This is right outside my gallery! San Antonio is a beautiful place.
Mary Shepard and I got the burlap on the walls today. Omigod, am I tired. I'm sure she is, too. Karen came to help this afternoon, too, after having taught three classes at UTSA. So she got good and worn out, as well.
FedEx delivered the burlap yesterday from Dick Blick, along with some great new frames. The ad for the burlap promised odor-free. Not so much, actually. I'm going to have to seal the stuff under some sort of clear coat. But golly, oh golly, does it look better than that ghastly peach-painted pegboard! The flooring gets installed tomorrow. Laminate on the diagonal. I need to figure out a trim board for the top of the walls, too, to cover the raw burlap tops.
The contractor is delivering the baseboards tomorrow, too, and I'm going to paint those so they'll be ready to install perhaps Thursday. I got my credit card machine and post office box keys today.
Signage is going to be a drawn-out process involving the Historical Review Board, since La Villita is historic property and all signs have to go through an exacting approval process. Maybe I'll make temporary signs for the interim.
Once the baseboards are in, I can bring down the counter and fridge and microwave and computer and easels and paintings. And then I can open! I'm not sure anyone is interested in the little pieces that are part of opening this gallery, but this serves partly as a way to record the process for myself, too. "How the dream came true!"
The wall covering in the new studio is UP!
Closing in on a finish
I had to widen her shoulders and soften the background. A palette knife helped. I simplified some shapes in her hair, too, and changed some highlights in her face. As always, I'll look at it again in the morning. My photos are coming out pinkish, when the skin tone has more ochres in it. Thank you, Jo, for the great critical feedback (sweetly provided in email vs in public comment.) I appreciate it!
Moving along on the little girl...
Spent some time on this painting this evening. Must've been about 6 hours since I went through three movies while painting. My sister had rented them at Blockbuster and then left them with us to watch almost a week ago. They're due tomorrow so it was now or never. Mistress of Spices, The Fountain, and Year of the Dog. Odd combo of movies, but they kept me entertained as I painted. The canvas got covered and I've refined quite a lot of the image. There's still some work to do on edges and shadows, but I'm liking much of this so far.
G'night, all.
Artists Need Community, Too!
One of the signs of passing youth is the birth of a sense of fellowship with other human beings as we take our place among them. - Viriginia Woolf
Yes, ma’am. Passing youth. Ouch and Amen. I was just replying to an email from another member of Austin Pastel Society and put this quote in my reply, then decided I needed to post it, here, too. I found it on Angela Fehr's blog "Celebrating Simplicity" this morning. Thursday was the Austin Pastel Society meeting and I always feel like I'm among "my people" when I'm there. I worked at my art in such isolation for so long. It was joining APS (almost five years ago) that changed all that and gave me the courage to enter competitions and join other art groups, too. For every sad, angry person you have to skirt around in any group, I've found dozens and dozens of happy, supportive, creative, enthusiastic people. I used to avoid groups so I could avoid those occasional stinkers in the midst. I'm much more resilient now and wouldn't miss the party for love or money.
More and more I'm getting to have the experience of helping someone connect with their own artistic efforts and their own artist selves, and that's a huge pleasure for me.
I found out about the smARTist Telesummit a bit late to participate, but got so much from their one-hour "teaser" preview recording on this page: http://www.smartist-telesummit.com/2008/ If you right-click on "LEARN MORE" and then click on "Save Target as," then you can pause and rewind and take notes or listen to it later when you have time. There are some very good ideas worth chewing on in there. I'm working on the little girl portrait tonight. May post a progress image later!
Beginning of new oil portrait
Isn't this girl darling? Her parents were the winners of my donation of an oil portrait to the local PBS station's on-air auction last spring. I wondered if they were ever going to call me, so much time had passed. But I heard from them just before Christmas and tonight was the first chance I had to start in on it. The main reference photo was taken with a flash indoors in front of a Christmas tree, so is pretty washed out in terms of shadow and depth of color. I have some other photos of her that I'm using for color reference and a photo of her in the sweater they preferred her to wear instead of the Christmas-y one in the main reference. So this is a compilation of information from several references. It will be a vignette, also, - the body will not be painted solidly all the way to the bottom, so the focus will remain on her pretty face. There's much refining to do, of course, but I like the start. I'll post progress images as I go along.
