House in Accomack

House in Accomack

Oil on cradled beech board, 16x16 

Please click here to email me for price and availability

I stumbled onto what I am calling "mosaic painting" when I was working to figure out what to do at the very bottom of a giant painting I'd made earlier in the year for a window at Jerry's Artarama. 

I'd gotten to the bottom of the painting - painted the giant delphiniums and daisies and coneflowers - and I didn't know what to do. I didn't want just grass, or just dirt - I wanted some color down there. Some interest. Some action.

I'd been on a pastels kick just before I made this behemoth, and I decided to try using the oil paints in the way I'd been using pastels - putting down rough patches of color to suggest. I tried it and I liked it - and it occurred to me to make a painting using only that approach - and that's how the first of the mosaics came about. 

I'm working to learn the ins and outs of this mosaic painting, how to use color with this technique, how to get motion and distance and atmosphere into the painting, how to make it all work in a way that I like, and that I like doing. 

The biggest difference between the mosaics and my more regular style of painting is time. It takes me days and days and days to complete even a small mosaic. In the time it takes to make one of these, I can make three or even four "regular" paintings - if I work hard and quickly. 

So, while these are painstaking and time-consuming, I find them captivating and thrilling. I love looking at them. They shimmer, they change, they evoke, they evolve.

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"Couldn't Drag Me Away"

Gesso, acrylic, ink, powder and gold, silver and copper leaf on canvas, 36x48

Please click here to email me for price and availability

MEANTIME, and, I suspect, in response to the precision of the mosaics, I've been presented with these "wild" paintings - extremely fast, extremely loose multi-media pieces that just announced themselves one afternoon in April. 

Initially, the bifurcation bothered me, but I am learning to accept it and delight in it. 

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Newfoundland! 

THE TIMING is a little bit up in the air, but this summer (June-July or August-September), I am heading to Newfoundland to paint! 

It's a sponsored painting trip, meaning that you can buy a painting in advance, receive my sponsor-only travel- and painting blog while I'm on the road, and then, when I get home, choose your painting in the order in which you signed up. 

The trip will be somewhat limited, time-wise, so I am accepting only 12 sponsors. There are a few spots left, and one or more of them could be yours! It's $125 for a 10x10-inch painting, and $300 for a larger piece. 

In the spirit of full disclosure, I will also be making a painting trip to Utah, in the fall, so if you're interested in sponsorship but would prefer Utah, that's fine. 

For more on the Newfoundland trip, please click here to reach that page on my website, Jacobson Arts

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Workshop Coming Up

I'LL BE TEACHING a palette-knife painting workshop in Westerly, RI, on Wednesday, June 13, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.! It's at Avondale Arts, 95 Watch Hill Road, Westerly... The class goes from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. It's $95, limited to 12 people, and you must have at least some painting experience. Contact Avondale Arts for more info and to sign up. (http://www.avondalearts.com/)                                            Want me to do a workshop in your area? Please email me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com

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Dog of the Day

What a a face on this guy! I met him out in Arizona, and he was just as sweet as he looks. 

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

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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, The Ocean at the End of the Lane

I Do - And Good Ideas for Presents!

"I Do"

Oil on canvas, 16x20

Please click here to email me for price and availability

I had planned to finish all my commissions in November, and then take the month of December to relax, visit with friends and family, and experiment with some new approaches, some new content. Launch my people project. Start on paintings for a children's book a friend has written. Pursue some other ideas - make paintings that might eventually be for sale, but are not necessarily intended for sale. This, I'm finding, is a luxury. Who would have expected it? 

Being sick for three weeks in November and early December really upset my plans. I still am working on commissions. I'm still mailing paintings away. I'm already planning paintings for the spring shows, and for galleries that really want new work - work that right now, I just don't have. 

But I took time over the past few days to make this painting, one of a series of paintings of people at specific moments in life, some big, like this one, but most small. 

I saw this scene on a hot day in July, at the courthouse in Accomack. I pulled the car over and took a bunch of photos. Though I didn't even attempt the camouflage material, I hope you can tell that the groom is a soldier or a sailor. In my mind, I imagined him about to go off to to boot camp, or off to his boat, young and strong and just married. 

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Still looking for that perfect Christmas present? 

BUY A PAINTING! Check out the available paintings on my website, jacobson arts.  If you find something you like, there's still time to get it in the mail. And I'm happy to make you a gift certificate in any amount you'd like. 

CALIFORNIA CALLING BOOK! It's 54 pages long, and starts at $22.79 for softcover. I got a note from Blurb this morning offering discounts, too. If you buy two books, use the code 2PLUS, and get 20 percent off. Three or more, use the code 5PLUS and get 30 percent off. These offers are good through Dec. 19. Click here! 

CALIFORNIA CALLING CALENDAR! They're 12 months, and $12.99 on Lulu. Each month showcases a painting from my California Calling Painting Extravaganza. It's fun and really pretty. Click here! 

SPONSORSHIPS! My next painting trip takes place in February, and will bring me back to where I spent the first months of my life - For Defiance, AZ. The town is on the Navajo Reservation in the northeast corner of the state, a gorgeous, amazing area that will be a rich painting subject. Sponsorships start at $50, and go as high as you'd like. Click here for more info and to choose a sponsorship. If you give one as a gift, I'll make you a nice gift certificate that you can print and give. 

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The woman who bought this painting from me had been looking for a painting for that spot for years. It's the first thing you see when you walk into her house. I am honored that my painting is hanging in this special spot. 

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Dog of the Day

Who would guess that this sweet-looking cat is a warrior? 

Last night, Abby (below), who weighs 70 lbs and stands 3 feet high, snapped at Puffy, the sweet-looking cat above. Puffy, who had been sitting on the arm of the couch, jumped off. She ran about 4 feet away, sat down and licked her paw, then jumped back up on the arm of the couch and proceeded to hiss and spit at Abby, and was going to attack her, until Peter stopped it. I was laughing too hard.