Happy to Tell Ya...

I'm happy to tell ya that I received notice today that I have achieved Juried Membership Status with the Arizona Art Alliance in category #2 (WC, Acrylic, Oil). This is both exciting and humbling not to mention the snazzy certificate to hang on my studio wall.


Also, I'm happy to tell ya that I have two paintings in the 2nd Annual 2017 Arizona Art Alliance Interpretations II Juried Fine Art Exhibit and Sale at the WHAM West Gallery 16560 West Dysart Rd., Surpise, AZ. March 1 - 30, 2017.

Little Dog and Beyond

 Acrylics

Journey No.3

Acrylics

Also, I have two paintings in a current juried Sonoran Arts League show titled the 2017 Contemporary Art Show at the Desert Foothills Gallery (Library) located at 38443 N. Schoolhouse Rd., Cave Creek, AZ. It runs from January 27th to March 24, 2017.

Journey No. 2

Acrylics

Untitled  3.23.09

Acrylics

Hope you can make it to the show(s).

I've been very busy the past few months since we relocated back to Arizona having been juried into several other shows in addition to the above as well as joining the Sonoran Arts League, the West Valley Arts Council and the Arizona Art Alliance.  Now I'm looking for gallery representation somewhere in the Valley. As they say "Stay tuned...".  Bye for now.

Winter's here and the weather is great!

Winter in Arizona is the best time of the year, especially for getting out to paint en plein air.

January is also when you start hearing and reading about the upcoming Spring Training Cactus League baseball teams.  Here that includes the new World Series Champions the Chicago Cubs.  Looking forward to producing some artworks related to the season.

In the meantime here is one of my favorite pieces I've created on the theme of baseball..."America's Game".

Prints of it and products with it on them are available on www.bill-tomsa.pixels.com or by clicking on the Fine Art America tab at right.

Summer is slowly fading...at last!

When we lived in Maine we would always be sorry to see summer end, but happy to see the colors of autumn, but sorry to know what came after that...winter...UGH!  Shoveling and driving in snow. High heating bills and layer upon layer of clothes to keep warm in minus zero temps.

Well, now that we don't live in Maine any more and have moved back to Arizona, our outlook on the seasons has reverted back to southwest mode which is just the opposite of northeast mode. In other words we're glad to see summer end and we're  looking forward to fall and winter with temps in the 80's and below and no more high humidity monsoon!

What all of this means is I can look forward to getting out and painting plein air again. My wife, Gloria, and I have spent the spring looking for a house to buy and have accomplished that. We now live in Surprise, AZ about 30 miles from downtown Phoenix, We have spent the summer furnishing and getting settled in our new home including my new studio.

I am sooo looking forward to getting back to a regular routine of creating art.  

Big News

My BIG NEWS is that my wife and I sold our home in Maine and are now living back in Arizona where we lived for twelve years before moving to and living in Maine for thirteen years.  Both places have great attributes and some drawbacks most of which range from minus twenty degrees to over one hundred and fifteen degrees. However weather wasn't the only consideration for our move.

So now most of my plein air work will reflect Arizona landscapes as the last thirteen years reflected Maine land and seascapes.  Stay tuned.

 Telegraph Pass Sentinel 

6x8" Acrylic

$300

Yarmouth Frame and Gallery Holiday Show

Just a reminder that the Yarmouth Frame and Gallery "Holiday Show" is currently on now and into January if you're looking for a beautiful work of art to give for a gift or to treat yourself.

These are two of several paintings I have in this fabulous group show with many great artists.

Happy Holidays to All!

"The Golden Tree"

12"x16"

"Untitled #1217"

5"x7"

Stop by and say "hi" to Beth or Lee.

720 Route 1, Yarmouth, ME. 04096

207-846-7777

www.YarmouthrrameAndGallery.com

www.facebook.com/YFandG

www.twitter.com/YFandG

Monday - Friday 10 to 6

Saturday 10 to 4

or by appointment

3 in Yarmouth Art Festival!

