Poppies and Irises, 7x5"

Poppies and Irises, pastel on board by Adriana Meiss

  This small painting and twenty six more of mine will be at the Onondaga Art Guild Spring Show and Sale this coming weekend.

  If you live in the area, stop by and support the local arts. It's really a nice show and there will work from thirty artists.

Sunset in Mauve, 8x6" - Sold

Sunset in Mauve, pastel on paper by Adriana Meiss

     At the end of April the guild I'm in (OAG) will have it's annual spring sale. In my effort to avoid framing like crazy at the last minute, I have been working steadily for the last month, mostly producing small paintings. Some are already framed after having passed the test of seating on a shelf for weeks without any little thing screaming to have it fixed.
    The reference photo for this painting was an irrigation channel from a nearby town, but by changing the vegetation I turned it into a scene that could have been from the Adirondacks.

Mud Creek, 7x5 --SOLD

Mud Creek, original pastel by Adriana Meiss

Every time I'm driving on Rt 481 N I always try to slow down when I reach the area where the highway crosses Mud Creek--just a few miles before the exit to Rt 31. Both sides of the road offer great views to paint, the problem is that there is no space for parking, that is, unless you have car trouble or decide to risk getting a fine.

The time I took the reference photo for this painting was such a beautiful fall evening  and I was lucky enough there wasn't much traffic; most important, there were no highway patrols either. I'm not advocating taking risks specially when driving, I simply like to be ready if the opportunity presents itself. Countless times I have let other cars pass me by with the hope of getting a chance to take a good reference photo. I have one particular pot I would like to photograph but the traffic has made it impossible so far. My camera is always ready just in case.

This painting will be for sale at the Onondaga Art Guild Spring Show and Sale this weekend at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, 400 W Yates St East Syracuse
Sat 28th, 10:00am.-4:00pm
Sun 29th,12:00pm - 4:00pm
You are invited!

Spring, 8x8"

I always get the impression that spring passes by so fast. By the time I'm into "outdoors painting mode" the trees have lost that beautiful and delicate minty green. 

It's been too cold and cloudy to paint outside lately so this one was from a reference photo of my neighborhood that I took a while ago. I purposely tried to paint loose just giving a few hints of dwellings.

This piece and fourteen other new ones will be in the OAG spring show and sale at the end of the month.

Bouquet, 9 1/2 x 7 1/2

I feel so bad for not having been updating my blog. April and May are the busiest times of the year for me with so many shows to apply to, prepare for and submit artwork to, and on top of that, framing, working, and trying to get some plein air done when the weather is nice... you get the picture.

I did this painting over a month ago. It was the third one that day, and surprisingly, it worked.
Canson is the simplest of papers there is to work in pastels, and although it was the only paper I used when I started in pastels 10 years ago, nowadays I rarely do so. Being used to working on sanded surfaces, switching to Canson requires a much softer touch and more planing, as it cannot take many layers.

This piece will be for sale at the Onondaga Art Guild Spring Sale on April 24th (10-4) and April 25th (noon-5). If you live in the area, I hope to see you there!

The Farm, 9" x 12"

You cannot live in CNY and not like barns and cornfields! I do not remember exactly where this place is located; perhaps Rt 173 or Rt 20, but definitely in Onondaga County.

Although I've been thinking on painting this scene for a while, what decided me to do it was a frame I saw at a store! Somehow I though they would go well together. I'm hoping to have this piece ready for this coming weekend sale sponsored by the Onondaga Art Guild.