PAINTING: WINE WITH CHEESE AND GRAPES headed to California Gallery Show

WINE WITH CHEESE AND GRAPES

6" Squared Painting 

I am very honored to have had my small painting

accepted into The Randy Higbee Gallery show in Costa Mesa, CA. 

POTTED GERANIUM

POTTED GERANIUM

6x6 unframed oil on gessobord
Not for Sale YET
Click here to go to my website

For days I walked by this gorgeous pot of geraniums and knew it had to be painted. I waited until the sun was just where I wanted it to create a most pleasing shadow. The complementary colors of red and green always make for a vibrant, happy painting. I love to paint in the impressionistic style using color to enliven the subject while paint strokes in the background direct the eye.

This painting is not for sale at this time as I plan to enter it into Randy Higbee's Small Painting Show.  I hope it gets hung in his gallery where it will be for sale.

EARLY LAVENDER, FRANCE

EARLY LAVENDER, FRANCE

EARLY LAVENDER, FRANCE
6x6 palette knife painting on gessobord
Click here to purchase

Lherm Lavender Field
Lavande de Lherm
in the Lot Region of France produces some of the finest quality of Lavender oil in France
It is a small farm but truly a painter's paradise.
Click on the link above to read about the farm and its owners.

Before lavender is ready for harvest, the color is more magenta than lavender.

VILLAGE FARM, FRANCE

VILLAGE FARM, FRANCE

I have embarked on a fun project of painting from my photos taken while I was in France in June.

I wish I could have stayed there for a month of painting! 

The countryside of France seems so unique

 rolling hills 

small quaint villages

and stone buildings 

 private gardens and ditches for irrigation

I took photos of my painting steps which I thought you might enjoy.

Village Farm, France
12x12 oil on gessobord
Click here to purchase

Block in with think transparent colors

Adding some opaque colors to buildings and trees

More development of buildings 

Starting to develop the sky

Progressing in covering much of the block in colors especially the sky

Working on foreground field and bale

Using palette knife to give the effect of straw left in the field
FINISHED

AROUND THE WORLD BLOG HOP

HOW FUN IS THIS TO REACH AROUND THE WORLD

AND 

MEET NEW ARTISTS and get to know them through their BLOG!

At the end of the introductions I tell you a little more about myself in answer to the questions blog hoppers (pun intended) are asked.

 I was introduced by

Marion Hedger

who lives half the year in France and the other half in England. She has become my friend. I am honored that Marion chose to include me in the Blog Hop. Here's one of Marion's awesome paintings. Click here to see more.

Nodding Sunflowers by Marion Hedger

I am excited to introduce you to

Dee Sanchez

Dee is also a friend, but I met her right here in my community.

Dee Sanchez lives and works in the village of Alameda, New Mexico.

She is an intuitive colorist and paints in the alla prima style, completing every painting in one sitting, whether it be a small 6x8"canvas of sunflowers or a 60x60" large painting of a Santa Fe landscape.

Her subjects include grand vistas, cloudscapes and skyscapes, huge, chaotic masses of native wildflowers, and the small villages and people of her state. She is most known for her paintings of sunflowers. 

Dee is also a plein air painter and a member of the Plein Air Painters of New Mexico. As Dee likes to say."I absolutely love painting in the studio but my greatest passion is traveling through New Mexico on short day trip adventures, painting luscious oils out of the back of my car."

Dee is a juried member on DailyPainters.com, one of the largest daily painting websites in the world, and also a member of DailyPaintworks, a fantastic website showcasing artists from all over the world.

Dee was the poster artist for the 2012 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta and has just finished a huge project called RETRO CHALLENGE.  Dee painted 150 paintings in 150 days for 150 dollars each.  They flew out the gallery door, Weems Gallery, yet some are still available.  Contact the gallery or Dee.  Follow Dee's blog.

