Spirit at the Museum

It's been an amazing busy weekend, and about all the energy I've got left is to poke the 'upload' button to share some photos with you.

Every couple of years the Museum of Nebraska Art in Kearney, Nebraska (where else?) hosts a very classy fundraising event.

Over 50 artists from Nebraska are invited to participate by making a few pieces of their artwork available through either a silent or public auction.  Two things make this event pretty great. The first is that at least half of the invited artists are women, thankyew very much, and the other is that the artist is offered a respectable percent of the final price.  This puts the Museum of Nebraska Art in the forefront of classy fundraising events.

A few highlights of the weekend:

The museum itself was decked out beautifully

A gourmet dinner was provided in the big tent outside.

Handsome Husband and I clean up pretty good in anticipation of the evening's event.

Cherry County pastel Sold!

Rumble, 30x30 oil Sold!

Proceeds will help continue the great work of this gem of the plains. Do I have to tell you how proud and delighted I am to be a part of such an event?

Huge thanks and appreciation to the entire staff of the museum. It must have taken many dozens of dedicated people to keep track of the millions of details required to keep the evening running smoothly. Every one of them was kind, patient and very helpful.

Here's to the next two years of magnificent exhibits and outreach from the Museum of Nebraska Art.

. 

Small and Mighty

Tis the season...

and since everything I have written today sounds like bad copy for a strip mall luring frazzled customers into their holiday sales events, let me just say that I'll be participating in two seasonal exhibits again this year.

The Lux Center for the Arts Wrappable event will open their holiday extravaganza on November 1st with dozens of wonderful artists who have created some very cool work at a variety of price ranges.

The Museum of Nebraska Art will open their 25th year of A Kaleidoscope of Art on November 1st & 2nd.

I'll be offering small, very lovely paintings at each venue so that you can prove to your special someones that you are indeed a very classy person.

A sampling to wet your whistle -

©2014 Patricia Scarborough First Star 6x8" oil

©2014 Patricia Scarborough Great Plains 6x8" oil

©2014 Patricia Scarborough Homestead  6x8" oil

©2014 Patricia Scarborough Loup River Valley 6x8" oil

Plumbing and Painting

If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.       - James Goldsmith

We’ve had some major plumbing done recently. It involved digging giant holes in the yard with complicated machinery and finally a mound of dirt that they promise will settle.

The bill will be enough to raise our eyebrows, of that I have no doubt.

We’re a lot the same, plumbers and painters. We have expenses that others outside the business don’t stop to consider but which still have to be accounted for. We also have skills that others don’t have but wish they did. The better the skill the better the product, and the final price will often raise eyebrows.

Have you ever hired a cheap plumber? Bet you only made that mistake once. 

Handsome Husband and I will pay our plumber on time and sign the check with a flourish because he earned it. We want water, and we want it in the right place at the right time and the exact time we need it. Our plumber has earned his paycheck.

Into the Woods, 6 x 8 oil, $300, available at Burkholder Project, Lincoln, Ne.

 

Buy the fine art you love.

 

 

Coming Home, 11 x 14 oil, $540, available at Norfolk Arts Center, Norfolk, Ne.

 

Don't play cheap.


 

Howard County at Dusk, 6 x 8 oil, $250 available at MONA in Kearney, Ne.

 

Really gorgeous artwork is also available at Graham Gallery in Hastings, Ne., and Lux Art Center in Lincoln, Ne.

Buy the good stuff the first time. You'll never regret it.

 

 

 

Not Today

Greetings Dear Reader –

I've often said that the goal of this blog is to post something by 9 pm on Sunday whether I have anything to say or not.

For the most part I am able to rub a couple of brain cells together and squeeze out a thought that I may or may not have known I had.

File today's post under the “not” category.

This is the weekend after Thanksgiving. We had a lovely holiday with gobs of siblings and spouses, with a few young’uns tossed in for fun.  The table was laid out with abundant food and shared with those we love most. For that I am truly grateful.

