Second Place, Artist of the Month

Tonight at the Metairie Art Guild meeting my dot painting, "Treinta," placed second in the Artist of the Month competition. It is one of three recent dot paintings I completed in October. So far, I've received many positive comments on the painting.

Poydras Home Art Show

This year the Poydras Home Art Show was open to the public on Friday before coming down that evening. My three dot paintings hung together in the large front room. There was a lot of activity during the show.


acrylic on canvas, 20" x 20"

Treinta

To conclude my third painting, I used shades of purple and red for my background. As in the other two paintings, I painted dots in a square pattern. This one turned out to be more exciting than my other ones.


acrylic on canvas, 20" x 20"

Vientenueve

In my second painting, in this grouping, I rendered the background with shades of green. Again, I organized the piece in a square pattern. I used bright contrasting colors to make my dots.


acrylic on canvas, 20" x 20"

Vientiocho

Below is the first of three new dot paintings. This year I worked with concentric squares over a patterned blue background. The blue dominated the other colors. I did my best apply dots of contrasting colors.


acrylic on canvas, 20" x 20"

Phase II, Third of Three

And with the second coat of acrylic on this one, Phase II is complete. I thickened the variations of red and purple. Coming up next, lots of dots!


acrylic on canvas, 20" x 20"

Phase II, Second of Three

The second coat of green colors took a while. I kept certain areas darker than others. So now my painting is ready for dots.


acrylic on canvas, 20" x 20"

Honorable Mention at Lakeside!

This morning I entered art into an art show competition sponsored by the West Bank Art Guild. It was held at the Lakeside Shopping Center in Metairie. Participants designated three pieces to be part of the judging. Anyway, my acrylic painting, "Veinte," was awarded an Honorable Mention in the Not Under Glass Category. The judge was Martha Guthrie.

10th Street Cafe

For the next two months five of my dot art paintings are hanging in the back room of 10th Street Cafe located at 423 10th Street, Gretna, LA. They will be up through Friday, March 3rd, 2016. I am one of several featured artists.

Back to Ochsner West Bank Campus!

This month ten of my dot art paintings are hanging in a corridor on the first floor of Ochsner Medical Center West Bank Campus. They will be up through Friday, Wednesday, February 2, 2016. I am one of three artists exhibiting.

Calendar Dot Art!

The Jefferson Art Guild (JAG) 30 Month Calendar is out. Thirty of the guild's artists have work featured in it. My dot painting, "Veinte," appears above December 2016 - which is a year away now.

Striped Circles 6

graphite on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Poydras Home Art Show on Halloween

This year the Poydras Home Art Show and Sale took place on Halloween. The sky was overcast and the rain was light. Like last year, the show was only up for one day. My three new paintings hung inside in the big room. All three paintings appeared together on one board. On the following Monday I picked up my paintings.

X

This very day marks the 10th anniversary of my dot art blog. It's a milestone as well as a somber moment for me. I'm reminded of my evacuation from and my return to the New Orleans area.

Last year I pursued an "X' design in three large dot paintings. This year I created three more large paintings using an "X." I also have a couple of batches, of smaller unfinished dot paintings, that are rooted in an "X" design.

As the Katrina anniversary came around, local newspapers published numerous photos of the aftermath from ten years ago. A common sight around the city was a giant "X' spray painted on the front of homes. The top quadrant marked the date a house was searched. The right quadrant included a code for what hazards lay inside. The left quadrant had the initials of the search squad. And the bottom quadrant had a body count.

For a few years now I planned to use the "X" as design structure in my dot paintings. But then this year I thought of another reason to include an "X." "X" can also be the Roman Numeral for "ten."

In last year's anniversary post, I mentioned being in an artistic rut. Well, I'm still in one, in spite of my seeking inspiration from trips to galleries and art museums in the area. I just have to work through this phase.