Today the last of our guests headed back home after a magical five day workshop led by Carol Marine. We now know we are truly going to love our new life- as artists who will open our studio and guest house to other artists a few times a year for workshops and retreats. We had 18 unique and enjoyable artists in the studio, and 9 of them staying with us in the guest house and cottage this week. Our meals were crazy good- prepared by Sue Bown, the incredible owner of Bide-A-While in Dickinson, TX. The double whammy of fantastic instruction and great food had each artist smiling and grateful they were among the lucky few who were able to attend. Carol's waiting list for this workshop exceeded 100. In the realm of art workshops, we opened Whistle Stop Corner at a pinnacle.
We'll likely host smaller scale workshops in the future, but let me tell you: It was a thrilling way to begin our new (ad) venture!
Whistle Stop Corner's first workshop!
Two New Workshops Scheduled!
Two Day Still Life Painting Workshop in Del Rio, TX : October 10-11, 2014. $150. Sponsored by the Del Rio Arts Council. For more information, email Nancy O'Brien at nobrien@delrioarts.com
Three Day Still Life and Portrait Painting Workshop In Bracketville, TX, sponsored by the Fort Clark Arts Group January 26-28, 2015. For more information contact Jean Levert Hood at leverthood@gmail.com
We're SO busy getting Whistle Stop Corner ready for its big debut, that it was pretty crazy to schedule a workshop less than a month before the opening... But when I was asked so nicely, and when it sounded like a welcome break from painting walls and scraping old adhesive off of hardwood floors, I said YES, INDEED! There are still four spaces available in the Del Rio workshop, so why don't you join us?
The workshop in Bracketville is after the first of the year and is in a warm part of the country, so you might like to promise yourself a little art and sunshine in the middle of winter. I know I'm looking forward to it!
Portrait Workshop with a focus on Drawing Skills - January 17-18, 2014
Registration for this workshop is full. If you're interested in my future workshops, please email me!
If you've been looking for a chance to work on your skills in portraiture, whether in sharpening your drawing ability or in working out those flesh tones in your painting, come spend two days in November- Friday and Saturday, the 8th and 9th with me. We're keeping the group small so each artist can be assured of plenty of personal attention. I hope you'll join us!
Place: Harold's
2743 Roosevelt Ave, San Antonio, TX 78214
Cost: $150.
Time: January 17-18, 2014
9:00- 4:00 with an hour break for lunch... bring your lunch and work on through, if you like!
Feel free to use your regular palette of colors, but if you'd like a recommended supply list, just email me: susan@susancarlin.com.
Final Touch, oil, 28 x 22 (Not Schmid)
I painted most of this painting almost four years ago. I painted it online during my at-least-once-a-week livestreamed sessions and one of the artists who joined me via the chat function mentioned that the subject looked somewhat like Richard Schmid. From that point on we referred to the painting from then on as "Not Schmid". I still think of it with that title, to be honest. But officially it's titled "Final Touch"... for a couple of reasons: 1) Even though the model (a nice man who did me a great favor to pose for many, many photographs) was not holding anything during our session, I gave him a paint brush in the painting. To me he looks like he's doing what all artists do toward the end of a painting- staring/seeing critically and deciding if it's time to sign it. And 2) I put this painting away just before finishing because I was puzzling too long on how to handle the shadows of his chair on the floor and wall and needed to get on to other paintings. Time passed. Other paintings were painted. About six weeks ago I pulled Not Schmid out and suddenly knew what to do about those shadows. I put on my Final Touch/es and framed the fellow up. He's watching over my shoulder in the gallery now. A critical-eyed guardian angel. I like him.
Two Day Portrait Workshop Nov 8 and 9
... with me!
This workshop is over now... and it was SO much fun to work with such intent and happy artists.
I have another scheduled on January 17-18, 2014.
I hope you'll join us.
