Asheville Humane Society Show - a Wonderful Success!

I had a fantastic time at the Asheville Humane Society show yesterday!  First, I must thank the Humane Society and Harmony Motors for sponsoring the show, and a big shout-out to Jim Fulton of the Asheville Humane Society for all his help and support to me, both during and throughout the show.

Secondly, thank you to the 21 friends who showed up to support me and to see my art!  You guys really made the whole thing fun and special for me, and I was so touched that you all came.

I also met some wonderful people who purchased my art and really made me happy to be showing my work.  Thank you so much!  Your comments yesterday meant the world to me.   And thank you, also, to the people who were already in my circle of friends who purchased a piece last night. 

In addition to the paintings I sold, two of them that I had as NFS because I want them for shows are now promised to people I really enjoyed meeting when I am ready to sell them!  I was so touched by the things they said about those paintings...

I also am thrilled to have met met an artist, Angela Alexander, who has been showing and selling at the Woolworth Walk for years.  She spoke very highly of the Woolworth Walk as a great place for artists to be, so now I am even more looking forward to having a space there!  It was truly a bonus for me to meeet Angela.  I already have owned one of her prints for years, and she was so nice and generous, sharing a lot of resouces and ideas with me.  Check out Angela's work!  She does contemporary dog paintings and has a unique personal style.  And, she uses acrylics, too!

I need to seek permission from the people who helped me behind the scenes to post their photos with a thank you.  Until then, THANK YOU SO MUCH Cynthia, Deb, Kevin, and Jim (same Jim).

I was supposed to basically leave my work up till the end of the show, but one painting had to go home early, and it left before I got a photo of the entire show (see the blank spot).  But it went to a great home with a super-nice person!

Even More Great News!

Acrylic, 6x6"
$95 framed in a wood float frame with silver finish
Click here to purchase

Email for a photo of how it looks framed

I have posted this painting before on this blog, but I am bringing it forward again.  First, I have some news I've been wanting to tell you since THURSDAY, but haven't completed a painting since then.  I still have been painting every single day. I have four paintings in the works, and two are almost ready to show you, but I am not going to rush any of them for the sake of posting a new painting.  I'm finally ready to say "uncle" and post an older painting so I will have a painting to post with my good news!  I mean my super-fantastic news.  

Thursday, I got a call that I have been accepted to the waiting list for the Woolworth Walk!  I am so thrilled.  I have loved going to the Woolworth Walk ever since it opened, and have envisioned my art there ever since I decided I wanted to have a place to show/sell locally rather than just on-line.  The Woolworth Walk does a tremendous job with presentation, use of space, and lighting.   The staff there are always extremely nice, too.  You may remember, when I put in the application the week before last, they said it could take a month to hear anything.  It took a week and a day!  I am very excited.  Now, it could take months to get  a space in there, as I am basically waiting for someone else to vacate their space.  And I don't know how many are ahead of me for a spot.  Meanwhile, I will gladly keep painting and framing.

Watchers who are other artists, if you have read this far, I have a little bit of information you might consider a gift.  When it occurred to me last night, it felt like a super brainstorm:  ANY FRAME you like can be a floater frame for a panel.  Yes, any frame.   Take a piece of masonite or something else solid and paint it black.  Then, secure it in the opening in the back of the frame as if you were framing a painting the regular way for the frame.  Turn it around so the frame is facing forward and Voila!  A perfect floater frame for your panel.  Just make sure you have the frame cut slightly larger than the panel you want to frame.  If you all figured all this out years ago and are kind of laughing at me, that's ok....I would like to continue to think I had a brainstorm!

Happy Painting, everyone...

I'm Painting Like Nobody's Watching!

SOLD - Acrylic 6x6"

 SOLD - Acrylic 6x6"

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm happy to report I sold these two paintings this week!   The one on the left was painted about a year ago, and the other was painted this past summer.  A friend of mine has been thinking of buying a painting for awhile, and we got together with a selection of paintings this week so she could choose hers in advance of the show next weekend.  She ended up choosing two (thank you)! 

I think my solid take-away from this 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge is to NOT hurry and try to get to the finish.  I think I have said this before, but I'm realizing that for me it is huge.  I have not missed a day of painting.  I have two paintings so close, SO CLOSE to being done, but not quite ready to call them finished.  I get a certain feeling inside that it's really time to give the painting a break.  The feeling is very clear to me, and I am learning to abide by its wisdom, every time.  So, as much as I would have loved a new painting to post for you tonight, I have a new trust in myself that I am not going to call a painting done so that I can post it on my blog or on Leslie Saeta's Challenge. I am not going to rush a painting for any reason.  I need to satisfy myself that a painting is complete, and I am willing to wait and paint for several sessions to get to that sense of completion.  That, Dear Watchers, is Painting Like Nobody's Watching.  It may sound trite, but for me, it's profound.  

I am also thrilled to announce the birth of my new website:  www.meredithadler.com    I built the site myself and am so happy with it!  It's really easy to keep updated, too.  If any of you want to test out the contact form for me by sending me mail through the site, I would really appreciate it.

I hope everybody else is still enjoying the challenge!

SOLD-Loved Ones

                                                                                      Acrylic, 9x12"

My sister and nieces, hence the title "Loved Ones."  It's fun how the title came as I painted this; actually, the title was with me while I painted this.

Again, still painting every single day.  I am learning from this daily painting challenge that I do best to let a painting take several painting sessions, which is very valuable learning for me.  I tend to want to get to the finish, carrying on painting when I should STOP and let the paint and my mind gel for awhile, even overnight.   I am developing habits and knowledge about myself as a painter that will serve me well.