The hard part is not the preparation, cooking or cleaning up. The hardest part is in saying goodbye to family who, it seems, just arrived. How is it they spent days here and we hardly had time to visit?

And now, because it is the Sunday After Thanksgiving, the Christmas tree has been hauled in from its place in the garage, erected and lovingly graced with priceless, one-of-a-kind ornaments.

 

After laughing and eating and teasing and eating and debating and eating, eye-rolling and eating, long walks and one last lick of the spoon, I confess I am pooped.

As I sit here in my jams at noon, dining on the remains of our holiday feast, all I can think of to say is, thank you. I am deeply grateful for all of you. And maybe this:  while you're out and about this next month, keep this in mind ...

My exhibit, titled Common Ground, will be at Norfolk Arts Center until December 29^th. I’m pretty proud of it.

The Burkholder Project and Lux Art Center in Lincoln proudly display my work, as does Graham Gallery in Hastings and the Museum of NebraskaArt in Kearney.

As for me,  I've got just one more thing to do...

What's Next?

Handsome Husband and I were chatting recently about ideas and themes I wanted to explore soon.

 I was tossing out ideas right and left; another painting-a-day series, a highway series, a batch of itty bitty pieces or maybe some great big square canvases would be interesting. Skies, tree rows, open fields, alley-ways or maybe even some still life paintings would be appealing. Oooh! I saw some collages that looked like fun! And there was this abstract piece…

True to form, HH cut through the fog and said, “What’s your goal here?”

 

2012 Patricia Scarborough 4x6 oil Patterns of Spring

 

Hm.

Well…umm…hmmmm.

For the last couple of years my focus has been in interpreting the landscape of central Nebraska in the best way I can. My goal was to be prepared to exhibit whenever invited to do so, and to provide the best work I could for these opportunities. I’ve been honored with multiple exhibits to showcase the work I’ve done in this vein. I feel comfortable saying I achieved my intent.

Faced with an open calendar and time to explore, I find no easy response to HH's question.

I don’t have an answer.

I don’t have an answer because this is real life, and solving the riddle of Now What? is not as easy as picking from a list of multiple choice responses.  I don’t get an A for picking the best answer or for impressing Handsome Husband – or you – with my cleverly worded statement of intent.

Whew. This is going to take some thought. In fact, even as I sit here ready and willing to type out the answer to that question my fingers hit the delete button as often as they pick out words to explain my intentions. That fact alone should tell me something.

So, rather than continuing the rhythmic typing-deleting-typing-deleting that I’ve been engaged in for the last hour, how about I spend some time over the next weeks or months pondering this idea.  There’s no deadline to sweat. No expectations other than my own to deal with.

 

2012 Patricia Scarborough Reconciliation II 9x24 oil

I do know that I want to learn to paint really well. In the end that may be enough. I’ll let you know.

In the meantime:

The Museum of Nebraska Art’s Kaleidoscope of Art event is the weekend of November 3 and 4^th. I’ll be there with some really lovely small paintings for you.

My Norfolk Arts Center exhibit titled Common Ground will open November 8^th through December 29^th.  Opening reception is Thursday November 15^th from 6 to 8 pm.
Make it your goal to stop by and see what I’ve been up to.

Getting Groove-y

I love my groove.

A groove, not to be confused with a rut, is a lovely smooth place where one can glide easily through the day. The mind, not bothered with routine details like which hand to grab a spoon with, or which direction to take a walk, can fill itself with more delightful pursuits such as scooping up just the right colors of paint for an autumn landscape. Unfettered from repetitive details the mind can focus on imaginings and what ifs.

My groove has taken quite a beating lately.  Not one single event, but several of varying degrees of importance, have thrown me off kilter. 

I lurched along rather badly at first. Starting this before finishing that, muddling through and around before wobbling toward evening uncertain whether I’d gotten done what I’d gotten started. (Kind of like that sentence.)  With some thought and awareness my scattered stumbling has become a kind of dance, however clumsy and awkward. With some practice and attention I have developed a suitable sort of jitterbug-careening two-step that has helped me accomplish the tasks that I once floated through without missing a beat.

