“Dots 14″ little bitty painting

The latest in my ongoing series of small “little bitty” original paintings, each only 5 x 7 inches (or 12.7 x 17.8 cm if you’re into that kind of thing). Each is unique, all are experimental.

This one’s kind of like a maze:

By the way, there’s no right way up for this painting (or any of the others, for that matter). You can display it any way up you like.

“Dots 14″ by Barbara J Carter

5×7″ (12.7 x 17.8 cm) Acrylic on canvasboard

$45 plus postage ($1.50 in the US, $3 everywhere else) and sales tax in California.

No PayPal account needed, just a credit card.

“Dots 13″ little-bitty painting

The latest in my series of “little-bitty” dot paintings:

“Dots 13″ by Barbara J Carter

Acrylic on canvasboard, 5×7″ (12.7 x 17.8 cm)

$45 plus postage ($1.50 in the US, $3.00 outside the US) and sales tax in California

No PayPal account needed, just a credit card.

Meet me in Manhattan Beach

I’m making my Manhattan Beach debut this weekend (October 3-4, 2009) at the Manhattan Beach Hometown Fair. I’ll be showing my art in booth 252 in the Arts & Crafts section. Stop by between 10 and 5 and say hi!

The Manhattan Beach Hometown Fair is an annual event in the now-tony city of Manhattan Beach, California, the very same suburb of Los Angeles where I spent the entirety of my uneventful youth. Back in the day it was a sleepy little beach town full of surfers and hippies driving beat-up VW vans decorated with peace signs. The grubby little town is all grown-up and gentrified now, with wide clean cobblestone sidewalks and flower tubs and McMansions everywhere you look.

Anyway, they’ve been holding the Hometown Fair every year since dirt was new (OK, only 37 years). It’s a sprawling affair covering all of Live Oak Park plus a long stretch of Valley Drive and the median between Valley and Ardmore. You need to park a few miles away in a lot on Aviation Boulevard just south of Marine and take the free shuttle to the fair. Bring the kids, leave the dogs at home. The fair is very kid-oriented with all sorts of fun and goofy things for them to do.

Here’s a smattering of items I can see marked on the fair’s map: Beer garden, wine garden, chili cook-off, free games, children’s play area, free speech, giant slide, petting zoo, pony rides,  finger painting, wild animal show, velcro wall, pirates for hire, treasure hunt, magician, main stage & south stage, batting cages. You get the idea. Something for everyone!

Here’s the official Manhattan Beach Hometown Fair web site.

Meet me in Manhattan Beach!

New little-bitty painting “Dots 12 (Open Grid)”

“Dots 12 (Open Grid)” is the latest in a series of what I call “little bitty” paintings. They’re all 5×7 inches (that’s 12.7 x 17.8 cm if you’re metrically inclined), which is super small compared with my “usual” paintings.

These little bitty paintings are more experimental than my big serious paintings. They are studies, explorations of possibilities. They allow me to break free of any preconceptions I might have (oh yes, I have a few!) about how to make a painting.

“Dots 12″

For this one, I originally planned out an elaborate grid of dots that would be completely filled in. But while painting it, I started leaving gaps here and there. I thought I’d fill in the gaps with different colors. But partway through I realized I liked the effect of the gaps, so I left them. The grid is there, but it’s hinted at rather than explicitly filled in. I like that.

Like the others, this one’s for sale. I can send it anywhere in the world the mail service reaches. So far, other little bitty paintings have been sent as far as Poland, Sweden, and even Oregon.

“Dots 12 (Open Grid)” by Barbara J Carter

5×7 inches (12.7 x 17.8 cm)

Acrylic on canvasboard

$45 plus postage ($1.50 in US, $3.00 elsewhere) and sales tax in California

No PayPal account needed, just a credit card.

More “little bitty” dot paintings

Here are my two latest “little bitty” dot paintings, just finished this week.

These things have been flying off the shelves, so to speak. I figured I’d better get cracking and make some more!

