Interview and Dog Stuff

                                                                   Colored Pencil, 9x12"  (I think)

This is a colored pencil painting I did about 5 years ago that I don't own anymore and borrowed back for the show I was in at the Asheville Humane Society in January.  I never got a good photo of it before it went to its current home, so I photographed it on the wall of the show.  Shall we just say I still don't have a good photo of it?!   Excuse the glare--it is a big no-no to photograph art while behind glass, but I didn't think the owner would appreciate my taking the frame apart.  I'll explain why I am posting an old colored pencil painting, when I consider myself an acrylic artist, in a minute.

But first, I wanted to let you know that a blogging friend of mine, Sharon Graves, has me as a guest on her blog today.  Click here to read her post.  We decided we would interview each other, and she threw a great first question at me, so she decided to post my answer today.  I am not sure if that is the end of her interview or if she has any other questions for me.  She knows I will ask her more questions and post my interview of her when I am finished, and she also knows that may be awhile, because I was already in the process of interviewing another artist before she brought up the guest post idea.  Getting to know other artists through blogging is a such a bonus for me.  Check out Sharon's work.  She also paints in acrylics, focusing on the natural world.

I wanted to post something of  a dog today, because I wanted to let you know why no new paintings from me lately.  My dog just had an intense orthopedic surgery to correct a knee injury.  We are now 5 days into a 6 to 8 week strict crate rest/recovery period.  Very intense period of life.  We artists sometimes say "life got in the way" of painting.  I hope to paint soon, but for now, I'm pretty drained with just the day-to-day.  She has to wear an e-collar to prevent her from taking her staples out.  Poor thing, being in a crate most of the time with the e-collar on....so stressful.  AND I feel I must sleep on the floor next to her crate in order to be available if she needs to go out in the middle of the night (and she does).

I want to get back into my daily painting routine, but honestly don't know if I can expect that of myself anytime soon.  Art vs. responsibility--the dog comes first.  Check out the photo below....her "baby picture." How could I not put her first?    Any artist reading this knows of the sacrifices we all make in our personal lives to have time for our art.  This is the other side of the coin, in that I am sacrificing my art....

                                         Can anyone guess why her name is Jane Doe?  (for real)

Rose

                                                                               Acrylic, 7x5"

This is the one I mentioned that I did early in my recovery from the broken ribs.  The one I had so much trouble photographing.  This is the photograph I complained so much about.  But this is the best photo of the bunch I took, and I figured it's time to show this painting since I talked about it (to some of you by email and by phone).  I don't know why this photo is less representative of the painting than the apple photo.  They were both photographed in natural light.  Maybe it was the time of day?  Anyhow, in the interest of full disclosure, here is my painting.

I started a painting of some bananas this weekend, but to be honest, I think I am going to end up eating them before I finish the painting!.  They are just not holding my attention like the apple did (and I'm low on bananas).  They don't seem to make as interesting a painting as the apple did, I think because the spotlight on them doesn't really create any strong highlights.

Happy Monday....

The Artist's Time-honored Subject

                                                                                                               Acrylic, 6x6"

I know it's been awhile, so for those of you still checking my blog, thanks for hanging in there with me.  I have been very busy healing from two broken ribs.   So, painting has been difficult.  Coincidentally, during this past few weeks, I have also had a terrible time taking any good photos of my work.

Today was my second session painting this wiley little apple!  Thankfully, during today's session, I was listening to a fantastic interview on the AHA radio show with artist C.W. Mundy which convinced me to be a little more playful and a little less careful.  I am  happy with the results and fairly happy with the photo, too, which is super great because red is hard to photograph.

Watchers who are artists, I urge you to listen to that show!  I haven't even finished listening to it, and I am urging you to listen to that show!

As for the ribs, let me just say that when traveling through a parking lot, be careful of who might be opening their car door...yikes.

It Takes a Village to Plan a Show

"Coming to Get You!"  Acrylic 6x6"

I don't have a new painting ready to show you, so I am bringing this one forward.  I wanted to do this post to thank some people who helped me get my show together.  I would not have been able to do what I did without them, and for that, I am forever grateful.  I thought including this painting would be appropriate, because this painting "sold" at the show.  Actually, I was not ready to sell it, because I want to try to enter it in a show in March, but I promised it to a wonderful couple.   I didn't know for sure if I would ever be willing to sell this painting, but when the woman told me a beautiful story of how she rescued a lot of ducks, I was very moved and told her she is the perfect person to have this painting!

Now for the thank yous:

Meet Deb

 Deb heard me talking at work about needing a bio and a "sign-up for my newsletter" sheet for the table at my show.  She jumped right in, lifted my bio from my website and turned it into a file I could take to a printer.  She also designed my sign-up sheet for me.  Without Deb's help, I have every confidence that these two tasks would not have been completed, because I was on a FRAMING MARATHON!  Thank you so much, Deb.  You did a fantastic job!

Meet Jim and Sadie

Jim is the Program Director at the Asheville Humane Society.  He invited me to join the show and arranged for me to hang my part of the show on a Thursday night.  We had to meet after 8:30 p.m., because there was a class in the exhibition room until 8:00.  So, Jim met us at 8:30 p.m. and provided so much assistance with arranging my part of the exhibition that I could never thank him enough.  We kept him there till after 11 p.m., and I am sure he had already worked that day.   He told me he was going to go home to take care of his dogs in between working and hanging the show, and I can only imagine how glad Sadie was to see him when he finally was done that night!

