"Organized Chaos" hits the road with NWS traveling show

Bob Nash, executive director of the Cultural Center of Cape Cod, hangs “Organized Chaos” for the first stop of the 2010 traveling exhibit of the National Watercolor Society. The society received over 1,100 submissions for the national show. Prominent jurors narrowed the number to 100, and 27 are part of the traveling show. When the exhibit closes on May 23, the cultural center will send it on to the next venue, the Zanesville Art Center in Ohio. From there it will travel to Kerrville, Texas and then Pleasanton, California.
"Organized Chaos," 12" x 18" watercolor on 300# Arches cold press

Indian Wells Arts Festival was fantastic

I won first place in watercolor for "Hot as a Heartbeat." I also won a ribbon for Best Local Artist presented by a local chain of high-end gourmet grocery stores called Jensen's. In addition to the ribbon, Jensen's wants to sell my cards in their stores. Yay! I sold lots of my mini oils. I sold prints and note cards and a watercolor. I got a commission to paint a BMW and was asked to design a logo for a car company. Saw lots of friends, made new ones and had a wonderful weekend. From another source I got a request today from the Chairman of a Date Growers Group to do a painting for him....date related I'm sure...waiting to hear back. This is going to be a great year!

"I Love Bees" sold at Museum auction

“I Love Bees” sold at auction today at the Palm Springs Art Museum. It was on display in the Artists Council’s annual juried exhibition February 14 - March 28. All art was for sale via online silent auction. I guess the buyer of my 24” x 30” oil waited till the last minute to avoid encouraging other bidders :-}

Finalist in Watercolor Magazine cover competition

I think I'm going to faint. I'd forgotten that I'd entered, but just got an email that "Bird in Paradise" is a finalist in American Artist Watercolor Magazine's 2010 Cover Competition. The painting and a story about my work will appear in the Summer issue. This was the poster art for last year's Indian Wells Arts Festival and is currently on display in the State Capitol through 2010. Watercolor magazine hasn't chosen the winner yet. They will let us know. Oh my.... wouldn't that be something to be on the cover!

And, Miles to Go

Just for fun.....a little side trip from the bee series. Watercolor 12.5 x 18.5 on Arches 300# cold press.

VroomVroom Camaro Racer

Finally finished this in time for the classic car show on Sunday. "Hot as a Hearbeat" is a watercolor on a full-sheet 21" x 28" Arches cold press. The car belongs to a friend (and neighbor) from high school. He races Camaros for a hobby and this is his street legal car.

Wine and Cupcakes

A fantastic cupcake store "Sisters Cupcakes" is next to the IncredibleArtist.com gallery where I exhibit my art. The owner saw my cupcake paintings and wants me to paint her cupcakes. She will display and sell them in her store. She has wine tastings that she pairs with cupcakes. The gallery will also work together with her on wine tastings. She is a great marketer. She just got a great write up in AAA's March/April Westways magazine pg 23.

Another sale in 4 days and the gallery isn't really open yet

"Sunny Flowers" watercolor, 27" x 20" The man who bought the hydrangeas loved the sunflowers so much he sent a photo of it to his friend in Florida. Mr. Florida bought it immediately. Looks like the new location for IncredibleArtist.com gallery is going to be great!

Karin Jurick portrait

Karin had a portrait exchange on her blog for December. 180 people swapped photos and did each others portraits, then exchanged the finished portraits with each other.
One of the artists, Jill Pollsby decided to thank Karin for all her efforts by organizing a portrait painting of Karin. 118 of us painted her from the same photo and Jill put all the portraits together in a book and sent it to Karin. It was a total surprise for Karin so we all had to keep it a secret for almost 2 months. You can see Karin's reaction on her blog
and you can see all 118 portraits here

Gallery opening sells my watercolor

Mygallery....IncredibleArtist.com had a soft opening tonight to get ready for the grand opening next Saturday. It was more of a get-together for the artists and to fine tune everything. Quite a few people stopped in noticing all the activity and 5 pieces of art sold in just a couple hours. My "Moonlight Shadows" watercolor of hydrangeas sold! We're off to a great start :-)

Mel Stabin's 5-day workshop in Palm Desert, CA

This is an old church, now Bed and Breakfast in Scotland. Very charming little place. In Monday's workshop we had just over 2 hours to paint from a photo we brought, or use one of Mel Stabin's. I chose to use my own. Forty five minutes drawing time and 1-1/2 hours of painting. Fun to work that fast. We were supposed to paint outside today in the Indian Canyons, but I had to work on getting my PaintAmerica art framed, so took the day off. Glad I did. It's pouring. I'll get back at it tomorrow at a nature park with lots of desert flora and fauna. We even have some camels and zebras. Should be a fun day tomorrow. SOLD

OMG I just got two watercolors accepted in Paint America Top 100

"Heaven is a '57" and "Autumn Delights" have BOTH been accepted into Paint America top 100 Exhibition. I'm on the floor. Somebody come pick me up! The letter arrived this afternoon and in it they warn that I should expect media focus and interviews and I should be prepared. Oh my goodness. I'm in shock. You can read about the Exhibition at their website

Cadillac Eldorado watercolor

"Eldorado" watercolor by Diane Morgan 17 x 21" on 300# Arches cold press. This is one of several classic car paintings I will be featuring at the Concours d'Elegance Classic Car show on Feburary 28th at PGA West Mountain Course in La Quinta,CA. You can read about the car show on their website. Seems like its been so difficult lately to squeeze in painting time. I have so many pieces in my head that are dying to be painted. After next week's 5-day Mel Stabin workshop I should be able to get back to my list of wanna-be's.