Red Sunset by Dee Sanchez
12x16

Duet by Dee Sanchez
18x36 SOLD

I also want to introduce

LINDA MARINO

I found Linda on our blogger website and follow her regularly.  She posts interesting sharing of information type of blogs.  Linda lives in Connecticut with her culinary artist husband and their three beautiful children.  She is opening a new gallery and studio.  Wow!

                                       Artist infused with an Entrepreneurial Spirit

At a very young age Linda loved to draw and create with pencil and magic marker. In third grade she began drawing dog portraits. By high school, she had completed both beginning art and business classes. With a few months of training from a local professional artist, Linda began designing, painting and selling t-shirts to her friends, family and campers during the summer months.

During Linda's college years, when she studied Business Administration, she signed up for as many art electives as she could and from that point on creating ART would play a big part in her life.  For the next 10 years Linda continued to weave together both her love for creating art with a business mindset to forge a career in the marketing, advertising and graphic design world. Linda’s business, Image Express, worked with both local and nationally known clients such as the Screen Actors Guild of New York, CRN International and Masonic Charity Foundation.

An “al a carte” art education from various universities and local art schools led Linda to a position in the education department at the New Britain Museum of American Art in New Britain, CT where her love for art history, the study of contemporary artists and teaching art blossomed. 

Dairy Farm Along Route 24 by Linda S. Marino
12x24 oil

And now here is

 SUSAN MEDYN  

 who has been compared to Dr. Seuss, Gustav Klimt, and the Gumby animator Art Coakey.  Susan and I met on-line when she started following my blog.  Her work was so unusual and fun we have remained blog friends. Follow Susan's blog.

Susan currently resides in a small rural town in RI, a mere three houses from the ocean.

She has been making fantastical watercolors for over 35 years. She is inspired by her love of color, a sense of playfulness and whimsy and a passion for painting. She creates one page stories that take place in imaginary worlds.

She is currently exhibiting at Galerie Spirale and Chateau de Waroux  in Belgium,  The Artful Heart in Arlington, MA,  and the South Coast Artists Studio Tours.

“Medyn is gifted with a color sense as savory as fresh fruit and an imagination capable of setting genetics soundly on its ear. She gives life to an astonishing wonderland of beasties, plants and totemic trees, part vegetable, part animal and part apartment house for a diminutive universe of creatures. At times her work superficially recalls such diverse artists as Paul Klee and Dr. Seuss. Yet her work is decidedly her own; it has remarkable ability to appeal to virtually every level of sophistication.” – Noel Suter, Metroland

                            Now my answers to the blog hop questions

  What am I working on?

     2014 included more than the usual amount of travel, all of it for art: painting, workshops and photography.  I took four paintings trips this year;  two were MAJOR and included sightseeing and photography, and plein air painting.  Now I am in the process of creating a series of paintings of France based upon my time there. Additionally I spend a lot of time marketing my art on-line through my website, my blog, and even Facebook. Beginning in January 2015, my art will be represented by Weems Gallery in Albuquerque.

 How does my work differ from others in its genre?
        I am working very hard to paint with more intense and lively colors, yet still be a representational artist.  The use of pure colors brings more excitement to me and my paintings.  Even when painting in plein air, I like to push color a bit and widen the value range.

 Why do I create what I do?
    I can't not paint. Like an addict, I can't stop because I absolutely love to paint and to push myself to constantly improve. I create and surround myself with beauty: in my home, my yard, and my wall art. I believe when my paintings find a new home, they provide beauty and lift up all who view my work.  

  How does my creative process work?
    Beauty again...it is everywhere.  When I see it, I want to paint it.  The challenge for me is to narrow down my subject into an actual painting.  I don't know how painters of the Grand Canyon do it.  I have to zero into a smaller area, one that doesn't include a 30x60 inch canvas.  I use my creative process as an excuse (a very good excuse) to travel to interesting locations not only near me, but in various other states and even abroad.  
    After sketching in the image on the canvas, I block in the colors using only transparent dark paints.  Then I develop all areas with opaque paints.  I leave the highlights and some dark touches for the third and final step; sometimes called the "eye candy" of the painting.  

.

