Progress on The Prodigal II

My last progress posting was on June 22nd, so I think I am overdue for another post. I've been working every available moment on this piece and I'm seeing substantial progress...I feel good about that. I do; however, have a long list of what has to be done and then some.



If you have any comments, don't hesitate to voice them. I can always use constructive criticism.

Thanks so much for coming by.

Lokelani

Progress on The Prodigal

A quick post to show my progress on this piece. To get the history of this piece, go here. Because of the time factor and work involved, I'm first concentrating on "The Prodigal Son" and "The Patient Father" panels so that if something happens and I can't finish the last piece of this triptych, "The Pouting Brother" I will still have these two to present. I messed up the tree so am working to correct that right now, but needed a break from painting so thought I would update you.

BTW...the father is still in underpainting. Will be adding color shortly, I hope.



More to come later. Thanks for visiting and if you have any critiques...I'm open to that.

Thanks again.

The Prodigal

Oh my goodness, it has been quite a while since I’ve posted here…my apologies. It has been so busy that I can barely keep up with daily goings on. I was reminded to blog as a result of the fact that I am embarking (have already) on a project, which to me is huge.

I have been invited to again participate in the annual Art Exhibition and Sale of the Nashville First Baptist Church (that’s Tennessee). Last year I participated with my entry of “Take This Cup” in the amateur division. For this piece I was awarded a Purchase Award, which included a cash award. This is that piece.



The theme this year is “The Return of the Prodigal.” There are three categories. Firstly is “The Prodigal,” then “The Patient Father,” and lastly “The Pouting Brother.” Entrants were invited to submit in individual or all categories. Since receiving the invitation, my first thought was a triptych, but because of the work required I tried to come up with something else. However, nothing else would come to mind. So it looks like I will be submitting to all three by doing a triptych. Ambitious? I would say so, but I think inspired because of the fact that I could not think of any other composition. It seemed as though, I needed to visually portray the entire story. The other evening I was looking hard at what I’ve created so far and the thought came to mind…”this is the story Jesus told.” That thought in itself was inspiring.

Because they didn’t know who or what The Prodigal Son was all about, my grandchildren asked about my sketches. So using my sketches, I told them the story that Jesus told as tax collectors, sinners, Pharisees and teachers of the law were gathering around him to hear what he was saying. How awesome is that? Here is the unfinished pencil sketch on canvas that I will be submitting…



The plan was to create each segment of the story to stand alone, but together, the entire story is told. I hope what I have done thus far, accomplishes that. Sorry about the quality of the photo. The size of the side canvases is 15x30, while the center canvas is 22x30. I’m sure you can tell by looking, who is who. The only canvas ready for paint is “The Patient Father” Thank goodness the deadline is August, because I have a long, long way to go.

Although I am intimidated by this project and the fact that I have to submit as a professional this year, it will happen.

I will post my progress periodically. Thanks so much for visiting.

There are 3 ways you can make a real difference to this blog.
1. Share the link to this site with just one other artist, art collector, or someone who would be interested.
2. Post your thoughts in the Comments section.
3. Email your ideas and/or suggestions on what you would like to read/see more of to lokeforrest@comcast.net

Cheekwood

Along with a group of friends, I visited the Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art in Nashville, Tennessee. The day was perfect for walking through gardens and the displays were magnificent. In celebration of their 50th anniversary, the museum had on exhibit 40 paintings and four sculptures works from The American Impressionists in the Garden, works of art from Faberge’ (housed in a special room with a guard on duty), and the focus of the tour - magnificent pieces of art by the world famous glass artist Dale Chihuly. Chihuly’s pieces were also installed within the nature landscapes and the blending was amazing - man-made work intertwined in nature.

























These are just a few of the glass sculptures. I would’ve loved to take photos of the paintings; however, the museum only allowed photographing of Chihuly’s pieces.

All in all, it was a wonderful day and seeing the art up close and personal was great.

