Four Sunflowers

Four Sunflowers

Each is 4 inches by 4 inches / $40 each or $150 for all four

 Here's another in the mini-painting series. I'll be showing these for the first time this weekend, at a show in Arlington, VA.

It's the third annual Arlington Festival of the Arts, and it takes place Saturday and Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., on Highland Street in the Clarendon district of Arlington.

More than 100 artists will show and sell paintings, glass, mixed media, jewelry and pottery, in an area that the promoter says has lots of good restaurants and bistros, and interesting shops.

For more on the show, click here. When I know my booth number, I'll post it here on the blog, and on the Jacobson Arts website.

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Dog of the Day

Abby, left, and Jojo have become the best of friends. Abby is a youngster, and is big and strong, exuberant and clumsy, and she loves to play. Jojo is at least 10, 

and - compared to Abby - is small and delicate. But she loves to play, too. 

When Jojo came to live with us, she forced Smokey and even Woody to play, but eventually, they excused themselves. Now, with Abby, she has all the fun 

she's dreamed of for all these years. 

The play is rougher than I'd like, and Joey got hurt last week, but she bounced back and was racing and tearing with her young friend after just one day of rest. 

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A final thought

"If we did things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves." 

- Thomas Edison

Angie - Not Baaad!

Angie

Oil on canvas, 10x10, sold

I've painted sheep before - at a small farm in Groton, CT, and at a sheepdog-training event in New Hampshire  (this last one is still available. Email me if you're interested!) - and I have some great photos of sheep from a farm around here. 

A couple contemplating a commission has expressed an interest in a rural scene featuring sheep instead of cows, and so I've done a little more exploring of sheep this past week or so. Angie is one of the experiments - and I love her!  So expect some sheep paintings in the future. Fun! 

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Dog of the Day

It's Little Bit, campground cat at the wonderful KOA in Anderson, SC. The women who run the campground are real animal lovers, and have several dogs and a few cats. Little Bit is one of the cats who stay at the campground. When I was there last year, she was very shy - but she's come out of her shell enormously in the past year! 

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

"Act as if you were already happy and that will tend to make you happy." 

- Dale Carnegie

Four by Four by Four

Four Coneflowers

Each is 4x4; $40 for each, or $150 for all four

For a variety of reasons, I don't have prints. The biggest reason is that prints don't have the surface texture of paintings, and so, in a way, they are self-negating. You can see the texture, but can't touch it or feel it, and it doesn't capture the light the way the paintings do. That being said, so many people ask for prints that I am thinking of making some available on line, and seeing how it goes. 

Another reason that I don't have prints is that I always have $100 painting available. In many shows, prints sell for more than $100. So you can come to me and get an original oil painting for less than a print! 

But $100 is substantial money, and more than many folks can afford right now. So I am trying an experiment - 4-inch by 4-inch paintings that I'll sell for $40 each. I'm making them in groups of four, and if someone wants all four, they can buy them for $150. 

What do you all think? Is this a good idea? Is $40 a reasonable price for a small oil painting? I'd love to hear your thoughts. So far, I've done coneflowers, sunflowers and sunsets. I'll post them all in time here on the blog. 

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Dog of the Day 

It's Patsy and Vinnie, from an Easter past. Patsy, the bulldog, 

passed away last year, suddenly and sadly. Vinnie is going strong. 

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A final thought

"If you are distressed by anything external, the paint is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment."

- Marcus Aurelius

Eagle Nest - and Some Springtime

Eagle Nest

Oil on canvas, 10x10, $100

Eagle Nest, NM, is one of my favorite places. It's high in the mountains northeast of Santa Fe, and is a gorgeous, unspoiled bit of the world. Sort of like Wachapreague with mountains. Fans of "Longmire" will recognize it as one of the places where the series was shot. 

But storms were rolling in there, one after another, when I was out west this winter, and so I didn't go. But I painted this from a photograph, as a way of remembering and saying hello. 

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Spring has come to the Eastern Shore! Above, trees along Route 13. 

Below, a gorgeous tree in a yard on Main Street here in Wachapreague, 

and daffodils at a neighbor's house. 

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Dog of the Day

It's Booba, whom our granddaughter Samantha found, about a million years ago. Samantha is the new mother of Emmett, and is a grown-up, fully adult woman. She was a little kid when she found (and named) Booba, who has been an interesting and amusing cat for many years.

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A final thought

"A loving person lives in a loving world. A hostile person lives in a hostile world. Everyone you meet is your mirror."

- Ken Keyes

Two Pairs - and that Paradise City Magic

Two Pairs

Oil on canvas, 36x60

Available at Center Framing and Art, West Hartford Center, CT

I think this painting is one of my best cowscapes ever. I love the expression I saw and caught on the cow right in the front. I like the barns a lot, and the trees along the ridgeline, too. The white-gray sky seems to work in this painting, and I like the rich, undulating field, too - in spite of last summer's dismay with such green blocks.

