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

Flowers and Route 13 Farm

I felt I had to give you all a break, and so in addition to "Flowers for Jojo III" (left, 12x36), I'm posting "Route 13 Farm," above oil on canvas, 20x20. Please click here to email me for price and availability. 

I am on my way back from grief over the death of my dear dog Jojo, but it is not a steady climb

I will say that these broken-color paintings I've been doing seem to be helping me mend. Helping me cope.

This is how painting came to me, as a way of recovery, when I was 50. I was struggling to cope with my mother's death, and I was failing. Painting came into my life unbidden and unexpected, and it lifted me, helped me get my head above the grief. It helped again, months later, when my boss died, and again, four months after that, when the job I'd thought I would have forever was eliminated.

It is not a surprise that painting is rescuing me again.

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I'M HEADING OUT this week to High Point, NC, where I will participate in the Piedmont Plein Air Paintout, Sept. 17-20. This is a fun event. Twenty-five artists will paint on site from Thursday through Saturday around the pretty town of High Point, then sell the paintings, still wet, on Sunday.

On the way, I will put new paintings in J. Gallery in High Point, and with JWV Artists in Charlotte, NC.

The next weekend, I'm in Dayton, Ohio, at Oktoberfest, an art and, yes, beer festival at the Dayton Art Institute. 

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Dog of the Day

Smokey had been with us for about a year when we brought Jojo home, and they became friends instantly. Smokey is part chow, part shar-pei (we think), and Jojo taught him to play, entreating and inviting him again and again and again and again, until he finally got it. 

For the past 10 years, Smokey has slept nights in the doorway to our bedroom. I believed he was guarding us. But since Jojo died, he has moved out of that doorway and set himself down within eyesight of the back door. 

I think that all these years, he was protecting Jojo, not us. And now, I think, he keeps waiting for her to come back. 

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A Final Thought

"It is not the language of painters but the language of nature which one should listen to. The feeling for the things themselves, for reality, is more important than the feeling for pictures." 

- Vincent Van Gogh

What a Pair! Longhorn and Scottish Highlander

 What A Pair! 

Longhorn and Scottish Highlander, each 15x60

sold

When I was painting my first long, long, longhorn piece, it came to me that it might be a great idea to make two similar paintings that could go together. If that piece hadn't sold at the show in New Milford, CT, I was going to come home and make the second one.

Instead, I got two more of the 15x60 canvases, and painted this pair. I'll sell them separately, but I am hoping to find someone who will buy both of them. They look really fabulous end to end. I would put one on one wall and the other on the adjacent wall, I think.

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WHILE I WAS walking around Wachapreague this week, I got a great idea! (When I say something like this to Peter, he always says, "Uh-oh, not another great idea...")

While the sun is shining and the days are hot, I'm going to make 30 small paintings of summertime in Wachapreague. Sun on the porch, hydrangeas in bloom, tomatoes reddening on the vine, people boating... and I'm going to put them up on my newly revamped website starting in November. Each day, a new painting will go up. They'll be priced well for Christmas presents!

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Dog of the Day

It's JoJo the wonder dog! 

December Farm, Route 13 - and the Joy of Homemade Soup

December Farm, Route 13

Oil on canvas, 20x20

Please email me for price and availability

It's early in this cold, late-in-the-year day, and I'm sitting in our little kitchen. It's warm in here, and aromatic, because I'm making soup. 

And that's my message for today: Make More Soup. 

It's great on all sorts of levels. It makes me shop differently. I buy different cuts of meat and poultry, because it will be delicious today, and then will go to great use in soup. 

Soup makes use of all the leftovers, too, turning stuff I used to throw away into stuff that's delicious and healthy and smells great all day. 

Today's soup involves the bones of our Thanksgiving turkey, which I froze after Thanksgiving; a couple of chicken carcasses from a chicken we cooked, and an already-bought chicken, also frozen. Right now, the bones are cooking with onions, carrots, celery, and lots of basil and oregano. 

