2016 Calendar

It is that time of year again when we turn our thoughts to the holidays and the new year.  My 2016 Desk Calendar is now available for preorder through November 20, with delivery the first week of December.   The calendar features twelve of my favorite paintings done this year, and is printed in full color on glossy card stock. Pages measure 8.25" wide by 3.75" tall, with a fold out stand.  A great gift idea! To preview the calendar and to purchase please click here.

Julie

Baseball Jar

Baseball Jar, Oil on Linen, 14x11

I love baseball and every summer I do a baseball themed painting.  "Baseball Jar" is this year's effort. I have been painting Ball jars recently, which are fun to do, and the play on words inspired the idea.   I am pleased to say it won an Honorable  Mention award last week at the Moore County Arts Council annual Fine Arts Festival in Southern Pines, NC.

The painting below is currently on exhibit at the Footlight  Players Theatre in Charleston as part of their French inspired theme for their production of the musical, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

The Blue Ribbon, Oil on Linen, 18x32

Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Julie

Wedgewood And Wine

Wedgewood and Wine, Oil on Linen, 22x30

I am pleased to announce that this painting will be among several that will now be shown at The Gallery on Broad, 29 Broad Street in Charleston. I am very honored that owner, Kate Mullin, asked me to join her family of award winning artists, many of whom enjoy national reputations.  It has been my goal to have my work represented by a Charleston gallery for some time, and I am so excited by this wonderful opportunity!

Julie

Chinese Red

Chinese Red, Oil on Linen,  26x30

I completed this painting recently, and want to thank my friend, Scotty, for loaning me her beautiful antique Chinese lunch basket.  The basket is two hundred years old and so elegant. Imagine using it to carry your lunch!  The intricacies of the detail were challenging to draw, but I hope I was able to capture its grace and magnificent red color.  I am loving red these days!

In two weeks I will be heading back to Pinehurst, NC for the Palustris Arts Festival March 26-29. The festival is a celebration of local and regional arts featuring music, dance, theater and visual art. Hollyhocks Art Gallery has been chosen as one of the featured venues, and is hosting a reception on Friday, March 27 from 5-7 pm.  For those of you in the area, please stop by.

Julie

Red Apple Box

Red Apple Box, Oil on Linen, 18x32

I hope 2015 is getting off to a great start for everyone!  

I found this old red box in an antique store in the fall, and fell in love with the color and  texture of the old wood showing through where the paint has worn off, and knew it would make a great still life "shelf".   I had so much fun painting all the different reds.  My paintings tend to be primarily in the gray tones, so to play around with so much color was a blast.

Julie

Bread

Bread, Oil on Linen, 24x30

What is more inviting than a table full of bread?  I just love all of their various textures, shapes and colors. The copper pot and the old terra cotta olive jar added even more interesting textures to the mix.  This was a fun painting to do, and the bonus was that my studio smelled like a bakery for two weeks!

I just returned from Pinehurst, NC where my work was featured in the annual holiday open house at Hollyhocks Art Gallery.  We had a great turnout and another bonus, I sold two paintings!

 

Antipasto

Antipasto, Oil on Linen, 16x20

This is one of my new paintings.  I have been particularly inspired by food themes lately.  This one kept making me hungry, though.

I am happy to announce that as of October 4, my work is now available through Hollyhocks Art Gallery, 905 Linden Road in Pinehurst, NC.  My thanks to owner, Jane Casnelli, who spotted my work at the Moore County Art Center show in August and invited me to be part of her gallery. Pinehurst is a lovely historic village in the Sandhills of North Carolina about and hour south of Raleigh and just over three hours north of Charleston.  It is noted for its world class golf courses and for its elegant horse farms and equestrian activities.  Some new themes might be forthcoming....

Announcing My New Website!

                                                     White Cloth and Garlic, 24x18

Now that I am once again able to focus on painting after a lengthy hiatus, it was time not only to update my website, but for a whole new design as well which I am excited to share with you. Please check it out at juliemesserschmidt.com and let me know what you think!  

"White Cloth and Garlic" is one of my favorite recently completed pieces, so I chose it as the  home page image.

Sox On The Rocks

                                         Oil on Linen, 10 x 10

Just two weeks until the end of the baseball season.  As a die hard Red Sox fan, it has been a long summer, too long.  This time last year they were playing their way to a World Series Championship. This year they will have the honor of becoming the first major league team to go from worst (2012) to first to worst in three seasons!  The Sox really are on the rocks this year, so what is a fan to do but drown their sorrows with a favorite tipple?  I know my friend and fellow Red Sox fan enjoys the occasional martini, so this one's for you, Ruth.  Happy Birthday!   As for the Sox, there's always next year......

Study In The Style of David Leffel

I did this 8x10 study today having been inspired by watching a new video by David Leffel posted on Brightlightfineart.com.  I set up a similar arrangement to the one in the demo, then played the video while painting my own set up.  It was kind of like having him watch over my shoulder guiding and inspiring me but without the nervousness really having him there would induce.  I listened as I painted and glanced over at the video from time to time.  I approached the painting process in the way he described and am pretty pleased with the way this turned out.  Even though ultimately my own painting style has a different feel and look, I love David's work, and the paint quality he achieves.  I think this was a helpful learning process, and if nothing more, I spent a fun afternoon logging some brush mileage.  

On View in Pinehurst, NC

                                          "Good Fortune" 8x8

                                           "Perfect Pear" 8x8

                               
These paintings will be included in the show "An Evening in France" at Hollyhocks Gallery, 905 Linden Road, in Pinehurst, NC  September 5, 2014 and continuing throughout the month.

Gallery owner, Jane Casnelli, graciously invited me to exhibit them at her gallery having seen them at the Moore County Fine Arts Festival in Southern Pines, where they were exhibited during the month of August.

