The North Carolina Opera Ball...highest bid

This weekend the North Carolina Opera held their annual ball and fundraiser.  Having been asked to donate a portrait to help raise funds in this dreadful economy, I was happy to help. The lovely lady you see in this graphite drawing told the audience of the work I had done to create her mother's portrait last summer. (You may remember the oil I showed you in stages as we worked together before my sitter left to go home to Singapore.) It was a wonderful evening at the opera event - a very nice dinner, a lovely dance, with beautiful performances by NC opera hopefuls, and a very successful auction.  I am proud to share with you that Mrs. Romano's talk to the audience apparently encouraged some very generous patrons to bid for the portrait. The winner will have a head and shoulder portrait painted of the person of their choice. The bidding was very lively and very exciting. It claimed the highest income ( by more than a third) for any item that night! We all need to do what we can to help non-profits stay alive.  We must not lose our music, art, opera, ballet, drama to these uncertain times.  Read more about how the NC Opera has merged with other opera companies in NC. http://operanc.wordpress.com/

Red Cross Ball 2010 - Fundraiser

The Red Cross is one of my special activities.....  Now more that ever we need to be raising funds for their good works globally.  Happily, I am their signature artist here in the Triangle again this year. Their theme this season was "Carolina Nights."  This offers so many visual opportunities. Our state is wide and diverse in its topography, people, food, etc. So I decided to offer three designs - one for each of our regions. To the east, there are lovely white-sand beaches of the coastal region.  The extremely diverse central area of the Piedmont has the busiest of towns known for banking, universities, and technology,and are interspersed with rolling pastoral farmlands.  Then to the west, the wonderful Blue Ridge Mountains.  Tonight I will share the painting of the Coastal Scene. Now go to http://www.trianglearc.org/EVENTS/AnnualGala/tabid/896/language/en-US/Default.aspx

The Sketchbook...

Have you seen the wonderful Leonardo exhibition in Atlanta at the High Museum? Go to http://www.high.org/main.taf?p=3,1,1,15,1 or go directly to the home page at the High http://www.high.org/ The exhibit is there until the 21st ofr February. Quite lovely, inspiring.... when one walks in, each person receives a magnifying glass and invited to approach the artwork at very close range....how unusual! So here is a page from one of my toned-paper, 14x11 sketchbooks. The work is in brown Sharpie ink, touched with green-grey watercolor pencil, and white charcoal pencil. Why ink? It is a little like those folks who do the NY Times crossword puzzles in ink... makes you think fast, stay on your toes, and build confidence. The next couple of images will be pages from my sketchbooks that are matted and for sale.