If you've been looking for a chance to work on your skills in portraiture, whether in sharpening your drawing ability or in working out those flesh tones in your painting, come spend two days in November- Friday and Saturday, the 8th and 9th with me. We're keeping the group small so each artist can be assured of plenty of personal attention. I hope you'll join us!
Place: Harold's
2743 Roosevelt Ave, San Antonio, TX 78214
Cost: $150. Register by clicking on the PayPal button below.
Time: Nov 8 and 9
9:30- 4:30 with an hour's break for lunch
Feel free to use your regular palette of colors, but if you'd like a recommended supply list, just email me: susan@susancarlin.com.
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| Getaway, oil, 30"x24", black floater frame. $1200 |
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| Drawing, graphite, 10"x8" |
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| Drawing detail |
The (large) painting at the top is of a little cove along the western coast of Ireland from my time there in 2010. I long to spend many weeks in the future exploring that beautiful, beautiful country.
WSC is coming along... We now have new wiring everywhere: we can finally just flip on a switch and SEE. Very exciting, believe me, to roll up all those extension cords and put them away. A couple of non-weight-bearing interior walls have been demolished and new ones framed in on Saturday. We still hope to be ready for our first painting workshop in the former grocery store's space in the fall, but have decided not to make ourselves any crazier than we already are by scheduling anything before it's ready to go. The cottage now has working lights and outlets as of yesterday. We have our second tenant in Apartment 3. Our friend Diana came over Friday evening with her tools and before long she had all the blinds installed in Apartment 2. Things are progressing, we remind ourselves. Before long the vision and the reality will look very much like each other.
I've gotten some of the sweetest messages from a few of you who let me know I'm being missed. Thank you, Dear Ones. I look forward to rejoining this good community when we can come up for air. In the meantime, I'll post as I'm able! Sending love....XOXO
Safe With You
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| Safe With You |
Haven't framed it yet, but it's drawn lots of positive comments from visitors at the gallery - always nice to eavesdrop on.
Thank you for dropping in on my blog!
September 30- One Day Portrait Workshop
Nueva Street Gallery
We’ll work our tushies off, learn a lot and have a blast!
Nueva Street Gallery
507 E. Nueva Street
San Antonio, TX 78205
www.nuevastreetgallery.com
email: susan at susancarlin.com
Cell phone: 210-602-8562
Happy Freedom
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| New Schwinn Admiral 700c at Whistle Stop Corner |
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| Parked at Nueva Street Gallery- Sculpture?! |
The thing we kept saying when we found the property that would become Whistle Stop Corner is, "We can bicycle to work!" And this week we have finally begun!
First, I did my usual uberFrugal thing... and consulted the listings in Craigslist. We met a man at a parking lot midway and I jumped right on the blue bicycle he was selling for oh-so-little. Even though I'd noticed that he'd Armor All-ed the heck out of the tires and even though it was an asphalt lot at 2:00 p.m. on a hot late-August day in Texas, I still took the first turn too sharply and the slick tires slid across that hot asphalt and I went right down on my keister. My pride was the biggest thing hurt. My keister was the next biggest thing. Oooch. But I paid the man and rode it to work the next day. Imagine my glee! I did love the idea of the bike, but not the actual bike, turns out. I still found myself looking at bicycles online. Apparently I had not married the blue bike... we were just dating.
On Sunday I found The Shiny New Schwinn. I also got Accessories: a cute white wire basket that comes off and has a handle for carrying, LED headlight and taillight, a Dddling-dddling-dddling bell, and a Kryptonite bike lock. She's white with red lettering, red sidewalls and red piping on the seat and red cross stitch on the grips. She's a rolling peppermint! Hey, that's a good name for her, don't you think? Peppermint, it is. I have an electric bike, too, named Peggy Sue: the down-home version of Pegusus... get it? ;-)
It takes 10-15 minutes to get to Nueva Street Gallery or to get home to Whistle Stop Corner, depending on lights and those minutes are spent smiling and saying Good Morning and Good Afternoon to everyone I pass, feeling the self-made breeze and the freedom and instant time travel to my youth.
