HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It is 2011!  Can you believe it?

MiraBay Art Classes resume this week:

Acrylics - All levels
Tuesdays, 2 - 4 pm or 6:15 - 8:15 pm

Drawing with graphite, conte crayon, and charcoal
Fridays, 2 - 4 pm

Gyotaku
Saturday, January 22, 10 am - 12 noon

Sign up by calling the fitness center. 

Not a MiraBay resident?  Maybe you have a friend who is a resident and is taking the class that interests you.  Give me a call and I'll run interference to help with the signing up process.

Hope to see you soon!

Grace

Golden Gate Bridge - Seal Rock Perspective

(Double-click on Image to Enlarge.)

Here a painting done in about five hours using a technique offered by my art instructor.  Painted really quickly from a postcard.  Painted air or the "empty spaces" first paying lots of attention to shape and filled objects into the blanks afterward.

LOVED DOING THIS!

What's next?  Same process painting UPSIDE-DOWN!  Can't wait!

Grace

Hillsborough Community College SouthShore Art Exhibit Has Ended

The HCC SouthShore Exhibit is now down.  It was a wonderful opportunity and I truly appreciate Dr. Witt's invitation to show and to Dean Steve Stancil for his support.

Next opportunity to view my work will be at the Apollo Beach Manatee Festival of the Arts on March 13-14.  Please come by and say hello.

In the meantime my artwork is available online at http://www.gracemckee.com/ and at Arianna's Rugs and Decor, just across Highway 41 North from MiraBay in Apollo Beach, Florida.

Thanks to all who attended my Artist's Reception and who visited the exhibit during the past month.  A special thanks to our daughter Jen and her family for visiting and for helping to take down the exhibit.

And thank you, Michael Johnson, HCC SouthShore Librarian, for all his help.

Showing My Work - Hillsborough Community College SouthShore Center

I am very excited to announce that my artwork is now hanging in the Student Resource Center, Hillsborough Community College SouthShore Center.  The college is located in Ruskin at 551 - 24th Street NE south of 19th Avenue just across from Earl Lennard High School.    Directions

Artist's Reception:  Friday, January 22, 5- 7 pm.  You are invited!

Thank you to the members of the Friends of HCC SouthShore who have agreed to serve as hostesses at the reception.  So far Priscilla Mixon, Vicki Elsberry and Christa Jerome have agreed to serve.  Anyone else?

Can't make it to the reception?  You can view the show between 8 am and 8 pm Monday through Thursday from now through mid-February.
Thank you to Dr. Alan Witt, President, who invited me to show, and to Dean Steve Stancil and Librarian Michael Johnson, who have been so helpful.

As I said, EXCITED!!!!

Apollo Beach Manatee Festival of the Arts

Today I received notification that my work has been accepted into the Apollo Beach Manatee Festival of the Arts.  Hope to see you all there on March 13 - 14!

Birds in and of Paradise

Both of these paintings were done from photos I took around MiraBay where we live.  It is a beautiful place.  I look at the bridges every time we enter or exit our home.  And the bird of paradise was in bloom just at the main entrance.  I walk to the bird of paradise and rest; then I walk home passed the bridge.

They are both painted around the edges so no frame is necessary even though they, of course, can be framed.  The colors are the same and they are the same size so they can be hung as a dyptic.

I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed painting them.

Grace

Ruskin Seafood Festival

Art brings people together. Two MiraBay neighbors who had not previously met recently became acquainted. How? We were setting up an art exhibit, Creative MiraBay, a Big Draw event sponsored by the South Shore Arts Council and chaired by Paula Elliott.

Cynthia Atkins and I had such a great time that we decided to exhibit next to each other at the Ruskin Seafood Festival. Cynthia, owner of Remix My Home and partner in Arianna’s Rugs and Décor and its accompanying consignment shop, showcased her businesses by decorating both tents using items from

her consignment shop. I am an artist who creates paintings in acrylics and uses my computer background to create giclees of my work, so I hung my paintings and showed my giclees.

Other than the CRAZY winds from a tropical storm in the Gulf, we had beautiful weather.  I talked to at least 50 people that I know and just as many that I had not met before.  Great exposure for both us!

The two of us again had a great time. So much so that Cynthia is now setting up an Artist’s Corner in her consignment shop and I will be her first featured artist. Come by the shop at 5477 US Hwy 41 N just across from MiraBay. The shop is open 11 am – 5 pm, Tuesday through Saturday. We have tentively scheduled an artist’s reception to be held at Sava Café (next door) 3 to 5 pm, Wednesday, November 18. Come by to meet Grace and Cynthia.  (FIRST check back to confirm the date and time!)

Don't Be Koi - Acrylics on Canvas

I LOVED doing this painting!

My husband the scientist says the koi is eating algae off the back of the other koi. But I prefer to think she is kissing him.

Look closely and you will see the Chinese characters for "Don't," "Be" and "Koi."

Hope you like it. Click "Comments" to let me know what you think.

We are off to San Francisco in a couple of weeks and on to China for three weeks. Lots of opportunities to learn more about Asian art and for Archie to learn more about Chinese porcelian. Should be great fun!