The Artists Talk

Yesterday, Carol and I gave an Artists' Talk about our show currently at the Artists' Gallery. Speaking in public is not my forte, so I was a bit nervous. But I came prepared with an outline of what I would talk about, and I brought my outdoor painting setup - I figured some people would be interested in seeing that, and it's something that I can easily talk about.

Carol supplied 2 apple pies, a big plate of homemade brownies, apple cider and ice tea for our guests.

Unfortunately only one person came to hear us talk. So for our one guest, and 2 fellow gallery artists in attendance, we gave our talk. It was well received by everyone. A few visitors came to the gallery during our talk, and we explained to them what we were doing, but they just weren't interested. Oh well, it was worth a try, and a good experience anyway. And I had almost a whole apple to take home with me.

Since I did all of that worrying and preparation for my talk, here's what I had to say:

• I introduced myself, and explained that I'm self-taught as an artist. I took an occasional evening art class, but the bulk of my learning came from books, a lot of looking at paintings, and a lot of trial and error.
• I explained how the name of our show came from this very blog. In an old post called "Lambertville Shadows", Nancy Van Blaricom commented how that painting of Joe Finkle's hardware store "just screams extraordinary in the ordinary" - which got me thinking about my own work, and I blogged some more about "Finding the Extraordinary in the Ordinary". Carol saw that blog post and she came up with the title of our show, "Finding the Extra in the Ordinary".
• I talked about how some of my paintings in the show relate to the show title. We took a field trip out to the sidewalk in front of the gallery and looked at one of the street scenes I painted. It is a pretty ordinary and uninteresting view, until just before sunset when it transforms into something really special.
• I talked a bit about why I paint on toned canvases, how I choose my subjects, and some of the difficulties of painting outdoors.
• I showed my outdoor paintbox setup, then we all sat down for some apple pie.
  

Here's another painting I have in the show, and I think it's another good example of finding that "extra". It's the road to my house - I live just beyond the crest of the hill:

"Homeward Bound, Winter Afternoon"
8x10 oil on panel