Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

from the Strickland Clan!

We have long history of doing silly face pictures. It started as a bargaining chip.

Parental Unit to the kids, "Do one nice smiling face and then we'll take a silly face picture." 

Little did we know that these pictures would quickly become our favorites.

 Who knew children were so wise?

Happy Holidays! December Newsletter

Paintings, a magazine feature and a free story at Terry Strickland Art. Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. Happy Holidays! December 2011 Issue Thanks for signing up to receive my monthly newsletter. Here's a bit of news from our corner of the art world. My work is featured in this month's Poets and Artists Magazine, Issue #30! Poets and Artists is a gorgeous and very cool print-on-demand and digital publication, self described as Publishing as an Art Form. The print version will be available only until the next issue is out in Jan, the digital version will remain available indefinitely. I'm thrilled to have my work shown alongside some very awesome artists and poets. This magazine is an exciting example of the current dynamic changes in the world of publishing. You can see more about it on a blog post I did featuring the work of some of the other artists featured this month. A Holiday Sale - Oil Sketches From the Studio Amy Reading, 12x9, oil on linen, $450 I'm offering small alla prima oil sketches for the first time this holiday season. These paintings are priced $400-$450, framed and shipped, sales tax will be applied within the state of Alabama, US. Magnolia Gardens-Charleston, 8x10, oil on panel, $400 See all 11 oil sketches with information about prices and sizes here. Holiday Small Works Show at Principle Gallery I have two paintings in this Holiday Show at Principle Gallery, this one is Fire Dance. The show opened Dec. 4 and runs through the end of the month in Alexandria, VA. Holiday Show at Peterson-Cody Gallery The Bribe, 11x14, oil on panel Check out the gallery's small works show if you're in Santa Fe, NM or on-line. In Cincinnati, OH, see my work at Miller Gallery See you in the New Year! Forward to a Friend Teaching Spotlight AVOID WHITE AND BLACK LIKE IT’S THE PLAGUE! Well not really, but I do use white and black as a last resort.  Try this for more luminous and less chalky oil paintings. Start with your most transparent paints and mix up a BIG puddle of mid to dark tones. Take part of that puddle of pure color and modify it lighter. Instead of adding white, try this: 1. Add a lighter color from the same color family. Add an orange, for instance, if you want to mix a lighter red. 2. Add a lighter color from a different color family. Ask yourself “Is the color I’m after also warmer?” if so then add an opaque yellow like Yellow Ochre or Cad Yellow, “Is the color I’m after also cooler?” in that case use Cerulean or Chromium Oxide Green. Once you do that NEVER try to get the color back to the original color. The color is forever polluted by the white and will result in chalky mid-tones and shadows. INSTEAD go back to your original puddle, take part of that puddle and modify it darker. Instead of adding black, try this: 1. Add a darker color from the same color family. Need a darker blue? add a Thalo blue. Something darker red? add Alizarin or Red Madder Deep 2. Add a darker color from a different color family. Need a darker red that also needs to be less intense add a Thalo Green. 3. Add a dark brown earth tone such as Burnt Umber. This keeps your painting’s shadows and mid-tones more transparent which results in more luminous paintings. Here's a blog post about my Inspiration Quotient for a recent painting. Feel free to email me with topics you’d like to read about here! Ongoing Oil Painting Class at Forstall Art Center Birmingham, AL, Tuesdays, 9:30-12:30, to register email terrystr@terrystricklandart.com Class size limited to 10 students. Strickland Family Biz News A Creative and Independent Company The Stricklands at Matter Deep Publishing invite you to enjoy a FREE story on us for the holidays. Kyle's story about working retail at Christmas will make you smile for sure, so take a moment for yourself and enjoy Smile and Greet the Customer in ePub, Kindle or PDF formats. Sunshine's Night Out is on SALE through Amazon for $9.35 (down from $12.99) and free shipping with a $25 purchase. And here's another great Sunshine review and giveaway. Contact Terry Email (205) 664-5331 Website Blog forward to a friend  Copyright © *|CURRENT_YEAR|* *|LIST:COMPANY|*, All rights reserved. *|IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE|* *|LIST:DESCRIPTION|* Our mailing address is: *|HTML:LIST_ADDRESS_HTML|**|END:IF|* *|IF:REWARDS|* *|HTML:REWARDS|* *|END:IF|*  unsubscribe from this list | update subscription preferences

Poets and Artists Magazine

I'm thrilled to announce that my work is featured in this month's Poets and Artists Magazine, Issue #30, Dec 2011! 

