December Gallery Paintings

December First Friday was interesting. If it had been possible, I should have been in two places at once. I spent it at Angels' Little Kisses- my friend Linda's new shop in downtown Fredericksburg. Meanwhile, the Gallery at 915 had their opening. I have currently 10 paintings at the Gallery, while I have 16 at Angel's Little Kisses. I am trying to help Linda build her traffic to her new store, so I spent the evening there. We are sort of learning as we go along about promoting the art that we have hung there.

Here are the new works at the Gallery at 915: Four are small- 8x10 and 4x6, and six are 18x24. All are acrylic on canvas, except the first one, which is on canvas board.

Here are the pictures.

This one is 18x24 and is called, simply, "Holy Family". My son asked me to paint a picture of the Cross on Calvary, so after I did that I kept thinking of trying to paint figures (which terrify me) in another religiously inspired painting. This was the result. The figures are deliberately painted without faces - as I have no idea what Mary, Joseph and the Babe looked like. The focus is not on their faces, but the event that the figures symbolize.

In that same vein, at church one day I saw an icon painting that our Pastor did of Miriam (Moses' sister). I had just painted a background for my next painting. All of a sudden I could see it as a background for a painting of Miriam and Moses. So I painted it as I visualized it. This one is 18x24 inches.

This one is called "Roses, Roses". I painted this one because when I did the background, it seemed like I could see a garden of some sorts in the distance. So I went with that. It just developed into a whole lot of roses.

Two of the paintings are paintings left in the show from last month: "Moonlight Glow" and "A Riot Of Flowers". The file in a sixth painting got corrupted and I need to retake it when I go to the gallery next week. It's 18x24 in size.

There are four smaller abstract paintings: The first three are in a series of abstracts. They are 8x10 inches.

The fourth small painting is 8x6 inches. 

I have also been painting gifts for my family, which I will post later this month.

A website to offer my art for sale

Click the image to visit my new "Painterly Palette" site where you can view my art all together. Currently, I just have my acrylic paintings listed.

A New Venue To Display My Art...

A friend of mine has a shop that just opened (actually RE-opened) here in Fredericksburg. She has named her new shop "Angels Little Kisses".Angels Little Kisses offers fine baby items and also giftable items for mothers, religious items, and (as of last week) some of my paintings as well.
Not all are visible in this photo but you can see generally how she has them displayed. Her shop has a newly inaugurated blog, as well: http://angelslittlekisses.blogspot.com  Please visit her blog and say hello :-)

Something Different-- Beaded Treasure Christmas Ornaments

This year, The Gallery at 915 is doing a holiday tree with giftable art at giftable prices. Many of these items will be able to do "double duty" as ornaments but also as wearable art, home decor, etc. I have two types of ornaments that will be on display. The first are ornaments made out of jewelry components. These will be ornaments that might be also used as either (or both) suncatchers or earrings, or necklaces and/or bracelets.

The materials used to make these are gold or silver colored findings, Mother of Pearl frame beads, Celestial Crystal and seed beads as well as (occasionally) opaque glass beads. They cost $6.00 a piece or two for $10.00 in case earrings are the intended use. I will include earring bullets, or a suncatcher suction cup, if desired. The following are some images of those ornaments:

Publish Post

My October Gallery Paintings

I just realized I never put my October paintings on this blog. So here goes. There were six. My work has been moving toward an Expressionistic style. Good bad, or indifferent, that's what's been in my head lately lol.

"Blizzard of '75"

This first one is called "Blizzard of '75". Some have told me they see a blue dancer in it, but the purpose was to paint something reminiscent of a snow storm.

The next one is

Daisies Looking In

This next one is 

"Windblown"

The inspiration for it was a windy day in the garden when all the colors seem to blur a bit and there is that excited feel in the air.

Carolina Air

This one is Carolina Air, inspired from our days living in North Carolina, although it really reminds me more of South Carolina winters than North Carolina in a way.

"A View From A Southwestern Garden"

This one is "A View From A Southwestern Garden". Inspired by our days living in New Mexico.

"Snowed Last Night"

This final one is "Snowed Last Night"-- I love the way the landscape looks with fresh snow on the ground, especially early in the season, when the snows are light and there are sometimes some of the leaves still on the trees. This is my rendition of one of those mornings when you wake up and the world has been transformed.

November Gallery Paintings

November's First Friday has come and gone. It was a wonderful evening with great music, a wonderful featured artist, and good comments on my newest works, which are tending currently toward the expressionist style. Here they are:

"Moonlight Glow"

I have had this painting in my head for a while. I'm actually thinking of doing a series on it, as I have a few other ideas along that line as well. I wrote a poem to go with it:

Moonlight Glow

Moonlight spreads gold and silver on the sea

It illumines her waves, as they sparkle with glee

Now, the sea ripples and laps at the land

The beach dares the breezes to tickle the sand

And the winds whisper to the waves to tumble and leap

Who slap at the dunes (that aren't very steep)

So Night's games go on, till, day arrives on the scene

Moon hides her glow till again she is queen.  

-- Margaret Bena Wickham 2010

The next painting was inspired by a walk through a forest, when I happened upon a lovely little copse where flowers were blooming. It was fragrant and peaceful. This is the result. 

 Woodland Garden

The next one also has a poem to go with it.

