Lambertville and the Surrounding Area

I have a painting accepted into the 27th annual juried art exhibition "Lambertville and the Surrounding Area" which is run by the Coryell Gallery in conjunction with the Lambertville Historical Society. This is one of the better juried shows in the region, and it's the first time I'm in this show. As you can guess, entries must be paintings of or near the town of Lambertville. My painting is along the Delaware and Raritan Canal on the northern edge of town. Beyond the canal bridge, you can see the Route 202 bridge where it crosses the Delaware River. I painted this one with the River Rats - an Artsbridge plein-air group I paint with during the summer. I painted this one pretty quickly, but it took forever to think of a title:

"D&R and 202
11x14 oil on board

Opening reception is Sunday, Feb 4 from 3 to 6 pm. The exhibition continues through March 18th. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 12 noon - 5 pm. The show is at:

The Coryell Gallery at the Porkyard
8 Coryell Street
Lambertville, NJ 08530
[map and directions]

Mercer County Artists 2007

I have one painting accepted into this year's annual Mercer County Artists juried exhibition. It's a small 8x10 plein air oil painting that I did of New Jersey's only covered bridge - sometimes called the Sergeantsville Covered Bridge, but the proper name is Green Sergeant's Covered Bridge:

"Covered Bridge, Autumn Leaves"
8x10 oil on board

Opening reception is Wednesday Jan 24, 5:00-7:30 pm. Awards ceremony starts at 6:15. The show run from January 22 through February 16, 2007 and is hosted by The Gallery at Mercer County Community College:

West Windsor Campus
1200 Old Trenton Road
West Windsor, NJ 08550
(see their website for gallery hours)

This is a good show for artists to enter because it's run in conjunction with the Mercer County Cultural and Heritage Commission who gives a purchase award each year, and that painting becomes a part of their permanent collection displayed in their offices in downtown Trenton, NJ. My painting "Wertsville Road" won the purchase award in 2005. You have to live or work in Mercer County, NJ to enter this show.

Things Google

I'm a big fan of Google and all of the services they offer for free. Of course they only offer things for free because in the long run, it generates revenue for them through their AdWords / AdSense pay-per-click advertising systems. But I'm still glad they offer such great services for anyone to use. Two things in particular that I like:

Google Gadgets: Gadgets are little frames of dynamic html that can be embedded in any webpage, and can be used to display almost anything: clocks, calendars, stock quotes, news feeds, maps, etc. The offer a lot of gadgets ready to use, or you can create your own. I created one to show a random image from my painting archives. You can see a small version of it in my sidebar. Anyone is free to use this gadget in their own website or blog if they wish to, just follow these instructions. It can be customized to display at any size you wish. I doubt if anyone but me will ever use it, but it was fun to make.

Google Calendar: Google's new calendar system is pretty slick. I used to use Yahoo's calendar for my personal use, but recently switched to Google's. I like how I can have multiple calendars in my account - one for my private life, which only I can see, and one for my art events, which the general public can see. Once nice feature is that public calendars can be embedded in any webpage - I added my Art Events Calendar my sidebar, so anyone can see what shows I have coming up. Anyone who uses Google Calendar for their personal use can easily add my public Art Events to their own calendar. (Of course, I'll need to become famous before anyone would want to do that, but I'm ready!)

Limited Edition Prints

I've recently begun selling limited edition giclée prints of a few of my paintings. I'll have them for sale in the galleries I normally work with, or they could be ordered directly from me through my website. My "prints" web page will show what I currently have available, and in what galleries you can currently find them.

This is the first print I had done - it's a spring time scene on the Wickecheoke Creek, between Sergeantsville and Stockton, NJ - one of my favorite areas to paint en plein air:

Wickecheoke Creek

What is a giclée you ask? It's a French word, pronounced zhee-CLAY. It's a high quality print done on a large format printer using archival inks on archival paper. It's a relatively new printing process, but is generally considered to be superior to the traditional printing process of lithography, in terms of both color quality and longevity. Each print will be signed and numbered by the artist (your's truly), and will come with a Certificate of Authenticity.

Amwell Valley Winter

Here is my latest painting, just finished yesterday. It's a scene across the street from me which I painted from photos taken in previous winters. We haven't had any snow at all this year, and it's been so warm lately that it feels more like spring than January. This scene is looking out over Amwell Valley towards Somerville, NJ, from my perch on the Sourland Mountain:

"Amwell Valley Winter"
18x24 oil on canvas

I painted on a canvas that was toned with yellow ocher, and did the initial sketch with an alizarin crimson oil stick - some of those red lines still peek through in the field. I'm just starting to experiment with oil sticks, and I'm not sure if I like them. They are basically oil paint formed into solid stick - sort of like crayons but they are still traditional oil paint. So I did the initial sketch with oil stick, then proceeded to my trusty old brushes and tubes of paint. The sticks have some potential, but I think they'll be better suited for hard surfaces like masonite panels. It took a lot of pressure to draw with them, and the stretched canvas was too flexible a surface for this.

Here's the photograph that I worked from - it's from a series of panoramic photos that I did from the same spot overlooking the valley. I love how the cloud mirrors the lines in the field, so that's what I focused on in the painting:

That was my last painting of 2006 and this is my first blog post of 2007.

I'd like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year!