Open publication - Free publishing - More art. poetry

Poets and Artists is a print-on-demand and digital publication published through hp MagCloud, by Didi Menendez. The magazine will be available in print ($22) until the next magazine comes out in January and available in digital form ($5) indefinitely. You can preview the entire magazine and read it on line.

This magazine is an exciting example of the dynamic changes in the current world of publishing. A beautiful full-color magazine that is produced and printed on demand, how exciting! That was unimaginable even a few years ago.

Here are a couple screen shots of my work as they appear in the magazine.

One of the other artists in this issue is Aron Wiesenfeld who's work I adore. It's beautiful and strangely disturbing. Aron shows at Arcadia Gallery in NYC.

Aron Wiesenfeld, Train Tunnel, 30x32, 2009

Fatima Ronquillo, who's work is gorgeous and equally surreal.

Fatima Ronquillo, Lady With Honey Thief

There's also an interview with Victoria Selbach and images of her larger than life acrylic nudes. Her use of light and shadows on the form creates interest abstraction.

Victoria Selbach, Mary 1, 32x30, Acrylic, 2011

Another magical painter in the magazine is Chris Sedgwick.

Chris Sedgwick, three Mythographers, 29x48, oil on canvas, 2011

There is also really cool work by Daniel Maidman,  and Aunia Kahn,  as well as a slew of poets: Ron Androla, David Krump. Pris Campbell, Joann Balingit, Joshua Gray and Michael Parker to name a few.


A few links for you of posts about my work that's in the magazine:
"Bram's Lullaby, The Incognito Project" 
"The Lion Tamer, The Incognito Project"
"The Bribe", which is currently showing at the Peterson-Cody Gallery's Holiday Show in Santa Fe, NM.

How to Reuse Oil Painting Panels or Canvases

Those experimental or failed oil sketches just seem to stack up. And while we rejoice in them and understand that they are stepping stones to where we want to be artistically...

Seems a shame to throw them out BUT we really must get rid of them ourselves because our grandchildren won't be able part with them. Who knows they might end up in a museum years from now, yikes!

I reuse them, who knows, the next sketch might be successful?

First, I hand sanded the panels (consider wearing a mask), then applied Gamblin Oil Painting Ground with a window squeegee. If the oil ground is too thick you can thin it with a few drops of OMS. This resulted in an almost slick surface.

I recently read about rolling the still wet surface with a white, house painting roller that has a low nap to get a slight texture. I will try that next time just to experiment.

A word of caution, I've been asked by students if they can simply use acrylic gesso to paint over their old oil paintings. The answer is no, gesso is water base which should never be used over oil based paint. It might seem like it's sticking but could eventually peel off and of course that will be on the very panel you've done your Mona Lisa on.

Here are a few alla prima sketches and plein air paintings that survived the cut...for now. 

Here's a link to a video of painter and Gamblin technical support representative Scott Gellatly, demonstrating applying their oil ground product to panels and canvases.

Have you found a great way to resurface your little stepping stone oil sketches? I'd love to hear your solutions.

Principle Gallery, Geoffrey Johnson, Martin Poole and Holiday Small Works Show

Opening Saturday, December 3, 2011, 1:00-4:00pm
I'm happy to have couple pieces in this show!

“Veni, Vidi, Vici”, 14x11, oil on panel

“Fire Dance”, 8x10, oil on panel

Veni, Vidi, Vici was a really fun painting to do. I love it when I smile through the process! 

Fire Dance is a bit of a trek to our darker side but I enjoy going there too.

Geoffrey Johnson

From the Principle Gallery website, Geoffrey's Artist Statement:

A native of North Carolina, Geoffrey Johnson received his classical training at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia.  Since his time there, he has established himself as a true innovator, successfully capturing the alluring space between abstraction and realism.   A fascination with both the human figure and the powerful architecture of a modern city play a large role in his oils.  Through a feeling of anonymity, figures become suggestive shapes and the skyline of New York materializes mysteriously in the background.  The paintings embody the mood of each urban experience.

