Checking to See If My Blogging Mojo Is Back

A Quiet Setting, 2009, Oil on Panel, 18x24

Well, now that I have had a good long break from my blog, I think I am ready to come back to it. Things have calmed down a bit in my life (temporarily, anyway) and when the time is right I will discuss that here in more detail. But for now, I have many updates and new work to post so I will start with all that.

I have been a busy bee the last few weeks, trying to get work ready to take down to the Carrie Haddad Gallery in Hudson, NY. I am part of a landscape show and will be getting the front room again so that is gratifying. Not sure what to expect as far as interest or sales go, but I feel very confident about the work I have ready and so that is all I can do for now. I will be posting the images for that show over the next few weeks here.

AND, you can also see my work on my new fan page at Facebook. I stressed a bit about starting one up (what if no one joined?) but finally published it the other day and was extremely flattered when so many of my current FB friends joined almost immediately. I also have a few fans that I don't know, and of course I love that. Heh.

So if you are on Facebook and would like to be my fan (wow, that sounds SO ridiculous!) here is the link. Anyone can join, provided the whole "life revolves around Tracy" thing isn't a problem and if I haven't accepted an invite at my regular page, this is the place to try again. I don't want to offend anyone, but my other page is more personal and I'd like to keep that one for real life friends and other bloggers that I have gotten to know over the last few years. I will discuss the chickens, cat puke and other such silly things here on the blog so no one will really miss out on much anyway. And if you are following all three Tracyland venues, I apologize in advance for all the repeated info you will surely be learning about me.....

So that wasn't so hard, now was it? More tomorrow then!

Good News and Bad News

Horizon Lines (38), 2009, Oil on Birch Panel, 12x16

Well, the good news is that I have six nice paintings (one shown above) finished so far for my show at the Carrie Haddad Gallery in August. I have about 3 weeks left to do about a dozen small ones and one or two larger ones. So I am feeling pretty good about my progress here.

The bad news is that I put the color on the 4'x4' panel (below) that is supposed to be the "centerpiece" of the show, and I pretty much hate it! (although it does look better in person than it does in this photo) I had a few doubts about the underpainting, but since that doesn't always mean the end result will suck, I kept going. However, in this case, I can see now how much better the whole piece would be if I had not extended the tree line up on the right. I usually catch those compositional issues at the underpainting stage but I guess this one slipped by me. Blech. And if I don't catch them, sometimes I can fix them with the color, but not this time. The underpainting of the trees here is so strong that if I were to extend the sky down over the them, I would lose the translucency in that area. And I hate when that happens.

So I will decide for sure tomorrow, but I have a strong feeling this one is headed for the sand down pile, and quickly. May as well try again on that same panel, since it's already prepped.......

Painting and Dumb Stupid Exercise

Last Bit of the Day, 2009, Oil on Birch Panel, 11x14

Well, I have officially started to work on the paintings for my upcoming show at Carrie Haddad Gallery in Hudson, NY, in August. I feel very relaxed about this, right now anyway! I have a lot of work on hand already, which is good, because it is going to be tough to get much done in the coming month. The kids have crazy busy schedules for the next few weeks, then school is out for the summer and they will be home more.

In addition I have been working on getting my fitness back and have been trying to work out 2x a day almost everyday. I have been doing that for several weeks and while I am feeling good, it sure does take a chunk of time out of my workday. Love/hate dumb stupid exercise......

Still Breathing

Middle of Fall, 2007, Oil on Panel, 12x16

Well, turns out that my exhibiting career does still seem to have some life. The Harrison Gallery has scheduled a solo show for me in June 2009. This will be my third solo show there and also marks an upgrade to a slot in their busy season, summer. The first two had each been in January and both were good, the one in 2008 was nearly a sold out show (and is what paid for my new studio). I would also like to mention that this gallery routinely shows work that sells for $10,000+ and while I am sure not in that range, it is an honor to brush shoulders with those who are. Heh.

Also, Carrie from Carrie Haddad Gallery has given me another show (fourth in five years) next August, also a good time in Hudson, which has a lot of summer and part time residents who come up from the city. She also suggested my work for a Hudson Valley arts publication and it looks like the above piece (which is owned by one of my blog readers) will be on the cover.