ABIQUIU, NEW MEXICO....gorgeous Georgia O'Keeffe Country

VISIT TO ABIQUIU, NEW MEXICO

Fall in New Mexico

 and time to paint outdoors in the clear mountain air

Northern New Mexico Georgia O'Keeffe country  

My husband and I spent a wonderful day in Abiquiu visiting many artists' open studios.  Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch are favorite places of mine.  The Pedernal mountain was something Georgia O'Keeffe loved to paint.

Georgia O'Keeffe is well known for her love of New Mexico as depicted in her art. She came to New Mexico in 1929 as a guest of Mabel Dodge Luhan who was part of an arts and literary circle in Taos. 

Beginning in the mid-30's she lived and worked at her home at Ghost Ranch. In 1945  she purchased a second home down the road in Abiquiu. She walked in the desert and painted the New Mexico landscapes until her failing eyesight forced her to stop in 1984. She died, in Santa Fe, in 1986.

Abiquiu is believed to have been settled by Indians from Mesa Verde who abandoned the area in 1500. By the mid-1700's, Spain colonized the region by deeding land grants to the Christianized Indians who were affiliated with the Spanish. It is believed that parts of Georgia O'Keeffe's home may date back to this period, perhaps 1760.

The adobe home in the village of Abiquiu has been left much as it was when O'Keeffe lived there. When Georgia O'Keeffe purchased the property it was in ruins. The walled compound is set on the edge of a mesa and the view, itself, is worth having a home in that location. Over the next three years, O'Keeffe worked with her friend, Maria Chabot, to renovate the property. She added gardens and innovative architectural detail.

The cottonwood trees hadn't completely turned yellow; my hope is to find a day in my painting schedule to return to Abiquiu within two weeks when fall is in full glory.

Painting and Website Do-Overs

Painting and Website Do-Overs

I just spent more than a week rebuilding my website with FASO 

a company I always loved but left.  

Many artists don't need as much tech help as me so going it alone, or nearly so, works well for them.

Now that heavy work week is behind me and I am happy.  

Please check it out at

www.carolhopper.com

Here are a four paintings with which I was not happy.

  Let me know what you think about the do-overs.

First Painting of Rural Life in France
Played too much with color
12x12

Second Painting of Rural Life in France
More accurate color representation as field wasn't ready for harvest
Cut off 3 inches;
Now a 9x12

First Painting of In the Garden
Direct sun coming through trees with no sky in view
caused light to blow out

Reworked Painting of "In the Garden"
Invented a sky and minimized tree with white blossoms

First Painting of "Renaissance Flowers"
Bottom right didn't please me

Reworked Painting of "Renaissance Flowers"
Now bottom right more clearly shows container edge

First painting of Natchez Poppies
Paint strokes seemed choppy

Reworked painting of Natchez Poppies




There is always so much to learn with painting, technology, marketing 
that sometimes I get really weary.

How do you keep up with all the change and learning?

FAME BY ASSOCIATION

MARRYING INTO THE HOPPER FAMILY

Who is Edward Hopper?

Who is Carol Hopper?

Carol (that's me) married into the famous Hopper family.  I didn't even have to bribe anyone for entrance.  They needed me, because I am an artist.

How are Edward and Carol linked?

Willem Hopper is our genealogy link. This great man was born in the Netherlands in 1596 and died in 1626.  It is really difficult for me to comprehend how long ago that was.  That was prior to the Pilgrims, prior to New York even being called New Amsterdam when it was a Dutch Trading Post.  Willem was born 208 years before Lewis and Clark departed on the first expedition to explore the western portion of the United States!  Willem came before many explorers came to the United States and unfortunately I don't know when he arrived nor why.  I can only guess that he probably signed on to an expedition to the "new country" as a teenager as Holland was a major explorer of the New World, hoping to gain new land.  It is possible Willem died in the New York area but I don't know that either.
Willem was the First Generation of Hoppers.

