Buck

Buck

Mixed media on canvas, 40x60

Please contact me for price and availability

Hi, everyone! Hope you still remember me. Hope you've missed me. I've missed you! Missed writing the blog, posting the paintings, hearing from you.

All that being said, I have absolutely no idea why I haven't posted. Honestly, I think I just needed a break, and I am sure you did, too.

I'm going to approach the blog a little differently, at least for a while, posting not every painting, but the ones that excite me the most.

"Buck" is one of them.

As you all know, I've been painting on black canvases for a few years now. By and large, that means that before I start painting, I take black gesso and blacken the canvases. I often become involved with this black on white relationship, and have in fact, kept a couple of these - but just for a while. They became solid black in a couple days.

But this one - this one was different. My fast blackening strokes - fast, loose, urgent - suddenly suggested a horse - and I just decided to go with it, filling in a little, then adding turquoise acrylic paint, then gold dust and gold leaf, and then the watercolor background.

It's totally different for me. What do you think?

***

I HAVE DAMAGED my shoulder, yes, my right shoulder, making it impossible to lift my arm above my head, or even much above my shoulder. The doctor says the problem is basically arthritis, overuse and a lifetime of bad posture. I've been getting physical therapy, exercising, being careful, getting therapeutic massages, but I am still a wreck, and have had to cancel two shows - Williamsburg and Lake Norman, near Charlotte, NC. Both shows require a same-day set-up, and I am just too slow at this point to be sure that I can set up my tent in time.

To see the shows on my schedule, please click here, or go to Jacobson-arts.com and look for 2018 shows.

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Dog of the Day

Hahahahahaha, it's Puffy in a tin-foil hat that I got at Archie McPhee. 

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A Final Thought

"All forms of madness, bizarre habits, awkwardness in society, general clumsiness, 

are justified in the person who creates good art." 

- Roman Payne

The Red Bandana

"The Red Bandana, "36x36

Oil on black canvas with gold leaf

Please click here to contact me about price and availability

I'm hoping people love these Pony Express painting, and that they buy them, because I'm loving painting them. I'm enjoying experimenting with perspective a little, bringing the horse to the front, putting the cowboy to the back a little, and stretching him by making his head smaller than it might be. Peter's not crazy about the gold leaf, and is worried that I might use it too much - but I am enjoying it, and hoping that I will know when enough is enough. 

***

AS I WRITE this, the puppies are curled up together at my feet. Lulu is actually resting ON my foot, and Doc is curled up with her, licking her ear. I admit, I was not completely sure about adopting not one, but TWO more dogs. But I'm so very happy that we did. These two really, truly need each other. They sleep on each other, play with each other, watch each other - and clearly, learn from each other. 

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My dad is Donald Cooper... I stopped to take the photo of the Serva-Teria 

and noticed that across the street was Cooper Tires! 

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Dog of the Day 

This guy was snoozing in the sun in Tubac.

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A Final Thought

"Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing." 

- Salvador Dali

Heading Out

Heading Out

Oil on black canvas, 36x36

Please click here to email me for price, shipping and availability

I made this painting from one of the photographs I took of the Hashknife Pony Express riders I encountered on the road between Holbrook and Scottsdale, Arizona, a week or so ago. I loved the angles of the horse and rider - the horse leaning in toward me, the rider starting to turn his mount back toward the oncoming Pony Express rider. 

Please visit my booth at the Tubac Art Festival, here in Tubac, Arizona, Feb. 10-14. I am hoping to be in the same spot I've had for the past couple years, at the east end of Plaza Road.

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Dog of the Day 

Reese (left) and Henry, pals with a great story, share the Dog of the Day honors. They're part of the family of Sadie, who writes the "She and Her Dogs" blog. Sadie wrote about me in October, and I've been receiving her blogs ever since. 

Reese and Henry have a great story; you can read about it by clicking here. 

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A Final Thought

"Art must be an expression of love or it is nothing." 

- Marc Chagall

Looking Back - and Another Gallery Experience

Looking Back

Oil on canvas, 16x16, $450

This Pony Express rider (click here to find out what I'm talking about!) lives in the Arizona mountain town of Heber-Overgaard, and has been participating in the Pony Express rides for 18 years.

 He was dressed in wonderful period garb, with a big black hat, a red bandanna and a cowhide tossed around his shoulders.

I love this painting!  I love the rawness of it, the simplicity, the abstract quality. I love that the horse is looking back.

Here's the photo from which I was working.

***

IN MY MOST recent blog post, I told you about an excruciating, embarrassing, mortifying experience I had in Xanadu, a gallery in Scottsdale. I had a second experience at the K. Newby Gallery here in Tubac.

This experience was not excruciating, and in fact, I think it will help my painting. But in the moment, ouch, it hurt.

The Newby Gallery is an amazingly beautiful, glorious gallery that has a special place in my heart because it's where I first saw paintings by the late Louisa McElwain, who used a palette knife like no one else on Earth. I've wanted to be represented by this gallery since I walked in there.

This year, finally, I thought my paintings were good enough. I thought I could muster my courage and make a legitimate attempt.

In light of my recent experience at Xanadu, I first made sure that my paintings were clean, that the black backgrounds were solid and unmarked, and that the pieces were dry. Then I chose one - a big one, Fee, Fie, Fo, Fum - and headed to the gallery.

I walked in, scared, finding it hard to catch my breath, and in a moment, I found Leroy, who accepts or rejects work. I pulled the sheet off the painting and watched as he looked at it. My life held in the balance.

"I like it," he said, "but it lacks.... maturity."

My first reaction, "OK." My second, "ouch." I spoke neither aloud.

I shook his hand, got his approval for me to show him work in the future, and left. Sitting in my van, I momentarily sank low. Very low. There are many things someone can say about a painting. A lack of maturity is a pretty telling critique. It's not "your composition is off," "I don't like your palette," no. It's a much deeper comment, speaking to my heart, my progress, my future - and yet, it is a comment of details, as well.

As I sat in the van and pondered, my inner artist wailing a little, I felt myself begin to lift. While the critique hurt, it is valuable. This is a man with a great eye. He's filled the gallery with art that moves me, makes me dream and hope. And so his comments matter.

I thought more, and began to know what he meant, what he saw. The painting I showed him - which I love, and continue to love - has an exuberance, an optimism, a sunniness that is not mature. It has swirls and whirls that I love, and yet they imply tightness that speaks to a focus on detail and technique, instead of overall character - and there, I think, is at least part of the tension that spoke to Leroy. Combined with the rest, I understand the assessment, and will use it as a place from which to grow.

I love my bright, cheery, exuberant paintings, and I'm going to keep painting them. I am going to continue to reach for the things that make me happy, and that I know make others happy. But I'm going to do this now with the thought of "maturity," too.

Maybe I will have the honor of being represented by the Newby Gallery. Maybe I won't. Whatever happens, I am grateful that I had the courage to have this experience, to hear this man's insight, and to continue with the process.

***

Dog of the Day

Here's Nick! I met him while I was painting a couple afternoons ago. 

He was a nice dog, patient and kind to his much younger, much bigger dog pal. 

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A Final Thought

"Life obliges me to do something, so I paint."

- Rene Magritte