Golden Pears workshop today

These are my ladies with their almost complete paintings from today's workshop at Rancho Casa Blanca. They all did such a great job. It was a fun day.

Magazine article about my NWS watercolor national tour

The Desert Valley Star Weekly ran a nice article about my watercolor "Organized Chaos" on national tour throughout 2010 with the National Watercolor Society. See page 16
http://www.mygazines.com/issue/6398/16

eBay Experiment

Just listed 12 mini oils on eBay for $1 each. If you see anything you
like, they're practically free. Ebay selling tutorials say to start the
bidding at $1 to get people interested. This is an experiment. Let's see how it goes.
Items can be found here
All 12 sold. Experiment was a success!

Allusions of Grandeur

"Allusions of Grandeur" oil 6"x 8"
My niece and nephew commissioned this acorn painting for my sister for Christmas. It is a companion piece to the "Pine with Cone" I did for her earlier.

Karin Jurick Challenge...Portrait Exchange

At the end of each year Karin Jurick has a portrait exchange for her blog followers. 180 people are participating this year. Very fun to see what everyone paints. This is the portrait I created from the photo reference at the right. You can see the others on Karin's blog

Watercolor Show at Palm Desert Visitor Center

The Coachella Valley Watercolor Society show at the Palm Desert Visitor Center had a great opening reception December 7th despite torrential rains. The show features 10 top award-winning CVWS members. The City of Palm Desert, CA heavily promotes their juried Community Gallery and provided lovely refreshments. The Visitor Center is such a beautiful location for a show and is very well-staffed. Show runs until Jan 24, 2010.
Visit the Community Gallery site to see all the artists' work
http://www.palm-desert.org/arts-culture/public-art/community-gallery

Karin Jurick Challenge...Sounds of Silence

Here is this month's Karin Jurick challenge. Her photo was of travelers at an airport. The pattern of the floor reminded me so much of my piano that I had to move them to the keyboard. Since they seemed to be so separate and uncommunicative I named this "Sounds of Silence" 9" x 12" watercolor on 300# arches

Raindrops on Roses

Another great find on one of my evening sunset walks. I see a painting in the near future.

Starbucks PSP officially open

The new Starbucks at the Palm Springs International Airport opened today with a ribbon cutting by the Chamber of Commerce, Palm Springs Mayor and City Council and the Airport Commission. My three watercolor giclees help "perk" up the walls. By the way....that black wall is made of coffee beans, and smells fantastic.

Facebook Autumn Painting Competition

This is my submission for the Facebook Autumn Painting Challenge. "Autumn Delights" 11" x 14" watercolor on 300# Arches cold press. The painting had to be finished in October. Since most entries were Fall related I decided to go back to my old apple theme.You can see more entries here

Starbucks is getting ready for take-off at PSP.

Employees were busily setting up for the November grand opening of the new Starbucks at the Palm Springs International Airport. I stopped by to sign my three giclees which will "perk" up the walls.

Palm Springs students use art to learn.

F is for Fly. Thanks to the inventive mind of Louisa Castrodale, Visual & Performing Arts Specialist for the Palm Springs Unified School District, students will be learning the alphabet artistically. Louisa enlisted twenty six artists to create a work of art for the letters of the alphabet. 16,000 students will get to see this fun
2009/10 ArtShare Project

Funds raised for Boys and Girls Club

IncredibleArtist.Com and Acura of the Desert presented
a check for $2,500 to the Boys & Girls Club of Cathedral City on Friday,Sept 25th at a special party at the Acura showroom. The money was raised through the Incredible Acura Art Event held at Acura of Desert during June and July. The event featured art sales at the Acura showroom, a very successful silent auction, and a donation from Acura of the Desert for each car sold during June and July.
My watercolor "Highway to Heaven" was created specifically for the event, and the children of the Boys & Girls Club used the image to create their own artworks which are now on display at Acura of the Desert. The donation will be used by the Boys & Girls Club for their popular arts programs.

Finalist in "Show us your America" contest

“Heaven is a ‘57” is a Finalist in Aaron Bros “Show us your America” contest. It is one of 10 art finalists selected out of 2000 entries. The winner is selected by vote of the public. To vote go to www.showusyouramerica.com/votes/new Click on the dot next to the painting. Then scroll down and enter you email. Then click VOTE.
I humbly ask for your vote and the vote of every person you’ve ever met. You can vote for one piece in each category, art and photography. Only one vote per person. Thank you for your support.

Sweet Temptation Jurick's Different Strokes challenge

Karin Jurick's latest challenge was cupcakes. Right up my alley. I left off the sprinkles.

Organized Chaos wins award and selected for NWS traveling show

"Organized Chaos" was accepted in the 89th Annual National Watercolor Society Exhibition Oct 10- Dec 20, 2009 at the City of Brea Art Gallery (California.) Only 100 paintings were chosen for this national exhibition. The Juror, Jim Morphesis chose “Organized Chaos” for the "Watercolor West" Award, a $500 cash prize. It was also one of only 30 chosen for the Traveling Exhibition going all over the U.S during 2010. Woohoo!

International Artist magazine selects "I Love Bees" as Finalist

International Artist magazine has selected my I Love Bees 24” x 30” oil as a Finalist in the Still Life and Florals competition. They will devote a full page to my work in the Oct/Nov 2009 issue. Pinch me!