Near Manhattan, Montana

Near Manhattan, Montana

Oil on black canvas, 30x30

Please click here to email me for price and shipping/delivery info

There's something about the West that reaches into a deep part of my soul and releases something that lives there. It's a thing I love, this thing deep in me, but not a thing I can easily name. It's some mix of feelings of freedom, courage, confidence and a deep, abiding love of the landscape itself, the sky, the mountains, the grasses and plains.

In the landscape of the West, I feel strong and tall, square-shouldered and unburdened. I feel that I could ride a horse, write a book, hold my own in a conversation with anyone.

Most of all, in this landscape, I feel that I can paint. On this most recent trip, I felt that feeling again and again, day after day, and it was wonderful. I painted enough out there to recognize the feeling, learn where it is in me. And back home, in spite of all my fears and worries, I've been able to call that feeling to the surface and carry it with me.

Nothing is as clear here as it is on a painting trip. There's family here, Peter and our dogs and cats. Friends. Distractions, chores, errands. But the point of the trips, one of the main points, is to bring home all kinds of things that I found Out There. And happily, I've been able to do just that.

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AND NOW, for a short commercial.

WACHAPREAGUE CALENDARS are $19, and you can get them on the Jacobson Arts website.

I have to say, the calendars came out great.  12 paintings of beautiful Wachapreague, one for every month of 2017. Click here to reach my website, Jacobson Arts., where you can buy them. 



PRINTS, NOTECARDS, PILLOWS, shower curtains,Fine Art America. You can go to the main page and then search for me, or click here to reach my page. If there's a painting you'd like, and you don't see it on the page, please send me an email (carrieBjacobson@gmail.com) and if I can get it on the site for you, I will.
 


PATRONAGE PROGRAM. Maybe you're a person who owns a business, or a string of businesses. Maybe you're a person with several homes. Maybe you're a person who would love to give a grand present to a spouse, or is looking for great gifts for a whole group of people. Maybe you're a person who would be intrigued with the idea of becoming an even more significant patron of the arts.

If you are any of these, or any combination, let's talk. I'm looking for three patrons to enroll in my program, at $25K each. Yes, it is a lot of money, but it will buy you a lot of art, made especially for you, or for people to whom you'd like to give art. To find out more, click here to visit the Patronage Program page of my website. You can email me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com, or call me at 860-442-0246.

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Really? Pre-sliced? What on EARTH does that mean? 

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Dog of the Day

He was small, but he was serious! 

Want your pet to be the Dog of the Day? It need not be a DOG! Send a jpg to me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com

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A Final Thought

"The first mistake of art is to believe it's serious." 

- Lester Bangs

Montana Highway

Montana Highway

Oil on black canvas, 12x36

Please click here to email me for price and shipping/delivery information

When you drive out West, this is what you see, day after day, mile after mile. Sometimes there are mountains behind the hills. Sometimes there are hills behind the hills. Sometimes you're on such high plains that, basically, you're in the clouds. 

I love this. I love the empty highway, the horizons that stretch away forever, the sun-bright fields and scrub and the way the clear, clean light heightens the colors, lengthens the shadows, brings my heart and soul to life. 

It's a tough place, a lonely place, a hard place, surely, to build a life. Winters are long and very cold, summers are brutally hot, jobs are scarce. But spring and fall bloom in the West with rich colors, gorgeous foliage and the promise of our best America. 

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Found the dogs' favorite town... 

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Dog of the Day

Met this puppy this summer in Omaha. Bet he's all grown up now! 

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A Final Thought

"Art without emotion is like chocolate cake without sugar. It makes you gag." 

- Laurie Halse Anderson

Some Big Skies Painting Trip paintings

 Hi, everyone! Hope you can forgive me for being quiet for so long. I was on a painting trip - the Big Skies Painting Trip - and much as I wanted to do my regular blog, I was overrun with painting and traveling and posting the trip blog.

You can read it now, if you like - it's at BigSkiesPaintingTrip.blogspot.com - and you can see all the paintings at the Big Skies Paintings page on my website.

