Art for Pete Sake

New cards for 2011 holiday

2011-12-27T11:13:00.003-05:00

This is some of this years paintings that i gave as cards. All one of a kind originals. I like the idea so much I started a series of these that will be matted to 8x10 and available at the artisans guild gallery Mixed media on paper or small 5x7 canvas.

this is a group shot of several cards before they became cards

this whole series of 16 had the sun/moon/disc shape to give a somewhat landscape feel. The designs are spontainous as I worked on groups of 8 at a time with no sketches or plan. The beginning of a series I call "Evidence"

Pictures in a Photo Show

2011-11-16T12:32:00.000-05:00

I got invited to show 3 16 x 20 photos in the Gainesville 10 + 10 photo show at the Thomas center. the opening it Dec 3. Here is a sneak preview of what I'm showing

Telluride x4

This is actually one of 4 of the same view at different times and weahter conditions that are in the same frame.

Make a Wish

Canoe dock.

Hanging a new show

2011-05-04T09:02:00.001-05:00

I took down a show at Kanahapa gardens that has been up there for a long time and put a new show at the Jones East side yesterday. It's sort of a retrospective because I put some old and some new. It looks pretty cool

2011-03-28T12:51:00.001-05:00

My set up in the parking lot of the Melrose Bay gallery. This is as far as I got for the first day. I was working on a collage using grass that I picked around the gallery

At this point I'm almost done. I have glued down the grass and collaged on one layer of paper. I'm ready to cut the edge and remove the blue tape.

Here I have added some color under the taped off section and around the edges. I will add one more layer of paper and cover the white bar to increase the curtain effect.

Sunday morning I framed the grass painting on the tailgate and hung it before heading to this was location #3 where I joined Linda and Scott for a little lunch. They stayed and painted in this beautiful garden and I moved down the street to location #9

Here's Julie setting up on the dock at #9 I'm at water's edge attempting to do an abstract of the dock. after struggling with it for about 2 hours I gave up and worked on a 12 x 36 of a palm tree I started Saturday in the parking lot. Here are a couple of shots from my location

This is the palm tree painting after spraying and scraping and dripping

top detail

bottom detail

These paintings and what else I can finish this week will be hanging in the Melrose bay and Bellamy road Galleries for the Gala Sat night April 2

Melrose Open Air Art

2011-03-24T18:15:00.000-05:00

Here's a link to the gallery website

Lake View Acrylic on Panel

2011-03-24T18:09:00.000-05:00

This is the second painting I did from the same yard , different view. This one is built up on top of another painting so there is lots of texture. This is acrylic on and 11 x 14 panel done with the knife. I used the same palette as on the previous painting, q.gold, cerulean blue, q. burnt orange, black and white. These are all golden fluid acrylics.

Andrea's view

2011-03-24T18:03:00.001-05:00

This is an 8 x 10 acrylic on canvas that I did out in Melrose today. Bob and I were out there for the OAA paint out and I set up in Andrea's yard to paint this view. I was going for abstract but this came out instead. Still, I like it and it doeshave an abstract quality. It was done with a palette knife and a 3" brush. the canvas was toned with the gray wash that I left as the sky. It was a breezy , partly cloudy day . Just perfect

Haile Village art show

2011-03-21T12:53:00.000-05:00

This weekends show was fun despite not great sales. We had Senesac village again. Emily was next me and Bob was next to her. I had a decent show thanks, in part to the new gator buckle (coming soon to the shopping cart) and the sale of 2 paintings. One was the 16 x 20 from the planet series. I did 3 paintings in that series and have only one left, the big 24 x 48 with lights and moving part. I'll be hanging that at the Jones Eastside next month where I'll be hanging a show for April.

