Working on the Yuma Show.

A work in progress - and with a wonderful reason. I have just been accepted for a two month show at the Yuma Fine Art Center, March and April. I need a few more big paintings! This should hopefully be one of them, but I need to buy some bigger brushes to make it happen.... so here it is until I get to Michael's!

Rancho Mirage this weekend!

I will be showing my Skyscapes for the Soul collages at Whitewater Park in Rancho Mirage this weekend.

Here's my latest creation that I will be debuting at this show.

Off to La Quinta.

Last week was mostly not a good week - the highlight was successfully repairing a client's mural, where the builders doing the remodel had punched through the wall. It came out well. Looks just like it did before. This week is better. Here's a recently completed oil painting. And this weekend I'll be at Art under the Umbrellas in La Quinta. But this oil is still too wet to go. Next year it will be there.

Three buns in the oven!

Three works in progress - on the left the middle part of a triptych, behind, the beginnings of the dawn from Sept 29th, and the one on the easel is almost done - I will add the sun and a tree once this layer is dry.

Oh what a beautiful morning.

The holy hour before dawn.

Artoberfest

I'll be showing acrylic and oil paintings at the Artober Fest in Moreno Valley this Saturday.

If you haven't attended this show before, it's an indoor event, with lots of entertainment throughout the day from local poets and other performing groups.

October 2, 2010 - 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.Moreno Valley Conference & Recreation Center, 14075 Frederick St. About 3 minutes south of the 60 freeway on Frederick Street.
I've put a link to their website from mine, in my schedule.

In the Ventura County Star

A Ventura County Star photographer was reporting at the Camarillo Jazz and Art Festival was captivated by my hat. She took probably over a dozen photos and I think posted them before the end of the day. A couple who stopped to view my work after they'd seen it from the street said they recognized me from the paper! Third pic down on the left.

www.vcstar.com/news/2010/sep/25/art-music-event-raises-funds-for-camarillo/

Camarillo Art and Jazz Festival

Looking forward to a Saturday in Camarillo for the Jazz and Art Festival - Sept 25th - this time I'll be showing Oils and Acrylics - like this one! I'll be somewhere in Dizdar Park.

San Diego here I come.

Well, not just yet - but I'll be there this weekend - at Artwalk on the Bay. A new location this year! Looks cool.

Thousand Oaks this weekend!

Thousand Oaks Art Festival this weekend. Another first-time festival for me. I have the roster of artists and see that I know quite a few people! Maybe this newest collage will find its new owner...

Idyllwild

The Idyllwild show was a little different - the patrons were more involved in the Jazz part than the Art part. Nevertheless, I seemed to have gained another interested collector. I delivered this in Beaumont the following week.

On to the next.

Up another hill this weekend to Idyllwild for the Artshow at Jazz in the Pines. Another show I haven't yet had the pleasure of setting up my booth in, though I did visit it as a Jazz Festival attendee about 8 years ago. Here's one of the paintings I sold at Big Bear.

"Ancient Winter"

Had some time to get back to the brush. Here's the latest!

Cloud shirt!

Well, it seems like my fellow artists think of me when they see the sky. I had an unexpected, wonderful gift from Gil and Kelly last month. They went in a store, saw this shirt and both exclaimed 'Jeni!!!' I'll be wearing it at the next show it's cool enough to wear a tshirt.

Rochester Contemporary Gallery benefit show.

6x6x2010 show opens tomorrow! It's all anonymous, but see if you can find my ten little squares in the online preview. It isn't difficult! http://www.rochestercontemporary.org
then click 6x6x2010 gallery
then click the red 2010 gallery button to browse from the beginning.

Two right buildings

You can also just about see the dedications to the 3 major backers - one on each of the buildings, and my signature on the Fire House. It's a real killer to try to paint letters at that height. Celeste was helping me at this point so I didn't have to keep getting up and down to reach things.

Two left buildings - complete

Now I look at the photo, it does look 3 dimensional, doesn't it...

Penultimate day

This is where I was up to by tuesday morning.

It's finished.

It's finished! Spent about 6 hours yesterday andabout 7 today. I'll upload some more photos later -have to run out to Borrego Springs right now.

Too cold!

It was too cold and windy to work for long today. Also, I forgot to take palette paper so couldn't mix colors. I did however complete one task - the white of the Dome and Fire station were only gesso as I was running low on white last week. These are now finished in titanium white. And I was able to edge the Hofbrau letters in red. More on Monday - I also need to spend time in the studio to prepare for the show this weekend.

Trees

Today I mainly worked on palm trees as I had to go up to Long Beach. I also worked a little on the Hofbrau roof, plus darkened the shadows on the Dome. Won't be able to work on this again for a week.

Shin.

Shin.
a. the bone in the lower leg
b. a device for finding the coffee table in the dark
c. the level at which I'm doing this mural.

