Exploring an Idea

These two paintings -"Four in Hand," above, and "Swirling Sky," left, come from an experiment I've been doing. In both, I put much of the paint on the canvas in loose blobs (big loose blobs), and then used my knives to pull the paint into images. 

I love both of these pieces, though neither does precisely what I was hoping to do, which is to pull the whole painting - somewhat abstract, somewhat realistic - from the blobs of paint. 

This is tantalizing to me, and I'm going to keep trying it, either until I learn to master the idea, or I find I'm at the end of this particular road. 

The top painting is now in the home of a buyer, who is deciding whether to keep it. It's 15x60. The lower painting, 20x20, is in a gallery, Art House Charlotte, in Charlotte, NC. Please drop me an email if you're interested in either, or in having me make a similar painting for you. 

Dogs of the Day  

Jojo (above) and Zoe (below) have been gone for just about a year now. I miss them both,  and also I miss Smokey, who died a few months ago, and Sam and Looie, who passed in 2014. It's been a tough stretch, and we knew it would be, way back when. 

But our dogs enrich our lives. They make me laugh, they make me stop and play, they help me love with abandon and joy, and to forgive when forgiveness is required, right away and without rancor. There is always the pain of loss, when you have a dog. That's the price we pay for the love of a dog, the companionship, the countless hours of laughter and comfort. Zoe was a dear girl and I miss her. Jojo was the dog of my heart, and I'll never stop missing her. 

***

A Final Thought

"Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone." 

- Pablo Picasso

New London Lighthouse - and a New Painting Trip!

New London Lighthouse
Oil on black canvas, 18x36

 I've never been a big one for painting sailboats, but suddenly, they've appeared in my heart and more or less demanded to be in paintings.

So, here is one of two sailboat paintings I've made recently.

This one is special for me not only because I love it when some subject (sailboats, waterfalls, cows) walks into my little painting world and requires my attention, but also because the lighthouse and houses in the background are in New London, CT, where I grew up.

My mother, brother and I, my dad when he wasn't working, and eventually my sister, too, spent all day, every day, every summer of my youth, at Guthrie Beach on Long Island Sound.

We'd get there at about 10 a.m., and leave about 4 or 5. We'd stretch out in the sun, swim until we were pruney, dive off the raft, play endless games in the water and eventually sail on my Sailfish (pretty much a surfboard with a big sail).

Mom usually packed our lunch, though sometimes we would get lunch from a guy with a truck. The guy would lean out the window of the truck, tipping his head through the opening. Later in life, when we'd see him, his neck was still tipped sort of sideways, as it had been when he leaned out the window. I never knew if it was tipped because of leaning out the window, or if he decided on the food truck because his neck already was tipped and this was a job that could utilize his peculiar anatomy.

When we lay in the sun, we slathered ourselves with Johnson's baby oil, or with some dark tropical something that smelled like coconut. I often had zinc oxide on my nose, which always burned. Sometimes we'd use Coppertone, which at the time, I believe, was a suntanner, not a sun blocker. These days, even a whiff of Coppertone sends me back to Guthrie Beach.

I haven't come down with skin cancer yet, though my brother has, and had it removed and has been in remission for nearly 10 years. I don't go to the beach much these days, but making this painting has brought up a beach urge in me that I hope to satisfy soon.

***

AND THE TIME I might get to satisfy it is during the Mystic Outdoor Art Festival, Aug. 13-14, in Mystic, CT.

I will be at the corner of Pearl and Main, across the street from the post office, and near the pet shop and bagel place. It's my usual spot, and I'm happy to be there again. Hope you come by and say hello, see my new paintings and maybe even buy one!

The weekend before, Aug. 5-7, I will be in the Uptown Art Festival in Minneapolis, MN.

***

Tetons Homestead

Oil on black canvas, 10x10, $125

PLANS FOR THE Big Skies Painting Trip are officially underway. It's another of my sponsored painting trips, with sponsorships available at the $125, $300 and $500 levels. I'll be traveling to Montana, Wyoming and perhaps South Dakota, wandering, discovering, and making plein-air paintings for my sponsors.