It is my pleasure to announce that 3 of my paintings have been juried into the 7th Annual Yarmouth Art Festival.  You can see my 3 paintings and all of the 165 paintings juried in at 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/yarmouthartfestival/collections/7215765684. 

According to their website http://yarmouthartfestival.com/, there was a record number of 382 paintings submitted this year. My personal thanks to the judges artist Suzanne Harden; Anne Haas, Bowdoin College art librarian; and Peg Golden, owner of Greenhut Galleries in Portland as well as Joe Michud and to the entire staff of the festival who do such a magnificent job each year putting this event on. 

The 7th annual Yarmouth Art Festival will be held Oct. 21-24, 2015, at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church at 396 Gilman Road in Yarmouth from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 24, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. An artists’ reception, including music and refreshments, will be held Thursday Oct. 22 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Admission will be free for both the festival and the reception, with donations accepted.

Hope you'll be able to make it to the reception or one of the days of this wonderful exhibit and sale.

BBQ on Congress

8x10" Acrylic

$500

Painting Plein Air in Yarmouth, Maine

Yarmouth, Maine, for those of you who haven't had the pleasure of visiting it, is a beautiful, charming small New England town about 10 miles past Portland as you travel north on Rt. 295 or the slower, but more picturesque, Rt. 1.

It is a cornucopia of painting subjects and a plein air painters dream!

With all of the above in mind, Yarmouth Arts, according to their web site http://www.yarmoutharts.org/ is "a non-profit organization made up of local citizens committed to encouraging arts and cultural activities within the community of Yarmouth."

This past Saturday I participated, with other plein air painters, in the paint-out called 

CELEBRATING THE CHADBOURN SPIRIT: A SENSE OF PLACE

This is the painting I did  of the local railroad station which is now used as a unique floral shop.

Yarmouth Station

11x14"  Acrylic

My painting setup at Yarmouth paint out.

The juried exhibit and sale is 9/18 - 10/31 at 317 Main Community Music Center which is open Mon - Fri, 10 AM - 6 PM. Reception is Friday, 10/2, 5 - 7PM.

If you can't make it to this part of Maine in the next week or so, I have one word as further encouragement for you to visit....A U T U M N!

PS If you do visit the show take a little longer to scoot around the corner up to  720 Route 1 and visit Yarmouth Frame and Gallery   www.yarmouthframeandgallery.com where you can see several more examples of my paintings along with those of a whole bunch of great artists.  Tell Beth or Lee I sent you.

Take care.

BRAF - August Exhibit

BRAF stands for Boothbay Region Art Foundation www.boothbayartists.org/ located, where else, in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. I am a member and have been for several years. We each get to put two paintings in the monthly members' exhibit and below is one of my two. To see the other acrylics painting you'll have to visit the gallery because I forgot to photograph it before I took it in.  Sorry.  If you're in Maine and find yourself near Boothbay Harbor, please stop in and say "Hi" to June or whoever happens to be "sitting" the gallery.  Tell her Bill Tomsa sent you.

Have a nice August.

For Rent

8x10" Acrylic 

Prints for sale on 

http://bill-tomsa.artistwebsites.com/

Yarmouth Frame and Gallery Group Show

I am pleased to invite anyone reading this and in the Yarmouth, Maine area to stop by and check out the newest group show at Yarmouth Frame and Gallery http://www.yarmouthframeandgallery.com/ titled "Winter Cowers as Spring Empowers". The painting shown below is one of several I have contributed to the show. Tell Beth or Lee I sent you.

Blue Gated Alley

Acrylic  $300

Memorial Day

To  all of our fallen heroes

Thank You.

Seven Words

  

Can these seven words help sell art?  I think the answer is "yes".  They are a "Call to Action" intended to move readers of these words to buy a work of art that has moved them (or may move them in the future) through a sense of joy or inspiration or whatever.

We, as consumers, are exposed to calls to action every day from sellers of everything from soup to luxury automobiles.  Every product/service, it seems, has a Call to Action associated with it, a phrase, a "suggestion" that tells the reader/listener to perform a certain action that will bring them closer to owning the product or service.

