Realms of Uncertainty

The previously mentioned ten new paintings for my show in Prescott, Arizona, are completed. In between, I made three others so don't mind me if I pat myself on the back for being diligently productive. Making lots of paintings doesn't necessarily mean they're all good, it just means I'm a work horse and love what I do. Okay, I'm a bona fide workaholic.

With a totally new and different body of work, I'm encountering the fears of "what if?" Michael and I are traveling a very long distance to test the waters of will they/won't they like my new subject. His assurance of "we need a vacation anyway" is not cutting it for me. I remain optimistic but it's forced. If only I possessed the bravado of a male painter, I'd be bragging that I'm going to kick ass. YEAH!

Ironically, a dear friend is in Prescott as I type. She's meeting with another mutual friend at the Phippen Museum! I should take this as a positive omen, as I don't believe in coincidence. Here's your sign!

I have a little over a week to get ready. I'm varnishing - he's framing. As a seasoned traveler, I can pack in a few hours and that means I have lots of time to fill with...something. The upcoming week promises warm spring temps so I've decided it's a good time to occupy the "runaway freight train" with plein air painting. Or I can always clean the studio.

These two paintings are waiting to be professionally shot. Quick cell pics in the studio. Here's the finished #10:

...and to be used as my full-page ad for this summer's Hall of Fame guide:

The text will fit nicely in the track foreground at the bottom.

* * *

Fear is always triggered by creativity, because creativity asks you to enter into realms of uncertain outcome - Elizabeth Gilbert

Couldn't have said it better myself...
Sharon

Horses!

I'm honored to be included in a group exhibit at the Brookside Museum in Ballston Spa, NY. The title of the show is "Horses!" and runs now through September 2nd. Also participating are Sue Clark, Connie Bush and Sharon Castro. Our show is sponsored by the Carousel Equestrian Boutique in Glenville, NY. Owner Susan Tybush Stuhr has personally decorated our exhibit and it looks fabulous! I'm so envious of designers...they have such a knack for making everything lovely and visually appealing. She also designed our poster:

Be sure to attend the artist reception on July 29th from 6:00-8:00. We'll also have face painting for the kids by Tina Rodriguez and decorated horse shoes by Isabella. Plus, you'll enjoy a presentation by cowboy poet extraordinaire
Mark Munzert. If you've never heard the stories of these cowboy poets you're in for a big treat!

My tent goes up today and now the real countdown begins.
Opening day is July 22nd.

It's a love/hate relationship. On one hand, I miss all the summer fun that I pine for while watching my family and friends enjoy the season. I equate it to exhibiting at a weekend art festival times six weeks. Exhausting. On the other hand, everyday I'm at the greatest race track in the U.S. It's a  privilege to see the best horses and their connections up close and personal. And, best of all, I get to paint there!

Going to the races,
Sharon

Year in Review 2014

The year was a big improvement. Sales were up and I made some very solid contacts. I didn't get a lot of personal painting accomplished because of several decent commissions. But production hummed. Being the workaholic control freak that I am, learning to delegate was a major realization. Huge. When I let go and trust, the momentum of my ideas seem to continue on smoothly without my constant watch. It's actually quite a relief.

My biggest epiphany occurred when I finally decided which direction to take my artwork. When clarity was finally achieved (and I've floundered with this for a long, long time), I began to make decisions and take action. Very affirming.

The year began with the sale of the building we rented on Beekman St. in the Arts District. We did our best to maintain a gallery presence for the first two years after transplanting to Saratoga Springs. The association was splintered and unfocused and it became an uphill battle as we watched businesses frequently come and go. Truth is, if a business isn't located downtown on Broadway, it's screwed. So, it was a blessing to rent this little house on five wooded acres with a creek, wildlife galore and located a mere mile from the racetrack. Peaceful.

Commissions compensated for the disappointment. After the move, we attempted to get involved with other arts organizations who were starting up or restructuring but to no avail.

But 'nuf of that. Springtime marked the beginning of a few road trips which I live for. The return of the High Hope Steeplechase in Lexington, Kentucky ignited my gypsy blood and the organizers graciously used my artwork for the program cover. I returned home with another nice commission.

