The American Artists Professional League 84th Grand National Exhibit

"Camelot on the Potomac" 30x24 oil on linen

     I mentioned yesterday that I have paintings juried in  both the Audubon Artists Annual show and the AAPL 84th Grand National.  The latter opens first so I will start with that.
      On the left is the painting that will be in that show.  The starting point for the view is looking up river (the Potomac) from the Chain Bridge. For those of you unfamiliar with this area the Chain Bridge crosses the Potomac between Virginia (on the left here) and Washington DC (on the right side). I have painted this view many times but this time I took some liberties with it.  In reality there is an arm of land that runs into the river from the right and from the bridge you get the impression that it extends all the way across.  It would come across just about at the point where you see the castle but I wanted the river to flow uninterrupted to the horizon. The view beyond that point is true to the site.  The castle.....it doesn't exist there.  However, it does exist further down the river at the Georgetown Reservoir.  I just decided to move it up river because the painting was begging for a castle.  Ah, artists license!

      About the show and the AAPL.  Usually this organization holds this show at the Salmagundi Club in NYC.  I had a painting exhibited in last year's show and we went up for the opening reception.  It was a wonderful show and therefore I was eager to enter again this year.  I am really happy to be included again!  What will be different this year is the show will be held online.  As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts the Club has been experiencing some renovations and it was supposed to be closed at this time to restore the ceiling in the main gallery to its original state as a huge skylight.  Because of that the AALP was going to have to find another location.  They were not able to find one that offered the space that the Salmagundi has and decided to take the bold step of holding the show online instead. When the Club announced that the skylight plan had been decided against and the regular show schedule could resume it was a little late for the AALP to reverse its plan.  So, this will be interesting.
       The show will open on Saturday, October 6th and will run until Sunday, December 30th.  All paintings on exhibit will be for sale and instructions for purchase will be posted online. There will be a catalogue of the exhibit for sale.  You can read about the American Artists Professional League by visiting their website
www.americanartistsprofessionalleague.org.   That is also the link you will need to view the show starting on Saturday.  I will keep listing it in future posts.
       I have some thoughts, both plus and minus, on the subject of online exhibits.  There are more and more of them and I would like to talk about that in my next post. Check back tomorrow for the Audubon painting!