Here's how it works: Each sponsorship level gets you a different sized painting from the road. The $125 level gets you a 10-inch by 10-inch painting; $300 is 16x16; $500, 20x20 or 24x24. You decide what level you want, then sign up to sponsor me, sending me the funds by check or through paypal. 

From the road, I'll send special blog entries to my sponsors. In these blogs, I'll write about and send photos of places I'm seeing and people I'm meeting. I'll include my paintings, and photos of my paintings in the landscape. When I get back, I'll post all the paintings on a web page, and sponsors will choose their paintings in the order in which they signed up. 

In addition to the blog and your painting, you'll get a postcard or two, a visit if it's possible, and my eternal gratitude! 

For more information, and to see blogs and paintings from past trips, please click here to go to the Big Skies Painting Trip page of the Jacobson Arts website. Questions? Ideas? Email me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com

***

Dog of the Day

Met this cutie at the Wickford Fine Art Festival a few weeks ago. 

***

A Final Thought 

"Successful art is a collaboration between its creator and the patron, unified in grace."

- Chad Poppleton

The quote was sent to me by a blog reader who collects my paintings, and had just seen my work in the newest edition of "Southwest Art." 

Do you have an art-related quote you'd like to share? Please send it to me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com

Sailboats - and Fort Defiance Scenes

Sailboats, 10x10

Commission

This is the fifth in a six-piece commission I made for my youngest collector. She came up with the ideas, and set me loose on them. It was great fun to find the images, concoct a color palette for the whole thing, and make paintings that work alone and together. I loved every minute of it, and am honored by it, as well. When I post the final painting, I'll also post a photo she sent me of the pieces all together. 

***

WINTER HAS FINALLY caught up with me! I've been in Arizona, painting for the Origins Painting Trip, and I've had an interesting time, and made paintings I really like. 

But as I write this, I'm in a hotel in Tucumcari, NM. This is my second day here, and it might be the second of three, depending what happens with the weather. After I arrived, Saturday night, it began to sleet. That continued all night, then mixed with freezing rain and snow. The temperature dropped on Sunday, and the snow continued. It's snowing hard now, and the wind is blowing, and I am staying put until the weather blows out of here. And I might as well. The storm seems to be traveling the same road I intend to travel - I-40 to Memphis. 

***

Scenes from the Road

Can you imagine living on Bucket of Blood Street? At least a few people 

in Holbrook, AZ, do! So would you like to live there?  Below, a dino sculpture

on the main street in Holbrook. It must be an interesting town. 

I saw this "Water Is Life" graffiti on a shed on the road

 between Gallup, NM, and Fort Defiance, Arizona. 

Above and below, some of the amazing red rocks around 

Fort Defiance, AZ. I was born there, and the Origins Painting Trip

 took me back there to paint. 

***

Dog of the Day

It's Jillie, with my friend and sponsor, Rose. Jillie, a great, fun dog,

 is a real snuggler - and a great walker, but she's not so happy

 with the frigid temperatures and mounds of snow in upstate New York this winter! 

Mystic River Racers

Mystic River Racers

Oil on canvas, 18x18

Please contact me for price and delivery options

At a recent show, I found myself next to a very crabby artist who made large watercolor paintings (probably 24x30) on paper. She hung them, unframed and unmounted, on the rafters of her tent, and also had them in a box on a table. They were very tight watercolors of flowers on draped fabric. Many of the arrangement were in front of mirrors, so they were reflected and doubled.

She was asking $1,000 each.

The first day of the show, no one bought anything, and fewer than a dozen people went into her tent.

But then, much to my amazement and the collective amazement of everyone near her, she won Best in Show. This brought her a check and a big blue ribbon, which, of course, she hung prominently in her tent. Not only did people go into her tent in droves for the entire day, but she also sold a bunch of her paintings.

All of you, who have bought paintings from me, and who have been interested in and supportive of my art, and of the art of other living artists working hard to make a living, you all should be very proud of yourselves.

You've not needed to see a blue ribbon to know that you like my work. You've not needed the vote of some expert. You have only needed to know your heart and trust your own eyes.

***

THE MYSTIC OUTDOOR ART FESTIVAL takes place Saturday and Sunday in downtown Mystic, CT. I made this painting in honor of the festival, and it's one of the pieces that's helping me get over my fear of painting boats!