New Blog

2011-03-20T12:54:00.001-05:00

I have changed the name of my jewlery blog to jewelry for pete sake and brought all the old post to the new one, however, I was not able to bring the the followers over from jewelryartstudio. So if you are a follower please re-follow. I'll be making all the new posts from there. In the past I have been making most of my post to the facebook page www.facebook.com/jewelryartstudio I will still be doing that but I'm going to start doing it from the blog first with a link to the FB page. I have several friends who are not on FB and want to keep you all posted. My main store/ website with calendar of events and classes is still at petersenesac.com Thanks!

new designs

2011-03-18T11:11:00.000-05:00

one of several new earring designs with stones for the Haile show

Thomas Center Paint Out

2011-03-12T19:10:00.001-05:00

These are the 2 12 x 16 paintings I did at the Thomas center. This one is mix media with acrylic and grass in the "window" I put several layers of grass with medium between to glue it in place. It's been interesting to watch the grass turn color. great texture

This one is done with palete knife for texture and layers of wash on the wall section.

More Planets

2010-10-07T15:25:00.003-05:00

Here are 2 more paintings I did for the "Other Worlds" show.

"Planets 91510"

16 x 20 Acrylic on canvas

240.00

"Planets 10510"

8 x 10 Acrylic on canvas

100.00 framed in a wood float frame (sold)

other worlds

2010-09-30T22:59:00.004-05:00

This is a detail from a new piece I'll be showing at the "other worlds" show next week at the Bellamy Road Gallery. This detail shows the long exposer photo printed on transparency and laminated to plexi and mounted on a clock movement. The painting is done on a 2 x 4 ft panel with spray paint.

Below is the full shot with the lights on . The panel is drilled with a network of orange lights behind at a distance from the whole so as you move by, the lights appear to go on and off.

This piece is not titled as one of my Daydream series and wasn't intended to be part of it but the technique and composition put in that series. The framed window was done by Bob Senesac. That image is a manipulated photo on transparency that is also back lit. This was a collaborative effort signed by both of us. It took lots of brainstorming to pull this together. I have a step by step web album I'll be putting up next week.

Improv music show

2010-07-15T20:49:00.000-05:00

Here ' a clip from my gig at the Lab. I was one of many doing 9 min or less improv solo experimental and noise electoonic music. I'm using the Korg Kaossolater to make nature sounds for a variation on a piece I call. Cross Creek Nights.
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DTvcUoiUM6E4&h=fdd94

paintings installed at Satchle's

2010-07-14T16:11:00.000-05:00

Praire Mist

2009-12-07T10:35:00.006-05:00

This is a 5 x 7 on canvas that started out last summer as a watercolor. I was trying out a new gesso recipe and just playing around. I put in the sky, the tree on the right and the foreground. I liked it but there was nothing on the left and it felt a little empty. The sky was great so I just left it on my wall and I've been looking at trying to figure out what to do to it. I put it in photoshop and played around but nothing good came out. then I was painting some copper jewelry and had the acrylics out so I started in on it with those colors. I put in the the background and the let trees and glazed the foreground with q gold. Now I really like it.

I scanned it at high res and looked at in photoshop . It's like looking at it under a microscope. I found this composition. Can you see the bird in the bush?

interesting art video that's not art

2009-11-10T17:55:00.001-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SU1XXAVxhg&feature=player_embedded

value sketches

2009-10-31T11:46:00.003-05:00

I started taking Melanie Peter's drawing class. It's back to the basics and very helpful in learning how to see shapes and values and how to place them correctly on the paper. These are the first 2 sketches. We are using charcoal and white pastel on toned gray paper. I'm having fun with this. We are drawing using shapes instead of line. The idea is that shadow shapes define the object. It's actually easier to draw this way than trying to outline the objects and then fill in the values. With this method we start with the biggest shapes and continue to refine those. We start with 2 values. All the lights and all the darks, defining the shapes of the shadows the toned paper being the mid tones. The beauty of this medium is the ease with which it erases. The shapes and edges can be moved and changed as you progress. First the paper is covered with a light charcoal toning darks are placed with soft charcoal and the lights are erased. As the shapes are refined the accent darks and lights come last. These set ups are all white with a single light source. I did these in about 1 1/2 hours each The second one was actually pretty complicated. It still needs a lot of work but there is a time limit. You can see that I never made it to finishing the top of this plant stand. The edges still need allot of work. An ellipse is a difficult shape

