Riding Through - And Getting to Tubac

Riding Through

Oil on canvas, 30x30

Please email me for price and availability

Yes, this painting is like another I did recently, but this one is on a white canvas, as opposed to a black canvas. I thought that what I loved about that first one was the black canvas, and so I was hesitant to try it on white, but I wanted to see how it would work. And I love it! What do you think? Which do you prefer? 

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I MADE IT to Tubac, AZ, in a marathon four-day drive. I left Wednesday around 10 in the morning and got to my dad's place Saturday around 8 p.m. Texas was again the longest part of the drive, physically and spiritually. But overall, it was pretty easy. I'm here for a few days before heading to Indio, California, for the Southwest Arts Festival, which starts on Friday. 

The first show of the season! I'm pretty excited. 

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THE SPONSOR LIST for this trip has grown, and I couldn't be happier. It makes a huge difference to know that I already have a bunch of paintings sold - and gas money in my pocket. I love knowing that the paintings I am making already have homes. It makes the experience, which always is one of joy, even that much better. 

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 Here's the van, all packed - with "Riding Through" still drying! 

Think I brought enough stuff? 

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Dogs of the Day

 

Yes, my dogs again. That's Woody at the top and Jojo at the bottom. I miss them! Peter titled these "no ambition," and I think that about says it all.

Cutting In - and Heading Out (Soon!)

Cutting In

Oil on canvas, 30x30

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

Five days until I leave for California! And I think I have seven days' worth of work to do between now and then. It will get done or it won't, and it will all shake out the right way, I'm sure. 

If you're considering sponsoring me, there is still time, and there are still slots left. And you know I'd love to have you along for the ride! Click here to go to the sponsor-me page on the Jacobson Arts website. 

I've built in some extra travel time, just in case the weather is bad - it's been pretty awful for most of the winter so far. This time, I'm driving straight out, and starting to paint once I get there. I am very excited! 

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Can you see spring? It's not the field - that's winter wheat, I think, or clover... something they grow down here in the winter. But I'm seeing the small branches of trees starting to turn red.

 It's the first sign of spring! 

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Here's my friend Catherine Lenoci with her dog, Georgia. They're standing in front of "Winter's First Snow." Catherine sent me a photo of the first snow of the year in Connecticut, and I made the painting, 

and she bought it. How's that for perfect? 

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Dogs of the Day

Aren't these great-looking dogs? I love them! But I can't remember their names, or who sent them to me. If it's you, I do apologize! And if it IS you, would you please drop me an email 

so that I can correct my deficient memory? 

And while you're at it, please explain what that pink thing is that's framing the dogs' faces. Thank you! 

Archie - and Please Sponsor Me!

 Archie

Oil on canvas, 12x12

Sponsor me for $125, and you could win a $350 pet portrait

In just about a week, I leave for Indio, California, and the California Calling Painting Extravaganza! I am quite excited, and hoping that more of you will join the good folks who are already sponsoring me.

They are:

Sarah Scott

Pat Hart

Heather MacLeod

Kathryn Yamartino

Candy and Jeff Buebendorf
Judy Beisler

Sherry Svec

Nancy Russell

Paul Scott

Richard and Mari Hook

Don and Paula Cooper

Catherine Lenoci

Mike and Jill Knaack

Joe Skelly

Sara Harley

Sponsors get art from the trip - and more! Everyone will receive a calendar of paintings I make on the road. You'll get access to the sponsors-only blog, which, this year, will include a number of videos, if all goes well. Sponsors who pitch in $125 or more will receive original art. And everyone who sponsors me at any level gets a chance to win a painting of their choice - from the trip or not.

Here are some testimonials from sponsors of the Tubac and Back trip, which took place in March 2013:

Heather MacLeod: 
I loved the Tubac and Back road trip. My first real road trip was a painting trip to Canada with Carrie in 2010. It was a blast. My next road trip was a honeymoon cross country trip in 2011, through some of the very same places that Carrie painted. So the Tubac trip was a double pleasure for me. I loved looking at all of the paintings posted together at the end of the trip, and had a hard time selecting a favorite. I decided on the sweet Saguaro Cactus. I love it. I am excited to be a part of the California Calling trip as a sponsor, and hope to be an active painting partner in a future trip! 

Kathryn Yamartino:
Sponsoring Carrie's 2013 trip mad me a part of something, a small network of people supporting and following an artist whose work we love! Through the trip blog we learned about her on the road adventures and saw the paintings fresh on the easel! 

Selecting our paintings at the end of the trip was filled with anticipation and excitement and was way better than any of the other "reward" experiences in crowd funding. 

