Gallery North 2011 Annual Miniature & Small Painting Show

I have work in Gallery North's 2011 Annual Miniature & Small Painting Show. The show opened on March 1st and continues through March 31st. The Artists' Reception is this Sunday, March 6th from 1 to 4 PM. Gallery North is located at 508 Main Street in beautiful downtown Edmonds. They will also be open for the Edmonds Art Walk on Thursday, March 17th from 5 to 8pm.

My three works in this show are the small works painting, A Meditation on the Pacific Northwest, and two fine art miniatures, In Fair Condition and The Old Barn. The show was juried for awards which will be given at the reception on Sunday. I will be attending and I hope to see you there!

My next blog post will be my new miniature Moonbathing, which will include a few in progress photos. I am working on getting my photos downloaded and writting the post, so do keep checking back!

Small Works, Big Presents - Auburn WA

The City of Auburn and the White River Valley Museum have partnered to present the 3rd Annual Small Works Big Presents: The Gift of Art. This exhibition was juried by three arts professionals and I'm happy to say that two of my works, A Meditation on the Pacific Northwest, (a small work) and Chuckanut at Lunch, (a fine art miniature), will be included in the show. This exhibition and art sale celebrates the diversity of the Pacific Northwest visual art community. The purpose of the show is to offer an opportunity to purchase fine artworks at affordable prices during the holiday shopping season. The artwork will be on display from November 17th through December 19th, 2010, at the White River Valley Museum, located in the Auburn Community Campus at Les Grove Park, 918 H Street South East, Auburn WA. The preview opening and awards ceremony will take place on Tuesday, November 16th from 5 - 7 pm and is open to the public. Refreshments will be provided. I am planning on attending and hope to see you there too! My friends Janie Olsen, Storybook Studio and Sue Jackson-André, aka Clovie Boy, will both have work in the show. Do stop by to Support Your Local Artist!

Group Show at Meyers Cafe at the Marina

A Meditation on the Pacific Northwest, © Barbara A. Freeman
Acrylic on Gessobord, 5 1/2" x 5 1/2"

I will be participating in a group show curated by Everett artist Shannon Leah Danks at Meyers Cafe, 1700 West Marine View Drive, at the Marina in Everett, WA, (425) 259-3875‎. It will be an eclectic mix of works from many local artists. The work I contributed is my Buddha painting, A Meditation on the Pacific Northwest. I'm not sure who all the other artists are that will be in this exhibit, but I do know that Janie Olsen and Eden Hopkins have both contributed work. When I asked Shannon what she needed, she said,

"the group show is very eclectic...whatever you want to display is what i want."

I thank Shannon for putting this together! All work is for sale so go have lunch or brunch at the beautiful marina and support your local artist! Oh, and if you go on Sunday, you can enjoy fresh veggies, flowers and more from the Farmers' Market, all taking place at the Marina!

As to other things... I know I've been absent for too long here. I have been busy trying to get new work done for the deadlines for the miniature shows I do every year, MPSGS in Washington, DC, MASF in Florida and a local invitational Holiday Show at Kaewyn Gallery. There will be other small shows and festivals that I will be submitting work to that are coming up as well. I will be posting all the shows that I will be in as they come up. I will be gone for a bit more than a week in September to make a much needed trip to visit family in IN. Then hopefully sometime in the beginning of the new year my husband and I, along with our daughter Gina, will be visiting family in FL. Both our parents have been dealing with illness so we want to make the trips to spend some time together. Also it will be great to see Gina again! We are in touch everyday via IM and Facebook, but it sure doesn't make up for real hugs! Until next time, thanks for taking the time to read about my work and sometimes other things.

Kaewyn Gallery Miniature Exhibit Extended

I just got an email from Kaewyn Gallery that the Miniature Masterpieces and More exhibit will be extended through January 29th. If you didn't get a chance to see the show, there is still time! I have three miniatures remaining in this exhibit, Innocence, "Rhodie" With Bee, The Sentinel, and one small work, A Meditation on the Pacific Northwest , (located up front by the window). So if you don't know what to do with that check from Santa, consider some local art at Kaewyn Gallery, 10101 Main Street in downtown Bothell, WA. Support your local artist!

"A Meditation on the Pacific Northwest", Third Buddha Painting

This small work is the last in my series of Buddha paintings. Because I wanted to make this a meditation work, I used a border to draw the viewer inward to make Buddha the focal point.

Even though I used the same Buddha figure and Pacific Northwest landscape as in the previous Buddha paintings, I could never paint them exactly the same. Nor would I want to!

The knot border is done with gold over a transparent red oxide. I used the crow symbol to break up the border. The crow is outlined in an iridescent violet. The Buddha is once again holding the tulip and apple, symbols of the Pacific Northwest. The tree he is sitting in front of has that beautiful green moss you find covering many of the trees here. What doesn't show in the photo or scan is the luminous quality of this piece.

Gessobord has a slight texture, so when I started to paint the features on the figure, the texture kept getting in the way. To correct that, I painted several layers of gesso on the figure, sanding each time between the dry layers using very fine sandpaper. When the figure was finished, I added the iridescent and metallic gold glazes on Buddha and around his form. When you see this work in person, the figure in certain light looks as though it is floating.

I'm not sure if I will do more Buddha pieces, but I really enjoyed doing these three. I hope you enjoy seeing them and hearing a bit about their background. As always, thank you for taking the time to visit my blog and look at my work. I hope you will come back soon.


This work, A Meditation on the Pacific Northwest is available on my secure website for purchase. Just click on "add to my collection".

I notice that this image is showing up in google images. I do hope that viewers will take note that this is an original painting done by me and is available for purchase on my website at www.bfreestudios.com. I also hope they will respect the copyright of this work. Thank you for looking and please, I'd love to hear from you, leave me a comment.

A Meditation on the Pacific Northwest

Copyright 2009 Barbara A. Freeman

Acrylic on Gessobord, 5 1/2" x 5 1/2"

Framed size, 9 1/4" x 9 1/4"