Canton Sunflower Farm

Canton Sunflower Farm

Oil on canvas, 12x48

sold

This life offers some odd interactions.

I am painting this morning, on the side of Route 44 in Canton (pronounced the Ohio way, not the China way), when a red truck pulls up.

The door opens, and out steps an old guy wearing a T-shirt and a sort of strange hat. He looks to be in his 80s.

He comes over to me, and peers around the easel.

He stares at the painting for a moment, then turns to me.

"Do you ever paint regular?" he asks.

Charlotte

Charlotte

Oil on canvas

commission

The Berkshires show was a total financial bust for me. Over three loooong days of the show, not one painting sold. Not One. Ouch.

But I met some delightful people, including jeweler Cynthia Battista, who makes fascinating pieces in different kinds of metal and stone (click here to check out her work at OldstoneStudio.net); printmaker Leslie Peebles, who makes fantastical prints of nature and animals (click here to check out lesliepeebles.com); and James Takaki, who makes metal garden ornaments in his Iron Arts studio in Vermont (click here to check out Ironartstudio.com). Below, there's a video of James talking about what he did with a big bag of money he earned at a show in Montana.

And I got some insights, too. James thinks that shows like this one, outside of urban centers, are just on the skids. Cynthia characterized the (very few) people who came to this show as "Martha Stewart" types, who are clearly not looking for my rough, vivid paintings or her unique, strong pieces. Peter says it's his theory that, at least in New England, the farther the show is from the coast, the less chance I have of selling.

I don't have theories yet. I am listening, and watching, and thinking. Do you have a theory? I'd love to hear it!

***

This weekend, I am at Olde Mystick Village, in Mystic, CT, for the Meet the Artists show. It's a small show, and includes the fabulous and fun painter Ronet Noe, the oddly humorous Greg Stones, work by show promoter Denise Morris Curt - and many more. I hope you'll come by, if you're in the area. It's Saturday, Sunday and Monday, and it will be fun! 

Woodland Hills

Woodland Hills

Oil on canvas, 10x10

sold

On Sunday in Mt. Gretna, PA, a lovely woman who'd been there Saturday came back with her fascinating and creative daughters and bought a $100 painting, Salt Marsh Mosaic, one of my favorites.

And that was it. That was the one sale of the entire show.

It was demoralizing, but it gave me time to think. I have changed my display a little. I am going to focus, for a while at least, on large paintings and small paintings, and not the in-between sizes. I'm going to make square paintings and long rectangular paintings - as soon as I go through my current canvases.

And most important - with Peter's help and support, and the help and support I get from all of you who follow this blog - I am beginning to understand that this is a long, long journey I am on. One show is just one show, one step on a pretty long road. Taking that view, one show doesn't matter. It was great that I got in, it was an honor, but it's not the show for me.

So this weekend, I am at Ski Butternut in Great Barrington, MA, for the first August edition of the Berkshires Outdoor Art Festival. The July festival has been going on for a while, and is a good show, I am told. This is the first year for this one, and so who knows. I have no expectations. It's a three-day show, and there were few people there Friday. And no one bought a painting.

But today is a new day, and it is beautiful here in the mountains! I've had the chance to paint these past couple days, and that sets everything right for me.

Murphy

Murphy

Oil on canvas

Commission

The first day of the Mt. Gretna show was a disaster for me.

It is a gorgeous, magical place, a beautiful park surrounded by what I can only describe as troll houses, from the book "Doris & the Trolls." The ones near the park are several stories high, and entry is via narrow, precarious staircases. Flowers and vines grow all up and down the outsides of these homes, and people sat on porches all day, enjoying the art and the show and the comings and goings of the world.

The show is enormous, with more than 250 artists, and the work that I saw was very good.

And people were buying. They were buying hand-decorated bowls ($195 for a 12-incher). They were buying hand-turned pens. They were buying pottery and ceramics and sculpture made of rocks - they were just not buying paintings by me.

There are good shows and there are not so good shows. I have had the good fortune to have several good shows in a row. I hope that the sale-less part of this show was today, and that Sunday, buyers will show up, happy and ready to purchase.

I did meet a ton of very, very nice people, interested, pleasant, willing to share. They loved my work! They just didn't buy.

Emma

Emma

Oil on canvas, 12x12

Commission

I am often asked to donate work to charitable causes, and I am willing to donate 12 pieces a year. I can't give much money, and the Art for Shelter Animals Project is a little slow these days, but I still want to give of myself, and respond when asked.

Often, especially if there is an auction involved, I offer up a gift certificate for a pet portrait. Emma is one of these - and the first one where the owner has opted for a minimal kind of portrait, as opposed to one with tons of paint.

I've done a few of these. Here's one of Bert, my brother's bulldog, now deceased. Here's one of Gus, my first dog, now deceased. I like these, I love these actually! But it's scary to do them.

***

This weekend, I am at the Mt. Gretna Art Festival in Mt. Gretna, PA. I have heard that this is a fabulous show for painters. It's in a wooded park, which sounds fun, and apparently it draws a big crowd! The communication from the show's organizers has been spectacular, and I am excited by everything I've heard, and by the prospect of a new show in a new place. 

The following weekend, I'm at the Berkshires Art Festival, in the first year for an August show. It's at Butternut Basin, or Ski Butternut, or whatever it is called now. That sounds fun, too. 

And the weekend after that, Labor Day weekend, you can find me at the Meet the Artists show at Olde Mystick Village. 

This is a busy stretch, and I am loving it! 

Woody - and 100 Cubed

Woody

Oil on Canvas, 10x10

At long last, I've started a Carrie Jacobson Artist Facebook Page (click here to go there)  - and have put up all the 100 Cubed paintings I can find in my computer.

The 100 Cubed is a series of 100 10-inch-by-10-inch paintings that I'm selling for $100. Nearly all of them are plein-air pieces... I'm using them to focus myself, to experiment, and to loosen up!

According to myself (not the most reliable source), I have completed 57 of the 100. Well, 58, counting little Woody here, the terrorist tsar of Wachapreague. I normally wouldn't do a dog on a 10 by 10 canvas, but I was painting at the South Norwalk show, and all I had was 10 by 10 canvases!

My question for all of you, and my request, is: Please go to my facebook page, look at the 100 Cubed project, and let me know if there are paintings that you remember, or you own, that I've not posted! I would really appreciate it.

And while you are there, please like me. Oh, please, please like me.

Sheesh, what Facebook has done to us.

Thanks!

Burton's Shore

 Burton's Shore

Oil on canvas, 10x10

sold

One of the reasons, I think, that Wachapreague and the surrounding areas on the eastern shore of Virginia are so beautiful and untouched is that there are really no beaches there.

Instead, there's a gorgeous salt marsh that draws all sorts of birds, and deep inlets that are home to all sorts of sealife.

And there are barrier islands with beautiful, untrammeled beaches - but they're out between the bay and the Atlantic.

I am thankful for this, much as I love beaches. It has kept the eastern shore from looking like Virginia Beach or the Outer Banks, or any of a thousand other seaside spots that have been built up and built up and overbuilt up.

Here and there, of course, there are strips of sand, small beaches - like this one, on Burton's Bay. It is lovely, and filled with fiddler crabs. One of these days, I'll go swimming there. This time, I just painted.

Here's my painting in the landscape.