GREEN HEART
acrylic and oil on canvas
18"x18"
by Cheryl Stidwell Parker
for
Miller Art Museum ABSTRACT THOUGHTS
ABSTRACT THOUGHTS opened at the Miller Art Museum yesterday with a reception for artists, friends and the general public. I am honored to be included in this invitational. It was a healthy mix of area as well as statewide selection of artists represented in this exhibit. It was also a good chance to see people I hadn't seen all summer. There were several strong pieces that pulled me in with an immediacy and only a few that I walked by with out a second glance. Over all it was a thought provoking and very professional presentation of work. The next show up is the Miller annual juried show which I entered fairly often over the years, but last year I held off on this and I am not entering this year either. I will jump back into the ring in 2019 but feel ok for now with my sabbatical from juried shows.
The 2 pieces I entered in the Hardy Collection Invitational brought interest to Chez Cheryl Artspace. while I was at the Hardy one afternoon during that show, I met a couple from Glenn Ellyn Ill. who liked the painting I had up for silent auction, they were the third party to bid on the piece, I don't know who ended up with it. But that couple ended up visiting my studio one afternoon and ended up buying a small floral still life. I was happy and so were they.
Then I left for Iowa and a week with extended family. When I returned I jumped back into the studio, and had started four paintings by the end of the first week back. Plein air painting one afternoon with friends Liz M, Rick R. and Lynne G. for several hours, at a break Liz left to return with a tomato pie Rick had made, we had a tail gate party to top off the afternoon, and I was certain that things don't get much better than that.
But now the days are getting shorter, leaves are starting to brighten red and orange around the farm house, and soon our seasonal friends will be on the road to destinations south.
My thoughts are swirling around the next portrait prize party in 2019, new possibilities of the next painting, the next collage, the next idea.
