Cherryhill Show

Catherine and I hung our show in the library at Cherryhill Tuesday evening. It looks great if I may say so my self.

Our opening reception is Tuesday April 7th 7-9. We'd love you to come, have some nibbles, hobnob with the artists, and see what we've been up to.

I plan on having an assortment of matted work and art cards there for sale, 15% of all sales go to the library, which like all art's organizations, is underfunded.

Art cards are an interesting phenomenon. they were all the rage in the 16th century, when they were mostly portraits. Men would have a small (3x4 is the maximum size) portrait done of their mistress. The cards were also painted of daughters to aid in arranging marriages. By the 17th century artists were using them as the original business cards to advertise their services. The first baseball cards (1887) were a derivative of art cards, as they were hand produced until 1902. source art-cards.org

Today art cards are in demand again as small affordable investments in delight. I'll be offering a show special for art cards, $60.00 mounted and framed, or $20.00 not mounted or framed -naked if you will :)

I've started a new pic as you can see above. It will be a gathering of animal families and is for my granddaughter. It's working title is peaceful kingdom, a la Kim. ~ That was his response when he saw my layout sketch. ~ This is me applying the undercoat, which is a double layer of tinted gesso. My favourite colour for undercoating is a warm terracotta. I mix cad red, nickle azzo yellow, and a drop of burnt umber to white gesso and put it on in circular strokes to ensure I fill all of the grain of the canvas. This gives me a nice even ground to work on, and even though it will be almost completely covered, it gives the painting a glow, and too, if little bits show through... no tragedy. It's going to take a while, I'll be painting it in between other work ie: art cards, and next in the at risk series. But since I got laid off yesterday, I'll have more time, for a while. At lest until I figure out the next step for me.

I'd like to make full time art that next step, wish me luck.