Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Happy Holidaze!

One of my paintings on exhibit at the '7th Annual Holiday Show' hosted by Segil Fine Art

'Under the 6th Street Bridge'.......oil on canvas panel......6x8 inches


Ho! Ho! Ho!
This is the cry I heard cut through the misty air as we drove down Santa Monica Blvd not but a few weeks ago. "Was that Santa calling through the air?!" I asked Ben, who then pointed to a large jolly man in a red jacket bellowing at a transsexual street walker. "Nope", Ben said, "but it is Christmas time in Hollywood".
We where returning from a delightful birthday party of my good friend (and exceptional artist) Vadim Zang held at an awesome Hungarian restaurant. Not only was the food enchanting, but several of Vadim's friends and family performed for us. There was belly dancing, violin and piano playing!
A perfect ending to a perfect evening which had begun with a delightful opening at Segil Fine Art's '7th Annual Holiday Show' (which runs through December 31st). Jam packed with fine art and fine artists, it was a great way to kick off the Holiday season. For more info click here.
I am also participating in Abend Gallery's '19th Annual Miniatures Show' which also runs through December 31st. To view exhibition click here.
I have also been invited to participate in the illustrious winter exhibition 'Small Works 2009' hosted by Gallery 1261 in beautiful Denver, Colorado. For more info and to view exhibition click here.


On display at Abend Gallery's '19th Annual Miniatures Show'
'Summer's End'......oil on canvas panel......4x5 inches



On display at Gallery 1261's 'Small Works 2009' exhibition
'Wellfleet Dusk'.......oil on canvas panel.......4x5 inches (SOLD)


~ '11th Annual Laguna Beach Plein Air Painting Invitational' ~

A few months ago I participated in the '11th Annual Laguna Beach Plein Air Painting Invitational'. Definitely more upbeat (and prosperous) than last year's event! The only real obstacle to fun and painting was Mother Nature herself, who chose to remain cloudy and rainy for about 60 percent of the time which had been allotted to painting. Then, in a somewhat infuriating ironic twist, decided to clear up and become sunny and bright after the paintings were turned in a ready to sell. Oh well, I still love Mama Nature, even when she's a bitch ;-). Overall the event was a huge success! Ben and I had a delightful time taking in the sights and sounds of Laguna beach, mingling with the artists and locals and, well.... just breathing some fresh, unsmogged air for a change. Below are a few pics from the event. Enjoy!



Painting at Heisler Park beach









Painting for the 'Quick Draw' on Saturday morning









Jen and Ben at Collector's Soiree









Artist Jeffrey Horn and Jennifer









Newly elected LAPAPA Signature Members:
Left to right:
Daniel Aldana, Michael Situ, Carolyn Hesse-Low, Jim Wodark, Ronaldo Macedo, Jennifer McChristian, Greg LaRock and Kathleen Dunphy (not pictured)




Hangin' out with friends at the Laguna Museum Public Art Show and Sale








Artist Peggy Kroll and Jennifer









Jennifer at Laguna Museum









LPAPA's participating artists









...and finally, a few plein airs I did for the event:


'Incoming Storm'.....oil on canvas panel......8x10 inches (SOLD)



'Off Duty'......oil on canvas panel.......8x10 inches (SOLD)



'Hillcrest Drive'.......oil on canvas panel.......8x10 inches

~
Until the next post, I wish you all a resplendent, peaceful and magical Holiday and may the New Year bring you much happiness, health and inspiration!

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Workshop Wayfarers

This is one of the demos from my five day plein air painting workshops in Ojai, CA

'Entrance to Library'......oil on canvas panel......7x9 inches (SOLD)

Hello all you Bloggitts down in Bloggittville, it is time for my blog-monthly bloggella, filled with horror, tears, and laughter. Halloween and the Day of the Dead may be behind us now, but my tale reaches further back in time, past such jovial occasions, far back to the third week of September, of the year 2009.

It was during this halcyon time of gaiety and youth that I boldly lead an adventurous team of students into the yellow fields of far off Ojai, beneath an unusually cruel and hot sun. Oh, how we laughed and jested, skipping merrily amongst the charming yurts of sequestered environmentalists and left-leaning elves. I shudder to think of what might had happened, had we by chance met a lurking troll, or some evil gnome with a head full of specially clever magic riddles, or even a banjo-plucking inbred hillbilly. But we didn't. Everyone was fine, and they all learned how to paint outdoors. No one even lost their keys, or general sense of purpose!
Here are some pics from my 5 day Plein Air Painting workshop in Ojai. Enjoy!
For more info regarding my upcoming workshops please visit my web site's 'workshops' page (or see right side bar of this blog for complete schedule).
~


Here is a brief time-lapse video of my demo at the Krotona Institute Library:













...adding finishing touches to demo










Monday morning's orientation (all caffeined-up and ready to go)









giving student Ann Carlock a few pointers during an afternoon painting session










....still teaching











demo'ing by the Krotona Library fountain










critiquing student Claire Hill during morning session











finishing up another demo








trying to maintain my composure while conducting a demo in the brutal and unforgiving heat (98 Fahrenheit with humidity!!)




