It has been way too long since I posted in this blog, but I am hoping to get back into a regular schedule very soon.
To begin to catch up, I thought I'd do a post about the "Paint Sarasota!" paint-out that I particpated in a few weeks ago. The plein air competition is run through the Light-Chasers organization, an avid group of plein air painters out of Southwest Florida that includes some illustrious master plein air painters like Bill Farnsworth, Hodges Soileau, Katie Dobson Cundiff and Dominic Avant, to name a few. The group is large and run by a board of directors, with Terry Mason, of Sarasota, as director.
Terry works very hard, and this year her hard work really paid off when the annual Paint-out and show produced over $10,000 in sales , which will be put to good use to help restore the historic farmhouse at Phillipi Creek.
It was a fabulous night for me, personally. I was gifted with an award by the amazingly talented and wonderful judge Morgan Samuel Price, which included a Raymar wet paint carrier, filled with an asoortment of incredibly wonderful Raymar panels, as well as a generous gift certificate to Sarasota Art and Frame. Here I am with the thumb's up sign to signal my happiness!
In addition, my painting sold to an amazing artist in her own right, Louise Pond, who took 2 nd place in this year's plein air competition. Here is a picture of Louise with Morgan.
To complete my hat trick, I won the raffle for Bill Farnsworth's lovely painting of the Edson Keith Mansion, "Hangin' with Albin." Bill is an amazing guy, with boundless energy to both paint and teach. He's won countless awards, been juried into OPA and other prestigious shows over the years, but still manages to hold workshops that are a blessing to artists like myself, who want to improve while maintaining their own signature style. I took one of Bill's workshops recently and cannot recommend him enough as a teacher! Here's the image of my beautiful painting!
The gala was a truly memorable night and I had a chance to hang out with some special friends as well.
These paint-outs are a lot of work for both the artists and the volunteers, but the rewards are tremendous. The painting above was done on a sunny morning and I love sunny light-filled paintings. It is sold, but if you have any interest in it, please feel free to contact me about a similar commissioned piece at maryannejacobsen@aol.com.
Thanks for checking in! Hopefully I'll be keeping this blog more updated in the days to come!
