Featured Artist: Anne Moore

Above, Chronicles, original monotype, 10×20

Anne is featured once again as artist of the month at Sandstone Gallery in Laguna Beach. Her opening is tonight, during the Laguna Art Walk. Anybody within reasonable distance is invited to come by.

Above, And Then the Fall, original monotype, 20×14

Besides Sandstone, her work is also now included at Westervelt Fine Art. That’s in the Laguna Design Center in Laguna Niguel, California, a gallery for design professionals and their clients. It’s good to see her work is being recognized like this, with its tasteful sophistication and delicate nuance.

Another New Gallery

Above, Her and Him, oil on canvas, 24×30

As of the close of last year, my paintings have been included in the offering at “A” Gallery on the famed El Paseo Drive in Palm Desert, California. It’s in an area of many new houses and many visitors, particularly in the winter months. The street is home to a number of fine galleries with some very good art.

Above, Cellist Colors, oil on canvas, 24×18

As each gallery generally features a certain kind of art, “A Gallery” has my figure studies, these two examples veering toward the abstract. The gallery owners are hopeful about this new addition, and I’m grateful for that. We’ll see what happens.

New Blog, “Blank Slate”

Above, samples of the simple art that has accompanied the Blank Slate posts. Sometimes they’re drawings, sometimes paintings, and in the future, who knows what? The blog is listed at the top or click here to see all posts. 

I’m happy with the response to the new “literary” blog. That’s what one friend called it. It is “words” oriented, in contrast to this “art” blog (the e-gallery). Some 400 readers are now subscribed to Blank Slate, receiving the link via e-mail. As the intro text says: It’s “a random collections of thoughts and sketches, poems, prosems and sometimes psalms, art-related or not . . .” The blank slate is a vague reference to my own mind, which though not really so blank anymore, still has much to take in, mull over, and pour out. It’s a world view expressed, with thoughts long held or recent. The comments back are encouraging and sometimes help round out the message. All posts are archived on this Hyatt Moore website under “Blank Slate.”  To subscribe, click here.

Going to Oregon

Above, downstairs and upstairs of the Justice of the Peace building. For more info and for inquiries, click on the pictures.

Each year at this time we take some trip. The excuse is our anniversary. Anne has sometimes said she’d like to go some place and just stay for awhile. So I started scouting around (the world) and came upon the website of an artist’s studio for rent in Toledo, Oregon. It’s a renovated Justice of the Peace building from yesteryear . . . just two rooms, one with a bed, the other with skylights. Toledo is on the Siletz River running down to the coast at Newport, a short distance away. We plan to be there three weeks.

The benefit of it being within driving distance of home (two days) is that we can take all the stuff we need for art making. The most challenging is Anne’s table-top press. But with the van, it’ll be fine. We’ll also be taking her sewing machine, various computers, a bolt of canvas, cameras, books, umbrellas, the kitchen sink . . . the basics.

Happily, a friend from Anchorage, who is very ready for a little less dark and a little less cold, will be occupying our house while we’re gone. Actually, we’re already beginning to miss our southern California weather too, but Oregon will have its beauty, we have our work to keep us busy, and our 46 years to celebrate.

A Time Lapse Video

Recently some friends “in the business” came up with an idea to make a video of me painting using time lapse technology. I agreed but hadn’t thought until they arrived what I’d paint. It seemed a live model would be most interesting, so I painted Michael, one of the two friends. He posed for the hour or so while Matt handled the camera gear. I talked the whole time, and now they want to capture that too, but not on this version (an hour condensed to a minute would just be high-pitched jiberish, like The Chipmunks on speed). By plans, a talking version will be produced another day. For now, if you have one minute to watch a portrait being made, click on the picture.

All for now. We’ll be communicating on Blank Slate or, in a month, here again on the e-gallery. Happy February.

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Next on Blank Slate: A Spoof Response to “A Great Financial Opportunity” from Nigeria. Should be fun.

Also, don’t forget this evening’s Art Walk. Or, if you miss that, her work will be highlighted all month at the Sandstone Gallery in Laguna.

The year just passing was generally happy, productive and prosperous, about the best one could expect of an unemployed, multi-careered, aging easel painter. Notice I don’t used the “R” word. Retirement is for those who no longer work, or at least no longer have to. But it’s time to start something new.

