Australian Christmas

In 1994 I was invited to be in a Christmas themed art show at our World Trade Center, at the foot of Canal Street - across from Harrah's. This small exhibit was on one side of the front lobby. The other side had the traditional large Christmas tree, train and traintrack that encircled the tree.

Since the show was at our World Trade Center, we were asked to select a country and look up information on how that country celebrated Christmas. For this show I chose Australia. First of all it is summer down there at Christmas. The beach is a popular place to be. There is "Caroling by Candlelight" on the beach. So, I focused on the candlelight tradition. Painting in an Aboriginal style, I used dots to capture the effect of lights - candles and stars. An aunt, who is often critical of my work, told me she was buying it. It now hangs in her kitchen.

Besides the sale, I had a lot of positive feedback from artists and non-artists when it hung in the show. In spite of all that, I did not pursue making more dot paintings. There were other methods I wanted to try first.

acrylic on canvas, 12" x 16"

Ivy in the Sun

Here's a painting I created on my own after taking a class with local artist Glen Weber. I used color tricks I learned in his class. This is the only record I have of it. I painted this to be auctioned during the annual WYES Art Auction, our local PBS Station's fundraiser.

acrylic on canvas, 18" x 36"

Sand Dune

Up until now I've shown you Louisiana themed landscapes from the painting class. Here is a generic sand dune scene I painted. I included a sailboat in the background. Again, the instructor had me play visual games with the colors I used. This one was done a smaller canvas board.

oil on canvas board, 16" x 20"

Swamp

For some reason I didn't get too far with this painting. Perhaps I ran late that day. Anyway, my painting strokes are more dot-like. After the class, I didn't know how I wanted to finish it. Thus I left it as is.

oil on canvas, 18" x 24"

Oak Tree

Another painting I painted in the class was a scene with an oak tree. Glen Weber showed us how to contrast blues and oranges and create light and shadow. I learned a lot about color juxtaposition while rendering this painting.

oil on canvas, 18" x 24"

Marsh

During the summer of 1994, I took oil painting classes from local artist Glen Weber. I was drawn to his work because of his Impressionist method of painting. In his classes, I learned how to work with color to create light and shadow. He demonstrated tricks for making parts of a painting come forward and go backward. By the end of the summer I had a better feel for color than I did previously.

One of the first paintings he had us make was of a marsh. He instructed us to use a "letter B" as a basis for a composition. We skewed it to show perspective.

oil on canvas, 18" x 24"

Nine Masks in Blue

And finally here is third painting I made of sequined masks. I then went back to painting my loose abstract water paintings. But it wouldn't be long before I made one more stab at an Aboriginal styled painting.

acrylic on canvas, 16" x 20"

Eight Masks in Blue

Here is the second piece completed at the time, "Eight Masks in Blue." I figured I should keep my colors simple since I was still learning how to handle the dots. Again, I intended the dots to look like sequins.

acrylic on canvas, 16" x 20"