Bringing 'Em Home - and Getting Ready to Leave Home

Bringing 'em Home

Oil on canvas, 20x60

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

I have to say that I am loving these cowboy paintings! It's fun to paint them, it's fun to watch them come to life, it's fun to think about them, too. 

I love this one, but am a little on the fence about the dust. There was dust in the photo I was working from, and the dust was in the places I've painted it here - but it looks a little strange to me. What do you think? 

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THE COWBOY PAINTINGS are coming with me to California, yes! And as you can tell from the photos below, practically everything else in the studio is coming, too. Peter and I spent the entire day yesterday packing the van, and we're not done yet, though we are close. I'm hoping I'll have room for the cot, though I realize I might not be able to set it up until I unload some of this stuff at my dad's house. 

More sponsors signed up yesterday! How very exciting! There are still a few full-sponsor slots ($125), one Angel spot ($350) and so far, no one's taken me up on a hero sponsorship, at $750... To see the sponsor levels and the goodies and art you get, click here. 

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Packing and Packing and Packing

  Here's Peter, helping me pack and load paintings. 

Here's the van, clean, newly carpeted, ready to be loaded. 

And so it begins! The first painting is loaded on. 

Here's the view from the side door at the end of the first day of loading. 

Here's the view from the back... Hardly looks like it could have taken the whole day, does it? 

At the request of one of my sponsors, I'm posting the route I'm planning on taking to Tubac. I trust the accidents noted on the map won't be there when I get there! It's five hours from Tubac to Indio, Calif., and I'll post that route as I head out to the Southwest Arts Festival. 

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Dogs of the Day

Here's most of the gang, waiting for a treat from my beleaguered husband. 

Through the River - and Woody's House

Through the River

Oil on canvas, 12x24

sold! 

On Christmas Day, I went into the studio to paint. I'm stocking up for the coming show season, which starts with my California Calling Painting Extravaganza (there's still time to sponsor me!) and the Southwest Arts Festival in Indio, Calif.

I've not been unhappy with my recent paintings, but I've had the feeling that there's been something missing, some quality of joy or satisfaction, that highest note that maybe only I can hear.

I used to dread this feeling, this hard-to-describe malaise - but I have come to welcome it, since it inevitably heralds a breakthrough.

And this time, it was a doozy. I was sitting in the studio, and I had a small canvas, 6x6, and the idea came to me to make a painting of a cowboy on horseback. I went searching for a photo, and found one, and painted Cowboy Up!  And I loved it.

I've been painting cowboys ever since, and having an absolute blast. This is the second painting I've done, and I am still loving it, barely able to wait until the sun comes up to go out to the studio and start painting.

This new phase, as all of my art, is, I believe, God working through me. I drew horses when I was a kid - but that's it. I have no special knowledge of horses or cowboys or anything - and yet, here are these paintings, and I think they're good, and exciting - and they feel authentic.

So I am grateful and excited - Yee ha!

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Dog(house) of the day

We decorated Woody's house for Christmas - and he seems to love it! 

Max and Carrot - and Woody, Too

Max

Oil on canvas, 12x12

commission

So where does inspiration come from? I can't say that I know. But I do know I recognize it when it comes calling. 

And that's sort of the answer for me. 

Inspiration is not here with me 24 hours a day. The muses just aren't always singing. 

Luckily for me, I had a lifetime before this one that also brought me into contact with inspiration and the muses. And I learned, from my years of writing and editing, and writing headlines and captions, that the best way to greet the muses when they do show up, and entreat them to stay for a while, is to be prepared. 

When I was writing and editing a lot, I eventually began to think of those activities as muscles that needed to be exercised and strengthened every day. I wrote and wrote and wrote, and edited and edited and edited, and so, when inspiration showed up, I was tuned in enough to recognize it and lithe enough to capture it. 

The same goes with my painting. 

I paint and paint and paint. I paint every day. I try things, and try things again, and then try again. And when, for instance, Max goes from being a cardboardy face on a canvas to taking on the soul of the dog, I can recognize the moment of inspiration and grab hold and, if I am lucky, hear those muses singing. 

What about you? Do you think that inspiration deserves more respect, more of a princely welcome? How do you seek and find inspiration? 

Carrot

Oil on canvas, 12x12

commission

p.s., Carrot and Max live together, and their portraits are going to hang together. Fun! 

Want to give a pet portrait as a Christmas present? I'll send you a gift certificate to give to that special pet-loving someone. Email me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com

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AS MOST OF YOU know, I think, I am embarking in mid-January on a painting trip to California, and I'm looking for sponsors. 

