Portrait Show in September

I want to participate in the Newburyport Art Association Portrait Show coming up this September.  I didn't realize that I had to submit an artist statement by (new extended deadline date) April 4th.  Anyway, I thought I had plenty of time to ask someone if I could do their portrait.  I was at one of our favorite pubs with my husband and we were talking about this and who to ask.  My husband said, "Paint Mike".  He's the owner of that establishment and we have been going there for 33 years.  I thought it was a great idea too, but after we left I realized I hadn't asked Mike about it.  A couple of weeks go by, and I go in and ask him.  Well, he's laughing out loud, but guess what, someone asked him the day before!  Darn it.  I missed it by one day.  So after about a week, I decided to ask his niece, Michelle, who is a waitress there.  She is a beautiful blond with a wonderful smile and has been there forever it seems.  She hasn't agreed yet, but I sure hope she does.

p.s.  She didn't accept.

Whistler Show today at Addison Gallery in No. Andover

I'm headed out today to see this show with some friends.  It had a big writeup in today's Globe.  Nothing like a day at the museum with friends and lunch afterward.

DPW Day - navigation nightmare

DPW PAGE...During this BIG snow storm today I spent the entire day (again) on the computer trying to get my ducks in a row, more or less, getting my PayPal and my Dailypaint Works page working correctly.  What a challenge.  There were a number of things that I couldn't figure out in order to get it to work correctly, but I'll have to go in again later and see if I can fix it. It is a very involved sign up with all kinds of links and permissions that are needed in order for DPW to automatically "feed" things starting with PayPal and finishing with my sites themselves which includes blogs, FB, Etsy, the whole enchilada.  If it gets completed correctly, DPW has a tracking site that has every piece of information you might want about your artwork and sales, even from other sites.  I don't feel bad though because I'm probably not alone.  So the successful artists must also be web geniuses as well it seems.

REGIONAL SHOW ENTRY..I also submitted two paintings for the regional juried show.  Happily I was accepted to the Newburyport Art Association's Winter Juried Show which is now hanging.  I have never been accepted into the regional shows and I always blamed the photos!  ha ha

Gearing up, Facebook adventures

I'm in the last lap of gearing up for a better art career, and have made a Facebook Fan page.
My Facebook Fan Page
I've uploaded some old photos of artwork but I'm excited to be thinking about loading up new pictures of new artwork soon and often.

Tomorrow, it's DPW day and PayPal day and Enter the Regional Show day.  Wish me luck.

NAA Winter Juried Show

Video of the award winners' work, click here. 

The Winter Show at Newburyport is up now until March 1st.  Try to see it if you are in town.  There is some very nice work there that I did enjoy after not visiting there much over the past year.  New people have become members and my old friends are still there and a few have won awards this time.  Be sure to watch the video link above to see the winners' work and the juror's comments about the show.

2014 Winter Juried Show, Newburyport MA RECEPTION TONIGHT

Everyone is invited, 7 p.m.  !
Please visit my daily blog to see references to my two paintings that were juried into this show in Newburyport.
I'm excited also to report that today I noticed that I have had 10000 views to this blog!
Today's daily blog features a video clip of the "Father of Animation".  Very interesting Wiki story with videos that must be 100 years old.  Mary's Daily Blog

Portrait Studies

Garden Fairy and Portrait Group--Jan 2014

This post is not exactly an adventure, where this is my adventure blog, but it doesn't fit nicely into the daily category either.  I've been working on little miss Garden Fairy for a couple of weeks now, and it started out as a quick sketch for fun and I just kept going with it.  I'm still working on it, trying to resolve the background first before I complete her wings, etc.  My difficulties stem from creating this background out of my head rather than have something concrete to go on. 

The portrait group meets twice a month, and I'm beginning to wish I could work from the model more often than that.  It's a 3-hour sitting with breaks and every time is different in many ways.  I start differently for no conscious reason and have been working at getting the color results in the darks and lights of the skin that I want, and that is rich tones with harmony and correct value. Since I consider the work I do in portrait group "studies", I don't usually post them.

Florida, visiting my friend, Judy Rehill

Sunday I fly to Ft. Myers to visit my oldest (longest-term) best friend who lives in Punta Gorda.  I hope to see some of my buddies from the Italy trip while I'm there and lots of nice galleries.