In 2011, somewhere between 100 and 300 paintings were made—closer to the latter if one includes rough sketches, practices, explorations, figure and face studies from the model, workshop demonstrations, ideas that didn’t go anywhere, as well as all the projects of great hope and happy result. Though just a fraction, enough paintings sold to keep us in essentials . . . food, art supplies and travel. With our family spread all over the country and England, travel matters.

But for all life’s fullness, there were a few days in December where I recognized “a damp, drizzly November in my soul.” That’s Ishmael’s line in the opening to Moby Dick, and I, like him, began finding myself in a funk, or as he put it, “growing grim about the mouth” and having to exert “a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street and methodically knocking people’s hats off.” Not really, but I felt I had to do SOMETHING to shake the malaise.

Rather than follow Ishmael and go to sea, I’ll follow Melville. He started writing.

It’s nothing new, really. I had such leanings long before Painting called out to me in the streets on an evening in November (really) some 15 years ago and drew me irresistibly to herself. “Painting rather takes over,” as Father Vincent Van Gogh discovered. But he also wrote . . . more than any other artist, thanks to his daily correspondence with his life-supportive brother. He wrote on many topics and it’s good reading. I have three volumes of his mind on my shelf.

So I’ll do the same.

What I’ll write, I don’t know myself. It’ll be something of a blank slate. I’ll start a blog and call it that. Blank Slate. Allows for anything. A journey without a map. But of discovery just the same.

I’ll keep painting, to be sure, ever pursuing that illusive white whale. The other blog, this one, the e-gallery, will continue on, with its review of themes and directions. This one is more or less monthly; I’m thinking the Blank Slate will three times a week.

Full disclosure: Though there will be no intent at persuasion, like with any writer of his own thoughts, there will be evidence of my world view, and that, like Van Gogh’s, is Christian. (That because of another spirit that called out to me in the streets, in Mexico, some 40 years ago.)

So, if you’d like to see these Blank Slates filled in as we go, just click the option below. You’ll get it as e-mail notification. Or if you’d rather just drop in from time to time to see what’s new, they’ll be posted on the Hyatt Moore Painter website under the Blank Slate heading. You can always opt on later, or off at any time.

We’ll start at the first of the year. Look for it January 1.

To subscribe, click here.

Click above to view larger. Anne’s sold work not shown as bunching them up like this would really do them no justice.

Art of the Year Past

Just as a quick review, here is a representative sample of the painting sold and now enjoying new homes in the year, 2011. They don’t look their best, all bunched together like this, and the scale is really thrown off. For example, the painting of pears in the bottom row was about eight inches tall and the violinist next to it was four feet tall, and the red abstract next to her was approaching 6 feet square. The mix of subject matter and varying degrees of realism to abstract is interesting, but not particularly instructive. It only shows that I like a wide range, as do, apparently, my buyers. And so it will likely be in the year(s) to come.

Meantime, we wish you a happy and productive one.

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Ongoing and Upcoming Events

Blank Slate

The new blog, Blank Slate will feature musings and meanderings, insights and entertainments, and words rather than brushes for the art. Watch for it starting in the new year.  To subscribe, click here.

Moore & Moore Art Gallery in Dana Point

Open by Appointment
949-240-4642

Semi-Private Coaching for Painters

Offering 2-hour sessions on Mondays and Wednesday and Saturday mornings
in the Hyatt Moore Studio, Dana Point.
For more info click Art Coaching Flyer.
Or call  949-240-4642

Printmaking Classes

In the Anne Moore studio, Dana Point
To see more of Anne’s, work go to: www.annesprints.com
Call 949-240-4642

Beauty and Shoe, oil on wood, 47×31.5
A friend had given me a number of large bamboo panels, which took the paint wonderfully, and I made this set.

As it happens, the day the news came I was musing in one of my favorite books, Ecclesiastes. Among it’s many nuggets, this one appeared pertinent: “The race is not to the swift, or the battle to the strong…but time and chance happens to them all.” It’s a consoling truth, though never an excuse. Here’s another: “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.”  So there it is: we do our best but we don’t always succeed. There are too many other factors over which we have no control. We barely have control over ourselves.

Rainbow Child, oil on wood, 47×31.5
The background patterns and the brushwork style supply the harmony.

