Art Collectors, Native American Art: Moccasins

Hello again from the mountain city of Asheville, NC.
Well, I see you are "staying tuned" as I asked, thank you. And since you are still with me, here's a new photo of "Moccasins" inspired by the reviews of viewers. As I mentioned, I believe for some reason, I'm not sure why, the "Cherokee Girls" painting seemed to strike a chord with many. So, don't fix what ain't broke, right? But actually, I paint what moves me, or what's the point, right? So here's another small painting even though, larger than the "Cherokee Girls" painting under the Native American theme. 

"Moccasins" is near and dear to my heart. My Dad bought us girls (my siblings and older sisters) moccasins to wear around the house. We thought we were pretty cool. They weren't heavily beaded as the ones in my painting, but they came with fringe and anything with fringe is a cool thing for a young girl! Even looking at this painting now, I'm thinking I'd love to have a pair. How about you? Did you ever own moccasins? 

 "Moccasins"

6" x 6"

Acrylic

Paper

What do you think? Ready for a pair?    

Dancers: When There Was Nothing Else She Could Do, She Danced

I decided to try out a wood panel to paint, many artists prefer painting on wood panels. I agree with them in their opinions, there's no bounce or give to the canvas so easier to paint. Definitely a nice glide with each brush stroke. Sweet, actually. Presently, I'm working on more intuitive paintings, rather than having a definite intention with my work. It feels good to work intuitively right now. I'm still working with bold colors, even though I love pastel shades. There's something so clean and fresh about them. But for most of my work, it's about vivid, bold colors. 

While working on this little wood panel, the name "She danced" came to me. The movement of the paint gives the impression of seeing the room spin as one twirls or turns in a dance. Splatters of paint are showered down on this panel like confetti or great delight of the moment she dances and feels total joy. I hope you feel it here, because it was good that she danced. 

Remember this, when there's nothing else you can do, dance.

Title: "She Danced"

Medium: Acrylic on wood panel
Size: 8" x 8" 

"She Danced"

Cost: $29.99 USD

Close Up View

Another Close Up View

What do you think? 

Anything Can Be A Canvas

This is one post I'm excited about and I'll share with you why. My parents had an old wooden door on the back of their house to the basement and it had rotted out from water damage. My husband went to the task of removing the door and replacing it with a new one. Once he had finished, he started to carry the door to be placed with the other trash. I stopped him and said, "Let's not throw the door away, let's see if we can re-purpose it!". A new artist friend of mine came to my mind, ....Ah, Joyce Thornburg! She paints on anything, doors included, I thought. I'll give her a call. Sure enough, Joyce was delighted to hear I had a wood door for her to paint on if she wanted to and she did.

Click here for my previous post on Joyce's work: Asheville's River Arts District And It's Talented Artists

Joyce had a recent art exhibit with a 1800's farmhouse door she had painted and it was well received. She calls herself the compulsive painter, she'll paint on anything and it's paying off! You'll see what I mean later on in this post, but for now I thought it would be nice to journey Joyce's process of this recycled door for you.

Here's is Joyce Thornburg with my parent's old wood basement door ready for her to paint.

My husband had to cut off the bottom of the door since it had water damage. Here the door is actually shown upside down.

I recently visited Joyce's studio during the River Arts District Art Studio and Stroll. And I was so happy to see the re-purposed finished beautifully painted door!

Joyce's brightly light sun-infused art studio at the River Arts District in Asheville, NC.

A close up of the painting on the door.

With Joyce's willingness and talent to paint on anything, along with her artistic vision, she has been commissioned by a local green builder to paint a door for his recent custom-built house in thriving West Asheville!

Here's the new commissioned door for a green custom-built home.

The above commissioned door with be installed at this new home. Here's the write-up about the green home for sale.

Way to go, Joyce! From just having fun painting on everything to getting a new start on commissioned doors for custom-built homes right here in our mountain city of Asheville, NC!

To find out more about Asheville's River Arts District, click here; River Arts District

A Look At Fall Leaves in Asheville, NC

Hello again! Hope you've had a great Autumn this year. Since I live here in beautiful Western North Carolina, I thought I'd share with you photos and videos for your enjoyment. One warm Fall day we took our daughter over to the Botanical Gardens at Asheville right next to UNCA to walk in the leaves and through the stream. Did we ever had such a great outing and it's right here in town, yes, I know we are spoiled. If you get the chance while in Asheville, it's worth the visit to the Asheville Botanical Gardens. There is a nice walking path around the gardens, not too long at all. Great areas to stretch out on a blanket or pick your favorite private bench. But the best part, is walking down along the stream and hopping on river rocks! Yes, grab your water shoes and get prepared for loads of fun river rock hopping or just sit and soak up some sunshine.

