At the end of each year I put show information in a big brown envelope. Yesterday I had twenty-two of those fat envelopes on my bookcase. We are getting closer to building our new home and my smaller studio and I have to downsize. So, though it was tedious, I updated my exhibition/awards history paperwork. Now my twenty-two brown envelopes are in the recycle bin and my art show, award, publication history is eleven pages in a 3-ring binder. Just looking at these three years on paper reminds me of the art delivery and pickup, packing, shipping and shipping cost.The good memories are the art and artist receptions.

2012    WPW 2012-2013 Northwest Tour, Celebration, Washington state venues

            IAPS Twenty-First Juried Web Show, online, internet

            Jeffrey Moose Gallery, Landscapes: Four Artist Show, Seattle, WA

            Pastel Society of the West Coast Member Show, Auburn, CA

            Northwest Pastel Society 2012 Members’ Show, Hood River, OR

            Celebration! Women Painters of Washington Traveling Show, five venues, WA

            Pastel Society of America, Enduring Brilliance, National Arts Club, New York, NY

            Northwest Pastel Society Signature Invitational, Bothell, WA

            International Association of Pastel Societies (IAPS) Twentieth, Brea, CA

            Women Painters of Washington Annual Members’ Show, Anacortes, WA

            Pastels USA, Pastel Society of the West Coast, Morro Bay, CA

            Northwest Pastel Society 26^th International Open Exhibition, Tacoma, WA

            Pastel Society of America at 40, Noyes Museum of Art, Oceanville, NJ

            Scott Milo Gallery Group Show, Anacortes, WA

2011     Seven Wonders Show, American Art Company, Tacoma, WA

             Three Artist Show, ArtsWest Playhouse and Gallery, Seattle, WA

             Northwest Pastel Society 25^th Annual Open, American Art Company, Tacoma, WA

             Annual Juried Washington State Juried Art Competition, Bremerton, WA

             Northeast National Pastel Exhibition, Old Forge, NY

             Eastside Association of Fine Arts 2011 Member Show, Seattle, WA

             Pastels USA, Pastel Society of the West Coast Member Show, Stockton, CA

             Northwest Pastel Society Member Show, Kirsten Gallery, Seattle, WA

             NWPS Signature Member Show, Scott Milo Gallery, Anacortes, WA

             International Association of Pastel Societies 18^th Juried Exhibition, Albuquerque, NM

             Six Inch Squared, Randy Higbee Gallery, Costa Mesa, CA

             EAFA 36^th Annual Open Show, EAFA Gallery, Seattle, WA

             Three Artist Abstract Show, State of the Arts Gallery, Olympia, WA

             Women Painters of Washington Member Show, WPW Gallery, Seattle, WA

             Women Painters of Washington Fall Member Show, Mercer Island WA

2010     Northwest Pastel Society Member Show, Blue Horse Gallery, Bellingham, WA

             Great Lakes Pastel Society Exhibition, Midland, MI

             Light in the Air group exhibit, WPW Gallery, Seattle, WA

             Northeast National Pastel Exhibition, Old Forge, NY

             Eastside Association of Fine Arts 2010 Member Show, Mercer Island, WA

             Northwest Pastel Society 24^th Annual Open, Schack Center, Everett, WA

             International Association of Pastel Societies 16th Annual Exhibition, Youngstown, OH

             Wonder! group exhibit, WPW Gallery, Seattle, WA

             Northwest Pastel Society Annual Signature Member Exhibit, Scott Milo, Anacortes, WA

             Jeffrey Moose Gallery, Two Person Show, Seattle, WA

             Richeson75 Exhibit, Richeson School of Art & Gallery, Kimberly, WI

             Solo Exhibition, Olympic  College Art Gallery, Bremerton, WA

             Women Painters of Washington Spring Member Show, Kaewyn Gallery, Bothell, WA

             Gallery North First Annual Small Paintings Show, Edmonds, WA

             International Association of Pastel Societies 15^th Annual Juried Exhibition, Brea, CA

             EAFA Art Slam, EAFA Gallery, Seattle Design Center, Seattle, WA

             Auburn Small Works, Big Presents, Auburn, WA

             Pastel Society of the West Coast Member Show, Auburn, CA

             Women Painters of Washington Fall Member Show, WPW Gallery, Seattle, WA

             Western Washington State Fair Fine Art Show, Puyallup, WA

             12^th Annual Pastel 100 Competition, online, The Pastel Journal

             EAFA 35^th Annual Open Exhibition, Bellevue, WA

a week with the boys

Our annual summer week with our grandsons ended yesterday. We had a great week. Lots of food and poker. Both boys worked on art. Elias (12 yrs) painted graffiti over several of my old paintings on cradled wood panels and William (14 yrs) spent many hours in Photoshop adjusting a photo from their trip to Europe so the statue could hold a golf club. We love spending time with the boys.