I’ve also been reading again through the history of the impressionists, including a biography of Cezanne. Not to put myself in the company of these pioneers, but to see again how being refused year after year in the common settings is not a statement about the work itself, but something else. Happily, they struggled on and our world is better for it.

Hula Rhythms, oil on wood, 47×31.5

As for what to do next, there are always ideas. Almost too many, really. And a closed door is just as much guidance as an open one. It helps narrow the field.

Chronicles, handmade monotype print, 10×20

If you ask me, Anne’s work gets better year after year.  But she keeps striving (maybe that’s not right right word), keeps working, keeping her eyes open to new approaches, new design elements to incorporate, and what other masters in the field are doing.

Agreeing to Differ, handmade monotype print, 17×8
Pieces shown are not to scale.

Speaking of that, a month ago we attended a seminar in San Diego among a group of like-minded artists on the subject of incorporating handwriting, calligraphy, or text of any kind (and language) as design element in the art. Anne’s been doing this for some time, but is inspired to take it to a new level as time goes by.

Consuming Purpose, handmade monotype print, 17×8
Note dimensions of these pieces for actual scale.

Also, just last week we were in Cornwall, England…an art mecca since the days of WWII when many European artists fled the tyranny and set up shops in a more tranquil world off to the westernmost tip of England. There we visited the studio of Peter Wray, a master printmaker and painter, and received lots of stimulation for yet new approaches. So it goes, and always will, regardless of the vagaries of competitions and their outcomes. The race may not be to the swift, but that doesn’t mean don’t be swift.

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Ongoing and Upcoming Events

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Coming soon: a new blog, “Blank Slate”

“Blank Slate” will feature on musings and meanderings, insights and entertainments, and will use words rather than brushes to create the art. Watch for it starting in the new year.

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In the Image of God

Looking for a Christmas gift? A coffee table book of art and brief meditations might be the perfect thing. Copies can be sent to you or directly to the recipient. Personalized inscriptions can be added on request. Click here to order.

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Moore & Moore Art Gallery in Dana Point

Open by Appointment
949-240-4642

Semi-Private Coaching for Painters

Offering 2-hour sessions on Mondays and Wednesday and Saturday mornings
in the Hyatt Moore Studio, Dana Point.
For more info click Art Coaching Flyer.
Or call  949-240-4642

Printmaking Classes

In the Anne Moore studio, Dana Point
To see more of Anne’s, work go to: www.annesprints.com
Call 949-240-4642

The 6×8 “specials,” are only a hint at the plethora showing this weekend. Click on picture to enlarge, and again for larger.

Besides these, there will be plenty of art to look at and just enjoy, not to mention the house and hospitality, the friendship and food. We’re told it may rain, but it’s a short distance from the street to the porch, and it’ll be dry and warm inside.  So, if you’re within a hundred miles, come. For the rest, there are always the websites. For a healthful and enjoyable dose of art, get a cup of hot cider and browse mooreandmooreart.com.

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Click here for the invitation: Studio Show 11’11-web

Or, here are the specifics:

33752 Big Sur, Dana Point, California 92629
Saturday, November 12, 4:00-9:00
Sunday, November 13, 1:00-5:00
949-240-4642

Lake Light, oil on canvas, 20×30

As is usually the case, the name is given after the birth. Here I was painting a design, not a lake. But the lake appeared and that in sunlight. So there it is.

River Runs Through It, oil on canvas, 34×40

This is a fairly large piece that came to be over another painting that wasn’t going anywhere. That one was of a man and a woman, also abstracted. In a sense they gave this one birth, and only the creator knows what parts are from the old and which are new. It’s like a river that way.

Autumn Trees, oil on canvas, 16×20

Sometimes, when I include these on the website, it’s a dilemma knowing whether to put them on the “Places” (landscapes) page or the “Abstracts” page. With these I’ve gone with “Places,” as there’s plenty of “reality” still suggested. There’s precedent: Claude Monet was a landscape painter, albeit with such strong impressionism they were almost abstract.

Early Winter, oil on canvas, 16×20

I suppose it’s the season we’re in and the one approaching that suggested the titles to this and to the previous. As I was painting them, they didn’t seem to represent trees at all; that is until I put in the vertical wisps that became “trunks.” It’s all about color and contrast abstracted together. But nature often does the same thing, and more powerfully yet.

