aftermath of travel, mess in the studio.

Mess in the studio in the aftermath of a summer filled with travel and wonderful adventures. It was impossible to imagine how I got any painting done at all, but reviewing my painting log, it is amazing how much I did produce.

Coming and going throughout the summer meant dropping a lot of stuff in piles that got bigger and bigger, finally obscuring all the working surfaces. Canvases leaned everywhere, growing tentacles into the center of the studio until it was difficult to move about. All of that needed to be swept away, along with dust, cobwebs, insect cadavers, and chocolate wrappers. A fresh clean start was needed to be able to access materials at a moments notice, because there was still wonderful weather and the congenial Fair Weather Painters were encouraging me to go out to paint..

The colors were incredible, and the clement weather kept up far longer than I expected. Indian Creek Orchards, Sandbank Road, Lenore Bandler’s backyard, and Taughannock Falls were places where I set up my easel. In addition, every week there were a few days when it was cold and rainy, I could easily assume that the outdoor painting season was over and done, and retreated to the studio to revise work started earlier that needed finishing.  I also put up my easel in my kitchen to paint the begonia on the porch.

These are a few things recently worked on. More words later.

I am dreaming that some day this is what our gallery will look like – similar store front found in Quebec City, but jazzed up with color.

I just took three paintings up to the Thousand Islands Arts Center in Clayton, NY.  These three were done in my studio after

St. Lawrence Sunset
Oil on canvas Diana Ozolins

a week long trip where we rented a cottage in Fisher’s Landing on the St. Lawrence River. At that time, a fellow painter and I were painting small a la prima studies and taking lots of photos. Our cottage was right on the water, so we had a really great view of the sunsets, and we could sit in the screened porch and paint in the evening, protected from the mosquitoes, as well as one afternoon when it rained cats and dogs. That afternoon, my friend Yvonne painted a still life, and I painted her. A trip like that is precious, because I don’t have to waste a lot of time driving to a location, and there were several days when I wandered out on the dock before breakfast, and caught the early morning light.

I didn’t do these paintings right away because I was still teaching full at then, and my painting time was limited. However, these images stuck with me, and when I had the chance, I started them. I found them very challenging, both because of the large size, and because the sunset colors had to be very precise and just right.   

It has been a while since I’ve shown work outside of Ithaca. I’ve known about this annual show, “By the River’s Edge”, for a while, but haven’t had the time to think about entering it. One of the pleasures of being a full time artist now is that I have time for both painting and marketing.

January: Taughannock Upper Falls
16×24, acrylic on canvas
$550

I have three new paintings up at the State of the Art Gallery in the May Members Show. They are soft paintings, using brush and acrylics, with the  subtle colors of winter. I chose my subject matter from the walks that I took around Ithaca. The misty atmosphere and stark gray and white landscape at Taughannock in January got me excited again about doing some full sized paintings. While walking on Easter Sunday at Sapsucker Woods, I was impressed at the range of subdued color that can be seen in that brief time between snow melt and budding out.  I worked in the studio using reference photos, but I painted freshly and freely, as I would outdoors, choosing from the image before me, not using a grid, and not making Continue reading