It's all so close to you ACEO

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It's all so close to you ACEO
Originally uploaded by popcornfeet

I saw these stones when I looked down.... they were a few inches from my feet on a beach in Cape May, NJ. I almost just squashed them into the sand by walking on them and would never noticed how beautiful they were... How soft looking, how polished.... how worthy of notice.

Maybe it's always like that. Me. Life. Maybe I always assume what I want off in the distance.... and thinking what I need must be over that next hill.... and I know what will make me relax and appreciate what I have is in that newly published self-help book.

But maybe life is always like the experience with these stones. Maybe I already have within my view and reach everything I need. Maybe what's over the next hill doesn't matter because the only thing you really have is the presant... and maybe what's in that next self-help book really is the same thing that was in the last self- help book, with a new cover.

Maybe there is something to be said for living fully in the moment.

This card was done on mat board cut into aceo format. There is a collage done with art papers under the main image and its all sealed with multiple layers of acrylic sealers. I like this card, its pretty and calming.

JUST PASSING TIME ACEO

Time has a problem and a bad reputation. People blame a lack of it their failures but don't like an excess of time either.
If they only had the time to spend with their family...exercise... go back to school. If they only hadn't been so pressed for time they would never had chosen that job...that car.... that husband. Having lots extra time is seen as something that will get you into trouble... Too much time to fill is seen as a retired man who gets on every one's nerves... Too much time between where you are and what you want is seen as excruciating...

People talk in time... My biological clock is ticking. No time like the present. Time stands still for no one.... Idle hands are the devil's playground... A watched pot never boils. And on and on... I suppose there are sayings about time where slowing down and enjoying time is shown as a good thing - For example - Take time to smell the daisy's. But to be honest that one always reeks of 1960's Flower Children and doesn't really ring true to most people. I think they can see the value of it but not the practical application.

But the truth is time is a constant... it's your impatience that's the variable. And it's up to you to see the golden value in your time - to capture all your seconds and than file them away as memories. If you sit back and think about time, it's given you a lot. The passing of time gives you all the good things - all your good experience. Your joys. Your quiet moments between the fray.

Perhaps Memory's gift is gratitude but Time's gift is patience. If you take the two in tandem you can truly be a happy person.

Moved on from fruit to people and water...

In an effort to move on to things I have difficulty with I decided to tackle two at one time.

Water and people...

I ended up with a swimmer. I like it but it's still a work in progress. The water isn't watery enough and the swimmer isn't people-y enough... Well she looks like a people but her shadows are all off....or something.

5 x 7 inch acrylic on masonite

May 22, 2008 Update

I reworked my swimmer to take out some of the greens and some of the business in the water.

Dark Thoughts Aceo set

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It was the mood of the night not the color that I was feeling. Beaches bring on a lot of moods in me... I tend to see in them what I'm feeling at the time.

I can only think that when I took this picture I was feeling a bit reflective... heavy...dark. The image isn't crystal clear but more suggestive. You can see movement in the light and a bit of shimmer...and hope. But oveal all it's dark.. very very dark.

Cape May Sky in the abstract

This is a mixed media 6 inch by 6 inch piece I just finished! It's called Capy May Sky.

Even though it appears simple doing it was a time consuming process. First I applied mulberry paper to gessoed masonite and than painted the

background. The clouds came last.

I guess you could call it an acrylic mixed media painting on mulberry paper on masonite... although that is a mouthful.

The image was based on a photograph I took a few years ago. I kept drawing drawing it and each time kept simplifying the elements. At some point it didn't really look like a sky anymore and that is where I liked it best. From a distance it's 'sky'... up close its color and shape.

Blue Hawaii...

Contact tracyreinhardt.art@gmail.com for purchase information

Unframed $ 75.00

This is the first of my 6 inch x 6 inch mixed media/acrylic paintings on masonite that I'm posting. I've decided to call it 'Blue Hawaii' because -well, it is blue ...and for me there is nothing better than Hawaii...and for an abstract is does ring beach. At least to me.

Photographing these squares have been very difficult and I may switch over to a matte fixative, the gloss is a nightmare to photograph and frankly, even for viewing at angles a matte would be better.

Cape May, NJ Fence

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I was looking at my photographs the other day and realized I had a lot of shots of fences. At first I thought it was odd. Why would I have taken so many pictures of barriers? Things blocking my path? Objects that stopped me on my path?

I started to work with the pictures and realized that I loved the images and found them beautiful. If the fences hadn't been there I would have continued on my way - walked ahead and never noticed the scene beyond.

Fences - barriers in your life - can be blockades. Places that you stop and feel you can't go forward but maybe there is another way to see them.
The things that stop you give you a frame of reference. They show you where you are now... They show you what's in the future... They shift you.

Stopping to assess your life is never a bad thing. Knowing what could be a ahead is important... Figuring a way to get past a hurdle is growth. Maybe the fences in your life are as important and the open paths. Maybe stopping to see where you are and figuring out how to move ahead is a gift.

Maybe fences are the picture frames of our lives. A pause, a still picture, a place to refect back on how far we've come and to see what's beyond...

ACEO 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inch done on heavy mat board. The background collage uses several art papers and acrylic fixitives. The photograph was placed on top of the collage and the entire card was sealed with a glossy acrylic medium.

Black sands

Not for sale
I'm happy with this painting. It's one of the first I'm really very happy with. The subject makes me happy and I'm also happy with how it came out.

What doesn't thrill me is my problems photographing the artwork. That is a work in progress....

6 " x 6" acrylic on masonite

A detail close up of the clouds












... and shore line....

I've been looking a lot at the daily painting sites. I think I may have to start listing in order to continue my own daily painting obsession. Perhaps the paintings aren't ready but I can always go back to selling photography and ACEO's

Night waves

Contact tracyreinhardt.art@gmail.com for purchase information

unframed $75.00

I have this thing for the beach. I'm sure it's noticable. This is a 6 " x 6 " acrylic painting on masonite.

The picture of it didn't get the purple glow at the top or the clouds the moon is hiding behind. I really need to work on photographing my artwork.

I'm not sure if this is done yet or a work in progress. I thought photographing it would help but frankly the photo is so poor it doesnt help much.

I guess I'll live with it and see.

Ahead of you

Look beyond the gates and fences and notice infinite possibility lays ahead

Cape May Winter 2006