Sponsorships run from $50 to $750. For your hard-earned $$, you receive art that I paint on the way! You also receive goodies from the road, including a 2015 calendar of paintings to the trip; postcards from my travels; regular emails with paintings, stories and photos from the road; and a chance to win a big painting of your choice. 

Check out the details at at http://jacobson-arts.com/Jacobson_Arts/sponsor_me%21.html.

Sponsorships make great Christmas presents! If anyone wants me to suggest to a friend or significant other that you might like a sponsorship, please email me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com, and I'll drop the hint. 

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Dog of the Day

Here's Woodreau. He's a bichon we rescued; he was so messed up, it was a year before we could pet him. He did make friends with the dogs right away.

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

Storm Over Eagle Nest - and What's in Sparky's Ears?

Storm Over Eagle Nest

Oil on canvas, 6x12

sold

The other day, an artist friend focusing on 2014 shows asked me whether I'd made the shift from wall-to-wall-paint pieces to minimal pieces. 

I said I hadn't, not really, and when this artist asked why, I had answers, but I was really hemming and hawing, and my friend picked up on it. And challenged me.

If I didn't have the nerve to commit to an entire tent, an entire display of minimalist paintings, this artist said, I was not going to find success with them. 

When we stopped talking, I'll tell you, I was mad and I was hurt. This was not the first time that this person had challenged me. During the summer, when I was in New England for six weeks, doing a series of shows and visiting friends and family, this artist had suggested that instead of doing so much visiting, I should be doing more painting. Should be more disciplined, more productive. 

Both times, I felt like snapping back: I didn't ask for your opinion. I don't tell you how to do your work. I would never suggest changes to your display, or to your art. 

But I didn't say any of that, and after my flash of anger subsided, I was able to see the truth behind the challenges. 

Yes, this summer I could have done more paintings. I could have been more disciplined. 

Right now, yes, I don't have the courage to commit fully to the minimalist paintings. They come with problems I don't know how to solve yet, and a market I don't know how to find. 

But I can make inroads. I can initiate evolution. I do have the courage for that. 

Would you challenge a friend the way this artist challenged me? How have you handled being challenged by people who, while they are friends, are not your close friends or family? 

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REMEMBER SPARKY, here, the Dog of the Day from a couple weeks ago? Well, a blog reader, Andrew Graham (he's a fabulous interior designer - you can see his work by clicking here) - saw a secret in Sparky.

Take a look at his ears. In each one, you can see the face of a woman. Right? Spooky!

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THE CALIFORNIA CALLING trip is shaping up! I've been juried into three good-looking shows, and I'm quite excited. 

The Southwest Arts Festival, in Indio, California, runs from Jan. 23-25. I will stay in California and paint for a week or so after the show, then head to my Dad's house in Tubac, where I'm in the Tubac Arts Festival from Feb. 5-9. I'll paint in Tubac, and, I hope, conduct a couple workshops there, then head home at the end of the month, after participating in the Rio Grande Arts Festival in Albuquerque. 

Exciting! To find out how to sponsor me, and come along for the ride, click here.

The Morning Hours - and Sponsors Are Signing Up

The Morning Hours

Oil on canvas, 24x48

sold

I never used to like paintings of flowers, but then I started making the sunflower paintings and my attitude changed. After a few years of sunflowers, I started some delphiniums and then hollyhocks - and now, I have to say that I love painting flowers. 

I don't know that these are as transporting as landscapes, or as personal as pets - but they are pretty and uncomplicated and filled with sun and the promises of summer. And on a good day, that's enough to make me happy. 

The poem from which I took the title is at the end of this blog post... 

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People are signing up to sponsor me on my California Calling trip - and I hope that you will, too! There are four price levels this trip, starting at $50 and going up to $750. Everyone at every level gets access to the special Tubac and Back newsletters. Everyone gets a chance to win a painting, up to 36x60 inches. Everyone gets a calendar of paintings from the trip, and some other goodies, and everyone in the top three levels gets art! 

And everyone, everyone gets my undying gratitude. 

Buy a sponsorship for yourself, or to give as a present, or go in with some friends on one of the multi-art levels... or shoot me your ideas and I'll see if I can make them work! 

For more, click here to go to the jacobson-arts sponsorship page. 

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Dogs of the Day

Sam the Samoyed and Zoe, lhasa apso, are both very old. They're also both pretty blind, and now, are going deaf. And they are very sweet. I'll tell you, though, when one is trying to go up the back steps, and one is trying to go down, it's chaos. 

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Here's the poem, by Alfred Austin, from which I took the title of this painting. 

A Country Nosegay

Where have you been through the long sweet hours
That follow the fragrant feet of June?
By the dells and the dingles gathering flowers,
Ere the dew of the dawn be sipped by noon.