And on a side note, I have been asked to have a show in early spring at a gallery in Troy, NY. I agreed to do it, however they have not followed up so I am not really counting on that one happening. It's ok, stuff like that happens every once in awhile, I have learned to never count on anything until there is written confirmation and signed papers and often not even then. Sometimes a lack of follow up is a sign to me that it's maybe not the right thing for me to be involved in.

Even if things are slow right now, I still have to pay attention to the signs and take heed.

An Evening in Hudson

Doug and I had a great time at the opening in Hudson on Saturday. First of all the show was hung beautifully and it was hard to believe that I actually made the art that is hanging on the walls. It looks sooooo much better than how I remembered it!

A big thank you to Melissa and Carrie who did an excellent job of hanging the show and of bringing people in. There was a great turnout and I talked to so many interesting people. The first couple that I spent quite a bit of time talking to had bought a small piece at my first show at this same gallery in 2005. They were so nice and we also had a gratifying chat about how my prices (and therefore value) have gone up. He is also a painter and so we talked technique for awhile and the next thing I knew they were buying this painting and we were all posing in front of it for a few pictures!

Then my friend Jane and her husband Paul came in. Paul is also in this show, his work is in the middle section and is just beautiful. I particularly like his still life paintings. Jane and I showed together in 2006 and we have emailed quite a bit since then. She has been really helpful to me as far as career advice goes, plus we have other things in common as well. So nice to be able to chat with her in real life!

I spent some time talking to artist Wes Wheeler who is also represented by Carrie and again, great to talk technique and the business. I also really like his work, although I was at a disadvantage while we talked-I wasn't familiar with it. Now I wish I had seen it beforehand so I could have asked some better questions of him, but I'll just have to do that another time.

Carrie Waldman, whose work was also on display was very nice. We chatted for a bit and I hope we can keep in contact. She is one of those people that I feel like have met before, you know?

Two pieces sold by the end of the evening and I am crossing my fingers for a few more. Mostly so Carrie will keep showing my work ( and maybe keep giving me the front room) AND because I still need some money to pay the floor guy when he comes to sand the floors in my new studio. Heh. Actually I am serious about that.

And the sooner I can move up there the less I will have to deal with cats settling into the back of my panels in between coats of polyurethane.....



More show pictures, obviously we remembered to actually use the camera this time.

Opening Reception in Hudson

Clustered at the Turn, 2008, Oil on Panel, 20x40

OK folks. Here's the official info for the opening gallery reception at Carrie Haddad Gallery. It's this Saturday, May 31, 6-8pm, and the address is 622 Warren Street, Hudson NY. Just two short hours by train from NYC.

And just a note about the images on the gallery's website. I neglected to load my jpegs of the work onto a disc and give it to the gallery when I dropped off the work. I was busy trying to get all the paintings finished and wrapped and I just didn't get to it before I had to leave. Not only that, I photographed the large painting, 40x60, the centerpiece of the show, AND DID NOT LOOK AT THE IMAGE BEFORE I DELIVERED THE PAINTING. Bad, bad girl. The next day I sat down at the computer to photoshop the image, and email it and the rest of the images to the gallery for their website. Of course, the photo was very bad, irretrievable even in photoshop. Large pieces are difficult to photograph anyway, but if I would have looked at the image I could have tried to photograph it again. So I decided to send the other images that were ready but when I checked the website to see if they had posted any of the earlier jpegs I had sent previously, I noticed that all of the paintings for the show were posted. The gallery had photographed and posted them within a day. Agh! At least someone is efficient! The images look OK, but they aren't quite right, there's too much contrast and the colors look harsher than they really are in real life. Probably not so noticeable to anyone but me, but they just don't look quite right. However, the gallery obviously took some time to do this and I will not be asking them to reload a bunch of images all over again, especially not now, right before the opening.

So let this be a lesson to you all and maybe I will get it this time too. Make it a priority to ALWAYS include the jpegs along with the work when delivering work to a gallery.

But jpeg issues aside, I am very proud of the work I did for this show. The big piece that I mentioned freaking kicks ass, if I do say so myself (actually I wasn't sure how it would look outside my studio, the lighting I had on it was BAD and frankly, I wasn't too sure what the heck it would look like under better lighting) and Doug stopped by the gallery yesterday on his way to the city and he said it looks great. Not surprising since Carrie and Melissa always do an excellent job hanging the shows. This is my third show at Carrie's gallery and is the first time my work has been displayed in the front room so that is way cool.