This afternoon, I'll add some roasted vegetables I froze from our Thanksgiving dinner, and add the remaining vegetables and pork from our Christmas dinner. We have some odds and ends of this and that that I'm going to throw in, too - sausage from Sunday breakfast, the tail end of some ham we had last week, and a turkey kielbasa I found in the meat drawer. And this afternoon, while I'm painting, I will cook some potatoes and carrots and onions in the oven, and add them, too. Toss in some beans, some canned corn and some broccoli I froze this fall, from a neighbor's garden, and tonight's soup will be yummy! Tomorrow's soup will be even better! 

Above all, I love making soup because it uses what we have, and puts it all together in new ways. In our house, soup is always an adventure, and often, a metaphor. 

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THIS VIDEO made me laugh, and cry all at once. So you have been warned. 

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Pwe-pA6TaZk?rel=0

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Dog of the Day

This beautiful guy is Benji, foster dog of Lori and Greg Rowe. In addition to being a Red Sox fan, and a beautiful, tall gal, Lori is also a fabulous artist. I love her work in general, and her portraits of pets in particular. Check out her stuff at her website, artbylorirowe.com

Two Thousand Inches of Happy - and a Sad Farewell

Two Thousand Inches of Happy

Oil on canvas, 48x48

please contact me for price and delivery options

One of the reasons that I love to paint is that I love the way it makes me feel. I love where it takes my head, where it takes my heart. 

When I am painting, it seems that the world goes away. Well, that's not really right. My surroundings recede. My worries recede. Whatever is dark and sad in my life recedes, and I am left with what is joyful and full of promise. I am left with color, and with light, and with faith.

I paint - and especially with something like this piece, this big, bright, heavily textured sunflower piece - I find a rhythm that helps transport me, helps bring me to that transcendent place, that place where sorrow is something just out of the frame, just off of the horizon. 

We euthanized our 15-year-old Pekingese on Monday. He had had trouble walking for a couple of years, and his back legs pretty much gave out a couple months ago. This weekend, one of his front legs seemed to be on the way out. It was arthritis, the vet said, and Looie would not get better. He would not come out of it. 

Loo had a good long life. He was the top dog for a long time, and one of his major roles was to stop all playing, whenever possible. We called him the fun police. Kaja, the German shepherd/chow in the photo with Loo, is also dead. Kaja spent many joyful afternoons in Maine running into Looie at full tilt, knocking him ass over teakettle. He would roll and tumble, and then get up, barking, and chase Kaja until she'd do it again. 

I understand when people say they can't think of having another dog, because of the pain at the end of their too-short lives. I understand. But I wouldn't change a moment of this awful pain for a moment less of life with Looie or Kaja or any of the others. 

And so I painted, and painted, painted beautiful, bright, rhythmic sunflowers. I let myself get lost in the colors and the light and the promise, and the healing. 

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Rocketman

IT'S NOT A GREAT photo, I know, but it was an exciting evening, earlier this week, when a rocket blasted off at night from Wallops Island, a few miles up the Shore. It was pretty cool to see it, arcing orange and fiery against the night sky, out over the Atlantic. 

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THIS IS WHAT the Eastern Shore looks like in November. It doesn't have the wall-to-wall brilliance of New England, but it is pretty and bright nonetheless. The white stuff in the photo above is cotton. 

Autumn's Best of Cheer - and Pull Right in to the Drink-N-Drive

Autumn's Best of Cheer

Oil on canvas, 10x10

I know that autumn is inevitable, but every year, it excites me. And now that I paint, it excites me even more. But it's more than the colors in the fields and in the trees. It's the pleasure of kicking through fallen, drying leaves; the thrilling snap of a frosty morning on my cheeks and in my nose; the way the stars gleam sharp and brilliant in these clear and chilly nights. 

But painting the fall is the best, and this scene is sort of the quintessential autumn painting for me. It's a study for a larger painting I am doing as a commission. And for anyone living in the mid-Hudson Valley, yes, it does look familiar. It's on Route 17A, on the left as you're heading into Florida. 