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THE FIRST BIG SHOW that accepted me was Paradise City, in Northampton, MA. (Here's my first booth) I'd gone to the show for years, and had applied thinking that I'd never, ever get in. The work in the Paradise City shows is about the best of any of the shows I've been in. I'd go, and ooh and ahh, and maybe sometimes buy something - and always, always, be motivated and inspired. 

When I got the notice that I had been accepted, I was just stunned. Honestly, I thought someone had made a mistake. I think that that acceptance is the single most confidence-building event in my painting life. 

When I left Patch.com, and journalism, to paint full-time, my first show was Paradise City. We were living in Connecticut, and I had packed the van and was ready to go when my brother called. The Hartford Courant's entertainment magazine had Paradise City on the cover, and the entire cover, the first day after I left the safe world of corporate employment, was a painting by me. 

Paradise City has continued to generate magic for me. I just returned from Pendleton, SC, where I had a good time and met fine people, but had very low sales. This is the third low-sale show in a row, and I was feeling deflated and confused. Then, Anne Pinkerton from Paradise City reached out and told me she was doing a piece on me for the show's online magazine.  It's a fine piece, and it really brings me and my art to life - and, in the moment, helps me feel that the low sales have nothing to do with me or my painting. Click here to read it! 

The Paradise City show is May 23-25, at the Three County Fairgrounds in Northampton, MA. I'll be in Booth No. 415, in the Morgan Barn. Click here for coupons for discounts on the entry fee. 

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Dog of the Day

Stormy, a very interesting woman, came into my booth in Pendleton, SC, on the second day of the show. She was clearly a free spirit, and entertained me with stories of her adventurous and eccentric life. She was wearing a great cross necklace, with a Russian Orthodox cross scratched into a block of metal. I really loved it, and traded her a small acrylic painting for it. She asked, then, if she could take a photo of me with Buster, her Boston terrier. I looked around for a dog.... She put her purse down on the ground, reached in and pulled out Buster! He is cast iron, and weighs a ton (she said 9 pounds but he felt heavier than that). She takes photos of him all over the place. So today, Buster is the Dog of the Day! 

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A final thought

"A strong positive mental attitude will create more miracles 

than any wonder drug."

- Patricia Neal

Banana Dog

Banana Dog

Oil on canvas, 16x16 

Sold

During a slow time in a show last summer in Manayunk, just outside of Philadelphia, I took this photo of a woman and her dog, who is crazy about bananas. The dog - an older guy - was totally and completely focused on the woman's banana, in spite of all sorts of people and activity nearby (which I didn't paint). 

It made me very happy to make this painting. I am still a novice at painting people, but I like the way she came out, and I like the reflections in the window, too, and the people inside the coffee shop. The woman who bought this piece loved it, and is a collector of dog art, so how perfect! 

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 "House of Cards" fans, this one's for you 

Yup, it's the peachoid! And there really is a Gaffney, SC, too. 

Why the peachoid is yellow, I don't know. 

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Pix from the Road

I'm in Pendleton, SC, right now for a show this weekend, and thought you all might like seeing some spring-looking scenery. Pink and white trees are blooming everywhere down here, and the pollen is turning everything greeny-yellow. And it is warm! You all in New England, take heart. It's coming your way.

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Sunrise in Wachapreague on Thursday. 

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Dog of the Day

It's Tyler! He's Erika and Paul's dog, and is sort of the 

brown-eyed version of Jojo. I guess they are step-siblings? Or maybe just cousins. 

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

"There is a basic law that attracts like. Negative thinking definitely attracts negative results. Conversely, if a person habitually thinks optimistically and hopefully, his positive thinking sets in motion creative forces - and success, instead of eluding him, flows toward him." 

- Norman Vincent Peale

Tangled Up in Blue

Tangled Up in Blue

Oil on canvas, 30x30

Please click here to email me for price and shipping info

I love this painting. The colors, the patterns, the background. It sings of spring to me, and summer, and those long afternoons stretching out toward a warm, pink sunset. 

After I'd decided on the name, I heard that Joni Mitchell had been hospitalized.  It made me think of all the folk singers I loved when I was a teenager. In a way, I think I'm doing what they were doing. 

In just a few minutes, I'll be leaving for the Spring Jubilee Show in Pendleton, SC. I had an OK show there last year - not great, but not bad - and I truly enjoyed myself. I met really nice people, the show was organized beautifully, and it was a lovely, small show. Fun! So it's a pretty good way to start April. 

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I visited our daughter Erika (above left, with her wedding dress) and her fiance Paul this weekend. I met our new great-grandson Emmett and saw his mom Samantha (above right). I saw our older great-grandson JJ (above right, with Samantha) and his dad John, our grandson Ashton, my brother and his wife and their daughter Larkin, and I also saw my sister. Whew. And it snowed the whole time, practically!

I also delivered paintings to Center Framing and Art, 56 LaSalle Road, West Hartford Center. Lori and Forrest, below, put all my new stuff in the window. Doesn't it look great? 

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Dog of the Day

It's Anne Pinkerton's dog Trixie! Trixie has a pal who will be featured as DOD soon. If you'd like 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

"A man can succeed at almost anything for which he has unlimited enthusiasm." 

- Charles Schwab