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?

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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

You Know You Will

You Know You Will

Oil on black canvas, 30x30

Please click here to email me for price and availability

It's hard to tell, from this photograph, how bright and full of life and sunshine this painting is. This one is another of those big steps for me, a leap that brings all that I've been doing into a new light, a new place. There's a new feeling in this one, and it is something about freedom, and bliss and the simple cheerfulness of a sunny hillside on a summer afternoon.

I've worked and worked on this photograph, hoping to make it reflect the painting more truly, but this is the best I can do. In the piece, bright green dominates, and the orangey pinks of the spiky flowers hum and resonate over the green, above the blue and purple, all under a clear, sunny sky.

Unless it sells beforehand, I'll have this piece at my next show, which is CenterFest, in Durham, NC, Sept. 16-17. Click here for more info!  And if you'd like to see this piece before I leave for Durham, please drop me a line, and come visit me in Wachapreague.

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Here's a Pair that Beats a Full House

Hahahaha, it's my brother Rand (right) and his childhood-into-adulthood friend Jon, on a recent trip to Cape Cod. 

I can explain the T-shirts - the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts chose one of my paintings for their T-shirt design this year, and I gave a couple to Rand. 

I can't explain the shorts. 

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Dog of the Day

This is the dog of a friend I met on Facebook, and then later met in real life, near the Suwannee River, east of Jacksonville, Florida. It was such fun to meet her in real life! 

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A Final Thought

"I don't want life to imitate art. I want life to be art."

- Carrie Fisher

Manny, Moe and Jeff

Manny, Moe and Jeff

Oil on canvas, 36x60

Please click here to email me for price and availability

This painting started its life looking a little different. The sky was pretty much the same, and the road to the left was pretty much the same, and the mountains were sort of the same, but the cows were smaller, the trees were smaller, the water was smaller, and the colors - still a little out of my comfort zone - were a little more quiet. 

I wanted to like it, but just couldn't, even though people liked it, and I was going to paint over it. Instead, I really looked. I searched for what was bothering me, for why I wasn't in love with this cowscape. It took a while, but it came to me, and I was able to make the changes that are making it work. 

This is a process that's happened a few times to me now. It is still a new process, of improving rather than tossing out. And it's a process I hope I can bring to other parts of my life, including my own sense of self. 

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Shows! 

I'm sending a big thank you to everyone who came to the shows this summer, took the time to look at my paintings and talk with me! And a special thanks to all of you who bought paintings! Each sale is a miracle, and I appreciate each one very much. 

I'll be on the road for a few weeks, starting tomorrow. Here's my schedule: 

Stamford, CT, July 29-30, Harbor Point, Booth 20

Uptown Art Festival, Minneapolis, MN, Aug. 4-6, Booth 3407 on the mall

Mystic Outdoor Art Festival, Mystic, CT, Aug. 12-13, corner of Willow and East Main

and Centerfest, Durham, NC,   Sept. 16-17

Hope to see you there! 

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Dog of the Day

Pals! Saw these guys at the show in State College, PA. 

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

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A Final Thought

“Some people are born to make great art and others are born to appreciate it. … 

It is a kind of talent in itself, to be an audience, whether you are the spectator in the gallery or you are listening to the voice of the world's greatest soprano. 

Not everyone can be the artist. 

There have to be those who witness the art, 

who love and appreciate what they have been privileged to see.” 

- Ann Patchett

.

Babe

Babe

Oil on black canvas, 12x48

Please click here to contact me for price and availability

Sometimes, I paint on traditionally shaped canvases, 16x20, 36x48, etc., but I prefer square canvases or ones that have ratios of 1:3 or 1:4, so 10x20, 12x36, 12x48, etc.

I've written a bit about these long canvases , and how the shape can suggest content. I've thought about canvas shape ever since I wrote that "Dogwood" entry, and I think that part of my response to the odd shape comes from my years of working in newspapers.

