Happy New Year and Here's to Learning New Things

What better way to start the New Year than learning something new. This past fall I have had the privilege of working with one of our areas most creative artists, Kathryn Carthwright. Many of you may know her by her "All Cracked Up" eggshell series. Kathy has opened some very important doors for me and has helped me to fill in the gaps of being a self taught artist. These gaps are basic art foundations that i feel will allow me to really improve my artwork vs. having self imposed limitations because of my lack of knowledge. Being an intuitive painter most of my life, which many people might agree is very freeing, I found just the opposite was true. By having the basic knowledge of the principle elements of design I am ecstatic with the thought of what i can create. So, i have posted here two of my first value paintings. They are near ready to begin adding color and I can only imagine what they may become. I hope to post the final works as soon as they are ready! Stay tuned!!

p.s. for some really great art discussions visit Kathy's blog at http://k-cartwright.blogspot.com/

Meet Dave Lewis, Artist of the Month at BCS

Dave is a client of Brunswick Center Services and an artist in his own right. He will be presenting his first solo exhibit at Mochablend Cafe on Hoosick Rd in Brunswick for the month of December. Please stop by for a great cup of coffee and some great art. Notecards of Dave's work will also be on sale at the cafe. Dave also has one of his seasonal artworks displayed at the Brunswick Community Library on RT 2 in Brunswick.

Mochablend Artist Luncheon

Last week I had the dubious honor of lunching with some of America's finest gentlemen on Veterans Day as we celebrated their first group show at the Mochablend in Brunswick. If you have a chance, please stop by and see their work which will be there until November 30.

Student Art Exhibits

Spreading the word of two student art exhibits at Mochablend Cafe, 720 Hoosick Rd in Brunswick. In honor of Veterans Day during the month of November the work from students in the art program of Stratton VA Medical Center in Albany will be on display. David Lewis of Brunswick Center Services of ARC will be featured during the month of December at the cafe. Stop in for a cup of coffee and some great artwork. Doesn't get any better than that!!

Autumn

I can't believe it's been three weeks since my last post. Sometimes i just don't know where the days go. In preparation for an art journaling class i will be teaching in october I found a great sketchbook that is the perfect size and paper weight for sketches and some watercolor/collage. I also found one of those "bananas" that hang off the trees (not sure what kind..i'll have to do some research) and it lent itself to a great first page of the journal. Just enjoying the perfect days of September and the colors as they begin to change on the leaves and nature's other treasures.

Enjoy!

Digital Play

Studio way too hot the last few days to play in so i thought it was a good time to make friends with the layers, filters and effects of Photoshop. It's an interesting process that produces some very interesting results. Both photos began as paintings and then were altered with palette knife effects and altering of the color hues and saturations. Can't say i like this play better than my brush and paints but it was fun!

Popcorn Haiku

My friend, Marje, has been working on a wonderful series of popcorn paintings. In honor of marje, our little art group is creating their own version of popcorn. Here is my contribution, a digitally altered and enhanced photo of popcorn with a haiku twist!!! (This was my 3 am creativity burst!)

Enjoy!