On a completely unrelated note, I finally started in on a project on which I've been stuck for a long, long time. It took a challenge by -and an agreement with- another participant in the Artist's Way group I joined to get me moving finally. Suffice to say I'm grateful to be experiencing movement from that very stuck place. The project involves painting four 18"x18" oil paintings of different images of Abraham Lincoln in a style not my own- rather like a Warhol: strong flat color at the major value changes of the image. Amazing Award
Yesterday afternoon I participated in the Coppini Academy's Artist of the Year competition, and was awarded Artist of the Year. I'm afraid I lost most of my ability to form sentences longer than, "Wow!" after this picture was taken. I mean, I did hope to win.... This painting had sold, so I had to borrow it back from the new owner to compete. (One enters Artist of the Year by having won Artist of the Month with a particular painting which must be the one judged at Artist of the Year.... did you follow that?) But when I saw all the paintings yesterday, I knew any one of several could have won. Lesta Frank's gorgeous watercolor still life, Ron Watkins' oil portrait, a fantastic watercolor figure by a new acquaintance, Marilyn Moore... and the others- all beautiful. I've been a member of the Coppini less than four years and really love its intent and accessibility. Winning AOY is such an honor. And the big fat check that goes with it is equally nice! Wow!
I'm leaving now to meet the phone and internet installer at the new gallery. They could arrive any time from 8 a.m -12 noon. You know it's going to be noon, but we need to be there the whole time. Still suffering over flooring decisions. The estimate I got for installing the laminate was outrageous. May have to do it myself or choose carpet after all.....
Painting (big brush and bucket kind!) with friends...
Want to hear something amazing? Jo Castillo and her husband, Gene, drove all the way to San Antonio from Bastrop to help me paint today. Can you believe that? Gene finished the ceiling and we painted the window and door trim white as well as the inside side of the door. We took the grill down from the window and painted it white, too. Much friendlier look now. Karen came down to join us after teaching her three classes at UTSA. She changed out the door knob with a much better version. 
Thank you, Jo! Thank you, Gene! I'm completely humbled by your incredible brand of friendship.
Doesn't Jo have the best smile?
Got the Key! The Studio/Gallery is mine!
Well, I picked up the key yesterday. Today I bought paint, arranged for an installer for the flooring, and picked up the insurance binder from State Farm. I've made lists. My lists have lists. I designed the sales receipts this morning and now have to find where to have them made numbered and printed and padded in triplicate. Yesterday I set up internet and a phone number! Write this down: 210-266-3992. They install phone and internet next Monday. Now I have to arrange credit card processing. Does anyone have an opinion on a company? Then I need a counter and a portrait model platform. I suppose I'll build them, since they have to be a certain size. Signs! What am I going to do about signs? Once designed, they have to be approved by the City's historical board, so I'd better get busy. I'd like some nice director's chairs so they can be folded up when not being used. I need to order 100 yards of burlap to conceal the hideously painted but practical pegboard on all the walls. And some sort of adhesive. Maybe not the spray kind... the space is small and my lungs have to last another 50 years. Will have to find good lighting for models. A small fridge and microwave. I'm going to use my iHome and iPod for music. Will bring potted plants for the outside. My brain is spinning! Jo? Did you mean it when you offered to come help paint? I'm only halfway kidding. Tomorrow I'm going down with cleaning supplies and will get everything cleaned and prepped. Whoosh... I know it will all come together eventually. It's just such a mystery right now as to how. I'll post progress notes along the way, for sure. I'm open to thoughts and ideas.... send them my way!
Cool idea, great photos
Ok, you'd think I have nothing but time on my hands, since I'm posting another playtime entry. I do work, but I promise you I make time to play every day. Today I took a dancing lesson! Foxtrot, my darlings! Swing! My hips are ouchy now, but by golly I trotted and swung. Then I sat down in front of my computer and came across this cool idea of a blog. Every day these two women photographers each take a photo to illustrate a single word. On Saturdays they post a self portrait (Self Portrait Saturdays= SPS). Sundays are for showing off your best photo of the week. (Show Off Sunday = SOS). There are many links on their page to others who are following suit, so you can fill your eye with many, many terrific images there.http://herspace-myspace.blogspot.com/ I may try to play along now and then. We'll see. My best photo this week (not counting the one of the painting I finished, of course!) is of the front door of a fellow's house I went to last Sunday. The inside entry floor had 'tiles' of mesquite tree slices mortared in.
