Farm Sunset

Farm Sunset

Oil on black canvas, 20x20

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

to the Wickford, RI, Art Festival this weekend and see this piece in person! 

It's rare for me to have several weeks off in the summer, but circumstances conspired to make that happen, and it was so very good. I had a chance to unwind, to heal a little from Smokey's passing, to visit with family and friends, and to paint, for myself and the shows, and to finish some commissions, too. 

I'm happy with the paintings I made during this stretch, including this one of the sun just setting near a farm in Iowa. I painted this from a photograph I took at that moment when the sun just edges over the horizon, a white-hot ball inside a red-orange halo, hard to look at and impossible to ignore. I like the way the sun warms the front wall of the barn, and catches on the tips of the pieces of tall grass. It was a lovely rural scene, just outside of Adair, Iowa. 

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THE WICKFORD ART Festival takes place this weekend in Wickford, RI. The show is Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. respectively. It's free and takes place on the streets of downtown Wickford, a picturesque New England village just south of Providence. For more info, click here. 

If you go to the show, please stop and say hello. My booth is No. 82, on Elam Street, the first fair street you encounter, if you drive in from the south. 

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Dog of the Day 

It's Toby! He's all dressed up for the Fourth of July, and is looking dashing, indeed! 

If you'd like your pet to be the Dog of the Day, please send a jpg to me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com

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A Final Thought

"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."

- Pablo Picasso

Route 13 Barns, Large Version

Route 13 Barns (large version)

Oil on black canvas, 48x48

Please click here to email me for price and availability

I loved the small version of this painting so much that I made a larger version. It's a barn on Route 13 on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, where we live. I'm drawn to it again and again. Every time I see it, I photograph it, and I've painted it a number of times. 

In this one, the rows of planted whatever in this painting are even more  brightly colored, even more oddly three-dimensional than they were in the first one, or in any of the ones I've made.

I looked at this painting for a long, long time this weekend and realized that I don't really know how I painted it. Don't know how I made those rows look so 3-D. It's something about stroke, and color and rhythm - and something more, something I can't quite name. 

I vanished into the painting of this one, letting sadness go and healing come. There was a lot of work in this painting, a lot of time. A lot of letting in God or the nature or whatever you call the higher power that I believe brings the inspiration and the magic. 

And sometime soon, this painting will bring that magic and inspiration to someone's home. I'm looking forward to seeing where it ends up. 

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One good thing about the days turning cold is that I get to wear my new hat.

My friend Elizabeth Buebendorf made it for me. Isn't it great? 

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Some happy buyers, above and below, who visited my studio 

in Wachapreague recently, and had their choice of paintings.

 If you'd like to come by and see my new art, please drop me an email!

If I'm there, I'd love to see you. 

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Dog of the Day

I'm a good dog. Aren't I?

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A Final Thought

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. 

Art is knowing which ones to keep." 

- Scott Adams

Barn on a Hill - and Photos from the Road

Barn on a Hill
Oil on canvas, 24x24, $650
Please contact me for price and delivery options

This painting, based on one I did a few weeks earlier, is an experiment, my first painting with gold leaf. Having the soul of a crow, as I do, I am drawn to bright and shiny things, and so I am interesting in trying all sorts of stuff with gold leaf. I have ideas! 

You can see this painting at the Columbus Arts Festival, Friday through Sunday, in, you guessed it, Columbus, Ohio.  I'm looking forward to the show, though the tales of wind and disaster do have me a little spooked. I will weight my tent, tie it to the bridge (yup, my booth location is right smack dab in the middle of the bridge) and I will hold tight and think good thoughts. 

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HERE ARE SOME PIX from the road 

Yes! I stopped at Antique Archaeology, home of Frank, Mike and Danielle and the TV show "American Pickers." It was pretty cool to see the store, and to recognize some of the picks I've seen on the show. I was disappointed that there was not more old, real antique stuff to buy, though. Most of what's for sale is promotional items for the show. Still, it was fun! 

Here's Carole, the wife of Jon Wool, a childhood friend of my brother, and a childhood bother for me, older sister. Jon has grown into a very sweet adult, and Carole and I hit it off right away. I had a great stay with them! 

Grinnell, Iowa, was a very pretty town, with a downtown that made me remember my childhood in New London, CT. 

And, really. Nice Avenue? What Cheer? Fun! 

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Dog of the Day

It's Tedi! He belongs to Gregory Wool, son of Jon and Carole. But Gregory is in Thailand for a few months, and Tedi is staying with Jon and Carole. He is a great dog! And he slept with me the two nights I stayed with them. Don't tell Jojo. 

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A Final Thought

"To love and live with a painter means marveling at the space 

between the things they see that you cannot see, that they then make." 

- Elizabeth Alexander

A Small Piece of Land

A Small Piece of Land

Oil on canvas, 16x16

Please email me for price and shipping information

In the dawn light, the raucous birds sing of spring and morning and light the back yard with color and movement. The night hangs on into the day's early warmth, coolness reaching from the still-cold Atlantic up into our sunny morning yard. Above, the sky arcs with orange and pink and yellow, dawn crackling with announcement and a bright and shiny promise. 

Here Wachapreague, the lawns are growing fast, the grass thick and shiny emerald, wet with dew each day. Azaleas and camellias streak our town with color, offset by candy tuft and tulips and the waning daffodils. 

Spring was once my least favorite season. Now, I feel it is the princess, and I am a rapt admirer.

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TODAY AND SUNDAY, if you're in or around Virginia, why not come to Arts in the Park in Richmond? It's a big show, and promises to be fun. It's today and Sunday, 11-6 and 11-5 respectively. I'll be in Booth No. 90... Cynthia Battista, an excellent jeweler, will be in Booth No. 333; Alison Thomas, a wonderful photographer, will be in Booth 81. We'd all love to see you!  For more info, click here. 

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Dog of the Day

This cutie came into the booth at the Arlington show. She is a sweet dog, who has Addison's disease. Her human says treatment is going very well for the tiny girl (she weighs 6 lbs), and that she's living a good, full life.

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

"The greatest fine art of the future will be the making 

of a comfortable living from a small piece of land."

- Abraham Lincoln