Tomorrow is Monday, as good a day as any to start fresh.  Monday October 22^nd. 

Monday October twenty second??

I think it just happened. I can feel the cogs slide into place and the machinery begin to move smoothly. 

Ah the specter of deadline.  The dot at the end of the sentence, the slamming of the door, the raising of the curtain.  It’s now or never.  Zero hour.  Play big or go home.

Here’s what’s coming like a freight train:

The annual Kaleidoscope of Arts at the Museum of Nebraska Art Nov 3 from 11am to 5pm and November 4 from 1pm to 5pm.  This is a terrific 2-day event showcasing over 30 artists with new work suitable for holiday shopping.  I’ve got some real beauties to show you.

  ©2012 Patricia Scarborough 6x8 oil Into the Woods

Available soon at the Museum of Nebraska Art's Kaileidoscope of Art event

Then it’s off to the Norfolk Art Center in Norfolk Ne.  to deliver paintings for an exhibit there with sculptor Travis Apel which opens November 9^th.  More excellent work to show you.

Graham Gallery and The Burkholder Project, as well as LuxArt Center are getting ready to open their doors with fresh new work for the holidays as well. Yeah, lots of goodies for them as well.

 

©2012 Patricia Scarborough 6x8 oil Moonlit

Available soon at Lux Art Center

I got my groove back. Funny how a little panic will do that for a person.

Doggone It

I am riding on the horns of a dilemma. What a lovely place to be.

Perhaps an explanation is in order.

 

©2012 Patricia Scarborough Spring Dance 8 x 6 oil 

Available beautifully framed at Lux Art Center, Lincoln, Ne., November 7- December 24

 

Early on in this painting adventure I tried to follow the crowd, painting what the decorator’s promised were the popular colors and motifs. They warned us that if we didn’t paint sunflowers or angels or whatever was popular that year, and in just the right combination of colors, we’d never sell a thing.  When the dust settled I ended up with no sales and a pile of art I couldn’t stand to look at. 

That was the end of that. From then on I painted what interested me in a way that interested me. My ultimate goal is to sell my paintings to others. But, gee, doggone it, if I can’t find that special buyer, I’ll just have to keep my own artwork and hang it on my own walls.  It’s hard to be disappointed when you’re secretly delighted.

 

©2012 Patricia Scarborough  Spring Dance 8 x 6 oil 

Available  beautifully framed at the Museum of Nebraska Art Kaleidoscope of Arts Event,

November 3-4 in Kearney, Ne.

The dilemma now is that I am ahead of myself. I really, really like what I’ve been painting lately. The little gems that have come off my easel please me in a way that is deep and rewarding.  If I hadn’t promised them already for upcoming exhibits I’d be thoroughly content to hang them on the walls here at home.

 

©2012 Patricia Scarborough Howard County at Dusk 6 x 8 oil
Available  beautifully framed at the Museum of Nebraska Art Kaleidoscope of Arts Event,

November 3-4 in Kearney, Ne.

That’s a dilemma I’ll have to learn to live with. Doggone it.

Weekend Review

It appears that finally the gremlins who attached themselves to my blog have moved on to some other poor schmuck's blog.  Good luck, fella.

As promised, photos of my amazing weekend...

That's me, on top.  Dee's floral watercolor, and Harry's lathe turned vessels.

Prairie Winds Art Center in Grand Island, Ne. provided a lovely opening reception for Harry Adams, Dee Rodgers and I for our exhibit, "Nature's Bounty".  Crowds were exceptional, as you can see.  I'm so very grateful to art lovers, family and friends who came out to share the evening with us.  This exhibit will be up until November 30th.

Elbow to elbow nearly the entire evening

While the Prairie Winds reception was winding down, I dashed down Highway 30 to Kearney to prepare for the Museum of Nebraska Art's 2-day Kaleidoscope of Art event.  I joined over 30 artists sharing their creative endeavors with appreciative crowds at one of Nebraska's crown jewels, the Museum of Nebraska Art.  The former Kearney  post office, this beautiful building is perfect for housing and showing the artwork of Nebraska artists.  I am delighted to have shared space in the large main gallery with Keith Lowry, Jane Marie, Del and Martha Pettigrew, Pat Jones, Karen Krull Robart, Jorn Olsen and others. 

