"Persephone"

"Persephone"

 

 

On my vacation to Hawai'i this past April, I visited with my sister and her husband.  They have a ranch in Waimea on the Big Island of Hawai'i.  As we were leaving my, sister (another one) who was traveling with us saw this flower blooming in the yard.  It was so uniquely different from any other hibiscus I had ever seen that I had to take a picture of it.   My intent was to paint it when I got home.
(I hate to admit it, but this is only the second painting I've done this year - shame on me.)

I scanned the internet to see if this particular hibiscus was a known hybrid.  I found it....it was exactly the one we discovered.  It was named "Persephone."  For those who don't know, Persephone in Greek mythology was the goddess of the underworld.  She was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter and said to be a beautiful young woman who everyone loved.  For a moment there, I thought we had something that no one else had ever seen.  A one-of-a-kind.  Whatever the case, this is my rendering of one of God's beautiful creations.

Juried Art Show

A few days ago I received the expected rejection letter from the organization that I submitted work to for consideration for selection to a local art show. All submitted works were reviewed by a one-man jury. It is an art show that I have attended in the past, which I really enjoyed and also one that I submitted pieces to last year…was rejected then also. I looked back over last year’s submission and realized that I was not ready and that the rejection was a fair one. This year I felt I was much improved and my paintings reflected that. However, I was not optimistic about being selected at the onset, but thought I would go ahead and submit my work, along with the fee and an artist’s statement. I told myself I would not be disappointed if I was not selected, considering the hundreds of exceptional artists, locally and out-of-town, who submit each year. All that being said, I was more disappointed than I thought I would be. Did my “pity pot” for a couple of days and am back at it with renewed vigor. I recently read an article on rejection that helped immensely. Below is an excerpt taken from Tony Moffitt’s blog, written by guest blogger, Heather Brown Truman. Visit Tony’s blog at http://tonymoffitt.blogspot.com - he has some great, invaluable information to help artists at all levels deal with every aspect of the art world.

Rejection, it’s Good For The Ego. How does one deal with the inevitable rejections that we get along the path of the creative? Well, one of the best ways to deal with rejection is to embrace it. Yes, I said embrace it. Learn to love rejection, failure and disappointments.
Rejection is our friend; it tames the ego, creates drive and ambition, and clears the mind. Rejection is always part of the path, for any endeavor, creative or not. You will encounter it at every turn, even if you are the most creative, most skilled and most passionate person in the world. Rejection is a numbers game. I feel pretty good when I get a rejection notice. Why you ask? Why good and not bad or self-pity? Every single NO is another no on the way to my YES. You have to accept that fact. If you allow yourself to take rejection to heart, you will die, wither on the vine of life and give up. If you fear rejection you will never succeed.
Your ego is not that fragile, your work is important to you and the world. We take rejection because it is part of living; it is part of the equation of life itself. It only matters what you think of yourself, your own work, and your desire to accomplish whatever it is that you are working towards. Never ever, let anyone disrupt the relationship you have with yourself; it is the most important relationship you will ever have in this world.

So, fellow artists…embrace those rejections…don’t let anyone tell you that you’re not good enough. Here are a couple of the paintings I submitted, they are available.

ITS MY BIRTHDAY!!!

IT’S MY BIRTHDAY

It’s my very own special day…MY BIRTHDAY. I won’t tell you how old I am, but I will tell you that I’ve been around long enough to have two little grandchildren appear at my door at 7:00 a.m. singing the Happy Birthday song. That is the wonderful up side of being a Tutu (that’s Hawaiian for grandmother).

Since it is my birthday, I get to relax and do whatever I want to right?? Well today I’m going to give you a break from my painting process, which I am taking a break from, and post a couple of my paintings that I recently completed and have sent to a jury for selection to a local exhibit.

This one is entitled "Beauty in Simplicity"


I call this "Behold His Glory"


This one is "Morning Dew"


I don't usually do floral, but needed a change of pace and in doing so discovered that I really do enjoy doing them.

Who Am I??

The following is an excerpt from the June-July 2009 issue of International Artist. In the “The Art of the Portrait” section of the magazine, Nelson Shanks was interviewed by Lauren Harris. The article describes Mr. Shanks as “…acclaimed modern Realist.” He spoke with Lauren Harris about his perspectives on the modern aesthetic, education, technique and realism in the twenty and twenty-first centuries.”

Ms. Harris asked the question; “What learning experiences do you feel are crucial in the education of a Realist artist today? What advice would you offer an artist beginning to seek his or her education?”

This is Mr. Shank’s response: “I think the first thing an artist should seek to achieve is drawing excellence, then color and then integration of the two. The strongest advice I could give to someone who seriously wants to be educated as an artist as opposed to a secondary school teacher or something else – is to avoid degree-granting universities and colleges’ art departments. There is such a conflict (within those institutions) on many levels, beginning with goals. The real goal (at most colleges and universities) is to get the degree – the piece of paper. Also, after generations of downward-spiraling measures of competence among faculty, the teaching level as dropped to a point where it is of little, if any, value. The aesthetic culture is derivative of the decreasing competence levels; therefore, what they define as art has ventured far away from anything I would often consider art, or have any interest in regardless of definition.”

I am a self-taught artist and I preface my first blog entry with Mr. Shank’s statement not to make excuses for the fact that I am self-taught, but to make known that one does not have to have a degree to be an artist…at least in the opinion of one of the foremost Realist artists of today. Nelson Shanks is also the founder and Artistic Director of Studio Incamminati.

I have attended art classes, studied countless artists and their techniques (thank God for the internet), studied and viewed the Masters, read as much on the subject as time would permit and basically just jumped in there with brushes loaded and painted. I consider myself a student…always learning, constantly striving for improvement. My only regret is that I wish I had taken the creating of art more seriously earlier in life.

Tomorrow, God willing, I will begin posting a piece that I’ve been working on for quite sometime. Fortunately, I’ve kept a photo record of the process and will take you through the trials and errors of this piece.