A Sold Painting and Toulouse Lautrec

Ballerina  #43 recently sold from the Roux and Cyr Gallery in Portland, Maine. Thank you so much, Susan Roux - you are the best! This painting went to the same collector that bought my crab with lemons painting last year. It's so nice  and an honor to have clients  come back to purchase a second piece and I am thrilled.

Here is #43 (and I can hardly believe that I painted this many ballerinas)!

Ballerina #43 /oil on linen panel / 16 x 12

Kathryn Ragan,  a wonderful watercolor artist and one of my long time blog followers, commented to me that my first ballerina at the circus painting reminded her of Toulouse Lautrec's circus themed drawings. So of course, I immediately went to Amazon and found a book originally published in 1953. The book  has very little text but each page showcases in beautiful color one of his 39 circus drawings. The reproductions are high quality and it is a a pure delight to leaf through, each drawing showing his deft and incredible draftsmanship.

The cover

And a peek inside.

Three Months Later ....

and I am still painting! I can hardly believe that my last post was over three months ago - I don't know how time flies by so quickly. I have been busy keeping my galleries supplied with paintings and doing a lot of painting just for the pure joy.

A Moment of Disciplined Pleasure / 11 x 14 / oil on linen panel

This month Reinert Fine Art  opened a second gallery in the mountain town of Blowing Rock, North Carolina and Rick Reinert invited me to participate. He sent me this photo of the entry wall during the grand opening with five of my paintings so beautifully hung:

And the absolutely wonderful Roux & Cyr International Gallery of Fine Art in Portland, Maine, is celebrating the season with a small treasures show. The three wild running bunny paintings are my contribution and I am thrilled to report that two of them have already gone to wonderful homes.

I feel so fortunate to have these wonderful galleries displaying my work and making it available to the art loving public.

On the home front, my daughter, who has been living and working in Amsterdam for over a year now, was home for the Thanksgiving holidays. As a surprise for me, and all the way from the Netherlands, she carried a selection of powdered pigments ground in one of the last industrial dye windmills operating in the world today! I am so excited to have them and have been experimenting with how to use them in my work.

Pigments from the De Zaansche Molen windmill, Zaandam, the Netherlands

I would like to express a note of thanks to several of my blog followers who noticed my prolonged absence and were kind enough to send me emails telling me so - thank you Hilda, Julie and Vic. It does feel good knowing that my work was missed. You have warmed my heart, especially during this very special Christmas season and I am deeply appreciative. In fact, it was your concern and your words that inspired me to post again today. I have certainly missed following your blogs in this time period and intend to catch up as soon as I can. I need the inspiration that viewing your work provides to me!

Thank you to all for following this blog and reading my musings!

New Year, New Gallery Representation!

I have been invited by fellow artist and friend Susan Roux to participate in her brand new start up gallery in Portland, Maine! I am honored, excited and eager to get started. The gallery seems like a beautiful space with lots of light, gorgeous wood floors and a great corner location in the art district. What could be better than being represented by a fellow artist that I greatly admire!? The photo above shows the ballerina paintings I will be shipping off for a grand opening on Saturday, May 24th. It is an international gallery and will be representing many fine artists from round the world including Canada, Ireland, France and the UK.

This is the new gallery logo and the website is already up and running  and may be accessed at Roux & Cyr International Fine Art Gallery

What a GREAT way to start the new year - and I send my heartfelt thanks to Susan for loving my ballerinas enough to invite me to participate! Thank you, Susan!