Here's our photos from our Autumn outing on a warm sunny day. And I've included a few youtube.com videos of the mountains showing off their colors this Fall. Enjoy!

A Fall beautiful day. Colors just beginning to show.

The pathway begins.

Lots of yellows and golds.

Now the pathway winds.

A bench for you!

A lovely wood bridge over the stream.

Time to put on the water shoes.

The gentle stream in all of it's glory.

Close up of the water.

Walking on the river rocks. Oh, did I add my husband loves to take butt shots?

A child's delight.

Sitting on a fallen tree over the water.

 

 What fun, a day at the Asheville Botanical Gardens!

Here's a youtube video of Western North Carolina's Fall Leaf 
Color 2011. Enjoy!

And another video of fall color:

Asheville Early Fall Color, Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina Mountains

How Was Your Halloween? Here's Ours.

Greetings from wacky West Asheville!  Do you remember your childhood Halloweens? I got to thinking about my own childhood Halloween experiences, as I was just leaving to take my daughter trick-or-treating.

I grew up West Asheville when it was still a small community, separate from the main city of Asheville. The city street I lived on was a traditional neighborhood with a wide street of different sized bungalow and arts and craft style homes situated close together. Back then, I won't say how far back, we all knew each others' kids and pets. It was the time most families were still one car families, so the streets weren't packed with vehicles like they are now. I walked or rode my bike to the main road at the end of the street to get something needed for my Mom and after school picked up my candy at the dime store. Located off the main street was a bakery, doughnut shop, rock shop, hardware store, library, and etc. The street is still lined today with maple trees that arch over to form a tunnel of great shade in the summer and is a showcase of Autumn beauty when the leaves turn from green to yellows, oranges and reds. And the fun part, as a kid, was walking or riding my bike through all those leaves in the fall.

When Halloween came, my Dad took me out trick-or-treating along our street. Naturally, as a kid, all I cared about was the candy, but it was great to see our neighbors as well as to get to compare costumes with the other kids in the neighborhood.  The elderly people on our street were so delighted to see how I'd grown from year to year. It's been a fond memory of mine as an adult, even remembering the years when it rained on Halloween night and walking through wet leaves to get that treasured candy!

Now, to the present, and young, new families have moved into the neighborhood and on our street, remodeling and updating the old bungalows of the 20's and 30's and creating a whole new vibe on a once dying street. These families go all out for Halloween, decorating like crazy and putting out tons of Halloween lights, graveyards in their front yards, skeletons and various other Halloween decorations to the max! They invite friends over to sit on their porches (yes, we still have porches in the South!), to watch what is about to happen that night.

About 6pm, cars and families, all dressed up in their Halloween costumes (including many parents), flood our street! Literally, thousands come. At times you can't walk on the sidewalks for all the people and you wind up walking the street. It's an event, our West Asheville Halloween night. We still get to see our new neighbors as well as the old and my daughter had the pleasure of seeing some of her classmates, while walking up and down the street. But most of the people are from other parts of the city or from the county areas. But we don't mind one night of crowds.  A police officer was there, watching the crowd and giving out stickers to the kids and the crowd was well behaved. One home gave out popcorn in little bags and showed a movie in their yard. We really enjoyed ourselves and are still amazed about how these homeowners knock themselves out, decking their homes and yards in Halloween decorations.  Here are some of our photos from this annual event.

First of all, my precious 6 yr. old daughter in her fairy costume that she designed herself.

Getting a bag of popcorn and do you see the white chairs set up for movie time?

Here we go, off to the next house!

Walking down the sidewalk, see the leaves and our lovely maples?

A neat jack-o-lantern with a scene of an owl on a bare tree branch in the light of a full moon. Hats off to that pumpkin carver!

Street packed with cars and people!

Look at this decorated yard!

The other side of the same yard!

Another house that goes all out with lights and decorations.

And the other side of their yard.

What were your childhood memories of Halloween? Or your present experiences with your kids or grand kids? Would love to hear them, Allison.

Paint and Chocolate. What a great combination.

