Show at the Peterborough Library - Artwork Update

I just realized I didn't make a blog post about my show at the Peterborough library this month. I have several pieces displayed at the library in downtown Peterborough, NH through the end of January.  January 31st to be exact.

Most of the work is portraiture  but to fill things out I did put in a couple of still-lifes including the two above. I know I said I was going to bring the good luck kitty to the gallery, but I found I needed it to create this display.

I believe the town of Peterborough has dug itself out of the snow if you want to go check it out! <3

Photos from the Open Studio

A big thanks to everyone who came to see Luann and I at the open studio! For those of you who didn't there is next year! Its a great time to travel to New Hampshire - always at the peak of foliage!

Art in the Park was a lot of fun... but windy. Look for some new pieces of mine at the Monadnock Fine Art Gallery in Keene... soon.

MOCO Faculty Art Exhibit & Benefit Sale

Yes, the flu has been gone now... and although I haven't been away from my blog all this time from the flu - it did last way longer than I thought it would. I highly recommend getting the swine flu vaccine if you can.

Anyway I've been busy teaching and doing commissions. I've gotten two more still-life commissions finished exactly since we last met here, but I haven't any photographs.

I took this week off from the commissions to get ready for a benefit Art Sale/ Faculty Show at MOCO Arts were I teach community art classes. The faculty has put together a show to benefit the School of Art at MOCO. I am going to have the pieces above for sale along with a couple I have posted here before. The small ones are 5 x 7 and 6 x 6; the larger is 11 x 14.

The show will be at MOCO's Wellness Center, 9 Elm Street, Keene. The Opening Reception is Saturday December 12th from 5-7 pm . The show will also be open 12/13, 19, and 20th.

Other artist exhibiting are Susa Christiansen, Alicia Drakiotes, Sienna Griffin, Peter Granucci, Ashley Mc Allister, Karena Ness, Kim Peterson, Marylise Reilly-Fajal, Char Russell, Craig Stockwell, Georgia Tasoulas and Jeanne Thieme.

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new Commission and pics from show with Gary Ruuska

The autumn commission is put on hold until next week, so I started another commission - this one a portrait/still-life. All I have finished is a transferred line drawing. It really is a still-life that borders on tromp l'oiel. In it are two school portraits from the 70's and a bunch of kid's craft stuff. There are a few objects thrown in that the people depicted in the photographs liked at that age. Wow, it looks kind of weird at this stage... :-)

This piece is both fun and scary to make. I really dislike doing teeny portraits and this one has 2 small ones in it. I have nothing against small portraits - its just that one small milimeter of a mistake can change the likeness. It is much easier to do something around life-size.

& I owe you all some photographsfrom my show with Gary Ruuskain Jaffrey,NH! His work are the wonderful still-lifes and architecture pieces below. He also has gorgeous botanicals in the show, so this is just a sampling from theshow. My work, of course, are the portraits... in the show I have 14 portraits including my Zen piece (which isn't in these photos).

Jaffrey Civic Center Show and Fall Foliage Art Studio Tour

In addition to my current show of still-lifes at the Monadnock Art Gallery, I have two more events coming up.

On Friday October 9th (yep this Friday) from 5-7 pm is the opening
reception for my joint show with artist Gary Ruuska called "Point of Realism." I have all my portraits in this show... a few have never left the studio and all of them have never been shown together before. Its a show long in the making but its finally here! Gary has still-lifes and amazing architectural pieces in the show.

here is the official press release from the civic center:

Nicole Caulfield and Gary Ruuska defy any preconceptions of what you ever thought the abilities of colored pencil can be. The images they create with their medium will have you appreciate not only their talent, their choices of subject matter, their vision, their patience, but their dedication to their art. A two-person art exhibit, “Point of Realism”, will begin with an opening on Friday, October 9 from 5-7 pm and runs until Saturday, November 7 at the Jaffrey Civic Center in the 1st floor Auditorium Gallery.

There are images of florals which exude photo-realism, portraits which are not only friendly, but invite you to examine the personalities of the people who have posed. The exhibit will touch you on many levels, and let you go home
feeling enriched.

The Civic Center is located at 40 Main Street, Jaffrey, New Hampshire (next to Library, parking in rear.) Hours at the Center are: Tues 10-6/ Wed-Fri 1-5/ Sat 10-2.Admission is free. For further information call 603-532-6527

October 10th - 11th I am participating in the Fall Foliage Art Studio Tour from 10 am - 5 pm both days. I won't have much in my studio honestly with my two other shows going at the same time, but if you want to come by and see my studio and chat, come on by.

Keene Art Stroll Today!

I will be part of the Keene Art Stroll today from 5-7.

Keene Art Stroll is Keene's answer to gallery night.  Pick up a flier in businesses downtown or in yesterday's Spotlight section of the Sentinel. It lists all the shops downtown that have artwork displayed, a map,  and regular hours you can see artwork during the month. Read about it here in the Keene Sentinel. 

My artwork will be in 3 locations for art stroll:

1. First and foremost at the Monadnock Fine Art Gallery, 99 Main Street. Mary Iselin is the featured artist of the month but my work is always there as well as many other  artists. The gallery is such an inviting space and is filled with a variety of artwork and styles - the biggest bang for the buck in Art Stroll. At the gallery you can see one of my newest pieces "Spring Flowers" as well as my infamous Obama portrait and other still-lifes. 

