Silhouettes And Siliques

This morning, before the sun was up from behind the mountains, I heard the great horned owl. He was calling from across the way. He called and called and then I heard the answer...she was in my backyard. I came out and watched, listened for awhile. I took the chance and came in to get my camera. As I came back out I saw that she had invited him over, to share the mesquite tree.

They did not seem to mind me, as they were high above in their tree. He called, she answers, I got a couple of dark, silhouetted pictures and they were gone.

It was a lovely way to start the morning.

Being Creative

We are coming up on Thanksgiving. This day, sometimes, weekend, maybe even a week, we pull out our creativity. There have been many times in my past that I used cooking, especially baking as my creative outlet.

There are times I hear people say they are not creative. Oh, so, not true. Everyone finds ways to be creative, this time of year it is especially true. Pulling out grandma's famous recipes. Setting the table with those special things, that may or may not match but go together perfectly. Creating wreaths for the door. Even the food takes on a special blend of spices, colors, sounds of sizzling and the taste of the holidays.

Today I will do most of my creating in the kitchen. With a little luck, I may finish a graphite piece I was working on over last weekends art show. More on that soon...after all, Small Business Saturday is coming up too!

So, find your creative spirit and share it with family, friends that are like family. Enjoy, travel safe and be creative.

Paintings Waiting To Happen

I generally don't do landscape paintings but lately as I watch the sun rise in the morning I keep thinking I need to start painting what I see. The photographs are nice but they do not pick up all the color, contrast and emotion. As I was watching this morning, I kept thinking the sky looks like a watercolor painting. I turn around and there is a rainbow in the sky to the west. I am taking this mornings show as a good sign for the weekend.

Art All Week Long

Coming this weekend is the Old Adobe Mission Show. Located in Old Town Scottsdale: 3817 N. Brown Avenue. I will be demonstrating there off and on all day into evening Friday, November 17th from 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. From 5:00 to 7:00 is the evening reception, many of the artists will be there to meet you and share their art.

Saturday from 9:00 - 11:00 a.m. I will be at Liberty Wildlife 2600 E. Elwood St., Phoenix, AZ doing a demonstration from the educational rescued raptors. If you are interested in taking a class at Liberty Wildlife to learn to draw birds, please stop by we are just starting to work on scheduling programs. http://www.libertywildlife.org Check the web site for other events, talks, and volunteer opportunities.

Saturday afternoon  1:00 - 5:00 you may find me back at the Adobe Mission show and Sunday I will be there from 1:00 - 4:00 when the show closes. For more details on the times the show is open I have included a postcard. You can also find information on my art facebook page at http://facebook.com/LindaWildlifeArtist

The rest of the week you can find me working in my studio: painting, framing, pricing and getting inventories together. My studio gallery is by appointment just drop me an email and we can set up a visit. lharrisonparsons@gmail.com

Hope to see you soon!

Artful Meditating

This weekend was filled with walking, photography time with Rick and our friend, Michael Haid. Spending time outside in nature walking in between the monarchs, buckeyes, fritillaries, swallowtails, sulphers and a few hummingbirds I had a moment. A calmness, I was aware yet not, a artful meditation. I took lots of pictures and I stood in stillness, watching as the butterflies flew around me before landing back on the flowering bushes.

I do not know when these butterfly images will appear in my art but I will remember that moment of beautiful emptiness. It kind of sounds sad but truly it was a heart-full passing of time, artful meditating. I can only wait to find it again.

Art Calendar: November

I am running a little behind in my posts and painting. Working on several projects, some that need to be done for December, another grouping for a show in February. Plus, a few things for this months local shows.

Coming up November 17-18-19 is a group show at the Old Adobe Mission, 3817 N. Brown Ave., Scottsdale, AZ. The hours are: Friday & Saturday 10-5, plus Friday evening is Artists Reception, all are invited from 5-7. Sunday hours are 11-4, nice time to come by see great work, pick up something special for the holidays and maybe have brunch in town. The Mission restaurant is right next door and one of my favorites, you may want to make reservations. On Saturday across the street is the Farmers Market, you can pick up something for breakfast or lunch and come on over to see the art. watch demonstrations and talk to the artists.

