Ratindra Das Workshop and Brush Strokes Exhibit

Last week I attended a 3-day watercolor workshop in Hot Springs Village taught by Ratindra Das and sponsored by Brush Strokes.  I learned some important things about managing paint on wet paper, and I painted four paintings wet on wet on a vertical easel.  However,  I don't favor Ratindra's "flat shapes" painting style, and was unsuccessful replicating it in my paintings.  I've attached a painting of sailboats in a harbor on Maui that I did in the workshop, but it looks a lot like my usual style.

Ratindra also judged the annual Brush Strokes exhibit hanging in the Woodlands auditorium lobby in Hot Springs Village, and I was awarded second place for my painting Mountain View Arkansas Barn.  This is a rather old painting.  I had planned to exhibit a different painting, but it sold from my This Fair Land exhibit at the Fine Arts Center of Hot Springs in March.

Close of Show at the Fine Arts Center

My exhibit at the Fine Arts Center of Hot Springs closed last week. Unfortunately, neither of the Gallery Walk evenings worked well for me... the Fine Arts Center closed for the actual evening, due to snow earlier in the day, and we had very few visitors for the following Friday's special reception. However, my sales at the Center were good, with seven original paintings and a fair number of prints and notecard sets finding new homes during the month. To top it all off, due to some heavy rain around the end of the month, five of my paintings hanging in the Center suffered water damage. Fortunately, the paintings themselves and their frames were not damaged, but I needed to disassemble, clean, re-mat, and reassemble them.

My next major exhibit will be at Artists Workshop Gallery in Hot Springs for the month of July, with an opening reception during Gallery Walk on July 4. Perhaps we'll see some of of the art fans who did not make it to my exhibit at the Fine Arts Center. I also have my large painting Mountain View Arkansas Barn currently hanging in the lobby of the Woodlands Auditorium in Hot Springs Village.

Painting Donation to Habitat for Humanities

Members of Brush Strokes art club donate original art to each new Habitat for Humanities home. It was my turn on Saturday, March 15. I donated my painting In The Woods, 26" x 36" framed, to the new homeowners at 103 Vivien Street in Hot Springs: Brenda Hammock and her daughters Shakedra and Shoniqua. It gave me a good feeling; I hope it helps them to turn their new house into a home.

Our Fair Land Exhibit - Reprise

My opening reception last Friday was cancelled because the Fine Arts Center of Hot Springs closed due to bad weather. I am happy to announce that the reception has been rescheduled for this Friday, March 14, from 5 to 9 p.m. I am told that several galleries which closed last Friday will be staying open late. I hope you will be able to stop by this Friday to say Hello and enjoy the art. If you cannot make it, my paintings will be on display (without me) at the Fine Arts Center until April 2. The Center is open Tuesday through Friday 10 - 4, and Saturday 12 - 4.

Second Prize in Richard Stephens Students Watercolor Exhibit

Richard Stephens sponsored an exhibit for everyone who took his beginners watercolor course at the Garland County Library.  Richard has been teaching this six-week course for about eight years.  I took his course in the summer of 2004 - it was just about the first watercolor course I attended.  I entered the painting Lazy Afternoon into Richard's exhibit, the same painting juried into the 2008 MSW Annual Exhibit (see 2nd previous post).  At the library reception on March 5, I was awarded second prize.  Gary Simmons was the exhibit judge.  Richard has been a very positive influence - both in training and encouragement - during my four-year watercolor journey.