I experimented with acrylic mediums for this painting.  The jury is still out...

I went to a presentation at the Appalachian Pastel Society and learned some very valuable things, including that my photo editing program, Picasa, will never do everything I need it to do, so I can stop looking for the controls I will never find because they don't exist.  I learned about a couple of other programs that would serve me better, so here I stand with another new project!

I hope the other artists are still enjoying the challenge!

Great Big News! (and Painting #5)

Acrylic, 10x8" $185 framed with a wood frame with black finish

 

 

 

 

 

                                                         Click here to purchase

                                           Email for a photo of how it looks framed

There is big news to report at the end of this blog post, but first I need to tell you about the painting I finished today, above.  I am very happy with the painting.  I am happy with the outcome, because I like it, and I am happy with the process, because I mostly had fun painting it.  I sure learned a lot from painting it, which will go on to inform future paintings.  I continue to paint every single day, but this one needed to be worked on over several painting sessions to reach this point.  I am perfectly happy to not finish a painting every day if that is what it takes to get an outcome like this.

I actually went down to the studio to take this photo, because one of my studio-mates has a photo shooting set-up that I have access to (thank you, DD!).  I just really haven't bothered to go down the past few months to use it.  But I wanted a good shot of this, and the interior from the other day.  So, here's a somewhat better shot of that one, but the blues are still way off (some of them are deeper, darker IRL) and the yellow isn't quite so lemony:

                                                                                           Acrylic 8x8" (SOLD)

Ok, I owe you some big news.  I'm going to be in my first show!  I saw an ad in a local animal welfare newsletter that made me think the Asheville Humane Society was looking for painting donations for an art show, so I called to see what sort of paintings they wanted, so I could donate.  Turns out, they really weren't looking for donations, but they were advertising an art show they are having, to thank artists who have already donated paintings to them (which I have not--didn't know about it) or who have provided service to the Humane Society (which I have).  They decided they didn't have enough artists and I could be included, because I work for a veterinarian!  I have a 8x6' wall space plus a table I can fill.  It's a two-day show, January 25 and 26, so you can imagine the FRAMING RUSH I am in now!

On the first night of the show, they are even having a private reception for their largest donors to meet the artists!  This is kind of a big deal, because the Asheville Humane Society built a state-of-the-art Adoption Center, and the fundraising campaign that went on the past few years to make it happen was phenomenal.  I saw the Adoption Center today, and it is an incredible improvement over the old shelter, where I used to go volunteer. 

I honestly believe the show came about because I joined Leslie Saeta's challenge.  Kind of like, I said "yes" to the challenge, and the universe turned around and said "yes" back to me.

I also took my application in to the Woolworth Walk today.  They said it could take a month to hear whether you are accepted.  Once you are accepted, you can wait months for a space to open up, basically until another artist decides to vacate.  Well, fingers crossed!

SOLD-Day 3 Painting for 30 Paintings in 30 Days

                                                                                          Acrylic, 8x8"

Well, the dancers were being temperamental today, so we had a change of pace.  This is the painting that I mentioned that I have been working on for awhile.  I have a new respect for those of you who paint interiors!   Even though this isn't a complete start to finish painting for today, I am considering it a painting for the 30 Paintings, because I am calling this done, and I didn't know if I would ever finish it.

This is such a terrible photo that I must retake tomorrow.  I was about to lose daylight, and I must get this onto Leslie's blog today!

I'm calling it done, but I still see things I would change if I could.  However, so many times when I go in to fix things, I end up creating five new things that need fixing.  So, I must tell you, I am very happy with this painting, and I'm going to live with those things that need fixing.  If any other artists are reading this, I wonder if the same thing happens to you.  Do you ever just have to say, "Hello, charming little flaws.  Would you like to be part of my painting?"

I apologize for the photo.  Yikes, it's even blurry.  Too late to retake now.  Luckily, next weekend, the pastel society is putting on a program about taking photos of your art.  I know my friend Sharon recommended those photo cubes, and I've looked at them, but just not sure about them.  Sharon, I will be emailing you!   Watchers, if you have time, check out Sharon's blog.  She is in the challenge, too.  Gorgeous sky painting on her blog today.

If you read my last post, you will want to skip from here down.  I decided I'm on a mission to suggest to bloggers that they consider getting rid of the "prove you're not a robot" thingy.  I just copied and pasted what I wrote yesterday below.  I think I might keep doing that for awhile!

 At New Year's we are supposed to reflect on the good things from the prior year--I forgot to do it!  However, I realized today that I think the very best thing I did in 2012 was to figure out how to get rid of that "prove you're not a robot" thingy on my blog.  I would encourage all bloggers to do the same.  The tests to see if someone is a robot are getting smaller and blurrier and harder to pass.  I did find the other day that if you fail about three times in a row, they throw one at you with larger, clearer print.  Yes, you have to REALLY want to leave a comment on someone else's blog to try to prove you're not a robot four times!

Bloggers, you can still have good control over the comments on your blog if you enable moderation.  That way, all comments go to your email and you have to approve them prior to their posting on your blog.  So, you use your own brain to decide if someone is a robot or not.  Actually, Blogger does a good job of catching most of the spam comments and not even sending them to your email.

Of course, we all have a choice how to handle comments on our own blogs....but I know the feedback I've had from my followers about not having to prove themselves not robots is..."what a relief!"