. I have four sponsors already, and am hoping you're considering sponsoring me! Check out my website for information on how to participate. 

***

Dog of the Day

Our daughter's dog, Benny, is probably six or seven months old now, but he's still a puppy who doesn't quite have control over his legs. Hope this little video plays - and makes you laugh! 

***

A Final Thought

"Anybody can look at a pretty girl and see a pretty girl. An artist can look at a pretty girl and see the old woman she will become. A better artist can look at an old woman and see the pretty girl that she used to be. But a great artist - a master - and that is what August Rodin was - can look at an old woman, portray her exactly as she is, and force the viewer to see the pretty girl she used to be... and more than that, he can make anyone ... see that this lovely girl is still alive, not old and ugly at all, but simply prisoned inside her ruined body. He can make you feel the quiet, endless tragedy that there was never a girl born who ever grew olden than 18 in her heart, no matter what the merciless hours have done to her."

- Robert Heinlein