Boston Gallery Field Trip - Newbury Street

I wanted to see the show at Haley & Steele and invited my art student to come along.  We made a day of it and it was a totally perfect day for both of us.  First, she has a handicapped parking pass because she recently had a hip replacement--this allowed for us to park near the galleries.  We saw many great paintings at a few of the best gallery stops in Boston, and then we had a wonderful lunch at the Met.
At Haley & Steele, we saw Daniel Keyes latest work along with works of Schmid, Guzik, Anderson, Aspervig and others; artists of the West Wind Fine Art represented by Kristen Theis (link above).  BTW, I'm supposed to be receiving a DVD of Daniel Keyes, and it hasn't arrived yet.
Next we were headed to the Guild to see their holiday show and was detoured by beautiful art hanging in the hallway leading upstairs to the gallery of Oana Lauric.  She paints with acrylic, does large dynamic paintings with somewhat abstract and flat shapes, lots of exciting color, and I would say, a younger, more dynamic style reminiscent of Charlie Movalli.  See her work here:  Oana's Web Site. Oana's Facebook Page.
We then proceeded to the Guild and saw recent work of some of the Boston areas finest painters.
We then proceeded to the Copley CoSo which is just next door and saw two holidays shows, downstairs for aspiring members, and upstairs for award winners--lots of nice small paintings.
After an exhausting day of viewing great art, we headed across the street to the Met for lunch.

Impressionists on the Water, PEM, Salem, MA

I enjoyed this visit and especially things that are not being advertised much.  Specifically, there are two gorgeous wooden boats on display and a replica (sort of) of a houseboat that an artist could paint from on the waters of the rivers.  This was life-size and you could go into it and sit, etc.   “The Floating Studio,” a boat Daubigny acquired to allow him to work directly on the waterways and that he named “Le Botin” (Little Box). Inspired by Daubigny, Monet created a similar vessel in order to take to the water to paint, captured in his “The Studio Boat” (1874).

Here is a link to a site of this show at another museum that has a video clip that shows the other two boats: one is a two-person scull type of boat called a "Gig"-- “Nana” (1890), a large and imposing cedar French cruising gig and an example of the sophisticated design of Fernand Delmez frequently depicted in the paintings of Monet and Renoir and and the other looks like a early version of a kayak.  Here is a link to a VIDEO that shows "Nana" being shipped and unpacked and installed in the show!

There were several boat paintings by Gustave Caillebotte, one of my favorite artists, famous for his painting (above) of a Rainy Day in Paris.  It seems that he was an able sailor, preferring boating over painting.

Daniel Keys DVD Release Party

I had great pleasure to be present at Daniels celebration of releasing his new DVD at Regis College on Sunday.  I arrived late because of stormy weather and a misdirection from Miss Garmen but fortunately got there in time to see most of his presentation.  It was a very nice group in the audience and interesting comments and questions were discussed along with a slide show of Daniel's paintings with many progressions (pictures showing the progress of the work on the painting).  Our DVDs will be shipped out this week!  Daniel spoke of his methods and showed and talked about the progressions on some of his paintings.  He is a master of technique and color and setting up his still lifes and uses various ways of starting his paintings depending on his plan for the design and outcome. 

progression shot for one of his paintings

Daniel Keys, Speaker and Artist

Photo of one of Daniel's paintings

Will I go, I don't know.

Today at Haley & Steele in Boston, a gallery since the 1890s, there is a reception of small works with great artists like Schmid, Aspevig, Guzik, Guzman, Keys and others.  I planned to go and I want to go but parking is difficult at the best of times, and this is the big shopping weekend and it's 13 degrees out right now, so a little cold to walk any distance.  I'm looking outside at the ice on the river.  There's only a small slice that's not frozen over where the current is flowing through and the birds are splashing around.  The sky is blue and the water reflections are various shades of light ultramarine.  Everything on land is covered with frost. (8:25 a.m.)

Museum Hours

Museum Hours
Last night's movie at the Screening Room in Newburyport, MA--I went as a result of seeing it advertised in the Newburyport Art Association's newsletter.  I feel like I spent a week or so at the Art Museum in Vienna.  It was a thought-provoking piece, which, after going only the evening before to another thought-provoking show at Harvard Square's Oberon theater, has my head reeling in a tornado of disparate ideas.

Annual David Curtis Party

Another wildly successful party by Joan Lockhart!  Joan's new digs in Gloucester was the scene of the party as 40-50 of his disciples gathered to pay homage again and eat, drink and be merry last Saturday night.  Joan is a master (or mistress?) of home renovation and decoration and has done it again this time in her new condo in a re-purposed school building.  Beautiful high ceilings provide for what should be called the Lockhart Museum because she collects Cape Ann masters as well as other works she enjoys.  David's wife, Judy, was visiting her family in England, so we missed her this year.  David, however, did regale everyone with stories after dinner.  Joan's staple mac and cheese was extraordinary as usual, everyone wants her recipe.  Other pot luck dishes were brought and desserts and beverages of course.  It was a wonderful evening seeing everyone I haven't seen for a while as I don't travel to Gloucester as much as I used to. 
I took photos with my phone and will post them here when I can.