Elias Summer 2014

William Summer 2014

The way things happen...

The most exciting and fun painting day I've had in a long time! Here's the backstory.

friends

It's like catching your odometer just as it turns over to a significant number. I have no idea who most of these people are. I think many are in France thanks to Pratique des Arts.

Good news

Good news! Read all about it!

Juror's Award

"A Simple Truth: Trust," pastel, 12 x 12 inches

This year I have cut way back on competitions but one of the few shows I have entered is the Northwest Pastel Society 28th Annual International Exhibition in progress now at American Art Company, Tacoma, WA. I am happy to have received a Juror's Award from Juror/Judge Marla Baggetta for my painting, "A Simple Truth: Trust." The show runs through August 2. There are many beautiful paintings in the show, visit the gallery if you can.

artist food for thought

I've just begun reading "I Always Loved You," by Robin Oliveira - a novel about Mary Cassatt and her relationship with Edgar Degas. This thought on page 15 resonated with me:

"To fear that no matter how hard she worked, no matter how much she studied, she might lack the essential talent of seeing. For true art lay in seeing....a properly chosen palette, a true sense of proportion, an effective brushstroke: These were not gifts; these were technique, obtainable by tireless observation and practice. But sight? Sight, it seemed, was a gift from God."

I continue to focus on small still life paintings. I'm comfortable now with my oil technique but this week I changed my process a little. I'm completing the value stage and then moving on to another painting. When I get a couple more of these I'll go back to the first one and begin to add color. My reason is two-fold.

1. To let the value dry before adding color. Although this will limit my ability to remove paint back to the white surface, it will also limit my ability to remove paint when I should have left it where it was.

2. To distance myself emotionally from the composition and value stage, hopefully to approach the color work with fresh enthusiasm.

I'm always looking for ways to make better paintings. Now, the obstacle is not materials or technique but instead, my inner dialogue. Find ways to free yourself to create your best work.

salt and color

A Good Morning, oil, 6x6 inches

A Good Morning

A Good Morning in progress. I think all it needs is SALT (lightly). This is the stage of a painting that excites me most. I always think I would like to just quit at this point so today I did. From here, I would add color to be sure people know those are orange slices. Purple to indicate dried Statice and green for the glass plate and salt shaker. And then of course, details and refinement and viola! before I knew it I would have another polished painting that didn't excite me as much as if I had stopped much sooner.

A reflective morning about options and ownership, I'm feeling rebellious and that is a good thing for Mild-Me.

I lost it!

Oh happy day...well, actually happy moment late last night. I finally successfully lost the edge of my green marble. I imagine those reading my thoughts here are artists or art lovers and can appreciate a well-executed lost edge. But, there are other benefits of 'losing.'  Lose, let go of, don't own situations that are not yours. Lose yourself in your passion, whatever that may be. Yesterday's Seattle Times newspaper had an article called The Art of Focusing by David Brooks. Interesting reading. Back to painting now and my pursuit of more lost edges.

First of the oils to a new home

Yay! The first of the small oils I've been working on since taking the Qiang Huang workshop in April is on its way to a new home. Actually, I will miss it.

I am the TP Fairy

A nice thank you from Mr. Cheerful and Agreeable. Marriage to this (new) guy makes all parts of my life easier, today's painting included.

"Nectarine and Cherry," oil, 5x7 inches

A day in May

Forty-five years ago today, my daughter Andrea was born. Today I finished the little oil, "A Day in May."  Painting should not be harder than childbirth!

A Day in May, oil, 5x7 inches

morning at Gold Creek Pond

We spent this morning on a photo shoot at Gold Creek Pond near Snoqualmie Pass, Washington. Pristine water and air. Not sure when I'll get back to this kind of painting but I have some beautiful reference photos.

speechless

Mr. Cheerful and Agreeable has outdone himself and left me speechless. When I went out to the studio around 8 AM, look what I found!

Apparently, Jay got up at 5AM and made chocolate dipped strawberries for me. WHAT? I would NEVER have guessed he would think of doing that or that he would know how to make them. Not even any dirty dishes left in the sink! And, look at the message written on the foil wrapper of the chocolate bar. Wow. What a guy!