Fast forward past the second generation to the Third generation and Hendrick Hopper was born January 9 of 1655 or 1656 in Hackensack, Bergen, New Jersey.  Hendrick is the great, great, great, great grandfather of artist, Edward Garrett Hopper, Ninth Generation of Hoppers.  

Edward Hopper  is one of the best known painters of the 20th century American genre and landscape.  He was born in Nyack, New York on July 22, 1922 one of two children.  His family was solidly middle class; his father, Garrett Henry Hopper owned a dry goods store where young Edward sometimes worked after school.
Perhaps you already know Edward was especially known for his paintings of interiors with isolated figures, for rural landscapes and marine scenes.  During much of his career, he lived half of the year in Greenwich Village, New York in a row house facing Washington Square and the other half of the year near Truo, MA on water with a view toward Provincetown.

New York Movie by Edward Hopper

Automat by Edward Hopper

Nighthawks by Edward Hopper

I married into the 12th generation of Hoppers.

Our great, great, great....you count the number of greats...grandfather is indeed one and the same

Willem Hopper.  My husband's grandfather James Calhoun Hopper had a general store, just as Edward's father had a dry goods store.

EDWARD AND I ARE ALSO LINKED THROUGH ART.

Edward first came to Maine in 1914.  Around 1914 Monhegan Island began to firmly establish itself as an Artist Colony.  Beginning in 1916 Edward Hopper painted Monhegan Island, Maine for four consecutive summers, concentrating primarily on distinctive rock formations such as Blackhead and Gull Rock.

Blackhead by Edward Hopper

Gull Rock by Edward Hopper

I too love Maine and this summer painted Monhegan Island.

Andrew Wyeth House, Monhegan by Carol Hopper

Edward and I both love the work of Andrew Wyeth.  Andrew Wyeth and Edward were contemporaries and were fond of one another's work.

 Andrew Wyeth spent summers in Maine for most of his life.

Christina's World by Andrew Wyeth
Christina Olson had a disability and is painted crawling home from the Olson family cemetery.

My pen and ink sketch of the Olson House

Well, I guess there are many dissimilarities as well
 I am nowhere near the painter Edward was and I am not famous, not even a little.  Edward made his living as a painter.  I only WISH I made a living as a painter.  Edward lived near the water.  I live near cactus and sage.  Edward was formally trained as artist. I have informally studied with many wonderful artists.

But for sure we both have traveled to 
Europe
 a number of times to paint.

I live with Edward Hopper every day because I chose to paint a legal copy, not for sale of
 "Portland Head Light"
by Carol Hopper after Edward Hopper

MAPLE JUICE COVE, MAINE

MAPLE JUICE COVE, MAINE

I think about my July/August trip to Maine a lot as it was a lifetime event.  I want to go back and often think about buying a little cottage in the mid-coast region.  If only.

I found it difficult to paint en plein air there because the colors seemed flat, the light key very high and the water vistas vast.  Can you see what I mean by comparing and contrasting the photographs below with my completed painting?

It took many days of plein air paintings and corrected paintings to see how important it was to zero in on a smaller area.  Paintings can't capture the vastness the eyes see.  But translating the view to a painting takes practice.  It is so important to sketch before painting.

On my last day on the mainland of Maine  I wandered looking for a coastal painting opportunity.  Way too often what I wanted to paint was on private property so it occurred to me to look for vacant "For Sale" waterfront property.  When I drove to this beautiful For Sale site, a handsome man was working in the yard giving me an opportunity to ask for permission.  He assured me it was ok to paint there.  

Maple Juice Cove, Maine by Carol Hopper
9x12, unframed, oil on gessobord
Click here to purchase

 The gorgeous house on Maple Juice Cove is still for sale and you might like to buy it at www.maplejuicecove.com.   The owner told me even more than I had previously learned about the Olson House which is located directly across the water to the left, out of my photograph.  If you are a lover of history and famous paintings and painters you might like to visit the Olson house website.

Edward Hopper is a very famous painter too, who painted this area.  I have thought about telling you how he is a relative of mine...through marriage.  Would you be interested in hearing that story?