Robin's Field - and Heading to CT

Robin's Field

Oil on canvas, 16x16

sold

I found plein air painter Robin Weiss a few years ago, just as I was starting to paint seriously. I loved his work, signed up to get his blog, and studied each painting to learn what he was doing.

Over the years, we've gotten to be internet friends. He likes some of my paintings, and I continue to admire and be inspired by his.

A recent painting of his intrigued me. I liked the painting, and I loved the landscape. I wrote and asked if he would mind if I painted it, and was pleased when he said it was no problem. So here's the painting I made, as different from his as could be. But what fun! And one of my favorite collectors bought it at the Wickford Art Festival, so just great stuff all around.

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I'LL BE IN Connecticut for two shows in August! The Mystic Outdoor Art Festival, Mystic, CT,  is Aug. 8-9. I'll be at the corner of Willow and Main, on the east side of the river, across the street from the post office. The show is Saturday, 10-6, and Sunday, 10-5. 

The following weekend, I'll be in SoNo Arts, in South Norwalk, CT. That show is also Saturday, 10-6 and Sunday, 10-5. Don't know where my booth is yet...

My friend, the fabulous jeweler Cynthia Battista, will be in both shows, too! So make sure you stop by her booth, as well as mine. In Mystic, I know she will be nearby, in the pet store parking lot at the corner of Willow and Main. SoNo, who knows? I'll keep you posted. 

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Dog of the Day

Got to love this beautiful Belgian shepherd, I saw at the show in Richmond, VA, earlier in the year. What a gorgeous dog! 

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

"A great artist is always before his time or behind it." 

- George Moore

The Far Illusive Dream - and Mystic!

The Far Illusive Dream

oil on canvas, 10x10

sold

I stood on the bank of the Lieutenant River in Old Lyme, CT, and painted, celebrating this day, this summer, this life. 

The sun was hot, the shadows cool, the river shiny and rich. Thin clouds skimmed the August-blue sky, and the trees bent and blew in the mid-afternoon wind. On the other bank, kids and parents fished. Two kayaks slipped through the water, heading upstream. I could hear laughter, occasionally, from people having a late lunch at a restaurant a few steps away. 

It is so easy to get sucked into the day by day. So easy to focus on the shows, on the sales or lack thereof, on the applications and jury fees and whether I got in or not. It is so easy to be transported by this - the familiar, the known - and to forget about the leap I'm taking and the amazing success I am having. 

Just before that leap, I worked for Patch.com, a network of online news and information sites. It was a good job, but too much of a good job. I could not do Patch and paint, and so, with my husband's urging and support, I quit Patch and jumped.  

As I paint, and show, and paint some more, as I find increasing success and continuing inspiration, it becomes easier and easier to forget the terror, the constant thrum of fear, the nearly paralyzing terror I was feeling just about a year ago. 

So please, remember me when someone tells you that you can't possibly be successful at something that, in your heart, you know you can do and do well. My success so far has not been easy, or steady or grand. But it has been thrilling, and fulfilling, and rich with new people, new friendships, new experiences. 

I named today's painting for a poem that captures some of my feelings. It's by John Townsend Trowbridge, and is from "Twoscore and Ten," which is a verrry long poem that you can read by clicking here. Otherwise, here's an excerpt: 

Riches I never sought and have not found

 And Fame has passed me with averted eye 

In creeks and bays my quiet voyage is bound 

While the great world without goes surging by 

No withering envy of another's lot 

Nor nightmare of contention plagues my rest 

For me alike what is and what is not 

Both what I have and what I lack are best 

A flower more sacred than far seen success 

Perfumes my solitary path

 I find Sweet compensation in my humbleness 

And reap the harvest of a tranquil mind 

 I keep some portion of my early gleam;

  Brokenly bright, like moonbeams on a river,

It lights my life, a far illusive dream,

  Moves as I move, and leads me on forever.

My painting in the landscape

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OK, all that poetical stuff aside, the Mystic Outdoor Art Festival takes place This Weekend in Mystic, CT. I will be at the corner of Willow and Main - with this painting, and other new pieces, as well as some that I have shown before. 

Please come! And please tell your friends about the show and about my paintings. Your purchases and your friends' purchases are helping me make this a success - as is your ongoing spiritual and moral support! 

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Dog of the Day! 

This goofy puppy was at the SoNo Festival this weekend. What a clumsy love he was. 

Back to Old Lyme - and SoNo Arts This Weekend, Too!

Boat Launch Ramp, Old Lyme

oil on canvas, 12x48

Please contact me for price and delivery info

Yes, I went back to the boat launch ramp! It's about the most beautiful place in Connecticut, I think - and a spot I just love to paint. It's easy to set up there, too, and there are no cars driving by, so for the most part, it's quiet. 

Quiet. 

Peter and I live a quiet little life in Wachapreague. We talk, of course, and we talk plenty. But for each of us, long stretches of quiet - or at least of not talking - underline our days. 

In Wachapreague, the days themselves are quiet. There's almost no traffic in town. There's no noise from airplanes. Now that the arsonist has been captured, the fire alarm rarely sounds. There are no crowds, no hubbub. Our own dogs are probably the noisiest things in town, and when they get too much, I put them back in the house. 

This trip, all these shows, weekend after weekend after weekend, and then my gypsying existence, going from home to home, friend to friend, family to family, this has been great, and fun and exciting - but it has involved a lot of talking, from me, by me, and to me. It's not that I haven't enjoyed it, because I have. But it has been more than is good for me. More than is good for my painting. 

So when I find a quiet place to paint, I relish it. And who knows - I might go back to the boat launch again next week. 

Here's my painting in the landscape

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SoNo Arts takes place this weekend, Saturday and Sunday, in South Norwalk, CT.  It's a fun show, with tons of artists, including the very talented Ronet Noe, who will be my neighbor on the plaza. We are booths 420 and 421. So if you're around Connecticut this weekend and looking for something to do, please come by South Norwalk and say hello - and buy a painting! 

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Dog of the Day

This is Pascha, the dog of the day! She is an elderly labradoodle, and just a wonderful, sweet old girl. 

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

And THANK YOU for reading! 

Grimlock

Grimlock

Commission

For anyone following the ins and outs of our home sale here in CT, feel free to let up a little cheer - the water test came out A-OK, and so the sale of the house can go through.

I am doubly, triply glad about this, because my water duties this past weekend (running the hose for 10 minutes every hour) meant that, at the very last minute, I had to pull out of the Meet the Artists show in Olde Mystick Village. Again, I apologize to anyone who went to the show looking for me!

This weekend, I'm in a show in South Norwalk, CT, the SoNo Arts Festival. I'm in Booth No. 448.... Don't know where that is, but I imagine the booths will go in numerical order, so I should be findable. This is a new show for me, and I have heard it's excellent!

The following weekend, it's the Mystic Outdoor Art Festival! This is a good, busy time.

Thank you all for following my blog! The 200th follower signed up recently! I could not do this without all of you, and I am grateful to you every day.