My other helper, Cynthia, perhaps has not yet received my email requesting permission to post her photo, so I will wait on the photo and just tell you how much she helped me.  First, two days before the show, Cynthia picked up the bio and sign-up sheet files from Deb, took them to a printer, and figured out exactly what I needed in terms of paper, etc.  Then, she met me and helped me hang the show from 8:30 p.m. till after 11 p.m.  Cynthia was exactly what I needed that night.  She helped me figure out a nice-looking arrangement for the paintings and did all the configuring of where the nails needed to be and all the actual hammering and picture hanging.  All I had to do was hand her hammer, hooks, etc. as she called for them.  Good thing, cause I was exhausted by that point from all the other prep.  If not for Cynthia, my show would never have looked so nice.  Thank you so much, Cynthia!

(Edit 2/13/13:  Here's a photo of Cynthia!):

Finally, I am forever grateful to the Father of My Dogs for all his help with framing and preparation.  Without him, there would have been nothing ready to hang!  Thank you so, so much!

I am still painting and learning just how valuable the daily painting routine is.  I am finding myself a little rusty from taking a few days off.  Back to it...!


 

Sure and Steady

Acrylic, 8x10"

 
This is one of the paintings I had partly completed during the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge.  I happily finished it today.  I realized this morning that I still had five I worked on during the month of the challenge that were not yet finished.  Two were started before the challenge and three, including this one, during the challenge.

In thinking this over, I realized I have a tendency to avoid the finish.  I remember my art teacher asking me recently if I had difficulty starting, difficulty facing the white canvas.  My response, "Oh, no, I have difficulty when the painting is almost finished, I like what I have, and I am afraid of ruining it!" 

Friends, I must bring the rest of those paintings to a finish!  I am happy this one is done.  I need to be willing to risk ruining a painting I like, or I will never complete anything.  I find the issue is much more pronounced when working from photos than when working from life.  I will soon be doing more still lifes.

 I decided I need to seek permission from the model before putting this one up for sale.  I did have permission to paint it.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - How it Went for Me (and how did it go for you?)

Those of you who have been reading my blog this month know I have had a magical, incredible month beyond my wildest imaginings!  I attribute what has happened, in large part, to deciding to join the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge offered by Leslie Saeta on her blog.  Several hundred artists participated.  The challenge is now over, and Leslie did an episode of her Artists Helping Artists internet radio show all about it.  It was great fun to hear during her show about other artists who sent in emails to her of the results of their challenge month.  Leslie included my email among those she reported on the radio show!  Here is the link to the show:  30 Paintings in 30 days AHA radio show.  She summarizes my email to her right before  the hour mark (she does mispronounce my last name, but that is me she is talking about).  If you would rather read about it, below is a list of all the good that happened to me.  Warning:  Lengthy!  Because it was a great month....

I hope this all doesn't sound too "braggy," I am really trying to just recount, or sort of journal for myself everything that happened so I have it all written down in one place.  I am truly interested if my artist friends would like to tell me their own good news in the comments section!  To my artist friend who is for some reason finding herself blocked from my comment section, send me an email if you want and I will post the comments for you!  I know the artist I am referring to actually completed 30 in 30, too, and for that I applaud you!  (BTW if anyone out there can tell me why one person might be inadvertently blocked from commenting on my blog and how to undo, I would appreciate it highly, i.e. WHAT did I touch??).

1)  Above all, made friends with new artist bloggers and got to follow their work and see some fantastic paintings!

2)  Got into my first show!  The show was at the Asheville Humane Society.  I had two weeks' notice to get ready for the show (I'm not saying they gave me two weeks notice--I stumbled into this show sort of by accident.  You can read  how that happened here.  Great things happened to me through the show including selling some paintings, promising some paintings to other people when I am ready to sell them (including the painting above), and meeting a new artist friend who is helping me take another step in my art career.  You can read more about the show here.

3)  Was accepted onto the waiting list for a gallery, the Woolworth Walk.  Once accepted, an artist remains on the waiting list until a space becomes available.  I am looking forward to having a place to show and sell my work in this fabulous space!

4)  All in all, this month I sold seven paintings and have three more promised to others once they are available!

5)  No, I didn't paint 30 paintings.  As you can see from the above collage (which Leslie taught us how to make), I completed 6 paintings in 30 days.   I decided the better challenge for me was to paint everyday and let go of the idea of needing to finish a painting.  As I have said here before, this decision was SO liberating for me, because it freed me to get into the studio and paint even when I knew I didn't have enough time to finish a painting that day.  And in the interest of full disclosure, NO, I didn't actually paint all 30 days.  I missed a few around the time of the show at the Asheville Humane Society.  That could not be helped.  For example, the day I hung the show, I went to bed at 1:30 in the a.m. after a framing marathon, got up at 6 a.m. (quite late for me) for work, worked from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., finished up last minute things for the show from 5:30 to  7:15 p.m., had dinner w/friend who was helping me hang the show till 8:30 p.m., worked on hanging the show from 8:30 p.m. (earliest we had access to the room) till 11:15 p.m. , drove home from 11:15 p.m. till 11:50 p.m., readied my car and belongings for a hike, left my car in town and walked a half mile up my hill and got home about 12:10 a.m.   Had to leave my car in town due to a promised ice storm.  In the event of the ice storm, I had to know that I could get off my hill and into Asheville for the show, so I had to leave my car at the bottom of the hill I live on.   Needless to say, this is one of the days I did NOT paint!


                                                                                 

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!