If you are too far away to come by the Scottsdale show, check on-line Saturday, November 25th for Small Business Pop-Up Art Sale. The album will be set up on FaceBook. It's easy, just tell me what you want and we will make it happen.

On the east coast you can check out small businesses that carry my work: Matrix Gallery, Blacksburg, VA and Willow Oaks craft cider and wine (and art space) 6219 Harley Rd., Middletown, MD.

Better get back to the drawing board, get some of those works finished and framed!

Art Take Aways

What does this mean? For me, it is what I take away from an art experience. I recently went to Minnesota for a photography and art workshop with Jan Martin McGuire. We spent a couple of intense days taking reference pictures for future paintings. Plus, there was lectures, painting demonstrations and paint time.

I generally work in pastel but over the last few years have re-introduced oil paints and acrylics. There are plus and minuses to both. During the painting demonstration Jan showed techniques for working in acrylic paint; doing rocks, tree bark, grasses and under-painting. There was instruction on composition, using technology to help with layouts. All of these were great take aways.

Back in Arizona I had a painting that needed a rock. It is a oil painting that will go in a show in February. I decided since I had the under-painting for the rock and it was dry I could try the rock technique Jan showed the group. It worked very well, the down side, it needs to dry before adding shadows and other details.

While in Minnesota I had time to paint with Jan. We used that same type of technique to create a wood branch for a chipmunk to sit upon. The painting is in acrylic, waiting to be finished. It was good practice for the wood, the fur of the animal, in which I discovered a new brush (thank you Eric Rice for that lovely gift) and will try adding grasses in the background. This piece won't be for sale but it will be a reminder of the workshop and working with Jan on these take aways.

Here are a few photos from the workshop and Minnesota Wildlife Connection. Along with a couple detail shots of works in progress with fur, wood and rocks.

Take Away - Watching Jan Martin McGuire demonstration

Take Away - technique with new brush for fur

Take Away - technique to create bark on tree

Take Away - Wolf photos at Minnesota Wildlife Connection

Take Away - creating rock textures

The Color Blue

One of my favorite colors is blue. Combine that with shades of sienna and it is my favorite combination of colors. Today's theme for #NationalArtsandHumanities month is: BLUE! My son, John, says I use too much blue. Too much may be a bit strong but I do use a lot of blue. I realize this when I had a solo art show years ago at The Artists Gallery in Frederick, MD. I did a lot of hand pulled print-making and apparently Indigo Blue was an ink I used a lot. I am sure as I go through my art files I will be able to find some examples of Blue Art.

The blue in the Arizona skies is one of those things that makes me happy. So, let's start there...

Here is the saguaro cactus in my backyard with early morning blue sky.

From my printmaking days I came across this reverse linoleum cut. Instead of printing it as a relief print, where the ink goes across the top. I treated it as an intaglio/etching style print and the ink was pushed into the carved areas.

These next two pieces are more current in style but still lots of blue. I have been doing mixed medium tree pieces for a few years now. There is an intense dark blue, close to phthalo blue watercolor crayon that I use to create the soft blurred and runny effects in these works. Pairing that blue with sienna just works.  

This work can be seen at Willow Oaks craft cider & wine, tasting room & art space in Middletown, MD

This work is available at the Matrix Gallery, Blacksburg, VA

Lastly I ran across this picture of me all in blue with beautiful blue sky behind me in Utah.

Art Catch Up

I have fallen behind in my posts for #NationalArtsandHumanities Month. I was out of town doing a #photography & #painting workshop at #Minnesota #Wildlife #Connection with Jan Martin McGuire. You may have seen a few pictures I posted on FB of the native wildlife in Minnesota. I have enough reference images between there, going to Flagstaff for autumn color and recent visit to #Liberty Wildlife to create lots of new works for the next year and beyond.