Brandy and Old Books

                                            SOLD

I did this painting as a study for a larger piece I am doing featuring this brandy snifter and wanted a little practice before hand.  The large one is underway, and I will share it with you when it is finished.

This will be the last painting I place for auction on Daily Paintworks.  I have decided to focus on my gallery work, and feel that the time required to paint the 6x6" paintings on a regular basis is taking too much of my time and energy.  I plan to continue to maintain a presence on the site for the foreseeable future, and also to continue to blog as and when I have something to share. I will do small pieces from time to time, which I may post, but they will mostly be studies to help in my larger work. 

With the Christmas season upon us, I am offering the paintings I have previously posted for auction, at a sale price of $75 for 6x6"s, and $100 for 6x8"s from now through the end of the year.  The price includes shipping within the continental US. If you would like to make a purchase, visit my DPWGallery by clicking on the Daily Paintworks icon to the right, click on the painting of your choice, then simply click  the Buy Now button next to the painting.

Below are a three of my favorites

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Boca Grande Workshop Report

Last week I taught a three day still life workshop at the Boca Grande Art Alliance in Boca Grande, FL.  Above is my very brief and very unfinished demo of one of our still life set ups.

Five students participated in the class, most of whom had never painted from life before.  I introduced them to a lot of information, but they were eager to learn and worked very diligently at their easels, as the following pictures show. They all said they had a great time.  I know I did, and I am very proud of the work they did.

Thanks to the wonderful staff at the Art Alliance for inviting me to give a class, and for making all the arrangements.  Boca Grande is a lovely small island off the coast of Port Charlotte and Venice, on Florida's beautiful west coast.  What a beautiful place to spend three days!

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Outside the Box

                                           SOLD

I'm happy that cooler weather is here (even in Florida), and celebrated by painting these colorful gourds.

I would like to extend a very big thank you to Neil Carroll of London, England, for his wonderful blog post featuring my painting, "Contemplating Blue and Orange".  Neil is a fellow member of the DPW  artist community, who though he claims to be "new" to oil painting, is a very talented.  His lovely still life paintings caught my attention right away when I first encountered them on the DPW site, and I am happy to share one of my favorites with you.here.  His chiaroscuro paintings are little gems.

                                    Neil Carroll, "Small Pot"  6"x8"

You can see more of Neil's work at neilcarroll.com , and on his  DPW gallery.  

One of the things I treasure about being an artist is the privilege of being part of a wonderful community of people who are among the most supportive and generous I have ever encountered; willing to share their knowledge and experience to help in any way.  Neil's blog post is just one of the many examples of this generosity.

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A Couple of Grannies

                                          SOLD

Once again, apologies for the gap between posts.  I am going to make an effort to resume posting on a more regular basis now that things have settled down for me.

I haven't had much time to paint  small paintings in the past few weeks, but did manage to do this one.  The granny glasses belong to one of my students, who has kindly been loaning me items for still life props. I liked the idea of the Granny Smith apple and the glasses together, but the glasses were definitely a challenge to paint - symmetrical circles with thin rims!

I would like to share with you a wonderful new development in my art career.  This past week my work was accepted for representation by Anderson Fine Art Gallery in St. Simon's Island, GA. The gallery represents a variety of nationally known artists, and I am thrilled and honored to be among them.

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Pewter Pitcher with Grapes

                                          SOLD

My apologies for the month long blog hiatus.  Sadly, my stepmother passed away suddenly and unexpectedly August 30.  In the ensuing month, I have been busy caring for my father who is 95 and, of course heartbroken at the loss of his dear wife.  Now that things have settled down a bit, I can return to the blog, though it may not be with the same twice weekly regularity for a while yet.

I have not had time to do any small paintings this past month, this is one I did earlier in the summer of a friend's small pewter pitcher.  I really enjoy painting metal, and in this simple set up I just tried to focus on bringing out the range of  colors in the pewter.

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Onion Study

                                          SOLD

Not having a great idea for a painting a few days ago, I did this onion study.  I think it is always beneficial to concentrate on just one object for a study.  In this case, I wanted to capture the different layers of the onion, to show their thinness and shine.

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Last of the Birthday Wine

                                            NFS
My husband and I love wine from Burgundy in France, and he is always asking me to do a  "wine painting".  He celebrated a birthday a couple of weeks ago, we had this bottle for dinner, so here is his wine painting!

The painting challenge for me was what to do about the lettering on the label.  As it is the focal point of the painting,  I wanted it to be legible enough to recognize as the wine we had, but yet not so perfect that the lettering took over.  This is not easy to do, and I'm not sure my efforts were totally successful.  Maybe that's why I don't do more paintings featuring wine bottles.  Guess I'll have to practice by doing some more.

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Figs

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This is the first time I have painted figs.  I have been wanting to for a while, but they are hard to find in stores where I live. They are challenging in that the skin is mostly dark, but yet filled with rich crimsons, blues and greens. I wanted to bring out those colors while still remaining in a very low key.  They also start to wither pretty quickly, too, so an alla prima one day approach is essential.  I did work on it a second day, but really had to rely on my memory rather than the subject in front of me. I'm satisfied with the result, but definitely would like to practice with figs some more.

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Out in Front

                                                 SOLD


Here is another study for the larger painting I am planning, this one  in a slightly different color scheme than the jar with the apple I posted last week.  I am working on combining the subject, primarily the jars and jug with the fruit into a good design and then experimenting with different background colors to best enhance the subject.  Doing these little color studies helps both with the design and gives me an idea of how I will handle painting the objects themselves. This painting was painted over a previous work, and I left a bit of the old painting showing through in places. It is a little bit looser than I usually paint, but I liked the look, so decided to leave it.

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