It was a great trip to a gorgeous part of the country - I went all the way to Wisdom, Montana, and back, painting pretty much all the way, once I got past Chicago.

I saw beautiful places, met interesting people and had big breakthroughs in my painting. Who could ask for more?

I'm home now, and have rested and recharged, and started painting in the studio again, but I thought you all might like to see a few of the pieces I made on the trip.

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Dog of the Day

It's Koko! I missed her so much while I was gone, she's the Dog of the Day. I missed the other four, also, but thinking of Koko brought me to tears a couple times. I got a hero's welcome when I got home. The jumping, barking, licking and absolute dog delight was wonderful! 

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A Final Thought

"A picture is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know." 

- Diane Arbus

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

Keeping the Light - and the Big Skies Trip

Keeping the Light 

Oil and gold leaf on black canvas, 30x30

Please click here to contact me for price and availability

I'm off in a bit for Minneapolis, and then Mystic, CT, and I'm excited about going to a new place, seeing new stuff, exploring an area of the country that's new to me. 

Packing for this trip put me in the frame of mind of packing for my western trip, in the fall. I can hardly wait to get on the road and head for the mountains. I'm thinking the days will be crisp, even chilly, and the nights cold. Perfect travel and painting weather! 

I'll be exploring and adventuring in Montana and Wyoming, and maybe South Dakota, too. This is a sponsored painting trip, meaning that people will buy paintings before I leave. I'll write a special, sponsor-only blog, stuffed with photos and stories of places I go and people (and dogs) I meet. I'll post my paintings and photos of my paintings in the landscape. When I get back, I'll post all the paintings on a webpage, and sponsors will choose their paintings in the order in which they signed up. 

I've done this several times before, and the trips have been fun. Sponsors tell me they've enjoyed the missives from the road, and that they love the paintings, too. Click below to read about my past trips, and click here to find out how to get involved in the Big Sky Painting Trip. Sponsorships are $125 for a 10x10 painting, $300 for a painting 16x16 or 18x18; $500 for a 20x20 or 24x24. 

• To Tubac and Back!
• California Calling Painting Extravaganza
• The Origins Painting Trip

Jubilee / sold

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Dog of the Day

Here's little Kaja, dog about town, visiting the post office with one of her humans. Kaja gets the best walks of any dog in town. Sometimes her humans are on foot; sometimes they ride a three-wheeled bike, and drink their morning coffee as they go. 

Kaja trots along, head high, tail up, happy and confident, totally ignoring the ridiculous amount of frantic barking and yowling emanating from 18 Bayview Avenue.

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

"Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone." 

- Pablo Picasso

Summer Song

Summer Song

Oil on black canvas, 30x30

Please click here to email me for price and shipping/delivery info

People have sometimes asked me to add detail shots of my paintings, so here are a few. It's interesting to me that when I do these detail photos, I see stuff that I didn't even know was there! Aren't they fun? 

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Big Sky Painting Trip

IN OCTOBER, I'm heading west to paint! I'm hoping to make it to Wisdom, Montana, where I took my first painting trip. The only painting I can find from that trip is below - and I am amazed at the difference between the way I painted then and the way I paint now. Still, I love this painting. The landscape near Wisdom (above) is spectacular - and I am not limiting myself to it. I plan to paint in Wyoming, too, and South Dakota, if all goes as planned. 

Soon, I'll start a page on my website, Jacobson Arts (jacobson-arts.com). I'll be making paintings for sponsors, and also for shows. I already have one sponsor! Prices will start at $125 and go to about $1000. If you know you want in, and you want to reserve an early choice, please feel free to email me now (carrieBjacobson@gmail.com). Sponsors will choose their paintings in the order they sign up. 

Here is just a mention of another trip, for your planning purposes. I hope to be traveling to Alaska in January to paint the Northern Lights. More about this soon! 

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Dog of the Day

Dog in the front basket, dog in the back basket! I saw this guy at the Omaha show this year, and remember him from last year. The dogs looked like they were having a blast. 

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A Final Thought

"One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, 

see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words." 

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe