Merry Christmas!

Edge of the Field 

8 x 10

This little painting was done about two years ago and posted on this blog around this time in 2010, I think. Recently, I decided to tweak it a bit, adding some cool notes and also the movement of the birds in the sky (click for larger view). It still says a lot about how I feel about the landscape around my home in the fall and winter months -something starkly, simply beautiful and melancholy at the same time. And it also speaks to my place in the scheme of things.

Best wishes to all for a Merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday season!

Winter Trees

Winter Morning

A student shared this poem with me today and so I am sharing it with you. As a lover and painter of trees, I find it touches many things that I think about them. Enjoy!



Vertical


by Linda Pastan

Perhaps the purpose
of leaves is to conceal
the verticality
of trees
which we notice
in December
as if for the first time:
row after row
of dark forms
yearning upwards.
And since we will be
horizontal ourselves
for so long,
let us now honor 
the gods
of the vertical:
stalks of wheat
which to the ant
must seem as high
as these trees do to us,
silos and
telephone poles,
stalagmites
and skyscrapers.
but most of all
these winter oaks,
these soft-fleshed poplars,
this birch
whose bark is like
roughened skin
against which I lean 
my chilled head,
not ready 
to lie down.

Stocking Stuffer!

Looking for the perfect stocking stuffer for an artist friend or just a holiday treat for yourself?

There's still time for delivery before Christmas!

Studio & Business Practices for Successful Artists

Success can mean many different things- so this book is designed to help both professional artists as well as those who don’t want or need to make a living from their art, but do want to be better artists, sell more work and achieve more recognition. I share what has worked for me- and what didn’t, and why- over the last twenty years of building a career in art.

No nonsense information from a working artist.
Here’s what is included:

~ The Three Keys to Success

~ Studio practices that make you a better artist and sell more art.

~ The Pipeline

~ Go Where the Collectors Are
~ Pricing

~Choosing the Right Venues- Pretty Is As Pretty Does

~ How to Approach a Gallery

~Self Promotion

Studio & B...

For Successful Artists

By Deborah Paris

How Can You Become a Poet?

REPLY TO THE QUESTION: “HOW CAN YOU BECOME A POET?”

take the leaf of a tree
trace its exact shape
the outside edges
and inner lines

memorize the way it is fastened to the twig
(and how the twig arches from the branch)
how it springs forth in April
how it is panoplied in July

by late August
crumple it in your hand
so that you smell its end-of-summer sadness

chew its woody stem

listen to its autumn rattle

watch it as it atomizes in the November air

then in winter
when there is no leaf left

invent one

~ Eve Merriam (1916-1992), American poet and playwright