My only wish? That family and friends had given me the gift of a sponsorship too! Two sponsorships would have been twice the fun! Hint hint! 

Carrie's work moves and inspires me. The freedom and movement in her paintings draws me in and dares me to rediscover it again and again. And best of all, Carrie is as generous and passionate a person as she is an artist. 

Sherry Svec: 

I am happy to have progressed from an audience member to a participant of Carrie's road trips by becoming a sponsor. Last year's sponsorship got me an amazing painting of a downpour over Albuquerque. We have been to many of the same places in the country, and her paintings bring me back to each locale. They ring true in my heart. 

To read more about the different levels of sponsorship, and what each brings you, and to sign up, click here: http://jacobson-arts.com/Jacobson_Arts/sponsor_me%21.html

Thank you!

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BRRRR!!!

Here's Cynthia, one of my friends, dressed for a happy day of surveying, in Arctic temperatures. 

 ***

Here's my friend and collector Nancy Russell, who stopped by beautiful

 downtown Wachapreague for a visit recently.

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Dog of the Day

Tucker and Emmi, top, are visiting Cynthia and Kevin and George and Zack, bottom. Looks like everyone is having a rousingly exciting time!

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

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!

***

Dog(house) of the day

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

Cowboy Up! - and Five Gifts to Give Yourself

Cowboy Up

Oil on canvas, 6x6

I hope you had a lovely holiday, no matter what you celebrated. And if you don't celebrate anything, I hope you had a peaceful day at home, or at work. 

We had a nice Christmas,  though our Christmas dinner was delayed until Boxing Day, as we ran out of propane, in spite of being on automatic delivery. Oh, well. There are plenty of worse things than Chinese food for Christmas. 

In the spirit of the season, and with inspiration from Marc and Angel  and, yes, I admit it, tags from my Yogi tea, I've come up with a list of five things you can give yourself, now that Christmas is over. These are all free, and when you're in the right place, they're easy.

1. Believe in yourself. What you feel, what attracts you, what inspires you, this is all legitimate. If you're drawn to a person, an idea, a pursuit, go with it. If you can't make time for it, if doing it seems difficult or insurmountable, whatever it is is probably not for you. Do what you're good at, and what feels good.

2. Tell the truth - or as my mother would say, tell your truth. Whenever you can, no matter how scary it is, you're better off telling the truth - especially to yourself. If telling the truth is going to hurt someone else, and you don't want to do that, then stay silent. Do anything but lie. 

3. Forgive yourself. Whatever you did or didn't do, said or didn't say, promised or didn't promise, it was then. It was in the past. You can't change it. What matters is this moment. What you can change is this moment. What you can participate in is this moment. 

4. Forgive the other guy. Forgiveness is liberation. It frees you from the bad feelings. It keeps you from living in the past. Forgiveness lets your forget, or at least minimize anger, hate, bad feelings. And without them, believe me, today looks much better. 

5. Accept who you are and where you are in life. You are perfect. It might not seem so, from time to time, but you are. The things you think of as failures, they are learning experiences. They are growing pains. The things you think of as shortcomings, they are motivating opportunities. The things you don't like about yourself, someone else loves. So today, take this moment to accept yourself. 

What would you add to the list? What gifts are you giving yourself today? Please use the comments below, or drop me an email at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com.

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NOW THAT CHRISTMAS is over, I am turning my thoughts and energy to my upcoming California Calling Painting Extravaganza! 

There's still time to sponsor me, at any of four levels. Sponsoring me means you will get art by me, access to a sponsor-only blog/newsletter, postcards from the road and a chance to win any painting I make, or that you want commissioned. 

As I found with my Tubac and Back painting trip, sponsorships change the landscape for me. Not only do they help me defray my expenses up front, but they also mean that I paint for you. I'm not painting for random people who might come into my booth, but for people who trust me enough, believe enough in me, and like my work enough to pay for art before I even make it. It turns a fun trip into a magical one. 

Click here for info, and to find out how to become a sponsor. 

***

Our former neighbor, Dulcie, who is 92, has moved from Wachapreague to her family's farm/compound up the road in Quinby. We went to visit her in her new place a couple days before Christmas, and found her cooking dinner for eight people. Here she is in the kitchen of her new place. On the wall behind her is one of the paintings from my Tubac trip. 

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Dog of the Day

This is Big Mama, a cat we met at the vet when we took Sam in the other day. She had sunburn so badly that her ears had to be amputated. But she can still hear, and in that marvelous way of animals, she clearly doesn't feel sorry for herself. She strutted right up to us, demanding attention and petting.

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

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. 

***

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? 

***

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!

***

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. 

***

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. 

***

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!