View from The Backseat

I started this painting after a drive to Bat Cave. (Yes there is a town near here call "Bat Cave.") It was fall, hilly and near the Blue Ridge Parkway--sort of. So this is a painting about that drive. A day trip.

I had to really commit to this "Opposing Forces" design strategy to make this painting work. Take a look at my book, Master Disaster, or, better still, hire me to teach a workshop for your group and learn how powerful these strategies are. Of course, I'm using a Contrast of Temperature, Warm v. Cool Color Strategy. (36 x 36, acrylic)

Solo Show at Turchin Center for the Arts

I just got an invitation for a solo exhibition at the Turchin Center for the Arts in Boone, NC!! This will run in conjunction with teaching for Cheap Joe in September, 2013.

Oh, My DVD, Master Disaster, is now available through Artists Network. Google Susan Webb Tregay and this comes up 4 or 5 times.

Truth, Fiction and White Lies

I spent last week agonizing over this painting. I felt that I had set the bar too high with my last grid piece. A couple of days ago I printed out and early version of it and added black and white to the RYB piece, and bit the bullet and painted it in. What a difference.

Those of you who have studied with me know where I'm coming from when I impose a color strategy on a painting. This was a great lesson for myself. Hire me for a workshop and I'll give you the scoop--and many more, for that matter.

Adult Children

I loved the gesture in the photo that this painting materialized from. It brought home the exuberance that we had for nearly everything. We went white water rafting last weekend and that exuberance came back in full force. We will always be adult children.

Yonder II

This posting is for Ken, who wanted to see the new painting in the Andrews Art Museum exhibit. I was driving back from teaching a workshop in Idaho Falls and watched the clouds line up this way all the way back to Boise. Believe me, clouds don't do this in the East. Kathi Eagan, my Buffalo agent, sold "Yonder," one of the paintings that was accepted into the show. So I did this replacement.

The Rabbit Hole

I've been thinking about a comment I heard last week. Why just look down that rabbit hole and dream of what might be possible. Jump down the rabbit hole and experience being an artist, Alice. (Is there a rabbit hole painting in my near future?)

With the down economy, take advantage of these months to explore ourselves as painters. This is a unique time (hopefully). We need not spend time painting for someone else's decor. Paint for ourselves. Explore that rabbit hole.

Escher and Me

"Only those who attempt the absurd will achieve the impossible." M. C. Escher This quote that really reflects my passion for painting.

Making the impossible possible is the thrust of my style, my book, Master Disaster, my DVD and my workshops. Developed from notes on how I managed to finish dozens of paintings, I review my book when finishing each and every painting. And I do make the impossible possible!

So You Think You Can Dance

I just got back from teaching a wonderful workshop for the West Virginia Watercolor Society. The classes enthusiasm over making a "flip book" astounded me. They are sure to continue their quest for the perfect samples of color and design strategies. These DO take your paintings to a new level.

Then we discussed content. This was new to some of the class, and exciting to all. How do you put more of yourself into a painting? How do you get some ideas peculating in what used to be "just a pretty picture?"

While this concept may have been new to painting for some artists, they understand content when it applies to other forms of art.

The last night my wonderful hosts and I watched "So You Think you can Dance" (Is that the title? I'm not a TV watcher.) Anyway, the criticism of the dancers was light and nice, but it centered around two things. Evan evoked the style of Fred Astair--sweet and old-fashioned--like most of our paintings. He and his partner found it hard to really express themselves with this style. In painting we might say that the technique dominated the painting. And the artists personality and emotions couldn't show through.

While struggling with content in our paintings these quandaries that the dancers faced was obvious to average people. The judges even complimented one corriographer for daring to create a "conceptual" piece for the competition so near it's end. Another corrieographer created a dance that he thought would be "Popular" with the voting audience. I don't know the results of the voting. did Evan's popular work win? Please let me know.

Art and Poetry

Bev Adams from the Cazenovia Watercolor Society surprised me with this poem at the end of our workshop. Thank you Bev, I am really honored. The slide show following this post is from that great workshop. Can I interest your group in one?

FOR OUR TALENTED, INSPIRING , PROVOCATIVE,

UPBEAT,  PRACTICAL, SHARING, TRUSTY LEADER

Susan Tregay 

Has a wonderful way

Of making a workshop fun.

We tape and we mop

Anything that's a flop

Then marvel at what we have done.

She stresses CONtent

And won't be conTENT

Till we are expressing our passion.

Says she, be unique,

Develop technique

So your paintings are not purely fashion.

Jasper Johns brought our Susan

Out of  confusion

And he changed her art life forever.

He said  don't relax

Let your painting climax

At the end of a threefold endeavor.

Sue pushes brainstorming

For ideas a-forming

She herself  has a brain that is quirky.

Though her houses are cockeyed,

Her perspective quite lopside,

Still, she rarely turns out a turkey. 

For pupils perplexed

About what to do next

She shouts loud and clear  "Make it darker"

Apply lots of paint,

Don't be what you ain't

And then make it even more darker. 

(apologies to my English teachers.)

Approximation

Can bring elation

Sayeth Susan, our woman wise

Step by step

Through goals she swept

Until she reached the prize. 

Now we offer our thanks

You've filled our art banks

And we each have a flip book to treasure.

You helped us define

What is known as design

And you've  given us very full measure.

Thank you, thank you, Susan, for a fun

and instructive four days.

And thank you for teaching us that "nice" is not enough.       

Cazenovia Watercolor Society Workshop

May 5 to 8   2008  

Finish that Painting with punch and Pizzaz! Learn THE PLAN. Sign up for a workshop for your group.