As a page designer, and the boss of page designers, I spent lots of time working with photographs. At a couple of the papers - the Virginian-Pilot and Times Herald-Record primarily - page designers worked hard with photographs and photographers to put as much graphic power as possible into the art. This often ended up in interesting crops. Sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn't, but the experiments always taught me something.

So the house in "Home Away from Home" (or, frankly, any of my "Big Field, Little House" paintings) doesn't need to have windows or porches or chimneys; the painting is not about the house. The dogs in my portraits (like Red) don't need to have legs or tails. And the cows in the long skinny cowscapes don't need to have legs, either, or noses. The crop focuses the painting on the interesting part, and leaves it there.

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Stuff I've Seen

My friend Julie is a master gardener and a member of the Eastern Shore Master Gardeners Association. She not only planted this beautiful shade garden, but also built the lovely, curving path through it. Her garden and others were open on Friday for viewing. 

For more on the master gardeners group, please click here.

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Dog of the Day

Another cousin of Doc and Lulu! Met this Australian cattle dog at the show 

in Tubac, Arizona. He was quite a serious fellow. 

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A Final Thought

"The job is what you do when you are told what to do. The job is showing up at the factory, following instructions, meeting spec, and being managed. 

Someone can always do your job a little better or faster or cheaper than you can. 

The job might be difficult, it might require skill, but it's a job. 

Your art is what you do when no one can tell you exactly how to do it. Your art is the act of taking personal responsibility, challenging the status quo, and changing people. 

I call the process of doing your art 'the work.' It's possible to have a job and do the work, too. In fact, that's how you become a linchpin. 

The job is not the work." 

- Seth Godin

Carrie, Samantha, Miranda & Charlotte

Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte

Oil on canvas, 36x48

Please click here to email me for price and availability

I had the great good fortune in February to meet a young man who wants to give his parents a cowscape, as a present from him and his fiancee before their wedding.

He sent me a photo of some cows in the pasture in front of his parents' home, and I made the painting and am about to send it off to him. I liked the grouping of cows so much that I asked if I could incorporate them into a different painting, and he said OK.

So... Same cows, totally different paintings. Fun!

Which do you prefer?

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Stuff I've Seen

 Wow! Double rainbow Saturday in Richmond! 

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Dog of the Day

Two beautiful Samoyeds at the show in Richmond this past weekend. 

They made me think of my Sam, who passed a couple years ago, 

but who I remember every day. He was one of the sweetest dogs ever. 

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

"Life is a blank canvas, and you need to throw all the paint on it you can." 

- Danny Kaye

3 and 1

3 and 1

Oil on canvas, 12x48 
Please click here to email me about price and availability

All of a sudden, the show season is starting. Every year, it seems to come as a surprise. My shows generally stop in October or early November, and then I have six or eight weeks to rest, to paint, to reconsider my booth, make applications to shows - and celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas, too.

At the start, it feels like I have a luxury of time, a huge expanse in which to imagine, experiment, discover. Time to try things, to work on projects, to devote myself to learning and growing - and to sleep, and rest, and not stress about anything.

Then, suddenly, it's time to start again! Such a surprise! And a good surprise, in a way. I do enjoy doing the shows, meeting the people, talking about art and life and all the other things I end up talking about with people at shows. But I always miss home, my little family, our little house in our little town.

My goal this year, my aim, is to do fewer shows, and earn more at them. Make better paintings and figure out better ways to earn this living. I have some ideas, and will spin them out here over the next few weeks and months - and I would love to hear your ideas! Nothing is too crazy, no idea too wild.

Meantime, that first show is the Englewood Bank & Trust Invitational Art Festival, Jan. 28-29, in Englewood, Florida. After that, I drive to Tubac, Arizona, to visit my dad and stepmother, and take place in the Tubac Festival of the Arts, Feb. 8-12.

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A friend and fellow artist told me about his visit to the Katonah (NY) Museum of Art, and drawings he saw there by Matisse. I needed to know more, so looked them up, and found this photograph of Matisse, drawing with a pole. Pretty fascinating! 

