Cardi B

Cardi B / Oil on blue canvas / 5x7 unframed $70, including shipping

I RARELY PAINT on any color other than black, but I am using the Bird A Day project as a platform for experimentation, and that includes trying paintings on different backgrounds. So this little guy is on blue. What do you think?

The project also involves my efforts with technology - and I am, as usual, feeling my way through. So if you click the button here and it doesn't bring you to PayPal, please get in touch - email me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com, or call or text at 860-442-0246. 

The button won't work if the painting has been sold. I will do my best to let you know when the painting has sold, but sometimes, I'm in the car or off the grid, and there will be a delay. And if you don't get this bird, there will be another on Monday. 

Thank you for participating in the Bird A Day project! 

***

I AM DOING as well as can be expected, given the loss of my husband in October, 86 days ago. My friends, my family, my collectors, even friends of friends have been remarkable, reaching out with kindness, condolences, prayers, generosity. Thank you, all of you, thank you so much. 

The box above is about the size of a shoebox, and as you can see, is filled to the brim with cards. Though is was heart-warming and life-affirming to open all of these cards, it also was emotionally difficult. I opened them as I was able, and on Jan. 1, finished. I found the bag of mail I thought I had recycled without opening. So, if you sent me a card, I received it, and I thank you for it. You are more giving, more wonderful, more numerous than I ever could have imagined. 

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For Today

I Am Offering This Poem

By Jimmy Santiago Baca

I am offering this poem to you

since I have nothing else to give.

Keep it like a warm coat

when winter comes to cover you,

or like a pair of thick socks

the cold cannot bite through,

                         I love you,

I have nothing else to give you,

so it is a pot full of yellow corn

to warm your belly in winter,

it is a scarf for your head, to wear

over your hair, to tie up around your face,

                         I love you,

Keep it, treasure this as you would

if you were lost, needing direction,

in the wilderness life becomes when mature;

and in the corner of your drawer,

tucked away like a cabin or hogan

in dense trees, come knocking,

and I will answer, give you directions,

and let you warm yourself by this fire,

rest by this fire, and make you feel safe

                         I love you,

It’s all I have to give,

and all anyone needs to live,

and to go on living inside,

when the world outside

no longer cares if you live or die;

remember,

                         I love you.

Two Long Weeks

Peter

These days stretch out like fog along a gravel road, gray at the top, sharp beneath my feet.

For more than 30 years, it was the two of us together, with a changing retinue of dogs and cats. Always, there was my dear Erika, but usually at a distance.

It was Peter and me, in Westerly, in Portsmouth, in Idaho, in Maine, in Paris and Madrid and the Basque Pyrenees. It was him and me in Connecticut and Maryland and New York state and here on the Eastern Shore.

It was the two of us camping on the Big Hole River, fishing Kelly Creek and Silver Creek, skiing together at Bogus Basin, walking the woods in Bolster's Mills, swimming in the Neversink River, driving through western Canada, climbing to the top of a mountain in Lake Louise with our little dog, Gus. When we got to the top and were told Gus couldn't sit on the patio of the mountaintop restaurant with us, we turned around and hiked back down.

It was the two of us, together, complete. It was enough. We had friends, and we have family we love, but he made my world.

And now he is gone.

I can't believe it. Still can't believe it, two weeks after his death. I am sure he is about to walk in, yell "Hey, baby!" and hug and kiss me. Again and again, I am sure. Again and again, I relive the truth.

He is not coming back. There is no more "us." No more turning to him and asking, "Do you remember when we...?" No more, "Look at what I saw today!" knowing it would make him smile.

I made the painting of him a few days ago. When I was in New Mexico in the spring, I bought a set of pigments from a guy who mines the minerals and then crushes them into pigment. I'd been saving them for something special.

We are holding a memorial celebration for Peter on Saturday, Nov. 23, in Westerly, RI. I will paste the notice in below. You are welcome to attend. If you can't, maybe you can put a Hawaiian shirt on on that day, even over another shirt. If you want to read about his life, you may click here to get to his obituary, on jacobson-arts.com

***

PLEASE JOIN US at the Calabrese Club on Saturday, Nov. 23, to celebrate the rich, art-filled and too-short life of Peter Richard Jacobson, who died Oct. 10. The club is located at 28 Pleasant St., Westerly, RI.

