Patti Gibbons Art

Hay Field, Staatsburg, NY Mohonk Preserve, NY From the Studio, Kingston From the Studio, Kingston From the Home Throne My winter shows are done. Despite the economy, I have done well with what I have had. Holiday cards sold out, as did my new tin ornaments. I also sold art. It is gratifying when someone falls in love with a piece of me that sings to them. Winter is setting in, and I am holing myself up in my house for the next three days to rest, and to get into the holiday spirit. I have a few commissions to paint before the holiday, and plenty to do- like clean up the house, and buy food! after such a flurry of constant work. In spite of the busy-ness, I have managed to continue my daily essay on light for the month. A few selections from the weeks work. Be safe you east coasters...there's another storm coming.  Off to buy cat litter, food, and some art supplies!

Today was foggy, rainy, damp, but warm for early December. I took the trip along the Rondout Creek, and over the old Port Ewen bridge, to visit a co-worker whom I worked with for many years. She was one of my mentors who will be most remembered for her revelation of the KIS  principle - Keep It Simple. She knew how wrapped up in detail I would get, and how it would bog me down and stress me out.  Today, when I was prepping for my adult autistic students, her words softly resounded in my head. I listened as I pulled through my drawers looking for the papers for my project. She was right. Don't give them 15 choices of paper...give them 2. It made it easier for me, and I know it was easier for them. Shortly after retiring, she was diagnosed with Altzheimers. Like the landscape enveloped in the mist, so is her memory.  Bits and pieces of of her life come in and out of focus...always kept from being razor sharp by something that fogs her past life. To Lynn...may you be...

I run an art group online on Facebook. It's a forum where people write, post their art,   photos, thoughts. It's a safe place where we celebrate creativity and diversity- no room for harsh critique. It's a brotherhood/sisterhood of sorts. It's been a few years now that some of us have connected.  This month - in between the moments of furiously working doing shows and my other jobs, I am trying to make a snapshot/ photo each day.  My theme--The Season of Lights. Hanukkah, Christmas, and the Winter Solstice, all revolve around light. Here are my first few days worth of photographs taken with my iPhone. Some are altered in phone apps, some have stories...  Playing with the laser at Thanksgiving. That included shining it in the neighbors house which prompted a humerous phone call. When my daughter left for Iraq, we lit this candle in the picture window - in the old American tradition - so that she would find her way home to us. Though she came home 10 year...

  Hard to believe it is Thanksgiving next weekend. Time flies when you are busy.I will be doing this show on Sunday, and am bringing my cards, small artworks(painting/mixed media works)and perhaps some journals. It is the first fair of the season for me, and I still have Unison, the Art Foray at Mohonk, and am particiaptingin a craft show in my home city of Kingston, NY.  More details to follow.  Fall is definitely entrenched here in the Hudson Valley. I have ordered my snow tires and am putting them on tomorrow. Since I no longer have "snow days or delays" and if I don't work, I don't get paid, I decided to spend the money and be safe.   iPhone photo altered in one of my favorite photo apps, available both for iPhone and Android called SNAPSEED.

The art show was a huge success. 10 out of 21 pieces sold! Thanks to my friends, coworkers, and neighbors who came out to show their unending support!!! I decided to make art accessible to all people by making small works and pricing them reasonably. Art for the 99%.  I made a series of "Teeny Tinies" which ranged in size from 5 x 5" to 4 x 12" and a few sizes in between.  I had just finished the two main focal pieces of the show, which were 24 x 36", so working small had some challenges after working on paintings on which I sometimes used house painting brushes!  I love painting large pieces as they allow the viewer to feel like they can step into the landscape. Small ones are  little intimate worlds which take a closer inspection in order to enter them. I have been told my work fits into several genres;  I have decided to call my style:  Primitive Magical Realism Hudson Valley School.  I have a few things in the works for November/Dece...

I have been UBER busy working a few different jobs, and painting the work for my show which opens on Saturday the 5th.  I have done the bio/artist statement, made the postcards, printed them, handed/posted/ them out, and today finished the last of the two large paintings.  It is surreal that I have created an entire new life, a very different life from the one before.  It is a lot of work, but it's joyful work!!! The last painting gave me a really hard time, and I am hoping that it will be dry enough to be able to hang. I put it outside in the sun today, hoping that it will be ready by Tuesday morning when Nancy and I hang it. It has been quite the interesting experience, as I had to paint 5 or 6 small paintings, and two LARGE ones for the show.  I still have to wire them, and make the price list. When I had my two other shows a few years ago, I already had the work done and just had to frame some of the pieces and do the PR work. This time I had ...

I have a solo show opening October 5th. I am thrilled, excited, scared. This is my first show since I have left my career as a full time teacher. Will I meet people's expectations? Will I WOW them? Will they be moved/inspired/tempted by what I have painted? Will I sell? Are all the paintings done? Nope.  Am I going to have them done and DRY before the show? I sure hope so!  This has been all so new to me, and I am grateful to Nancy Donskoj at The Storefront Gallery for taking a leap of faith and asking me to show there.  She picked a few large pieces based upon their under-paintings, and I have been working at getting these two large pieces done. I have about 6 or more tiny paintings to do yet too. The show features both drawings and paintings. The paintings depict vistas that have been branded into my soul:  olive trees on a hill,  a Barcelona skyline at night, the delicate colors of clouds at sunset.  Hayrolls. Fields. I  relive my exp...