My awesome and wonderful students!
front row (left to right):
Luisa, Diane, Laurie
back row (left to right):
Ann, Andrew, Gwen, Brian, Cary, Marilyn, Jung, Jennifer, Ben, Claire (not pictured)





'Krotona Gardens'.......oil on canvas panel.......9x7 inches (SOLD)

....and finally, here's the demo painting that I raffled off the last day of the workshop! The lucky winning student was the talented Gwen Ballantyne, whose name was plucked from my husband's straw hat!


~
A BIG thanks to Ben (our own personal GPS) who kept us hydrated, entertained and on schedule throughout the workshop.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Summer's End and Southwest Art Article

'Haven'.......oil on canvas panel.......8x10 inches

Summer has passed, and with it the tumultuous cloud of toxic smoke from the unfortunate California wildfires which has so harassed the locals in my Los Feliz neighborhood. I was fortunate to have been vacationing briefly during this time in the lovely town of Wellfleet, Massachusetts, which is a little further than halfway up Cape Cod, and so benefited from the refreshing ocean air of the Atlantic. Ben and I lucked out this time, and lingered long enough to miss the bulk of the noxious California air, the extra time spent affording us an opportunity to catch the large pack of wild seals which lounge en masse upon the sandbars at Head of the Meadows Beach during low tide. Love those seals! (see pics below)


~WELLFLEET WHIMS~

Ben and Linda collecting shells







No fires here!!








What the phoque!!!








the forever popular and pulchritudinous
P Town....Gimme some!











....FEELIN' THE LAGUNA LOVE....


I could write at great length about our August trip, but it is now October and I mustn’t tarry on the distant past. It has been a fantastic summer, with several noteworthy developments in my creative journey that I would love to share if you are so inclined as to read on. First and foremost, I am now a newly elected Signature Member of the venerable Laguna Plein Air Painters Association, and as such will be participating in the 11th Annual Laguna Beach Plein Air Painting Invitational. They are an amazing organization that I am honored to be a part of, and I look forward to painting amongst the cliffs and beaches of that fine locality.


**EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!**


My second big piece of news is Southwest Art magazine has kindly seen fit to feature me in a full length article in the October 2009 issue! For those of you without subscriptions be certain to pick up a copy at your local newsstand or bookstore! To read online article click here. Enjoy!

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Lazy, Hazy Summer Daze

One of my entries from LPAPA's 'Best of Plein Air' show
'Santa Fe Ave.........oil on canvas panel.......7x9 inches (SOLD)

Greetings Gentle Bloggillians,
It's been another mellow summer in la-la land as I float down the river of life in my inner tube of the arts. Some exciting adventures occurred around me this summer as I yawned, napped and scratched my back with a river reed which floated past me.
This past month I participated in the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association’s (LPAPA) 'Best of Plein Air' show held in Laguna Beach. To view all accepted entries from LPAPA’s wonderful artists click here.

Also, my painting ‘Ol' Blue’ was accepted into OPA’s (Oil Painters of America) '2009 Western Regional Exhibition' held at the Howard/Mandville Gallery in Kirkland, WA. This exciting show continues through August 30th.

'Ol' Blue'........oil on panel........11x14 inches (SOLD)


And finally, ‘Paper Cup Blues’ placed as finalist in the FineArtViews online painting competition for the month of June with the wise and extremely talented Greg LaRock as the selected judge.
You ROCK Mr. LaRock! ;-)

'Paper Cup Blues'........oil on panel........12x16 inches


…and Le Denouement

WORKSHOP UPDATE!!

As the summer of love is winding down I am anxiously awaiting for September, when I hope to harvest all the honey and trout from August! Which reminds me, my five day Plein Air Painting workshop in late September has reached full capacity. If you missed out on this one be sure and register early for my 2010 workshops! Check out my workshops page on my website for more detailed info and links! (or see right side bar for schedule)

May the rest of your summer be magical, delightful and exuberant!
Happy Painting!

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Ojai Workshop Expedition

One of my demos from the April 2009 Ojai Workshop:

'Krotona Library'.......oil on canvas panel..........7x9 inches (SOLD)

Greetings gentle blogaddict,
It was but a little over a month ago that I held my Ojai workshop, the gentle spring breeze coming off the Pacific ocean and cooling my diligent students from the cruel, unrelenting sun. Painter of light you say? Painter of deadly solar death rays I say! DEADLY SOLAR DEATH RAYS!! But we did manage to find some shade eventually at our many fine locations, the St Thomas Aquinas church, the Krotona Institute, Meditation Mount, Happy Valley's Beatrice Woods Center, and finally Mount Meher , real nice people at every turn. Visit them all with paint in hand, easel prone upon your sturdy back, a palette knife by your side to protect you from bears, visit them all! Tell them I sent you, they're all so friendly, and nice.

