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

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

I Knew Love

 Knew Love

Oil on canvas, 20x20

sold

It feels like I've found somewhat of a niche - flowers. Even more than landscapes, even more than cows, the florals elicit reactions and sales.

While this delights me, it also scares me a little bit. Do I want to be a flower painter? Do I want to be known as "that woman who paints the flowers"?

But then again, if that happens - for a long moment or a short one - is it so bad?

A friend of mine, Teresa Haag (click here to see her art), a nice person who is a fabulous artist, has a strong niche - cityscapes, particularly in and around Philadelphia. Her paintings are gorgeous, her palette is exciting, her approach is unusual and her technique is marvelous. At a recent show, a collector came into her booth and bought all her paintings.

This is every artist's dream, of course! I've thought about it a lot, since it happened last weekend, and realized that she made it more possible, more probable, by having a tightly controlled focus - and, of course, wonderful paintings!

I'm not a tightly controlled, tightly focused person, and not a TC, TF painter. I'm not sure I want to be. It's fine to be known as that flower painter - but I think I will always have cowscapes, landscapes, dogs and whatever else interests me, even if it dilutes my presentation.

That being said, if you know someone who wants to buy a booth full of bright, palette-knife paintings, heavily floral, please send them to me! Next show is Paradise City, in Northampton, MA, May 27-29 (Memorial Day weekend).

What are your thoughts?

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Birthday! 

ON TUESDAY, I turned 61 - YIKES! - and  I was overwhelmed by my birthday celebrations. Above, what I found when I woke up. Below, tulips from my dad and Paula. Left, my birthday dinner - meatloaf, asparagus and tater tots, cooked by my dear husband. My gifts included plants of all varieties, a water cannon to use for canine management (or whatever), a Stanley thermos, a gorgeous scarf and books, a cordless drill, tomatoware and two Buddha lamps, and a perfect tomato. Also, Peter is pruning the shrubbery around the entire house! About a million people sent me birthday wishes on Facebook, everyone in the family called, and I was treated like a queen. Thank you, everyone who made my birthday such a celebration.

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Dog of the Day

It's Molly, the feral cat adopted by Jacki, our postmistress. Molly was waiting for breakfast! 

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 am no longer afraid of becoming lost, because the journey back 

always reveals something new, and that is ultimately good for the artist." 

- Billy Joel

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. 

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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! 

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Dog of the Day

Would this be you, if you were a dog? 

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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

Burton's Bay - and a Great Knife Rack

Burton's Bay

Oil on canvas, 16x16

sold

When Peter and I moved from Connecticut to Wachapreague, one of the places that we fell in love with was this little inlet area on Burton's Bay. We went out there last week, as a hot afternoon lengthened toward evening. The place was quiet, except for the sounds of cicadas and crickets. Fiddler crabs scuttled across the sand and into the reeds. I walked into the water, muddy sand sucking at my sandals. The water was bathtub-warm, shocking for someone who grew up in New England. 

There wasn't time or light to paint in plein air, so I took a lot of photos and painted this in the studio yesterday. I really like this painting, the way the light filters through the tall pines, the amazing electric blue of the sky, the calm reflections. I'll have it with me at the Mystic Outdoor Art Festival this weekend, in Mystic, CT. I'll be at the corner of Willow and Main; stop in if you're in the area!

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Best Knife Rack Ever! 

 

My friend Heather MacLeod gave me this knife rack, and it makes me smile every time I see it. Isn't it great? Heather has an amazing imagination and more creativity in her little finger than most people have in their entire bodies, me included. See more of her stuff - and wonderful art by her husband Josef Keller, as well - by clicking here. 

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Dog of the Day 

Another thing that made me fall in love with Wachapreague was a scene I saw like this. Our little town is so small and so quiet that cats can, and do, just hang around outside on the warm afternoons. It was sweltering the day I took this photo, and I can't imagine how hot the trunk of that car was! 

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A Final Thought

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." 

- Pablo Picasso

Autumn on the Eastern Shore - and How I Love Living Here

Autumn on the Eastern Shore

Oil on canvas, 10x10, $100

To buy this painting, please click here to email me! 

Texas treated me well, indeed. I had two good shows, met really nice, really friendly people, and saw beautiful sights all over the state. 

But when I drove across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel and onto the Eastern Shore, I found myself letting out a whoop and holler of sheer, unadulterated joy. It wasn't only that I was heading home, to my husband and our dogs and our house and our friends, but that all of that was in this place that so delights and moves me. 

