Newest in the Rock Hall series...

"Rock Hall Hair Net and Little Free Library" is the newest in the series of Rock Hall paintings!  See the image in the "Gallery of Paintings" below.

Be sure to visit Rock Hall and both of these subjects...The Hair Net offering salon and nail services...and right out front, The Rock Hall Little Free Library, to swap a book of your own for one in this tiny library.

All Rock Hall paintings are available at The Hickory Stick at 21326 Sharp Street in downtown Rock Hall, MD and through my website www.SimpleJoysLLC.com.



First Place, Professional Category!

Diane was recently awarded First Place in the Professional Artist category, National Arts Program: State of Delaware Employee Exhibition II, for her painting of The Green in Dover, Delaware.

 

Over two hundred employees of state agencies and their immediate family members participated this year. All artwork was exhibited at Delaware State University Arts Center/Gallery in March 2013. 

 

Visit the Division of the Arts webpage: http://www.artsdel.org/NAP/ .

"FAMILIAR PLACES" Exhibit

I had the nice opportunity to show 12 paintings on First Friday, August 3, at Hogan's Gallery in Chestertown, Maryland.  Most of the work featured my signature pen/ink/watercolor technique in images of familiar places in Rock Hall, Chestertown, Dover and Smyrna. 

Special thanks to Laura Drons, Realtor for Hogans Real Estate, who oversees Hogan's Gallery at 100 Memorial Plaza, and to friends, old and new, that came to enjoy opening night, complete with wine and cheese.

I plan to continue the theme of "Familiar Places", so check back or send me your email address so that I can let you know when new images are completed, as some have already decided to collect the whole series! SimpleJoys.LLC@gmail.com.

Images are available as note cards and prints (8 x 10). Note cards are $5 each and matted prints, ready for framing, are $45.  Shipping is included in pricing.

A Personal Victory!

A partly sunny and 72 degree day proved to be a winner for me at Kent County Tourism's first-ever Plein Air Paint Out held at Old Dover Days on May 6!  I quickly found a view of a beautiful historic residence, and took a corner perspective that showed glimpses of a lovely side patio as well as a front view of the classical home, doppled with sunlight and surrounded by spring foliage.  Using pen/ink & watercolor, I thoroughly enjoyed capturing this view, while talking with passersby.  I was thrilled to learn that the end result was a second place win in the Paint Out!  The painting was part of the First Friday exhibit at the Dover Art League.

More Plein Air - Spring 2012!

April 27 - 29 proved to be another exciting outdoor painting experience, with eight pen and ink/watercolor paintings completed!  Cool weather pervaded Saturday but a sunny Sunday morning rounded the experience out with a 2 hour "Quick Draw", drawing to framing in just two hours.  "Against The Grain" bakery was the site I chose for the Quick Draw, as both the bakery - and the building - are personal favorites of mine.  Several personal and professional victories resulted from this meaningful weekend, including the opportunity to paint in Laura Drons' beautiful yard and garden in Chestertown.  See images of several of the paintings completed on this weekend in may Gallery of Paintings.  Another outdoor painting opportunity is planned for this morning at Old Dover Days - stay tuned!

Multi-Media Approach

At its best, watercolor alone by a skilled artist can be beautiful, transparent, and colorful!  At the same time, the addition of watercolor pencil and pen and ink mediums to some images can add boldness of line and strength of color that can be hard to achieve by watercolor alone.  While I have explored watercolor painting to move myself away from rigidity, this multi-media approach is quite a natural extention of my background in architectural rendering.  If it works better for some paintings and adds variety to my work...why fight it?

Plein Air Paint Out

I recently participated in Chestertown Art League's "Plen Aire Paint Out" - a thoroughly engaging outdoor painting experience!  All four completed paintings were displayed at the Saturday evening exhibition, with several of my pieces selling...just hours after completion and framing! Perhaps next year, you will join me at the exhibition of completed work?