One Not Enough

California based artist Victoria Veedell is this week's guest blogger for the Artist as Collector Series.

Shannon Amidon, Jellyfish
photo process on wood
collection of Victoria Veedell

I interviewed Shannon Amidon in 2004 for an “Inside the Artist Studio” article for the Silicon Valley Open Studio Magazine. I was intrigued by the description of her photographic process and her story of how she spent so much time at the Monterrey Bay Aquarium photographing the jellyfish.  From her description I knew I needed to see her work in person. 

My husband and I went to an art auction at the San Jose Museum of Art benefiting Silicon Valley Open Studios. We bid on, and won one of her jellyfish images.  

One piece didn’t seem enough.  So for my husband’s birthday I bought two more.  

Now we have a triptych hanging in our living room.  It’s a good conversation piece as our guest always get close to the images to see what they are and then ask about the process.  Not only do we enjoy looking at the work every day but I have fond memories of what a nice person Shannon is and what a pleasure it was to work with her.

Victoria Veedell is a painter based in San Francisco, California. Her oil paintings on canvas capture the essence of nature by examining the effects of light on form in the natural world. The paintings are vibrant and colorful abstractions of the landscape. 

Lost in the Paint- Artist as Collector

Delaware based artist Carol Balick is this guest blogger for the Artist as Collector Series.

Wedding Gifts
Oil on canvas
30" x 34"
©ElizabethGeiger
Collection of Carol Balick

On a cool autumn evening several years ago, I picnicked in the woods near Staunton Virginia with my friend, Cleveland Morris and his friends, Phillip and Elizabeth Geiger, both artists. The food was delicious and so was the conversation.  Phillip was getting ready for a show at Tiborg De Nagy in New York and Elizabeth was getting ready for a show in Lexington, Virginia. At that time, I had not seen the work of either artist but as we spoke, I began to image their paintings. 

The following year, I received a note from Elizabeth inviting me to the opening of her show at Gross McLeaf Gallery in Philadelphia.  By the time my husband and I arrived, her show was almost sold out. We were thrilled that she had done so well and not disappointed that there were so few pieces left.  We hadn’t come to buy, only to look. 

As we walked through the gallery, I kept coming back to “Wedding Gifts.” Moving away, it would draw me back again and again. It was as if I needed to make sure that everything was still on the canvas – that the cloth with everything on it hadn’t slid off the table. I loved the richness of the paint, the humor of this still life, things tilted and placed at precarious angles and the tension and sense of apprehension it created. We couldn’t leave without it. 

Each morning when I come into my kitchen, I look at our beautiful painting, relieved that the blue cloth, the milky compote filled with fruit, the loaf of bread haven’t slid to the floor. I feel the energy, the life force this still life pours into the room. And then I get lost in the paint. 

Carol Balick is a a plein-air painter, she loves the waterways and farmlands of Delaware and the immense landscapes of the southwest, but paints where ever she travels. She is also on the art committee of the Siegel JCC ArtSpace in Wilmington, DE>

Symbol of Warmth and a Place of Honor in Art Collection

Pennsylvania based artist Jay Rolfe is this week's guest blogger for the Artist as Collector Series.

Dog Sled

oil on canvas

24" x 30

©2013ELOR

Collection of Jay Rolfe

As an artist I love any art that uplifts my spirit. I’ve collected art my entire adult life. My

wife and I currently have displayed in our home 70 artworks by others and 28 of my own.

We have an additional 16 artworks by others displayed in our second home along with 21

of mine. And we have more in storage which we occasionally rotate into our display.

Each of our artworks give me a positive feeling that brightens my day.

The work I’m sharing with you today is an oil painting we fell in love with and

acquired in a gallery Quebec, Canada, during a visit to Montreal many years

ago. I didn’t meet the artist at the exhibition and only know that the artist was Canadian

and signed the painting ELOR. At the time we were living in the far north of New York

State near the Canadian border. Winters were very cold, often with 10 to 20 days at a

time when the mercury didn’t rise above 0° F. The cold was accompanied by lots of snow

that stayed on the ground and got deeper all winter long. What fun for young adults!

This painting, Dog Sled in Blowing Snow, of an Inuit driving a dog sled with eight

Huskies through a sea of blowing snow as the sun goes down, struck me as both beautiful

and a symbol of all the fun we were having in the snow. 

The painting hangs over our fireplace, a symbol of warmth and place of honor

Jay Rolfe is a painter, sculpture and mixed media artist whose goal is to uplift the spirit, nourish the soul, show awe of the mystery, and create beauty using color, shape, and humor.

Beautiful Reminder- Artist as Collector

Venezualian artist currently living in Connecticut, Sikiu Perez is this week's guest blogger for the Artist as Collector Series.