The celebration will take place from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Please come prepared to share stories and memories about Peter. And if you have or can get a Hawaiian shirt, please wear one. They were his favorite. 

The celebration will be alcohol-free. If you would like to bring a dish to share, please contact Erika Jacobson Chiaradio, either by tagging or messaging her on Facebook, or calling her at 401-595-6850.

To read his obituary, please visit jacobson-arts.com. To see his artwork, please visit peterjacobsonart.com

Slice of Light (After the Wedding)

     

Slice of Light

Oil on blackened canvas, 36x48

New version, above; origina version, below

I have brought this painting to a number of shows, and had it in a few galleries, and it has not sold. I think it's one of my best paintings ever - and it has a cool story. I go to breakfast most Thursdays with a group of  women who have come to the Eastern Shore from Away. We go to the Sage Diner, an Eastern Shore institution, have breakfast, talk, laugh, share. 

For years, we were helped by the same waitress, a gorgeous, tall (6-foot-plus, and always with her hair up, making her even taller) woman who's from the Shore. 

One day, she announced that she was going to marry her high-school sweetheart. They'd both been through marriages that hadn't worked, and had run into each other again and fallen in love. And all of us, the Ladies, were invited. 

After the wedding, which was in the afternoon, I walked out of the church and saw this scene across the street. A beautiful farm field with the last slanting light of afternoon cutting across it. 

I painted it initially (below) quite dark and light, and recently lightened and brightened it. What do you think? 

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Westport

I'LL BE IN Westport, CT, this weekend, at the Westport Fine Arts Festival. YES, it's going to be hot, so bring fluids, wear a hat, expect to sweat - but please come to the show if you can. I'm in Booth 45, on Main Street, near the intersection with Elm. I'll put a Facebook Live video up on Saturday, if I can! 

Meantime, above, a photo of my booth from the recent Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts in State College, PA. 

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Dog of the Day

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A Final Thought

"Art should be an oasis: a place or refuge from the hardness of life." 

- Fernando Botero

Dancing Sunshine

Dancing Sunshine

Oil on blackened canvas, 36x48

THERE'S A THING that has happened to me now many times in my lengthening painting life. I get an idea of a painting I want to make - maybe even just a whisper of an idea - a ghost, a sliver of a thought. I know I want to make the piece, but I either can't see it, or just don't yet have the skills to paint it.  Blue Canada, the painting to the left here, was one of those. I knew it would be an amazing painting, but when I saw the scene, on a trip to the Atlantic Provinces with my friend, the terrific artist Heather MacLeod, I knew I wasn't ready to paint it. Today, it doesn't look particularly difficult or intimidating, but really, it was and is. There's almost nothing in it, and yet, it's a pretty cool painting. 

The sunflower piece above, Dancing Sunshine, is one I've had in my head for years - really, ever since I started making sunflower paintings.  But I hadn't been able to see it clearly enough to understand what was compelling me, what I wanted to do. 

From the photo, it doesn't look like anything special, I am afraid. This is one of the ones you really need to see in person. What attracts me, and makes me so happy, is the differences in thick and thin paint, the places where the nub of the canvas makes its way to the surface, or isn't covered at all. I love the looseness of the sunflowers and the feeling of their petals and colors and vibrance bursting onto the canvas. 

In my mind are several paintings that are calling to me, that I don't yet know how to paint, or have the skills to paint. I will just let them sit there until they force their way to the front and let me know it's time. 

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Three Smalls

Shore Spring,

Oil on canvas, 6x12

Iris House

Oil on board, 6x6, not including frame

Three Ps

Oil on board, 6x6, not including frame

THESE THREE are headed for "Earthly Delights," my upcoming solo show at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens, in Norfolk, VA. The show will open July 1 and run until the end of August. If you're in the area, I hope you'll stop in. The gardens are amazing - and it's been a long time since I've had a solo show. This is a real honor for me, and I'm excited about it! 

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Dog of the Day

It's Koko! And she is happy on the couch, for sure. Paintings in the background are by Cynthia Rosen Malter (left) and Bethany Simpson. 

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A Final Thought

"Art is man's nature; nature is God's art."

- Philip James Bailey

Flowers, flowers, flowers - and a Mexican Koko!

