SADNESS AND JOY

These last few weeks have been a series of ups and downs, sadness and joy.

Several months ago, I remember coming across a story about a Wayne Thiebaud exhibit in a California Museum (now I can't remember where). But, the show was closing soon and there was no way I could get to see it. I searched and googled and searched and googled, but could not find out where the show was going next. Oh, I would have loved to see that show!

Skip forward to last week. I was going through my emails, when I spotted an announcement from Wetcanvas.com where someone mentions that a printmaker I really admire

Frances Gearhart

(this is her woodblock print, "Sundown", 1936)

is having a show opening in Pasadena, California.

Wonderful! We are going to be in Pasadena in October. So, I went to the Pasadena Museum of California's website and Bam! the opening page has an image of a Wayne Thiebaud painting!

And the title of the page says, Join us for the opening of the "Wayne Thiebaud: 70 years of Painting" exhibit, the same exhibit I hadn't been able to attend earlier! Yippee! We are going to be in Pasadena during that show! And it's a double-header, Wayne Thiebaud and Frances Gearhart. I am so thrilled and can hardly wait.

Both of these extraordinary exhibits will be in Pasadena October 4th, 2009 through January 31st, 2010.

To refresh your memory and whet your appetite, here are two Thiebaud paintings,

Cakes, 1963

and

"Down 18th Street", 1980

And as for the sadness... a few weeks ago was the one year anniversary of losing Moe. My life has gone on, but as that date approached I started thinking more and more about her and how much I miss her. My heart still aches.

After about two weeks of no painting (or any other art-making) because I've been busy with life and cabinet-painting, I finally sat down to paint. Here is my rendition of a Thiebaud. I learned a lot about his style while doing this. I found it very enjoyable and very frustrating. Thiebaud is a master of control. His painting has absolutely perfect circles! I'm a long way from that kind of accuracy. Barring that, I realized that when left to my own I tend toward muddy neutrals. Thiebaud uses a lot of colors, but they remain very clean, very true. I had to 'clean' up my style. He also is working in oil while I'm working with acrylics, so that makes for a few style differences.

Because Moe's 15th birthday, would have been October 9th, I painted this for her:

acrylic on canvas, 11" x 14", "Moe's 15th Birthday"

Sadness in the loss of such a grand companion, and joy in the memories.