California Hillscape 2, oil on canvas, 16×20

Californians will recognize this and the following from drives or walks through the hills. The name, “Golden State,” may have come from the gold rush, but it may just as well have come from the wonderful color that covers the ground. That, with the rich sap green of the live oaks, makes for a tranquility that is golden indeed.

California Hillscape 1, oil on canvas, 20×20

Early California painter William Wendt originally painted this scene. And this is my take on that. It’s simplified, smaller (and a good deal more affordable). As with all these, a click on the painting will take you to the price information, and from there to a larger view.

White House, oil on canvas, 20×20

Sometimes nature is perfect just left alone, other times the man-made touch adds welcome interest. Here is just a hint of that in the distance. One thing about man-made objects as opposed to organic, they’re always angular. Nature is freer. Together the contrast can be pleasing.

Reclining Blue, oil on canvas, 18×24

Speaking of pleasing shapes of nature, I thought I’d include one human form. This one illustrates how the approach to painting can be the same whatever the subject. This one is also recent, and represents others like it that will be on display in the November show. That’s coming up, the dates being highly rememberable: 11/12/13. Come if you can.

Meantime, feel free to vote for your favorites here . . . or offer any other comments. Feedback is always welcome.

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Ongoing and Upcoming Events

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Studio Show and Sale

The pieces featured above are only part of the new work on display, both paintings and hand-made prints.
And, once again, included will be an array of miniatures priced to sell, as gifts…for another or for yourself.
33752 Big Sur, Dana Point, California 92629
Saturday, November 12, 4:00-9:00
Sunday, November 13, 1:00-5:00
Or click here: Studio Show 11’11-web

Moore & Moore Art Gallery in Dana Point

Open by Appointment
949-240-4642

Semi-Private Coaching for Painters

Offering 2-hour sessions on Mondays and Wednesday and Saturday mornings
in the Hyatt Moore Studio, Dana Point
Call  949-240-4642

Printmaking Classes

In the Anne Moore studio, Dana Point
For a look at the kind of work that can be made see: www.annesprints.com
Call 949-240-4642

Deciding on the approach

That’s daughter Cambria, the new mother (now of three) two weeks after giving birth, at a rare moment of sitting long enough to make some decisions. The bits of color about to get on her bathrobe are freshly made swatches that match colors in her kitchen. (Permission to share bathrobe pictures not received :-)

The thumbnails

Her idea was to do something that would reflect their Northwest area. After deciding on a six-ft. tall piece of Mount Ranier for their stairwell, she opted for tulip fields for the kitchen. The pencil sketch shows two graphic options; the tiny oil paintings, color options. She chose the one with white flowers.

The intended space

The house has been almost a year in remodeling with just a few things to finish up. Here’s the nitch intended for a painting. It was a pretty big space for a fairly narrow passage. That’s why I suggested a polyptych, to break it up a bit. The tape was to give us an idea of final placement.

My provisional studio

A polyptych is one painting on multiple panels. While I’ve made a number of triptychs (one painting on three panels), this was my first quadiptych (another term that works). I set up in a spare room, with an easel roughly constructed of scrap 2x4s and c-clamps, my reference sketches on the wall, and a picture of a bloom on a bag of tulip bulbs.

Getting the initial shapes up

Note also the one-inch strips of wood placed between each of the canvases. It’s because the space itself is part of the composition. The edges of the canvas would eventually be painted as well for visual continuity. Note also that, while the chosen option was for white tulips, I started with red just so I could see them.

The essence is established

The idea was to capture the look of the expansive tulip fields that glorify the landscape in certain areas at certain times of year. A few in the foreground would indicate the mass in the background, with a row of red ones just before the distant hills . . . just for pizazz.

The painting at mid-stage

The way I paint (and teach) is to create a painting in stages. That is, as much as possible I’m working at the same degree of detail (or non-detail) over the whole painting. Conceivably the painting could be consider finished at any stage. The challenge then is to stop before it’s overworked.

The white begins

Remember, they were to be white tulips. As it happened, using red first really didn’t serve me. Oil paint is slow in drying and as I applied the white it would turn pink. But with a bit of scraping and applying a thick layers of paint, it began to conform to what I was after.

