King of the Prairie

This idea has been rolling around in my head for a while.  Out here in Oklahoma we live with both of the "creatures" in this painting.  It is a perfect example of the push and pull that human beings have struggled with for centuries.... nature VS human comforts....some who take too much, and those who pay for it....those who learn from the past, and those who repeat it.... sustainability VS depleting our gifts..... honoring our gifts and using them wisely, or not.... I could go on but ultimately it will be you, the viewer who gets to interpret the story.  Notice too that there is a storm brewing in the back ground.

Below are the beginnings and nearing completion of the painting.  I need to sit with it for a week or so and then will finish it.

a week later.... It is finished and sent to the new art gallery in town, The Artery.

Sugar Plums Dance .... Tulsa Ballet

In order for Sugar Plums to dance in their heads, you first need to learn how to dance.  This painting was done after a visit to the rehearsals for the Tulsa Ballet's opening season.  To bid on this or visit my ebay gallery, Click Here

Horton Records in Tulsa w my son, Jesse Aycock, Jacob Tovar, Wink Burcham, Lauren Barth, Paul Benjaman and more

Annual Holiday Art Sale at my house this weekend. Hope to see some of you locals!

Persimmons

It's that time again.... Time to take a walk in the woods without having to worry about getting chiggers or ticks and look for something sweet.  They are as much fun to paint as they are to eat.  If they are squishy and ugly, those are the ones you want to eat.  A lot of times you will find them on the ground when they reach that point.    You have to be quick though because the deer love them as much as you do.  ;-)

These are on auction in my ebay gallery today.  Click here to visit my Gallery

Foraging in Oklahoma

This time last year Scott and I were in a workshop over in Coyle, OK where we were learning about all the different kinds of wild foods that were available to us in our state.  I brought my camera along so I wouldn't forget how to recognize different plants.  While there I snapped a pic or two of other participants.  This is a painting done from one of those photos.  Just a side note, our facilitator was Jackie Dill, a Native American woman who shared with us her favorite gathering places and taught us how to identify and cook foraged food.  At this writing her stone home is nearly destroyed by recent waste water injection caused earthquakes that have rattled my own home which is a 2 1/2 hour drive from the epicenter.

To visit this piece in my Ebay Auction, Click Here

SOLD! Cecil plays the Piano Oil

I did this painting, which is kind of a departure for me, for a show that Scott and I did last year at right about this time.  The show was a back and forth between painting and poems.

Here's the painting that is on auction this week on my ebay gallery site, Click here to visit.

Here is the corresponding poem written by Scott Aycock

CECIL

Cecil keeps our yard trim as a sailor’s beard-

not a blade of grass out of place.

With a surveyor’s eye he places poles along

the hedge row,

making Grandma’s English Boxwoods

level as poured cement,

stretching the length of the drive.

He starts early and works through, into the

heat of the day.

I am just a boy.

Cecil comes to back door, hat in hand, like a child asking a favor of a man.

“Mr. Jo Eddie’s grandson, you ‘spose I could have me some ‘freshment?”

I go under sink where grandma keeps the

drink, pour comfort from a bottle.

I place a capful in a glass, fill the rest with water.

It turns the color of rosin.

That’ll do, Mr. Jo Eddie’s grandson, don’t need no ice.

He tips his head, tosses the drink, and wipes

his mouth.

It is a litany of motion.

Five drinks into the day, his tools put away,

Cecil comes to the door-  a final drink to stay

the blues away.

I being home alone,

Cecil points with fingered bone

towards ivories lined up in a row.

“Mr. Jo Eddie’s grandson, I can make that

coffin sing.

Some folks they scared a dyin’, but they ain’t got that rhythm thang.”

Cecil straddles piano bench, with one leg north, the other east,

to work the pedals, to keep the beat.

With both hands poised on whitened keys,

his long black fingers fill spaces,

make dark holes in the music,

as he begins a slow growl, a low moan.

“How…how…how…uh…uh…unh.

Gonna’ chase those blues.

How…how…how…uh…uh…unh.

Gonna’ chase those blues.”

Bowed over the keys, eyes closed,

Cecil is there in some sepia-toned place. 

It seems with every note, with every chord,

Cecil spills more of himself between the keys,

as though the music is drinking him one note

at a time.

With an ear bent to the ivories, listening for the sound of suffering as it leaves his fingertips;

Cecil’s hand begins to jitter, and juke, and then to jive,

into some boogie-woogie slide.

 His huge black hands, like crows,

flap the width of the piano,

as  Cecil tosses back his head, enraptured.

I am just a boy held in time. 

Watching.

As Cecil’s shoulders sway in time to the beat,

mouth open, he eats.