Some examples of  Calls to Action:
-Ask your doctor about...fill-in-the-blank.. to relieve your allergies.
-See your.. fill-in-the-blank... at your local dealer for a test drive.
-Call 1- 800..-fill-in-the-blank... for more information about how to refinance your home.
And the most used Call to Action of our current times...LIKE US ON FB.

So, a number of years ago I asked myself why not a Call to Action (CTA) that can help those of  us who sell art, (artist, gallery owners, reps and anyone who wants to promote the ownership of artworks) to actually give potential buyers a good reason to BUY ART?  The phrase "Invest in Joy & Inspiration  BUY ART" came about as a result.

This is a "suggestion" to people who hover on the edge of purchasing a piece of art but who can't quite justify it so they hold back as a result.  Investing in art has traditionally only addressed the financial reason for doing so with the hopes of making a profit on the art.  Our CTA calls for an investment not for financial gain but rather an investment in one's own joy, one's own inspiration, one's own happiness, contentment, sense of
well being or whatever that comes from owning a work of art that one has fallen in love with.

If you agree that promoting this message "Invest in Joy and Inspiration BUY ART" can help promote art and you want to help spread the word please go to www.zazzle.com/buyart or just click on the small bumper sticker in the gadget to the right and above "About Me".

Xanadu Announcement

It gives me extreme pleasure to announce that Xanadu Gallery LLC of Scottsdale, Arizona has accepted my submission to be one of their Studio Artists on their web site http://www.xanadugallery.com/.

What this means is that I now have my own page in the Studio Artists segment of their online gallery. Simply go to that section and put my name into the Search box to pull up my page.  I have a limited number of painting originals available for sale but plan to increase that number on a regular basis.

I have long admired Xanadu Gallery LLC, which is owned and operated by Jason and Carrie Horejs since Sept. 10, 2001.  Not only are the artworks they exhibit among my favorite but their story of opening on the day before the world changed forever is both inspirational and touching.   If you happen to find yourself in the Valley of the Sun, do yourself a favor and treat your senses to a delightful visit to Xanadu Gallery LLC.

Cape Elizabeth Lupines

8"x8" Acrylics

$450

http://www.xanadugallery.com/

Spring has sprung. Fall has fell. Summer's comin'. It's hotter than........

Spring has sprung.  Fall has fell. Summer's comin'.  It's hotter than usual!   You thought I was going to say something else?

Well, Spring hasn't exactly sprung here in good 'ol Maine, but it seems to be creeping closer with every day.  And that means I'll soon be out and about plein air painting.  Now that will be a real sign of  Spring. I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of my painting companions with the Plein Air Painters of Maine (PAPME) down near and around Boothbay Harbor.

Painter of the Sea

Acrylics on panel

Get a print of this painting at

www.bill-tomsa.artistwebsites.com

Winter has me WIP'ed.

I am no stranger to winter.  I grew up in upstate NY and have many fond memories of "going sledding" and the hot chocolate after we came in  and building snowmen and snowball fights (without  anyone's eye ever being "put out").  My wife, Gloria, and I are in our 11th Maine winter.  But I don't remember, in my 67 winters, seeing so much snow piled so high, shoveling or now, snowthrowing it, so often (and hoping the machine lasts through the season) than I have in the last month or so.  And don't get me started on the C-O-L-D! The one positive on that is that heating oil prices have dropped since last year.

What does this have to do with art, you ask.  Well, it certainly does put the kibosh on my plein air painting as I can't paint outside below 40 degrees because my paints are affected.  Therefore I am confined to my studio to A) work from my photos, B) do some still life paintings or C) finish some of the many unfinished or, as I call them, WIPS (Works In Progress ) that I have strewn about. There is no real simple explanation as to why I have a lot of unfinished paintings other than I am lazy or I just haven't figured out a good end to the WIP....yet.  However I haven't given up on it either and, most of the time, I will come to a reasonable conclusion on the painting and it will find it's way to a frame and eventually to a wall. 