My happiest Christmas was 1966 when I was 11 and my parents gifted my sister and brothers and I with new Schwinn bicycles. Mine was pink and white. I loved it so. It put wings on my sense of freedom and expanded my territory in a big way. I'm 57 now and still can appreciate that feeling.
What does this have to do with painting or art? A happy artist makes happy art? Another action taken to fulfill our dreams makes us more of who we are? I don't know... It does feel like it's part of my dream as an artist somehow. It's also less gas used and fewer parking fees paid... always good. But a sense of happy freedom - The BEST.
Still Kickin'
I'm pretty sheepish about how little I've posted to my art blog, even though friends have assured me they understand. I do miss it, though! I miss the connection to my artist friends which I always felt when we commented on each others' work, encouraging and acknowledging each other's efforts. I'm looking forward to feeling that again soon.
Also, we've posted to our Whistle Stop Corner blog today, since WSC has gotten all our time and energy lately. A wonderful article was just published about our venture, which you might like to read here.
Please don't give up on me if you've been checking in here occasionally for news. I'm still kickin' and I can't wait to renew our friendship!
The Secret
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| The Secret, oil, 11"x30" |
My life for the last 5 weeks has been a whirlwind of pre-rehab demolition, chatting with visitors at the gallery, shipping artworks off to their homes and businesses, hosting my father for a week while he helped with drywall removal and pulled thousands of nails from the wood beneath, watching numerous episodes of "Income Property" on HGTV which we record to watch when we drag home and collapse on the sofa in the evening. I hope you can picture me grinning ear to ear! I've only gotten to paint in spurts during this time and thought I'd show you a couple of paintings I like a lot. The one above is an idea I've mulled on for about four years. The little girls who modelled for my reference photos were wonderful. I'm considering a series with this theme. The Secret sold so quickly I didn't get to enjoy it very long before it went off to Connecticut along with the portrait I painted of John Pototschnik, the landscape painter from northern Texas.
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| Detail of McCaul- commissioned portrait, oil, 16"x20" |
The one above was a commission for a fellow in Ohio who wanted to surprise his wife with it. I hear she liked it very much. So did I. I made a few requested changes- shifting her gaze to the viewer from the reference photograph's gaze of up and to the viewer's right. I also did a bit of simplification of her outfit.
I have a few more commissions waiting, then- watch out! I'm bursting with a need to paint landscapes. Brace yourselves... they're on their way!
An Anniversary and A New Adventure
Four years ago today, I opened Susan Carlin Art Studio And Gallery after retiring from my 22 years of practice as a chiropractor. That February 2nd, in 2008, marked a thrilling return to making my living as a full-time painter and, for the first time, a gallery owner. A year and a half ago, in September of 2010, I dove in deeper yet and traded up to a much larger gallery and to representing now over 20 other artists. I have a busy schedule of commissions and spend my days in activities related to the making of art and to helping artworks find the perfect people to love them and take them home. You'd think that would be enough to keep me occupied, right?
Well, I'm diving in much deeper yet again.
Today, February 2nd, 2012, my partner and I have purchased a property with three buildings, one built in the 1920s- a grocery store for over 70 years (seen above), and two built at the end of the 1930s- an apartment building with eight garages, and a tiny cottage. All three have been boarded up for ten years, just waiting for two artists with VISION to come along. If you'd like to see and read a little more, please hop over to our blog we've started to chronicle the revival of these special buildings and the creation of an event center which will host art workshops, the making of a guesthouse for the lodging of artists who attend them, and the evolution of an apartment building, from a retro past to a high-tech present: "retrotech" residences.
All three make up Whistle Stop Corner!
Sketches of my new family in Istanbul
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Bedriye, Halide, Hande, Sacide, Nilgun, Neslihan, Aslihan, Nadide This series started as a quick sketch of Aslihan, Ugur's beautiful 12 year old niece, second from the right on the bottom. Within a day or two it became a series of all the women in the family... except Ugur. Guess I'll need to rectify that soon, right? I love to sketch. These days, sketching has become simply a cursory prelude to a painting, though. I need to remember how delicious it is to simply sketch. |
Robin- the finish of a commissioned portrait.
