Eventide, 5x7 -sold

Eventide, pastel on board by Adriana Meiss

  This small paintings was among the ones I sold at Plowshares in Dec.

  The last two weeks have been just too cold to paint in my studio, but before the cold spell set in I did a winter scene in pastel which I showed to my oil instructor and he suggested I use those same colors in an oil painting I'm working on.

  Oils? Yes! A long time ago when I started with art, oils were my favorite medium, but at the time, the trend in teaching art students was "let them find things for themselves." This approach did not produce good results with me,  as sometimes things worked but the majority did not, so I abandoned them. Now, I feel ready for the challenge of working with them once again, but with good guidance this time around. One big difference though: I find it extremely hard being patient with oil's drying time. This fact makes me appreciate pastel's immediacy even more, so I don't see myself putting my precious sticks away anytime soon.

Evenfall, 5x7"

Evenfall, pastel on board by Adriana Meiss

   A new year, a new easel to replace the one I got years ago from the curb, and lots of new ideas I'm eager to put into paper or board!

   There was so much frenzy during the whole month of Dec, that I felt I needed a long period of rest. My first pastel of the year was started just 3 days ago and although is coming along very well, it is not ready yet, so I'm posting a small painting done last year for Plowshares. It's based on a photo from Alverna Heights, near Green Lakes State Park.  The body of water in the middle ground doesn't exist but I thought it added interest to the scene.

Some of my plans for this year include painting in oils and selling small paintings from this blog ( yeah, I know I have said this before but this time I've already taken the first steps).  I wish you perseverance to succeed with yours!

Evenglow, 8x10-Sold

Evenglow, pastel on board by Adriana Meiss

The Plowshares Festival  of a week ago went very well. Six painting have new homes, including an older piece that I decided to bring with me at the last minute.  I'm happy to say that there were five returned customers, so to those of you reading this, keep your mailing list up to date and never forget to let your customers know of events you are participating in. Most important, when sending a mass email invitation, protect and reassure your customers by putting their email address in the Bcc box .

As it often happens to me, I left framing for the last minute, and this time I found scratches on the glass in many of the small ready-made frames I had purchased. Fortunately I had other pieces to replace them with, but now I'm left with glass that will probably have to be recycled if I'm not able to cut smaller pieces from it...

Contemplation, 5 1/2 x 8"

Contemplation, pastel on paper by Adriana Meiss

   November 2013 will be a month that I'll remember for it's sunsets. There were so many cold days that our group went only twice to paint outdoors. Oh, but the sunsets seemed to compensate for the bad weather. So, it's no surprise that I've been painting sunsets, and there is still no sign of my getting tired of them.

  This one started with the idea of the dark sky and a limited palette.  The scene is a composite of two different places, and although I didn't do a preliminary sketch, somehow it worked. I'm thinking of painting it larger emphasizing the light on the distant hill... This painting will be among the new ones at next week's Plowshares Festival at Nottingham HS. If you are in the Syracuse area, this is an event you should not miss!

Early Fall in Tully, 10x20"

Early Fall in Tully, pastel on board by Adriana Meiss

   Nothing beats a beautiful day and  a great location to put an artist in the mood to paint.
This scene is from late October at the Grey Barn Farm in Tully, where our plein air group had painted just a month earlier.

   The weather and the light were great but the variable clouds almost got me into trouble. I would start painting  the orange afternoon glow in the distant hill only to see it disappear and then reappear somewhere else. After a few minutes I realized that I could end up chasing the light so, I took the time to look at the whole scene in an objective way and figured out the options I had. I settled for what you see here. Painting outdoors puts a lot of pressure on you only because one wants to end  the session with a finished work, and that is rarely the norm. Back at the studio I had more time to study this piece and fix some problem areas.

Pond at Stone Quarry Hill, 12x9" - Sold

   This is one of the paintings I did on location early in the summer at Stone Quarry Hill Art Park in Cazenovia.  I was satisfied with the results in the field, but back home I decided the focal area needed more work.
   I'm happy to say that it will have a new home after the show at Manlius Library.

Showing at Manlius Library until Nov 16

North Truro Moon, 12x9 pastel on panel by Adriana Meiss

I was asked by the Associated Artist of CNY if I would be interested in having a show at the  Manlius Library. Of course I said yes as artists should take any good opportunity offered to them.

The first thing for me was to take stock of what I had and and come up with a title for the show. I decided on Landscapes: Near and Far because besides wanting to show some of my recent work done on location, I wanted as well to show work from other places that has been in my shelves for some time.
This meant a lot of framing and as paintings dictate what kind of frames they look best in, I had to order new ones and deal with some delays.

Anyway, yesterday the ladies of Associated Artist of CNY showed how efficiently they worked: the exhibit was set in a very short time and I must say that it looks great. North Truro Moon above, is one of the 22 pieces in the exhibit. Even while hanging work, I had the chance to talk with a nice lady from NJ who told me that some of my paintings reminded her so much of the area she lives in.

The reception in next Sun Oct 20th from 2-4. The show will last until Nov 16th. If you are in the area please stop by.

Library hours:
Mon -Thu: 10:00 AM- 9:00 PM
Fri -Sat : 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Sun: 1:00 PM- 5:00 PM