"Cactus Heat" and "Pumpkin Patch", sold at Arte de los Brazos, art exhibition in Texas

Good news! I was privileged to be accepted into the Arte de los Brazos Art Exhibition in Possum Kingdom, Texas and sold 2 of my 3 entries. The third entry garnered 1 of 12 merit awards. The painting shown is "Cactus Heat," 12 x 16 oil on canvas. This painting has gained much interest, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it had a new owner. The other was "Pumpkin Patch," a 16 x 20" watercolor of a vintage Dodge pickup sitting amidst a field of pumpkins. I was out-of-state and unable to attend this show at the time. Thank you to my new collectors! I hope you have many hours of enjoyment from my work.In addition, my 3rd entry, "Bridal Veil Falls," an oil landscape of the Falls in the Yosemite National Park, won one of 12 merit awards in this prestigious show...there were at least 150 entries. I'm grateful to the judges for the recognition.

I have been participating in several plein air events and have been missing from my usual blog posts lately. I am back now & will be posting new works very soon. What an experience to be able to enjoy my daily work...painting the great outdoors!

God's Handiwork, landscape, oil painting by Vonnie Kohn

 "God' Handiwork"

oil on canvas

18 x 24"

It's been awhile since I have posted on my blog. I've been fortunate to do some plein air painting through the summer, although we've had record high temperatures here in Texas. When traveling, it is not wise to advertise, so I find it more advisable to post after returning home.  Our state is known for its beautiful sunsets. Luckily this image was very local for me...in my back yard. Even with drought conditions, we have had clouds rolling in from time to time.Noticing the beautiful light touching the clouds, I quickly set up my portable easel in the back yard. Painting "en plein air" requires fast observation as the light changes about every 15 seconds. My emphasis in the painting was concerned with placement of color and correct values in the horizon of the trees. The camera cannot capture the darker shadows accurately..it translates as black in the image. Plein air is the most effective manner of painting to record true color. Evidently the painting was a success...it received an award in the Weatherford Peach Festival Fine Art Show, 2012!

If interested in this painting, please contact me at:

www.vonniekohn.com

http://vonniekohn-artist.blogspot.com

Vonnie Kohn receives MVP award in Art

It's been one of those unpredictable weeks! This week I received an email from the current president of my art guild -a group that has over 100 members. He was requesting that I present a very special award to the past president, Paul Latham, standing to my right in the photo. The reason? I shared the same time frame as an officer (Vice-Pres. of Shows), & this new president was not a member at that time. Sounded good to me...I agreed.  The Betty Murray Award in our art guild is equivalent to the Most Valuable Player award in football.This award usually goes to the one person who best represented the guild to the community and who exemplified a high standard of dedicated service to the art group. 

When the moment arrived to step up to the microphone, Paul preceded me to the microphone to speak to the art members. To my surprise, he was announcing my name for the Betty Murray award! I froze. Upon recovering, I took the mike, spoke of Paul's dedication during that four years & handed him an award too. It was his turn to become speechless.. It was a night full of delightful surprises. The board members had decided to engage each of us to present the other with this award to ensure the element of surprise.  Anyway, Paul and I were both humbled and grateful for the honor. 

There is a good lesson from this...I will not be playing "poker" with any of those board members.