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| Robin, oil 16 x 20 |
Robin's smile must be missed every day. Every time I paint a portrait I feel as though I've gotten to know the person I've painted... I spent so many hours looking into her eyes, I felt privileged to have been smiled at like that.
My love to Robin's family.
See the start of this portrait in previous post.
I'm alive and well, and starting a new commission...
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| Start of commissioned portrait- Robin. |
Yesterday I got to start a new commission- a lovely woman named Robin. I decided to broadcast live as I painted so I could have some company through the process. Several friends popped into the chat room to watch and talk with me- always wonderful. This image above is a work-in-progress image just two and a half hours into the 16 x 20 oil. It's fairly thinly painted so far, as my objective was just to map out my values and work toward her likeness, and get the white of the canvas covered.
If you'd like to watch the broadcast of the beginning of this portrait, it's in two parts:
part 1 (about 45 minutes)
part 2 (about 57 minutes)
I'll try to post the image of the completed portrait when I've finished.
Over these first 14 months we've owned the gallery, Ugur and I offered each of the gallery artists a show- a chance to showcase their work by showing more pieces than we are usually able to show, and we've had a reception to kick off each exhibition. Right after Thanksgiving, it'll be OUR turn. Wait!!! That means we need new work. (She panics.) Between now and the end of Thanksgiving, I actually want to experiment with new subject matter and new painting processes, and right now I only have sketchy ideas for those new paintings. It's kind of exciting, actually. Only part of the excitement is panic. (Ok, a big part.) But I'm actually very interested to see what will happen when I step out some of my patterns of limited thinking. I'll let you know how it goes!
"If I Weren't So Stingy..."
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| Glorious Gold |
Boy, that really struck home when I read it the first time many years ago, and each time since.
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| Reclining Nude |
It took me until this year to buy the metal spirits can with the clamp-on lid I've wanted since I started painting in oils. And I only got it because it was in Jerry's Artarama's Deep Discount Super Sale.
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| Stephen and Ben Wenzel |
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Online Workshop Painting |
Let's wrestle to the ground and hog-tie our sickening stinginess. This year I'm going to buy a great travel easel..... I am, SO!
Finding Time To Paint (Write/Sculpt/Create anthing...)
I was going to paint today. No, really. I was.
The cute couple who are the subjects in my current portrait commission are on my easel right now looking at me as if to say, "Come paint our hands now. And how about clothes, for Heaven's sake?" I've looked back longingly and apologetically in return, but have not painted. I've vacuumed the gallery, taken photographs of two children for a portrait later in my schedule, sold a print, a bracelet and some cards to visitors, discussed the possibility of representation with an inquiring artist, eaten lunch -a bite now and then as I could dash into the kitchen between visitors, and I've composed this newsletter to send out to you. I haven't painted.
I think I know why: I was taught to do my chores first and then play. Like I was taught to eat my spinach and clean my plate before I could have dessert.
Because painting is the funnest thing ever, I think I have to earn it. I have to deserve it- I have to do my chores and eat my spinach first.
But what if you make a living doing what you love? The rules get all tangled up in our heads. Is painting (writing/sculpting/playing music/designing, etc.) now the play or the chore? I can't tell you how many times I've heard, "I wouldn't want to paint for my living, because then it would be work, not play."
It's never worked that way for me. Painting is the funnest thing, whether I'm painting a commissioned portrait or painting something of my own conception. Getting paid to do it is an added layer of joy, not something that transforms the process into drudgery. So, what's the solution, you ask?
I think paintings get done when I schedule them in like they're important, too. Women especially "get" this, I think. We're learning to schedule ourselves into our own days along with the tasks of home and work. It's intention backed up with actually writing it down. Between "Do the laundry" and "Bank," you write "2:00-3:00 Paint."
