Still Lives, by Patricia Uchello

Iris with Strawberries

Sara Poly: Art League Landscape Instructor

Sara is a wonderful teacher who gives fantastic demos. Her speciality is wonderfully loose landscapes with dramatic lighting and harmonious colors. 

Your Imaginary Friend,

Patsie

Just Peachy

My latest oil painting is a whole lot of peaches. It is for sale for $350 and is 8" x 10".

Sara Poly

Dear imaginary friends,

If you are interested in learning to paint landscapes, I suggest you study with Sara Poly. She is not only talented as an artist, but also as a teacher.
I have personally learned a great deal from her. 

Always a student,
Patsie

A Pair of Pears

Dear Imaginary Friends,

What tastes better in autumn than a nice juicy Bartlett pear? Not much, so I painted the same pear in two different poses as a visual poem to its tastiness. The first one is the pear at attention and the second one is the lazy recumbent pear.

Yellow Pear, 7 x 5", Oil

Pear Down, 7" x 5", Oil

Harmony in Green, 16 x 20", Oil

 

I also painted a green chicken. Check it out! It is a safe bet that this is the first and last painting you will ever see of a green chicken! You will notice the same silver tumbler appears in two paintings, as does the same Bartlett pear. Hey, a girl only has so much stuff to paint! The cast has a broad repertory of poses, much like musical chairs.

The Yellow Pear and the Harmony in Green, aka, Green Chicken, were hung today by yours truly in my one woman show at River Farm. If you haven't seen the show yet, it is up through January 7, 2013.
 
Your Imaginary Friend,
Patsie

Dear Blogger lady,

Where can I go shopping for gifts in Alexandria that is charming, convenient, and has something for everyone?
Befuddled in Bethesda

Dear Befuddled,

That's easy! Shop at A Show of Hands in fabulous Del Ray! Head on over to Mt. Vernon Avenue.

a show of hands.biz

Now that was easy!
Blogger Lady

PS This painting awaits you at A Show of Hands: Three Roses, Oil, 10" x 8", by Patricia Uchello

What I Painted This Week

Study in Blue and Orange, Oil

Dear Invisible Friends,

Hi, there! This is my newest, hot off the easel creation. Painted this past Wednesday afternoon, it sprung to life quickly. It resembles a watercolor, as it has a certain transparent quality not usually found in oil paintings.

This painting is so new that one could say it is wet behind the ears.

Visit my still lives locally at River Farm on East Blvd., The Art League, and A Show of Hands . 

Links below:www.ahs.org

a showof hands, the art league

 

Your Imaginary Friend,

Patsie

What I Painted at the Art League

Red Peppers, Oil, 12 x 16"

Dear Imaginary Friends,

This painting represents how I spent my day, two wednesdays ago in John Murray's class at the Art League.

How red are those peppers? Pretty darn red. Why? Because of the rule of simultaneous contrast, wherein if you place two opposing colors from the color wheel adjacent to each other in a composition, the colors make each other vibrate; it brings out the intensity of the chroma. By placing the red peppers against the green cloth, the colors are allowed to sing.

And that song is loud and clear.

Your Imaginary Friend,

Patsie

Cache Pot with Pansies

Now Showing at A Show of Hands

What a Glamorous Life

An attempt to paint strawberries and lilacs

Dear Imaginary Friend,

Being an artist is not glamorous. It means smelling of paints, squinting at an art setup, and fighting fatigue.

It's like going to battle with failure: Who will win today, my talent or my incompetence? It remains to be seen. This painting was started today at 3pm, but needs quite a bit more time to pull it together. The battle has been neither won nor lost, thus far.

Stay tuned.

Your Imaginary Artist Friend,

Patsie

Teresa Oaxaca

Dear Imaginary Friends,
Here is a photo of a painting compadre at the Art League named Teresa Oaxaca. She is amazingly talented, and painted the two copies of famous artists that you see behind her. Talent: it is an amazing gift. It falls into the laps of the fortunate.
Teresa, you can paint anything. And you are so young.
Your fan,
Patsie

What Remains to be Seen

Pictured above is the new painting I am showing right now at this very minute at the Art League Gallery. It is called "Lewes, Delaware."

It is for sale for a paltry price, and will be on display through May 7. The title of this particular show is Remains.  Remains, as a theme, refers to the end of something or what is left. In this case, what remains is the remains of the day: when the sun dips down to oblivion and casts magic colors across the landscape. I love dramatic lighting, whether it is cast across a body of water or a building.