Nearing final stage

Here we are about mid-week. The tulip painting was happening between periods of helping son-in-law Shon with the eve-painting project outside. Oh well, it’s all painting. Note the idea here of including a swath of yellow tulips. It could have worked, but they didn’t last.

The final painting, before hanging

Here it is, finished, with just enough detail and not too much. I hadn’t painted the edges yet. All the red is gone. Even the hint of distant red tulips went to orange, a decision that was made when provisionally placed in the kitchen to check colors. Each of these panels is 20×24 and could conceivably be a complete painting in itself.

Cambria’s Tulips, polyptych, oil on canvas, 41×49

By the time we left at the end of the week the paint was far to wet to touch. But they’ve since hung it and sent this picture. Happily Cambria loves it. It brings great focus to the area, and beauty. I’m grateful.

Four generations of Hyatts

Here’s an extra, just because.  The occasion was the 95th birthday of my dad, Hyatt Moore the second, and the recent birth of Hyatt Moore the fifth. The photo was taken on the porch of the house where I grew up and where my parents still live (Mom will be 94 next month). That’s Hyatt iii (me) on the left, with son Hyatt iv down from PhD studies at Stanford . . . with wife and their two daughters somewhere outside the picture.  I just had to share it because these are rare moments, and may not come again.  Treasure yours.

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Ongoing and Upcoming Events

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Studio Show and Sale

Our semi-annual Open House Studio Show is coming up November 12 and 13. We’ll have lots of new work to share.

Moore & Moore Art Gallery in Dana Point

Open by Appointment
949-240-4642

Semi-Private Coaching for Painters

Offering 2-hour sessions on Mondays and Wednesday and Saturday mornings
in the Hyatt Moore Studio, Dana Point
Call  949-240-4642

Printmaking Classes

In the Anne Moore studio, Dana Point
For a look at the kind of work that can be made see: www.annesprints.com
Call 949-240-4642

Beauty begets beauty.
(Sorry, couldn’t resist that caption.)

Here’s Anne on opening night, at a rare moment when the crowds had cleared. Though the Laguna Festival features art of all media, there’s a higher percentage than most shows given to printmaking. It seems this is a fertile area for it, with lots of good teaching (including Anne’s own classes). Still, every person’s work is completely unique.

Set on Pilgrimage, monotype on paper, 10×10

If there’s a message in these pieces, it’ll be of the viewer’s making. The calligraphy, when it’s included, is for the beauty of the handwriting alone. More and more a passing art, here’s one way to preserve it for it’s own sake.

Exploring Grace, monotype on paper, 17×18

The juxtaposition of block shapes with sinuous curves, strong colors and subtle, foreground dominance and background “history,” and the inclusion of printing from found objects and suggested typography, all go into the collective elegance of Anne’s work.

Agreeing to Differ, monotype on paper, 16×19

You might say art is all the stuff found in nature but arranged in a certain way by a person. At least that’s what I see when I look at all these pieces. Nature, by itself, is merely beauty. Art is something added, and very often also beautiful. (Like in all these examples here.)

Internal Dialogue, monotype on paper, 17.5×12.5

The making of art is half intention and half discovery, and knowing when to apply which. It’s an never-ending process and an ever-expanding horizon of what can be done.

Reaching for the Highest, monotype on paper, 20×10
Collection of Mercedes and John Stifter, San Clemente, California

The result of all these elements in the hands of a sensitive spirit can afford hours and years of enjoyment in the perception. That’s what the Stifters thought when they purchased this piece on opening night at the festival. Other works are still available, for viewing, for having, and for enjoying for a long time to come.
Do visit the festival if you can. Or, shop Anne’s website for the wide array of her pieces.

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Ongoing and Upcoming Events

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Laguna Festival of Arts

650 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach, CA 92651 www.foapom.com
Featuring Anne Moore and many other fine artists in various media, now through August 30.

Moore & Moore Art Gallery in Dana Point

Open by Appointment
949-240-4642

Semi-Private Coaching for Painters

Offering 2-hour sessions on Mondays and Saturdays
Now also instruction in drawing
in the Hyatt Moore Studio, Dana Point
Call  949-240-4642

Printmaking Classes

In the Anne Moore studio, Dana Point
For info: www.annesprints.com
or 949-240-4642

The three Cutsforth children, in from Minneapolis.
Click for larger view.