If you come, be prepared to park a ways away and walk. It is supposed to be a gorgeous weekend, though, so the walk should not be too bad. If you park on the east side of town (the Mystic Seaport side), you'll walk right by me on the way to the drawbridge. I'll be at the corner of Willow and Main, across the street from the post office, and close to the World of Bagels, or whatever it's called.

The show is from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

****

Some cool pix

 Here's a bear I saw outside of Woodstock, NY! 

 Look, isn't this bizarre? The mountains in "Vermont Afternoon" and "Pulaski Farm" run into each other as though I'd painted them together. I have never hung them side by side, so I never noticed this! 

OK, across from me at SoNoArts was this free-refill soda place. On Sunday, I noticed the bladder-problem billboard behind it!!! Happily for all, the port-a-potties were just to the right of all this. 

***

Dog of the Day

It's Jilly, waiting for her mama to come home.

Back to Old Lyme - and SoNo Arts This Weekend, Too!

Boat Launch Ramp, Old Lyme

oil on canvas, 12x48

Please contact me for price and delivery info

Yes, I went back to the boat launch ramp! It's about the most beautiful place in Connecticut, I think - and a spot I just love to paint. It's easy to set up there, too, and there are no cars driving by, so for the most part, it's quiet. 

Quiet. 

Peter and I live a quiet little life in Wachapreague. We talk, of course, and we talk plenty. But for each of us, long stretches of quiet - or at least of not talking - underline our days. 

In Wachapreague, the days themselves are quiet. There's almost no traffic in town. There's no noise from airplanes. Now that the arsonist has been captured, the fire alarm rarely sounds. There are no crowds, no hubbub. Our own dogs are probably the noisiest things in town, and when they get too much, I put them back in the house. 

This trip, all these shows, weekend after weekend after weekend, and then my gypsying existence, going from home to home, friend to friend, family to family, this has been great, and fun and exciting - but it has involved a lot of talking, from me, by me, and to me. It's not that I haven't enjoyed it, because I have. But it has been more than is good for me. More than is good for my painting. 

So when I find a quiet place to paint, I relish it. And who knows - I might go back to the boat launch again next week. 

Here's my painting in the landscape

***

SoNo Arts takes place this weekend, Saturday and Sunday, in South Norwalk, CT.  It's a fun show, with tons of artists, including the very talented Ronet Noe, who will be my neighbor on the plaza. We are booths 420 and 421. So if you're around Connecticut this weekend and looking for something to do, please come by South Norwalk and say hello - and buy a painting! 

***

Dog of the Day

This is Pascha, the dog of the day! She is an elderly labradoodle, and just a wonderful, sweet old girl. 

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

And THANK YOU for reading! 

Safe at Anchor

Safe at Anchor

Oil on canvas, 12x48

sold

The storms move in, and with them comes the promise of relief, a cooling off, a waning of humidity. 

In these thick days, the slightest effort leaves me slick and stained with sweat. I train myself to consider it cleansing, a gift, a way to chase the toxins out. Native Americans use sweat lodges. Norsemen use saunas. This year, all of us on the East Coast simply use the summer. 

Even painting raises perspiration. And it is OK. What I don't like are the bugs, the ticks, the wasps, the huge green flies that take chunks out of me. 

So I use the bug spray, and I use the sun screen, and I use deodorant, and I drink water All The Time, and I remember to be grateful. 

This summer, I am outdoors. This summer, July's heat has crept into my skin and into my bones. This summer, the long arcs of evening aren't wasted on me. I am out in them, and savoring them, and sweating in them. 

***

SATURDAY AND SUNDAY! Wickford Outdoor Art Fair! Wickford RI! Find me on Elam Street! 

***

Dogs of the Day

Here are Catherine Lenoci's three dogs! From left, Georgia, a mini Australian shepherd who was given to Cat by her kids when she turned 50... next is Guinness, a full-sized Aussie, and Whitey, a 10-year-old Lab. 

I met Cat years ago at the Mystic Outdoor Art Festival. She bought a painting from me, signed up for the blog, and we've been friends ever since. She's an artist, too, who makes delightful paintings, but doesn't sell them. 

Want your pets to be the dog of the day? Send a jpg to me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com