My cute little oil is 12 x 12". It is available for adoption to a nice home. Yes, it is housebroken and never bites.

Since my article came out in elan, I have been selling my paintings at a fast clip. I sold a large one, a waterscape, too,  today to my lovely friend from Hillsboro, North Carolina. She used to live a bout six blocks from the site of the painting, and so it has special meaning for her, and good memories of living near the GW Parkway. That painting went to a happy home, and I just love it when that happens.

Your very busy artist friend,

Patsie

Bonjour, Petite Amis!

Dear Petite Imaginary Friends,

What have we here? Is this an invitation to NIH (The National Institute of Health)? Why, I do believe so. In addition to being leaders of the scientific research world, they are also a happening place to exhibit art. About 18 years ago, I first showed a painting of mine there, in a curated show. That was before digital photography came into my world, so I do not have a pic handy of it. The painting sold. Good memories! So when I encountered the lovely Lillian Fitzgerald at an event, I asked her about her current openings for a  one woman show. And, voila! You are looking at it.

This exhibit coincides with my Artist Feature in elan magazine, which is published in Northern Virginia. That article consists of a lengthy interview with Donna Cedar-Southworth, a features editor at elan.  She made it so much fun. There will be many photos of my artwork, all oils on canvas. In addition, there will be a photo of yours truly. Danny Lyon was the expert and talented photographer who made the photos happen in high resolution. I would be sunk without his help.

SO, you and I are both relieved that I will not be giving a paper on the mitosis of banana slugs' liver cells, or whatev the newest thing is.

NIH does very important work on many medical fronts including researching cures for cancer, for Multiple Sclerosis, and for Alzheimer's Disease, among many others. They rock!

Your Imaginary Friend,

Patsie 

Mountain Sunset, Oil, 9 x 12"

I wandered lonely as a cloud....

                                    William Wordsworth

Dear Imaginary Reader,

I am not a poet, but I do see poetry everywhere I turn. Visual poetry, that is. Today, while digging in my garden, I saw flowers and green shoots, that were like the very elixir of life.

Everywhere I see inspiration; nature is magic.

The colors of the sky make me swoon with delight. Tonight, there is a phenomenon called the Supermoon. I guess that will bring forth some super werewolves, but at any rate, it is 10% larger and brighter than usual. It is closer to the Earth than it has been in about 900 years. It is big and yellow, like a happy face from the seventies.

I saw the most beautiful thing this week at garden club. A friend brought in, for the horticulture competition, a branch from her Japanese apricot tree. This is an ornamental tree, and you cannot eat these particlular apricots.

She waits all year for it to bloom, and then poof, it's over. Today I drove over to her house just to photograph it in all its magnificence. The flowers are single, open cups of pink. The flowers are so prototypically Oriental in their beauty, so delicate.

Perfection is fleeting in the world of gardening. Art gives me more shelf life, as it were. If I can capture a beautiful image, it will last for at least 100 years, if it is oil painted on canvas.

The Japanese apricot tree blooms for only one week of each year. But I have to say, I like Nature's work better than mine, even though it is here today and gone tomorrow. If my paintings are essays, then the blooming trees are poems.

Your Imaginary Friend,

Patsie

Sit Still, and Wait for that Phone to Ring!

Sit Still, Oil, 50 x 20"

Party Onion

Party Onion, Oil, 5 x 7"

What is more festive, my imaginary friends, than an onion on a party napkin? Nothing!!!  That's what I thought!
Yours,

Patsie

Just Sold: It's A Vanilla World

                                        It's A Vanilla World, 12 x 12", Oil

For Sale: Woodstock, VA, 11 x 14", Oil

                                     Woodstock, VA, seen at sunset in the Virginia Mountains, $300

Welcome to My Studio!

Dear Imaginary Friends,

You are now looking at my studio, and at a large oil painting that I completed last year entitled Grand Canal.

This painting is a biggie, measuring about 30" x 40". No doubt, you have noticed that it is a familiar view of the breathtaking city Venice. My husband and I took a Mediterranean cruise that ended there about 2 years ago. 

It was not our first visit. There is no substitute for the first time that one sees the watery city, with its impending doom hanging in the air. The grandeur of Venice is incomparable to any other city I have ever visited. It is a living breathing architectural museum. She is a lovely lady past her prime, but full of guile and charm.

I could not possibly do Venice justice, the way that Caneletto did.

Venice reminds me of my home town New Orleans, in that there is a commonality of danger from water. Both are gorgeous architecturally, draw tons of tourists, and celebrate great food.

A toast to my two favorite cities!
Love,

Patsie