Tag Archives: skyscape

My Lucky Break

September 12, 2021 roxannebaldwin Leave a comment

My lucky break that I missed and didn’t take. It could have been just my imagination, nothing of consequence to anybody but me. It may have been nothing of consequence, but I’m going to tell you about it anyway.

One of my day jobs was working as a sales associate in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Gift Shop. I didn’t like the job all that much, but it does look great on my resume.

One day, coming back from lunch, I noticed a new artwork on display in the foyer of the Museum. It was of a cloud, a brain shaped cloud, on a field of cerulean blue. As a matter of fact, it looked a lot like this drawing of mine, from way back.

And my mind started going. After all, I thought, as the saying goes, all publicity is good publicity.

I could see the headlines, now. “Met Employee Finds Plagiarized Copy of Her Work on Display in the Museum.” Okay, maybe not. My work “Cloud Over Greenwich” had been frequently been shown, both in brick and mortar shows, and on the internet. It might have been possible…..but it would be unlikely.

So, I moved on, not being able to afford a lawyer. Now I regret not having at least gotten a consultation…and maybe some publicity hound of an attorney might take it on spec. Oh, well.

As for displaying art in the Met, I did take part in a staff exhibition. I entered one of my pieces from the Namaste collection. Very bold. It’s called “Guardian Angel”. I still have it.

Not the only time I did a picture of guardian angels, while I lived in NYC.

In other news, I’m doing a drawing for another beauty in ugliness theme.

I do like it, but it’s small, 4 x 6 inches. I’m just not sure if it’s interesting enough to make a large drawing.

But that’s a thought for another day,

And for no particular reason, here’s a cat.

LEAVING ON A jET PLANE

July 29, 2021 roxannebaldwin Leave a comment

As I was drawing this, the song “Leaving on a Jet Plane”, kept going through my mind. For those to young to know it, it was written by John Denver, although many other musical artists covered it.

Sadly, John Denver died in a small plane crash, in 1997. Maybe not a jet plane, but it does add a certain bittersweetness to the song.

Anyway, here’s the drawing.

It’s large, I find I like to work large.

Speaking of call this a drawing, some artists call their colored pencil works paintings. Other artist think that’s pretentious, and call them drawings. I’m stuck in the middle. They’re more than drawings, but they’re done in pencil, not paint.

Maybe we should just call them “works”. Of course, saying the word “works”, makes me think of some of the past bosses. They were works, for sure.

Anyway, while I was spending time on this, I had an idea for a work, that really got me excited. I was so excited, it made me claustrophobic on the little train I was riding. I didn’t get off the train at the next stop and run home the way I felt. I had a commitment at the end of the line.

It has some of the elements that this has. I don’t like to say too much about my future work. Doing so, I find, takes away my energy for actually drawing.

The drawing I’m going to work on reminds me of some of my NYC drawings.

Like these works.

Gosh, how I miss NYC of the 1990’s.

Toodeloo!

Taking a second look

February 22, 2020 roxannebaldwin Leave a comment

So,it’s kind of like this…and I am sure that all of you go through this, no matter what you do….

Finding something that you discarded as totally, totally awful, then deciding it’s not so bad.

As is the case with this.

See,I hated the damn thing so much that I didn’t delicately trim it.

Looking back on it,I realize I like it. It accomplishes what I intended it to do…looking at the dawn, blurry eyed, with a half drunk cup of very strong coffee in my hand.

Okay now, back to the present.

Since, as you recall, I had no patience, jumped the shark, or both, in terms of ideas for full size winter drawings.

So,the natural thing is to do little winter drawings for holiday cards. I did so many that I photographed them in groups.

Then,I jumped the shark on that project. As you may have noticed, I love the term “jump the shark “.

So,the cards are the ones on hold for now.

I have a fresh batch of paper, an idea, and I am ready to hit the road.

Speaking of second looks, here’s one that I declared was my “worst of the year “,I forgot how long ago.

Of course it goes the other way, too. Some pieces that I was sure were masterpieces, on second look, stink like moldy salami.

Next Episode……….Same time, same place

February 11, 2020 roxannebaldwin Leave a comment

When we last left Roxanne, she was in turmoil as to what to do next………..then she took a nap, had some coffee, and watched an old episode of “WKRP in Cincinnati” on YouTube. Her mind was cleared with an ethereal sense of purpose. “I’ve got it!” She cried.

In the meantime, getting back to here and now….I realized I only had one sheet of paper left. I certainly didn’t have any idea, either winter or spring that I could commit that seriously to.

So, I figured out I’d do holiday cards, until some inspiration came along. So, I did this:

If it looks familiar, it should….it’s a revision of last episode’s drawing.

Then I did this:

And then all Hell broke loose in my brain. Not that it doesn’t occasionally anyway.

This picture reminded me of this:

And then this:

(Let’s lose the crappy houses though)

And this!

All sorts of music concerning the Moon came to mind.

So, I have an idea.

The Bronx is up……….

February 6, 2020 roxannebaldwin Leave a comment

Yes, I promised birds…………BUT.

I changed my mind again.

I found the files of old work, which was this woman’s treasure. There’s a lot of stuff that I don’t think I put on this blog…was on my old Blogger Blog that still exists somewhere in the vast Universe of the internet, probably. Maybe not, and I don’t give a……… something to do with a rat’s backside.