This nice surprise plus cards and calls from our kids - then a visit to our lake property - made a memorable Mother's Day for me.

Moving on?

I love the challenges I'm facing these days as I'm becoming reacquainted with oil paint. Here's what happened...

I've been playing around with oil paint for years but my primary medium for galleries and shows has been pastel. After a while, my landscapes in oil began to look very much like my pastel landscapes. Same look, just more trouble it seemed with brushes to wash, etc.

But when  I was introduced to the still life oil paintings of Qiang Huang, my interest in oil started anew and I am on a disciplined quest to learn to paint with control. Still life is an excellent subject for that now just as it was for me when I moved from the black and white work of fashion illustration to learning about color with colored pencil. For these little oil still life paintings, my goal is to handle the paint loosely with the hope that the viewer is still able to recognize the objects.

I'm painting with oil each day, my pastels are untouched. When the new issue of Pastel Journal arrived in the mail today, I was surprised to feel uninterested in reading it.

When a medium no longer holds challenges for me, I begin to get bored. That is what happened with colored pencil. I loved it and fully embraced it as my primary medium for a dozen years. Now it has been about a dozen years with pastel. Will my next dozen years be with oil? Sounds good today because I'm happy with this little painting of my father's shaving brush, the shells my son brought back from Europe for me, a sprig of dried Statice and a Chinese spoon that belonged to my first husband. The shells took a lot of trial and error which of course means I must paint them again in another painting.

Artists William and Elias

Friday evening we attended the reception for the Naramore 2014 Seattle Public Schools Middle & High School Art Show at Seattle Art Museum.

Our grandson William (14 yrs) had a painting juried into this prestigious event. William's painting is for sale directly from the artist, $500. After the reception, I took a photo of grandson Elias (12 yrs) with one of his paintings. We are so proud of the boys.

William Noah Foster, "Untitled," watercolor, Naramore 2014 Art Show at SAM

Elias Andrew Foster, "Untitled Aboriginal," tempera, 2014
Foster Family Gallery, Seattle, WA

changes

I rarely take workshops but I just returned from four days painting with oil painter Qiang Huang.

Qiang Huang is the most thoughtful artist I know and an excellent communicator, both in words and writing. Before he makes a stroke on canvas, he has fully evaluated the hue, the color value, the intensity, and whether the color is transparent or opaque. Only then does he place the stroke exactly where he wants it. Working with Qiang has changed my thinking about oil painting.

My recent painting life:
I have been working for many months on my "mind's eye" landscape series in pastel. No reference photos, no plein air. Nothing but me in my studio with a blank surface and my pastels. To me this series has a mystical, dream-like feeling. The illusion of a place or time, or a compilation of memories from life or from a dream. I am pleased with the body of work that came out of that experiment and I'll continue to show it at my galleries into next year.

From the workshop:
I worked with staged still life objects and lit the scene to create a center of interest. The challenge is to portray the feeling or essence in an abstract style but based solidly upon the set up. At the same time, the goal is to work from actual objects and stay true to their color and value. Notice I didn't say form. Round objects may be squared off. A single grape might actually be a square of color with a dot of highlight but the viewer knows it is a grape, partly because of the surrounding/support objects.

I want to explore this style but it will be a discipline in many ways after years of being a free spirit in pastel. I could continue using oils the way I have been using them with the results looking much like my pastel work but the challenge of balancing abstract qualities with VERY careful observation and SLOW execution appeals to me at this time.

The first day of the workshop, I was dissatisfied with my effort and asked Qiang if I could wipe off my painting and paint it again. He strongly advised me to keep the painting and to refer to it as time goes by as a base-line reference point so I can see improvement in my work over time. I know the reason I wanted to get rid of the painting (shown far left below) was so I wouldn't be reminded of what a dud-painter I felt like the first day. By the next day, I managed to "get over myself" and get back to work. I listened carefully to Qiang's critique and suggestions. I took them to heart. I like that saying.

I'm ready for a change of medium, change of subject, change of painting method and hopefully a change of attitude about my work. I will resist the urge to "fix" painting number one. Wish me luck!

My 8x10 inch oils in progress from Qiang Huang workshop, April 2014

A spoon and Boo

I just finished the first of four days with oil painter Qiang Huang. My workshop day ended with an OK apple painted in the middle of an overworked still life.

My day started with my usual breakfast. I brought our Muffin Man muffins, avocado, my mocha mix, eggs and my handy little microwave egg poacher that I use at home most mornings. However, I forgot to bring a spoon. The photo above shows how to eat a poached egg using half of the egg shell as a spoon.

