Bareback rider

Yesterday I worked on my bareback tutu painting, I reduced the mountains and added more sky.  I was inspired by an article I read in American Artists magazine lent to me from Bob my studio mate.  The article was on an artist named Victoria Adams whose work I admire and got to see recently when we were on a road trip to Idaho.  She has giant paintings in the Gail Severn Gallery, a very posh place and her work is captivating due her use of light.  She uses 70% of the painting as sky and her dramatic use of clouds is envious.  I love wide open spaces, and the feeling of them so I wanted to incorporate it more into this piece.  It's still in progress, I am struggling with the horse, I have never painted a horse before and I am being challenged by it.  I will preserver and post more pictures as I continue working on it.  I took some pictures of the shop to update my website and I am too rushed this morning to post them.  Garage sale day today, you understand.  I will post them soon, Miriam my helper and I edited out things and opened up the shop for better flow and gallery viewing.  Gotta go or everyone else will get the goodies..................

Arts Benicia Gala

Friday was the Arts Benicia annual Gala which is its biggest fundraiser all year. This was my first time going and I really enjoyed it. My friends Terin and Gary along with Patrick and Laura all came and we shared a table together. Everyone got dressed up and it was held at the Iron horse warehouse on Grant Ave in the Arsenal, a huge industrial building with lots of funky charm, mixed with local Benicians and Artisans. There was art for sale, art to be auctioned off and various other items such as fancy wine etc... I was just happy to be there among my fellow artists representing Arts Benicia. I feel so grateful to belong to this organization of talented people and I loved seeing how the town of Benicia supports it's artists. There were well over 200 people there, and all of the proceeds go directly into the Arts Benicia program. First St. Cafe catered the food and it was tasty, we had appetizers, pasta, salmon or chicken with potatoes and carrots, salad, dessert...There was wine for those who drink and for those of us who don't there was Diet Coke or sparkling water. We had a professional auctioneer help sell the donated art and my friend Gary walked away with a prized vagina lucky guy....it's actually a present for a friend and we all cracked up over it. I walked away feeling grateful there are communities like Benicia who honor and support what art brings to the community. In fact I was so inspired I thought we should probably move there when all is said and done....just an idea mind you, but I do love water and art, and they have both.

I have been remiss about blogging and for those of you who check I thank you for your patience. It does take time to download pictures and write out the text and usually this is my pleasure. Then there are times like in the last week or two when it just seems like another 'task'. I only want to blog if it's fun so I put it off. So I am happy to say I enjoyed posting today. I hope you enjoyed reading it and as always I thank you for your continued support. Julia Cameron my hero, talked about the importance of artistic support in her book, "The Artist Way". It's vital for an artist to feel useful, needed and appreciated. If they have this they have all they need to produce good work. Its true of all people and professions of course but artists need it even more as art has an unusually bad rap as being frivolous. And yet where would we be without it? So with that I say go hug your nearest artist and you will be giving them all the riches they seek.......