To REALLY make sure we do it, we can tell a friend what we intend and then plan to call that friend to report in once we've done it. Learning to be accountable to ourselves is easier when we use our natural urge to be accountable to others.
Deadlines are fabulous motivators, too. Painting for a specific competition or for someone's birthday gift or because you agreed on a certain due date with a client... all can light the fire under us to align ourselves with our easels and get started. Waiting for the muse isn't smart. The muse shows up when we've got a smudge of Cadmium red on our right cheek or when we've lost track of time because we're typing fast and our brains are full of the story we're telling.
So... it's time to close up the gallery and I'm packing up the cute couple to take home with me. I've promised them hands and clothes. And I keep my promises.
One-Day Online Portrait Painting Workshop July 2, 2011
With registration, and at two weeks prior to the workshop, you will receive:
• a high-resolution image file of the workshop reference,
• a supply list,
• the address and password for the website where you may watch the pre-instruction videos, and where the workshop will be held.
The day of the workshop you will receive:
• instruction in the art of painting a portrait,
• two assessment-and-suggestion critiques of your painting, if desired.
One week following, if you take that time to put finishing touches on your painting, you’ll receive:
• a third assessment-and-suggestion session.
By registering early, you’ll have plenty of time to carefully complete your sketch on your painting surface in preparation for beginning the painting on the day of the workshop.
At 9:30 Saturday morning, July 2nd, I will discuss my process as I start from a white canvas panel and paint the portrait as you follow along and paint from the same reference.
At midday, you may take a digital photograph of your painting and email it to me so that I can put it on screen and discuss what is working well and how you might improve it when you resume painting. At this time you’ll see the paintings of the other artists attending the workshop, and get to know them better through the chat as we discuss each other’s efforts.
We’ll paint again until 4 p.m., completing our paintings. Again, you’ll send me a photo by email for assessment and suggestions. When we’ve completed those, we say, “goodbye and well done!” A week later, July 9 at 10 a.m., we meet up again for another assessment-and-suggestion session for those who’ve painted further on their portraits that week. We celebrate our accomplishments!
What you won’t have to do when you register for this workshop:
• Pack up your art supplies and carry them anywhere. (Savor this one… Ahhhh…)
• Find someone to feed your dog or cat… or spouse.
• Drive to another city.
• Pay for a hotel room.
• Dress up. Or dress at all. (Stay in your jammies… who will care? Ahhhh….)
If you would like your final painting’s image to be posted on my blog (with or without a link to your site), there will be a $10. fee option at the end of the workshop. I’d love to show off your work!
I hope you’ll join us for a fun, heart-racing day of painting your socks off!
REGISTER NOW!
Living An Artist's Life
I told myself I’d get back to my art when I retired, when my daughter was grown, when my To-Do list was all crossed off, when I could build a studio first, when I could find a whole, uninterrupted day/week/month to devote to it, when I owned all the right supplies, when I could be guaranteed up front that I would be successful at it, when I knew for sure that I had something unique to offer, when I could stop being afraid of failing, when I could stop being afraid.
All those excuses, all that fear only served to keep me doing the thing I was less passionate about and kept me afraid. This fear starts early. I have spoken to hundreds and hundreds of third-graders as the representative “fine artist” in an arts program of a local school district, and I can count on at least one child per class asking, “What if you make a mistake?”
Oh my. This is the truth of it: almost every other brush stroke is a “mistake.” You lay one down, you assess how closely it came to the value/color/direction/ thickness/sharpness you had in mind. If it varied too far from your intention, you mix more paint and lay another one on top of it. Then you assess that one. Then you repeat that sequence until you have a finished painting.
It’s just paint.
Or is it? When you think of what painting (writing/drawing/sculpting/playing music/etc.) represents to someone who is a ‘derailed’ artist, or an artist who is learning a new medium, or a new artist, or someone who is not sure she CAN BE an artist at all, it’s a whole lot more.