both sketches are on the same paper

random photos

2009-10-30T17:05:00.006-05:00

I was shooting some jewelry and clicked off a few random shots that I thought might make good starts and compositions for a series of abstract paintings ( my daydream series) that I want to explore more. These were potoshopped a little for color and cropping. The top one is an untouched original. I know, everyone has photoshop but the idea was to come up with a way to start an abstract painting not to produce finished art with manipulated photos. Allot of abstracts that I see just look like a infantile versions of a subject. Sometimes it seems like an excuse for not developing drawing or painting skills. Sometimes it's just random marks, or color fields or grids, or "expresionism". They don't seem to have a composition, design or a focus. The good abstracts have design and focus and are well made. (IMO). But where does the original idea for non objective abstracts come from?. That's where I'm having trouble getting started. My daydream series has been about the landscape so far with elements of watercolors on paper as collage. They are more surreal than abstract but they are usually based on or around the collage element. This series may continue with the collage elements but using this idea of random, found designs as a starting point appeals to me. I've used the idea in jewelry with a series called "throwing bones". (If your interested in that idea make a comment and I'll post something about it on the jewelry blog.)

This is an untouched photo from this series

Partly Cloudy and Hot

2009-10-09T09:13:00.005-05:00

This is a 5 x 7 watercolor on canvas I did in the studio from memory. I'm painting on a new gesso recipe here and really like the way it takes the paint. It's as close as I've come to the feel of paper. Unframed 60.00

New plein air paintings

2009-08-17T17:03:00.002-05:00

5 x 7 watercolor on canvas

Three painting done from the deck on Fripp Island SC. These were really fun and probably some of the best I've come with working form life outside. Something I don't do much. I think these are the first ones I've done outside with watercolor on canvas.

3 new landsacpes

2009-06-02T13:27:00.005-05:00

This little series got started one day when I didn't feel like making jewlery. I've been experimenting with a new gesso recipe. I'm trying to get the feel and look of paper when painting on canvas. One of the main things I like about watercolor is the way the paint flows on the wet paper. That doesn't happen naturally on canvas so you have to prime the canvas. Well I have a new secrete sauce that I really like and these are the first paintings on it. They are all 3 x 5 and all done with the same palette. FUB, Aureolin, quin. magenta, trans red ox. The gesso on this one is put on with a palette knife and has an interesting texture that can be seen in the clouds

This one is from a picture of cedar key as I was driving over the bridge. The gesso here is put on fairly smoothly with a credit card ( gotta use them for something). Some texture is evident in the clouds.

The gesso in this one was put on with a roller and the texture is quite pronounced. These 3 have all been framed and are hanging in the artisians guild for the Monthly show. Unframed they are 60.00 each As a special to bloggers and fans I'm offering them for 40.00 each. Just comment or email me if your interested and we'll get together.

Barn painting commission

2009-05-20T20:04:00.003-05:00

Finished painting 12 x 16 watercolor and acrylic on canvas After it was dry I re worked the tree to make the leaves a little more pronounced and I changed the color of the tree trunk with acrylic

After the second wash. With this technique I can only put in 2 washes and that's pushing it. The under painting immediately dissolves when it gets wet with the next layer. It has to be much dryer paint and has to be done in one go. No going back.
This is the first wash. Putting in the large areas first. The substrate for this on is gesso on canvas

Original Paintings

2009-05-20T17:40:00.008-05:00

This is before. The original way I painted this 16 x 20 . The marsh creek part in the middle is a watercolor on canvas that I collaged onto the bigger canvas and then painted around it. I was never happy with it

This is after the changes. I like this much better. It really has a 3d effect.

Estuary Daydream 16 x 20 unframed watercolor and acrylic on canvas

Melrose Bay Boat Houses 36 X 12 Watercolor and acrylic on canvas (sold)

