It's all his fault.

Blame it on Bob.

Recently my favorite mentor, Robert Burridge, was in town and we had a chance to catch up at the opening of his show at the Lucky Street Gallery. His continued enthusiasm and dedication to painting is uber infectious. I've taken a number of his "Loosen Up" workshops and loved every one of them. It was great to see him and his paintings.

I recently went through a phase where my paintings got a little out of control (well okay, maybe a lot) and the colors were super amplified. They were huge fun to do. And because the fall hadn't been all that much fun, (Thanks Irma :(() It was just the thing I needed at the time. I used almost all of the techniques Bob taught me in that series. I could hear him in my head going, "A brush has two ends." "Negative shapes, negative shapes" and "Where's the wow factor?"

Which was a very good thing because this painting came in handy

When a local gallery, that shows some of my larger pieces, came to me and said that they wanted paintings that were "brighter" I was able to say, "I've got just the thing for you!" 

Happy Hour aka Giant Umbrella Drink Painting

24" x 30", acrylic on canvas

available @ Art on Duval, Key West, Florida

Mini version

Happy Hour II

10" x 20" 

acrylic on canvas

$385.00 available in my studio

Bob Burridge at his opening with local artists.

thanks Bob for all you do.

Find out more about Bob HERE    If you're and artist make sure to sign up for his Bob Blast videos.

Maggie Ruley is a studio artist living in Key West, Florida. 

Her colorful paintings and tropical pottery are collected world wide and can be found in many island homes. She has been featured in the Key West Citizen,

the New York Daily News , and other publications.

Her handmade ceramic flip flops have been sold in gift shops all along the east coast and in California and Hawaii.

 Her studio and gallery is located in the historic Seaport area of Old Town Key West.

Maggie Ruley~Island Inspirations

933b Fleming St.

Key West Florida 33042

www.maggieruley.com

IDK, Just Cuz

 

 

Special Update

After I read the blog post I sent out yesterday, I realized I had a few more things to say about getting a not-so-favorable reaction to your artwork. Well, really, I have a lot of things to say on that subject. But for today I'm only going to say a few. So I did a little re-write, because I think it's kind of important.  As a bonus to you for reading it again I've added a fun photo.

Question: "What made you paint THAT!?"

Answer: "IDK, Just cuz."

 

 

The Story Book Giraffe
20" x 16" acrylic on canvas
$650
Giclee prints available
©Maggie Ruley 2016

 

 

When people get used to you painting a certain subject matter or in a certain style it can be a little un-nerving for them to see something different from you. 

 

If your new subject or style upsets someone, hold their hand, tell them to breath and that it's going to be okay, really. There's no need to explain or to try and make them understand. It's your creative journey and lots of times it's un-explainable. And if you go into an explanation a lot times their eyes just glaze over and you've lost them.

 

My standard reply is, "I don't know, just cuz." Or, "It seemed like fun."  You get the idea.

 

Here's the deal, it's a great big sparkle-y world out there full of amazing beautiful things for me and you (this also applies to non-artists!) to interpret and rearrange. 

#everyoneiscreative 

 

And I would be totally bored if I didn't take advantage of that when the urge strikes me.

#shortattentionspan

#willchasebrightshinyobjects

 

Please note, I'm not dealing with super harsh, icky mean criticism here.  This is about I-don't-get-it-you're-upsetting-me-a-little criticism.

 

This painting started as a demonstration for my class. We were exploring complicated backgrounds, negative shape painting and finding pattern.  In my mind Pattern = Giraffe, no brainer.

 

I don't always finish my class demonstrations but this one was full of all the things that made me want to fully develop it.  Fun color, elegant shapes and a boat load of stars.  It's kinda like an illustration in a child's book, hence the title, Story Book Giraffe.

 

How great would this look in a child's room?  Totally Great!

 

If you have any great ideas how handle this kind of situation I'd love to hear them.  CLICK through to the blog and leave them in the comment section.

 

 

 

 

This was my studio during my last class notice the flowers, wine and chocolates. What's not to love? P.S. the chocolates were a gift to all the Mom's in the class from our dear artist friend David Scott Meier.

 

The delightful work by my students.

 

 

 If you are reading this from your inbox, 2 things.

First, you might want to CLICK HERE so you can see all the fun extras on the blog site.  You'll be glad you did and you can leave a comment.

 

And Second,Thank you! Please forward it on to anyone else who might enjoy it. Thank you again.

 

 If you aren't (reading this in your inbox)and you'd like to get all the really cool things going on in my studio delivered (with love) to your inbox, CLICK HERE  and fill out that box thingy that says, "Never miss a post", in the upper right corner.

 

Maggie Ruley is a studio artist living in Key West, Florida. 

 

Her colorful paintings and tropical pottery are collected world wide and can be found in many island homes. She has been featured in the Key West Citizen,

the New York Daily News , and other publications.

 

Her handmade ceramic flip flops have been sold in gift shops all along the east coast and in California and Hawaii.

 

 Her studio-gallery is located in the Historic Seaport area of Old Town Key West.

Maggie Ruley~Island Inspirations

933b Fleming St.

Key West Florida 33042

www.maggieruley.com

About Your Father ~ day 13

Paintings are about relationships. (In my world of painting, that is).  Relationships between light and dark, warm and cool, foreground, mid-ground and background, large and small, lots of others, and the relationships between the objects in the painting.  Here, because of the size difference, I feel a like there is a family conversation going on between the flowers. So I have chosen the ending line of the HBO series Rome to use as a title. It suggests that the conversation is going to get very interesting. One of the few standards I hold myself to when I paint is,

 It has to be interesting,

 otherwise why bother? But of course, what is of interest to one person, is not necessarily of interest to another.

 

About Your Father
acrylic on paper
7 x 5" matted to 10 x 8"
$45
©Maggie Ruley 2014


Thank you Leslie Saeta for hosting the 30 Day Challenge

To see another painting based on the Rome series
click here.

Today's Bouquet

I 'm taking a Robert Burridge workshop in February, (birthday treat for myself) so I am refreshing myself with his techniques.  This will be my 3rd workshop with Bob.

Today's Bouquet
7" x 5"
acrylic on paper
matted to 10" x 8"
$45.00

Burridge starts his studio day with small warm-up paintings on paper.  A sheet of water color paper is toned and then divided.  While the paint was still wet I used the end of the paint brush to lay out basic shapes and composition.  The paintings are all 7" x 5".  By the way, did you know, that painting dimensions are correctly given as vertical size first and then the horizontal dimension?

The painting above was the lower right hand grid.  As you can see the final composition is different than the first one.  If you take a Burridge workshop you will hear him say, "Anybody who doesn't change their mind, doesn't have one." 

Today's Bouquet is painting # 7 in Leslie Saeta's 30 day Painting Challenge

Click here to see the other paintings

NEW DIRECTION

This painting started out as an abstract sunset painting, that I kept painting over, and wiping out, and glazing and no matter what I did it was still a boring sunset painting. So I decided to go in an entirely different direction. I went back to some of my Robert Burridge workshop rules and reworked this canvas until I wasn't bored anymore. It's not for everyone, but it's not boring.

AS I LAY SLEEPING

16" X 20"

acrylic on canvas