It’s being willing to step outside of the safe, the ordinary, the approved, the sanctioned, the tried-and-true, in order to take risks and be vulnerable and unique and authentic and experimental and audacious , expressing to yourself that time spent making art is valuable… valuable to you and perhaps even to others down the line.
When I started to paint again and then to show my new work to friends and patients, then to strangers, and then to take commissions and then to enter shows and then start a blog and a website to show my work to a wider circle yet, then to open a gallery… the very process of facing my fears, one brush stroke at a time, has made me braver. Every painting has made me a more experienced painter.
I’m now voracious in the never-ending process of adding to my skills and the range of paintings I make. I see potential paintings everywhere and in everyone. There isn’t enough time in the world for me to paint every painting I want to make.
Life is good.
New Website Up! Reception: Constance Seiler & Tim Olson Sunday, May 1st
Salon International Opening
Workshop Report: Pictures of Pitchers
Champagne Reception- Nancy Bandy: Cloud Nine
Online One-Day Painting Workshop and Online Broadcast Schedule Change
Register for my Online Still Life Workshop by clicking HERE.
Sunday, March 20, 9 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. $50.
Paint along with me as you watch me paint in oil from this still life arrangement. You can ask questions along the way, and twice you'll have the opportunity to email me a photo of your progress so I might offer my assessment and suggestions, and therefore see the other painters' paintings, too.
Before the workshop, I’ll send you a supply list and the high resolution image file of our reference and you’ll have time to complete your drawing before we start painting.
I'll spend some time discussing principles I consider when setting up a still life and we'll paint the whole painting together in the course of the day. You’ll have access to the video recordings of the workshop afterward to review.
You just need good internet access next to your easel and a digital camera to send me your photos.
Where else can you spend time painting with others, learn a lot, have so much fun, not have to carry all your equipment and supplies somewhere, and do it all in your jammies, if you like?! No matter your skill level, I think you’ll learn a little something and have a good time, so I hope you’ll join us. Register.
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A change in my Online Broadcast schedule…
I’ve been painting at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesdays for quite a long time now. Starting tomorrow, I’m going to try out a different schedule: 3-5 p.m. on Tuesdays, broadcasting from the gallery. I hope you’ll come by and chat with me while I paint! http://www.blogger.com/www.ustream.tv/channel/susancarlin
Below is the painting I’m working on now… A landscape, for goshsakes! It’s a cliffhanger…
Hope you’re enjoying this beautiful spring.
-Susan
http://susansartjournal.blogspot.com/
http://www.ustream/channel/susancarlin
210-602-8562 cell
Nueva Street Gallery
210-229-9810 gallery
Champagne Reception: Patty Cooper at Nueva Street Gallery March 3, 5-8 p.m.
We're celebrating this Thursday, March 3, 5-8 p.m...
Patty Cooper's newest oil and pastel paintings.
The colors, shapes and textures of plants speak straight to the soul.
Come hear what these Talking Flora are saying!
-Susan
susan@susancarlin.com
Cell phone: 210-602-8562
www.susancarlin.com
http://susansartjournal.blogspot.com
www.ustream.tv/channel/susancarlin
Gallery: 210-229-9810
Nueva Street Gallery
507 E. Nueva Street
San Antonio, TX 78205
www.nuevastreetgallery.com
http://nuevastreetgallery.blogspot.com
March 20- Online One-Day Still Life Workshop
2011 Salon International entry accepted!
Well, I can breathe again. I'm thrilled to let you 
know that Wide World was accepted into this year's Salon International! There are so many amazing artists in this show and the paintings are inspiring- it's an honor to be juried in!
You can go HERE to see which works were accepted. This is the first year the Greenhouse Gallery has created links to the paintings' images. I've been enjoying looking at them all. Daniel Greene is the judge this year for the competition. I think of him as my first portrait painting instructor since it was his book that I poured over and his skill at painting that I aspired to when I began painting at age 20. (Over 35 years ago, my friends.) The show opens April 2nd and runs through April 22 at the Greenhouse Gallery here in San Antonio. I hope you'll make time to go. Then come visit Nueva Street Gallery while you're here! (Our new website is almost ready to launch. I'll post a link as soon as it's up, I promise.)
