It's winter on Cape Cod, and most days the air is filled with the glitter of frozen sea air, swirling in the breezes off the chilled Atlantic Ocean. So I'm in the studio more than I am outside for painting efforts. My heated birdbaths and topped-off feeders keep an array of feathered "models" right outside my kitchen window. This fellow was eyeing the competition at the feeder before landing on a perch to refuel!
So ringing in a new decade with 2010 provides a great reason to pursue new ideas, themes, and materials. Look for influences that are moving my thinking in new directions. Look for experiments: some will work, others will flop but offer learnings and seeds for really good stuff.
New influences: I've just spent time looking hard at works by Rothko and Kandinsky - both pioneers of very contemporary/abstract art. Surprisingly, I discovered abstraction in Alfred Birdsey's work which hangs at "Birdsey On The Cape" in Osterville ... a bastion of Cape Cod impressionists.
Other influences that you might notice: I'm learning to use social media to reach out to people who find art as a means of seeing the world in new ways. My blog, still in neonatal form, is http://barbsart.wordpress.com where YOU can comment in dynamic form. Please feel free to do so as I get things up and running. I'm also learning to use my new Flip Ultra video cam and will try out posting works-in-progress on YouTube. So stay tuned, things are kick-starting for this new decade! You'll notice too, that I am now set up to accept direct payments through PayPal, and if you happen to be shopping at Etsy.com you'll see my other shop at "BarbarasArt," so please stop in often and watch the progression of new works as they are posted!