And sooth each wilding that buds and blows
You seem to have found and clustered here,
Round the rustic sprays of the child-like rose
That smiles in one's face till it stirs a tear.

The clambering vetch, and the meadow-sweet tall,
That nodded good-day as you sauntered past,
And the poppy flaunting atop of the wall,
Which, proud as glory, will fade as fast.

The campion bladders the children burst,
The bramble that clutches and won't take nay,
And the pensive delicate foxgloves nursed
In woods that curtain from glare of day.

The prosperous elder that always smells
Of homely joys and the cares that bless,
And the woodbine's waxen and honeyed cells,
A hive of the sweetest idleness.

And this wayside nosegay is all for me,
For me, the poet-the word sounds strong;-
Well, for him at least, whatever he be,
Who has loitered his morning away in song.

And though sweetest poems that ever were writ,
With the posy that up to my gaze you lift,
Seem void of music and poor of wit,
Yet I guess your meaning, and take your gift.

For 'tis true among fields and woods I sing,
Aloof from cities, and my poor strains
Were born, like the simple flowers you bring,
In English meadows and English lanes.

If e'er in my verse lurks tender thought,
'Tis borrowed from cushat or blackbird's throat;
If sweetness any, 'tis culled or caught
From boughs that blossom and clouds that float.

No rare exotics nor forced are these;
They budded in darkness and throve in storm;
They drank their colour from rain and breeze,
And from sun and season they took their form.

They peeped through the drift of the winter snows;
They waxed and waned with the waning moon;
Their music they stole from the deep-hushed rose,
And all the year round to them is June.

So let us exchange, nor ask who gains,
What each has saved from the morning hours:
Take, such as they are, my wilding strains,
And I will accept your wilding flowers. 

Alfred Austin

Patagonia Hills - and California Calling!

Patagonia Hills

Oil on canvas, 10x30

please email me for price and availability

This is another of those paintings, like "The Red Umbrella," that I started a while ago - and never quite knew how to finish. 

I have loved this painting since I made it, on my first trip to Arizona, several years ago. I was inspired by the clear, bright light; by the rhythm of the mountains, and by the thick, high grass growing along the path.

The original painting became almost an underpainting. Then I put more paint on the canvas, raising the highlights and lowering the lowlights. I added some colors, added some movement, and there you go. 

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I LOVE THAT I found and reworked this painting, because it helps me invite you to join in my next sponsored painting trip, the California Calling journey! 

This time, I'm heading to Indio, California, for the Southwest Arts Festival, Jan. 24-26. Reports are that this is a high-quality show, and so I'm thrilled to have gotten in. And I've never been to California! 

My plan is to drive to my dad's house in Tubac, drop off some stuff, then continue on to California, do the show and start painting. 

I've also been accepted into the 55th annual Tubac Arts Festival, in Tubac, AZ, where my dad lives, from Feb. 5-9, so that is also exciting! Tubac is a lovely town, and has a rich arts history. 

From there, I'd love to go up into Utah, and also to New Mexico and maybe Colorado, but my travel and painting will depend on the weather and on what other shows accept me. But I will stopping throughout the southwest to paint in plein air, as I did on my first trip, and I am so very excited about it! 

I've worked out some of the kinks I encountered in my first trip, and made changes that I hope will make the sponsorship idea even more fun. 

Here's how it works: For your sponsorship, you receive goodies from the road, including art, postcards from along the way, and a daily or nearly daily newsletter/blog with paintings, stories and photos from the road. And everyone gets a chance to win a painting, either a commission, or a piece from the trip, or from after the trip.

This time, sponsorships run from $50 to $750. The different levels get you different sizes and pieces of art. I've limited the numbers of sponsors at three of the four levels, so if you're interested, please click here to go to the jacobson-arts website, and find out more. 

People who sponsored me on my trip last year to Tubac (want to see the sponsor-only blog from my Tubac and Back trip? Click here) said that they not only loved the art that they received, but also enjoyed my postings from the road. 

Their sponsorships helped me defray the costs of travel - and also changed the entire feel of the trip. I was not making paintings that some unknown strangers might buy at shows in the future. I was making paintings for particular people, people who had trusted me and believed in me enough to support me in this fun and exciting venture. 

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Dogs of the Day

From left, Woodreau, Jojo and Smokey, waiting to go out on Black Friday. 

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Let there be light! 

Just before Thanksgiving, I had the garage door taken off my studio, and had it replaced with a sliding-glass door. The guys who did the work also had a large window they'd gotten from another job, and I had them install that, as well. Now, instead of freezing in the winter and being bitten by bugs in the summer, as was the case with the garage door, I have light and a barrier between me and the elements and the creatures. YAY!