Autumn Arrives

Autumn Arrives

Autumn arrives with her retinue

Of brilliant leaves of blazing hue

Who dance their swan song in graceful flutter

Down, drifting down, the lawn to clutter

Then washed by rains, and melting snow

Will dance again when spring breezes blow 

     -- Margaret Bena Wickham 2010

Here is the final one: 

A Riot of Flowers

I'm finding that I am tending (at least right now) toward an expressionistic style of painting. I feel I'm learning a lot. Don't know if I will go back to realistic painting or not.

Photo Animations-- not quite a video... but fun anyway

Several years ago, my daughter in law sent me two pictures of my darling granddaughter who had gotten into her mom's make up. I got the idea to try to make an animation out of them, and this was the result.

Then, a year or two later, I had taken several pictures of the same granddaughter on a mini- merry-go-round (while her Mom was in the hospital having a new sister for her). I decided to play with them to preserve the memory better. 

This was the result of that effort:

Then, when her sister grew a bit, I made some of her as a month old baby - I will upload one if I can find one but at this point they seem to have gotten lost in a hard drive crash of a few years ago :-(. )

I did make this one of the two of them later that year:

I made this one just because I wanted to make something different, that might comfort others. I had taken this photo several years before, and thought it was the perfect image for the verse from the 23rd Psalm.

And finally, my younger granddaughter did make it into an animation (that I still can find) (we live 2500 miles apart so it's difficult to get photos that will "work" but I finally had some good ones.

One final one: this is one of my sons after getting on the outside of a HUGE ice cream sundae that he was kind of thinking even he, with his vast appetite, might be bested by.

September Gallery Entries

Here are the paintings that are in the gallery this month.

This painting is painted from photos I took of the Colonial garden at Ferry Farm in Fredericksburg, VA. Ferry Farm is the boyhood home of George Washington.

 Lilies from my front garden is the subject of this painting.

A Hibiscus from that same garden.

Newest paintings...

These are my two newest paintings. They can also be viewed at The Gallery at 915.

Got to run to do some errands will post more in a bit about what else I've been doing to stay out of trouble!

Newest works in the gallery

Starting July 2nd, I have four new works to be on display at The Gallery at 915 on Lafayette Boulevard in Fredericksburg.

The Gallery is one of the newest and nicest in town. If you get a chance to go, please stop in and check out my work as well as the other great artists whose work in on display there.

Here's the "sequel" to the blanket...

This is the pillow that I made to go with the quilt for our friend. The squares are from three friends. One had contributed before, but two of the ladies' squares had gotten lost in cyber space.

This is the back of the pillow. It has a removable cover so that it can be washed.

Here are the squares before they were sewn onto the pillow. I should have taken close ups of the sewn squares but I didn't.

Our friend should receive the pillow tomorrow or Wednesday so I'm on pins and needles hoping she likes it!

A group project completed!

I am sorry I have been lazy and not posting lately. It's been a busy month.  Tonight I finished a group project that was designed to lift the spirits of a friend that has been diagnosed with cancer.

Friends from around the world sent squares or (images of squares that I printed on transfer paper and ironed onto fabric). I sewed them all together and then sewed that large block onto fleece. I then did the cut and tie fringe with that fleece and another for the back. It came out really nice -- tomorrow I will get it in the mail. I hope it gives our friend a boost! I will be sending a pillow next week as there was someone I did not get the email from until tonight. I felt very badly but she was very understanding about it.

Here are some pictures.

This is the blanket - it is about the size of a standard "throw".

The squares "up close".

Here is a link to the rest of the pictures if anyone would like to see.

Just checkin' in....

I haven't posted for a while but I have been busy. I have about four paintings that I want to post but I have been having trouble getting them photographed properly. I have one that I can post as the color seems pretty true to me. I will work on getting the rest of my work photographed this week and post it, I promise.I have also been busy with family issues- among them, my husband was in the hospital with a bad infection in his leg (cellulitis) and then recuperating at home. He is still in a lot of pain, but cannot miss any more work so will go to work tomorrow with a stool to rest his foot on while he teaches.

As far as art, I am full of ideas -- I want to go to the beach this week or next (depending on how Joel does at work) and paint, hopefully sell some work, jewelry, and catch a few rays in the process! I want to try some printmaking techniques and you name it- I can't wait to try it!

 This painting was painted in my class that I take at The Gallery at 915 here in Fredericksburg. I am pretty happy with it.

Peggy Wickham-- occupation... ARTIST!!

From this day forward, when asked what I do for a living... I have an answer.... I am an ARTIST!!!

I started taking classes in painting in early January. I have always hated watercolor but I have such a good teacher that I LOVE watercolor now. Back in September or October, I'd joined a local group of mixed media artists but because I went to California from November to the end of December, I never met them till today. What a great group! I found that I think the same way as they do- such as seeing an item that most people would just throw away and thinking, "That would be cool as a top layer for such and such," or "I could carve something into that and it would be great to use as a stamp", etc. I realized that I've been an artist for a long time, but never had the nerve or the confidence to call myself that. Now I am going to. I think I will do better art because of it. My mentor (the lady who teaches the watercolor classes) believes I can exhibit my work in the gallery that she exhibits hers in. I cannot tell you how exciting these last few weeks have been for me. Now to coordinate getting the housework done so I can work on my art ;-). I think this truly gives credence to the old saying that if you want something bad enough, and you are willing to work for it, you CAN DO it!!! 

Paintings I've been working on

Here is a slide show of the paintings I've been working on since the middle of January. I am obsessed lol I can't walk past my studio without going in to do a few bits. Anyway, I am having a blast :-)