AIS Exhibition

“Patience”  12″x16″ oil on canvas   SOLD at the show!

I am thrilled that “Patience”, a 12″x16″ oil on linen canvas, was accepted into the American Impressionist Society’s 13th Annual Juried Exhibition! The exhibit will open November 9th in Indianapolis, IN.

Below is a still life I entered that was rejected . This year each artist was only allowed to enter 2 paintings (last year it was 3). I always think it’s interesting to post which of my paintings didn’t get into shows. I love the quote that came in the “rejection” e-mail from Show Chair Dawn Whitelaw, she says “I love the story that Everett Raymond Kinstler tells of displaying a prize he received for a painting alongside the rejection slip he received for the same painting. He says not to take either acceptance or rejection into a show too seriously, and I think he is right.” I have had the very same thing happen. I had a painting that was rejected twice from two different shows so I sold it. Unfortunately that lowered my opinion of that particular painting. But now I that I’m older and wiser I realize that if I had kept that painting it probably would have eventually been accepted into a show (well, maybe, at least I like to think so). But getting a painting into a show is not what matters, what matters is that we love what we’re painting. I decided to sell that painting and it sold immediately, before I even got a frame on it. Of course then I thought, hm, maybe that was a good painting. Crazy thoughts! Obviously entering shows was not a good thing for me, not when getting accepted or rejected was making me question what I was painting or how I was painting. So I decided not to enter shows anymore, except this one. And I almost didn’t enter this one but my good friend Diane Hoeptner encouraged me and I am grateful for her support.

This is “Grandma’s teapot” and it’s 11″x14″ oil on linen canvas. My family was at Grandma’s house one weekend and I sat downstairs in a quiet room by a window and painted this still life of an old teapot she had. I painted it a second time, using this painting as a guide, when I got back to my studio and sold that painting a few months ago. This is actually one of my favorites and hangs in our kitchen. So I’m not too disappointed that it didn’t get into the show.