Lovely.
Another fun, lazier way to fill your eye with images is Blogger Play. http://play.blogger.com/ You just watch a slide show of photos people have just posted to their blogs. I was watching around 2:30 am this morning when most of America is asleep and Asia is awake. The Asian images included a high volume of closeups of food, kind of like "this is what I ate tonight", and photographs of clothing, kind of like "this is what I'm wearing tomorrow." And many of groups of people posing together in front of thngs- places they were visiting. If you tune in during America's daytime, you see a lot of closeups of babies, children and pets and crafts. Both sides of the world post group shots of people partying, drinks in hand. It's fun to just let the images wash over you. You can click on any image and visit the blog it came from. There's a whole wonderful world out there.
a fun meme
Now?
Afternoon Flight- progressed further
I'm going to stop here for the night and suffer in my dreams over what to do about her shoes.
Afternoon Flight- progress
Moving along... so much more to go. I'm already loving the orange of her shirt with the lavender of the wall. There are more lavenders in the shadows under the chairs. I hope it all comes together. Back to work!
Afternoon Flight
This is all I managed last night. I'm hoping to really steam ahead today either side of a dreaded dermatologist's appt. I got to start my day talking with my artist friend Diane Manousos on the phone. I always feel happier after a conversation with her. Then Eunice Hundley called. She's an excellent pastel portrait artist who is interested in being involved with the new studio/gallery. Am I lucky or what?! So much of this new adventure is a mystery for me... credit card processing... how to handle sales tax for the sales of others' art... But all will be revealed, I'm certain. I just have to focus on the next thing, then the next.
Deadline looming...
Oh! I got the call today that I get the keys to the new gallery space on Monday! I'm so excited!
So much to do but I'm planning that it all will be a fun adventure.
I went to my first meeting last night with a group of women artists who've formed a group based on the book "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron. I felt like I'd found sisters I'd been separated from at birth! I promised to complete one of four paintings for next Tuesday that have haunted me for over a year. Another member promised to bring three of her 25 thesis pages that have been similarly haunting her. So I'd better get the painting above done, and fast!
Commission finished.... almost?
This painting's deadline was the 25th, but we all got an intestinal virus that flattened first Morgan, then Karen and me, so I just got it done tonight. Actually, I may work a bit more on it tomorrow after I have a chance to see it fresh in the morning. The reference photos were several years old and not one of them was right in itself, so the painting is a compilation of bits from each of them. It's an oil, 16"x 20" on stretched canvas.
In spite of the flu, Christmas was one of the nicest ever. I'm told that the La Villita gallery contract is taking longer than they planned, so I'll get it closer to the middle of January than the beginning. So we're going to work on some home improvement projects here at home until then. I've gotten to talk with two other artists who I hope will be involved in the gallery down the line. There are some wickedly talented women in this part of Texas, let me tell you.
So how are you all spending your holidays? I'm going to sing Karaoke with my friends and generally get silly. The older I get, the more fun it is to play. I was SO serious in my 20s and 30s.
Have a great New Year's Eve, Ya'll!
Sample finished
This is an oil, 16"x20" on stretched canvas, I recently finished as a sample. I actually bought publication rights to the reference photo... something new to me. I liked that the faces of the woman and her dog were right up next to each other, unlike most 'me and my pet' photos. And I loved the expressions on their faces. I'm going to need samples of all sorts of portraits for the new studio and thought this addressed one category well.
This is the barest start of a commissioned oil portrait, 16"x20" on stretched canvas, of an eight-month-old boy. I'm using several photos and doing a composite of information from them. It makes me a little nervous to post these beginnings because they're in the prolonged ugly stage and some people will think that's how it's going to look when they're done. But take heart... they get better as I go along. My first interest is just get the canvas covered. I haven't even finished that stage yet. I'll post the progress images along the way.
I teach a painting class tonight and another tomorrow. Then Morgan has her 26th birthday on Friday. I was 26 when she was born. It's all going by so quickly. When I stop to see how good everything is here and now, I want to go back in time to the 26-year-old me and whisper in her ear, "Hang in there. It gets really wonderful later on."
Helen Van Wyk says in one of her painting videos that her teacher insisted that you weren't painting until you were painting on paint. "...first cover the canvas..." I guess at 26 I was just covering the canvas. Now I'm starting to paint on paint. So go ahead... take chances, make mistakes, do the best you can. Later you can make corrections, deepen the shadows, add some highlights, rethink the composition entirely. You're the artist here.
