The Long View - and a Scary Show

The Long View
Oil on canvas, 24x48
sold

I got back from my Midwest trip on Monday, tired and worn out, but very happy. It was a grand trip, in terms of sales, and meeting nice people who liked and supported my art. There's really nothing quite as wonderful as that!

The trip was not without its trials and adventures, though. The weather was a constant worry and stressor. It was very, very hot the whole time. Most show days were in the upper 80s or 90s, and humid, to boot.

It rained during Summerfair in Cincinnati, and during the Omaha Summer Arts Festival, too. But they were nothing, compared to what happened in Columbus.  My booth was on a bridge across a river, maybe a quarter-mile wide. It was a prime spot for foot traffic.

The breeze blew nicely at the start of the the fair, cooling the broiling day just a little. But as Friday wore on, the breeze grew into a wind, a stronger and stronger wind that had my paintings flapping frighteningly from the walls. The wind turned into downpours, and I closed the walls of the tent. When the rain cleared, the wind went down some, though it did continue to blow and bluster for the rest of the day ... and night. (The show started at 11 and ran through to 10:30).

The second day, there was less wind and far more rain. Downpours happened on and off, building and building until at about 8 p.m., the sky opened with a vicious thunder and lightning storm. All of us on the bridge were sitting in our zipped-up tents, and while I don't know about the rest of them, I can tell you I was scared. A river was running through the back of my tent. Wind was smacking the sides. Rain was pounding on the roof, while lightning split the sky and thunder crashed all around.

But I lived - and had a good show, too. And this coming weekend, our daughter Erika is getting married!

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And here are the happy buyers of "The Long View."

Check out the Happy Buyers page on the Jacobson Arts website! 

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Dog of the Day

A trio of (need I say?) well-behaved shelties, at the show in Omaha. The one with the fancy necklace had a sort of prancing walk that was delightful. His humans said he's always walked that way.

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A Final Thought

"You come to nature with all your theories, and she knocks them all flat." 

- Pierre Auguste Renoir

Rainbow Marsh, Happy Buyers & White Squirrels

Rainbow Marsh

Oil on canvas, 36x48

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

I took a lot of chances with this painting of the salt marsh near our home. I had an idea to do one thing - a bright lower sky, very smooth, with a not-smooth dark upper cloud moving in, over a marsh thick with grass and movement and colors. 

But my original idea just didn't look right, so I went into that smooth sky and stirred it up. I added more paint, I juddered and jittered the knife. I added a path of broken color. I made one part of the foreground bright and rich, and the other soft and less brightly lighted. And then I began scratching. I scratched the heavy clouds in the upper right corner. I scratched the trees on the hummock. Here and there, I scratched the grasses. 

And I ended up with a painting that I think is maybe the strongest I've ever done! What do you think? 

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PARADISE CITY in Northampton, MA, was an excellent show for me, one of my best ever. Happy people bought happy paintings! Many friends and collectors came to say hello and see my new work. It was busy and rewarding and fun. 

Summerfair, in Cincinnati, was not as good a show for me, but it was not a disaster, either. I met lots of very nice people, friendly and supportive. The show itself was beautiful! 

This weekend, I will be in Omaha, and next weekend, Columbus. I'm excited about both shows... and about our daughter's wedding, the weekend after Columbus. What a busy summer! 

Check out my new Happy Buyers page by clicking here. If you've bought a painting from me and I didn't take a happy buyer photo of you, please have someone take a shot of you with your painting, and I'll post it on the Happy Buyers page! If you buy a painting from me and I seem to be forgetting to take the photo, please remind me! 

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The White Squirrels of Olney, Ill. 

I had heard about this place, but forgotten until I ended up there, to pick up new weights for my tent. Then I saw the sign welcoming me to the Home of the White Squirrels! Wow! I got some postcards, and then the woman at the gas station said that she often saw the squirrels just over there (a nod of the head). I thought I might have to spend half the day waiting for the squirrels to show up - but no! I pulled the van over, and lo and behold, white squirrels! 

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Dog of the Day 

The Cincinnati show prohibited dogs - but a few got in. This cutie was with a woman who'd broken her leg and was in a wheel chair. 

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A Final Thought

"If you always do what you always did, you'll always get what you always got."

-Anonymous

Two Pairs

Two Pairs

36x60

sold

The Paradise City Arts Festival was a grand success for me, in more ways than one. 

People bought a whole slew of paintings large and small, and that, in and of itself, was great. But even more than the income, those sales really boosted my confidence, at a time when I needed it. 

I started the year with lots of new pieces, and a new approach. The black canvases, a changed color palette, a slightly shifted focus, all these were new. And for the first four shows, they didn't click with buyers. It is daunting and depressing to think that what is moving me creatively is not touching buyers. 

If I were doing this as a hobby, or just as a side business, that would be OK. Since I'm making our living with this, it is clearly not OK. 

But this show erased my doubts. People do like my new work, and like it enough to buy it. So I breathe a big sigh of relief, and smile a big, broad smile, and head on out to the midwest with my confidence intact. 

Here's the happy buyer of "Two Pairs." It's going to hang in her kitchen! 

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This coming weekend, I'm doing a show in Cincinnati. The weekend after that, Omaha. The following weekend, Columbus. So I've taken pretty much everything with me! Above, you see the van, packed to the hilt. Below, my empty studio. 

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Dog of the Day

Met this little cutie at the vet. He has Cushing's disease, a chronic condition, but was responding well to medication, and it looks like he will live a good, long, happy life.

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A Final Thought

"The object isn't to make art; 

it's to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable." 

- Robert Henri