The Finish

Here's the finished painting. How big do you think it is?

I wasn't able to get a good shot for some reason. Color is better than it shows.

Today's Painting

I've been inspired by a link that rdl sent me a while ago. It's to an artist named Duane who has committed himself to do a painting a day. I elected to receive his daily email and I'm impressed. The paintings are really good. Great drawing, composition and nuance. In my last painting class which ended December 20th the painting group started to talk about the all important painting every single day if ya wanna be good and we all do. I want to try and get a painting a day type blog going to support each other. One thing about painting is that if you don't paint often you get 'rusty', for real. So, the idea is.. do it everyday, it doesn't take that much time and you'll get really good and have more successes than clunkers. Here's the one I did today. It's a 5"x7". It's not quite finished so I'll do that in the morning. I prefer to paint in daylight rather than by incandescent light. By the way, if it's a clunker just let it go. It takes miles of canvas to be good. Hmmmmm I just previewed my post and found that I can't turn my photo. Here is THE lesson in abstract art. That being ,does this painting stand up design wise? Would you hang it over your couch if it were a Picasso? I'll post the finished painting soon.

The Wet Paint Auction

SOLD I had to apply to be included in the Naples Art Assn's yearly Wet Paint Auction subsidized by a local bank. It's a fundraiser for Collier County Mental Health Services. The gist is, the artists (they capped it at 50) go out on site from 10Am to 3Pm on two days in February to paint on locations around Naples. Maps are passed out with the names and locations of the artists numbered. Everyone does what they can and the results are auctioned off at a swank (or so I imagine) party with a $100 pp price tag. I'm gonna cough it up this time and go because I'm in it and ya just gotta be at those things. Politics, you know. Two years ago I went to the City Dock sort of as an interloper just to see the action and maybe meet some of the artists. I set up my gear near an artist wearing a pink Tshirt with the WP logo. The artist's manager publicist, thinking I was someone else, chatted me up about my painting and so forth. She said his painting would fetch minimum bid of $7000. I'm thinking, a vacation, carpet and a bathroom makeover. She's formidable. Last year this same artist was painting on 5th Ave South, Naples' Rodeo Drive so to speak. Sure enough she was behind him on the sidewalk extolling his genius as a painter. I pretended to browse for shoes in the window behind them because I knew she'd recognize me and I was just checking out her spiel. When 3 o'clock came she whisked the huge 36"x40" painting off his easel and went clacking down the sidewalk in her high heels toward the Gallery who represents him in Naples. She's a black belt PR person. This is my submission for the event. It's the old boathouse at City Dock which I fear may be endangered. I love this location and this is where I'm on the map to paint. I have already done the painting but I will go out on site and paint the same painting again which I've never done before. Whichever is better goes into the auction. It's an 18"x24" which is quite a bit larger than I usually paint. I'm thinking minimum bid $1,500. PS, my paintings are as good as his and probably better, imho :D