The main gallery, just before the crowds moved in.

Hey Mom, look!  It's me!

Special thanks to Handsome Husband who kept the home fires burning while I was out peddling my wares. It's a group effort here, and I'm grateful to HH for his support. 

What did you do this weekend?

Time Out

It appears I am not alone.

In last week’s post, I mentioned the difference between the way Handsome Husband and I organize our days.  He lives by his list, making notes, checking them off with a satisfying flourish, and generally parading through his day like a man who knows where he’s going.

And then there was me, trying to corral my day, finally coming to the conclusion that making concise lists is – for me anyway – like herding cats. It just doesn’t work very well.

Accomplished artists Vickie, Karine and Hannah agreed.  We check, uncheck, recheck, and re-recheck , then double-check the recheck until we’re dizzy.  I have a solution.

 

 The Time Out.

In sports the time out is used to re-group, rest, and re-figure the direction of the team.  The players stand around sloshing water in their mouths and catching their breath while the coaches ponder their next move.  After a short time has elapsed the players get their orders and go back onto the playing field with renewed spirit.  Or something like that.

With kids, the time out lands them in a corner on a hard seat.  Focus and self control are the goals.

If you think you're being ignored, you're right.

And so it is with creative work. Whether it’s a day, a week, or sometimes several months, any kind of creative work needs time to rest, a siesta from the over stimulated eyes and minds of its maker; a breather, an interlude from being re-stitched, under-poked or overworked by artists who are simply too close to their projects to see clearly.

Funny, much art improves by being left alone. Sometimes flaws become more apparent after a time of idle repose so that some tough love can be applied.  Hopefully it’s the loveliness that becomes even more obvious so that finishing touches can be completed without all the un-checking and re-doing.  Regardless, it’s the time out that clears the air. 

After a long time out, © 2011 Patricia Scarborough, Sandhills Shoreline, 14 x 11 pastel 

 

In preparing for two fast-approaching exhibits, I unearthed a painting I had put away in frustration quite some time ago.  After seeing it with fresh eyes it was obvious that all that was needed was a quick stroke of pastel and ‘voila’, it was ready to be photographed and framed. Once.

Others that I had hastily finished and framed, documented, re-framed, re-documented, etc. are now being given their time out in hopes of a clearer perspective.

So I’m adding to my list by adding . . . nothing.  Space.  Time Out. 

Paintings in Time Out. Stacked up ready for delivery to Prairie Winds Art Center in Grand Island, Ne. for a November exhibit titled Nature's Bounty, with Harry Adams and Dee Rodgers.  Opening reception is Friday, November 4th from 6-8pm.

Then it's  quick dash out the door and down the highway to the Museum of Nebraska Art's Kaleidoscope of Art event on Saturday and Sunday.

Put them on your list.  I'll see you there.  Check.

Hookey

This weekend I played hookey. 

Rather than spend hours on this blog crafting just the right tone and delighting you with my immense humor, wit and knowledge (caught you, you just looked up to make sure you had the right blog, didn't you?), Handsome Husband and I spent the last two days outside like little kids.

After weeks of nasty high temps and worse humidity Saturday dawned crisp and clear, dry and breezy, a day just begging for us to come out and play.  And so we did.  Tonight we are bone tired, sun burned, and happy as clams.

© Patricia Scarborough 5x7 oil

© Patricia Scarborough 5x7 oil

 © Patricia Scarborough 5x7 oil

Lest you think I was a bum all week, I'll leave you with some small pieces I've been preparing for the Museum of Nebraska Art's Kaleidescope event coming up in November. More details on that coming soon.

There are just a few hours left in the weekend, and I'm going to go squeeze as much out of them as I can.

What did you do this weekend to break your stride?