Calling all mystery lovers…

All you who read, write and love to listen to finely crafted and cleverly plotted mysteries…

Most of you wonderful readers of this blog know that I listen to audiobooks while painting…and most of them are mystery novels…and my most favorite writer of those novels is…Laurie R. King. But what you don’t know…yet…is that the diabolical diva Herself wrote to me this summer with a fabulously fun and witty request.

Every year there is a gathering of the most famous and successful mystery writers of our time which is called the Boucheron. This year it is being held in San Francisco and the literary guest of honor is… LRK !

Boucheron By The Bay will take place this October 14 – 17 and, since she is to be the queen for those days, she and her publishers are sponsoring the “Coffee and Tea” table at the host hotel. So…she gets this idea…(may I humbly say a brilliant one)… that it might be fun to have a backdrop to the table… and somehow remembers that I have this Teacup Series thing going on…and one email led to another and …poof !!!    This is what will be on the banner hanging over the sippers’ silver services…

My excitement is exceeded only by my gratitude for her generous offer to play along with the gang. It looks like a wild and crazy weekend of literary fun is promised out there and I hope if any of you who read this are planning to attend that you’ll raise a cup along with us to the Honoree !

And the rest of us can at least share in the flavor and find a comfy chair, a good mystery, and pour ourselves a steaming cuppa….intrigue.

Ta L.

PS – you can order your very own print of this painting for your coffee and tea tables …here.

American Art Collector Magazine

…is featuring the 1261 Gallery Show which opens in Denver on October 15th. The magazine has a preview of some of the artwork which is on the newstands now and … Oils on Canvas made the cut…

It’s a late night in the studio…just me and the crickets.

A crazy busy autumn around here and I’ve noticed that there are many other familiar bloggers who have been absent from the cyberwaves lately. I suppose this is a sign that we are all busy and perhaps that is in response to some economic upturn. We can always hope.

For me… I just really don’t have much new to contribute…and I’m tired.

Later I guess.

Reality Boost …

I’m still reeling from a power packed weekend of art and artists and curators and interviews and new and old friends and a studio filled with all that and then some.

The Brandywine River Museum show was spectacular. The opening was mobbed but there were enough spaces in the crowd to get to meet all of my Realist heroes. The museum has put the paintings up on their website in an online catalogue version. It’s a nice way to have access to the images but I long for the old days when you could buy a nicely bound book to bring home and peruse at your leisure and revisit the images over the years.

With gracious appreciation to Bob Jackson, Pat and I were invited to join the artists and museum staff at a dinner following the reception and a luncheon the next day following a panel discussion. Both opportunities were pure gold and I will live on the fruits of those many conversations for months.

It was also a chance to meet many of the artists with whom I’ll be showing next month at the 1261 Gallery in Denver.

I’ve been painting round the clock to have some new works to show them and this morning the gallery director said yes to them all so …. off to the photographers and the framers went Pat today and I’ll be shipping them out early next week.

Here’s a preview of one of the paintings that will be in that show… Oils on Canvas

They too will have an online version of the show and I’ll post that link when it’s up.

The show is titled, Reality Boost and will be featured in the October issue of American Art Collector Magazine so check your bookstores or mailboxes for that…

and….

stay tuned for an artist’s profile on yours truly that will appear in the AAC Mag sometime in the near future… Contributing author, curator and all around man of the arts…John O’Hern… was in town for the Brandywine show and spent the rest of the weekend visiting here in the studio and interviewed me for his upcoming article. It was a once in a lifetime experience to share our space with him and the gift of so much of his time, depth of knowledge, and rapier like wit and charm.

John’s genius is well documented in the years of Re-presenting Realism series of shows which he curated while leading the Arnot Art Museum in Elmira, NY. But it is perhaps his current creative incarnation as a freelance curator, writer and consultant that may leave a more indelible mark on the artworld.

His most recent work was to collaborate with EVOKE Contemporary Gallery in Santa Fe and curate the show…Re-presenting the Nude. You can view their online catalogue version by clicking here. It’s a powerful collection of work and I’ve been spinning off of the catalogue to research artist after artist whose work he has now introduced me to.

Spinning is indeed the operative word for my head right now…

Add to all of the above a stellar week of sales at the Granary Gallery and we are holding on tight to this wave of positive energy flowing around us… it’s certainly nice to have good things to report on and we’re not taking one second of it for granted.

Now it’s back to the easel for me…  and you all get out and take a walk in this crisp clean air !

REALITY Check

After a stressful and busy month I am sooooo looking forward to this weekend. Some of my most favorite living artists are being featured in a show at the Brandywine River Museum which opens on friday night for members and saturday for the public.

Bob Jackson has been working tirelessly to help pull the show and the artists to the forefront and the museum is hosting a panel discussion with the artists on saturday. His painting Target the Artist, 2009 Oil on Linen, seen below, is just one of his works that will be shown. The list of other artists is a who’s who of the top realists working today in this country. I encourage everyone to try and get to see the show and my congratulations go out to the museum and curator Audrey Lewis  for bringing these works together in such a fine venue.

Congrats Bob, we can’t wait to raise a toast to your success tomorrow night !