Early June gave me the opportunity to participate in my first plein air competition. You probably know about our van catching fire the day before we were scheduled to leave and burning up six of my paintings and lots of supplies. Moving onward (applying grace to all that's faced), we did make it to Finger Lakes and although I was shook up more than I realized and painted some really bad canvases, I knew immediately this was for me. I absolutely love, love, love plein air painting and my skills continue to improve as I practice and study.

The summer race meet at Saratoga was great and an encouraging improvement over the previous year. It was a revelation that I'll always be an equine artist to some degree as my repeat clients visited my booth with the specific intention to purchase more racing artwork. And I acquired new clients. I deserve this: I've spent a lifetime dearly loving, promoting and...defending...this sport.

Fall took me back to Lexington, Kentucky for the Secretariat Festival. More commissions and terrific networking. I exhibited some of my originals in the Thoroughbred Breeders' Museum. Then it was on to Middleburg, Virginia for the Fall Races. Unfortunately the weather was dreadful but that's the chance we take participating in outdoor shows. Regardless, the area is spectacularly beautiful and steeped in history.

My contract with NYRA ends in 2015. I'll stay as long as they'll have me but if they don't renew, I'm prepared to launch into Plan B, plein air painting. Exactly where is yet an unknown. That unknown is the mystery that thrills me.

I'm so thankful to those of you who have followed this blog. I wish all of you the very best in the upcoming New Year 2015.

Gratefully,
Sharon

Illustration vs. "Art"

We visited the Norman Rockwell Museum recently, specifically to see the Howard Pyle exhibit. Surprisingly, it was quite crowded but evidently the throngs were there for the Rockwells. The galleries in the rear of the museum containing the Pyle paintings were almost deserted. This left lots of room and time to intimately savor.

I'm a major fan of Howard Pyle. If historical accuracy is sketchy, dream it up and make us believers. And do a stunning job while you're at it with a maniacal imagination, rule-breaking design and excellent painting skills. So moving to finally see the actual paintings I've drooled over in picture books for years. The Flying Dutchman is over-the-top for diagonal thrusts creating uneasy motion:

Do you think I'm NUTZ about this painting? The Coming of Lancaster. It's almost a religious experience, a pilgrimage of sorts, to see the real brushstrokes. Adore this horse. In the olden days it was called a piebald (think Caravaggio's Conversion of St. Paul) and the depiction of his watch eyes (blue) is perfect. The expression is priceless and it's haughty posture which mimics the rider - magnificent. We have arrived to save you.

And yes, this amazing painting was there as well: The Mermaid. Wisely, a bench had been place before it for those of us who couldn't peel our eyes away:

The art snobs have always looked down their noses at illustrators. Nevertheless, one must be a superior draftsman and accomplished painter to create this kind of imagery. Their drawing skills are phenomenal and I find tremendous inspiration in this traditional genre. Pyle's imagination speaks to me, urging me to step out and express my own inventiveness.

Norman Rockwell, whose very American art is quite rooted in...well...Americana, interprets the joy of commonplace and home. However, he bravely goes out on a limb to express social injustices and causes he believed in at a time when it wasn't cool. This is so powerful...especially in 1964: The Problem We All Live With.

Here's another painting I couldn't pull myself from. The composition is uncanny with cropped faces lining either side of the canvas leading you to the turkey focal point. I was so mesmerized, I forgot to read the gallery card. Is that Rockwell's self-portrait smiling out at us from the lower right? Freedom from Want.

I have great respect for Rockwell. What technical skill and talent! It's just that I resonated to the Pyle's in a way that I find so stimulating.

Let's all go to drawing class...
Sharon

Help Me Get This

Recently, Michael and I visited MASS MoCA. It's contemporary art on steroids and I'm sheepishly admitting that I just didn't "get" most of the installations even after reading the accompanying literature. Guiltily, that little voice in my head whispered "is this art?" As an artist I'm old enough, experienced enough and should be open to alternative perspectives and sensitive to nuance. A video installation of a person in a self car wash hosing down a non-existent vehicle elicited a silent "huh" and made me feel disconnected and, well...stupid. As a working artist I should get this stuff.

I belong to the school that believes art should tell a story and engage the viewer. Call me old fashion but I love the immediate emotional connection.

Emotion + skill + experience = great art (in my opinion). I want to be blown away by a piece and unable to take my eyes off it. And that includes abstract painting, sculpture and yes, installations that are intellectually accessible and provide relevance.