Back to Arts and Humanities month, here are my posts for this week:
Monday - Theater
Tuesday - Rhymes with Art
Wednesday - Numbers in Art
Thursday - My 1st Art Experience

Since today is Thursday, lets start there. I don't have a image for my first art experience. In fact I am not exactly sure I know what that first experience really is, because I was encouraged at a very early age to draw. I know I was in elementary school and got in trouble for drawing on a quiz paper. Luckily my teacher contacted my Mom and told her to help me find ways to create without doing it on my school work. Mom got me sketch books but that did not stop me from doodling on school papers.

I think this was my first box of pastels

Some of these pastel pencils could be the first set I ordered

Wednesday, numbers, as I was looking for an image I came across my Fibonacci paintings. "Fibonacci was an Italian mathematician from the Republic of Pisa, considered to be "the most talented Western mathematician of the Middle Ages".  The Fibonacci spiral: an approximation of the golden spiral created by drawing circular arcs connecting the opposite corners of squares in the Fibonacci tiling; this one uses squares of sizes 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 and 21. Wikipedia"

"Within the Fibonacci I"

"Within the Fibonacci II"

Backing up some more, Tuesday, Rhymes with Art - Wild at heART...the name I have used for my business and sometimes special shows. I now just use l. harrison-parsons but Wild at heART may appear as a title for a show now and again - maybe next October back on the east coast, say in Middletown, MD. 

Going one more day to catch me up for the week - Monday - Theater - Well, have to go with N.Y. Rick and I did a trip before before to AZ and took in a couple plays. Recently, we were down in Tucson and saw "Beautiful" the story of Carol King's making of Tapestry but did not take a picture. So, N.Y.,New York!

This brings me up to date for postings for National Arts and Humanities Month. Friday will bring one of my favorites.

Wildly Cute

The second day of photographing animals at the Minnesota Wildlife Connection and it may be even better then the first. With the exception of getting to hold a baby cougar. We had a young black bear, a couple of very energetic young cougars, a strong powerful mountain lion, a pack of wolves and a  young bobcat.

Since these animals are raised by humans they do not see you as a threat and can freely run around while you stand, sit or kneel taking your photos. They ask you not to touch the animals but it is hard they are so well cared for, so soft looking and so cute. But, we all did our jobs and took lots of photos. While the animals ran around, we moved right along with them to capture photos.

I do believe I have more inspiration than I will ever have the change to paint. Here are a few more photos from today's adventures.

It's A Wild Life

The next few days I have the opportunity to take photography of wildlife at the Minnesota Wildlife Connection. I am taking a workshop with Jan Martin-McGuire, wildlife painter and her husband James Hines, photographer. We started the morning off with a raccoon, a couple of very active fox and ended with a beautiful wolf. The afternoon had a lecture/power point with Jan. We ended the day back at the Wildlife Connection photographing a young buck and a yearly. The topper for the day was we got to hold a baby cougar. It was a grand way to end the first full day of the workshop.

The Minnesota Wildlife Connection, LLC works with native animals to the area. Being able to hold the baby cougar, actually helps the animal as it grows with it's relationship to humans. The owners work to protect these animals, allowing people to come, view, photograph and educate the population about wildlife.

Tomorrow more photography time and lectures. Here are a few images straight from the iphone. http://www.minnesotawildlifeconnection.com To see more images like my art page on FB  http://www.facebook.com/LindaWildlifeArtist

Seeing Art

Thinking about today's theme for the #NationalArtsandHumanities month: Hidden Art. How do I post a picture of hidden art? That got me thinking about artists who have spoken on how the block of marble told them what was inside and that they just needed to release the form. A somewhat paraphrasing of  Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, releasing the angel.

Other artists speak of addressing the plank piece of paper or white canvas. When you have a hand full of pastels, a jar full of brushes, a container of pens and pencils. These are hidden art, they are just waiting to become something.