 Brown-eyed Susans

Oil on black canvas, 14x14

Please click here to email me for price and availability

AFTER A WEAK show in Tubac and a round of self-doubt and self-examination, I dove back in and started painting again, and it felt great.

I have a solo show in July and August at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens, in Norfolk, VA, and I need 30-40 paintings for it. So I decided to paint florals, and just let the paint flow and take me where it takes me.

You people - the community that has grown up around my paintings - you people are so very sweet and so very supportive, it takes my breath away sometimes.

I write about the bad times as well as the good to share the experience, with you who love and admire and buy my art, and with other artists, especially younger ones, who might think that they are the only ones who doubt, who question, who wonder about their work and their direction. I've been making and selling art for a little while now - and that is not false modesty, but the truth: In terms of people making their living at art, I'm still a neophyte.

But I'm successful, and people buy and collect and love my paintings - and still, I question my direction, my purpose, my way. I wish artists with vast experience would share more about their doubts and missteps. I'd love to hear their questions and their answers.

Thank you, all of you who wrote and sent me your love and support. I truly appreciate it, and it always, always helps me gather my courage.

And that is what I'm doing. I'm experimenting, I'm painting with faith and verve, I am going to go where the path leads me, and I'm not painting scared. And guess what? It feels great.

Inset - Peonies, 6x6

Above - Peonies and Tiger Lilies, 12x36

Below, Bouquet on White, 16x16

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Hola! 

DAD AND PAULA and I went to Nogales, Mexico, last week, so Paula could have some dentistry work done. They, and all their friends - and a number of other people I know - cross the border from Nogales, Arizona, to Nogales, Sonora, regularly for dentistry. The dentists are first-class, and the work is miles cheaper and way quicker. It's often more economical to fly to Tucson, get a hotel, drive to Nogales and have your dental work done, than to go to your own dentist down the street. To the right is the dentist in his waiting room. Below, Nogales, Sonora. 

Above, the border going into Mexico by car. Below, Paula walking toward the border you cross on foot. Dad and Paula park in Nogales, Arizona, and then walk across the border. Apparently, the line for cars to cross back into the US can be very long. 

Above, a Mexican Chinese restaurant. Below, a Mexican Koko! 

Look through the fence at the border return, above, and you can see the metal fence, now lined with razor wire, separating Nogales, Sonora, from Nogales, Arizona. Below, the line to get back into the US. It looked pretty long, but took us only about 25 minutes. 

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Perro de la Dia

IT'S THE MEXICAN Koko, above! For those of you who might not be able to conjure up an image of the Virginian Koko, I have included a photo of her, below. Amazing likeness, si? 

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A Final Thought

"Art has many avenues; love is carried through many vessels. Your oceans are your colours, your ship is your brush and your treasures are in your heart." 

- Moncy Barbour

On Deep Creek Road

THE SHOW IN TUBAC, while not a loser of a show, wasn't great in terms of sales. I met some truly lovely people, visitors and artists alike, and made some marvelous connections, some of which will last for life, I think - and patrons and supporters of my work bought some paintings.                                                                                                                           It was excellent on a human level, and was not a disaster financially, but it was a long, slow, and very cold show. Standing outside in 40-degree weather, with a cold wind blowing, for 10 hours or so, to bring in $35, well, that's a tough day.                                                                                                                    Inevitably, a day like this, a show like this makes me question my direction, my production, my choices, even my talent. I talk positively to myself, I remind myself that I believe truly in what I'm doing, and that my job is to talk to people, listen to them, share my story if they're interested, hand out cards, invite them to sign up for my newsletter. And bring the art to them, the best art I can bring. But doubt creeps in. 

It's all an opportunity to critique my paintings honestly and even brutally, and that is OK. 

So, for your consideration, I'm posting my newest mosaic painting, at the very top, and the original painting I made of the scene, below. I like them both, I have to say, though they are very different. I'd love to hear your insights. 

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Next...

MY NEXT SHOW is the Rio Grande Spring Festival in Albuquerque, March 8-10, 

at the Lujan Exhibit Complex at the Expo NM Fairgrounds. 

I'm glad to say that this will be an indoor show. 

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Dog of the Day

It's Ringo Starr, whose humans made and sold macrame jewelry just up the road from me during the Tubac show. Ringo was friendly and very well behaved.

