Featured Artist at Artists Workshop Gallery in June

Sheliah Halderman and I will be featured artists at Artists Workshop Gallery for the month of June. Our kickoff is Friday evening, June 1, during the Hot Springs Gallery Walk. We will host a reception from 5 to 9 pm.

I will be exhibiting many new paintings, from small (16 x 20" framed) to very large (28 x 40" framed). There will be rural landscapes and "lakescapes", several boats being pounded by waves in the open sea, and even a tropical sunset. I'll also have available a framed giclee print of a young boy fishing - I can't bring myself to let go of the original, as the model is my grandson. I'll also have some original paintings with dramatic skies available matted but unframed for very reasonable prices. And as always, note cards of my favorite paintings will be available in sets, and I'll have two sizes of inexpensive matted prints of my bathhouse paintings available (the originals have all been sold long ago).

There will be plenty of variety, with something to capture the imagination of just about everyone. So please stop by on Friday evening June 1 to say "hello" and partake of some refreshments while you're enjoying my artwork, and if you can't make it Friday evening, visit the gallery some other time during June to see a large and varied collection of my watercolors.

Sterling Edwards Watercolor Workshop

Last week I traveled to Fort Worth, Texas to attend a 3-day watercolor workshop given by Sterling Edwards under the auspices of the Society of Watercolor Artists (SWA). It was an excellent workshop with about 20 mostly local artists. Sterling is one of the best teachers I have experienced.

In addition to a birch forest scene demo at the SWA meeting the evening before, Sterling did many demonstrations at the workshop: a barn scene, a monochromatic value study, tree demos, flowers, a waterfall, examples of three different dramatic skies, a European street scene, several demos of negative painting, and an abstract. He was willing to demonstrate anything people asked about. Sterling teaches a “4-step process” that describes the sequence that he works in. He also demonstrated a unique method of using bristle brushes for watercolor paintings, and an interesting physical palette design that I’ll be trying out. He provided individual help, a critique on the final day, and lots of philosophy and jokes along the way. I painted two half-sheets and two quarter-sheets during the “free time”. I’m holding one of these with Sterling in the accompanying image.

Sterling also paints in acrylics and oils, and is a founding member and teacher of Art Academy Live. He would be an excellent teacher for one of our arts organizations to host in central Arkansas.

Mid-Southern Watercolorists Gold Award

This year the 37th Annual Mid-Southern Watercolorists Juried Exhibition included 38 paintings selected from 172 entries submitted by members from 9 states, and I felt fortunate to have my painting Biker juried into the exhibit. The exhibit is ongoing until May 19 at the Cox Creative Center, 2nd floor, 120 Commerce Street, Little Rock, AR 72201. It is a terrific venue... one can stand in the center of the exhibit area and see almost all of the paintings without having to walk from room to room.

Last night awards were announced, and I was extremely pleased to receive the Gold Award, the top award, for my painting. It was a real honor to be highly placed among so many excellent watercolor artists, and an experience that I won't forget for a long time.

Biker was also selected by the Arkansas Art Center as part of an 18-painting traveling exhibit that will be shown in vairous venues around Arkansas during the rest of 2007.

Welcome to my new blog

Well, I've finally decided to put a blog on my website. It should be a simple way for me to update people on news and events related to my painting activities. This is still somewhat of an experiment; I'm not sure just how useful it will be, but I decided I'd never know without trying it out. I'm not planning to post regularly, just when there's a good reason, as I still need to protect some time for my painting.

You can get to this blog directly, using the path http://www.jimoberst.com/blog.html, or by choosing the Blog link at the top of any of my website pages. I welcome your comments.

If you'd like to sign up to receive email updates whenever there is a new post, there is a button at the bottom of the page for this purpose.