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. 

*** 

World Health Organization be damned!

***

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. 

***

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

Chaim's First House

Chaim's First House

Oil on black canvas, 20x20

Please click here to contact me for price and availability

Well, I drove all the way out to Texas only to run into weather that canceled the first of my three planned shows, and is now making the second look very iffy. After spending several days feeling at sixes and sevens, frustrated and rudderless and indecisive, I've canceled my other two shows, and I'm going home. 

On the way, I'm going to stop in North Carolina. Of course, I am picking up Koko. I'm also going to scout some galleries in Asheville, and see if any will represent me. If any of you have ideas of Asheville galleries that would like my art, please let me know! 

I had a good, good summer of shows with nice sales, great people and drives through beautiful countryside. It was a tiring summer, too, traveling and setting up and doing shows in the blazing heat. The deaths of Jojo and Zoe took it out of me as well. 

This decision, reached with much difficulty, feels right to me. Finally. 

***

On the Way

Really, truly, yes, these are signs I saw on the drive out here. I think it might be great to live in Bat Cave, but I'd never ever want to live in Chunky! Would you? 

***

Dog of the Day

Of course, it's little Koko. She's spayed now, and vaccinated and microchipped, 

and in a few days, she will be coming home with me. Yay! 

***

A Final Thought

"Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, 

and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen." 

- Leonardo da Vinci

The Marsh - Me, a Guest in Another Blog - and Welcome, Koko

Tuesday Morning on the Marsh

Oil on black canvas, 16x16

At Center Framing and Art, West Hartford Center, CT

The salt marsh was the first thing that attracted me to Wachapreague, and it continues to call to me. Every day, the marsh says something new. The colors, the wind, the way the light reflects. The tips of the grasses, the shift in colors from gold to red to green. The rich dark musty smell of the mud. The whitecaps that show on occasion. The water turns indigo in the winter, turquoise in the summer, gold in the right light of dusk. 

And even more than how it looks is the life of the marsh. Birds of all sorts light there, to catch their food, build their nests, swim and sleep and do what birds do. Animals and insects gather in abundance, and live and die, enriching the muck and adding to the ecosystem. 

Sometimes in the mornings, when the tide is low, the smell of the marsh is overpowering. Some people can't stand that smell; I love it. It's the smell of life going on, eternal and unchanging and always changing, too.

***

RECENTLY, I RECEIVED an email out of the blue from Sadie, who writes a blog called Sadie & Co - Her and Her Dogs Plus the Cat. 

Sadie is a fellow artist and animal-lover, and she found this blog and asked me if I'd be willing to answer a few questions, and show my art, on her blog. Of course I said Sure. 

Here's the link: http://herandherdogs.com/2015/10/20/carrie-jacobson-art/

Thank you, Sadie! 

***

Dog of the Day, Dog of the Future

I have adopted Koko, the puppy you see here. I just missed Jojo too much. I missed her love and companionship, and I was adrift without it. Peter found Koko, in the foster home of Christine Stark, who also fostered Abby. 

Christine lives near Asheville, NC, and I arranged my trip to Texas to cut across North Carolina near Asheville. We met in a WalMart parking lot, on a cold morning. Koko was shy, timid, not wanting to come out of her crate at first. But after we'd met for a while, she began to jump around and play, smother me with kisses, nip me with her puppy teeth, and we began to fall in love. 

I have left her with Christine, and I'll come back on my way home and get little Koko, and we will start our lives together. She will never be Jojo; she will never replace Jojo. But she will follow my sweet girl, and she will be my new companion.  

***

A Final Thought

"I saw an angel in the marble and I carved until I set him free." 

- Michelangelo

Ricky and Lucy Go to Texas

Ricky and Lucy

Oil on black canvas, 36x60

Please click here to email me for price and availability

I'm excited to be heading to Texas early Tuesday for three shows, and of course, I'm bringing cowscapes with me.

The first show - Huffhines Art Trail -  is in Richardson, just outside of Dallas, and it takes place this weekend, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

Then I head to Houston, for Paragon's Houston Fine Arts Festival, Oct. 31 (10 a.m. to 5 p.m.) and Nov. 1 (11 a.m. to 5 p.m.).  Hope it's a treat, not a trick.

My final show of the season is the Winnsboro Fine Art Market, in Winnsboro, Texas. This show takes place Friday, Nov. 6, from 1-7 p.m., and Saturday, Nov. 7, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

So if you live in Texas, or you're going to be in Texas - or, heck, if you just want to GO to Texas! - come and say hello to me, and Ricky and Lucy! 