Winter Berries
Oil on canvas
10" x 10"
©2013AlyceTrebra

I bought this painting from a local gallery in Connecticut at their holiday show last year. 

It grabbed me as soon as I first saw it on their online newsletter. Then, when I saw it in person, I had to buy it. 

It reminds me that winter is not just snow, and there are still beautiful colors to be found.

Sikiu Perez is a contemporary ceramist lucky enough to be raised among artists who encouraged her art studies. She likes to add happiness to the darkness and give a whimsical twist to the ancient Mesoamerican art.

Artist as Collector from the Brandywine Valley, PA

Painter Peter Willard is this week's guest blogger for Artist as Collector Series.

Haunted House, 1950
Oil on canvas
24" x 18"
©2012EdieRoberson

The artist, Edi Roberson was a close friend of my aunt and mother. Now in her eighties, she lives and paints in Park City, Utah. The house was torn down to make way for the St. Joe's on the Brandywine Cloverleaf. (DE)


I have always found its moodiness soothing.


Peter Willard paints regional landscapes in the Brandywine tradition. "His intimate watercolors are small in scale, but he successfuly depicts the grandeur of the outdoors." And, as we learned this weekend at yesterday's art show at Scarlet Thicket Farm, there is more to the work of Peter Willard than pastoral vignettes.

Two sides of Peter Willard
in the barn at
Scarlet Thistle Farm, PA

Coming soon... more shots from Scarlet Thicket Farm.

It was also First Friday in many cities, got art?

Inspiration for Letting Loose

Southern California painter & jewelry artist Cathy Bennett is this week's guest blogger for the Artist as Collector Series.

Lemons Still Life
Oil on canvas
11" x 14"
©2012Catherine Grawin

I was attending a meeting of a local art guild to see the demo of an oil painter, Catherine Grawin, who I had heard about from other painters.   Her style was “loose and bold” and that was actually the next step I needed to take (in my own work.)  As luck would have it, I won the demo painting she did for the guild, Lemons Still Life….and I was thrilled.   After that I took her “Big and Loose” class through the La Jolla Athenaeum for several years.   


To top it off we have become good friends and she is a part of my life.  




Cathy Bennett  paints, makes jewelry and travels the world with her own "Big and Loose" passion for life.


How has your love of a piece of art led you to a new friend?

Spring Festivities

Dream Hare, 1988

Oil on Canvas

30" x 40"

©2011NanciHersh

Be it Passover, Easter, or just Spring Fever... may this season be full of hope and new beginnings....

Angels Among Us

Tribute. 2007
Oil on canvas
48" x 54"
©NanciHersh all rights reserved

Private Collection

Still here at Memorial Sloan Kettering... all is well except for some rashes and swelling that kept me here longer than expected.  I pretend that I am at a spa and am enjoying the R & R and room service!

I am on a "Women's Only" floor. This is a more pleasant experience than 8 years ago, when I was treated in New Jersey at a hospital where there were not enough beds in Surgical Oncology. Placed on the orthopedics floor where the touch was not always sensitive and the environment not too appealing.

Here, there is art on the walls and a recreation room on the 15th floor with entertainment and activities as well as an outdoor patio.  

I quickly found some paints, brushes and paper and did a few loose watercolors, which are now pinned up in my room

The phone calls, emails and FB comments from family and friends continues to remind me how truly blessed I am.

And as in Tribute above, I am in the company of Angels who have been taking care of me.

Today's highlight: getting my hair washed! 

A Better Way to Get Tubed

Surf's Up
Handcolored Photo
©2011NanciHersh

February's issue of O Magazine is all about Creativity.

Breezing through the magazine I came upon a side bar of particular interest titled 7 Ways to Spark Your Creativity. (Who doesn't need a spark this snow covered January day?) by designer Anna Rabinowicz.

At the top of the list is a book recommendation, Not a Box by Antoinette Portis in which "a rabbit sits in a cardboard box and uses his imagination to transform it into a racecar, a mountain, a robot."

Our Rabbit, Thunder
using her imagination

Not only do I have a pet rabbit and I know how creative she is, but I figured I could use this approach to
see my upcoming brain MRI in a new way.

Old way: Claustrophobic tube with a jack hammer in my head. (VERY SCARY)

New way:  A very cool time travel, space ship ...
Some time to chill and not have a phone stuck to my head or my fingers dancing on the computer keys
Time to practice yoga/meditation off the mat (even though that was checked off my bucket list last week when I had an hour and a half breast MRI!)
A full body massage (ok that's a stretch)

The Quest, 1988
Oil on canvas
40" x 40"
©2011NanciHersh

Any other ideas out there?