Still on the Easel

Quite a while ago my daughter-in-law handed me a 4x6 snapshot of my granddaughter Ellie that she had taken. She asked me if I would paint it when I had the time as it was one of her favorite photos of Ellie. Well, I finally got around to it and am glad that I did. This shot was taken about a year ago and is so typical of Ellie. She is growing up so fast and we may never see her in this situation again, so am glad that not only was it captured in photo, but on canvas as well. Yesterday we celebrated her fifth birthday...can't believe that she's there already.



I have not signed it yet, so it is still considered a WIP (work in progress) if anyone has a critique.

Also, maybe of interest is the fact that I have a new computer which was loaded with Windows 7. I know it is suppose to be an easier operating system, and anything would be better than what I previously had...but I knew my previous operating system so much better than this one. I'll learn though. Anyway, that's why the picture is not cropped - I don't know how to do it, yet.

Thank you so much for visiting. Talk to you next time.

Paintings Exhibited

This is probably a shock to those of you who follow my blog...I'm posting so soon after the last. The reason for this is there was a request from one of my readers that I post those paintings that were hung at both the First Baptist Church, Joelton's first annual art festival and at the grand opening of the Main Street Artists gallery. So here they are.

The following two paintings were hung at the FBC Joelton's art festival for display only.


This one is titled "Make a Joyful Noise." The Bible tells us to praise the Lord with singing and dancing and that's what I was trying to depict here. The Lord understands all languages and cultures.



"Sing Praise" - the shepherd boy David singing praise to the Lord Almighty. The theme of the festival was "Praise Him." This was done especially for this show.





The following four hung and are hanging at the "Main Street Artists" gallery.











































Titles are from top to bottom: "Mahalo Ke Akua" (Thank You God) oil 24x18; "Can't Hide From Him" oil 18x24; "Morning Dew" oil 20x16; and "Beauty in Simplicity" oil 16x20. All are for sale. If there is any interest out there, email me at lokeforrest@comcast.net.

Mahalo for visiting and come back soon.

Art Festival/Grand Opening Weekend

This past weekend has been a full, hectic weekend with the opening on Thursday of the First Annual Art Festival for the First Baptist Church, Joelton (that’s Joelton, TN), of which I was one of the coordinators for this event.
Not only was that happening, but on the Saturday, which was the last day of the festival, my art co-op had its grand opening. I did hang my work at both events, at the church art festival it was for display only. At the grand opening of the co-op I had four pieces for sale. I’ll post a few photos of both events here.


This is at the church art festival. Unfortunately the lighting was not conducive to viewing art – one of the list of things to be corrected for next year.




Paintings are: top – First Place/Best of Show for the Professional category. “The Prodigal Son” (after Batoni) by Jimmie Roberson.

Next is “Country Church” which won First Place/Best of Show for the Amateur/Youth Division by Betty Fletcher. This painting was also selected to receive the Purchase Award, which means the church purchased it to be hung in their facility.

After the art festival closed, I ran over to the next town to make a showing at the Artbrigade’s Grand Opening before that show was over. Here are a couple of photos..

A couple of members of the co-op discussing the show and being available to any viewers who may have had questions. One of my paintings, “Morning Dew” is visible on the easel. For some reason, I did not take pictures of my three other pieces…I think by the end of this very long weekend I was just too worn out to even care, now that I’ve recuperated I wish I had taken more pictures. I am a very new member of the co-op, which is also a new organization, but I have met some wonderful artists and people. The Artbrigade is the co-op whose work hangs in the “Main Street Artists” gallery. The gallery also displays beautiful, hand-made jewelry and sculpture. I think I am going to enjoy being a part of this group.

Mahalo for visiting.

> There are 3 ways you can make a real difference to this blog.
1. Share the link to this site with just one other artist, art collector, or someone who would be interested.
2. Post your thoughts in the Comments section.
3. Email your ideas and/or suggestions on what you would like to read/see more of to lokeforrest@comcast.net