Barbara Craver Art

Oscar comes to the Studio!

Oscar, dog model, came up to my studio today. He brought Justin, who is allowed to accompany Oscar around town, and who drives Oscar to his appointments. Oscar is the fabulous dog model seen in two of my paintings: "Oscar and the Project Chevy" and "Oscar's Beach."

So anyway, the day after Christmas, Oscar brought Justin up to the studio to pick up his painting and graciously allowed me to document this occasion.

Justin says he has some Harleys that could be wheeled out into the sun to pose some nice Saturday in Thane. What a challenge and who knows, Oscar might help!

 

November show at the Franklin Street Gallery . . presenting . . . Me!

What was I thinking???  November seemed so far away back in August when I announced that I would be my own "guest" artist at the Franklin Street Gallery at the Baranof Hotel.  The thing is that I have been painting up a storm since getting my own studio in July.  I have leaped into painting acrylic landscapes, painting BIGGER, and exploring some ideas about how to paint landscapes in acrylics.

So please come by sometime during the month, and drop by for the First Friday reception on November 4, 2011 from 4:30 - 6:30.  There will be a wine tasting as well.

I know there is lots going on in downtown Juneau Friday night, Constance Baltuck is having a show at the State Museum, and Kes Woodward will be there as well, there is a new show at the JAHC, Charles Rohrbacher at the Canvas Gallery, so bundle up and scoot all over downtown on Friday, and come on in the Franklin Street Gallery anytime you are downtown this month.

Jeff Brown (famous lifetime art achiever of Alaska) interviewed me on Thursday afternoon about my show.  If you are interested in my process and these new paintings, you can listen by going to this page, I am the second person interviewed, after Marian Call (she sounds wonderful):

http://www.ktoonews.org/2011/11/02/juneau-afternoon-11311/

Open Studio - October 15, Saturday 1 - 4 p.m.

I am having a formal "Open Studio" this Saturday, from 1 - 4 p.m. I guess this means that I will have to tidy up a bit, but it IS a studio, so I figure most of the art mess is very appropriate!  Perhaps take out the garbage and put up some art that is available!

The other part is figuring out what to offer for snacks!  I am planning on having Pandora give me whatever kind of music she figures I like.  Contance is having her Open Studio at the same time, so basically we are taking over the 4th floor of the Articorp Building!  (Well its sort of like that all the time, but we don't get hardly any visitors . . .)

So please drop by!  Here are some directions:

The Articorp Building is a faded orangy tan monolith located between 4th and 5th Streets, with entrances along Harris Street.  Walk over to Harris Street and come in the door closer to 5th Street.  You will come in at the level halfway between the 2nd and 3rd floor.  Walk up to the 4th Floor and turn left (your only option), and it will become immediately apparent that you are in the best place to be on Saturday afternoon!  My studio is to the left, Constance's is down the hallway, and it is our plan to have the halls crowded with our friends and people visiting for open studios!

As most people in Juneau have long discarded street names, we are above the Charter School (1st and 2nd floors), also above the Natural Health floor (3rd floor offices of Dr. Emily Kane, Dr. Kristen Cox, Yoga Studio, Rolfing, Massages, etc.)  The Catholic Church is above us along Fifth Street, the Episcopalians are below us on Fourth Street - Holy Trinity.  There are several parking lots on Gold Street and 5th Street, reserved during the week, but Saturday afternoon will probably be fine if you can't walk over or find a spot on the street.

Hope to see you this Saturday!

New work for September 2011 at Franklin Street Gallery

I have been busy!!!  Inspired by the Plein Rein Workshop with Kes Woodward, having a studio, getting out with Constance and our ART JOGGERS!

So anyway, there is a new gallery of work I am showing at the Franklin Street Gallery for our September 2, 2011 First Friday opening.

 
This is "Salmon Creek Falls" 12 x 24, acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas.

Constance and I took advantage of a great day in June, right in the middle of the Kes Woodward workshop, to go to the beautiful waterfall that is within the Salmon Creek Salmon Bake.  Its a longstanding tourist attraction here in Juneau, formerly located up the Perserverance Basin, but now tucked into an amazing pocket of unexpected beauty near the hospital.

Not only is it beautiful, its close to town, easy to get to and smells of wood roasted salmon!!!  Oh, and there is some great history in the area with some of the old mining equipment still on site. And we get to visit and take pictures of people if they like.

Anyway, I was pretty excited to paint this picture, I managed to get the very basic idea down while on site.  I used a big brush and just slapped down the dark shapes and the major ideas of the waterfall.  Later on in the studio I tried to keep it loose!!!

I kept saying "just paint shapes" under my breath.  I also looked at some David Mollett paintings to inspire me in finding shapes and patterns that suggest the scene, but not to get too hung up in literal details.

This was just a start, I have been covering up canvases with all sorts of shapes ever since then, and getting into my super-duper new studio has been exhilarating and very good for my production level.

My computer is back from being repaired (thanks to my great Costco 2 year warranty the motherboard needed to be replaced but the hard drive was not erased!!!!)  Its pretty amazing how essential a computer has become to my life.  Thank goodness for my iPad, or I would have gone into a life-threatening withdrawal!  So I don't have any excuses not to work on my blog.  So here I go!