Marsh Creek Dawn 11 x 14 Watercolor on Gallery Wrapped Canvas

More on the Paint out

2009-05-09T11:18:00.006-05:00

My tiny paint box and 5 x 7 in progress

The total opposite , Peter Carolin with his giant pallet

party time

Sunset on Melrose bay

Hungry spectator

Linda Pence doing a water color

Here are a few more pix from the Melrose paint out. I'm one of those people that likes to get ready for things. I also don't do many paintouts. Those 2 facts lead to nearly a day of packing up art supplies in various bags for different mediums. I have several things for painting in watercolor on site because I do that on occasion. Two or 3 different little pallets and no less than 5 Altoids boxes set up with different triads. A really nice Winsor Newton pocket pallet. A pencil bag with all the drawing stuff. A wrap with several brushes. Paper in pads and cut sheets. Everything is small. Paper is 5 x7 or 7 x 10. I also paint on panels and canvas with watercolor so I had some of those too. I also have this little plastic pill box that I set up as a paint box with 6 colors and white. I covered a piece of mat board with contact paper for a painting board and use a water brush with water it the handle of the brush, squeeze to wet. I also had a bag for acrylics and my motorcycle tank bag set up with jewelry making supplies. So with all this gear what do you think I used? The little plastic pill box and the water brush! The smallest, pocket sized thing I have. I gravitate toward the most compact set up in the field but I still love getting all that other stuff ready!

2009-04-28T16:42:00.002-05:00

Here's a shot of the drone on the ground. This thing was incredible to watch. He would program it to fly to a certain spot , take certain pictures and then return and land. Then he would stand with us and watch, hands free, as it executed the commands. It hovered, moved and sounded like a giant humming bird

Fw: Photos caught by the drone

2009-04-28T16:36:00.002-05:00

a shot taken by drone above the van that contains the computer that controls it. very Si Fi. Kind of reminds me of Blade Runner

you can see the small size and the camera hanging from the bottom. the 4 props do all the controling by varing the speed of the individual blades.

A shot taken while landing

Linda Spent hours stiching together several photos the drone took to get this panaranic shot. Nice job Linda!

-----

These photos were taken by Walter Volkman, Mary Jane's husband, at the Open Air Arts event. You make have seen his Omnirove.com vehicle flying high in the sky while you were painting on Saturday. Melrose Bay is actually about 5 photos Linda put together. It is 36" by 9" full size. I hope you like it. A few of you were captured by the drone. Contact Linda at Bellamy road for details or copies

Fw: Just for Fun....OAA movies on youtube

2009-04-25T17:08:00.002-05:00

Ellie Blair's band playing on the pontoon boat on Melrose Bay during one of the special public viewing days and Peter Carolin swimming across the bay in grand entrance to party at Ron Haase's.
Wonderful fun.
Here are three short movies to remind you of the fun we had at the Melrose paint out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQgZnEpus4w&feature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbXIY3VMUVA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35d6pGO31M4&feature=channel_page

Open air art

2009-04-15T19:20:00.012-05:00

The Melrose paint out was a blast. I made some open air jewlery out of Magnolia leaves I found in front of the Melrose Bay Gallery.

In this picture my sister Les, visiting from Vancouver Island, Canada, is helping out making "beads" from cut up leaves. She is a pro at this. Her main art form these days is making jewelry from manipulated found objects. She was an innovator long ago in this "field". Before it was "green" it was keen. We were working on the front porch at Bellamy Road Gallery

Here the leaves have been wrapped around sticks with copper wire and several layers of acrylic medium and varnish have been added for protection and durability

This is another shot of the leaves in process of adding acorn "beads" to the leather necklace. I used one of Les's finds, a squished bottle cap, as part of the clasp.

Here it is in the finished state

and on display at Melrose Bay Gallery

I also did 3 paintings in watercolors sitting by the lake on a couple of different days. Sorry about the bad pictures. I wasn't thinking far enough ahead to take good ones. The 2 framed 8 x 10's are on paper as are 3 that I mounted as greeting cards. The larger 11 x 14 is watercolor on gessoed board.

Here is one in progress with my little watercolor set up. This is a 5 x 7 painting and watercolor set I made in a small plastic box.

2009-02-10T11:59:00.002-05:00

This is a little video of my booth at the New Smyrna show before I sold anything on Sat morning.

Here's a little email interview with my sister

Congrats on getting in. I thought you weren't going to do both jewelery and painting ever again in one show?

I don't want to do 2 at once because it's so much work and so little interest but I don't know how else to get recognized as a painter and I feel I have to do it as a jeweler too just because that's what I do

Too bad about the Daytona show.