2. I have a small show along with Brian Jenkins at Primeroast further down Main Street. This is the first time I've seen Brian's still-lifes in person and they are fabulous. Actually his website does not do them justice at all. I have 8 pieces there including my portrait Zen and others. 

3. Lastly, I am opening up my studio at 17 Roxbury Street (down the hall from Mom's Tattoos) where I work and teach classes and workshops. Come by and chat with me and see some works in progress and the tools of the trade. 

This is the second Art Stroll which is likely to become a monthly event; next month excluded for our annual Art Walk. I am the only artist opening their studio during the stroll, but hopefully other artists with downtown studios will jump on board in later strolls. 

Shiver Finished & CPSA

I'm calling Shiver FINISHED. :-)  

For those of you who didn't see the first post on it - Its an illustration of the character in Maggie Stiefvater's book Shiver about a girl who falls in love with a wolf. It is set in Minnesota winter and the cold is a big concept in the book so I wanted it to look cold, foggy, and shivery lol. She is supposed to look somewhat sad in this and like she is looking for her lost love... Its not going to be on the book or anything - I just loved the book and thought it would make a great picture.  Its a large piece because I don't like working much smaller than life-size - the final is 24" x 32." 

It was so much fun starting with a set character that I may just do this again with another book character! Maggie - what are writing about next?! Hmmmm maybe I should do a pic of James with all that writing on his arms....

Here's Maggie post about it on her Live-Journal http://m-stiefvater.livejournal.com/104720.html

& some good news:

I'm happy to announce that my piece Becca was accepted into this years International Colored Pencil Society Show in Atlanta Georgia! Yay Becca! Here's an old thread on that piece http://nicolecaulfieldfineart.blogspot.com/2008/10/untitled.html

OMG!

OMG!

My piece 'Zen" won Best of Show at the Thorne Sagendorph Biennial Regional Juried Show!

It is a regional juried show open to artists living within 30 miles of Keene and is one of those shows that you are just happy to get your piece accepted in. My hope was to get in (my fingers were crossed as well as my stomach in knots waiting to find out if I got in) and have a piece that, this year, people might stop and look at instead of walk past. The last two times I got in, my pieces were small or insignificant next to the amazing art in the show and it hit a nerve when it seemed no one even stopped to take a look at my drawings. So this time, I just hoped my pieces would command a little looksee from the viewers of the show.

BUT to win Best of Show was beyond my expectations!

Seriously, just getting in the show had me excited. The gallery space is such a phenomenal space & they really know how to hang and light work. Just to see my pieces hanging, lit up better than when I was working on them was a thrill I was looking forward to.

If you remember I did the piece Zen with the intention of entering it in this show and one other - the CPSA national show... and if you remember more... I found out that it is too big to be entered in the CPSA show. :-( Oh well........ I would have liked to have had the chance to get it in an all colored pencil show.

Here are some pics from the opening last night.

Another piece of mine got in the show, and here it is with me and my model posing in front of it. People kept on coming up to her during the opening asking her "Haven't I seen you before."

Here's me with my beautiful older daughter who is the model in Zen. :-)

& look! People stopped and looked at it, lol!

If you didn't have a chance to go to the opening -

the show runs January 24 - February 26, 2009.

The gallery hours are:

Saturday – Wednesday noon to 4 p.m.
Thursday and Friday noon to 7 p.m.

The Thorne Sagendorph Gallery is on the Keene State College campus on Wyman Way (off of Main St.)

If anyone would like to look back at 'Zen' being made - it is in my October archive (link below) Just scroll down the page:

http://nicolecaulfieldfineart.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html

H20 Show in Newport, RI

More great news! My beach portrait won Best of Show in the CPSA district 112 memebr show. You probably remember me working n the piece. The show was a water themed show, so I decided to do a beach inspired portrait. My inyentions were to get that sun drenched, windswept feeling. The colourful skintones of the outdoors proved to be really hard to achieve. I even had to do a redo and create some color samples to get me through it! Here are my original posts on the piece while it was in progress:

1 - http://nicolecaulfieldfineart.blogspot.com/2008/07/beach-portrait.html
2 - http://nicolecaulfieldfineart.blogspot.com/2008/07/beach-portrait-update.html
3 - http://nicolecaulfieldfineart.blogspot.com/2008/07/beach-portrait-finished.html


If anyone is in the Newport, RI area and want to see the show the information is below. The opening reception is over but they are having a gallery night on the 15th of Novemeber!

Members of the New England Chapter of the Colored Pencil Society of America
will exhibit colored pencil works at the Spring Bull Gallery during the month of
November. The exhibit, titled "H2O" incorporates each artist's interpretation of
water.

This diversified exhibit will encompass a wide variety of colored
pencil techniques and colored pencil mixed with other mediums. In conjunction
with the exhibit, the chapter will be having a silent auction of 5x7" original
colored pencil drawings that will last throughout the month. Come meet the
artists and explore this unique art medium at the opening reception on Saturday,
November 1, 2008 from 5-7PM. Exhibit runs November 1 - December 3 2008, and
Newport Gallery Night is Thursday, November 13, 5-8 p.m.
Spring Bull Gallery

located at 55 Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island, is wheel chair
accessible and open free to the public. Gallery hours are noon to 5PM daily. For
additional information on this exhibition, future gallery events or member
artists please call the gallery at 401-849-9166 or visit the gallery on-line
www.springbullgallery.com.