So, imagine my relieved joy when we discovered The Arkell Museum in Canajoharie, about an hour drive west from the studio. A small and unassuming building, it houses the painting collection of Bartlett Arkell who founded the Beech-Nut Company.  Paintings of beauty, luscious color, light, form and provocative subjects. Wow. Amongst the Homers, the Bentons, the Wyeths and the O'Keefes were some amazing artists I'm not familiar with.

For example: the stunning snowscapes of Walter Launt Palmer:

 I thought this was masterful...

...as well as this special exhibit by artist Jay Connaway:

I've stood on the stormy shore and nervously felt these ominous waves:

Powerful and compelling, these paintings inspire me to become a be a better painter.

Call me a boring traditionalist,
Sharon

Why You Should Collect Art (from a collector's viewpoint - not mine)

Rarely does a show excite me as did "The Unseen Eye - Photography from the W.M. Hunt Collection" currently on exhibit at the Appleton Museum of Art here in Ocala. Why? The collector, W.M. Hunt has written a transcript accompanying the exhibit that illustrates his passion for collecting in an intensely personal and accessible narrative. I'm not easily impressed but this is a must see show.

My fellow artists would do well to recognize the importance of describing and speaking about their own artwork as well as Mr. Hunt depicts his emotional connection to his collection.

No gallery labels, only numbers which are listed on a photocopied checklist describe the photographs. Purposely ignoring these, I wanted to experience the images without bias to Mapplethorpe, Arbus, Weston and other well-named photographers. Interspersed throughout the images is signage containing the honest, forthright and engaging feelings of Hunt written in the first person. This open invitation into the psyche of an obsessive collector makes the show absolutely extraordinary. We get to be voyeurs.

Here are a few of his quotes:

"I was a very unhappy child, full of melancholy and depression, full of dread and sadness. I was capable of great good humor and generosity, socially skilled, but I was fraught with anxiety and feelings of loss. I can’t get over how collecting offered me insight into so much of this. One of the successes of the collection is its consistency in terms how the images relate to me. When you look at this collection you don’t, in fact, need to know anything about me, but there is a through line that is amazingly consistent. It is my unconscious."

"I have always felt that I have been an enigma in need of sorting out. Collecting did that."

"Collecting photographs is a completely visceral experience, an epiphany. You know you have found a great one when the hair on the back of your hands stands on end, your heart pounds, and you can’t move your feet."

"Collectors are obsessed, ravenous for this one and then the next one. People who do not collect, won’t. They don’t connect with this intense, obsessive force. Too bad. It is huge fun."

"Great art is insistent. It demands a visceral response: unease, awe, relief, and it calls for contemplation. It resonates like a primal chord. The earliest mark making strikes me as a spiritual response to living, a primitive attempt to find or create meaning."

"Insist on engagement. Wrestle with what’s difficult. Pretty is boring. Seek intensity."

"Escape, intensity, pleasure, I like those things so I have to remind myself that my reaction or reading of a photographic image is mine alone. But as I have said, it is only my truth."

These quotes are only a few excerpts barely scratching the surface of Hunt's fearless openness. These are the people we create art for. At least we'd wish for them if we had a choice. The passionate who wear their hearts on their sleeve. I'm buying that painting because I love it and it speaks to me.

“Look, look, look. You have to look. It's the way to educate your eyes. Stare. Pry, listen eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long”. - Walker Evans

Thawing, Not Chilling Out

Last week was crazy. Guests. Very cold weather. Power outage during very cold weather. House freezing. Inauguration. My b-day. More very cold weather.

For my birthday, I planned a day of beer and subs on the river. However, the thermometer read 25 degrees in the morning and even I'm not that tough. Been living in Florida too long - I just don't do cold anymore.

Plan B sent me to Gainesville to visit the Harn Museum of Art at the University. Warm inside. Diminutive but impressive as small museums are, this one possesses a surprisingly respectable permanent collection. It includes a nifty little sculpture by Nevelson as well as Rodin and Lachaise. Paintings by Monet, Bellow, Burchfield, Hassam and Soyer took me aback.

I was mesmerized by three Herman Herzog's as I didn't realize he had spent so much time painting in Florida. His landscapes are a bit nineteenth century academic, but stunning nevertheless.

"Florida Sunset" oil on canvas, 25"x19", Herman Herzog

"The view is loaded with Light, Light, Light, ever changing and so wonderful in its myriad colors." - Candace Faber