So I guess, in hindsight, winter does serve a purpose afterall as far as my art goes.  It forces me to do two things.  One, reacquaint myself with my studio and, two, confront my WIPS and transform them into fully realized paintings. Here's the one I'll work on next. That is once I locate my favorite brush and that tube of cadmium yellow....

One of my Works In Progress

Art to hang on your walls.

Well I've been a member of Fine Art America (FAA) for about 6 weeks now and have learned a lot about how it works from reading and particiipating in the Discussions.  One of the most talked about topics is marketing, especially thru social media.  Hence the purpose of this blog to let my readers know what is available on my particular part of  FAA which you can access through the following link www.bill-tomsa.pixels.com   Since my last post I have become a Premium Member and now have over 60 images posted of both my acrylic paintings and photographs both color and black & white.  Prints of any of them can be hanging on your wall within days.  Many of my works on FAA have been featured on various Groups that I have joined and submitted images to.  Besides a variety of prints to decorate your walls many of these images lend themselves nicely to a new product, the throw pillows, as well as greeting cards. Check it out.

Art work at Yarmouth Frame and Gallery

Just a heads up that I have 3 small paintings in the Yarmouth Frame and Gallery Holiday group show. Below is one of them.

 

Blue Sky Reflections

8x8" Acrylic

$450

Just joined Fine Art America

I'm very pleased to announce that I have just joined and am now selling originals and prints of my artwork on Fine Art America.  For me this is an exciting new venture which I hope will enable me to get my work to a much larger audience.  If you would like to visit my site go to www.bill-tomsa.pixels.com. Please check it out.  Thank you.

Arts Downtown & All Around....already???

Yes, it is that time again!  Where has this year gone??!!  Oh well, as a wise man ( I think it was Frank Zappa) once said, "Time flies like the wind.  Fruit flies like the bananas."  Anywho, I will be participating in the 17th Annual Arts Downtown & All Around  Group Show at Fort Andross November 14, 15 and 16th.  The gallery is right next to the enterance of Frontier cafe.  I will have many new paintings inspired by Maine and the Southwest, where Gloria and I lived for 12 years before moving to Maine. Besides my acrylic original paintings, I'll also have selected unframed watercolor, pen & ink sketches and acrylic originals at a lower price point in my "bin".  Please stop by and say "hi".  Gloria and I would love to see and chat with you and answer any questions you may have about my art.

 

ADAA HOURS

 

Nov. 14 Fri. 5 - 8 PM

 

Nov. 15  Sat. 11 AM - 4 PM

 

Nov. 16  Sun. 11AM - 4 PM

 

 

 

 

Sonoran Thunderhead

5x7"  unframed   $225 

Safety First

Something a little different here.  I've wanted to post something about how I set up to paint plein air on the side of busy (or not so busy) roads.  Maybe there is something here that one of my five readers can use.  Seriously though you do need to take some precautions when you're out painting in the world.  First of all I try my best to get as far off the road as the shoulder will allow.  Next I always carry a red fluorescent "cone" with me.  You can buy these at any store like Home Depot or whatever.  I've gone one step further and stenciled mine with the words "Dept. of Art".  I picked this up from another plein air painter and I regret I can't remember his name in order to give him credit. I do remember him saying that he thought Dept. of Art looked more official than Art Dept.  It may help reduce any hassle you might get from whoever.  Also, putting your car's "flashers" on can add to your visibility to drivers.

 

 



Hot Air Meets Plein Air

I painted plein air in Auburn, Maine last Saturday during the 6am launch at the Lewistion/Auburn Annual Great Falls Balloon Festival.  Getting up an hour early in order to make it the 30 miles to Lewiston from Topsham had it's benifits, the biggest of which was seeing a beautiful sunrise.  It was a graphic reminder of why I need to get out earlier in the day to paint with this wonderful light.  Anyway below is the results of my efforts at the hot air balloon event.  This painting is available through my email.

 

This Sun Also Rises

8x8" Acrylic

$450