girl at large

Snappity Snap Snap

By popular demand, I've loaded a few of my photographs to a ProGallery at Shutterfly, which allows you to order prints (and mugs--I'm not so sure how I feel about the mugs yet) of my photographic attempts at artistic greatness...ok, I'm laughing out loud now. Find the Shutterfly Girl at Large Gallery here: Girl at Large Shooting Range

Back in the Saddle

I'm going to be painting again! I've got the studio space, I have the free weekends, I have the easel...I have no excuse. Setting up again got me thinking that I still have a number of Antibes-era paintings left unsold. This announces a last chance to get one at the 2003/4 prices (in euros no less)! Visit the Gallery, send me an email of what you'd like. Click on a picture to see details, sizes and its sold status. Stay tuned for updates from the easel.

sightseeing for the soul

...a trip out of town did me so much good, am at last seeing images that inspire painting, itchy to pull out brushes and canvas again after so long...

where's Kevin Bacon in all this?

Bjorn, a retired chief of police from Norway, currently working part-time for a publishing company specializing in true crime stories, has a brother whose son is attending university, studying music, in Lincoln, Nebraska, where my father attended college not too far from his own home town of Edgar, Nebraska. Bjorn's favorite true crime story of the evening involved a Danish airstewardess who was murdered and then dismembered in a wood chipper by her American husband, much the same as the victim in the movie Fargo from the Coen brothers, originally from Minnesota, my home state's northwesterly neighbor, and home of the camp where I first learned French. Bjorn's best friend's wife is an artist, a painter. Bjorn's friend looks just like my father, though my dad never sported quite that elegant a moustache. My father's side of the family is Danish (hence Mikkelsen and not Mickelson, which would make us Swedish, possibly German or just poor spellers). Bjorn, here on vacation every August for the past four years, works with a Danish man who has also brought his family on vacation here in Antibes this week. Bjorn and his wife spent a three week vacation in the States, visiting places such as Chicago, Los Angeles, and of course, Fargo, where they were greeted like family when every third person they met shared their last name. They also went to....Portland. Did I mention Bjorn and his wife bought one of my paintings last night?

blank

I've been trying to paint this week....emphasis on trying....Don't know what it is; summer lethargy or perhaps the stress of attempting to arrange this big move back to the States, but everything is turning out crap. I think my life is too disorganized and uncertain at the moment to allow my mind to make confidant decisions with a brush or pencil. It's hard to face a blank canvas when your entire LIFE is blank at the moment! I did manage to get some creativity going in the house though, little Miss Grace joined me for a morning of painting---she loved it. She has a technique of mashing the brush with such force and concentration that she vibrates bodily. Admirable dedication to the work little girl!

easel update

Another archway, acrylic and sepia on paper

easel update

contrary to popular belief, i am not deeply troubled....

all in a week's work

...this isn't the first plant to get the best of me...

a little of this, a little of that

oil, watercolor, sepia pencil, acrylic....trees, landscapes...

sketchy

studies and sketches, falling in love with that sepia pencil...

artists hard at work....

...well, except when Dominique and I were off having coffee and smoking....

....and some say it isn't real work....

I'm exhausted, brain-fried, beat, bushed and battered. Oh, and happy. I've survived another week at Maison des Arts with my desire to 'paint better someday' intact. I believe I've made a satisfactory amount of progress this year, I'm especially pleased with my figurative work (which of course, is not a hot seller like the boats--damn boats!), but the more I work the more I feel I've got another decade to go before I'm able to reproduce on canvas what is in my mind. Well, that decade will pass whether I'm painting or not, so I'll just have to keep at it. I'll have photos posted in a few days.

easel update

Archway, Haut de Cagnes, acrylic and pastel on paper, 19.75" x 25" Safranier, acrylic and pastel on paper, 19.75" x 25"

easel update

Fort Carre II, acrylic and oil pastel on paper, 19.75" x 25.5"

easel update

Fort Carre I, acrylic and oil pastel on paper, 19.75" x 25.5"

sold!