MFA Sargent Show, more than I expected

My friend, Carol, maybe I'll paint this.

At Pitti Palace--I was there this September and took photos of this fountain.

I don't remember ever seeing this one before.  He loves to paint white.  Reminds me of Hibbard's whites.

So we had a great day in Boston Thursday.  We saw the Sargent show and the Hip Hop Chic 70's Show.  There were so many more Sargent paintings, both oil and water, than I expected to see and many I don't remember ever seeing before.  There was a video presentation as well with an artist doing a watercolor copy of one of his works to show the technique. 

Afterwards Carol and I had both a food fest and a wine fest!  p.s.  Also Margaritas!

Visiting Sargent at MFA Boston

Tomorrow's adventure is to go in to see the Sargent Show at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, with my European traveling companion, Carol Pike Webb.  I've lately been thinking about working in a sketchbook with watercolor and ink which is one of the activities that Sargent enjoyed doing.
Click here to see Sargent show video and slideshow.

4 in 4 for Carol

The Daily Paint Works Challenge - 4 in 4

Mary Pyche, 12x12", oil on canvas, For Grandpa $150

 It was really a lot of fun to paint these cups.  I'm just back from Dreama's Workshop and still had her recommended colors on my palette, so these are painted with transparent colors with her recommended brush--a wide flat brush.  I haven't submitted to Carol Marine's DPW site (and her husband, David's, of course, who does a remarkable job of creating and administering the site) for a long time and hope I can 'get back on the horse'. 

Dreama Tolle Perry Workshop, Oct. 8, 9 and 10.

At the Parish Center for the Arts, Westford, MA. about 20 of us are enjoying Dreama's workshop and learning about gorgeous color and it's application.  She has a rather unique method that has a very cheerful result.  The venue is excellent and the instructor is outstanding as well.

Her palette contains mostly transparent colors and her method is wonderfully free (casual).  She is proficient and knowledgeable in the art of oil painting, has a great presentation and packs lots of information into short demos after which we all go to our easels and "give it a go".  She's a lot of fun and the group is a wonderful bunch of woman from all over the country who are disciples of her method.

I'm traveling to and from with an artist friend, Anika Savage, from Newburyport and we love the workshop so far.  A delicious lunch is included and tasty snacks abound.

Dreama's painting in progress.  We all painted from the same photo.

I am posting the daily activities of this adventure on my Mary Pyche Daily Blog so please visit the link to see our progress.

RAA talk with David and Judy Curtis

Judy Curtis

David Curtis

David Curtis talk at RAA, Theresa Bernstein Painting

October 2, 2013 at Rockport Art Association, Judy and David Curtis provided a very entertaining and informative talk about past artists in the permanent collection at RAA.  It's always a pleasure to attend events where art is discussed by knowledgeable people and in this case David is a great artist and Judy has authored many books on famous artists.  It so nice of them to present events like this.

David Curtis Painting

Mark Hayden demo, Haverhill MA

Sunday, Sept. 22nd, Mark did his first demo--it was at the Buttonwoods Historic Building.  He was invited by the Haverhill Art Association as they are trying to revive their membership.  It was very well attended, probably 50 people.  It was an excellent demo and here are some photos of the model and the artist with the portrait.  In less than 2 hours, Mark skillfully showed everyone how he proceeds with a portrait.  He works on sizes of features and relationships from the center of the face, out, with straight paint, no turps or mediums.  He plans ahead about the idea, the drawing idea, how dark and how colorful it should be. Working with color and value at the same time, he uses extra long bristle brushes that have bounce and can be easily shaped to conform to the shape of the stroke anticipated; he goes back and forth from side to side, watching for temperature in the light areas.  After a break, the drawing should be checked and the dark areas.  He likes to paint to music and depending on what he is doing, it could be slower or faster.  He mentioned that Daniel Greene taught him to keep a clean area on the palette to mix and to bring yourself to the painting.  Everyone enjoyed his demo and most likely, like me, picked up another good idea to experiment with.  What did he have to say about doing this demo?  "I'm not used to thinking about everything I do."

Nice Video from Sandy-Italy

My friend, Sandy, sent me this video of the 10 Best Things to Like About Italy.  Is was a nice reminder of what a wonderful trip we had.

Ten Best Things to Like About Italy

Italy 2013 Day 13

Up early, another fantastic breakfast, paid the room bill which was a lot less then we remembered it would be, ($80 each per night). Got the water bus Laliguna to the airport, a really nice way to end our visit. I bought a bracelet at the airport for 17 Euro and previously purchased a very green olive oil and a cream balsamic so my entire expenditures for the trip came to 27 Euro. All went well at the airport, the baggage arriving with the rest of the painting group from el Brodo (Modigliani). Our planes were fine, one arriving early and the other late, got home close to midnight and talked my husband's ear off until 4:30 a.m.  When I  got up and weighed myself I had only gained 4 lbs.

