Present day fun, plus a blast from the past

So this is a bit of a shameless plug for my husband Dave's band, "The Unknown Favorites", which was featured on "Virginia Currents" last week. The show is produced by our local Public Television station here in Richmond, WCVE. What my blog readers may not know is that I also appeared on Viginia Currents about 10 years ago, when I was still doing my large figurative paintings, and the producers included a clip of that show within the feature about the band. I had no idea they were going to air the clip of my segment when I tuned in to watch the band. It had been quite a while since I'd seen it, and it was fun to see it again, and to see my humble (and dark!) little backyard studio that I was working in at the time. One thing I remember is that I was very nervous, and had at times found myself struggling for the right words to express myself. So that's my disclaimer! I had only just started painting landscapes at that time, and while the focus was on my figurative paintings, they show a few of those early pieces on the segment as well. The landscapes definitely were not my forte back then. Just goes to show that if you apply yourself and work hard at your craft, you can improve (at least, I hope I think I've improved. I hope you think so too!)

Here's  the video. The band shows up about 13 1/2 minutes into the show (after the Economist).

Virginia Currents #2013 from Community Idea Stations on Vimeo.

Here's a direct link, in case you can't see the video above: http://ideastations.org/node/7526

Winter Solstice reception Friday at Glave Kocen Gallery

"Snowed Under", Oil on panel, 10x8" ©Jennifer Young

"Winter on the James" Oil on canvas, 9x12" ©Jennifer Young

This is a cross-posting with my newsletter so I hope that the readers of both will forgive the repetition. If you are in the Richmond area, I will be participating in a group invitational this Friday night at Glave Kocen Gallery. I will be one of ten artists featured for this one night event exhibiting winter themed art. But this is not just an art show. It's also a fundraiser for a great cause. Spearheaded by The 1000 Strong Project, proceeds from the sale of the show will benefit Comfort Zone Camp (CZC). CZC offers free camps for kids nationwide who have experienced the death of a parent, sibling or primary caregiver. The 1000 Strong Project has also produced some great art calendars (in which my art will also be featured) that will be sold at the reception to benefit the charity. So if you are in Richmond, come out for some fun, see some great winter-themed art, pick up some calendars for holiday gifts, and support a great cause. Here are the details:

What: "Winter Solstice" Art Reception for The 1000 Strong Project and Comfort Zone Camp Where: Glave Kocen Gallery, 1620 W. Main Street, Richmond, VA 23220 When: Friday, November 12, 2010, 6-9 PM Hope to see you there!

Small works invitational

There's been a lot happening around here so unfortunately the blog neglect has continued! I do hope to ramp up to more regular posting (and painting!) by early next week. Meanwhile, here are two new little Key West pieces I've done for a small works holiday invitational that opens at the Miller Gallery on November 20th in Cincinnati.

"The Shady Side" Oil on Canvas, 6x8" (SOLD) ©jJennifer Young

"Towering Bougainvillea" Oil on Canvas, 6x8"  (SOLD) ©jJennifer Young

I am so honored to show my work in such a lovely looking gallery alongside artists of such fine caliber. 

"All Things French" opens tonight

Off to Greenville for the show opening. Y'all come!

Where: City Art Gallery, 511 Red Banks Rd., Greenville, NC 27858 When: Opening August 6, 6-8 PM. Show continues throught the month of August. What: All Things French! Paintings from France travels by Jennifer Young and Hilarie Lambert

Ahh, oops, ah-ha, and ouch!

I have one more work to share today from the group I'll be taking to North Carolina for the "All Things French" show next week. This was done alla prima. More fun with light and shadow, and lots of paint! Ah, it's been such fun revisiting these lovely places through the act of painting them.

"Coleurs dus Sud" Oil on linen, 20x24" (SOLD) ©Jennifer Young

For this painting and the last one I posted, I experimented with an interesting double primary palette- Titanium white, Cad Yellow Pale, Golden Ochre (Rembrandt) , Organic Vermillion (Daniel Smith), Quinacridone Rose, Ultramarine Blue, and Manganese Blue (Old Holland).  I must say it was a lot of fun playing with these different colors. The gold ochre is dangerously lovely, and the organic vermillion was nice change up from cad. red light. In fact, it's similar, but the tinting strength isn't quite as strong so in some ways it was easier to use.

I went with this palette for a couple of reasons, but the key word is "economy". First it's an economy of time. The increasing pain in my arms was making it difficult to spend an inordinate amount of time mixing certain colors, even though I've learned enough about color mixing to know how to acheive most of what I need. I almost never use any color directly from the tube any way, but it helped to have a premixed earth, for the buildings for instance, and when such warmth in the scene predominates.

Second, it's an economy of money. I mentioned before that I have a lot of art supplies that kind of fell by the wayside once I discovered some preferred methods and materials, but now I'm starting to revisit those supplies to try and economize where I can. All of the paints and substrates are archival, quality materials, but I do have some far-out tubes of colors--some dating back to before I started painting landscapes!

The paint department at the Lowe's hardware store near our house has something they call the "oops bin". These are mixed paints of specialty colors that presumably didn't come out as expected. I guess you could say that I have my own "oops bins".  After limiting myself to nothing much larger than a double primary palette for years (without much variation), I think it's time to mine some of these strange old friends. Maybe the "oops" will even lead to some ah-ha's along the way!

p.s. I think I'm narrowing down what the problem in my arms might be. Unfortunately it's not limited to just my arms and hands, but radiates from my neck and shoulders all the way down both sides. It's taken a couple of days to write this post, so suffice it to say that my blogging will slow down a bit for a while. (I know I said that before but I really mean it this time!)  Sadly, I will probably have to take a brief rest from painting too. And gardening. I'm typically not too good at "resting" so let's hope I don't go nuts in the interim!