4 Paintings Donated to COLLECTORS' CHOICE '09

Winter Beach



Winter Woods



Spirited Away



Cottonwood

The above works have been donated to this year's COLLECTORS' CHOICE FUNDRAISER at the ST. LOUIS ARTISTS' GUILD. Stay tuned for reception info and bidding day. You can get more information on this wonderful event which draws almost 300 donations and hundreds of patrons of the arts by clicking on the ST. LOUIS ARTISTS' GUILD link on this page.

"When you become detached mentally from yourself and concentrate on helping others with their difficulties, you will be able to cope with your own more effectively. Somehow, the act of self-giving is a personal power-releasing factor." -- Norman Vicent Peale

Pam Price & Dreamcatcher II

Pam Price took home DREAMCATCHER II to Kansas City, Mo. recently. The painting fits her cheerful personality and will fit right in with her home's classic cottage style.

Pam was a fellow art director at Brown Shoe Company with me. She is a good friend and has wanted to purchase one of my works for some time.

Pam was recently commissioned to paint a series of 36x36 canvases for her daughter and son-in-law's very successful gourmet sandwich shop in Kansas City. The pair designed the restaurant from top to bottom. The newspaper's food critic was impressed and wrote the restaurant up in an article for the Kansas City Star. He used words like "unique" "tasty menu" "a winner".

Here's a preliminary sketch of her first canvas.

Jenifer and her husband are opening another restaurant with different theme in the future. To which Pam will paint a new theme of canvases for that restaurant.

She is very happy to get back to her fine arts roots. Bravo to my multi-talented friend!

Henry David Thoreau said, "I have learned, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."

Barb's "HOMAGE" is displayed

I always feel priviledged to go into a collector's home to photograph my work as they have chosen to display on their walls. "HOMAGE" has found a wonderful place to live in Barb's living room. Barb kids me that the only thing I could have done differently in painting "HOMAGE" would be to have signed my name "JACKSON POLLOCK." True, I have his demeanor and outlook on life. That's about it. Pollock was a genius and changed the way American painters thought about expressing themselves. Thanks for the compliment, Barb. (Click on the photo below to view a larger shot of the lliving area.)

"There is no accident, just as there is
no beginning and no end." -- Jackson Pollock

ROTARY CLUB Fundraiser

"Earth laughs in flowers."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson




I donated "Delight From the Garden" to this year's Fairview Heights Rotary Club Fundraiser. I painted this piece a few years ago. It reminds me of the gaiety of spring and summer just around the corner. Brenda Wagner is pictured holding the piece in the lobby of The Bank of Edwardsville, where she is branch manager. Brenda is a co-manager of this year's fundraiser and passionate about raising money for Rotary Club causes.

"Winter Walk On The Farm" Auctioned At Fundraiser

"Winter Walk On The Farm" was auctioned at the annual Chesterfield Arts Art Feast Saturday evening, January 24. I was quite pleased to donate this piece to raise money for Chesterfield Arts.

I'm also pleased to learn that Debbie Shaw-Franke, daughter of good friend Tom Shaw Sr., has been named president of Chesterfield Arts.


"Now I really FEEL the landscape, I can be bold and include every tone of blue and pink: it's enchanting, it's delicious." -- Claude Monet

SIDE NOTE: I look at "Winter Walk On The Farm" as a testimonial to an often unnoticed and disappearing scene in Chesterfield - farm fields. I especially remember "riding to the hounds" (foxhunting) with my Chesterfield friends. We galloped hard and fast, flying over stone walls between farms. "Field jumping" a horse is the closest a person can come to FLYING! Crisp, fall air that is sweet to breath, hounds baying, and an exhilarating ride aboard a good horse. Doesn't get any better than that!

The Kemp Auto Museum is an interesting place, if you get into Mercedes and the like. Great place to hold a fundraiser.

"Home For the Holidays" Exhibit thru 1/13/09

"Berry" (above) 14x11

"Winter Coming" (above, framed to 11x14) and "LaVeryne" (framed to 8x10) were on exhibit thru January 13, 2009 at the St. Peters Art Center during HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS.

"Winter Coming" evokes the feeling of winters spent in the country while I was growing up. How lucky I was to spend so much time in nature.

"LaVeryne" is named after my dear mother. The piece reminds me of her happiness at life and her favorite color - RED. My dad loved to see my mother wear red.








St. Peters Art Center is a lovely place to hang art. I enjoy exhibiting there almost every month with their changing exhibits.




"Happy are the painters, for they shall not be lonely. Light and color, peace and hope, will keep them company to the end of the day."
-- Winston Churchill