The occasion was a family reunion, a gathering of Anne’s and my five grown and married children and their children at a big rented house at Lake Tahoe, California. It was a wild and wonderful week, with plenty of noise, field trips, family reports, and enough space to get away when there was need.

The Bergin children, in from Chicago.

Every afternoon I got away for a few hours to surreptitiously paint these little 8×10 “portraits” off my i-phone, on which I’d taken photos of the children the first day. The photos themselves were hard enough to get, as the subjects would be moving constantly, or maybe transfixed, playing some video game.

The Moore children, in from Palo Alto, CA…another due in August.

There were 24 of us gathered, half of whom were children. All cousins, always a special relationship, particularly when gathered together so infrequently. Anne and I get around to see them, and they visit us, but it’s rare to be all together. By this summer two more will be with us, as two of the mothers are great with child.

The Schmidt children, in from Seattle…another due in July.

The family units shown here are in the order of our children, youngest to oldest. It’s not necessarily the order in which I painted them, having to do more with when a given family would be leaving or mode of transport. I was using oil with a drying-time-enhancer. I’d be slowed down when one wouldn’t come out and I’d have to do it again.

The Adams family, in from England, the oldest and youngest of the group.

I signed them all, even though the children don’t know me as “Hyatt.”  To them I’m “Baba” (and Anne, “Tata”). And I dated them, something don’t don’t usually do, but this time the year would be significant. The ’11 could look like 111, and I am the third. Our son is the fourth, we’ve just been told Hyatt the fifth is coming!

Moore family reunion, June, 2011, Lake Tahoe, California. (As with all, click for larger view.)

Okay, here we are on a still-chilly mountain morning. Left to right it’s the Moores, Bergins, Moores senior, Cutsforths, Adams (standing) and Schmidts (seated). By now they’re all scattered back to their places, now enriched with small portraits to remember the stage. Anne and I, of course, are enriched just by being part of this growing group.

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Ongoing and Upcoming Events

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Via Affirmativa

In two weeks we’ll be in Glen Ere, Colorado speaking and painting (Anne will be printing) at the Via Affirmativa seminar. For info click here.
Adjacent to that I will also be conducting a “Loosen Up” Workshop at the Hunter-Wolff Gallery in Colorado Springs, June 23-24. For reservations, call: 719-520-9494.

Laguna Festival of Arts

Again this year Anne will be among those showing at this famous event. It’ll run from July 4 till August 30.

Moore & Moore Art Gallery in Dana Point

Open by Appointment
949-240-4642

Semi-Private Coaching for Painters

Offering 2-hour sessions on Mondays, and now also on Saturdays
in the Hyatt Moore Studio, Dana Point
Call  949-240-4642

Printmaking Classes

In the Anne Moore studio, Dana Point
Call for info: 949-240-4642

Boat Rower, Oil on Canvas, 36×48

Here’s a piece indicative of another recent exploration into the abstract. It’s layers of color and textures that you don’t find in nature. I take that back; actually you do. They’re in the reflections of things, the bouncing of light from place to place, the sparkling beauty that no painting can match. But the attempt can be beautiful too. This and others like it will be in the show this weekend.

Waiting, Monotype Print, 14×15

Anne’s work is almost always along the abstract and has been for some years. Once again, she comes up with colors and texture that you don’t see anywhere else…at least not in such combination. It’s what makes art art, it’s something completely unique, un-repeatable, and yet with a design that doesn’t “just happen.” There’s an order, a design, something pleasing in and of itself. This is another that will be in the show this weekend, and others just as beautiful.

Also coming up:
“Loosen Up” Workshops for Painters

It’s time to sign up for the popular and inspiring two-day workshop with Hyatt Moore. Once again San Clemente Art Supply in California will be hosting it over a two-day weekend, May 21-22. Reservations are being taken now at 949-369-6603. For more details click here.
Also this year the Hunter-Wolff Gallery in Colorado Springs will be hosting one June 23-24. For reservations call: 719-520-9494.

One more thing

Anne opens tonight as the featured artist at the Sandstone Gallery in north Laguna Beach. She’ll be at the art walk with her work featured in the widow all month. Check it out if you can.

