LONDON, here I come!!!

It's been a while since I've posted anything, but there's good reason for it. I have been BUSY packing! I have exciting news to share...

I'm re-locating to London, England!

As one of the cultural centers of the world, I'll be living amidst a hub of publishing activity and poised in a position to claim my own ground alongside so many amazing cutting edge artists. What inspiration I shall have at my fingertips!

My husband has been offered a prestigious Fellowship to set up his own research facility at Imperial College in London. It is to begin in October, 2010, so off we go! We are planning a month long holiday to Mauritius and South Africa while our home is in transit. I'm bringing my watercolors, so who knows, there may be future posts of African landscapes! (A safari is planned, of course.) The camera will be by my side throughout. I plan to take as much photo reference for future paintings as possible.

Here's a painting that I did inspired from a tiny photo in the back of an old National Geographic a long time ago. I can't wait to see baobab trees in real life!

Dancing Dandelion III

Well I was able to paint another dandelion painting in time for the second weekend of my open studios. Now I just need to frame it. This is another little one, the same size as Dancing Dandelion I. Unframed its 5 1/4" x 8 1/4". I really like this textured background that I've been working with. On the next piece I'm going to try adding another dimension to the texture and see how it looks.

New Painting titled Dancing Dandelion II

I wanted to share this second painting in my Dancing Dandelion series which sold on the first day of my East Bay Open Studio art show this past weekend! It is a brand new piece and I was saving it as a surprise for attendees, but it sold so quickly (within hours of the show opening). I don't think many people even got to see it. I plan on creating more works along this theme as I've had a lot of positive feedback and excitement about the first two works of the series. So stay tuned. I'm going to try to get a new one done for this coming weekend and I'll be listing new works on my Etsy gallery in the future (see "My Links").

East Bay Open Studios - First Weekend a resounding success!

Thank-you to all those of you who made it out to the first weekend of my open studio at Jack London Square this past Saturday and Sunday!

It was a wonderful success for me and I'm looking forward to this coming weekend for the final days of the exhibition.

I'm painting two new works which I hope to get done in time for this upcoming finale. There are vacant spots to fill now! I'll be working on the third painting to my Dancing Dandelion series and an oil painting of my backyard apple tree in springtime bloom.

To find out more about the event and check out all the artists I'm exhibiting with go to: http://artrospection.com/jls/

Red Dress series write-up!

It's getting close, East Bay Open Studios starts this weekend!

At my open studios I'll be selling some of the paintings and drawings from my series titled "The Red Dress". The series was inspired by my dress hanging in my bedroom for so long up on the candelabra. I kept looking at it, thinking, it has a story hanging there. I wanted viewers to be intrigued to stop and wonder what occasion it was worn for, who the woman was who wore it and whether it was about to be worn, or had already served its purpose. The series is a group of studies, all done with the intention of exploring ways of conveying this sense of mystery.

My good friend and fashion guru, Nerissa Pacio, is a freelance fashion writer who has this great blog: Nerissa's Notebook with fashion tips and goings on in the San Francisco Bay Area. Nerissa has included a write-up about my series and the open studios in her blog. Check it out: http://nerissasnotebook.com/2010/06/02/red-dress-as-art-at-east-bay-open-studios/

I used the Red Dress project as an opportunity to explore different combinations of drawing and painting mediums, often used together as well as on their own. I played with capturing the light at various times of the day, and settled eventually into evening lighting to heighten the sense of mystery I was going for.

Nerissa asked me, "Why a red dress?" Well, the red dress is iconic. It has a totally different message than the little black dress. Unlike the black dress that every woman has in her closet, not every woman has a little red dress. A woman who wears a red dress is not afraid to be noticed, in fact, the boldness of the color speaks to the personality of the woman in it. She is confident, sexy and alluring, and knows it.

Hollywood has helped to create this image, for sure. The bombshell walking down the street that captures the eye is more often than not in red. So, I think, interest in who might be wearing the red dress is built in from societal expectations and long established fantasies created around the icon. The series just wouldn't have the same appeal if it were the blue dress or the brown dress. Also, visually, red is such a striking color that it gives more opportunity for playing around as an artist.

Problems

O.k., so I sent out a lot of emails inviting just about everyone I've ever known to my art show coming up in just two weeks. I put a link to this blog in the emails and used a gmail address. Well, did I ever mess up! Now this blog cite has been marked as potentially spam- to the reviewer: that's an error, if you haven't already figured it out.

I apologize to anyone who has been bugged by this whole fiasco.

I guess I'm signing up for one of those mass email online marketing companies like Constant Contact.

Yellow and Red Polka Dot Fairy illustration

A while back I was asked if I had any butterfly paintings in my repertoire. At the time, I didn't really. Ever since then I've been thinking, why on earth not? It certainly is up my alley (I do love beautiful things and I do love to paint creatures who fly). So, I started painting butterflies.

This piece was inspired by a job that never panned out. The assignment was to create paintings for the walls at a new work-out center for women called Butterfly Life. Originally I had in mind to paint real womanly figures in all stages of age and fitness. I still might do that someday. I took some photo reference at the time, which I decided to put to use.

I've been working on this yellow and red polka dot fairy illustration for my portfolio on and off for a while now. I got stuck at one point, having let it get too precious, I realized that I needed to put in the shadows from her form onto the background behind her as well as the shadows from the petals onto her. I was afraid of ruining the piece. Working with watercolor is always so tricky that way. I had one chance to lay in the shadow wash correctly. If I messed up, there wasn't anything I could do about it. (Well, actually in this modern age, I did have a back-up. I photographed it before laying in the wash. If I ruined it, I could have always put in a shadow in Photoshop. Not the best result, but better than nothing, I guess.)

In order to have the best chance at success, I decided to build a little model (a very crude sculpture), light it, and photograph it to approximate what the shadow would look like so that I would have some reference to give it authenticity.

I'm pretty pleased with the result. In the end, I think it worked out relatively successfully. She definitely looks like she is sitting in the water lily now.
Here's how it looked before the shadows were added:

Dancing Dandelion I

Just a little preview of what I'm working on for the Open Studios in June. This piece can be viewed two ways. Which way do you like better?

ProArts East Bay Open Studios

I just finished this painting to hang at ProArts in downtown Oakland. It's a plein air piece begun last Fall at apple harvest time in my backyard. It's up for their group exhibition highlighting the artists participating in the East Bay Open Studios.

This will be my first time doing Open Studios and I'm really excited to be joining in with 36 other artists in a huge space (formerly a Barnes and Noble) in Jack London Square. I'll have a nice wall space allocated to show my work. I'm madly painting new works, all inspired in some way by nature and it's myriad of forces. Some will be motion studies of dancers, some plein-air homages to nature's beauty, and some illustrative pieces based in pure fantasy. I'll also be offering prints of some of my most popular paintings for the first time. I like the idea of accessibility to everyone. There should be work available for any budget.

Come check it out if you're in the neighborhood!
Two weekends: June 5 &6, 12 & 13, 2010
Pavilion Building @ Jack London Square
98 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94607
http://artrospection.com/jls/
http://www.proartsgallery.org/ebos/index.php

Canadian Geese in Flight commission

So, I thought for my very first post I would put up a picture of a commission that I just completed yesterday of Canadian geese flying.
I took the reference photos for this piece while on holiday on the Isle of Wight, England.
I first painted a study for it in watercolor which I have for sale on my Etsy gallery site:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/CassandraSeeger.
The person who commissioned me to paint an oil version saw the watercolor. I hope she's happy with what I've made for her!
p.s. I just realized that I forgot to sign it! Better get out into the studio and fix that.