Progress on Sibling Rivalry

Here is an update on the wolf piece.  I will be taking it with me to Michigan next week for the Society of Animal Artists show opening in Travers City.  I will be staying with an SAA friend for a few days afterwards and she is going to take me to her art class and I offered to demo scratchboard for them. 

News and Updates

Yesterday's e-mail inbox was full of news from shows. 

"The Naturalist" has been selected for the 51st Society of Animal Artists Annual exhibition "Art and the Animal" which will run September 17 - December 31, 2011 at the Dennos Museum Center in Traverse City, MI. The piece may then be selected to go on national tour to additional museums for up to a year.

"Going for Gold" was not selected for Birds In Art.  There were MANY outstanding works that did not make the cut this year and I swear you could make a top notch show with the rejected works from this show!!  And I say that in absolute, total honesty.  This show is a tough egg to crack (ok bad pun...I know!!).  I know top notch artist that have applied over 10 times without ever getting in and others seem to get in every year.  I got in on my first try in 2009, but was rejected last year and this one.  Oh well... its the name of the game in the art world.  It is just their opinion, on that day, with that set of work.  Its not wrong, its not right... it just is!  LOL...  I knew that this piece would not be their traditional bird art... so it could play out either way.  My congratulations to those that did get in this year.



I have pretty much finished "Edge of Darkness" though am still making some minor edits to the work before I spray it with its protective fixative.    Size is 20"x16" and it will be left black and white.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The bison portrait is finished as a black and white, but I am pondering coloring it.  Hmmm....
Any unevenness that you see in the black parts of this photo (or Edge) is a result of the work not being sprayed with fixative.  Different tools can make the board shiny or reflective where they are used than other areas that are more of a matte black (the board starts out a matte black).  These shiny parts usually look 'more black' and or like odd glare when photographed.  Once the works are sprayed with varnish it all evens out and is a nice even shade of black. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
And Bee-Mused is in the process of being colored.  It is far from done, so it would be a WIP photo of the coloring.  I still have to color all grasses (short and tall) as well as the bee and the background.  I will continue to work the wolves a bit more too.

Catching up! The last few weeks!!

Well what a busy time my last few weeks have been!  My art fair on August 28-29 was a success with lots of people coming through the  booth, decent sales and lovely weather.  My booth took 2nd place in the fine art category too!   Here are some pictures of my booth early Saturday morning before people were coming through.  There was a steady flow of people both days.  Originals on the back and left side walls, framed prints on the right side.

The left wall (originals other than the Greeley Poster)

Framed prints, cups, calendars, magnets, bookmarks and more on the right wall

Just two days after my art fair I flew out to San Diego for Society of Animal Artists 50th anniversary Exhibit opening of Art and the Animals.  What a fantastic time all weekend!  About 100 artists (as well as many spouses and patrons) were in attendance and it was so fun to visit with old friends as well as making new ones!  A wonderful group of people indeed.

I arrived on Tuesday afternoon to be able to do everything there was to do.  On Wed we went whale watching and although we did not see any whales we did find a large pod of bottle nose dolphins, as well as seals, sea lions, and various sea birds.  It was a lovely day on the water and I didn't even get sea sick!

Snowy egrets scuffle over bait fish on a boat in the marina

Brown pelican flies low over the ocean

Sea foam from an outgoing tide made great patterns

On Thursday we all bussed to the San Diego Wild Animal Park.  I had not been here in almost 15 years, and it had changed from how I remembered.  My favorite part of this day was a cheetah demo where a cheetah chased a ball.  I am excited to work from some of those photos in the future.

Male gerenuk courts with a female in estrus by demonstrating high stepping behavior.  She was ignoring him ;)

Bald Ibis - not exactly pretty in the typical sense, but I loved the iridescent feathers and lighting

Cheetah chases ball as part of a demo

Friday it was off to the famous San Diego Zoo!  What a zoo it is as well!  Tons of great photo opportunities!

Not really exotic, but this female red breasted merganser had great light and was actively preening

Grizzly bear shaking

Who can resist a meerkat in evening light??

Saturday was a busy day with meetings, talks by Robert Bateman, off to the museum to see the exhibit (finally) and the awards dinner.  I also did a scratchboard demo at the museum.  Here is a picture taken by a friend of me with "The Interrupted Drink" at the museum.  Darn plexi-glass picks up a lot of glare :(  The entire show of about 150 works was simply spectacular and it was a true honor to have work included in this exhibition.

The piece I worked on for my demo - 14"x11" Wolf

From San Diego I flew to San Fransisco to see my Aunt, Uncle and two cousins (ages 23 and 18), which I had not seen in about 10 years. 

It was fun to catch up, but now it is great to be home too!!!

after a bit of a break

I had a nice visit with my friend Lee in Salt Lake City last week, so no update on the blog, but now I am home and have 5 million photos to review (of dogs).  I am happy to say that I got a reply from F&W telling me they will look into rewording the contest contracts in future years, as other artists have also complained. 

Here are some pictures of my girls from the trip - and even a photo of me with them taken by Lee. 

In more related art news I am excited to say that my piece "The Interrupted Drink" has been selected by the Society of Animal Artists for their 2010 show "Art and the Animal".  This is the 50th aniversary show and the competition was very stiff, so it is quite an honor to have a piece selected.  The show opening will be at the San Diego Natural History Museum in September.  I will be attending the opening weekend.  On the flip side my piece was not selected for Birds In Art this year.  Oh well I will certainly try again next year.  I have seen quite a few accepted AND rejected works from BIA and there are some amazing works that did not make the show this year, the level of competition and work is astoundingly high!  I do not envy the jurors for these shows.  Here is "The Interrupted Drink"

Before I left on my trip I also had to decide which pieces I was sending to the Greeley Stampede Western Art Show.  The final selections ended up being 5 scratchboards and one pencil piece; 4 are horses and 2 are wildlife.  Sizes range from an 8"x10" piece up to the large cougar (24"x36") Now I am spending a fortune framing everything so hopefully some of them will sell.

"Art and the Animal" Opens in Colorado at The Wildlife Experience

Today I went to pick up my large elk piece called "The Challenger" from The Wildlife Experience Museum, as it was in Colorado Gold show that has ended.  In the place of Colorado Gold is now Society of Animal Artist's "Art and the Animal" exhibit which will travel on to two additional museums throughout the next year.  Last Saturday was the opening for that show as well as "Small Works, Big Impressions" exhibit.  I was not able to attend the opening due to work (grooming) but Connie at TWE gave me a chance to look around today- both shows have some great work in them!  My piece, "The Hypnotist" is the cover image  for this years Art and the Animal exhibition catalog and being used for many promotional materials, which is a great honor!  In addition the work sold at the initial opening for the show in Kansas and won an SAA Award of Excellence!  It doesn't get much better than that!!

A bit more progress on the brothers (and even more work is done but too dark to take another photo tonight).  I am starting to get antsy to start on something new.

Progression of Brotherhood

I enjoyed another evening getting to make more progress on "Brotherhood" last night. The reference photos (it is a composite of several photos) for this pair of wolves was taken at Rolling HIlls Wildlife Adventure in Salina, KS. This was the location of the opening for the 49th Society of Animal Artists "Art and the Animal" show. The Rolling Hills staff was fabulous and very accomodating and I got some excellent references (despite shooting through bars in many cases). They are even going to use one of my photos for a fund raiser that they have coming up.