Time and again, I drive onto the Eastern Shore and I am simply filled with gratitude that after living in all these places over all these years, Peter and I found our home. I've loved places where we've lived, but I have never felt so centered or so delightfully settled. 

I took the photo below as I was driving that last stretch on my way home from Texas. I thought about stopping to paint, but I really wanted just to get home, to hug Peter, pet the dogs, and stop driving. 

Much of the draw is our home, and our friends, the people, and Wachapreague itself. But I love the Eastern Shore as a painter, too. Partly, I think, I'm attracted to the simplicity of the landscape. Even more, though, is the light. With the Atlantic on one side, the Chesapeake Bay on the other, and virtually no air pollution at all, the light has a roundness, a golden color, and, often, a sort of brilliant, thin pink that warms everything it touches. 

Above, the photo of the sorghum field I painted. 

Below, three pix of the Eastern Shore I took on

Friday evening. 

***

Dog of the Day

Abby, Smokey and Woody having a good howl. You can hear Jojo howling in the other room. 

Miss You Already, Lou Reed

Miss You Already, Lou Reed

Oil on canvas, 10x10

sold

Lou Reed has died, and I find myself darkly, deeply sad.

I always loved the guy, for what he did, what he said, what he meant. Lots of his songs didn't really do it for me, but his music, in general, always did, if that makes any sense. I could tell a Lou Reed song a mile away - and that's something I can't say for a lot of musicians.

Far as I could tell, Lou Reed never wanted to be anything other than Lou Reed. He never seemed to want to be cute, or a star, or commercial. He wanted to be himself, and to express himself, and if the world didn't like it, too bad.

Brian Eno said that though the first Velvet Underground album only sold 30,000 copies, "everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band." You can count me in that 30,000. My little band, Petite Mal, couldn't have been more unlike any of Lou Reed's bands - except that, in its soul, it was. We never wanted to be anything but what we were, good, bad or indifferent.

Peter and I had the good fortune to see Lou Reed not so many years ago, in Kingston, NY. We were in the second or third row, and Reed gave a great performance. He was weathered, and yes, he was dark, but he had that rock and roll gleam in his eye, and he sang his heart and his soul, and you just knew he'd lived the way he wanted to live.

Far as I could tell, Lou Reed tried pretty much everything that crossed his path, and he was unapologetic about all of it. Everything he did, everything he took, everything he sampled colored his life and his music. And in the end, that's what got him. His liver gave out, and complications from the transplant took his life today, Oct. 27, 2013.

The world is just not as good a place without Lou Reed in it. 

Salt Marsh Sunrise - and Calendars Again

Salt Marsh Sunrise

Oil on canvas, 10x10

sold

Thanks to everyone who sent me their get-well wishes. I am getting well! Finally!

My brother and I were emailing about how a temporary downturn like this, a head cold/fever/whatever that would not go away, can make everything look gloomy. And you think you'll never be well, and life will be gray and dim forever, and your energy, verve, intelligence and optimism are just gone.

And boo-hoo, poor me, in the wide view of things, this was just nothing. This wasn't cancer or diabetes or MS or a back injury, or a bad hip, or any of the terrible things that could befall any of us at any time. This was just a head cold, with an extra dollop of something, stirred over a fire of exhaustion and physical depletion.

I will do my best to remember, the next time this happens, that it will be over, it will go away, and the only way through it is, well, through it.

***

IN MY ILLNESS-INDUCED stupor, I failed to link correctly from the icons of my Two New 2014 Calendars! This time, if you click on the icon, you'll actually be taken to the page where you can see all the pages and place an order!

Just in case you don't like clicking on photos, here's the link for the landscape painting calendar: http://www.lulu.com/shop/carrie-jacobson/a-year-in-paintings/calendar/product-21247757.html

And here's the link for the pet portrait calendar:  http://www.lulu.com/shop/carrie-jacobson/2014-in-pets/calendar/product-21247863.html

The calendars are $19.99 each, plus shipping. They're beautiful and fun - you should buy them for all your friend and family members! If you want 10 or more, please contact me for a bulk price.

I'm also working on a hardcover book of paintings and writing, which should be done and available by the end of the week. Exciting!

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Dog of the Day

My friend Patty Kiersten, a dear woman and talented painter, sent me this photo of Jack (on the bottom) and Honey, astride him. Honey, who died days after this photo was taken, had neurological problems and was only happy and comfortable when she was on top of Jack like this. He was fine with it, and I am sure that between Patty and Jack, Honey had as much love as any dog ever had.