Actually it wasn''t that bad I sold my biggest watercolor A full sheet painting of "Beach Ghosts" (print on my site) so I was quite glad to be able to sell that even at half price. There was a small scratch on the plexi and some detritus between the mat and plexi so she felt she was going to have to re glaze it. No more paintings framed behind glass! I still like to paint on paper but I'm going have to let the customer do the framing or I''m going to continue to mount them on canvas and board.

Did you make your booth fee??

I also sold one called "mayday" and a small 5 x 7 of a sunset on the marsh and one print. All at 30% off , My super bowel weekend discount .. ( I had a sign but I thought it looked tacky so I didn't put it up. I looked at it later and realized I spelled it supper bowel :>) will paint for food)
So I did ok since I was figuring on not selling anyting. I was just glad to reduce my inventory a bit.
I took some pics of the booth and a littlle movie to put up here. The day after I got home I went to my bag and reached for the camera and it wasn't there! I looked everywhere of course. Not to be found. I knew it was either under the bed in the condo in Daytona or on the street behind my booth. I didn't think it was on the street because I would have seen it while breaking down. I was tempted to just leave it since I have to go back down there in March to do another painting show with Bob but the curiosity was killing me. So Tues. I went back to Daytona to find it. Bob G came with me so that made it enjoyable. We took a back route down there. It was a beautiful day for a ride. We got there and I lifted up the dust thingy around the bed and there it was, Just as I suspected! It just rolled out of my bag.
Bob wanted to look at boats so we went to a boat yard but it was just fishing boats so we headed home but not with out stopping for bbq on the main drag on Daytona Beach. I was stuffed but it was good. We took yet another back way home and got back around 3 pm. It was like a Sunday drive on Tuesday.

Do you have other shows in Feb and Mar?

Bob and I are doing a local one here at the Town of Tioga Hanna was here for that one last year. It was pretty good .. but that was last year. The Ponce Inlet show March 14th
pd

Art Show in New Smyrna

2009-02-09T14:59:00.006-05:00

Congrats on getting in. I thought you weren't going to do both jewelery and painting ever again in one show?

I didn't actually do this show in both catagories . I applied in both and only got into painting. If I had got into both I would have picked one. Probably jewelry, so I guess I'm glad I didn't get in so I had to do it as a painter. I don't want to do 2 at once because it's so much work to get ready for 2 shows at once. But I don't know how else to get recognized as a painter and I feel I have to do it as a jeweler too just because that's what I do.

Too bad about the Daytona show.

Actually it wasn''t that bad I sold my biggest watercolor A full sheet painting of "Beach Ghosts" (print on my site) so I was quite glad to be able to sell that even at half price. There was a small scratch on the plexi and some detritus between the mat and plexi so she felt she was going to have to to re glaze it. No more paintings framed behind glass! I still like to paint on paper but I'm going have to let the customer do the framing or I''m going to continue to mount them on canvas and board.

Did you make your booth fee??

I also sold one called "mayday" and a small 5 x 7 of a sunset on the marsh and one print. All at 30% off , My super bowel weekend discount .. ( I had a sign but I thought it looked tacky so I didn't put it up. I looked at it later and realized I spelled it supper bowel :>) will paint for food)
So I did ok since I was figuring on not selling anyting. I was just glad to reduce my inventory a bit.
I took some pics of the booth and a littlle movie to put up here. The day after I got home I went to my bag and reached for the camera and it wasn't there! I looked everywhere of course. Not to be found. I knew it was either under the bed in the condo in Daytona or on the street behind my booth. I didn't think it was on the street because I would have seen it while breaking down. I was tempted to just leave it since I have to go back down there in March to do another painting show with Bob but the coursity was killing me. So Tues. I went back to Daytona to find it. Bob G came with me so that made it enjoyable. We took a back route down there. It was a beautiful day for a ride. We got there and I lifted up the dust thingy around the bed and there it was, Just as I suspected! It just rolled out of my bag.
Bob wanted to look at boats so we went to a boat yard but it was just fishing boats so we headed home but not with out stopping for bbq on the main drag on Daytona Beach. I was stuffed but it was good. We took yet another back way home and got back around 3 pm. It was like a Sunday drive on Tuesday.

Do you have other shows in Feb and Mar?