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Dog of the Day

It's Doc, who had the most stressful weekend of his short life this past weekend. Our daughter Erika came for a visit with Benny, one of her dogs. Benny, Doc and Lulu began their lives together, at the home of our friend Christine, a wonderful woman and animal fosterer, who is also our dog pusher (Abby, Koko, Doc and Lulu all came from Christine). 

Well, Doc and Benny and Lulu didn't remember each other, though I'd thought they might. More than that, they absolutely despised each other, especially the boys. 

When they met, we had Doc on a leash, and he was crazed with hostility, anger and fear. He snarled and barked and growled, slavered and lunged and pulled - he looked like a hyena, he was so full of primitive drive. 

After a night and morning of witnessing this terrible attacking behavior, we took the advice of our friend Cynthia and let Doc and Benny out in the yard together, without leashes. It was absolutely horrifying, with Doc attacking Benny and pushing him back, and then Benny coming at Doc and pushing him back, and all the while, they were barking and kayyaying and snarling and snapping their jaws. The hair on Doc's whole body was standing on end, making him look like he weighed far more than his 34 pounds, and was terribly ferocious. 

In spite of the horrible noise and behavior, there was no bloodshed, and after about 20 minutes, they just sort of relented. There were flare-ups when the other dogs came out, and the next morning, when Doc and Lulu had apparently forgotten that Benny was still here, but the horrible, primitive, ferocious fighting was over. By the end of the visit, they were even beginning to play. 

So Doc has truly earned his Dog of the Day designation - and Benny has, too! 

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A Final Thought

"...expectations based on the work itself are the most useful tool the artist possesses. What you need to know about the next piece is contained in the last piece. The place to learn about your materials is in the last use of your materials. The place to learn about your execution is in your execution. The best information about what you love is in your last contact with what you love. Put simply, your work is your guide: a complete, comprehensive, limitless reference book on your work. ... The lessons you are meant to learn are in your work. To see them, you need only look at the work clearly - without judgment, without need or fear, without wishes or hopes. Without emotional expectation. Ask your work what it needs, not what you need." 

- David Bayles and Ted Orland

"Art & Fear / Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking"

Double Four Time

Double Four Time

Oil on canvas, 36x48

sold

I made my first cow painting when we were living in Connecticut. I'd gotten a big canvas - 48x60, I believe - on deep clearance at Jerry's Artarama in Hartford, and I got it home and realized I had no idea what to paint on it.                                                                                 I'd been painting a lot of landscapes - but if I painted a big field and little house, well, what would be the point of working on a large canvas? 

The canvas stayed in the studio while I pondered. And pondered and pondered and pondered some more. 

Then, the idea of painting cows came to me. And why not? They're big, interesting, colorful. I'd made a couple small cow paintings, and enjoyed making them. So I set about it, and had a great time. 

But, I thought, I will drag this painting around with me for the Rest of My Life. No one will ever want to buy it. Who would want a painting of cows? 

Turns out, lots of people would. People like cows. For all of us who are not ranchers or farmers, cows are the familiar, but also The Other. They're such a huge part of America - in the fields, near the roads, as beef and as milk in all its forms. Much of the time - particularly in the East - when you stop to look at a cow, the cow stops to look at you. 

That one canvas, that one decision, opened a whole world to me, and it's one I enjoy, and am so grateful to have found! 

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So Santa has a cool van now! Bet it cuts that carbon footprint...

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Dog of the Day

Erika and Paul's dog Benny had his birthday on Christmas Day. He's a full year old now, 

but I'm pretty sure he will always act like a dippy puppy. 

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A Final Thought

One of my favorite books in the world, and one that I've mentioned often in this blog and to fellow artists, is "Art & Fear / Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking," by David Bayles and Ted Orland. I've received permission to use quotes from the book as my "Final Thought" throughout the month of January, so here goes: 

"Artmaking involves skills that can be learned. The conventional wisdom here is that while 'craft' can be taught, 'art' remains a magical gift bestowed only by the gods. Not so. In large measure, becoming an artist consists of learning to accept yourself, which makes your work personal, and in following your own voice, which makes your work distinctive." 