But before I get too obnoxious with how great I am, I must remind myself that this is the last big exhibition that I have scheduled until next summer. I suppose things will come up, but one never really knows, huh?

Studio Update

Sky Cover, 2008, Oil on Panel, 11x14

Unfortunately, I have hardly stepped foot into my new studio in the last two weeks. I did take painting supplies (to paint the walls) up there but that was about a week ago.

I have had to put the new studio (and all of that glorious space) out of my head so that I can focus on finishing up work for my upcoming show at the Carrie Haddad Gallery in Hudson NY. This weekend will be the last push and in between a few sleepovers, soccer games, work in the garden, and sleep (I hope), I will be painting cradles, putting on the picture wire, doing the paperwork and then wrapping everything up for delivery to the gallery on Monday. My new assistant (my son) will accompany me on the drive down, which means I will be listening to a lot of Beatles music and his new "discovery": Meatloaf. Like I haven't listened to Bat Out of Hell so many times that I wore out two vinyl albums, and one CD (now it's safely downloaded to my iPod and will last forever; or at least until they come up with a new format). Besides being shallow I am also very immature. Just so you know.

Anyway.

Bright and early on Tuesday morning I will be getting into my studio and will be priming and painting the walls and trim. Good times. Then the floor guy will come in to sand and finish the floors. I considered painting them for about two seconds, but they are 12 and 14 inch wide pine planks, original to the house and somehow it seems criminal to paint them. So natural wood it is!

But I will have to wait until the floor is finished before I can begin moving up there. That's ok, I have much to do in the meantime. I still have to keep painting as I will be going to the Affordable Art Fair in mid-June, with Carrie Haddad, and I also have a small solo show in July at a gallery here in Cooperstown. Plus I think that nearly every single drawer, cabinet, and room in our house needs to be cleaned out and reorganized.

Like I said, good times.

Attic Studio Update

Well Tom and Matt have left us and are on to their next project. They were great to have around the house for the last few weeks and I am giddy about what a great job they did on the attic.

They built a beautiful rail around the stairwell:


They put in four hinged doors like this:

which provide access to the knee wall storage space. AND there are lights inside! I don't think I have to describe how amazing all of that storage will be. I am planning to store things in boxes with wheels-it is a bit low in those storage spaces and being able to roll containers in and out will make things a bit easier I think.

They did a great job of restoring this oval window:

which is just big enough to allow me to see if it's the UPS guy out front. A UPS delivery is always pretty dang exciting around here. Our regular guy has learned way too much about our lives because of how much we chat whenever anyone shows up.

But there is still much to be done up there before I can move in. We have to get the walls and ceiling painted and choose the track lighting fixtures. The heating guy has to come and install the baseboard units, the electric guy has to come and finish up the wiring and the floor guy has to come and sand the floor and stairs.

It'll be at least 2 or 3 weeks before I can begin moving in, maybe more. I am surprisingly not in any hurry, mostly because I am so busy right now and the thought of all the work to get ready to move up there is actually a bit overwhelming. I will probably get really anxious once I am finished with the work for the show in Hudson though.

I'll leave you with is a dark and moody art shot of the space:

It's NOT Spring Yet!

Lower Level, 2008, Oil on Panel, 16x16
Things have been pretty quiet here. We have had terribly un-springlike weather the last few days-bitterly cold winds, enough rain to cause flooding and now snow. I don't mind that though, it's a good excuse to stay snuggled up inside for a few more days at least. Soon enough we will be tackling the backbreaking work of spring planting, not to mention the work of expanding our vegetable garden this year.

I have been working in the studio each day and that has been nice. All of a sudden I have several things coming up, including two group shows in addition to the solo show at Carrie Haddad Gallery in Hudson at the end of May. I am planning to do larger works for that show, the kind I only have room enough to work on one or two at a time and will get started on those as soon as the panels come in next week.

There is one more post in me about the Vermont Studio Center and I will hopefully get that up next week. It will profile some of the other residents that I got to know and will include links to their websites and/or pictures of their studios in Vermont. I'll also include more random photos of the facility and some of the events.

Have a nice weekend all!