She’ll also be doing a demo next week (May 13) at the Carlsbad/Oceanside Art League. I’ll miss that one as I’ll be in Louisville, Kentucky doing one of my 6 ft. by 8 ft. mega-portraits in front of a live audience. Both should be fun.

And don’t forget this weekend. Come if you can, or at least write and say Hi.

Beauty and Shoe, oil on panel, 47×35.5

Beauty and Shoe is a recent piece and represents yet another nuance of direction. A painting like this is as much about design as anything. It’s on a big piece of bamboo panel, the tooth of which took the paint in a most joyful way.

Flamenco Nimble 2, oil on canvas, 48×36

Here is another version of a painting I did (and sold) earlier. But it’s different in proportion and in approach to background with its random (not really) colors and shapes. Included are occasional gobs of thick paint and flying wisps of red for the sake of the motion of it all.

Fiesta Interlude, oil over acrylic on canvas, 60×48

As with Flamenco Nimble, the above image was captured first on my pocket camera. Anne and I were at the Orange County Fair and came across a whole group of Latinas dressed all folklorico, waiting their turn on stage. People ask me how long it takes me to make a painting; this one took me about a year. I’d thought it was finished; it even hung in a gallery. A year later I saw what it still needed. All the ribbons brought it to life.

Rwanda Woman, oil over acrylic on canvas, 60×36

This was from a photo I didn’t take. I’ve been to Africa a number of times but never to Rwanda. My original title was Rwanda Widow, which had more pathos, and more truth. I didn’t want her to seem too forlorn, but here I am telling it anyway. Remember when Rwanda suffered the scourge of ethnic cleansing? Though that’s stopped, the memories don’t go away quickly. Who knows what’s in the mind of this otherwise stately woman, sitting on church steps?

Portrait Gallery 2, acrylic on canvas, 68.5×51.5

Speaking of what goes on in a mind, who knows about this one either? It’s a viewer looking at a painting which looks back at her . . . all in the London Portrait Gallery. For more background of this and others from that experience, see e-gallery back issues here, and here.

Alcantara Trio in concert, with page turner (also a concert pianist)

Remember last month I talked about some of my art accompanying a chamber music concert? For review of that, see here. More, I wanted to share just a one-minute clip of their music. I think you’ll agree that those few instruments, in the right hands, put out a great deal of powerful sound. For that, click below.

Ruby Cheng and artist with her painting

As it happened, the painting, which I’d done without having seen the trio, was a very close rendition. On seeing the painting, pianist and trio leader Ruby Cheng was most blest (is that a word?). In the end, it had to be hers. So here it is, changing hands.

Hands, that’s what it’s all about, for making music and for making art . . . that and minds (not shown), and hearts (also not shown).

Until next time, bless yours.

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Ongoing and Upcoming Events

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Figurative Painters Show at Golden West College Fine Arts Gallery, featuring Hyatt Moore and others

Opening Reception, April 7, 7–9 pm
Continuing through April 28, Monday–Friday, 10 am–2 pm, Wednesday evening, 6–8 pm
15744 Goldenwest Street, Huntington Beach, CA 92647

Lecture/Demonstrations by Hyatt Moore

Tustin Art League
April 14, 2011, 7–9 pm
For info: 714-544-7715

Huntington Beach Art League
May 4, 2011, 7–9 pm

Lecture/Demonstration by Anne Moore

Orange County Fine Arts
April 28, 7–9 pm

Oceanside/Carlsbad Art League
May 13, 2011, 1:30-3:30 pm

Studio Show and Sale

Semi-Annual Spring Show at the House
May 7–8
33752 Big Sur, Dana Point, California 949-240-4642

Loosen Up Workshops for Painters

San Clemente, California, May 21–22
949-369-6603

Glen Eyre, Colorado, June 23–24
719-520-9494

Moore & Moore Art Gallery in Dana Point

Open by Appointment
949-240-4642

Semi-Private Coaching for Painters

Offering 2-hour sessions on Mondays, and now also on Saturdays
in the Hyatt Moore Studio, Dana Point
Call  949-240-4642

Printmaking Classes

In the Anne Moore studio, Dana Point
Call for info: 949-240-4642