- David Bayles and Ted Orland

Double Four Time

Double Four Time

Oil on canvas, 36x48

Please contact me for price and availability

If this painting looks familiar, it's because it's not the first time I've painted this particular group of cows. Might be my favorite group ever! I've painted them before - and plan to paint them again. The light and shadow on them is bold. Their expressions are fantastic. They lend themselves to a bit of abstraction. Perfect! For a while, it worried me that I felt compelled to paint the same cows, the same salt marsh, the same idea. Then I remembered Monet, Degas and, for the mystery-readers among you, Kurt Wallander's father. 

There's something delightful in painting the same whatever again and again. Some of the fear vanishes; I know I'll be able to make the painting because I've already made the painting. I don't have to worry about seeing the details or understanding the light - I've already solved those problems. 

Of course, there's the worry that because I've already painted it, the new piece will be stale. But I believe that keeping that possibility in mind will help me avoid it. 

One other note - When I just had the cows painted, I posted this painting on Facebook and got so many positive comments that I'm going to start a series of small paintings of cows on black, and see what happens. 

The just-started piece is below. Above, a detail of the finished piece. 

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thought you might like to see me as a conehead! 

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Dog of the Day

It's Henry, Cynthia and Kevin's German shepherd-Airedale mix, 

wishing you all a Merry Henry Holidays! 

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A Final Thought

"Art is the proper task of life." 

- Friedrich Nietzsche

Near Manhattan, Montana

Near Manhattan, Montana

Oil on black canvas, 30x30

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

There's something about the West that reaches into a deep part of my soul and releases something that lives there. It's a thing I love, this thing deep in me, but not a thing I can easily name. It's some mix of feelings of freedom, courage, confidence and a deep, abiding love of the landscape itself, the sky, the mountains, the grasses and plains.

In the landscape of the West, I feel strong and tall, square-shouldered and unburdened. I feel that I could ride a horse, write a book, hold my own in a conversation with anyone.

Most of all, in this landscape, I feel that I can paint. On this most recent trip, I felt that feeling again and again, day after day, and it was wonderful. I painted enough out there to recognize the feeling, learn where it is in me. And back home, in spite of all my fears and worries, I've been able to call that feeling to the surface and carry it with me.

Nothing is as clear here as it is on a painting trip. There's family here, Peter and our dogs and cats. Friends. Distractions, chores, errands. But the point of the trips, one of the main points, is to bring home all kinds of things that I found Out There. And happily, I've been able to do just that.

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AND NOW, for a short commercial.

WACHAPREAGUE CALENDARS are $19, and you can get them on the Jacobson Arts website.

I have to say, the calendars came out great.  12 paintings of beautiful Wachapreague, one for every month of 2017. Click here to reach my website, Jacobson Arts., where you can buy them. 



PRINTS, NOTECARDS, PILLOWS, shower curtains,Fine Art America. You can go to the main page and then search for me, or click here to reach my page. If there's a painting you'd like, and you don't see it on the page, please send me an email (carrieBjacobson@gmail.com) and if I can get it on the site for you, I will.
 


PATRONAGE PROGRAM. Maybe you're a person who owns a business, or a string of businesses. Maybe you're a person with several homes. Maybe you're a person who would love to give a grand present to a spouse, or is looking for great gifts for a whole group of people. Maybe you're a person who would be intrigued with the idea of becoming an even more significant patron of the arts.

If you are any of these, or any combination, let's talk. I'm looking for three patrons to enroll in my program, at $25K each. Yes, it is a lot of money, but it will buy you a lot of art, made especially for you, or for people to whom you'd like to give art. To find out more, click here to visit the Patronage Program page of my website. You can email me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com, or call me at 860-442-0246.

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Really? Pre-sliced? What on EARTH does that mean? 

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Dog of the Day

He was small, but he was serious! 

Want your pet to be the Dog of the Day? It need not be a DOG! Send a jpg to me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com

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A Final Thought

"The first mistake of art is to believe it's serious." 