“Dots 10 (Wavy Lines)”

5×7 inches (12.7 x 17.8 cm)

Acrylic on canvasboard

$45 (plus $1.50 shipping in the US or $3.00 shipping worldwide, and sales tax in California only)

Buy “Dots 10″ (no PayPal account needed, just a credit card)

“Dots 11 (Circles)”

5×7 inches (12.7 x 17.8 cm)

Acrylic on canvasboard

$45 (plus $1.50 shipping in the US or $3.00 shipping worldwide, sales tax in California only)

Buy “Dots 11″ (no PayPal account needed, just a credit card)

BlogCatalog

Candy-colored dot painting

Ta-daa! A brand new little-bitty dot painting in bright and yummy candy colors!

It is, like all my other “little bitty” paintings, 5×7 inches (12.7 x 17.8 cm). This one took a little longer to do than the others so I’m pricing it a wee bit higher, but it’s still a very affordable little original painting. Because as you know, I only sell original paintings. Even the very small ones.

“Dots 9 (Candy-Colored Dots)” by Barbara J Carter, acrylic on canvasboard, 5×7″ (12.7 x 17.8 cm), 2009.

Sold

New dot painting: “Blue-Green Square”

Painting rows upon rows of little dots, all lined up, in a subtly changing color palette, is a challenge. My arm, shoulders, and back all tend to cramp up after a couple of hours. On this 24-inch-square canvas, I don’t know exactly how long it took to paint all the dots (there are 7921 of them) but as a rough estimate I’d say about 40 or 50 hours.

“Blue-Green Square” by Barbara J Carter, acrylic on canvas, 24×24″ (61×61 cm). Available here.

This is the same size (and style) as my other 24×24 inch dot painting “Square, Red.”

Here’s a detail view showing the individual dots more clearly:

Detail, “Blue-Green Square”

Once again I was amazed (and frustrated) at how long this larger painting took. The smaller 10×10″ size went much faster, and the “little bitty” 5×7″ ones only take a few hours. The frustration comes not so much from how long it takes to complete one of these larger paintings, but rather from a growing realization that my goal of pushing into even larger sizes is perhaps overambitious. But fear not, I haven’t given up my dream of painting larger quite yet. I just need to work on my painting method and improve efficiency wherever possible.

“Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for?” -Robert Browning

Some Good Press

It’s always exciting to see your name in print. This one’s by far the nicest blurb I’ve ever had in a newspaper. And I didn’t even have to write it! Thanks to the Ventura County Star.

(from the Ventura County Star’s arts supplement “timeOut” for July 10-17, 2009)

It’s a nice distillation of information about me and my art, quoted off my website. (You can read it if you click on the picture above and then zoom in.) It gives the information for the exhibit I’m in at the Red Brick Gallery (in Ventura, which explains the Ventura newspaper’s interest).

Apparently the gallery sent the newspaper several images from all the artists in the exhibit, and the paper chose to print one of mine. And write up a story with it. They didn’t have to pick me, but they did, and did a very nice job of it too. I’m chuffed!

The story references my exhibit at the Red Brick Gallery in Ventura, California. The show went up this Monday and will stay up through August 16, 2009. If you’re in town on Saturday, July 25, be sure to stop by the gallery between 6pm and 9pm for the artists’ reception. I will be there! And so will that painting in the newspaper article (the painting looks much better in person than in newsprint!).

Thanks to the Ventura County Star for the lovely writeup. You guys rock.

“Yellow Square” painting

Yellow Square, acrylic on canvas, 10x10", 2009

This is another in my abstract dot series, which began with the “little bitty” dot paintings and includes the larger “Square, Red.” Like the others, it is a highly tactile painting, each dot being slightly raised and rounded. I am particularly intrigued by the optical “flare” effect along the diagonals. It’s an optical illusion, but it is particularly striking in this painting.

It is elegantly framed as shown below:

“Yellow Square”, acrylic on canvas, 10×10″ (frame 11.5 x 11.5″) is available for $400 plus shipping. Sales tax in California only. It comes framed and wired to hang.

No PayPal account needed, just a credit card.