Bob and I are doing a local one here at the Town of Tioga Hanna was here for that one last year. It was pretty good .. but that was last year. The Ponce Inlet show March 14th
pd

chocolate boms

2008-12-11T09:36:00.003-05:00

I got the directions for these off the bag of Ghirardelli semi sweet chips 60%. They are actually called truffles. This is the same stuff I was making 2 years ago when I was making "Off the Charts Chocolate". I was altering the recipe with other things and other chocolate. This time I just did the exact recipe with out the dust coating and the added Kahlua ( 1 oz). However I made another batch last night and it didn't come out right. I thought I did the right thing but it came out way too buttery or creamy (6 tsb and 1/3 cup) It was so greasy it slid off the spatula. If I added too much, it was only a tiny bit so measure carefully. Maybe the Kahlua did something. I actually think the Kahlua kills the chocolate taste. This morning I added another cup of chips ( for a total of 3 ) and half a bar of Giardelli bakers bar chocolate ( strong stuff!) and that seems to have smoothed it out and flavored it up. so in effect , I cut the c/b content by 1/3. The directions call for adding the melted choc to the hot cream/ butter sauce but I added the c/b to the chocolate. I've done that before and it didn't seem to matter but that might have caused problems.
To make the bom*s. (I know the spelling is wrong but I don't want the fbi coming around to see what kind of bom*s I'm making) I pushed foil into a round bottomed ice cube tray and spooned the liquid choc in, put in the fridge till hard and then finished wrapping. Very time consuming. ( up till 1 am) This time I poured it all out into a glass casserole lined with foil and I'll cut that into squares and I'm going to try the dust this time because they get very soft in the hand quickly and stick to the foil. The dust might help that and also cut somemore of the sweetness. If they are soft enough at room temp , I'll try rolling them into little footballs. I found some fancy cocoa dust by Heresy that is 100% so that should be good. I also want to add some toasted almonds and maybe some raisins. I used to love the old "Chunky" candy bars. But that might have to wait for the next batch.

2008-04-18T09:55:00.020-05:00

the Cedar Key show was interesting. The quality was good. and Tony's clam chowder is the best! Just not enough people to support that much good stuff. the prize money was very good and that attracted allot of very good artists. The weather wasn't too bad but it was pretty hot on Sat. and a little rain and chilly on Sunday morning but beautiful by noon. These shots were taken Sat. after the show. The front was just coming in. Great clouds. The second 2 were Sunday morning just at the first bridge. What is it about salt marsh that I find so appealing? The best part of the show was I got an award! It was funny because I applied in two categories and got into both but didn't want to have two booths again so I accepted in paint. When they sent the package it said welcome as a jeweler. so I went as a jeweler. the sign they gave me at check in said "painter" so I hung a few small ones on the wall behind the cases. I got an award in jewelry! I guess the ideas is confuse them enough and you win. It 's a long and constant learning process.

I went to the paint out on Tuesday afternoon to volunteer and spent most of the afternoon there hanging out and helping hang wet paintings and shuffling people from location to location.

Got to meet a few of the artists and some art in action. Next year I hope to be in it.

Robin Popp seeking shelter from the wind and making a nice study of light and shadows. Melanie has sold some during the week of painting and has 10 more for display tonight at the opening reception! It takes me a year to do 10 paintings. I was at the windmill location. this is one of the few spots in Florida where you can actually look out over a long vista. This is Orange lake in the distance and the second location for painting is on the other side of the lake.

Eleanor Blair working out of the "rolling studio" van. Another friend , Anne Gilroy, did some nice cloud paintings as did Peter Carolin.

Tonight, Friday, I go to the Thomas center where the reception in the long gallery and the paintings will be set up in the Spanish court. I'm supposed to be helping out pouring wine. I hope that works out.
Linda Richichi came from NY to do the paint out and stayed with one of our friends and did some beautiful pastel paintings. She is very good. Trish Becham was also at the paint out. She works only with pallet knife. painting a Mason jar of red beets. This whole show was full of nice work. Forty painters showed 400 paintings, most done on site during the week. the reception was well attended. The hall was packed for 6 to 10 and lots of paintings went out the door. I was helping out with the wine pouring and it was non stop until 9:30. Lot's of fun had by all ! More photos on my flickr site

2007-08-22T16:06:00.000-05:00

I got nothing new to say