- Lester Bangs

Simon and Garfunkel

Simon and Garfunkel

Oil on black canvas, 36x60

At Center Framing and Art, 968 Farmington Ave., West Hartford Center, CT

I've been busy, traveling to Connecticut to visit with family, paint outside Center Framing and Art, have an early Thanksgiving/Christmas party, visit with Erika and Paul and their whole family, then come back to beautiful Wachapreague and have Thanksgiving here with Peter and the devil dogs, WHEW! I took a few days off afterwards, just to get my head to stop spinning. 

I hope you all had good Thanksgivings, whatever kind of Thanksgiving you had. 

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HERE'S A QUESTION for you: 

Many people have told me they pretty much never read what I write here. They just look at the painting, scroll down to the Dog of the Day, and go on. If you'd prefer pretty much just the painting, the DOD and maybe the quote, and only the rare bout of verbiage, that's fine with me - but let me know, would you? Please use the comments below to voice your opinion. And you will not hurt my feelings, I promise! 

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Dog of the Day

Couple of cuties, dressed up for a summertime show. 

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

"I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream." 

- Vincent Van Gogh

Swirling Sunflowers

Swirling Sunflowers

Oil on canvas, 20x20

Please click here to email me for price and availability

The Workhouse Arts show in Lorton, VA, starts in just a few hours. I'm a little late posting this, mainly because I was just too exhausted after setting up in 93 degree heat. Yow. I thought summer had ended! There are no trees in the yard at the former prison, but in spite of that, it is a lovely spot, and the show looks fantastic. It's the second year of the show, and the temperature is supposed to be deep in the 90s, at least today, and so - who knows? But then again, who ever knows?  In the former prison, which has been totally and beautifully renovated, there are artist studios, and I'm hoping to check them out during the weekend. Next weekend, I'll be in Durham, NC, at the Centerfest show. Then I head west for the Big Skies Painting trip! Sponsorships are still available....

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Dogs of the Day

Yup, it's our dogs, or most of them, gathered at the gate to say goodbye! 

And that's Peter, also saying so long.

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A Final Thought

"We have art in order not to die of truth."

- Friedrich Nietzsche

Fred and Ethel

Fred and Ethel

Oil on black canvas, 36x48

Please email me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com 

for price, availability and other details! 

FRED AND ETHEL, CHARMING though they might be, did not bring me good luck in Pittsburgh. Or maybe they did.

Set-up for the Shadyside show, on Walnut Street in Pittsburgh, is at 3:30 a.m. on Saturday. You're allowed to drive in to the very narrow street, unload your stuff, and then get out. You can start putting your tent up at 5 a.m., when everyone has driven in and unloaded. After the show, the process reverses. You take everything down and put it on the sidewalk, and when everyone is done, you can all drive in. 

Most artists had to park in the organizer's lot, which was several miles away, and then catch a shuttle bus back and forth from the show street to the lot. 

Because of all this, Alison Thomas and I did some different stuff. Alison is a photographer/digital artist and a friend - check her work out at Serenity Scenes - and she and I split a suite at a hotel close to the show, and also decided to rent tents. When you rent a tent, it comes with all the weights, and also is put up and taken down by the tent guys. Because we both had vans, only one of us could park in the lot by our hotel; Alison had to park in a downtown garage, as my van wouldn't fit. 

So... We got there at 3:30 a.m., unloaded, and reparked the vans. In time, the tent guys came along and put our tents up, and we were able to hang our work. Both show days were blazingly hot. I sold one painting, and that was it. But I loved the couple who bought my painting, and as friends have reminded me, it's better to sell one than to sell none. 

The show closed at 5 p.m. on Sunday. I took my paintings down, wrapped them up, went and got my van and was able to park in a small lot close to the show street. I made two trips to the van with my handtruck, and was closing the van doors when all hell began to break loose. 

Artists at shows are obsessive weather-watchers, and we all have scads of weather apps on our phones. None of them picked up the storm that blossomed over Pittsburgh. It had been a sunny, hot day, and then suddenly, we were in the middle of thunder, lightning, high wind, sheets of pelting rain and yes, hail. 