Martin Poole

I enjoy both these artist's work very much. They are spectacular in person. Here are links to the gallery's page for Martin Poole, and  Geoffrey Johnson.

Here are some of my other posts about shows at Principle Gallery.  It's located in Old Towne, at 208 King Street, Alexandria VA. Here's a link to the gallery's home page.

Behind the Scenes : Write and Illustrate a Children's Picture Book

My kids, Kyle and Carly, recent graduates of Savannah College of Art and Design, have just published their first book together. It's a children's picture book about a Chinese hamster they owned when they were roomies in college.

Since I'm the mom I've been privy to each step along the way. It's been entertaining for me, seeing it come to fruition, so I thought I'd share.

Continue reading below the break for the step by step.

How to Keep Paintings From Sliding in the Frame

Here's a simple solution to prevent your paintings from sliding around in a frame that doesn't have a tight fit.  It's always annoying when a painting shifts around during shipping and scratches the surface of the paint.

Back Side of The Certainty of Youth and The Complexity of Wisdom

I cut a few pieces of black foam core and use them as spacers between the edge of the painted panel and the edge of the frame.

In this instance the thickness of the foam core was the correct thickness to keep the painting snug. If it needs to be smaller the foam core can squish together, its kind of springy and that works too. If you have a bigger space you can use the foam core flat rather than on the side.

I find the best solution is to do a floating frame but depending on the design of the piece that is not always viable.

The gessoed panel or canvas is secured in the frame with a Fletcher's Framer's Point Driver. It's the best thing since sliced bread.

Another indispensable tool is the Fletcher PullMate, for removing the points.

Front Side of The Certainty of Youth and The Complexity of Wisdom

This painting is at Peterson-Cody Gallery in Santa Fe, NM., and here are a couple posts I did about the making of the work:

Black and White Or Shades of Gray?

 

The Inspiration Quotient or Mr. Coffee

 

I'm working on my November newsletter introducing plein air and alla prima oil sketches I've done over the past year.

 

To get the 7 tips for Plein Air painting that I learned the hard way, sign up to receive my monthly newsletter here.

On Reading "The Help" and Growing Up Southern

With my painting Agape at the Embracing Our Differences art installation, 2009, Sarasota, Florida.

Embracing Our Differences is an international art competition where paintings are turned into billboards and school children from the area are brought to tour the exhibit. Teaching materials are available to help teachers in their dialog about this subject.

I'm reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett. It's a great book and I can see why it's been wildly popular and made into a movie. I love books about growing up in the south, a few favorite authors are Pat Conroy, Mark Childress and Rick Bragg. However the idea of having a maid or an African American nanny is not in the realm of my family's experience.

It has been interesting to contrast and compare the south of The Help with my own growing up in the south experience. I was raised on the space coast of Florida in the sixties and seventies and have always been proud of being southern, but sometimes I wonder if I really know what that means. Moving to Alabama in 1994 has given me a different perspective, maybe what they say about Florida not really being The South is true.

Agape, detail

My grandparents and great-grandparents were very poor laborers, share croppers and tenant farmers. They lived in tobacco sheds and roamed north Florida and south Georgia looking for work during the depression and in the couple of decades after. My great grandfather was an immigrant from Ireland and had six daughters, not a blessing for a man that makes his living cutting railroad ties.

My father joined the air force before I was born and that gave my nuclear family the boost it needed to latch on to the middle class American dream. He was the first in our family to get an education, going to community college as an adult on the GI Bill.

I missed the civil rights movement being too young to know what was going on but I do remember tension in the schools and hearing my parents talk about the black panther movement and the protests against the Vietnam War. My dad spent my 1st grade year in Vietnam.

Whenever I have encountered racism I'm always shocked and never know how to respond. When we first moved to Alabama I was surprised to find that there were NO public swimming pools. There were expensive private swim clubs you could join and that's what my neighbors did.

I just assumed that the taxes are so low in Alabama that there isn't funding for luxuries like recreation parks with swimming pools. A few years later the Birmingham News ran an article about how the Birmingham area dealt with forced integration in the 60's and 70's and one of the things was that when public pools were forced to integrate they were all filled in.