For instance this:

Turns out I like it..wasn’t sure it was any good when I painted it. I did this when I was living in NYC, and missed nature.

I’ve got a lot of nature here. Somehow, when I do a drawing of it, I feel a need to put in a hint of humanity …..

or else I get mighty bored. Remember me ranting about foliage?

So, sometimes I still think about New York City and wonder if I was happier there. Mixed feelings, six of one, and half a dozen about the other. I still wonder though.

It seems my artwork though, has gotten weaker, since I moved here. The NYC work seems bolder.

and cleaner.

Anyway…..I’m changing my mind again…..here’s my latest bird. Which is also taken from a NYC theme. Not to mention, it’s also a spring picture. How’s that for three in one?

Meow for Now

Full moon in the afternoon

December 27, 2019 roxannebaldwin Leave a comment

And that rhymes!

Here’s my latest.

Sometimes, coming up with a title is the hardest part of a drawing. I suppose I could go the way of “Untitled 1”, “Untitled 2″and so on. But what fun is that?

Most of my titles are pretty dull and boring, when I think about it.

Here are some pictures that need better titles:

Yes,it’s a cat. Another cat. Everyone knows how much I love cats. As a matter of fact, one of my closest friends just gave me socks with cats on them as a Christmas gift. Cat socks! Love’em!

Ok,next:

Dull name. Maybe if I change it,by giving it a destination!

Stairway to Heaven…naw,been used

Stairway to Nowhere. Obviously, though, the stairs go somewhere. Stairway to Somewhere? That’s just plain stupid.

How about “The Way Up”? Now that is a possibility.

Don’t have a clue for a better name. Not a clue.

And then there’s this:

Well,that is obvious. Something like “Hobbit Home “? Not sure everyone knows what a hobbit is. I like the home part. Something to start working with.

In other news! I’ve entered an application for a juried show. Don’t know if I’ll be accepted yet, but I am thinking.

They have to be from the last two years. Ive divided my work from that time into Yes,No,and Maybe.

I can have eight, because that’s how many frames I have. Also…

Not so coincidentally, the pictures above fall into the Maybe category. What next?

No.

I guess this is what I’m doing these days

September 26, 2019 roxannebaldwin Leave a comment

Sometimes, I surprise myself. Sometimes, I’m surprised that I surprise myself. I thought the line of drawing styles went neatly from A to B to C, and so forth. I’m wrong.

I did a drawing of a sky. I thought it would turn out like this:

Much to my surprise, it didn’t. Am I using the word “surprises” too many times?

That’s how I thought I did skies. I realize now that I’ve strayed from my idea of a sky many times.

Such as:

I also did this:

And this:

So, I did a loopty loop, started out at A, went to D, and then, somehow ended up at C.

This drawing of a sky looks quite a bit like the one I just showed you.

Which reminds me of this, which I did a little while ago, and declared a failure. Looking at it again, I like it better than I did.

So, I’ve been doing loose scratchy lines and curliecues.

I guess that’s what I’m doing these days.

Having my Cake

August 28, 2019 roxannebaldwin Leave a comment

So, here are the most recent little drawings:

You know what I’m thinking……….Just how many small pictures do I need to do a show? I already have plenty. Doing them is definitely disappointing too. I can’t sink my teeth in them as I can with the large drawing.

It’s like going into Costco, being handed a bite-sized piece of cake…and that’s it. You want the whole damn thing, and the only way to get it, is to buy it. It’s just that I want my cake and to eat it, too.

Thinking further, I’ve only done little mixed venues. In an art show, that’s limited to fine art/fine craft, maybe the larger pieces would sell, because the type of customer attending would be different.

So, I’m going back to the large cake, and eating it, too.

Sometimes, the Sky is Purple

March 24, 2019 roxannebaldwin 1 Comment

A lesson in creativity.

When I was about 7, we were doing artwork at school. It was a assignment, don’t remember what. Exclusive of one little boy, the kids at my group of desks, were drawing the sky blue. That one little boy, was energetically coloring the sky purple.

One of the gaggle of kids, (I use gaggle descriptively, we were not geesee.) jumped on the purple sky boy and said:

“What are you making the sky purple for? Everybody knows the sky is blue!”

Then the rest of the gaggle, including myself, joined in the fray, insisting the sky is blue.

A teacher’s aide, noticing a ruckus, came over to see what was going on. We all almost shouted, “Johnny (or whatever the boy’s name was) is making the sky purple. The sky is supposta be blue!

The aide however, said, in a calm, knowledgeable voice, “Sometimes the sky is purple. For instance a rainy, cloudy day it’s purple. The sky is lots of colors.”

We all quieted down. However, I knew a scam, when I heard one. Of course the sky is blue!

In all honesty, it’s not the royal blue in the small set of Crayolas either.

When did I decide the sky could be different colors? I think it was when I made the sky a shocking shade of green.

I’ve done my share of purple skies.

Often, the sky is multi-colored:

But truth be known, most of the time, I believe the sky is blue..

So there..

In other news, here’s the latest note card. Pumpkin posed for it.

Roxanne Baldwin's Artsy Blog