Drinking notes, swallowing chords,

half-digested they come spilling forth,

crude and primitive.

A truer sound.

Garlic from my garden, Blue Bowls and Cutting Board

This was our latest class project.  I had a bunch of new students and thought we might try something that didn't look too scary.  I really liked the way it turned out.

I had a nice harvest of garlic this year and it is one thing that you can leave out for an extended time with out it fading away or shrinking.  I just put this on auction on my ebay gallery.  To visit this piece in Ebay and wander through the gallery, click here

Osage Hills State Park in fall

There is nothing I like better than sitting in nature w a canvas and paint.  I especially like being near running water.  As luck would have it it was a very cloudy day as we visited Osage Hills State Park this weekend where I did this little sketch on the edge of this sweet little creek.
Here it is on my ebay auction this week... Click Here for Auction

Nude Woman Standing

Just got a reminder from one of my students that Saturday was painting w a model day at the local museum.  I was glad I showed up for this lovely model.  The painting is now on auction on my ebay gallery along with the other sketch I did that day.

To visit this painting in my ebay gallery CLICK HERE 

After Andres Zorn

Sometimes it is fun to see what you can learn from the masters by copying a master work.  I really like this artist and he has been gone from the earth long enough to feel free to copy him.  His name is Andres Zorn.  I really liked this painting, the brush strokes, the lighting, and of course, the lovely subject matter.  Whenever you copy an artist you need to wait at least 75 years after his/her death and sometimes longer.  No matter what you must always site the original artist along with yourself on the work... In this case it would read Margaret Aycock after Andres Zorn.
This is for sale in my ebay auction/gallery right now.  To visit my ebay gallery click here

Taking a Rest

Well since I am taking a rest from loading my car for the Utica Square Art in the Square sale, I thought I would post a painting with the same theme.  These Tulsa Ballet Dancers are getting ready to rehearse again for an upcoming opening.  Resting for a moment.

To view in my ebay auction click here

Two Paintings on Ebay this week. Buyer's Choice

I have these paintings listed together with a starting bid of only $175.  If you wish to Buy It Now, please use the contact form to the right and get in touch.  Buy it now price is still a bargain at $250.  If you want both, even better.  They are both  painted from photos taken in Oklahoma, the top one from the Wichita Mts and the lower from the Illinois River Basin.
To visit these paintings in my Ebay Gallery click here

Ozark Waterfall oil painting

On a recent trip to Arkansas we were unable to find time to sketch but did find time to take some great photos.  This painting was started as a class demonstration and completed at home and is now for sale on Ebay.  Click here to visit my Ebay Gallery

Tulsa Folks, I am getting ready for the annual Art in the Square at Utica Square this Saturday, Oct 1 See you there in front of Star Bucks and Pendeltons

My fingers are crossed for a warm and sunny day this Saturday.  I always look forward to actually meeting my buyers and hanging out with several of my artsy friends in this beautiful, upscale shopping area in Tulsa.  Hope to see some of you this weekend.

SOLD! A talk before rehearsal

Earlier this year I had an opportunity to sketch, photograph the ballet dancers as they rehearsed for their opening season. I completed several paintings of those sessions. This one was my favorite. In this painting I was drawn to the curve of this dancer's neck and head as she and her companions put on their slippers and chatted before rehearsal. I just sold this to a buyer from the Netherlands. Yippie!

Oklahoma Revue in Amsterdam

Here is a little video of my son, Jesse and several other Oklahoma musicians who are featured on this live interview/performance in Amsterdam.  If you fast forward to just shy of middle, you will see my son, Jesse Aycock's performance and interview.
http://members.home.nl/crossroadsradio/webradio.htm

Demo at Alpha Rho Tau meeting in Tulsa

I was invited to speak at the September mtg of Alpha Rho Tau which is a long standing art organization in Tulsa.  Here is the demo that I did that evening.  I spent a moment or two on it at home to finish it up.  Here it is on Ebay for you to bid on.  Ebay Gallery

Tomorrow Evening Alpha Rho Tau

Monday, Sept 19th I will be giving a talk and demo to the Alpha Rho Tau.   The meeting starts at 6:30 pm.at the Hardesty Library in South Tulsa, located on E. 93rd Street and Memorial Drive  in the Frossard Auditorium located in the first room on your left as you enter the building,  I will be doing a little 6x6 painting and talk about the process of creating a still life in oil.  I will have books, DVDs, and a few paintings for sale on that evening.

Resonance Fundraiser Today

See my work and the work of more than 40 area artists at the Art Shuffle Art Sale and Studio Tour on September 18th, from 1-5 pm. A portion of each piece sold will benefit Tulsa’s Resonance Center for Women. Advance tickets are $5.00, $10.00 at the door. Go to www.resonancetulsa.org for more information and to purchase your tickets now! Both Scott and I have paintings on display for sale at Resonance on Elwood today.

