Parisian Promenade!

 

It looks like we've finally shaken free of Winter's grip. Here's two ways to celebrate the warmer weather: The Arts and Crafts Festival at the Piedmont Triad Farmers Market; and the Parisian Promenade at Bicentennial Garden.

   Kimberly and I will be at both events. The Arts and Crafts Festival is May 31 and June 1 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and the Parisian Promenade is June 2 from noon to 5 p.m.

   The arts and crafts show will mostly be Kimberly's deal. She will have a variety of mason jar manipulations. They are quite beautiful and shabby chic. I think she will sell them like hotcakes. She will have some decorative boxes, garden art and a number of other cool, clever and whimsical works of art and craftiness. I will be there with my Literary Birds and Boats, and a few small paintings.

   On that Sunday, I'll be at the Bicentennial Garden in Greensboro with many of my paintings, small and large. I'll also be doing an oil painting demonstration, just like they do at the markets in Paris. Here's a few paintings I've been working on for the past month.

   Please stop by either -- or both -- events and check out where our creative minds have been taking us.

Symphony in Yellow

 
Call me a feather-brain, but lately I've been painting lots of birds. I have just finished two paintings featuring my winged friends -- one to be raffled at The Business Journal's Women In Business Awards luncheon, and the other to be offered for sale at the same event.
   "Good morning, Red Birds" is similar to others I have done, while "Yellow Birds on Blue"is a step in a different direction, not only in the color of the birds, but also the direction of the branches. I really like the blue I mixed for the second painting, and would like to use it again in other works.
    As I have mentioned before, my Etsy site is back up and running. In fact, I had a couple of paintings displayed at an art show at the Radnor Hunt Club near Malvern, Pa. (west of Philadelphia). Someone there liked my work enough to go onto my Etsy site and purchase five of my smaller paintings. I emailed the woman who bought them to ask what it was about my paintings that attracted her. She said, "I like artwork that speaks to me and makes me smile." Mission accomplished!
   Here is the address for my Etsy page: www.etsy.com/shop/tatestreet
   One other thing: I will once again be participating in Greensboro Beautiful's Parisian Promenade at Bicentennial Park on Sunday, June 2nd. There will be music, food, dancing and, of course, artwork. Please stop by and say "bonjour."

   Thanks for looking!


The top painting has sold.

Keep Your Feathers Crossed

My mother, who lives in a small town west of Philadelphia, called me a week ago. She was excited to tell me that she had shown someone photos of several of my paintings, and this person was the director of an art show at the Radnor Hunt Club in Radnor, Pa. The woman liked my paintings enough to want to know if I was interested in exhibiting them at their show. I won't be able to make the trip, and it's much too expensive to send paintings by mail. However, my mother and one of my sisters -- who also lives near Radnor -- will contribute to the art show the two paintings I had done for them.
I'm very excited to be getting exposure in Andrew Wyeth country.
Along with having two paintings at the Radnor show, I also will have a portfolio of my work, including commissioned pieces and paintings still available for purchase.

Closer to home, later this month I'll be making my now-annual contribution to The Business Journal's Women in Business Awards. One of my paintings will be raffled at the luncheon. As a bonus, The Business Journal is giving me a booth to display other paintings during the pre-lunch business expo. They are expecting 350 people, so I'm looking forward to a great opportunity.

Also, I have re-opened my Etsy store. You can go here to pay it a visit:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/tatestreet

Many of the paintings on this blog are available for purchase. If you are interested, please comment or email me to discuss pricing. Also, I will work on commission. Here is my email: tatestreet@gmail.com

 Thanks for visiting!

Both of these paintings have sold.

Field of Dreams

   

   I love movies that take place in wide-open spaces. Movies like "Dances With Wolves" and "There Will Be Blood" put such emphasis on the land and the sky that what happens in between is a subplot. It is to me, anyway.
   This painting, which I'm calling "Wide Open," expresses the joy I feel when I see this type of landscape -- in a movie or in person. The field of wheat clearly assumes the role of main character, with the sky offering a strong co-star. The windmill and barn are cameo appearances by a couple of past-their-prime actors, offered one last role before retiring.
   It would be a wonderful place to retire, or just get away. The noise of cities and development quietly sssshhhh'd by the wind in the wheat fields.
   This is a very large painting -- the biggest single-canvas painting I've done. It's 36"X48".

   I'm going to begin attaching a tagline to the bottom of my blog postings. Basically, it will say that many of the paintings on this blog are available for purchase. If you are interested, please comment or email me to discuss pricing. Also, I will work on commission. Here is my email: tatestreet@gmail.com

   Thank you for looking.

Spring Fever

As much as I enjoy cold weather -- I'm a big fan of sweaters -- I am ready for spring. I'm ready to work outside and get the garden going. I enjoy gauging the progress of flowers in the yard. The weather here, of late, has been very spring-like. So, as a tribute, I offer these Bluebirds of Happiness. They also are ready for spring.

Hope you enjoy them.

This painting has sold.

House of the Holy

 

   In the South you can't swing a cat without hitting a church. And the architecture pretty well runs the gamut. Two blocks from my house is a church in a small building that was once used by a beauty salon. A nearby strip mall has a church in a space that once was a furniture store. Go a few more blocks and you'll find a church that is one of the largest, most castle-like buildings in town.
   My preference -- as the architecture goes -- is of the smaller, more modest churches of the South, with  their white clapboard structures and tin roofs. Even with arched stain-glass windows, these buildings have a simple elegance.
   As for this painting, I often begin my work by under-painting the canvas -- often with a burnt umber (deep brown). Then I'll work out the sky and the land colors. This time, though, after I finished the sky I was happy with how the sky color worked with the burnt umber under coat. So, I left it.
  This painting is very nearly finished. Just a few touch ups and straightening of lines left.
   I hope you enjoy it. Please feel free to comment, if you would like.

"I must confess that I have a weakness of empty places."

   
   The title of this blog entry is a quote by author Tony Hillerman, who is best known for his Navajo Tribal Police mystery novels.
   It's a confession that I, too, have realized. A weakness, or fondness, for empty spaces has become a reoccurring theme to my landscape paintings. The only thing limiting the sky and field is the size of the canvas. The farmhouse, windmill, barn or -- in this case -- grain elevator acts as a detail that draws your eye and further emphasizes the vastness of the sky and land.
   It's a place where I feel I can breathe. 'Empty' can have such lonely and negative images attributed to it. But when I look at this painting -- or some of the others I have done -- I am filled with a sense of calm and reflection.
   I hope that you also find a similar feeling when you look at this painting.

   Thanks for looking and please feel free to comment.