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 purpose of art is not a rarified, intellectual distillate - it is life, intensified, brilliant life." 

-Alain Arias-Misson

Early Morning Melody

Early Morning Melody

Oil on blackened, cradled beech panel, 16x16

At Center Framing & Art, West Hartford Center, CT

A few days ago, in a book called "The Secret Lives of Color," I encountered the idea that, in the past (and I'd add, in academia and serious intellectual artistic thought today), drawing - line, architecture, replication - were far more important than color. Drawing skills were what was valued, and I can see that when I think of the famous, pre-Impressionist paintings (that honestly - yes, I am a peasant! - mostly bore me).

When I read this, my entire painting life began to make sense to me, and I found my recent questions answered. I've often said that my paintings are all about color - and I have said that off-handedly. But truly and honestly, they are, and always have been, all about color, in a serious and fundamental manner.

Dropping the brush and taking up the knife was a vital step along this route. It allowed me to apply pure color to the canvas, while loosening my grip on line, drawing and detail.

All of this has helped me understand and accept the mosaics , which have worried me enormously of late. Now I see they are the next logical step in the exchange or abandonment of line for color. In large part, with these pieces, I am building the painting by using only the building blocks of color, light and shadow.

To some degree, this is what I've been doing all along - but the mosaics do it in an undisguised and raw way. They are harder to do than anything I've attempted so far. Next blog post, I'll write a little bit about why.

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Upcoming! 

The Wachapreague Volunteer Firemen's Carnival is on, Wednesday-Saturday, through July 7. The carnival supports the volunteer fire department, and is great fun! There are rides, games, food and music, on the carnival grounds, Atlantic Avenue, Wachapreague.

Our Fourth of July parade starts at 11:30 on the Fourth, on Main Street in Wachapreague. It's not a long parade, so don't be late! Amazing, spectacular, astonishing fireworks start at dusk on the Fourth. You can park in the park to watch. Donations are appreciated - the fireworks are put on by Rich Pulchaski, a local pyrotechnic genius, and he funds them pretty much by himself.

I'll be at two shows in July -

• the Wickford Fine Art Festival, Wickford, RI, July 7-8 and 
• the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, State College, PA, July 12-15

And that is almost all my shows for the summer, so if you want to see my new work, I hope you'll be able to come! 

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Dog of the Day

Met these two (and their service providers) in Onancock on Sunday. I've forgotten their names, but the one in the stroller is 15, I think! And the one walking is no spring chicken, either. 

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A Final Thought

"I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge,

That myth is more potent than history,

That dreams are more powerful than facts,

That hope always triumphs over experience,

That laughter is the cure for grief.

And I believe that love is stronger than death."

- Robert Fulghum, 

via "The Painter's Keys," where you can subscribe to get an always thoughtful, usually fascinating and often freaskishly pertinent newsletter. For free. 

Iris Garden, Wachapreague

Iris Garden, Wachapreague

Oil on black canvas, 10x10, $125

sold

As Hurricane Irma heads across the ocean toward Florida, Hurricane Carrie is getting ready for a show in Durham, NC, and a painting trip to New England!

I had a lovely time at CenterFest last year, in Durham, NC, and had good sales, too, and of course, I'm hoping for a repeat. This year, my friend, the amazing jeweler Cynthia Battista (check out her work here) will also be at the show, and that's great. It's always fun to have friends at a show.

CenterFest is Sept. 16-17, in downtown Durham. There will be about 150 artists, and music, activities and food. The festival is gated, and while entry is fee, the Durham Arts Council, which sponsors the show, hopes for a $5 donation at the gates. It's the group's main fund-raiser, and from what I see and read, it's an active, vital group, important in the artistic and spiritual landscape of Durham. For more information, please click here.

My final show of the summer is the Neptune Festival, on the Boardwalk at Virginia Beach, Sept. 29-Oct. 1.

After that, I head north, on the Farms and Foliage painting trip. I hope you'll consider sponsoring me! It's fun! For $125, you get a regular travel blog from me, and a painting, and my undying gratitude - and maybe some other fun stuff from the road. You can read about it and sign up to sponsor me by visiting the Farms and Foliage page on my website, Jacobson Arts. 

