Hooray for Hollywood!

   

Well, I stayed up late last night to watch the Academy Awards.  I still can't believe my childhood dreams of being a movie star never panned out!  And although I missed being there in person by a few days I was actually in Hollywood just last Wednesday, only 4 days before the big award show, and I actually got to walk on the red carpet... ok, it was covered in plastic, but nonetheless, I got to walk on it!   Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, as an adult my ambitions have shifted somewhat, just recently I had three paintings accepted by the Round Rock Area Arts Council, and I am tickled pink!   I just dropped them off at the Williamson County Annex today and they should be hanging there through the end of June.  So I hope  you'll get a chance to drop by and take a look!

Top Left:  Serpent Dance 

Top Right:  Sun Worship

Bottom Left :  Sun Serpent

All  9 x 12, acrylic

Blank Blog/Canvas vs New Blog/Painting

How to start a blog is just as puzzling as how to start a new painting. If it's a blank blog, it's not a blog. If it's a blank canvas, it's not a painting. With this analogy I've decided that starting this blog just has to have a similar process as starting a painting. Here's what you need:

1. Inspiration - inspiration for paintings strikes in so many different ways, something you see, something you hear, a dream... in this case, inspiration came from an email (from Kirk Witmer with WCAG tellng us we could have a blog)

2. Some idea of what you want the final product to be - hmm.... will it be floral, landscape, still life, abstract?.... I think I want my blog to be informative. I want it to tell about me as a person and an artist. Since I also teach painting, I want my blog to be instructional too.

3. You have to actually start the painting or blog. For me, it's like a big blank canvas. It will remain blank until I put paint, or words, on it.

So, this is the beginning of my blog. Will it be a daily blog? NO I've decided to post only when I have something to say or show. So today, I'm showing you the beginning of my next painting. Yep, it's a big blank canvas. .... more to come!

Connie Hartsfield

http://www.CHartsfieldArt.com

"Yellow Roses"

I have been reading up on Russian Impressionists and this painting is one example of using the Russian Impressionist techniques.  One of my favorite Russian artist is Sergei Bongart and hopefully I will be able to master this techniques.  I love the loose style and yet it is controlled in some areas.  The set up of the still life is so simple and one of my favorite subject is using glass vase. This painting is measured 18" X 24" and is oil on canvas.

Bee Industrious

Oil on Masonite - 8"x10" (20x25cm)
I got really lucky one day last summer as I was practicing with my telephoto lens. All set up on the tripod and just as I was about to push the shutter button a bee flew by yelling "HEY!!! I wanna be in the picture too!" and jumped onto this Mexican sunflower. What more could a guy ask for!
I had fun with the background on this as I tried to capture the blurring you get with a shallow depth of field from using a longer lens.
I like for my paintings to tell a story so I normally don't paint flowers because I can never figure out what story they might bring to mind. But this was on my inspiration board and I felt like today I needed to paint something that I could complete in one day.

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Visit Kirk Witmer Fine Art
Website | Blog

Email the artist at: khwitmer@juno.com

Jester

 

 

Jester finished

I think it is finished! I usually have to sit a piece on the easel and look at it for a few days before I decide if it is really finished. This 12X12 canvas is a combination of painting with acrylic, collage with "painted and collaged" papers, with stamping on the background. It will be pretty hard to change at this point, so I'd better like it.