I was informed Wednesday that I've worked on this portrait of John Pototschnik on and off for two years. That's some sort of a record for dawdling for me. I mean, I can dawdle with the best of them, but two YEARS??! This is the current state of its progress and I hope to show it in its finished state very, very soon.
San Antonio woke up to snow this morning. You read that right. Snow. I had icicles hanging from the edges of my car. No, really. I think it last happened the year before I moved here- 1985. I've seen ice in San Antonio before, but not snow that stuck and stayed. A friend texted at 3:45 a.m.: SNOW! A quick pull on the blinds' cord revealed a beautiful scene outside. Kind of magical, really. Like hearing someone yelling "Northern Lights!" outside the RV in Michigan one night around 2 a.m., and going out to be gobsmacked by undulating curtains of color and an iris of slowly pulsing light directly above.
I wish you magic in your day today. Snow, Northern Lights or 'just' the smile of someone you love.
Wide World- completed and submitted
On New Year's Eve I posted my start of this painting, and promised to show you when I finished it. The deadline for entry into this year's Salon International was Friday, and I got it submitted in the nick of time. Perhaps it's not smart to mention this. What if it's not accepted? After years of competitions I've seen one of my paintings get Best Of Show in one, and not even get accepted in another, so I understand the capriciousness of it all. Still, I am holding my breath. I'll let you know.
About 10 days ago we had a reception for Carol Marine and her beautiful paintings at Nueva Street Gallery. At one point during the reception we did a short (14 minutes, I think) broadcast of talking with her and some of the guests, showing her paintings and then doing a short tour of the gallery and the other work we have right now.
Today started grey and cold and... a Monday. I wanted to stay curled up under the blankets, honestly. Now it's beautiful and clear and 63 degrees in San Antonio, with many happy travelers and convention-goers coming in and taking home art that makes them even gladder to have visited our fair city.
Always a good lesson: A day can always get more beautiful, a friendship can deepen, you can learn something valuable, you can be a bright spot for a stranger and you can cross some items off your to-do list and feel more accomplished by just showing up sometimes.
Hope you have a magical day!
-Susan
Carol Marine Reception
Please join us in welcoming Carol at a champagne reception for her and her delicious paintings on Thursday, January 13th, from 5-8 p.m.
Take a break and come spend a day - or several - in San Antonio, enjoying the Riverwalk, La Villita, and Nueva Street Gallery.
We'd love to see you!
Susan
susan@susancarlin.com
Cell phone: 210-602-8562
Gallery: 210-229-9810
Nueva Street Gallery
507 E. Nueva Street
San Antonio, TX 78205
http://www.nuevastreetgallery.com/
http://www.susancarlin.com/
http://susansartjournal.blogspot.com
www.ustream.tv/channel/susancarlin
New painting in progress- Wide World
Wide World (in progress) 11x14, oil
Detail from Wide World, oil
I'm only a little way into this painting, but I do like the beginning of it. I thought I'd share its rough state with you and promise to show you the finish when I get there. The reference is from photos I took in France this summer in the small town of St. Florent Le Vieil on the Loire river. This girl was in a window overlooking the narrow street I walked back to our bed and breakfast from the Abbey where the International Pastel Festival was being held. I knew when I looked at the photo later that I'd want to paint her, and now that all my Christmas portrait commissions got to their recipients on time, I'm glad to have begun this one for me!
Nueva Street Gallery has been bustling with happy Holiday visitors to La Villita, and today the city is gearing up for 250,000 visitors for the New Year's party, Celebrate San Antonio, which happens right outside the gallery in Hemisfair Park tonight. Should be very exciting with all the music and fireworks!
I wish you much joy and creativity and love in the year ahead.