In the midst of Christmas commissions
This is a pastel, 11x14, on Pastelbord, started as a demo from a photo for one of my classes and finished up later. I took it for our annual Austin Pastel Society Christmas show n' tell Thursday evening and got such enthusiastic feedback for it that I had to look more closely to see what I did "right." One member, our past president Kathy Gray, even asked me to email an image of it to her so she could 'study' it. She wrote back and cited my bravery in leaving strokes unblended and in using such saturated color in places. I had to agree with her about the bravery. It does take some bravery and some bit of bravado (probably from the same root word, right?) to trust and then emphasize those flashes of color and then to leave the strokes as they are and not rub them away. Every time I manage bravery of that sort, I feel rewarded, so I do it more and more.
I'm in the middle of two commissions, both oil, with looming deadlines. One is actually overdue and the commissioner is being very patient. But there's emergency shopping to do today and I'm being my sister's 'date' to her company Christmas party tonight, so I don't know how much painting I'm going to be able to squeeze in today.
I'm being helped in the sanity department by the emails I get several times daily from Flylady and her helpers. If you haven't discovered Flylady, you might want to take a look at http://www.flylady.net/ It's a system for decluttering, keeping house by way of routines and baby steps, and FLYing : Finally Loving Yourself. I learned about Flylady from someone who was also participating in National Novel Writing Month two years ago, and have been grateful for her daily influence since.
Ok, I'm off to find festive clothes for tonight that I can wear in 70+ degree weather. It's warm and humid today.
Have a fun weekend, Ya'll!
Pastel portrait demo
In case you haven't heard enough about the mural...
Karen and Morgan and Mo's friend Linda and I went to Bellacino's for dinner tonight. GREAT pizza and ice cream. They make everything in house. All the breads and ice creams made right there. I got to finally get a picture with the wonderful Fran Matthews who owns the restaurant. Sweet woman.
This afternoon was painting class and a new artist joined us- Lesta Frank. She's already quite accomplished in watercolor and most other subjects, but wants to feel more confident with her portraiture and wants to learn to use pastels. She was a pleasure. Marion and Mary break new ground each time they work in class. I couldn't be more proud of them. I'll try to remember to take photos of their work to share here.
I've spent many hours over the last couple of days working on building a website for the new La Villita studio and gallery. Ok. I've been suffering over a name for this place. Right now, today, this is what I'm thinking:
Susan Carlin
Art Studio and Gallery
Not flashy, but covers the bases.
I get the space January first. In the meantime, I have to figure out a counter, frames, flooring, wall covering, new ceiling and lights. A model platform, receipts, credit card processing, finding other artists (good artists) willing to be there, phone, internet, printer, grid walls for the porch outside..... my head swims. All this with a crashed computer. I'm on a new one without benefit of all my images, documents, contacts. My sister keeps saying, "starting FRESH!" Okey dokey.
Finished!
This image is good for viewing the midground gondola. The next one is better for the foreground one.
All mural, all the time....
Every bit of the original wall is now covered except for the foreground gondola's innards. I'll be painting the gondolier and produce and bread and sausages and the like inside there. Today I put the daughter in the balcony on the left and the two granddaughters in the central gondola, finished the building on the right, complete with two balconies overrun with flowers, and a flower box in the same condition. I went over the sky with more color and did a lot of detail clean up all around. I've appreciated friends dropping in to encourage me along. Thank you! I really am going to try to finish up tomorrow. Then I'll go shopping for polyurethane.... or maybe it's verithane I want? Will ask the folks at Lowes. Thank you for the kind comments, ya'll.
Nighty night.
More mural...of course!
I've got 30 hours of painting time in on this project now. That's not counting interviewing, sketching, photo and computer time, time at the art supply store, or driving time. I'm guessing another 10 to go. Maybe 15? I keep thinking of new details to add. Once it's done, I'll coat it with polyurethane. The family starting the restaurant is working very hard to get everything just right for the grand opening on November 26th. I'm enjoying getting to know them. When the mural is completed, I have one portrait waiting for its finishing touches and another that came in today. Life is good.
Faces and details on the mural
These faces are one inch high. It's been a challenge to get the likenesses of the restaurant's owners in such a small space. Two grandchildren and a daughter to go. What was I thinking?
