October Art Musings

Creating Art For Autumn Shows

It's been an interesting summer with my preparation of pen and ink drawings for the Lyndon House "Common Structures" show in July-August. Doing black and white drawings was so apropos for the summer months here in Georgia. Such heavy green colors in the hot weather needed some stark pen and ink work to add a coolness to the art atmosphere. Now however we are entering the fall months and I have a showing of my new pieces at the Point of Art Gallery in Union Point starting the 9th of October and running through the 8th of November.

What to do to set up for up the autumn season? This show is entitled "Rural Georgia and the Vanishing South". The choice of Anne Jenkins, the gallery owner, not mine. It is so fitting for me since the name of my company is Vanishing Rural Georgia Art. There are several artists represented and they have all produced pieces that reflect the
southern rural heritage. Every artist is different and their
work reflects their diverse disciplines. An eclectic array of Southern art. The artists that will be showing with me at the Point of Art Gallery include Anne Jenkins, Nan McGarity, Ronald Moore, Will Estridge, and David Siffert. I feel great to be part of this group of fine artists.

Well, my work on these new paintings began in early September when I traveled to see my folks in Pennsylvania and brought along one of the pieces that I began to work on. That one ended up being my painting "On The Blocks" It was fun doing a painting where the sky is ominous and threatening while the sun is still shinning on the foreground. That was only one of several new paintings that I did in egg tempera especially for this show.

Working in egg tempera has always been a fairly slow process for me and I usually don't complete more than 6 pieces in a year, Not like the pen and inks where I did over 20 in a month and a half. This time however, I disciplined myself to work hard and long. I completed 7 new paintings in under 6 weeks. A major feat as I was sick with flu like symptoms for over 10 of those days. Well, that being said, I can only hope that fans of my work will like what they see. Even if their budget doesn't permit them to purchase an original egg tempera, I will have limited edition Giclée prints available after the show closes in early November.

Let me know what you think of my newest pieces. I am also working on 5 more egg tempera pieces and have 3 large oils in the wings.

Thanks for reading my blog.

Pete

July Travels

Hello Reader

This last week has been a traveling week (again) for Jewel and me. We took the opportunity to visit our dear friend Beth Rentz who had moved to Thomasville Georgia last year. Although we've known Beth for over 20 years, we hadn't seen her in about 16 years. We've kept in touch with telephone calls, cards and letters. Beth is a traveling soul who had worked with me when I had been the advertising manager at Wellington Leisure Products in the 80's. After I had left to pursue a new career path, Beth left also and went to work in such places as the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque, Alaska where she stayed 2 years and took care of physically challenged children, The University of Michigan and in Wisconsin where she grew up. We were exceedingly happy when we learned that she would be moving to Georgia where it would be relatively easy to visit her.

Beth's enthusiasm for what she does and where she settles is unmatched. Thomasville is no exception. When we first arrived it wasn't long before she spirited us on a tour of the city and it was immediately evident that she was very knowledgeable about all the area had to offer. From houses and mansions that graced the area to museums, farmers market (the second largest in Georgia), walking trails, flower gardens, cultural center and more, Beth knew them all. Since she had only moved there less than a year ago and worked in Tallahassee Florida, 30 some miles away, she was obviously excited about her new community and it was infectious.

While there, Jewel and I visited the market, saw many of the landmarks in the city, traveled to close communities where I took photos for future Vanishing Rural Georgia art pieces, the fantastic Pebble Hill plantation which was a sporting center in the 1900's and which housed a great collection of artworks representing the shooting sports as well as Audubon's great bird paintings, Jewel and Beth went to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville Florida, and finally where I traveled to the Saint Marks National Wildlife Refuge on the Gulf coast to take photos of wildlife and do some walking. All-in-all our visit with Beth was not only a great personal reunion, it was a 3 day excursion into another world. Hopefully it won't be too long before Beth will pay Madison a visit and we can show her the changes that have occurred since she was last here.

I've included some photos that I took representing some old Georgia structures that I plan to paint and draw, some shots of Thomasville including its downtown street, some of Pebble Hill Plantation, and a few of Saint Marks. I hope you enjoy the.

Pete