I took the title of the painting from a poem by Helen Hunt Jackson. You can click here to read the entire poem; the stanza I lifted the title from is right here: 

By all these lovely tokens

September days are here,

With summer's best of weather,

And autumn's best of cheer.

This painting and another new painting are up for auction at Daily Paintworks. The opening bid on each is $90.

You can see my gallery and place bids by clicking here: http://www.dailypaintworks.com/Artists/carrie-jacobson-4216 - or by clicking on the Daily Paintworks icon on the right-hand side of the blog here!

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HERE'S A GREAT knife-holder dreamed up by my friend Heather MacLeod. Isn't it fun? Check out more of her stuff at her website, heathermacleod-art.com

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HEATHER ALSO SENT this photo, which absolutely made me howl. When we went to Canada together on a painting trip (see my blog entries from June 2010), we saw a series of mailboxes mounted on lawnmowers. After a while, we realized that they were probably the mailboxes of people who lived in the area in the summer, and were tired of putting their mailboxes back up after they'd been knocked over by the winter plows. And the other day, Heather saw a similar mailbox arrangement somewhere in Maine!

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YES. IT'S A liquor store IN a gas station. Peter calls it the Drink 'n' Drive.

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Dog of the Day 

I don't know his hame, but he was hanging around Willis Wharf the other afternoon, and he was soaking wet, and he was having about as good a time as a dog can have.

Cottages or Coffee Cups?

   

Atlantic Avenue Triptych

Oil on three 5x5 canvases

I had a great time at the shows this summer, and I did well. But I am glad as can be that they're over and done with, at least for a couple months. I have commissions to paint, I have ideas to pursue, I have a trip to plan! 

I want to have a project, too - and am hoping you will help. 

Last winter, I thought about painting all the houses in Wachapreague - or at least all the streets in town. So that remains one possible project - and the triptych above is an example of how it might look. I want to do all small paintings, but 5x5 feels a little small. Might go for 6x6s. 

My other idea is modeled on Scott Coleman's cupcake blog - http://scottscupcakes.blogspot.com/. This would be a daily painting, 5x5 or 6x6, of a coffee cup, with or without coffee, with or without additional coffee-related items, like this:  

Coffee Cup No. 1

Oil on canvas, 6x6

So, what do you think? The pieces will sell for $50 or $60 each, plus shipping. Just send me an email with your choice, or put it in the comments below. 

Here are photos of Atlantic Ave: 

            

Here are two scenes you'd have seen yesterday evening, if you lived in one of those houses, 

and looked out your window as the sun was going down: 

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Dog of the Day

Here are Linda Fugate's dogs Holly and Buddy, all the way from Ohio! Want your pets to be the Dog of the Day? Send a jpg of them to me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com

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Don't forget about the 2014 Year in Pets calendar, and the Year in Paintings calendar, too! At $19.99 each, they're fun for giving and for having!

And as always, thank you so very much for reading my blog! 

Velcro - and the Perfect Holiday Gift!

Velcro

Oil on canvas, 12x12

commission

After doing a lot of sitting around feeling sorry for myself, watching reruns on TV and, slowly, ever so slowly, starting to get well (yay!), I managed to haul my recovering butt up to the kitchen table and make two calendars for 2014. 

THE FIRST CALENDAR is a collection of paintings from 2013. They're paintings of the Eastern Shore, of beautiful stuff I saw the Tubac trip, and of various other gorgeous scenes near and far. Click here, and you'll be taken directly to my page on Lulu. You'll also find the click-through image at the top of this blog, in the right-hand column, and on my website, jacobson-arts.com.

THE SECOND CALENDAR is a collection of paintings of dogs, cats and one parrot, mostly done in 2013. Some of my favorite paintings are in here. Some of my favorite paintings are not in here, but I suppose that leaves room for 2015. Click here, and it should take you right to the preview area on Lulu, where you can see all the pages. You'll also find the click-through image at the top of this blog, in the right-hand column, and on my website, jacobson-arts.com.

