To my delight and supreme happiness, I received an email informing me that my pastel painting was accepted into the 2022 International Association of Pastel Societies (IAPS) Juried PastelWorld Exhibition—40th Open Division. The exhibit will be up during the IAPS Fourteenth Biennial Convention in Albuquerque, NM, June 22–25, 2022. This is the first international competition into which I've been accepted! Fortunately, I already registered for the convention, so I will be able to see it hanging amongst the best pastellists in the world. I will be able to share the image after the exhibition opens.
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The biggest news of 2022 is that my painting, "The Sound of Flying Grouse, Taos Pueblo", was accepted in to the Oil Painters of America's 31st Annual National Juried Exhibition of Traditional Oils! I am thrilled to be a part of this prestigious exhibition, which will be in the Steamboat Art Museum in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The opening reception is June 3, and the show continues through August 27, 2022. If you're in the area, stop in and see it!
The painting is on the home page of this website, and also shown on the "OILS" page. The last two years were spent enduring the Covid 19 pandemic and other hardships. Lockdowns, closures, cancellations, shortages, health issues, and so on. But 2022 has brought back a sense of normalcy, which is welcome as the spring rains. I have many adventures planned for the year, two of which are in Europe. The art world really never stopped, but I could not get my creative spirit going with all the anxiety, sadness, loss and strife everywhere. Now that the pandemic has become endemic, I feel free and light as a feather.
I took a road trip to New Mexico to visit friends in Santa Fe and Taos for a week, then spent another week in Ghost Ranch painting in oils with Natasha Isenhour. That place is very spiritual and inspirational. I learned a lot and made new artist friends that live from Maine to California. I will never tire of the landscape of New Mexico. I taught a three-day workshop in March entitled "Drawing from Memory", a skill that is learned from keen, mindful observation and much practice. The first day was grueling, but my students produced amazing drawings––from memory––not imagination. Seeing their delight was gratifying as their teacher. Later in April, fly to Atlanta to attend the Portrait Society of America's Annual Conference. I went to one a few years ago, and loved every minute of it. I really enjoy meeting the nation's brightest and best portrait artists, and viewing their works in person. June brings the Prix de West in Oklahoma City, where I will see artist friends again, and get a sprinkling of pixie dust from the finest representational artists in the United States. Then, I return to New Mexico for the IAPS Convention in Albuquerque. I can hardly wait for the two-week egg-tempera workshop with Michael Bergt in Rome in July! I'm going with a friend who lives in Florence, Italy. We haven't seen each other since the pandemic began, so I can hardly wait to see her again. Then the big one! France for a month with a state-side friend. I have friends in France to see, and many paintings to paint. We are visiting Auvillar, a tiny village on the Garonne River north of the Pyrenees. I went there with a group of artists for two weeks in 1997, then with my daughter for a month in 1998. I had a return trip trip scheduled for spring of 2020, but Covid hit and it was cancelled. So it's on again, in the fall this time! I've been painting, teaching and traveling again. Life is good! A lot has happened since my last post in 2016. Much has changed personally, but my artistic life has remained fairly steady. I'm located in northeast Oklahoma now, where the trees grow tall and straight, the rivers and lakes are full, and the plains give way to the hills and mountains. I'm happy to be in my beloved Oklahoma: where the landscapes vary from desert to verdant hills, and the endless skies are scrubbed clean with the wind. I was born in the prairie and hope spend the rest of my life living in the hills.
Art is the common thread in my life, reaching all the way back to my childhood. I loved to draw, and still love it. In recent years, I fell in love with soft pastels and and began a tempestuous relationship with oils, that I will learn to love. Over the years, I have drawn and painted portraits and figurative subjects, as well as landscapes and still life in all three mediums. I'm a little late in my New Year's Resolution, but in 2021—amidst the pandemic and political strife—I will create a record number of new artworks. I'll post them on this blog, as a record of my progress. Heading to the easel today! So far, the summer of 2016 has been filled with all things art. In early June, the Prix de West was held at the National Cowboy & Western Museum that brought an amazing collection of artists and their artwork to Oklahoma City. Friends and I spent two whole days admiring their talents, meeting the artists, listening to lectures, discussions watching demos, and of course, viewing the beautiful artwork. I was especially pleased to meet Jeremy Lipking, as I was scheduled to attend a plein air workshop of his in the Sierra Nevadas in the following days. I also had the pleasure of meeting Sonja Terpening and her husband, Mark, and found we had attended Oklahoma State University at the same time, and were married within a week of one another! It is a small world, and we are all connected somehow. A week later, I left for New Mexico and checked on our cabin near Las Vegas, then drove to Santa Fe to visit with my dear friend, Jo Ann, and her husband, Jim. We hiked in the Pecos Wilderness one day, and attended an afternoon get-together with the members of New Mexico Women in the Arts. The next day, I began my long road trip to the Sierra Nevadas in California. I drove to Las Vegas, Nevada (It was 113°) and checked into my hotel on the northern end of the strip. I had reserved a ticket for "Million Dollar Quartet," and dinner. It was very entertaining, and the music was wonderful. The next morning, I got up very early and drove through Death Valley while it was "cool," and then on to June Lake, California, where our group gathered from all over the world to learn from Jeremy Lipking. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, needless to say. We drove up to the mountains every day, just outside Yosemite National Park. The views and landscape was breathtaking. I met many talented professional artists, and soaked up as much as I could from Jeremy. He is an extremely talented man, and a kind, thoughtful teacher. It all ended with a long soak in a hot spring at dusk on Sunday night. I loved every minute of the five-day workshop. The next day, I drove through Yosemite to see the falls and majestic monuments.    I returned to Santa Fe to stay with Jo Ann and Jim until the opening night of the Santa Fe Opera. We saw Puccini's "Girl of the Golden West," in their beautiful open-air theater. The drive home went quickly, and I was very happy to be in the company of our dogs, cat and horse. Steve was vacationing at our cabin in northeast Oklahoma and came home a few days later. In all, I drove over 3,500 miles in two weeks.
A week later, I had the pleasure of attending an unveling of a portrait of former Presiding Judge Carlos Chappelle in the Tulsa County Courthouse. Associate District Judge Dana Kuehn, my neice, commissioned me to paint the portrait. I drew a charcoal portrait of him as a study for the painting, and they liked it so much they gave it to the family that morning. The courtroom was packed with judges in their robes, lawyers, clerks, friends and family. I received many lovely comments about the artwork from nearly everyone in the courtroom. The next day, my nephew was married before family and a few friends in Tulsa, by Judge Kuehn. I have been immersed in art like never before. I have been working on my website this week, and will begin several projects I have in mind. The summer of 2016 is only half over—I hope the second half is just as eventful. |
A U T H O RPatricia Ridge Bradley A R C H I V E S
May 2022
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