And the evenings, after our hearty toil, were spent languishing in the soft glow of the Ojai Pizzeria one night, the jazzy haze of the Movina Wine Bar the next. The topping of it all of course was the Deer Lodge, it's fantastical taxidermied Elk, Rams, Owls, and Jackalopes staring glassy eyed, down at our sumptuous repast of wild boar sausage and German beer. Oh, to capture nature in a landscape painting by day and see nature stuffed and mounted at night, there's nothing like it.


Here is a brief yet exciting video that Ben kindly and patiently created for me of my demo at Meditation Mount:



The completed demo....

'Meditation Mount'.......oil on canvas.......7x9 inches


A few pics of the workshop adventures......

Painting at Meditation Mount








Afternoon demo at St. Thomas Aquinas Church








A leisurely day in Happy Valley








Putting the final touches on Krotona Library demo









Sheldon diligently painting at Mount Meher











Luisa contemplating what to have for lunch







Overlooking Meditation Mount








The Ojai Painting Posse









Joel Anderson wrote a small article on me for the 'Ojai Valley and Ventura View' newspaper that was super cool and doubtlessly aided in rousing the locals to my intentions:



That concludes yet another fun-filled blogfix. I hope you've enjoyed the recounting of my tales of lust, greed and paint in Ojai as much as I have.

The whole experience was so amazing and vastly successful that I will be conducting another workshop there in September, 2009. Read on to see the workshop flyer for the second of my five-day upcoming workshop in Ojai!
For more info on this (and other) upcoming workshops, go to ‘Jennifer’s Upcoming Workshops’ on right sidebar. Ciao!




~ TIP-TOP TIDINGS! ~

And last but not least, I'm pleased to announce my painting 'Brand Boulevard' was graciously awarded Second Place in the LAPAPA's (Laguna Plein Air Painters Association) "Less is More" miniatures group show hosted by the Randy Higbee Gallery in Costa Mesa! Thanks so much LPAPA, and everyone check out Randy's website kingofframes.com for awesome deals on ready made frames, and tell him hi from me!

'Brand Boulevard'.....oil on canvas panel.....4.5 x 6 inches (SOLD)

Sunday, May 17, 2009

OPA, Chicago Jaunt and other stuff...

'Hunter, Gatherers'........oil on panel........19x24 inches

Greetings Blogsketeers!
Another fun-filled span of time has passed since my last blog, let's call this a blogparsec, which would be equivalent to one thirteenth of the rotation of our Earth around the star known to us as the Sun. Much has happened in this artist's life, nay cosmology, during this blogparsec: entire microbiological civilizations having grown, warred, learned to accept each other, and subsequently perished beneath the crumbling cinderblock of my art studio windows. Other, more immediately pertinent artistic occurrences of the blogparsec include my painting 'Hunter Gatherers' being accepted into the OPA's '18th National Juried Exhibition' held at Sage Creek Gallery in Santa Fe, NM. This boldly painted portrayal of three men of easy virtue, street walking in Times Square, clad only in bright fluorescent orange garb, diligently working with the trash of New York's grimy underbelly. They are the neo-hunter gatherers of today's urban society. Thus the title.
‘Hunter, Gatherers’ will be on display at the Sage Creek Gallery throughout the month May.

**NOTEWORTHY NEWS AND NEWSWORTHY NOTES!**

Also of note to the macro-consciously aware beings during the last blogparsec I was honorably awarded an ‘Honorable Mention’ on my ‘Subway Siesta’ whilst participating in the Greenhouse Gallery's 'Salon International 2009' by the venerable judge Mr. Daniel E. Greene. In addition, I also made the ‘Jury’s Top 50’ list.
(to view 'Subway Siesta' go to previous post)

~ TRAIPSING THROUGH CHICAGO ~

Finally, at the conclusion of the blogparsec, I'd just like to mention what a ‘scream’ it was to see the Edvard Munch exhibition, ‘Becoming Edvard Munch: Influence, Anxiety, and Myth’ at the Art Institute of Chicago during my brief and adventurous sojourn to Chicago last month.
Below are two of my favorite Munch paintings from the exhibition. Enjoy!

'Night at St. Cloud'........1890

'Self Portrait With Cigarette'.........1895

~ A few memorable Chicago tid bits ~


Ben in front of historical Chicago Theater










Why I love Chicago architecture










Hustle and Bustle!










The Silver Bean at Millenium Park