In the Swing of Things

I have been given permission to use a quote made by Jean Stern, author/museum director in Orange County about my SOLD painting Lido Theatre Night:
"It's very good, I like it. I think you captured the intensity of the theater lights and the excitement of going to the movies at night. It also presents the magic of the experience."
I am delighted to finally be noted by an esteemed individual in the art world. He also said he will be looking for my future works with interest.
I am pleased to reveal my latest work that I started at the Mission San Juan Capistrano and completed in my studio. I had to add more color intensity in the studio to the waterlilies and lily pads. This was sort of a workstudy in progress, so I placed it on eBay, it is now SOLD. Waterlilies Dream I am including the image of it in this post also. I will place more workstudies on eBay so you can bookmark my eBay Seller's List, or check back here for specific listings.
Tomorrow evening I will be exhibiting in the San Clemente Art Walk, the last one of the year. It is on Avenida Del Mar, there will be lots of us, the last hoorah of the season. I will have some good prices on paintings that are really nice. Come support us artists!

Newport Peninsula Art Exhibition

I survived another week of a plein air competition at Newport Peninsula, barely. This was a tough one to do on my muscles and bones. We had a Fine Art Outdoor Show last weekend in addition to the juried exhibition. Friday evening, the 12th about 60 artists had a great time and awards were given. I had a work juried into the show, it felt good to be recognized by Cynthia Britain the esteemed judge of this show. It is the Lido Theatre Night and I show it here. SOLD I also show an image of it on location. It was a unique experience to me to paint at night, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Presently, it is hanging at the new Rainey Fine Art Gallery on Balboa Blvd and will be moved to the Newport Nautical Harbor Museum as works sell there. There were so many entries that there wasn't room in the museum for all 80 entries. On the weekend, the whole lot of us artists had such a good time relating to each other while sales were very slow. One of my neighbor artists took a picture of me in front of my booth. We seemed to become a family that weekend, the SOCALPAPA association is a loving group of artists. The Balboa Fun Zone as you see the ferris wheel in the background did not bring out the art collectors in droves, it brought out lookie loos I called them. Still the carnival type atmosphere with carousel music made us feel festive and the food all around was great! A large slice of pizza cost $2.50, there were funnel cakes, ice cream, so we all ate too much! Now I must lose 10 lbs, it's the start of an exercise program for me. After almost a week of trying to get some rest (this show drained me) I saw a Jean Stern lecture on early California Impressionists that lifted my spirits immensely. I went painting yesterday at the Mission San Juan Capistrano with unbridled joy. I will place a post with pictures on my latest 'waterlilies dream' painting later.... bye for now, Esther

In the competition!

On Sunday September 7, I entered my weary self into the SOCALPAPA Paints the Peninsula competition. The night before I was up until 2am designing my new website, www.visions2art.com. It is launched prematurely and still under construction, but at least the home page, contact page, blog page and gallery collection is visible. I spent a few years studying Macromedia Dreamweaver, a ridiculously difficult web design program with tons of bells and whistles to it. I have a lot more to learn with that program, but I wanted a website that reflected my need to show my creativity and hands into everything I make. I hand sculpted a gold logo of my signature, hand extracted paint tubes for navigation bars and even an antique gold frame to showcase my latest works. There is supposed to be a belgian canvas background, I have to figure how to float it behind my main frames still. Adobe Dreamweaver's website has the greatest knowledge base to ask questions.
Well, I got off to a great start at the Balboa Island Pavillion on Sunday. I started a 16X12 painting around 3pm, it took me awhile to find the right subject with lots of interesting colors and lighting. I show here three images of the spot I found. Keep in mind that the painting is not done. I am going back today to finish it this afternoon. I was kept company by lots of interesting people, fisherman, tourists and even a 75 year old lady who cleans soda cans off the fishing boats when they dock in the evening. Oh, the Pelicans were my favorite creature, I must paint one, maybe today. I love them! All day long they wandered around the dock I was at. I took lots of pictures and so did a fellow artist I was with Veronica Kortz, we loved the whole area. It's fun to know I can go here to Balboa Island and bask in the sun painting, then wander around looking at the sights each day this week. The completion is Friday when we turn in two paintings. There is a reception that night at the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum 6PM-9PM, Sept 12th. Then Saturday and Sunday Sept 13th & 14th, I will have a booth in front of the museum during our outdoor art sale from 10Am - 6PM. Come see us all, there is going to be the most gorgeous art! Remember, this is PLEIN AIR art, done on location. Bye for now, I have to run, I feel like I am in the Olympics running, no, swimming! Esther :>)

Working Harder Than Ever!

I am publishing the new website in it's infant stage just to knock off the old one. So, if you see some missing links and images, I will correct them. I am working very late tonight on it as tomorrow I have to register for a week long paint out in Newport Beach. I will be painting en plein air Sunday through Thursday at the Balboa Island area. Then on Friday I turn in two paintings at the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum near the Balboa Fun Zone. Also both Saturday and Sunday I am doing an outdoor art exhibit and sale with Socalpapa. It should be fun. More later! Go to visions2art to see my website.

Hi there! My first blog posting!

I am just about ready to launch my newly designed website. It may be done in the next couple of days. I've had a dinosaur website for 8 years now. I am adding this blog to it, there will be a link to this page from my website, www.visions2art.com. If you go there and see a sepia toned antique victorian lady floating across the top banner, it still is the old website. My new one will have paint tubes for navigation bars that I designed in Adobe Photoshop CS2. I also will have an antique gold gilded frame to house my thumbnails of my latest works on the front entry page. It is going to be a beauty of a website, I am excited about it. Above is a small thumbnail image of one of my recent plein air paintings from my 5 day trip to the High Sierras. All of my older works will be gone, it's time for the new works to shine. So, be ready to get an eyeful soon! Esther