Sunflower Landing

Sunflower Landing / oil on canvas / 4x12 unframed / $88 includes shipping

SO OFTEN, LULU BARKS - and it is almost always her - and she barks and barks and barks until I get up and go to the window and look ... and see nothing. Just nothing. No one. I can look up the street and down, across yards to the next street, and still, see nothing. 

Maybe it was a squirrel, or the glint of a bit of sun on a wire, or a piece of something skidding along the street on a gust of wind - or maybe it was nothing. Maybe Lulu simply likes to bark.

I know she can hear things I will never hear, and smell things I will never smell. Who's to say that she can't see things that I will never see? 

I'd give almost anything to be a dog for 5 minutes. 

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Gratitude

ALMOST EVERY DAY, I find myself being grateful that when we humans greet each other, we don't have to sniff each other's butts.

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For Today

"When an 85-pound mammal licks your tears away, then tries to sit on your lap, 

it's hard to feel sad." 

- Kristan Higgins

Summer Song

Summer Song

Oil on black canvas, 30x30

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

People have sometimes asked me to add detail shots of my paintings, so here are a few. It's interesting to me that when I do these detail photos, I see stuff that I didn't even know was there! Aren't they fun? 

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Big Sky Painting Trip

IN OCTOBER, I'm heading west to paint! I'm hoping to make it to Wisdom, Montana, where I took my first painting trip. The only painting I can find from that trip is below - and I am amazed at the difference between the way I painted then and the way I paint now. Still, I love this painting. The landscape near Wisdom (above) is spectacular - and I am not limiting myself to it. I plan to paint in Wyoming, too, and South Dakota, if all goes as planned. 

Soon, I'll start a page on my website, Jacobson Arts (jacobson-arts.com). I'll be making paintings for sponsors, and also for shows. I already have one sponsor! Prices will start at $125 and go to about $1000. If you know you want in, and you want to reserve an early choice, please feel free to email me now (carrieBjacobson@gmail.com). Sponsors will choose their paintings in the order they sign up. 

Here is just a mention of another trip, for your planning purposes. I hope to be traveling to Alaska in January to paint the Northern Lights. More about this soon! 

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Dog of the Day

Dog in the front basket, dog in the back basket! I saw this guy at the Omaha show this year, and remember him from last year. The dogs looked like they were having a blast. 

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A Final Thought

"One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, 

see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words." 

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Four in Hand

Four in Hand

Oil on black canvas, 40x40

Please click here to contact me for price and availability

I started this painting at home, and finished it in a parking lot in East Texas. Or maybe western Louisiana, I can't remember which. It was right near the border, though. 

When I was at home, the day before I'd planned on leaving, the realization that I needed a dog of my own hit me suddenly and hard. I'd been intrigued by little Koko (you can see photos of her here), but wanted to meet her before arriving at any decision. So I finished the flowers on this piece, put it in my handy-dandy drying/protection rack in my van, and set off, a day early. 

After meeting Koko and falling in love with her, I headed west, looking all the way for a quiet, safe place to set up and paint. Finally, somewhere near the border of Texas and Louisiana, I saw a new-looking but deserted little strip mall. I pulled in and set up my easel and began painting. Five minutes later, a giant pickup pulled in. It was the owner of the strip mall, wondering just what the heck I was doing. He peered around the side of the canvas, nodded a little nod and gave me permission. 

I finished the painting about five minutes before it started raining! And I love it, I have to say. 

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World Health Organization be damned!

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Dog of the Day 

I met this dog in Arlington, VA. She had belonged to the mother of the woman who had her. That woman said that when her mother died, the dog had gone gray overnight. 

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A Final Thought 

"I want to touch people with my art. I want them to say, 'He feels deeply, he feels tenderly.'" 

- Vincent Van Gogh

Does the Night Forget?

I'm always happy, happy as can be, when a big sunflower painting sells.

I'm happy for the sale, and I am happy for the buyer, and most of all, I'm happy because I get to make another, and know it will have a home with me, at least until the next show.

This sunflower painting delighted me. I love that it is vertical, a change for me. I love that the background continues white with its hints of yellow and green and tan, nearly to the bottom, where it picks up earth tones. I've never had the courage to do this before, continue the white the entire way. I've never had the courage to add stems, either, and I think I like them, the stems and leaves.

So it was a welcome opportunity, painting this piece. I like the pink flowers in it, and the shading, and the many surprising colors hidden here and there. All these things bring the flowers to life for me - and, I hope, for you.

You can see this painting this weekend at the Wickford Art Show, in Wickford, RI. The show is on, 10-6 today and 10-5 on Sunday.  I'll be in Booth 79, on Elam Street (there's a map on the website). Hope to see you there!

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FOR THE PAST few years, my friend Candy and I have been trading photos of the sky, nearly every day. She can be in Connecticut when I'm in Texas, or Morocco when I'm in New Jersey, and we are - of course - under the same sky. Sharing the photos has become a touchstone for me.

Sometimes, though, the sky is just blah. Think solid blue, or solid gray. So we take photos of other things. Here's one I call "Odd Man Out."

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Dog of the Day

Cute! They were at the show in Richmond, back in May. 

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A Final Thought 

THE TITLE OF this painting comes from a Carl Sandburg poem, "Nights Nothings Again." The poem is long, so I won't copy it all over, but you can click here to read it.
Here are a few short verses:

Is there a tired head
the night has not fed and rested
and kept on its neck and shoulders?

Is there a wish
of man to woman
and woman to man
the night has not written
and signed its name under?

Does the night forget
as a woman forgets?
and remember
as a woman remembers?