News from Fredericksburg

Maryneil Dance, People's Choice Award and Joanne Spencer, Artists Choice Award

This week has been a busy one. I have been finishing up the paperwork for the past weekend art show for Die Kunstler Von Fredericksburg (The Artists of Fredericksburg) art show. I was the largest show to date with 320 paintings entered. I am happy and proud to announce that I won The People’s Chaoice award this year for my wolf Snow Blanket. I have a picture of the wolf in my past blog. The one looking sideways.

New Paintings This Week

I just uploaded 4 small paintings I finished this week.  They are 5″x5″ and I think they would make a neat grouping.  I will have them framed in a wide wood frame.  Decided to use some of my Alaska pictures of the bear and Cheeta (who was in the zoo in Anchorage)!  To see them look under paintings pastel and they are the latest ones.  Had fun and hope you enjoy them.  We have an art show coming up November 11-12-13 and hope to show these.  Maryneil

News From The Hill Country

I cannot believe I wait so long to update my post.  Yes, it has been a year.  Shame on me.  I am going to write more often as I paint away in my studio.  This has been the worst year in Texas…no rain, over 100 for days on end, it has been bleak.  We did escape to Colorado in August, just couldn’t wait until September when we usually go.  We had the best time and I painted 18 (yes!) paintings.  I have so many photos to choose from and I am constantly photographing animals everywhere I go.  I have concentrated on my pastel art and believe it is getting better all the time.  Visiting the wolves at Mission Wolf was the most helpful.  I must have spent 4 hours watching them and was allowed to go into the area with a family of wolves.  The male wolf took a liking to me and actually licked my face.  Now before you decide “she has lost it” or “she is out of her mind!”….These wolves are rescued from people who tried to raise them from puppies.  It doesn’t work…then they want to get rid of them because they are so destructive and hard to manage.  When I paint these wonderful animals it is like “Build A Wolf”.  Working from their deep undercoat and building up to the guard hair’s is the way I do it.  But it is the eyes that are the most important part. 

You will see some new things soon with photos from the zoo of snow leopards and cheetah.  But I have been neglecting my horse paintings and need to revisit that soon.  Miss them.  I still ride my horses every week…really early this summer, as by 10am it was too hot.  But now with the temps in the 50-60 degrees in the mornings, I can actually wait until later.  Love this time of year. 

We are so very fortunate that here in Fredericksburg we have 14 galleries.  It is becoming a destination for art!  So many wonderful artist’s to inspire you to do better than you thought you could!  Every first friday there is an “Art Walk” where the galleries have openings and stay open later.  What an education to see all the new paintings.   Well I have gone on for enough time…I promise to bring you more news soon.  Hope you like my new work. 

…news from the Hillcountry.

It is way past time to update this website.  So I will take this chance to update you on my progress through the developing of my art.  It is a process by the way, as every day I put pastel to paper, I learn something new. 

My sweet husband, I will refer as TD, and I make a trek to Colorado every summer to paint.  The process of packing our supplies, two dogs, food, clothes, art supplies, etc. brings us valuable knowledge for the next time we do it.  

After much discussion we decide on August as our target to leave.  Not a really hard decision this year as the mercury started climbing to 100 everyday, and it looked like there was no break in the future.  So we start planning……We have down the clothes category as we wear the same thing most everyday!   We each pack a large plastic tub full of our canvases, paper, paints, supplies etc. These are taped shut and packed in the back of our pickup truck along with a third tub for food.  Two small suitcases and two dogs get the back seat.  It is easy!  Yeah, right….Seems like endlessly going over what we have packed and what we will need. Would enable us to not forget that inevitable “something” every year…..  We are in a very remote area between Gunnison and Crested Butte, Colorado so it isn’t easy to just run to town…..

As we happily get to our destination and settle in, the job of setting up our spaces to paint in this lovely cabin on the mountain is a real process.  We will spend everyday at this location painting for hours…..As I get everything ready: easel, paints everything in reach, dog comfortable laying under the easel, decide which painting I want to do, choosing a photo I made, or should I paint “plein air?“…..as I reach to start…….This year, I forgot my oil brushes!  Yes, hard to paint with out them…..  Law of  Demand???  After moaning and groaning over this mistake, TD, calmly and generously lends me three of his brushes.  By this time my brain was very bent out of shape, negative thinking etc., and just could not get them to work for me like my magic brushes do…ha ha….So I painstakingly complete two oil paintings and even try plein air painting for inspiration.  I am frustrated beyond belief! 

This process set up a life changing decision for me. Maybe “it was meant to be“, but it gave me that moment we all have, when we turn the corner and see the LIGHT!  As I sat out on the deck of the cabin in the cool air looking down at the valley with a stream, cattle grazing happily, I decide to think this through and gather myself together.  I have weeks here to be productive!  I say to myself, “Pull yourself together girl!” I always start painting first with oils as they take longer to dry, and then finish painting with pastels about half way though our stay…. Oil painting is more work for me compared to my work with pastels.  Wise and wonderful, TD, says to me “do what you do best, you are a pastel artist!  BINGO “The truth be told!”

I realize I am a pastel artist, good or bad…..  Why am I trying to be something else!  So here are the paintings I completed as I happily went to work using my wonderful pastels. 

One other thing you need to know, I purchased a beautiful camera with telephoto lens this year to get accurate photos of my subjects, animals in their habitats.  We travelled Alaska, and spent time at Mission Wolf, a wolf refuge in Colorado.  I also went to Friday night team roping, local rodeos, cattle drives, and right on our own ranch got shots of our wildlife, horses, longhorns, dogs etc.  I am blessed with a full range of wonderful shots now to keep me busy for a long time…..Just this morning I got a shot of two red-tailed hawks and a young deer behind our house!  This is rewarding and fun.   So plan to see more of my new work since my “ah ha” moment on a mountain in Colorado!

Please check out the new Pastel work (first 7 painting) in the Flicker Gallery – to the right of this blog.

Art Past Dark : BEST OF SHOW!

Maryneil at the Die Kunstler von Fredricksburg 17th Annunal Art Show

 

This was so exciting for me.  I found out this was the first time that an artist has won both awards!  Best of Show and Artist Choice (voted on by the artists) The painting sold immediately too.  I am working on a new “wolf” so you can see the progression.  

 

I painted this while in Colorado this September from a photo.  I used pastels both hard and soft on Ampersand pastel board.