SOLD ! Who says okra isn't pretty?

I picked a bunch of okra the other day and put them in this bowl to use later and as often happens, the sun ran across them sitting on my counter and I thought, " that sure is pretty." and every now and then it works out that I notice these things AND have time to grab a brush and paint and commit them to canvas.  Here is my little painting of okra.  It is on auction on ebay starting at $33 with no reserve.  If it doesn't have any bids yet and you wish to purchase directly from me, get in touch and I will sell it for $99, otherwise enjoy the auction!
To Bid and visit my Ebay gallery CLICK HERE

My husband, Scott performing original songs

We had a guest from the east coast staying at our airbnb a month ago.  He was here doing research on the Native American influence on Oklahoma's music.  This is a video series he created with my husband with a few of his recent creations.
Scott Aycock performing original songs

Part 2

Part 3 with our guest playing lead on some of the songs

SOLD! Prairie Sky

Interveiw with Dusted Magazine with my youngest son, Dylan

dusted

Dylan Golden Aycock — Church Of Level Track (Scissor Tail Records)

Dylan Golden Aycock is part of the new generation of guitar pickers young enough to first have been influenced by early volumes of Tompkins Square Records’ Imaginational Anthem series and then to be anthologized on a later one. The Oklahoma native is on Volume 7, should you feel like looking, playing an early version of “Red Bud Valley,” which sits in the middle of the B-side of the LP under consideration here.  

Aycock’s composing on Church Of Level Track offers evidence that he’s well studied in a lineage of American Primitive pickers that stretches back decades before he was born. “Lord It Over” puts it right out there by opening with a double-thumbed bass line right out of John Fahey’s bag of tricks. But this quotation is merely an opening gambit, and one that is quickly followed by moves that prove Aycock is no parrot but a bird with his own song to sing. The steel guitar that sails in over his picking evokes first the bucolic playfulness of Jim O’Rourke’s Bad Timing and then keeps going back into the deep back shelves of country-rock lyricism. At the same time a virtual band (Aycock plays everything on the track and nearly everything on the LP) sets up a subtle undertow of entropic drumming and echo-laden feedback. 

It’s simultaneously psychedelic enough to be illegal and as clear-eyed as an early riser’s first glimpse of the sunrise coming over the horizon, and it sets the tone for the six instrumentals that follow. Aycock’s music can be woozy, but it is also very focused on evoking certain emotions and images. Familiar acoustic patterns pull for memories you think you should have, even if you know you don’t. Gamboling rhythms bring to mind the blurry grass you blow past on two-lane highways and the attendant thrill of putting your foot down on said road because you’re pretty sure no one’s laid a speed trap on this route for years. 

And on the final track, “Scratch The Chisel,” near-New Age synths compete with dissonantly strummed guitars in a maelstrom of conflicting sonic information that instigates a confused state that can only be exited by hitching your wagon to one final, fingerpicked sprint. Fahey took you through the back corners of his twisted mind; Robbie Basho tried to show you a world much better than one humans have ever allowed themselves to have; Glenn Jones uses guitar strings to evoke the human ties that bond and loosen. It remains to be seen just where Aycock is going to take us, but this record feels like it was made by a man with a well-drawn map in his head. 

Bill Meyer

No Depression Interview w my oldest son, Jesse

http://nodepression.com/interview/interview-hard-working-americans-jesse-aycock

Interview with the Hard Working Americans' Jesse Aycock

BY JULIE WENGER WATSON
JULY 24, 2016

(Log In or Sign Up to Follow Contributor)

Photo Credit: Jay Blakesburg

Hard Working Americans brings its soulful, gritty, Americana-jam-band brand of rock and roll back to Fayetteville, Ark.’s George’s Majestic Aug.18. Singer songwriter Aaron Lee Tasjan opens the show. The Todd Snider-fronted HWA is touring in support of its latest release, Rest in Chaos, which features 12 original tunes and a Guy Clark cover.

As a solo artist, Snider is known for his sarcastic wit and well-crafted, alt-country folk songs. With HWA, he adds a large dose of psychedelic with the help of some seriously talented players, each with his own jammy pedigree. Bassist Dave Schools (Widespread Panic), guitarist Neal Casal (Chris Robinson Brotherhood), drummer Duane Trucks (Col. Bruce Hampton’s School of Music), keyboardist Chad Staehly (Great American Taxi) and Tulsa, Okla.’s own Jesse Aycock on guitar and lap steel round out the band.

