April Reception - I'm the featured artist!

As Evening Sets on Georgetown
by Jane McElvany Coonce

This Friday night is the April reception at the Gallery Underground in Crystal City.  I am the featured artist this month and I have 7 Key Bridge paintings in the show.  I hope you will be able to make it. It's also my birthday so we will really be celebrating!  The reception is from 5 - 8 pm.  I will be there along with my family.

This paintings is one of the "Big Sky" series.  It's an evening scene of the Key Bridge with Georgetown in the background.  It's fairly large, 20 x 24 inches and is in a beautiful plein air frame.

If you can't make it to the reception, the show will hang from now until April 25.  It's open Monday through Friday 10 am - 6 pm and on Saturdays from 10 am - 2 pm.  The gallery is located off of 20th Street and Crystal Drive.  There is free parking in the garage on Friday night.  There is also free parking after 4 pm on Monday through Friday and free all day on the weekends.

Drop by for a glass of wine and some great refreshments.

Signature Status for Baltimore Watercolor Society

Please Share My Umbrella
by Jane McElvany Coonce

I've got nothing but good news this week in the watercolor department.  This year, one of my goals was to enter some big name watercolor shows.  I picked out Virginia Watercolor Society and Baltimore Watercolor Society to test the waters. An artist can enter their juried shows, and if they are accepted in 3 shows, they may apply for signature status.  One can also apply by submitting digital images of one's work, and if the jurying committee approves, you can be accepted as a signature member into the society without having been in one of their shows.

I had never entered the Baltimore Watercolor Society's shows.  I did this year, but also decided to see if I could get the signature status without being in 3 juried shows of BWS.  I received the letter today to congratulate me on my new status as signature member of the Baltimore Watercolor Society.

I am really loving the watercolors that I've been doing, and I enjoy learning with every painting I do.

Patiently Waiting
by Jane McElvany Coonce

Virginia Watercolor Society's Show 2015

The Red Hat
by Jane McElvany Coonce

I am thrilled!  I joined Virginia Watercolor Society this year for the first time.  They have a yearly show, and I entered knowing there was a good chance I wouldn't get in.  There are many fantastic watercolorists who enter and not enough wall space to hang all of that wonderful art.  One of my goals this year was to enter several watercolor shows. This is the first all watercolor show that I've entered.

There were 511 pieces entered, and the juror, Mark Mehaffey,  only accepted 98.  I was one of those lucky 98. I feel quite honored because I'm relatively new to the watercolor world.

The show will be held at James Madison University at the Duke Hall Gallery.  The show will hang from May 18 through June 26.

Still can't believe I got in!

Gumballs Found a New Home!

Gumballs
Original oil painting by Jane McElvany Coonce

Every Christmas, we attend a White Elephant party.  Everyone who attends is to bring a gift that the person has found in their attic.  The gifts are supposed to be funny and ridiculous.  Several years ago, Tom won this gum ball machine.  He loved it and has proudly displayed it in our kitchen ever since.  He keeps a jar of pennies by it so that people can help themselves to the gum.  It's a big hit with my sons and their friends.  

I painted the gum ball machine and the jar of pennies back in 2013.  I've always liked this painting and has been surprised that it hadn't sold.  The paintings I like seem to take a long time to sell, and the ones that aren't at the top of my list, sell the first time I show them.   I've never really understood this phenomenon, but it happens a lot.   

I put this painting down at The Art League at the Torpedo Factory in Old Town Alexandria.  I got an email yesterday that it sold!  I was thrilled, but also glad that a painting that I really enjoyed painting and that I really liked was finally validated by someone wanting to own it.  Not that a paintings value is based on whether it sells or not, but I've often wondered why the paintings I love the most take the longest to sell.  For an artist, it's one of those mysteries of life.

Big Sky Series No. 4 and 5

This snow has kept me in the house painting like a mad woman.  I'm trying to get all of these "Big Sky" paintings done by the end of March.  Actually, I need to have them done by next weekend so they have time to dry and time to be framed.  Both of these paintings are small ones, 6 x 6 inches.  I have beautiful gold plein air frames to put on them.  I'm finishing up another one today and have one more that needs some work before I can sign it.

All of my big sky paintings will be in the featured artists exhibit at Gallery Underground in April.
Mark your calendars for the reception:  Friday, April 3 from 5-8 in Crystal City.

Bright Skies Over Georgetown
oil painting by Jane McElvany Coonce

Fleeting Light Over Georgetown
oil painting by Jane McElvany Coonce

The Winter of 2015

After a Day of Sledding
watercolor by Jane McElvany Coonce

Since many of you are sitting at home watching the snow fall, I thought I would entertain you with some of my winter scenes.  Hopefully, winter is almost over, and I'll have to put my winter scenes away until next year.  People don't really buy winter scenes when the temperature is 95 degrees outside.

Black Capped Chickadee
watercolor by Jane McElvany Coonce

Winter scenes usually have cooler colors in them.  What do I mean by cooler colors?  Cooler colors are usually blues and purples.  When you think of snow, you don't think of red or orange.warm colors.  (Yellow is a warm color, but I don't want to talk about yellow snow except to say that you shouldn't eat it.)  The snow reflects the colors of the sky.  So on a gray day, the snow will look like shades of lavender.  On a blue sky winter day, the snow will have blue reflecting in it's shadows.

Snow is beautiful to look at, and also, it's beautiful to paint.  But after this winter, I'm ready for some warm and even hot weather.  I promise not to complain this summer when it gets to be 95 degrees!

Snow at Mt. Vernon
watercolor by Jane McElvany Coonce

The Art League Juried Show -March 2015

Catching the Bus
watercolor painting by Jane McElvany Coonce

Today was the jurying for the March 2015 juried show at The Art League.  They have a juried show each month and I always try to enter.  It pushes me to do my best work because competition is stiff.  It's also a crap shoot because on any given day you could be picked or not.  Each month, it's a different juror and each juror has their own preferences and taste.

I was thrilled that my piece, "Catching the Bus," was selected for this month's show.  Only about 100 piece out of 450 pieces were selected.  I always feel like I won the lottery when I get in the show.

I did this piece from a photo I took in New York.  My son and I rode the bus up to the city and I sat in the front seat so that as we pulled into New York early in the morning, I could snap pictures as we drove down the street.  I got some great shots and this is one of the paintings I did from that series of photos.

The show is in Old Town Alexandria in the Torpedo Factory.  It will be up for the month of March.  If you get a chance, stop by and see it.

Big Sky No. 3

Evening Sky Over Georgetown
oil painting by Jane McElvany Coonce

Here's another of my "Big Sky" series.  This is the first one that was an evening sky.  Someone asked me what I was going to do with all these big sky paintings.  The answer is that I am going to show them in April at the Gallery Underground in Crystal City.  I have been chosen the featured artists of the month, so they will group all of my painting together and you'll get to see the whole collection of the Big Sky works.  I  need to get busy though because I haven't finished all of them yet.  I have all the skies done, but not the views of Key Bridge and Georgetown.  I've been sort of side tracked by looking at granite and cabinets as we redo our kitchen.  But the carpenter started today, so hopefully I will be able to concentrate on painting again real soon.