Here's the link to this week's Substack, please consider joining me as a subscriber there. https://maureenmccarronart.substack.com/p/vincent

 Here's the link to this week's Substack post, please join me there as either a free or paid subscriber.

https://maureenmccarronart.substack.com/p/craft-fairs-and-sea-serpents

 I've started Substack account as an experiment and in hopes of reaching more people, so instead of a post today, here's the link. Let's see what happens.

https://maureenmccarronart.substack.com/p/for-flaco

Last week when I posted Sherlock, I mentioned I might titled the vulture I was working on Moriarty. Well, I did and here he is. He went through a few frustrating changes but I do love how he turned out. I even rearranged my studio wall to accommodate him in his frame. He's quite dominating.

 Meet Sherlock. Why Sherlock, you might ask. Because I'm binge-watching Elementary, and why not? Maybe I will call the vulture I am now working on Moriarty so he will have a companion. Although I'm not sure is it possible for a nemesis be one's companion. I certainly thought so when I was young and driven by hormones. Which, of course, is Jonny Lee Miller's Holmes' problem. It never ended well for me back then, and no doubt it won't for Jonny Lee either.

Happy Valentine's Day - here's a collage from the pre-vaccination days of CoVid that I did for a challenge site I was involved with on Instagram at the time. The heart was theirs and I used the tree and hands from the picture below that I found on a deep dive into occult symbolism. I downloaded several hundred such things I might use someday. Usually I reverse the source image but this time, I flipped it upside-down. I called it The Tree Of Life, although I'm sure the Freemasons or whoever this is from have another name for it altogether.

I popped by the Provincetown Art Association Museum this week, which has mostly been about tedious things like taxes, and saw that my greeting cards were on display. I really liked that the boxed set they created with them is next to a boxed set of Rothkos. One could do worse when it comes to shelf company.

This is Edgar, who I ruined and then rescued while he reminded me how hard it is to paint with black. He also started out facing the viewer but looking over his shoulder, which created an illusion of his chest and wing swapping back and forth. But I totally ruined him when I tried to to finish the piece with pen and ink details. There was so much paint and colored pencil and fixative on the surface, the pen kept skipping and splattering. I wound up wiping away as much as I could and made a big mess. Then I started again in the morning with a wash of Paynes Grey (one of my secret weapons) and my trusty silver colored pencil. This time, I took the opportunity to change his position so his whole body is in profile. Maybe it came out not as beautiful as it once was, but I think it's better.

Phew!

This is Juno, a new mixed media piece on paper that is twice the size as what I've been working with lately. I'm about to enter her in a juried exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. The prospectus doesn't say the sitter has to be human, and when questioned about my subject matter, I'm known to say I paint people who happen to be birds. Wish me luck!

In other news, the Provincetown Art Association Museum is going to carry my greeting cards in their gift shop. I dropped off 100 cards on Tuesday as an opening order so they can see which ones sell the best before they get more. They bought the birds to sell individually as well as the collage series, which they may make into boxed sets. Looks like I'm in the greeting card business.

Being trapped inside because of the weather and not having a gig to go to, I'm getting a lot of work done. I finished this seagull, who is titled Gabriel, yesterday. I'd thought it was finished months ago but the beak was way too small. That's the danger of having pieces still in the studio, they might get a huge makeover.

The second piece is Gaspar, who may or may not be named after a notorious pirate instead of one of the Three Wise Men, wasn't immune to my makeover impulse and went through big changes too. My birds are only safe if someone else owns them, but I can always print up a giclee and totally rework that too.

 

 Here I am in one of the two fabulous hats I bought from the woman whose table was next to mine for the craft fair. The other one is a black pussy hat which she knitted for me and I sewed two mother-of-pearl buttons on it that look like cat eyes. The last weekend was a rollercoaster but I beat my goal for the six weeks by $48! The cardinal was the best seller in each category, followed by the yellow barbet, which is on my banner, and the emu. My favorite moment was on the last day when this boy who was barely tall enough to see what was on the table fell in love with the emu giclee and his father bought one for him to hang on his bedroom wall. And if that's not enough good news, I just heard from the Provincetown Art Association Museum that Titiana, my piece that I wrote about several weeks ago being accepted in their juried exhibit, just sold. Yay! How’s that for a great way to start 2024?