My daughter took this picture of me while I was painting. I thought it turned out well. Today I made up a balcony and tried to make it look like carved stone. And I started in on the people in the gondolas.
I now have 24 and a half hours in on this. I have some (vain) hope I can be done and happy with it by the end of the weekend.
This evening I got the contract for the portrait studio to look over and sign. Had a great conversation with the woman who brought it to me. I find myself looking forward to the whole experience... in between the moments of abject terror.
Tonight Karen and I went to see Love In The Time Of Cholera. Beautiful and meaningful, if one suspends the need for plausibility. Morgan saw Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. Then we went to Taco Cabana for margaritas. Nice. I have a funny, sweet family. Have a good weekend, Ya'll.
Mural Progress
Six hours on the scaffold today. Turned the gondola on the right so that it's directed into the opening, painted arches and walls and brick and geraniums and a lemon tree and lettered the tiny sign with "Bellacino's".
My feet hurt but I'm happy with the progress. More hours tomorrow!
All Sorts of NEWS
Well, well. Life's direction can turn on a dime. These particular changes fall in the category of 'be careful what you wish for, as it will surely come to be'. I submitted a proposal to the City of San Antonio in mid-October for the lease of a space to open a portrait art studio in La Villita (the artsy, historic area in downtown San Antonio adjacent to the Riverwalk). Friday was a day to remember. I was getting ready to go to Justin's for the reception for my show with Donna and Kim when I got a call saying my proposal was accepted. Omigosh! Fifteen minutes later I got a call from a woman who wanted a mural for her new restaurant, deciding that I was the one to do it. So I went to my reception with two new projects swimming in my head.
I won't get possession of the shop until late December, so that relieves me of the dreaded rush to get it up and operational in time to be profitable before Christmas. But it's still happening pretty fast. I started the mural on Sunday, so have been painting on it each day since. I'll post the latest image from that. It's an arched space framed by bricks, on a wall above a four foot wainscotting and ledge. Nine feet across, five feet high, so I'm working on a scaffold. I'll post more photos as I go.
The novel has slowed up considerably. I'm pretty darned sure I won't have 50000 words written by November 30th. But I like my premise and I'm inching along on it. In the midst of all this, my desktop computer threw its little electronic hands in the air and died. So I'm working on my laptop without the benefit of many a needed file and program, waiting for a bright young fellow named Cody to build me a new machine.
The mural will be a Venice canal with three gondolas. The center gondola will be carrying the members of the family opening the restaurant, the gondolier being the co-manager son. The mom is the other manager. I'm admiring this family's ability to work hard. They impress me. So far I have a bit of brick wall and the water and the scene at the end of the canal. There will be a little cafe on the left past the bridge. Bellacino's is the name of the restaurant and the name will be on the little white sign on the pink building. The foreground gondola will have produce as cargo. At least, that's the plan.
Nighty night, all.
I'll be back....
Ok, I'm staggering under the load of all the things I'm doing right now and will try to get back to blogging as soon as I can take a deep breath. Thanks for coming by..Leave me a comment and I'll respond specifically, ok?
Another Eleventh Hour post
Today has been a wild mix of airport runs, errands, the death of a cell phone and purchase of another, making dinner, adjusting my nephew, Amazing Race (didn't see the end because it interfered with...) The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard on PBS, and finally seeing Joni Mitchell on Tivo from this morning's CBS Sunday Morning. In between I talked with my parents in Idaho, and my friend Karen about the novel's start and tried to figure out my new phone. It does email and instant messaging, and I still don't know my way around it, even after studying up. Didn't actually work on the novel today, so tomorrow will be tough catching up. Tomorrow is also the day to enter work in the portrait show at the Coppini, but I'm ill prepared, having just hung the show at Justin's.
No photo to add to today's post right now. I'll have to see what I can do tomorrow.
Nighty night, All.
November 3, Saturday
I spent the day at the River Art Gallery selling art to happy people visiting San Antonio from all over the country. I got to work with two very nice women, Abigail and Alice, and I got to work on my novel just a little. I'm still about 1600 words behind, but I'm going to try to put a dent in that number before going to bed. 50,000 words divvied up between the thirty days of November is 1667 words a day. About two and a half pages in Microsoft Word in 12 pt. type. Completely possible, right? That's what I keep telling myself.
Ok, it's back to work.....
National Novel Writing Month kickoff