My after-class laugh for the day is a photo I received of my sister and her new dog. Today she brought home Boo, the little girl Yorkie rescue dog. She gave Boo a bath. Why is Boo so big?

A review of my work

What a treat to wake up to the Seattle Times newspaper review about my work! I don't know writer Nancy Worssam but she seems to understand my goals as a painter... Yay! Read the entire review here.

A review of “Paintings About Trees,” comprising works by Barbara Benedetti Newton, Monte Shelton and Darin Clark, at Jeffrey Moose Gallery through Saturday, May 3, 2014.

The landscapes by Barbara Benedetti Newton are suffused with gossamer colors. Newton began as a colored-pencil artist, won numerous prizes and became a well-known teacher and writer about the form. She then began experimenting in pastels and more recently in oils. In these media, too, she has won numerous prizes and become a known authority, masterfully capturing the diffused light of the Northwest.

The pastel and oil landscapes on exhibit are impressionist renderings. For some pastels she adds moisture to achieve a wash that gives the works a diaphanous quality. Yet within these works she often includes hard-edged elements more precisely rendered.

There’s a lovely gauziness in her oils, too, where shapes and colors flow into one another. In these paintings she plays with the paint, sometimes feathering it out, at other times carefully defining each element of the landscape. Look for the bursts of color in many of the paintings, bursts like subtle fireworks that are powerfully effective.

FYI

Retired Guy finally cleaned off his desk and got back to me regarding these financial docs.

Otherwise, life with Mr. Cheerful and Agreeable is good. My focus is on our 2013 tax return prep and decisions for the new house so I didn't get to the easel at all last week.

digging counts, painting doesn't

Good news today! Apparently, digging weeds out of the peonies counts as steps.

Since my 70th birthday last October, I've been wearing a Fitbit. Rarely do I make the "goal" of 10,000 steps per day. A 25 minute dog-walk gives me 2,500. A shopping trip to Costco is about the same. Yesterday I accompanied Annie and Retired Guy on their walk for a whopping 6,000 steps.

Today I dug in the garden for several hours and my Fitbit said it was 3,500 steps. Yay! Standing at the easel painting for the same amount of time is viewed by fitbit as comparable (in steps) to lying on the couch snoozing. Digging is good.

an attitude adjustment

 The Signature of All Things  |  pastel  |  15 x 18.5

In January I wrote that I suspected my life would change once Jay was retired. I anticipated helping him navigate the transition to his new life but surprisingly, I am not needed for that. He is loving retirement and is Mr. Cheerful and Agreeable. He is giving his full attention to the meetings and legwork to get our house plans submitted and to start the building process in the spring. Our project is in good hands. With Jay around to help care for Annie, I expected to have more time to paint. These days, they are together constantly beginning with a long morning walk. She accompanies him in the car for most errands. I am dogless, the house is quiet and I could be painting uninterruped for hours if I was motivated.

Instead, I have needed to take a break with a cold but it did give me the opportunity to read Elizabeth Gilbert's book, The Signature of All Things. I loved it and became curious about the title of the book, wanting to use it for the name of my latest painting.

I discovered Signatura Rerum (The Signature of All Things) by the German mystic and theologian Jacob Boehme (1575-1624).  In his book, Boehme discourses at length on one of the fundamental laws of magic: the law of signatures, the concept that every object in the real world has some hidden meaning, and particularly how these signatures interact. Interesting.

OK, I'm done with my cold and lack of motivation. I'm giving myself an attitude adjustment.

circled today

Retired Guy is still circling items in the newspaper for me to see and this morning it is me. Although my name is misspelled, I am happy to continue to show at Jeffrey Moose Gallery (since 2003).

I can taste again after a week of cold medicine. Retired Guy took me to Dick's. Yay!

Muffin Man

Our house designer, Will, introduced us to Flax Seed Muffins and we have become big fans. Retired Guy Jay has decided to trade in his King of Holiday Baklava title for Mill Pond Cottage Muffin Man. We made the first test-batch of gluten-free muffins this morning. Delicious!

Mill Pond Cottage Muffins

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease or paper-line 12 large muffin cups

1 cup brown sugar
2 cups gluten-free flour
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup ground golden flax seed
1/2 cup oatmeal OR 1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix the above ingredients together in a bowl, then add the following:

1 large apple shredded OR 1 cup shredded zucchini
2 packed cups shredded carrots
1 cup crushed pineapple (drained)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup chopped pecans OR 1/2 cup sliced almonds
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

Spoon batter into greased or paper-lined muffin cups. Bake 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.