March 26, 2021 Weekly Musings
Posted on March 26 2021
What Lies Beneath Receives Award in World of Watercolor & Beyond Virtual Art Tour
Juror for selections and awards selected Christine Alfery’s work “What Lies Beneath” for the Second-Place award in the 12th Annual Signature American International Watermedia Exhibition, World of Watercolor & Beyond Virtual Tour, Fallbrook Art Center, Fallbrook CA
Click HERE to view tour:
February 13th through April 11th, 2021
Juror for Selections and Awards
Katherine Chang Liu, NWS
Curated by Mary Perhacs, Executive Director
The Glue That Sticks
Featured image: Crossroads
The space in the middle is where creativity exists. On either side of the middle there exists black and white – polar opposites. Creativity is the process of understanding and working with these opposites. Generally, that happens with love. If the unity, the glue, that the middle creates is ever lost, if the glue loses its stickiness, then the whole cannot exist.
The middle celebrates differences, accepts all possibilities and offers a yes, yes, yes to life.
What is the Interface?
Featured image: How Do I Get There
What is the interface? A space, or the glue, where two systems, subjects, organizations, etc. meet and interact between logic and metaphor?
Creativity, Invention, Exploration, Discovery.
What is the interface between the self and the universe?
Creativity, Invention, Exploration, Discovery.
What is the interface between the whole of nature and its beauty and it's becoming part of it?
Creativity, Invention. Exploration, Discovery, Acceptance.
Can we be both?
Posted on March 24 2021
Featured image: Starlings
Can we be both – objective and subjective at the same time?
“All outward success, if it has any value, is but the inevitable result of an inward success of full living, full play and enjoyment of one’s faculties.” The Art Spirit – Robert Henri
I am an objectivist. What does that mean? How can it be applied to the arts? Especially when I talk all the time about finding your unique self which is subjectivity. Can one be both an objectivist and honor one’s own subjectivity? I link my subjectivity to my spirit, my soul and my individuality.
The layering of Cerulean Blue Flowers
Posted on March 25 2021
Featured image: Cerulean Blue Flowers
"Cerulean Blue Flowers" was supposed to be a quick sketch. It began with watercolor washes of magenta and orange, two of my favorite colors together. Then I overworked it. I tried to fix it finally, as I so frequently do these days. I flooded the work with a whitewash and rubbed it all in. The white picked up some still drying green, so it was a light green color when I left it for the day, totally frustrated with it and wanting to toss it in the waste basket.
Stubborn me, the next day I covered it with black, and rubbed it in. When I rubbed it again, all of the wonderful layers of paint became textures of lace, after the black dried with white. (I new idea which I will use later in another work.)
I came back and added some intense colors and surrounded them with deep black. I, then, did a grey, blue, whitewash over the black and added intense colors. I have never, never done this before but now I know how wonderful color looks on black – sort of like a black velvet painting which I have always laughed at.
I continued to work the piece with detail. Now, I have learned two new things with this work – and I love them both and I love the work. The challenge, while frustrating, is always rewarding in the end when you stick with it.
"Blue Bells," the painting I just finished before this one, was also a challenge. I had to keep telling myself, "Just leave it alone, it looks great, just leave it alone." It only had one light wash and 2-3 color adds to the flowers. And boy was that hard!
Two different techniques and I learned from both of them.
Just thought I would share the layering story of this work because by just looking at it, one would never know.
"Figuring It Out" accepted into the Illinois 37th National Exhibition
"Figuring It Out," has been selected by show judge Elaine Daily-Birnbaum for inclusion into the Illinois Watercolor Society 37th National Exhibition 2021.
The awards will be announced at the Next Picture Show Gallery in Dixon, IL on Saturday, May 1st. The reception is free and open to the public. The show will then be presented online after May 28, 2021.
"The Red Road" and "The middle is not Grey" juried into SCORE
The Red Road Is The Good Road and The Middle Is Not Grey have been juried into the SCORE, Southern California Open Regional Exhibition.
This is a virtual exhibition. You may visit the exhibit Models in Motion, at www.sfvacc.org any time between Thursday, April 1, 2021 and Friday, April 30, 2021.
Mark your calendar to join us for an online Zoom Reception Saturday, April 10, 2021, 5-7pm PDT.
Reception Zoom Link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81447773695