It was one of those times I was sad to be a southerner, but it gave me a great conversation starter with my kids.

There was a time when I was helping my daughter study Martin Luther King, Jr's I Have a Dream Speech. I got choked up. She didn't understand what all the fuss was about because she'd been raised with the gospel according to poet/writer Shel Silverstein.

“No Difference"

Small as a peanut,
Big as a giant,
We're all the same size
When we turn off the light.

Rich as a sultan,
Poor as a mite,
We're all worth the same
When we turn off the light.

Red, black or orange,
Yellow or white,
We all look the same
When we turn off the light.

So maybe the way,
To make everything right
Is for god to just reach out
And turn off the light!” 

I have done a couple paintings where I've attempted to talk about the issue of racism. My way to present it, is to paint it the way it should be, the way I see things.

Agape, 30x48, oil on canvas over panel, 2006

Harmony Works, 28x30, oil on canvas over panel

If so many things about the south bother me, why do I still have a warm spot in my heart for being southern? 

Here's a short list, the good things about the South I love... 

There's always room at the table for one more dinner guest.

We're not afraid of hard work, I think of my grandmother working at a canning plant to feed six children.

Our philosophy is why go with a handshake when a hug feels so much better?

You can't get better story tellers than Southerners, wish you could have heard my dad spinning yarns!

Southerners listen - that's what makes them such good story tellers.

Even though I'm officially the first artist in the family don't believe it, my grandfather's colorful pantry full of canned goods from his garden was a work of art. 

And a couple more details from the paintings.

Agape, detail

Agape, detail

Harmony Works, detail

Embracing Ours Differences is still going strong and you can enter the show and find out more about the program here.

Extraterrestrials in Santa Fe?

I was only there for a couple days for my show opening at Peterson-Cody Gallery, which will be up through the end of November, 2011. I explored the downtown area and poked my head in a few galleries as well as the New Mexico Museum of Art.

It all seemed exotic and alien to my southern eyes, you'll see what I mean.

Crop circles, crops in a circle, twentieth century art?

Being a southern gardener, when I see a plant I immediately name it,  couldn't do it there, they were like alien plants.

Coolest art EVER by Rik Allen at the Blue Rain Gallery, blown glass and steel. Inside the glass capsule is a tiny red chair. Love, love, love the retro sci-fi stuff, his show was titled Adrift.

Then there were the actual aliens, street art aliens that is.

More street art. I love discovering this stuff. If anyone can identify the artists let me know. This one might be documenting the alien crash sight.

Artist, Martin Spei defying gravity with his Meteorite Man at gf Contemporary.

Karen Lamonte, cast glass, at the New Mexico Museum of Art. (possibly an abduction, only the kimono remains). Seriously, I've seen Karen's work many times and it never fails to amaze and mesmerize me.

Awesome Judy Chicago from 2000, also at the museum. Cast glass and paint with a light behind it. Kyrptonite?

Jacob Pfeiffer's work is entirely other worldly, so delicate, the colors glow! This one is Bulbous, 8x10, oil on panel, at Meyer East Gallery.

Think about actually going cross country in that thing. This was at my hotel, The Old Santa Fe Inn, a nice place to stay, right downtown and very reasonable. Starbucks 'round the clock in the lobby, and a free hot burrito breakfast bar, free wi-fi that works, yes!

Adobe construction is so bizarre and beautiful. It's everywhere, no brick or siding in sight. I was very curious about the construction.

Then I met a couple guys in the process of repairing a building. The were nice enough to answer my crazy tourist questions.

They showed me this section where the adobe bricks are visible. Also it turns out the color is a tinted lime wash and not really paint.

Evidence of extraterrestrials in New Mexico-you decide? I'm just here to ask the tough questions.

Where No Man Has Gone Before

Veni, Vidi, Veci

More later about other art and the fabulous food!

More info for those inquiring minds:

My and Forrest Solis' show installed at Peterson-Cody.

Below is a video, with commentary about the work in the show.

Karen LaMonte's work

The New Mexico Museum of Art

The Meyer East Gallery 

The gf Contemporary

Blue Rain Gallery
Terry Strickland Art YouTube Channel