Future blogs to cover the joys of my studio, the cleverness of Art Joggers, and the astounding luck of having another artist buddy to check in with every day - my studio is just a few steps from Constance's studio.

I have a studio!

I am so glad I finally leaped into renting a studio.  It's just a few doors down from Constance's in the Arcticorp Building in Juneau on 4th and Harris.  I started in July and spent several days ferrying art stuff from the house, basement and garage to the 4th floor.

It is such a good thing to have a space that is not a house with the attendant obligations and distractions. It is a place to think, to work; to do art.  I will have more to say but want to share some photos of my favorite new spot!

Isn't it great?

Happy New Year - First Friday at Franklin Street Gallery

A new year, a new decade, and new artwork!

Please come to our opening at the Franklin Street Gallery this Friday, January 7, 2011 from 4:30 til 6:30.  We will have wine tasting, music by Tom Locher, and beautiful new art to show off!

I have 5 brand new pastels, in a new, larger size:  12" by 16", inspired and encouraged by Constance Baltuck.  Her challenge to us was "paint bigger" and I have to agree that larger pieces are looking quite nice in our beautiful gallery at the Baranof Hotel.

We have quite a few winter scenes, as it appears that we are experiencing that season, despite some rainy and warmish days recently.

Here is one of my favorite new pieces, you can see them all in the gallery entitled "January 2011."  This one is titled "Douglas Cemetary" and it is based on some photos I took in August on a spectacular evening.  We were driving home from Douglas and I glanced out of the car and made Mark pull over so I could get out and take a bunch of pictures of the light streaming through the trees and over old grave markers along the Douglas Highway.  I made a watercolor underpainting and then used my pastels over the top.

Thanks for visiting!  I hope you get a chance to come by the Franklin Street Gallery at the Baranof sometime this month to see our new work.

December 2010 at Franklin Street Gallery

We had a lovely opening on December 3, 2010 at the Franklin Street Gallery.  We participated in the Gallery Walk with all the other art venues in Juneau.

A photo album of my newest work is posted in a photo album.

Thanks for looking!  I am working on new paintings for January!

 

Zombies at the Franklin Street Gallery - October 2010

 

Our First Friday in October at the Franklin Street Gallery was titled: Sisterhood of the Traveling Paints - Art on the Go - and featured many travel paintings as well as travel art set-ups and journals.

We had a nice crowd, probably partially lured in by our pianist, Tom Locher, Collen Goldrich's jewelry and the wine tasting!  Thank goodness for Cristine and Jane, or I never would have been able to pull this off.

    

 
  

But What is an Art Opening in October without Zombies?  I was unable to coax any undead into see the paintings, but captured one looking in the window . . . .

They are probably shy?

Thanks to everyone who helped me with the set-up as well as to everyone who came.

Franklin Street Gallery at the Baranof - Opening August 6, 2010

A group of local artists have responded to the gracious opportunity extended by the Baranof Hotel to open an art gallery in a prime location on North Franklin Street in Juneau, Alaska.  The Baranof has a long room along the street adjacent to their entrance, with windows to the street all along the length of it.  This hotel is a fixture in Juneau, popular year round, it is a hub of activity while the legislature is in session, and tourists take advantage of its downtown location, fine dining and comfortable rooms.

We jumped at the chance to display original, professional artwork in an elegant venue.  We are opening the gallery on August 6, 2010, for our first First Friday!  Please come on over to see the space and what we have done with it.

I have a new pastel landscape fresh off the easel for the opening as well as other recent work.

July 2010 Plein Rein Group Show at the Canvas in Juneau

The Plein Rein Painters of Juneau have hung a new group show at the Canvas Art Gallery in Juneau!  This is a very nice, accessible space on Seward Street in downtown Juneau, Alaska.  We will have a reception on this Friday, July 9th from 4:30 to 7:30.  Please come by to visit and see what we've been up to in the past several months.

Organizing and hanging a show requires a lot of work!  Thanks to our group, and the wonderful support of MK and Donna at the Canvas we have a very nice show to share.  We have publicity distributed, food organized, labels and prices collected and mounted, and a bright, airy and welcoming gallery to show our work.

We have found, over time that the essentials for hanging a show (other than nails, hammers, pencils, tacky stick-um stuff for labels on walls, and tape measures) is:

1. Not too many helpers - 2 is OK, 4 is good - more than that is not better. Involve someone who has hung a few shows, or an artist not involved in the show to offer objective feedback.
2. Consider the overall design and viewpoint from the gallery entrance and windows (if any!), but do not spend too much time on the plan, hanging takes a lot of time, and you need to get started!
3. Line up work on the floor to get spacing and flow down.
4. Open the wine AFTER you get about half done, but don't fail to lubricate the workers, as this does not have to be punishment!
5. Don't be afraid to just put a nail in and get started!  Measuring is advisable, but the mathphobia and fractions involved can daunt many an artist - so don't get too "hung up"  (sorry) on measuring.
6. Lighting is very important, work with your gallery to eliminate dark areas, and replace missing bulbs.
7. Get your show hung, at latest, the night before the opening, an extra day is really nice, to handle missing labels, bad hanging hardware . . .