So, aside from the fact that I will be visiting the chiropractor, it has been a good muralling day. I decided overnight that I am not making a good job of the fire trucks. I don't think I've painted a vehicle since third grade. John had explained that the Fire Dept rarely close the doors as the new truck doesn't fit, and they put 2 smaller trucks in the other side, which don't fit in together. Last night's wind meant that they decided to put 2 of the fire trucks out on the front and close the doors, so I was able to see that the doors are white.

Windy Monday

I thought I was going to get blown away in the wind today. Didn't start as early as I wanted to and couldn't stay as long as I wanted to either. Brushes and water were blown out of the water container, and the pencil has gone completely. When the wires started howling and I could hardly hold onto the palette, I knew it was time to quit. Tonight though I will work on stencils for the the lettering on the Hofbrau roof and Holly House sign. I also need to take smaller brushes for the details of the fire trucks.

Sky and outlines.

Friday I worked on the sky and the outline of the buildings. By 4pm the sun is on all areas of the wall, or places I need to put paint, and it's not possible to work. Buildings left to right - Holly House, Hofbrau, Dome and Fire Station. Right to left on the low wall, a roll of towels, a coffee and the phone for the chamber.

Thursday.

It's been a busy 2 days. Thursday morning I put down two layers of gesso. Ooh, now that's white.

Success stage 1!

Yaay, we reached our goal! Although the funding won't officially kick in until Saturday, I'm planning to start with a couple layers of gesso on Thursday, then get to work on Friday - otherwise I won't be able to fit it into the rest of the month's schedule.

Here's the Fire Station, one of the buildings to be painted. More on thursday!

Fresh off the easel take 2.

OK, so I can't always get the technology right the first time... Here it is. In reality the reds and yellows are more intense; I need to rephoto it in better daylight.

Fresh off the easel

Or in this case, the workdesk. Tranquility with Tree. Watercolor collage, 18"x24".

I now have a total of $185 pledged offline, so our real total is $335. Here's one of the other historical buildings that I hope to paint. The Hofbrau Restaurant.

We're over half way there!

Another backer has pledged $100 privately, so we now have $310 in total!

Here's a sketch of one of the buildings that I will be painting. Holly House used to be at the north west corner of Highways 86 and 22. Now we have the biggest Arco in the country at that location!

BIG NEWS. We have our first $100 backer. We are now officially 33% funded. Woo Hoo!

We're making some progress. Imari and John have painted a couple coats of white paint on the front of the building in preparation for the revamp. I've had $40 pledged on kickstarter, but also $60 pledged personally, which we may put on kickstarter towards the end if it the funding is going to go through. Plus one other person is apparantly going to pledge $25, so that's a total of $125 - so we're 25% of the way there!

The mural is 12.5% funded!

Mural funding update: It doesn't look like it yet, but we're actually 12.5% funded. An few people have said they's like to contribute, but don't want to put their details on Amazon. We've worked out a way that we can accommodate this. If you'd like to contribute by check, let me know by email, and send me a check (I won't cash it unless the project is going to work.) If we are going to achieve the funds, a day or so before the deadline, Imari will fund the total of the checks herself, then I'll reimburse her.

So, using this option, we've got $75 pledged so far - not bad for a couple days. At this rate, it might just work!

New Project - a Mural

OK, I did it, I got the go-ahead from the West Shores Chamber of Commerce to paint a mural, and have set up a project on kickstarter to get funding for the paint.

Read all about it there!!! And tell all your friends! This is a community project and I am not getting anything from it except my name on the wall. So could you....

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/712301646/west-shores-chamber-of-commerce-historical-mural

County Fair

Over the weekend we were blessed with a lack of rain at the show in Palm Springs. Southern Riverside county and Imperial county, however, got drenched. This morning I went to Imperial Expo to pick up four paintings I had entered at the County Fair. All had won ribbons - two seconds and two thirds, which generated a small check between them also. The luckiest part of all though, was *not* getting stuck in the mud in the parking lot.

Here's one of my winners, with all the ribbons! And yes, that's a reflection of me in the glass ;-)

Just a couple little ones....

Sunset - four seagulls on the left, and Manhattan Beach Sunset on the right. They're both 12"x4" acrylic on wraparound canvas.

Here we go!

Hey, finally getting time to do all that online marketting I never have time for.

The phone is still out, but some friends (angels) are letting me use their wireless connection.

Of course this gives more time for painting.

Here's the latest baby that I can show you. I'm also working on some pieces for 6x6x2010 for Rochester Contemporary Gallery. These I can't show you as they go on sale anonymously.

I'm thinking I will start working on a oil painting later today.

Friday I take down my solo show in Whittier Gallery:

OK, well, I guess I have a lot to learn about blogger, as in how to get an image to be inserted where I want it instead of at the top.