Pomodoro restaurant down rue Migrainier i sold More Boats (Left) today! it was one of the ones hanging in the Pomodora restaurant, and it's gone to a good home with lovely Miss Lucy, an artist herself (and furniture designer!) currently working on the boats who treated herself to the painting she loves for her 30th birthday--how appropriate.

easel update

Rue III, acrylic and oil pastel on paper, 19.75" x 25.75"

watercolor sketchbook

old town study, Grace, rue study i've been studying watercolor techniques---it's a medium i previously thought fiddly and 'grandma sunday painter'-ish, but the more i work with it and the more i read, the more i respect it and am enjoying what it can do---the clarity of color is well suited for the light here in the spring...we'll see where it goes from here....

have hammer, will hang

More Boats Left, Windows, and Two Blue Boats, the three pieces that i've just hung in a little local pizzeria. yeah!

Haut de Cagnes II, watercolor and oil pastel on paper, 31" x 42"

unique job opportunity

my sister Margaret just sent me this interesting posting from the London branch of Craig's List. think i might qualify? ha ha.

debutante a la poterie

i might be a little homesick, do ya think?

Balcony, acrylic and pastel on canvas, 32" x 39.5" this is my beloved little balcony in Savannah--according to Bob, a death-trap waiting to happen. it's slated for complete replacement in a few weeks. shame, after i went to all that trouble matching the cement-floor paint to the table color. (i do realize i have a problem). i'm hoping to be able to enjoy sitting out there with a bottle of wine and Miss Dawn and Miss Sony (and who ever else is still living there?!? where is everyone going? oh, right, California) again someday.

sketchy

charcoal and graphite live figure study drawings on paper, each approx. 20" x 25.5"

Maison des Arts, round two

i wish every week could be like this one was.

Bert: "THAT is YOU!"

Abstract/Expressive Self-Portrait, acrylic on paper, 20" x 25.5" i didn't intend to look so cross, that's just my natural expression when i'm concentrating. i'm pleased with this one---a good example of academic study with my own personal expression and preference for strong line, composition. blah blah arty farty blah blah blah... i think it's pretty cool, that's enough said.

more naked ladies

Marta, seated, oil on paper, 20" x 25.5" Seated Sophie, acrylic on paper, 20" x 25.5"

figure studies

Vanille, oil on paper, 20" x 25.5" Reclining Woman, acrylic on paper, 25" x 20" Sophie, reclining, acrylic on paper, 9.5" x 22"

Elizabeth Taylor (young) meets Liza Minelli (aged and drugged out) meets Velma (of Scooby Doo fame)

Then: Classic Self-Portrait (not completed), acrylic on paper, 20" x 25.5", May 2003 Now: Classic Self-Portrait, oil on paper, 20" x 25.5", February 2004 self-portraits suck. even I don't want to look at myself in the mirror that much. the double mirror approach (so that the true image of yourself--how others see you--is shown) doesn't help the matter of the double chin. it is an important academic exercise and good practice but it's making me dizzy and giving me a headache. or it could be all those fumes---the weather has gone crap-ola and we can't open up the studio windows as much or as often as in the summer time. update: marked improvement from the first session at Maison des Arts to this one, if i do say so myself. just having completed it this time is an improvement!

what day is it? where am i? did i just stir my coffee with a paintbrush?

view of St. Paul from the bus stop in La Colle sur Loup i'm taking a week's intensive painting course again at Maison des Arts in nearby (only one train then one bus ride, not too bad) La Colle sur Loup this week---long days--up at 6:30am in order to get the doggie out before i go each morning--then lots of work with new live models each day and then back home late. i'm exhausted. but a happy exhausted--sleeping very well. and painting not to badly either. more updates and posts of new work to come when i am less nicotine and caffeine dependant next week.

potting around

i've really been enjoying my little pottery group (both the clay work and the French conversation practice) and now that i have a few hand building techniques under my belt i've been more experimental/expressive --pics of recent work to come, they're being fired later this week. i found a little art society/studio here in Cannes awhile back and now can finally join up later this week. with membership comes the perk of access to both the drawing/painting and ceramics studios during three open sessions each week--AND they have a RAKU kiln! yippee! with my interest in pottery growing, i've been looking for some pot blogs (ha ha) and haven't had much luck--seems i'm not the only one.

FYI

i'm farting around with the categories and organization of the GALLERY site, so it may be goofy until i've finished sorting it in a few days.

easel update

Red Shirt, 20" x 25.5", oil pastel, watercolor and graphite on paper Lemon, 20" x 25.5", oil pastel on paper

easel update

Coast II, acrylic and ink on paper, 25.5" x 20" Coast Night, acrylic on paper, 20" x 25.5"

easel update

Olives, acrylic, pencil and pastel on board, 25.5" x 19.75" Coast I, acrylic and pencil on paper, 25" x 20"