Next year's trip is to Umbria and anyone wishing to join us, call me quickly as these spots go fast.  I'll gladly supply some details.

Venice Mask

Huge Murano Glass Chandelier in front of Stained Glass Window at Pasaro Palace (our hotel)

Breakfast room and afternoon cocktails

Breakfast food, crisp crust, cheesy whipped cream filling, sponge cake, yummy berries

Italy 2013 Day 12

Breakfast was amazing--truly 4 Star! I had scrambled eggs, the usual color, not orange like where we were previously, a wiener (excellent quality), a croissant, a slice of the best salami I ever ate, a piece of peach, and to top it off, the best cake thing you can imagine, made with a filling of whipped cream and ricotta cheese with sponge cake.

So we figured that since its Tuesday that the museums would be open, the Academia was but the Guggenheim wasn't. The daVinci Exhibition was at the Academia and I'll get a book or two of it on-line when I get home.  We walked around for a while then headed to the islands of Burano and Torcello. We had to try several water bus stops to find the right one and then change from one to another during the trip. Burano is the lace island with the colorful houses and Torcello has an old 6th century church with many restorations of their massive mosaics. As with anywhere in Venice we had to walk a long ways.  They were charging 1.50 Euro to use the facilities so we figured we'd use the one on the boat. Along the walkway there were a few very elegant dining places and otherwise there wasn't anything. I checked out the menu at the first one and a glass of wine was 2 Euro so we figured that we'd get one and use their facilities. When we reached St. Marco again we went to the top of the Hotel Danielli as we had promised a friend that we would. A drink there was slightly cheaper than at Harry's Bar (we didn't have one at Harry's). I had a Frangelico, as it is an Italian liquor, and it came with a side of hazelnuts.  It is a great combination.  $50 American dollars for 2 drinks.  While descending to the main floor, the elevator stopped at the 3rd. floor, and WOW, to my surprise, it was Boston's Gardener Museum!  I immediately identified the resemblance. 

Going back to our hotel, we were turned around several times and figured that it took probably 4 miles to walk the 2 miles.  We tried to visit the Fra Church, but it was closed. 

Reaching our hotel we wanted to eat nearby and checked out all the nice places. The one we wanted to eat at was crowded with locals with reservations and we could go back an hour later but the host at our hotel gave us another suggestion, so we dined elsewhere having ample wine and great food. 

We can't believe how lucky we were and how wonderful everything was on this whole trip.

San Marco

San Marco mosaic

We had pizza and wine here (near Harry's Bar)

One of the dueling orchestras at dusk

Corner of Doges Palace at dusk, I loved the sky peeking through

Grand Canal, all roads lead to Pont d'Rialto (not) we got lost getting to it every time.

Close-up of huge mural at the Accademia

Another gorgeous huge painting at Accademia, How did they ever remove this from the source?

This little guy was a very popular photo op.

After finding out the the Guggenheim was closed, we planned to go to Burano.

Burano

The only McDonald's we saw in Venice was on this busy street near our hotel.

Italy 2013 Day 11

Driving to Venice in a smaller bus, we arrived around 11 and made our way to our hotel, Hotel Pesaro Palace, www.hotelpesaropalace.it, by vaperetto.  We had no problem getting there and the stop is exactly at the front door. We were kidding a couple of days ago about the picture on the website being our room, and alas it was! It was like a suite with our own outside sitting area, lots of Murano chandeliers, a gorgeous bathroom, and beautiful bedroom, gorgeous drapes, lots of windows, big mirrored closet with safe, TV, WIFI, refrigerator, minibar that wasn't very mini, tray ceiling, coco brown cloth padded walls, and you think I'm carrying on, I could go on a lot longer! It is a 4 Star Hotel right on the grand canal.

After checking in we went to St. Mark's Square in the day and later at dusk, we went to Harry's Bar to meet friends who weren't there, then ate nearby, had a carafe of wine, a delicious pizza, then ordered pork medallions with mushrooms. We took the early evening water bus to see the palatzos with their lights, chandeliers, muraled ceilings, etc.  After breakfast, we plan to hit the Academia and the Guggenheim.

Beautiful many-tiered Mural chandelier with stained glass in background

Sitting area near our hotel room.

Our bathroom

The hall inside our room

The bedroom section of our suite

Our private sitting area

Our bed

Lobby entrance to right and to Grand Canal on left, nice bonsai on pedestal table.

Entrance walkway to lobby and outside sitting area.

Outside sitting area and Grand Canal.