Women! Painting women!

Just a heads-up to let you all know that, along with friend and fellow painter Alia El-Bermani, I'm now helping contribute to the blog created by a friend and fellow painter Sadie Valeri. The blog, called "Women Painting Women," is exactly what it sounds like: a collection of paintings of the female figure by contemporary women artists. This has been a great project to be a part of, I've had a blast discovering the vast variety of seriously talented women there are out there. Come check it out! The address is the following: www.womenpaintingwomen.blogspot.com.

Art recommendations - Raleigh/Triangle Area.

As usual, I have some art favorites I'd like to suggest that you check out - in this particular case, the geographical focus is the Triangle area of NC: Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill. Check it out:

Tonight is First Friday, and I think I will be lazy by directing you to New Raleigh's roundup/overview of the evening's events; however, I do want to highlight two exhibits which are only touched upon in their overview: be sure to check out Daniel Allegrucci's woodcuts at Morning Times on Hargett Street, and Gretchen Morrissey's show of prints Seed + Pollen + Nectar in the lobby at Artspace on Davie Street.

Also: if you are in need of something fun to do this Sunday from 1-3 in the afternoon, come on over to check out an exhibition of recent paintings by excellent artist and fellow Bryn Mawr alum Annemarie Gugelmann at Open Eye Café in Carrboro, NC (just west of Chapel Hill). Annemarie will be exhibiting a series of paintings of San Francisco, which of course melts my little heart, left high on a hill... here's a sample of one:

From Bernal 6, 30" x 40", oil on canvas, 2009, $380 (wow!! a steal!!) by Annemarie Gugelmann.

Exhibition entitled Images of San Francisco will be at Open Eye Cafe in Carrboro from June 1 - June 31, 2009; opening reception is Sunday, June 7th between 1-3PM.

Lions and tigers and bears. Or, just lions.

Yipes - my in-laws just found this poster up in their neighborhood - actually, right next to their house - in northern California (Sonoma County):Just when you think a rogue possum or pesky raccoon is bad... thank your lucky stars you don't have a mountain lion roaming into your backyard.

Zoikes!

Birthday.

As I mentioned in this post from last year, my grandmother would have been 92 years old today. Happy Birthday, Grammie, and RIP! You were 110% awesome.

Go greyhound.

Since I've been back I've been trying to get caught up on some painting commission projects, and also another project or two for pleasure. The following is a draft of a painting I'm doing for a friend and fellow artist of her adorable greyhound Sophie:

Sophie, painting-in-progress, oil on printed fabric, 10"x10" by me, Diane Feissel.

Raleigh art goodness.

Something nice of late to distract us from the misery of limbo brought on by a sloooooww real estate market: the recent acquisition of two lovely artworks by two of Raleigh's finest artists, Rachel Herrick and Joyce Watkins King. Here they are:

Small Bombs, mixed media, 12"x12" by Rachel Herrick

Encaustic/mixed media painting, 12"x12" by Joyce Watkins King

Surfed.

I had seen an earlier draft of this painting, and now I am super-excited to this image of the final version (see below) of former studiomate Chris Leib's latest painting. As it happens, the subject of the painting is fellow painter and surfer (and my former studio neighbor over at the Art Explosion) Kevin Pincus. Let's hear it for San Francisco painters, whooo!!! The painting below is available/will be on display via Cain Schulte Gallery in San Francisco and Berlin:

Surfed, 16" x 16", oil on canvas, 2008, by Chris Leib.