Art opening in Greenville, NC today

My husband Dave and I are heading out of town today to attend my art opening in Greenville, NC at City Art Gallery. I'll try to post some pictures of the show after I return. The gallery owners (really sweet ladies who maintain a smart gallery) asked if I will make a few remarks. Eek. I am much more comfortable painting and writing than speaking, but I told them I will do my best. I'm showing with two other artists so at least I will not be alone in that respect.

Painting of Tuscany

Yesterday I put the finishing touches on the painting below. Sometimes they come together so nicely that they seem to paint themselves. I love when that happens! This is a scene of the countryside just south of Siena that we explored one fine day. I have been wanting to paint this scene for a while but haven't gotten around to it before now. It is soaking wet, but if it dries in time I may include it in my show in Greenville. I love this scene so much that I may even paint another version of it even larger. It measures 24" x 30" and is done with gallery wrap:  

Here is a shot from the side:

 

 

To see more of my Italian Landscape paintings, click here.

Jennifer Young, Vibrant Landscapes www.jenniferyoung.com Contact

Gallery Wrap

This week I'm working on some landscapes done with gallery wrapped canvas. It is a more time consuming because I am extending the painting to the edges, but I am really liking the effect. Here is a a small 12x12" work in progress. I'll be posting more work to my website this weekend.

 

 

Okay, so the fast has been a little harder than I thought- energy wise. May have been a better choice to start this after my next art opening, but oh well. I think I can still get the work done in plenty of time. I'll just need to manage my time wisely. 

In some instances the fast is easier than I would have imagined, but it is still not for the faint of heart. I am doing the "Master Cleanse," a modified juice fast and am on day 7. Haven't blogged before now because I am at the studio during the day and like milktoast by 8 p.m. every evening. Supposedly it gets better in respect to energy level and other things too. We will see. It might help if I stopped fantasizing about Pad Thai and garlicky spaghettini! I've not been all that hungry, but am having outrageous cravings. Still, I've gotten this far (with no coffee!) and am aiming for 10 days or more.

Happy New Year!

Just back from the holidays and about recovered from 2 weeks of travel to Texas to see family. The time between just before Christmas and just after New Years Day are typically slow for my art business, so I try to take advantage of the lull and take a little break for myself as well. However, I am returning to the studio this week so I'll be brushing off the cobwebs and getting back in gear to get ready for an upcoming February show at City Art Gallery in North Carolina. It was really good to have a break, but I have missed painting. Hopefully I won't be too rusty. Sometimes I find the short breaks can actually help my work though. Next week should be interesting because I am starting a 10 day juice fast to try and give my mind and body some clarity. I've struggled with some headaches and other health issues of late. I first thought the paint fumes might be the culprit, but I've been away from them for a while and the symptoms persist, though they come and go.

As it is with so many folks, the days leading up to the holidays were full of deadlines for me and I'd not been eating or exercising properly, which I think affected my overall energy level and sense of wellbeing. A detox seems in order. I will be interested to see if the paint fumes in my studio affect me or seem more acute during the fast. I have been so used to that smell that normally I can barely smell anything at all!

Scenes from the open studio:

I'm Christmas shopping today, so I thought I'd share some scenes of my recent holiday events. My holiday events came early this year. I held my 2nd annual open studio in mid- October. This may have been a tad too early in the fall, but it was still very successful. Normally I am not able to keep a huge inventory of artwork on hand at the studio, but for one brief weekend I hang my studio work space like a small gallery and open it to visitors. I may eventually hold this event more often- perhaps bi-annually, but we'll see. This year's event was held on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. By far the evening events seem to have the heaviest attendance, but the daytime can often bring in people who want to look at the art without distractions. For this reason I feel it's important to do both days. Here are a couple of shots of the studio before this year's event:

 

This is a wall shot of the front room as you enter the studio. This wall would be to your right as you walk in the door. I use the front room as a display area for visitors: 

 

 

 

Here is the large second room, which is normally my work area.

Here is a shot as visitors are starting to arrive. We didn't get many of these pictures this year as things got a little bit busy.

 

The work doesn't tend to stay in the studio long after the show. I will normally ship unsold works off to other shows or consignments. These shows are a lot of work and don't last long, but they offer a nice opportunity to display a larger body of my work in a cohesive way.

Here is a view of my studio work area as it looks today. My easel stands just opposite of the walls that have the large boxes on them. Looks like I had better get to work!