Tribute to Tony Motto, Woodlands Online Person of the Year

Just found out this morning that Tony received the Woodlands Online's Person of the Year.  Here is my own tribute:

Tony, we miss you. You were many things to many people. To me, you were a friend. Fun, ready with a laugh, planning and pushing, standing up for what you believed in, busy, and always stubbornly forwarding your causes. I always wondered that you could do so much! Some of my paintings are still hanging in a show you curated. The art trading card nights you planned were always fun and we had many fruitful discussions. The Artist Expo was profitable in many ways, and I loved teaching there. I and my students loved your sculpture tours, and when I drive around The Woodlands and see the sculptures, I look at them differently. Your enthusiasm was contagious, and I could count on your sense of humor. Always one to be in the center of a group, there are now many holes in many groups where you are not. Many miss you, Tony, and so do I.

http://www.woodlandsonline.com/npps/story.cfm?nppage=54589

Edge of the Woods Painting Sold and Happy New Year!

Sold this one a few weeks ago.  It's got deep, cool colors, and warm splashes of reddish browns and golds glowing it up.  Really pretty under lights.

The last time I worked the Gallery was a crazy, busy time, right before Christmas.  Sold a metal embossing piece of my own and tons of other artists' work as well.  It was a fun day!

First Friday is THIS Friday - come on out and see us!  We're in Tomball, right on Main Street.  Check out http://www.davinciartistsgallery.com/exhibitions.html for more information.

AND, happy new year!  We are blessed.  I hope and pray that you are as well.

Da Vinci Gallery First Friday Coming!

http://www.davinciartistsgallery.com/exhibitions.html 

Check the link, find out where we are and come on out!  Great fun reception, wine and snacks, and you can meet the artists.  Tomball has a lot of fun shopping - come on out, have lunch, go antiquing, and join us at the gallery!

Bent Wire Series, Big Furry Bird Painting

Here is the first painting in my Bent Wire Series.  I call it 'Big Furry Bird" for obvious reasons.  Our son thought it should maybe be called "Imminent Death," but that didn't seem like a good painting name.

I've never been able to get streaking and drips like this before and am particularly pleased with the way they turned out.

I've never used this particular method to get drips and movement before, in fact, I'm pretty sure nobody has, but will definitely stick with it!  It will have to remain my own trade secret until either death or tickling.  I'm hanging with Leonardo da Vinci in the experimental aspect, that's for sure!

This painting, along with my bright cat painting are now hanging at the da Vinci Gallery in Tomball.  http://www.davinciartistsgallery.com/exhibitions.html  I will also have some embossed metal pieces and three collage paintings for sale.

Every month on the first Friday, we have a reception where you can enjoy some great art, meet the artists and sample some great wine and food.  Come on out and join us!

Bent Wire Series of Bird Paintings

This is another in my 'Bent Wire' series of birds and cats.  In the two previous posts you can find out how I did them.

Birds Painting

 

 Here is a close up of a portion of one of my Birds paintings.  It's a little easier for you to see through the layers and figure out how I did it by viewing this one.  The entire painting is in my previous post.

Birds! From my Bent Wire Series of Paintings

Just finished this one and its friend today.  I've been working on birds quite a bit lately.  This one focuses on the negative space.  My first step was to paint the cool background, blues, teals, actually a lot of minor colors behind that, and some golds.

After that, I laid down the birds on wires with charcoal, and began carefully painting the negative space AROUND the birds.  These were inspired by Picasso's Black and White exhibit at the MFAH last year.  I went down to see it, not all that excited, but feeling obliged.  I felt that since it was a black and white exhibig, it would be small works on paper, mostly sketches and a lot of black paint on white paper.

I could not have been more wrong!  His paintings were exceedingly beautiful and engrossing.  Most of them had rich, colorful backgrounds into which he carved a design, or painted the negative space, as I did with this birds painting. My favorites were the ones he did with light paint, almost white, but still filled with color, as I did above.  I think it's really effective.  Thanks, Pablo!

I actually had an engagement that afternoon, and was going to pop into the Picasso exhibit, check it out for a couple hours and then go.  Once I got in there, all else was wiped from my mind.  I staggered out MUCH later... LONG after my engagement was completely over!