Staring at a blank canvas. Don’t know what to paint. No idea at all. This is the third day I’ve stared at this canvas.

The entire show is strong, with artists from seven states represented in it. 587 artworks
were submitted and only 58 pieces were selected, so I’m very pleased to have had “Tree at Menil Collection” chosen from
such a large pool of entries.

 

 

Just a reminder for those who would like to join the Amazing Reese and me — the opening reception for Visual Arts Alliance Open Juried Exhibition is May 25th from 6-8pm on the mezzanine lobby of Three Allen Center, 333 Clay Street, Houston, Texas 77002. This painting, Tree at Menil Collection, will be on view until July 11th.

Hermann Park trees between the trail and golf course — 24″ x 30″ oil on canvas.

I’m very happy to announce that this painting, Tree at Menil Collection, was selected by juror, Clint Willour, for Visual Arts Alliance 31st Juried Open Exhibition. The congratulatory notification said that out of 587 artworks entered by 152 artists, the juror chose 37% of works submitted by 29% of the artists submitting. (Somebody had fun with math coming up with those statistics.) 

Please join me and the other artists whose work was selected at the opening reception next month, on May 25th, from 6-8pm in the lobby of Three Allen Center in downtown Houston.

This painting is 12″ x 15″ oil on board.

Spring, glorious spring – this is oil on wood, 12″ x 14″.

This is a 12″ x 14″ oil on wood that I actually painted last week. The flowers are from the camellia bush that came with the house when we bought it 16 years ago. It is growing in a very unlikely location – I often wonder how it survives year after year, though to my delight, it does. This is the latest it has ever bloomed – must have something to do with our unusually cold and prolonged winter.

Going through some old stuff recently, and I remembered that I’ve been meaning to paint this for a long time…..several years. This is 12″ x 15″ oil on board.

The Amazing Reese and I had a simple Valentine’s day, yes, full of love and
contentment, but simple. We happily rented a redbox movie, Austenland — very cute,
and surprisingly enough, got McDonald’s to go. I can’t remember the last time we
had McDonald’s. I’m pretty sure it was years ago when we were on the
hunt  for the teeny beanie baby surprise in McDonald’s happy meals. With four
young daughters, we had a lot of happy meals in a relatively short
amount of time, and I think we just sort of burned out on McD’s. Last
night, Reese and I were both so hungry that we scarfed down our burgers, after
which we reasoned that if we were both that hungry that it took us 2 1/2
minutes to eat, then we didn’t deserve to eat at a fancy restaurant for
Valentine’s day. Last year, we went to Brennan’s — my absolute
favorite restaurant of all time — and had lousy service. Brennan’s is still my favorite restaurant, and we’ve gone there in the past for lunch on Valentine’s day with great success, it’s just that they were much
too busy last year during dinner service to pay us any attention. So, I guess in typical over
compensating fashion, we went in the complete opposite direction this
year. It worked just fine for us, plus the burgers and fries paired
really well with a nice bottle of red wine. Long, rambling story, but there
it is.