Some Great Feedback! And a Note on Encaustic Surfaces

I feel like, sometimes, I ought to have those horrible flashing red and yellow banners on my art site, proclaiming the words that I sometimes get as compliments on my work. But I won't, because it would be tasteless and annoying to do so. At the very least.

I will, however, mention a few of those words here:

Mesmerizing....


The luminosity in them is amazing.


Beautiful and terrifying....


Elegant(!)

The thing I will say about the encaustic paintings -- the surface is gorgeous! Depending on the application of the paint, you can sometimes see down right through the colors. Also, they all look far better 'in the paint' than any digital image of them can possibly convey...

So go see them at the AVAA show, if you get a chance, or come to my studio for the next East Austin Studio Tour (mid-November). Unless they will be shown somewhere else before that, in which case, I will be sure to post about it here and on my website.

AVAA 30th Anniversary Opening...

....was great! The place was packed with folks all evening long (but parking was a real headache!).

Quite a few of my friends came by, and I ran into several other people I knew from other venues. The music by the Atlantics was really good; there was plenty of wine and maybe not enough food.

Theresa Bayer was doing caricatures all night long for free! She's very talented at this, and was kept busy the entire night. She sold her piece last night, as did another friend of mine, Melanie Lewis. In fact, I think several pieces sold last night.

The show was full of very strong work. I really love the 2 pieces by young artist Miranda Mueller -- one of them is a sort of Chuck Close-like portrait, beautifully painted. Fabulous brushstrokes in these little 'pixelated' squares -- very juicy.

There were some really nicely done landscapes by Cindy DeBold and Donald Smith (among others), some wonderful photography (I particularly liked the work of Cecilia Ling), some great sculptural works and jewelry, and a gorgeous abstract triptych by Lise Carlson.

Fellow alum Bryan McMath had a huge portrait in the show -- when I first saw his work (not knowing at the time whose it was), I felt sure I was looking at the work of a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and I was right. It rocks!

I had 2 of my little tornado paintings in the show, and they were hung very nicely and really sparkled. A sculptor friend of mine thought my work was some of the strongest in the show (!), and I talked to one of the judges, who said my pieces were very 'elegant.' Elegant tornadoes -- I love that!

The show continues through July 30th at the Dougherty Arts Center. Click the title link above for hours and a map.

Starting "A Painting a Day"

...or so.

I love the idea of doing a painting a day...whether or not I can is another story.

Here's the first in awhile: an abstracted landscape in oil, 10"x10". Not sure if I'm done with it or not...

Encaustic Paints

Found a good intro to info about encaustic paints and paintings at RF Paints. Click on the title link for more.

This is the kind of painting I've been doing a lot of since late last summer. I absolutely love the process and the effects.

Peaceful Abstract Landscape by Karen Jacobs

Here's another really gorgeous abstract landscape -- makes me wish I were there (kind of like Robin Williams in "What Dreams May Come" or that bit in Akira Kurasawa's movie (I think it may have been called "Dreams") where Van Gogh wanders through his own paintings.

Anyway, I'd love to roll in a field of paint that looks like this. Luscious!

Beautiful Abstract Landscapes by Cheryl McClure

Favorite painter of the day: Cheryl McClure, whose beautiful abstract landscapes I found online at the Jezebel Gallery. This is my favorite! Gorgeous colors, and I love how it works as a landscape and also as purely abstract shapes. I'm really led into and through the painting by her use of color and shape.

Paintings of People Looking at Art by Karin Jurick

Stumbled Upon this artist's site today: Karin Jurick -- through a 'painting a day' blog. I love her beautiful tiny representational paintings; I especially love her paintings of people looking at art. She has done lots of them, too. Click on the title link to see hundreds of her gorgeous little paintings, and read her story...very interesting and inspirational.

AVAA 30TH Anniversary Exhibit

Juried Show at The Dougherty:

A couple of my paintings have been chosen for the Austin Visual Arts Association's 30th Anniversary Exhibit & Reunion, to be held at the Dougherty Arts Center location, 1110 Barton Springs Road. The show will open on Thursday, June 28, 2007, from 6-9 p.m., and run through July 30. Music by the Atlantics!

• This show was juried by Ken Hale, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs for the UT Department of Art & Art History, Ricardo Hernandez, Executive Director of the Texas Commission on the Arts and Jack White, Renowned and influential Abstract impressionist painter of African American paintings.



• For more information about the show, see my website at:
  http://www.marilynfenn.com/ or the Austin Visual Arts Association website: http://www.avaaonline.org/.



• Please come see me and my paintings at the opening -- Thursday, June 28th, 6-9pm.



• Here's an article about the show in the Austin Chronicle.

Stumble Upon

Oh, this is a lovely time-waster, or inspiration-finder.

You can search by any topic; I search for painters frequently; there's some really good stuff out there that I might never have seen otherwise, some not-so-good stuff, some very useful sites, and a few things you may have already seen rather frequently.

My StumbleUpon Page

Swicki

I started a swicki not quite a year ago (actually 2 swickis) when I first found about swicki as another search option. It's kind of fun. I had it on the home page of my art site until I redesigned my site.

Here's a definition:

"Swickis are a cross between search engines and Wikipedia - the community can add, delete and improve the results."

Learn more about swickis

Here's more info about my painters swicki:

Search engine for all things fine art painting related.

Anyway, it's a community powered search engine, and other artists and art-related folks can add their link to these swickis.

check out the painters swicki at eurekster.com

check out the Texas Painter swicki at eurekster.com