Seven Devils, North Carolina

This photo comes with a story, of course. We were on a mountaintop in the town of Seven Devils, staying in Cindy's condo. The night we arrived she had a strange and convoluted dream in which she had many problems, and in the dream her mother comforted her by saying, "Don't worry, dear. You have good Carmen." So, for the week, I was Good Carmen, hence the halo.

Freezing Cold and Oh So Happy

My first painting from the Pieces of 8 retreat in North Carolina was of Denette, sitting there in the wind, just as cold as I was, painting away. In the background is Grandfather Mountain, the beautiful view from Cindy's place. Speaking of Cindy, I cannot thank her enough for her hospitality and generosity. This annual week of recharging our batteries is always fun, always productive, and the camaraderie is the best part. My face hurts from laughing!
Posted by Carmen

New Pieces

Welcome to Kathy Garvey and Phillis Holland....brand new pieces...of 8!
Pictured here in Linville, NC on the annual Pieces Plein Aire Retreat they are busy getting inducted in the rules and rituals of the esteemed painting gang.

Look forward to new work, new ideas and new enthusiam brought on by these gals...as well as a formal intro including their "creds' soon.

Right now, they (and we) are too busy having a wine time, oops, I mean a fine time in the mountains of Seven (now eight) Devils, NC.

Soooooon,
The Pieces of Eight

Mushrooms.....

MUSHROOMS......a triptych from a recent hike in the mountains.  We intentionally went in search of mushrooms...all of a sudden it seemed they were everywhere!  Such a variety of sizes and shapes and colors.  They begged to be painted so I had a little fun tucking them in the darks and lights of the board I had prepared...just like the forest floor.  Admittedly these seem to float around, not grow, but that's the fantasy of it.  Three pieces can hang as two or all together as one!


BY THE WAY.....drum roll! Two NEW "pieces" are making our puzzle complete and we will introduce them soon.  Such talent as you cannot imagine, these two ladies fill in gaps amongst us and promise to nudge us all in new directions and challenges.  Both are headed up to the mountains with us for their grand initiation (which involves whatever we can think of to tease them) and upon return we will do the great reveal of their work and credentials.  Stay tuned for some new work and lots of stimulation.

Cindy Michaud
see more at http://www.cindymichaud.com/

Happy Accident

While painting a mountain scene several weeks ago, I was trying to capture the stark difference between the lights and darks I was seeing. I could not seem to get that feeling from the colors that were on the canvas. Out of sheer frustration I scraped the whole painting and strangely liked what was left. I started building on that using a palette knife instead of a brush  to push some of the paint around. I really liked the feeling I was getting from doing this and ended up with this moody mountain scene

BERRIES AND BANANNA, 11X14, ORIGINAL OIL, CarolSchiffStudio

I am a member of the online co-operative advertising group, DAILY PAINTER ORIGINALS, and this month our first ad came out in  AMERICAN ART COLLECTOR magazine.  The ad features four of our members, and none of them are me.  In November, however, our group will have a full page ad that features my painting above, along with several others.  I had to crop the painting into a square format for the ad.  It is the annual AAC Small Works edition which I am very excited about.  It has been a very positive experience for me to belong to this wonderful group of artists from around the world.  Working as an artist is a lonely job and having such a fine group to discuss marketing and technique with make it a little less solitary. 

Purchase here

She Sells Sea Shells

Sometimes a piece is just plain fun to execute....and "She Sells Sea Shells" was like eating peanuts: I had a hard time stopping!  This is actually two pieces on seperate cradled wood panels...they are now attached with leather ties and hang nicely as one piece.  The two could hang individually but again, making them work together was part of the fun.  A lot of time went into surface prep and after several coats of gesso this mixed media piece received water color, acrylic and graphite.  While I had a vague idea for the overall look when I started it, working on it was like doing a crossword puzzle...one completed shell would impact the layout of the next one and suddenly a splash of color seemed better suited for something else than what I had originally planned.  So it evolved and unfolded and changed and morphed which made it anything but boring to work on.

This is the top panel immediately below.  Once I decided it was finished I had to seal the graphite with fixative and then begin the process of varnishing the entire piece to protect it.  I chose a satin finish as sometimes the shine on a piece makes it look a little unreal to me.

Below it is the second panel, a close up, altho in reality the two panels are not the same size.  Once again I am thrilled to give the credit for teaching me this technique to Fran Hardy....only my work does not do hers justice! 

I'm already preparing some panels for another collection....I have a great assortment of mushroom photos I took while hiking this month.  So I suppose that with apologies to Fran I will find a way to continue to "tweak" this process and make it a bit more "Michaud" than "Hardy."

Cindy Michaud

http://www.cindymichaud.com/