If 2014 were a road trip, I'd be dizzy from the speed and velocity of it! Whoosh!
For the second year in a row, I've had a significant show of my work in the fall to work toward. In 2013, it was my Iceland-inspired paintings at the Horace Williams House. This past fall, it was work on a floral theme at the Ackland Museum Store, UNC-Chapel Hill. They were two very different shows, the 2013 one featured all paintings, the 2014 show included ink and wash and mixed media on paper pieces, among others. And the pieces were too big to be scanned and I didn't have time to take good photos of them... whoosh!
Having deadlines is a powerful motivation, but I learned from these two shows not to say yes to another show unless I have over half the pieces already finished when I agree to show! (Yikes! and pass the ibuprofen!) Still, the show went really well and I loved working with my fellow exhibitor and friend Ippy Patterson and my buddies at the Ackland Museum Store.
2014 brought more illustration work for me, including images for Walter Magazine, Charleston Style & Design and Chapel Hill Magazine. Other clients this year were The Nature Conservancy and Edible Hudson Valley.
Fireflies for Charleston Style & Design.
Person Street illustrations for Walter Magazine.
Blue crabs for Edible Hudson Valley.
Continuing on the art front... my work appeared in an excellent new book on drawing by Katherine Tyrrell of Making a Mark blog fame. Her book Drawing 365 is now available here in the US and will be released in the UK and worldwide in January. This is a book you will want to own if you have any interest in drawing. It's hands down one of the most informative and useful of this popular genre. Here's a small peek at one of my contributions to it... a blind contour drawing, demonstrating one of the 365 drawing tips Katherine writes about:
I travelled a lot in 2014, but since this is already sounding like one of those annoying Christmas letters, I'll mention only the trip that relates directly to my art career, my October trip to Italy. I had the great fortune to have been invited to Rimini, Italy for a conference organized by the Italian tourism industry, one designed to connect people whose passion is travel with people whose business is travel, to see what kind of synergy might result. My years of travel writing and sketching on my blog led to my being chosen to participate in this exciting new conference, now in its second year.
It was exciting, fascinating, informative and fun. I learned so much about the travel industry and about the power of social media and about what it is I do as a blogger and why I do it. I met many lovely people from all over the world.
I will be forever grateful for the organizers of TBDI 2014 for having given me this opportunity.
While in Italy, I fell in love with the Dolomites
and they, along with my passion for the mountains of Norway and the rugged topography of Iceland, have filled me with ideas for new paintings... some kind of response, I know not yet what, to this mountain splendor and energy. More about this in my 2015: A Plan, to be published in the next couple of days.
Finally, on December 20th, I led a sketching session at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. This was a kind of reaching out and giving back as an artist that I have done very little of, but I so enjoyed that I am eager to do more, more, more! I had a fabulous group of sketchers, almost all beginners, and they reported having benefited a lot from my talk and our working together. It was such fun and very rewarding!
So, I think that covers it... though I can't be sure, dizzy as I still am from all the 2014 action!
I have many thoughts about what is to come and will share those, as I said, in the next few days.
Happy 2015 to you, dear readers. I hope 2014 has been kind to you. Thank you for sharing this journey, many of you, year after year. I am so very grateful for your interest and support.
Congratulations on all your successes over the year!!!
Posted by: Sue Pownall | January 10, 2015 at 02:45 PM
Thank you, Peter Russell.
Posted by: Laura | January 04, 2015 at 08:28 AM
Absolutely magical piece.
Posted by: Peter Russell | January 02, 2015 at 10:25 AM
Thank you SO much, dear Kate. You are the most faithful of friends and supporters. Love you!
Posted by: Laura | January 01, 2015 at 11:52 AM
It was a stellar year! Love seeing all of this together, dear girl, what an inspiration you are.
Posted by: Cathy Johnson (Kate) | January 01, 2015 at 10:51 AM