Hello!
I just had to write you! I just got back from an opening reception and solo exhibition of work by artist Genie Maples of Asheville, NC. Oh, and did I ever enjoy this one. First of all, Genie is one of my favorite artists. Why? Genie's major work is comprised of oil on canvas and they are huge! Some of her canvases were so large I couldn't get them all into the photos! Her masterful paintings have strong composition, layered colors, beautiful surface, and strong emotional impact. Her color choices are so vivid giving the feeling they are alive. And the pastels are so fluid and energetic. Perhaps that's why I love her work.

Tonight, I convinced my 6yr. old daughter to go with me (the fact they were serving gourmet chocolate truffles, helped don't ya think?!), see her photo below. Who would turn down the fact the venue was the French Broad Chocolate Lounge? This beautiful September evening offered wine, gourmet truffles, and beautiful art in a lovely urban setting.

Around the crowd, I snapped some photos for you. I hope you enjoy Genie's paintings as much as I do. This evening was a pleasure for me and I wanted to share it with you.

Allison

 My precious daughter Sarah, she's high on chocolate!

Two more talented artists from Asheville's River Arts District

Hello All! Greetings from cool, green Asheville, NC! Hope you are having a good summer. We can't complain about the weather here, it's been great so far in the "Land of the Sky".
Today's post is about two more fabulous artists that I met in Asheville's River Arts District. I've really enjoyed taking time to meet the River Arts District artists and I'd like to share their work with you. And if you've already been to the River Arts District, please comment on your experience.

But first, I have a couple of updates from my other post Asheville's Talented River Arts District Artists. Artist Joyce Thornburg is an featured artist at the Atelier Gallery of Fine Art on 24 Lexington Ave., Asheville. She has an "Retrospective of Faces" exhibit that started June 11th. Click on  Joyce Thornburg's  name to read about the article I wrote about her. She has a large 1800's farmhouse door painted her her folk art faces on it and it is a striking anchor to her exhibit in their street front window. Her show will end on June 30th. But if you miss her show and are local, then go Curra's Mexican restaurant in Woodfin, you'll see one of her "Faces" doors there.

Secondly, a bit of some odd news for one of our talented artists, Stephen Lange (to read my post about Stephen Lange click on his name.) Stephen, while working on one of his uniquely natural and beautiful circle paintings, he decided to place it outside the studio building to dry and came back to notice it had been stolen! Now you have understand, this painting was 6 feet wide! To view the video about the reported incident see this video from WLOS-TV. To view an article on the matter, here's a link. On Stephen Lange's website you can see his beautiful circle paintings.

Now I'll get to our next artist and painter, Benjamin Kaleblevi as shown here with his paintings. Ben considers his work to be abstract surrealistic.

You can find Benjamin's studio at the Riverside Studios, 174 West Haywood St. Asheville.  Even though, most of his work is abstract, of late, he has been busy with commissions of pet portraits. I found his abstract paintings very mysterious. The viewer must take some time with each painting in order to see all of the hidden information that Benjamin has included within.  These hidden clues tells the story of Benjamin's life journey, as he so kindly shared with me. And I like that quality about Ben's paintings. You'll see what I'm talking about in the photo below. Ben takes time with his paintings, they are not rushed. 

Inside Ben's studio, he was working on a cat portrait. And right now, he seemed to be very content working on his new subjects. He has an update and notified me that he is presently painting on location at a local hangout called "The Bywater" on Riverside Dr. His website is under construction, but you can find his bio and art on the River Arts District website.

A larger view, below, of Ben's studio space.

While walking along the River Arts District, here is a few photos of outdoor sculptures you'll want to see.

Garden sculpture below just outside the Curve studios.

Now, I have to say, I had goosebumps just seeing artist Heather Knight's work at her Element Clay Studio  . Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to meet her in person, but get to meet her assistant as she was setting up Heather's new studio space. Her textile wall tile collection in this photo is stunning, yet she has a varied body of work of bowls, exhibit pieces, and commissioned pieces. You can see work on her website and many items are available for purchase online.

Her stunning porcelain and clay work has been featured in magazines like, Coastal Living, House Beautiful, Charleston Home and many more. We are fortunate to have her here in the Wedge studios in the RAD.  She works mostly with porcelain, but also works in clay. Her works are a balance I would say, of modernism and nature, which she does so well. There's no denying her style, once you've seen it, you'll be able to easily recognize it again. The textures and the movement of her work will keep your interest and her choice of size for her elements is unique in itself.

Closeup

I hope you've enjoyed reading this post about Asheville's Talented River Arts District Artists. Please feel free to leave comments.  

Oh, I can't forget! White Duck Taco Shop has recently opened up in the RAD. Here's an article about the owners and their new restaurant.  Have a creative summer! Allison