Beach Ball - and My First Award!

Beach Ball

Oil on canvas, 10x10

Commission

Here's the next installment of the very fun series I made for my youngest collector. I'll show you the whole grouping together soon! Whether it's me, or some other artist, if you ever have the chance to commission a group of paintings - or even a single painting! - you will find out how very wonderful it is to be in on the process from the start. It's great for the artist, too. 

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I'm out in Arizona, on the Origins Painting Trip, and I am just starting the real painting phase of it, in and around my first hometown, Fort Defiance. 

I spent a couple weeks in Tubac, AZ, south of Tucson, visiting with my dad and Paula, and participating in the Tubac Arts Festival. There, sales were slow, but I won my first award! It was a general award, inviting me back for the 2016 show. Yay!  

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Dog of the Day

This wolf hybrid was on a leash, with her people, at the Tubac show. A photographer near me thought that maybe it was a German shepherd, but I could tell, even at a distance, that she was at least part wolf. Those amazing yellow eyes are a real giveaway, and her behavior - looking left, looking straight ahead, looking right - again and again and again - that was another giveaway. She was beautiful, but spooky, and clearly a wild animal at heart. I would not have brought her to a show.

Beachscape - and Nice Weather for a Show

Beachscape

Oil on canvas, 10x10

Commission

I love the clouds in this beachscape, and also the foam on the crashing waves. This is one of the six paintings I made for a young collector, who had a great idea for a project for the stairway in her home. I had a great time making the six pieces! I felt honored to be asked to make paintings for such a rich project. 

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I'M OUT IN Tubac, Arizona, visiting my dad and Paula, and participating in the Tubac Arts Festival, which started on Wednesday, and, after the show painting on the Origins Painting Trip. 

Last year, the weather during the show was cold and raw - this year, the first day dawned sunny and warm - even hot! - and there were lots and lots of people. I had a sale the first day, which certainly made me happy. 

Here's my booth: 

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Dog of the Day

In this photo by my husband, Peter Jacobson, Jojo (front) and Smokey get Abby on the ground in a brawling playfight last week. They all love this! 

Spine of the Earth - and Me Vs. Target

 Spine of the Earth

Oil on canvas, 18x24

commission

I've made this painting a few times now, and every time I make it, I think it gets better - and more interesting.

The original painting was a plein-air piece I made on Ocracoke Island, off the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It was on the way home from that trip that I stumbled into Wachapreague. That detour started a series of events that involved me quitting my job at Patch.com, and ended with us moving to the Eastern Shore of Virginia.

I went to the Outer Banks that October thinking that I wanted to paint the ocean, and the place where the ocean met the sand. Instead, I found myself mesmerized by the dunes. They rose and fell like breathing. Pulsed like the earth dancing. Shifted and churned like waves turned nearly solid. The wind blew hard the entire time I was on the Outer Banks and Ocracoke, and I could see it sculpting the dunes, carving them, moving them, grain by grain by grain.

I loved the wild romp of colors, the bright, sun-glinting sand, the deep maroon of some beachy scrub, a million shades of green and gold and tan in the grasses, and all of it churning and swirling and waving in the wind.

Every time I approach this painting again, I capture more and more of that feeling. I see more colors, feel more pulses, paint the wind and sky and rhythmic dunes with more verve and more abandon. Perhaps next fall, I'll go back to the Outer Banks and paint on site again.

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LOOKING FOR INSPIRED Christmas/ Hanukkah presents? Why not buy them from me? I'll appreciate it so much more than Target or Macy's ever would.

For $12.99, you can get a really nice 2015 calendar showcasing 12 of my California Calling paintings. Click here to go to the Lulu site, where you can buy a calendar or 10.  

For $22.79 and up, you can get a book of my writings and paintings from the California Calling Painting Extravaganza. Click here to go to the Blurb site, where you can see all the options and buy a book or two. 

For $50 and up, you can sponsor my upcoming painting trip, the Origins trip. I'll be going back to Fort Defiance, AZ, where I spent my first couple years, and I'll paint the land in and around the town. There are a whole bunch of options, and I promise you will love the blog and the paintings I make! Click here to go to the Jacobson Arts website, where you can find out more, and become a sponsor.

And finally, you can always buy a painting from me, or give a gift certificate for a regular painting or a pet portrait. Check out the Jacobson Arts website, or drop me an email at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com, to find out more.

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Dog of the Day

When I was in Winnsboro, TX, last month I went out painting early one morning. Afterwards, I drove around the neighborhood, just to see a little more. There was pretty much no traffic - just this one truck driving down the drive and out toward the road.... with the farm dog racing alongside. He went as far as the mailbox, then stopped, watched the truck drive away, and headed back toward home. 

The Red Umbrella - and... Feel Like Hosting an Art Party?

The Red Umbrella

Oil on canvas, 16x20

Please contact me for price and shipping info

I don't remember when I started this painting, or even where I was. I THINK I was somewhere north of Boston - but even that memory is vague.

I've had this painting for a couple years at least - mostly finished, but not truly finished. I think I was afraid of painting the people, though I had sketched them in, and the sketches were really pretty good.

One thing I am learning is that paintings generally need less detail than I used to believe they needed. At this distance, for example, I don't have to worry about the nose on the guy sitting under the umbrella. I need only to suggest that there is a guy (or girl) sitting under the umbrella, and get close with the posture.

So I'm glad I saved this painting, glad I saw something in it, and let it sit until I was ready.

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WOULD ANYONE OUT THERE like to host an art party for me? Ideally, you live somewhere that's not in the sticks, you have a fairly large home or apartment, or basement, or garage, or access to a fairly large space. You have lots of friends who love art and want to buy art for themselves or for their friends and family.

I'd pay for the refreshments, help with the invites, supply the art and be on my best behavior. We'd have fun!

Drop me an email if you think you might like to do this! It's carrieBjacobson@gmail.com

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Dog of the Day

The Dog of the Day is... Puffy! She looks all cute and fluffy here, but believe me, she's as tough as any dog - at least any dog in this house. Jojo won't go near the couch when Puffy is relaxing on it like this.

And here are some real dogs having a howling good time: 

 

Beach Houses - Finished? Unfinished?

Beach Houses

Oil on canvas, 24x24

sold

Those of you who've been following this blog for a while know that I've long had love affairs with "unfinished" paintings.  Click here to see a landscape that I left "unfinished," and here to see a cat I left "unfinished."

Interestingly, older female artist friends accosted me about both of these paintings, and I argued with them that the pieces were finished, and left them that way. 

This one, "Beach Houses," is the start of a series, I think. My idea is that where there IS paint, it will be heavy - but beyond what is absolutely necessary for the painting, there will be no paint, or just sketchy hints. My thought about this painting was that I would add a blast of swirly, heavy sky, at the horizon behind the houses - but then I got this far and thought that perhaps I should just leave it. 

So what do you think? Like it? Hate it? Think it screams for more paint, more finishing, more sky, more land? Or is it intriguing and inviting and minimal, just as it is? 

(That brings up something that's amused me for years. I was in a bookstore, when they still were plentiful, and saw a whole series of books about simplifying one's life. If the author knew what she was about, wouldn't there have been only one book?) 

Peter says he thinks this painting looks unfinished, and he really hates the blue sketchy lines. He says he'd like them better if they were tan. My friend, the remarkable painter Ronet Noe, says she likes this as it is and is sure someone will love it and buy it. 

Please click the comment box below to let me and other readers know what you think about this painting. I am truly interested. 

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Dog of the Day

What a face! I met this dog at the show in Frederick, and knew he was destined to be the Dog of the Day. Want your pet to be the DOD? Click here to send me a jpg!