***

A friend just got chickens. Aren't they adorable? 

***

Dog of the Day 

It's Phelps, and he's a fun cat. I've stayed at Phelps's home many times, a

and he's always been a little interested, and a little friendly. 

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

***

A Final Thought

"An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision."

 - James McNeill Whistler

The Deep, Red Earth

The Deep, Red Earth

Oil on black canvas, 20x60

Please click here to contact me for price and availability

I left for Texas early, on Monday, so I could stop near Asheville, NC, to meet a dog. I don't know if she will be the right dog for me, but something about her face called to me, and so I will meet her.

It's early to be bringing another dog into my life. I am still crying for Jojo, and still missing her, and Zoe, too. Heck, I miss all the dogs who have passed from my life. But Jojo was the dog of my heart, and I am lost without her.

I don't know what it says about me that I need to be loved with the unmitigated and unembarrassed enthusiasm with which Jojo loved me. She adored me without boundary or hesitation. Her joy when I came home was huge, every time. She had no dignity. She would leap and bark and cry, lick me all over, race through the house, cavorting and bounding, jumping on the furniture, taken over with joy. And I was every bit as happy to see her. We started every day together with pure happiness to be in each other's company, and ended every day the same way.

I miss Jojo and I miss this sort of renewing, reassuring, simple relationship.

So I will meet this little dog today, and I'll see. We will both know if it's right.

It makes sense that she - unnamed and unknown - is the Dog of the Day. I'll let you all know what happens.

***

A Final Thought

"Art is the stored honey of the human soul." 

- Theodore Dreiser

New Paintings in the Galleries!

Ducky

Oil on canvas, 16x16

Center Framing and Art, West Hartford Center CT

In the past month, I've distributed a bunch of my new paintings to my galleries. I thought you might like to see what's where. To track down more of my paintings in galleries, please check out the "Available" page on the Jacobson Arts website. 

Trio

Oil on black canvas, 20x20

J. Gallery, High Point, NC

Chillin'

Oil on black canvas, 30x30

JWV Artists, Charlotte, NC

Bonnie and Clyde

Oil on canvas, 20x20

Harbor Gallery, Norfolk, VA

Painter Farm

Oil on canvas, 12x48

Current Reflections Gallery, Wachapreague, VA

Here are addresses and links for my galleries: 

Center Framing and Art

 56 LaSalle Road, West Hartford Center, CT 

www.centerframingandart.com 

J. Gallery

J. H. Adams Inn, 1108 North Main St., High Point, NC

www.jgalleryhp.com

JWV Artists

By appointment, Charlotte, NC

www.jwvartists.com

Harbor Gallery

1508 Colley Ave., Norfolk, VA

www.harbor-gallery.com

Current Reflections Gallery

Main Street, Wachapreague, VA

www.facebook.com/CurrentReflectionsArt

***

Dog of the Day

How could you not take these guys for a walk? 

Want your pet to be the Dog of the Day? 

Send a jpg to me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com

*** 

A Final Thought 

"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together." 

- Vincent Van Gogh

Route 13 Barns, Large Version

Route 13 Barns (large version)

Oil on black canvas, 48x48

Please click here to email me for price and availability

I loved the small version of this painting so much that I made a larger version. It's a barn on Route 13 on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, where we live. I'm drawn to it again and again. Every time I see it, I photograph it, and I've painted it a number of times. 

In this one, the rows of planted whatever in this painting are even more  brightly colored, even more oddly three-dimensional than they were in the first one, or in any of the ones I've made.

I looked at this painting for a long, long time this weekend and realized that I don't really know how I painted it. Don't know how I made those rows look so 3-D. It's something about stroke, and color and rhythm - and something more, something I can't quite name. 

I vanished into the painting of this one, letting sadness go and healing come. There was a lot of work in this painting, a lot of time. A lot of letting in God or the nature or whatever you call the higher power that I believe brings the inspiration and the magic. 

And sometime soon, this painting will bring that magic and inspiration to someone's home. I'm looking forward to seeing where it ends up. 

***

One good thing about the days turning cold is that I get to wear my new hat.

My friend Elizabeth Buebendorf made it for me. Isn't it great? 

***

Some happy buyers, above and below, who visited my studio 

in Wachapreague recently, and had their choice of paintings.

 If you'd like to come by and see my new art, please drop me an email!

If I'm there, I'd love to see you. 

***

Dog of the Day

I'm a good dog. Aren't I?

***

A Final Thought

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. 

Art is knowing which ones to keep." 

- Scott Adams