Heading to Jacksonville for a Maggie Siner Workshop

Today I leave for Jacksonville and the Corse Gallery.  The opening ceremony (have been watching the winter olympics) for this 3 day workshop is tonight.  If you have never seen her work go to her web site
Maggie Siner  and check out - there is a sense of mystery and poetry to her work - I love the way she grays down much of the painting and puts the punch of color in to jump at you.  I will keep you posted about this workshop as I go through it.

I will say this though, the supply list was lengthy and I can not see us using all of the stuff she requires.  I wish these artists would tailor their supply list to the workshop they are doing - if it is 3 days only don't ask for someone to go out and purchase stuff that just won't be used.  Oh, well - I guess the only things I suspect I won't use are the 3 sheets of watercolor paper - and maybe the india ink and Japanese brush.  I may have to eat my words if I end up using everything.  :-)

I have a beautiful day for traveling!

Valentine's Day

Well, a change in the weather made Valentine's Day in South Carolina lovely.  My husband got to play golf and I got to do some organizing for my dessert party (after a wonderful dinner at The Studio on Hilton Head).  I love this place for a number of reasons - first they have a great selection of vegan and vegetarian items.  Secondly, and for my carnivore husband, they have a great selection of meat prepared (according to him) perfectly.

Because I try to be vegan at home and will eat seafood when dining out or when invited to a friends house for dinner, Ed gets a slab of meat and he has to prepare it.  And given that he is anything but a gourmet chef he usually throws it in a non stick scan pan on the stove and cooks it with a cover.  So, when given the option of having lamb chops with a port wine sauce or duck with some sort of sauce he jumps at it.

Back to my dessert party, though.  I served a povlava.  For those of you unfamiliar with this dish it is native to New Zealand and is a meringue that is crunchy on the outside and soft in the center.  Normally it is served with piles of fresh fruit and whipped cream - my addition to the dessert was to create a cointreau whipped cream and sprinkle the whole thing with grated dark chocolate.  I wish I had taken a picture but I didn't.

We popped a bottle of champagne and had cappuccino made with my wonderful Nespresso machine and frother.

As so, another Valentine's Day comes to a close.  Now I have to organize to leave for Jacksonville tomorrow for a workshop with Maggie Siner at Corse Gallery.  YAY - I bet this will jump start my painting!

A New Painting Method

I am primarily a plein air painter.  That being said the weather this winter has not been too cooperative.

So - when faced with a problem find a solution, right?  Right!  So, we found a 40" television - a Westinghouse (who'ld of thunk it) for $250.00 to use as a  3rd TV for our superbowl party and now, post superbowl, I have turned it into a large monitor for my Ipad photos. All I needed was an adapter for the Ipad and a HDMI cable and voila!  I can paint using that photo reference rather then heading outside into the bone chilling and damp cold.

Do I hear a collective groan and sense some eye-rolling here?  Anyone who follows my blog, has visited my website or knows me realizes that I am in South Carolina for the winter and the weather is nothing compared to Cleveland (or virtually any of the northern cities) this year.  But, none the less, when you can't get warm inside the house (our house in S.C. has no insulation and is heated via a heat pump) then it is very difficult to stand outside in the damp, windy and cold weather outside.

So, here is the first painting done with my new method.  The title is Goldenrod on Cape Cod and it is 6 x 6 inches.

It is available on http://www.dailypaintworks.com/Artists/barbara-benedict-jones-4356