2010 Goals

Greetings Art Lovers & Friends!

September is nearly here, before you know it, it will be Halloween, with ghosts and goblins trick or treating at your door! Has 2010 been rewarding to you? Did you find places for your resolutions? I started a goal list myself in the new year, and this month in particular has been devoted to research, paperwork and preparing for those submissions. Enclosed below are the shows and some snapshots of the entries for each.

American Women Artists National Juried Exhibition 2010
Dallas, TX

The National Wildlife Museum of Art 2011
Jackson, WY

The Charlie Russell Museum Benefit & Sale 2011
Great Falls, MT

Very excited to be entering these competitions, great company to be in. In the meantime, I'm also working on some new 10x10 Cougar Studies, first stages here:

I LOVE these expressions coming through; & oddly enough - I can see my very own cat Oliver, on the right - he has that same devilish smirk before terrorizing my other cat, Ashley!Pouncing Lessons. My poor Diva stuck with a kitten. That sums up what I've been up to, a few more things checked off my list! Oh, and bear with me, I'm overhauling my website. As we enter Fall and the next quarter, I hope all is singing with harmony in your world, not much of 2010 left! 

Until next time, God Bless,

Deborah

Majestic Faces: That Inner Voice

Over 10 years ago, an animator shared with me how the change in just one line on a drawing changes the entire picture. I believed him, but had not experienced it. These enclosed studies have been very serendipitous. A new story emerges simply by exposing a line, or rendering shadows in select places another version doesn't have. The use of color, values, scale. The largest lion...has an entirely different feeling than the other two. He's also 4 feet tall! 

Majestic studies 1 & 2: 24x24, Majestic 3: 48x36

We cannot forget The Queen! 40x30

Really love the light on this, eerie how one eye is lit up, the other lies in shadow....the huntress. Simplicity; it's taken 4 years in oil painting to feel "right" exposing the original sketch in the finished piece - work this transparent. That nagging critic on the shoulder..."Just one more thing, one more..." So you work, & rework, work some more. Suddenly without knowing where exactly you did it, what made the work "alive" has disappeared beneath the changes....the animal staring back is lifeless. It may appear finished to some....but the life is gone. And you know it. You can't revive it. There is no where to go but back to starting over...and bury this one. 

The secret behind a good painting - is not to think about it! Your voice has to direct; not the critic's.

Why don't we listen more to that intuitive inner voice? Dare to try something different - have a little faith? I suppose fear; of failure, to the critic, peers. But what about the fear of failing to ourselves? So often I see this overshadowed, less than. Criticism will always be present, whether one decides to try or not. One must not be afraid; failures must happen in order for success.

Years after my animator friend revealed it - this computer "cookie" regarding "the line" was pulled out of my filing cabinet. I hope your ah ha! moments in life also have an oportunity. Life is so much richer with them shared! Have a wonderful week my dear friends and art lovers!

A man paints with his brains and not with his hands. -Michelangelo