Each calendar is $19.99, plus shipping and handling. They're really fun, and they'd make great holiday presents. 

YES! IT IS EARLY! But it's not that early. I bet some of you are already done with your holiday shopping, aren't you? The rest of you can be done today - Buy calendars for everyone! 

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Dog of the Day

This is Virginia, who spent her entire life with my friend Debbie Ingoglio. 

Virginia died in May. Debbie says she was the best dog, and she does look like a dear. 

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

Eastern Shore Farm - Plus Two Art Shows and a Video!

Eastern Shore Farm

Oil on canvas, 24x24

sold

Thank you for all the kind birthday wishes! It was great to hear from so many of you - and to have "Happy Birthday to You" sung to me so many times in one day. I wish I'd had the presence of mind to videotape all the serenades!

There are two things I'd like to add to my birthday post  - along with my younger-self knees, I wish I had my younger-self feet. In fact, I wish I had feet from some other person, in some other family, but that's another story.

And second, while I want less - what I do want, I want with more passion, more verve, more desire than I've ever known in my life. I want to paint - landscapes, animals, nature, flowers - and I want to succeed, and sell my paintings, and make my living - our living - doing it. And I want this more than I have ever wanted anything, except to have my mother back among the living.

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So, on my birthday, I drove way, way, WAY down the shore to paint a farm I've passed again and again, but never taken the time or used the gas to paint it. You can only see this place as you're driving north, and so I never even remember until I am on the way home, inevitably too tired, or traveling too late in the day to paint. 

The day was warm and sunny, and the sky blue with wispy clouds as I set up. By the time I was finishing, the wind was blowing, dark clouds had moved in, and the rye grass was bending in beautiful waves (check out the video below).

I love my painting from my birthday! And if you want to see it in real life, come to the Stockley Gardens Art Show this weekend in Norfolk, VA. There might be some rain - but not enough to stop an art show!

My painting in the landscape 

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AND IF YOU ARE on the Eastern Shore on Saturday, please stop in to Seaside Antiques, on Main Street, for an art and antiques show. My husband Peter will be there, with some of his photographs, some of my paintings, and some of his amazing flies and lures. 

There will also be art by the amazing Linda Cicoria, my friend Pat Hart, Ann Crain - and MORE! 

Back Home and Painting!

 Near the Border

Oil on canvas, 10x10

Tubac Trip Painting no. 21

I am home, finally, in beautiful downtown Wachapreague, where I'm unpacking, touching up paintings, editing photographs and ... painting! 

I took hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of photos on the trip, and dozens of them are destined to make their way into paintings. 

This house, on the Texas/Louisiana border, was one that I knew would be a painting as soon as I saw it. This piece is a 10x10, and I am also going to make a larger one. I love the way the house sits on the land, and the way the sun plays on the faces of the building. 

I thought about stopping and painting it, but there were people at home at the time, and they were looking at me oddly as I took photos, so painting on site seemed a stretch. 

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I've found my next project - and it is part of this one, in a way. My final day of driving was a long one, taking me from eastern Tennessee to home, through western Virginia. 

It was a long, gray day, that started with fog and ended with rain. Not a day for painting, not even considering the long drive I had. But it brought me through absolutely gorgeous countryside, and I took tons of photos. 

I've started to paint these, and will continue to paint them - but when I am finished with the Tubac trip paintings, I intend to drive to western Virginia and paint for a few days.

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Scenes from the Days

The following photos show some of the beautiful Virginia farms I passed on my way home from Arizona. I am going to paint these as part of the Tubac trip, then go back to the area and paint more of them.

The photo above and the two below show Wachapreague, VA, the lovely Eastern Shore town where we live. It's just about the most beautiful place on Earth, I think. The building in the photo above is the Island House, a restaurant we're lucky to have in town! 

One of the inlets of our beautiful town

Dogs of the Day are two of our dogs! Jojo to the left and Woody to the right... or Jo and Yo and I sometimes call them...