Alison had been unable to get her van out of the garage - the gate wouldn't take her credit card, and wouldn't take cash. While she was wrestling with that, I found a tarp and put it over her photographs, which were on her handtruck. I moved the rest of her work to a doorway, covered it with a sheet and piled up stuff in front of it. I didn't notice her wall panels, however, and they got soaked. A huge huff of wind blew some of the coverings off her work, and a few pieces were damaged. 

But that was nothing compared to elsewhere in the show. Artists who hadn't rented tents had hauled their work to the sidewalk and many had the tents partly disassembled.                                                                                                                   The weights were off, but the tents were still standing. People hadn't begun to load their vans because their vans were parked miles away. This photo, by artist Tom Wachs, gives you a sense of the wreckage.                                                                                              

Work was ruined. Tents were ruined. People were hit by art and tent legs. Everyone was soaked. I was wet through to my underwear. The next day, my shoes were still soaked. By the time the storm stopped, and we were able to get Alison's van in to load her stuff, it was 8:45. on the way home, we nearly drove into a mass of downed wires, which, for all I know, were live. 

It was a terrible show for me, that's for sure. But in the end, I guess I was one of the lucky ones. And I am thankful for that. Here's a short video of the hail. 

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Detail 

After my most recent posting, Morning's Glory, a friend suggested I post 

a detail shot of the texture of the piece. So here are a couple! 

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Dog of the Day 

It's Red, whose human is Christine Stark, our dog pusher. Yup, Christine has been responsible for us having Abby, Koko, Dr. Cooper and Lulu. I joke, but Christine is a force of nature, who has done tremendous work fostering and finding homes for dozens, if not hundreds, of dogs. A passel of puppies was responsible for Christine losing her rental home. The group she worked for must be missing her like blazes right about now. 

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A Final Thought

"We are saved only by love - love for each other and the love that 

we pour into the art we feel compelled to share." 

- Tennessee Williams

Thanks to Lynn Hoins for sending this quote to me! If you have a good art-related quote that you'd like me to include as A Final Thought, please send it to me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com

Morning's Glory

Morning's Glory

Oil on black canvas, 36x60

Please click here to email me for price and availability

Cheryl Wheeler, in "Summer's Almost Over," sings "Summer's almost over, and the weeds have won at last..." and I don't know about you, but that's where we are. The gardens are happy and the flowers are blooming, but the weeds are happier, and through all the heat of the past month, have triumphed. They haven't choked out the flowers yet, but it is only a matter of time. 

This painting seems to capture all the glory and thrill of summer, when the sun is clear and the air is warm and the afternoons seem that they will last forever.

You can see this one - and several other new pieces! - live and in person this weekend in Pittsburgh, PA, at the Shadyside Art Festival! It's the 20th anniversary of the festival, which is one of the top ones in the country. I don't know my booth number yet, but will post it here on the blog, and also at Jacobson Arts  as soon as I find out. 

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IN OCTOBER, I'm heading west, to paint in Montana, Wyoming and perhaps South Dakota. I can't wait! It's one of my favorite parts of the country, and because of my schedule, I haven't been able to visit in years - except in the dead of winter, which is not the best time... 

I still have sponsorships available for the Big Skies Painting Trip! For $125, you will get an original 10x10 plein-air oil painting, regular blog postings about the places I visit, the people I meet, the dogs I see... and some goodies from the road. You can sign up for bigger paintings, as well. Click here for more information, or check out the Big Skies Painting Trip on my website, Jacobson Arts.

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I THINK THIS this sign is pretty funny. I also think the sign just past the George Washington Bridge, "New England, Exit 4" is funny. It amuses me to think that one exit could take you to an entire, huge area. 

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Dog of the Day

The two with the white noses? They got into a bag of flour. Ah, puppies. 

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A Final Thought

"The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love color the most." 

- John Ruskin

This quote was sent to me by a faithful blog reader. Thank you, SaraBeth! If you have an art-related quote that you love, please send it to me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com. Thank you!