Best of Show Award

I am pleased to announce the painting pictured here, titled “Winding Down” has just been awarded “Best of Show” by noted artist and juror, Arthur Egeli, at the 42nd National Juried Fine Art Show at Ocean Shores, Washington. We will be present (see previous blog) at the 3 day exhibit and event this weekend.


I had passed-by this old farm building in the Skagit Valley for more than 25 years, always with an eye on the special way it stood-up to the elements of weather and time for more than a century, completely neglected for at least the last 2 decades. When I painted this piece, it was with the feeling that days were numbered. The late afternoon backlit winter sky cast a strange reddish-orange glow to the entire area, with the barn blocking out a cool blue/green/gray contrast to hold its own space, along Josh Wilson Road (near Bayview, Washington). The building burned to the ground about 2 months after I made this painting.

www.associatedarts.com

The 42nd Annual Ocean Shores National Juried Fine Art Competition is April 8-10 at their beautiful and spacious, new convention center. I had 3 pieces juried into the show and have been invited to be one of several “artists in action” during this year's festival. I will be at the convention center from 10-5 on Saturday and Sunday, the 9th and 10th doing live paintings in pastel. Since it's indoors, I'll be working from reference photos and memory from my plein air painting trips. I plan to do 2 paintings while there, probably from Italy and Croatia. www.associatedarts.org to visit their web site.

If you are in the area, please stop-by, say hi and check-out the art work that will be hanging for the 3 day festival. It's always an exciting show and covers all 2-D & 3-D mediums. The piece here, “Riffle” was painted as a plain air demo during one of my workshops last summer, at Port Stanley estuary, about a mile from our house and is 1 of 3 of my paintings accepted into the exhibit.

I extend my sincere apologies to anyone who came to the artists' reception April 1st at The Depot Arts Center in Anacortes (see my previous blog) and found that the featured artist (me) wasn't there. After living on this lovely island for more than 35 years, I should have known the ferry boat was going to break down on exactly that day . . . April 1st after all! Our sailing to Anacortes was cancelled due to a computer malfunction aboard the vessel. The Lopez/Anacortes -bound ferry had to return to Friday Harbor (where the crew successfully re-booted the on-board computer) and then wait for the U.S. Coast Guard to bestow their personal blessings upon the boat which is required by law, whenever a computer goes wonky. I wonder if they cracked a bottle of champagne over the stern? Probably has something to do with home land security (my best guess) but nevertheless resulted in a canceled trip to Anacortes. Ah . . . la Dolce Vita in Isola Lopez! I will announce the second opening May 6th, as the show runs for 2 months.

I have again been juried into The 17th Annual Carmel Art Festival, which will be held May 13-16, in Carmel, California. All artists paint (rather furiously) for 2 days and turn our best 2 pieces in (framed) for jury on Friday evening. The festival opens to the public at 10 a.m. Saturday and runs through Sunday, the 16th. There are 60 artists participating in this multi-national event.

The juried pieces are displayed Saturday and Sunday, in a large, covered outdoor pavilion at Davendorf Park in Carmel, where they are put into a silent auction. A live auction on Saturday afternoon follows for pieces receiving more than 10 silent auction bids, with an awards ceremony held after the auction. A “quick draw” for award winners is held on Sunday, from 10-12. Attendance numbers in the thousands and it's a great way to see plein air painting in action, meet the artists, and enjoy the beautiful scenery and weather of the Monterrey Peninsula.

An on-line “Absentee Bidding” process is now in place for this festival. To get on the mailing list, email Hella at: cafauction2010@yahoo.com

To see the 2010 schedule of events, go to their web site: www.carmelartfestival.org

The image here is a piece I did at Point Lobos, during last year's festival. It is titled: "Beach Anatomy" and will also be in my upcoming show at Agora Gallery in New York this July 13th. www.agora-gallery.com

We have added a new category to my web site, to be able to post upcoming workshops, dates and details. I am offering 3 pastel painting workshops on Lopez Island this year, plus my annual 10 day plein air, multi-media workshop on Korcula Island, Croatia, this October. View the current classes

The painting here, is one I have just finished from reference photos taken less than 300' from the bed and breakfast where we all stay during the Croatia workshop. It's titled “Days End, Lumbarda, Croatia” and will be framed and available soon at my home gallery on Lopez Island.

I want to send a big thank you to friends and patrons who came to the new exhibit “Early Spring” of The Northwest Masters at La Conner Seaside Gallery last Saturday. We had a large turn-out of about 300 people throughout the day. It was great to see folks from the San Juan Islands, Anacortes, Mt. Vernon, La Conner and the Seattle area! It was also very encouraging to the artists that some gallery sales actually happened on opening night!

My original painting pictured here “Spring Blooms” sold to the Lambiel Museum on Orcas Island, during the opening. It is the museum's second acquisition of one of my pieces.

This exhibit hangs until mid-May and has a great mix of new work to enjoy. See my previous blog for the invitation, list of artists and show dates. Gallery Hours are: Friday-Monday 11-5.