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Dog of the Day

Met this cutie at the vet a while back. Adorable! 

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A Final Thought

"I dream my painting and then I paint my dream." 

- Vincent VanGogh

Rex

Rex

Oil on canvas, 12x48

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

On Jan. 1, I celebrated 30 years clean and sober. It's really a miracle! I was high, on one substance or another, for most of my 20s. I am quite sure I'd be dead now if I hadn't found AA, and my Higher Power, and Peter, and the strength and spirit I needed to get and stay sober. Interestingly, stopping the drinking and drugging was the smallest part of the process. Learning to live again, that was the most of it, and continues to this day.

One of the things AA promises is that "We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness." Look at Rex here. Isn't he all that and more? That's what he says to me, and what I felt while I painted him. He's realistic and abstract. He's dark and bright. He's got the essence of "longhorn," and also the essence of  "art." He's everything I learned before my Big Skies Painting Trip, and everything I learned on it - and was able to bring back and do In The Studio, as opposed to out in the air, where everything is easier for me.

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Speaking of Out in the Air, what's your guess as to the location of  this telephone pole? Haiti? Bangladesh? Mumbai? Nope. Mystic, CT. Go figure.

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Dog of the Day

Good-looking chow, isn't he? Looks like he owns the world - as all good chows should. 

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 point is that you learn how to make your work by making your work, and a great many of the pieces you make along the way will never stand out as finished art. The best you can do is make art you care about - and lots of it!" 

- David Bayles and Ted Ormand

from "Art & Fear / Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking. I'll be quoting passages from this small, amazing, inspiring book for the month of January.

Foothills

Foothills

Oil on panel, 6x8. $75, including shipping

I'm trying some smaller pieces for 2017 (and the end of 2016). Some of these will be on panels, like the one above, and suitable for framing. 

Others will be on paper, and will arrive matted, and again, suitable for framing. I might even try framing some, but my hope with these is to keep prices low. 

The small paintings are much harder for me than the big ones! Strange, eh? Most artists have a fear of large canvases. For me, the small pieces are a struggle. That's another reason I'm going to focus on them in 2017.

I'm also going to be bringing some prints with me to the shows - but if you want prints at any time, you can go to Fine Art America (fineartamerica.com), search for me, and order prints in whatever sizes you like! 

What do you think about this idea? Is $75 a reasonable price, in your world? 

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I really should have gotten off the road and checked this one out! 

Maybe I'd have found D.B. Cooper living there... 

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Dog of the Day

I know I've featured this creature as a Dog of the Day before, 

but she (or he) amuses me endlessly. 

Want 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

"The first step to controlling your world is to control your culture. To model and demonstrate the kind of world you demand to live in. 

To write the books. Make the music. Shoot the films. Paint the art." 

- Chuck Palahniuk

- 

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

Jo,Meg, Beth, Amy - and the Best Parade

Jo, Meg, Beth, Amy

Oil on canvas, 36x60

sold

After a month on the road through the midwest, and two back-to-back weekend trips to New England, I stayed home in Wachapreague, and I mean stayed. When I drove up the Wachapreague Road on Thursday to head to Rhode Island for this weekend's show - the Wickford Art Festival, in Wickford, RI - I realized I hadn't left our tiny town for about 10 days. Wow.

During those 10 days, I painted like a fiend! I love this brand-new cowscape, a big one at 36x60! Love the expressions on the cows' faces, and I really like the little collection of buildings in the saddle of the hill. The texture is great, too - and you can see it in real life this weekend, from 10-6 on Saturday and 10-5 on Sunday.

Wickford is an adorable coastal village, and this show is probably the best in RI. It's all fine art, so don't expect to find jewelry or pottery or clothes - though there's plenty of all three in the excellent shops in town.

I'll be on Elam Street, Booth 79, so please stop by and say hello!

***

WHILE I WAS hanging around, painting in Wachapreague, I took a break to watch the July 4 parade (about 7 minutes long - perfect!) and the amazing fireworks (about 30 minutes long, and amazing!) Here are photos from both events:

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Dog of the Day

The Dogs of the Day got to be in the parade! 

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A Final Thought

"As practice makes perfect, I cannot but make progress; 

each drawing one makes, each study one paints, is a step forward." 

- Vincent Van Gogh

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Thanks for reading!!