A talented songwriter in his own right, Aycock is a fixture on Tulsa’s music scene. In addition to his own recordings, Jesse’s playing has been featured on albums by fellow Okies like Samantha Crain, John Moreland, and Paul Benjaman. He’s also spent time on the road with Americana duo The Secret Sisters.

Aycock’s introduction to HWA came through guitarist Neal Casal. The two have known each other for years. Casal contributed to Aycock’s 2014 Horton Record’s release Flowers & Wounds.

Oklahoma is still home base for Aycock, but he spends a significant amount of time in Music City.

“I’m still calling Tulsa home, but I end up spending quite a bit of time in Nashville,” he said. “There’s a really amazing group of musicians there that are doing a lot of cool things in the community.”

A play in neighboring Fayetteville is always a homecoming of sorts.

“There’s always a few familiar faces at Georges - some from Fayetteville and usually a handful of folks that trek over from Tulsa,” Aycock said.

Aycock is a big fan of this Dickson Street venue.

“I always have a great time at George’s, whether playing or attending shows. George’s has always been one of my personal favorite venues,” Aycock commented. “A lot of the staff has been there for years and are wonderful to work with. Both rooms sound amazing and are the perfect size. I’ve always been a fan of medium-sized venues because it puts the band closer to the listeners. My buddy Arlie has done sound there off and on since I first started playing George’s, and he does an excellent job.”

A veteran of the recording studio, Aycock particularly enjoyed working on HWA’s latest record.

“The recording process for Rest in Chaos was unlike any other record I’ve ever been involved with,” he explained. “We started tracking right after the last show of our first run in Chicago. It was right in the middle of winter and so cold that parts of the lake were frozen over. Being such a new band and still riding the high from an incredible first run combined with the bitter cold made for a perfect storm. Todd had some poems and was writing many of them on the spot. There were a lot of ideas being bounced around until one would get caught in the musical vortex. The songs just kind of started constructing themselves – true inspired magic. The amount of material we were able to come up with in a week was pretty unreal.”

Aycock enjoys life on the road with his HWA bandmates.

“Getting to play music together every night isn’t half bad,” he joked. “I continue to become a better musician and learn so much from every show. There’s also a ton of freedom in this band, which is important on many levels. Hanging out on the bus listening to records and hitting the local record shops in every town we’re in is great fun. Everyone in this band has such a deep knowledge of music, and I’ve been turned on to a lot of great records because of it.”

SOLD! Eureka Springs home

SOLD! lilacs and cherry blossoms

Green Bandanna

Green Bandanna

     I have spent the greater part of my life as an oil painter and oil painting teacher.  This may have not been so except for a windy day and a last minute decision to grab my green bandanna. 

     In the summer of my junior year at a Midwestern religious college, I chose to live somewhat independently in one of my favorite places, Myrtle Beach.  Myrtle Beach was where my inland high school friends and I had spent many a summer’s day laying on the beach and many a summer’s night  dancing,  meeting new boys, and having our hearts broken.  Spending an entire season there with good friends sounded like a great idea to me in the summer of 1977.  My girlfriends, my sister, and I  got jobs at a sea food restaurant and set up our schedules to include laying on the beach during the day, working till 10:00, and then , go  dancing till dawn.  Life was very, very good, but something was still missing for me. 

     Two things had led me far from home to a religious college deep in the heart of the Bible Belt: religious inquiry and a desire to become a better artist. 

     Tulsa, Oklahoma is actually often referred to as the “buckle” of the Bible Belt.  It was there where I began looking for answers to the burning religious questions that had popped up in my senior year of high school.  It was there where I also hoped to find instruction in art, and in painting in particular.

The answers to the religious questions only brought up more questions, and I am still on that journey.  The school was woefully inept at giving any valuable instruction in painting however, as the baseball coach did double duty as our painting teacher.  The day, half way into the semester that he brought in some of his own work was the day I realized that any knowledge I would obtain in the area of painting would have to be on my own.  Not given any instruction on how to use the tools of a painter, I was doomed to make the same mistakes over and over and would always come up short in obtaining a good painting after weeks of trying.  I knew that my senior art project awaited me in the fall semester but I had doubts that I could come up with anything worth hanging on a wall.  Maybe I would come up with a great idea over the summer.

     Needing time alone, one day, during that summer, I went exploring on my own in hopes of finding a secluded beach where I might just walk and enjoy the natural dunes and surf.  I drove several miles before turning in the direction of the ocean onto a road boarded by pine trees on both sides.

I soon found myself in an untouched area with tall dunes covered with sea oats.   It was my favorite time of day, the gloaming, where the sun sits low in the sky and gives everything it touches, a warm glow.

     I had long hair back then, and still do.  The changing tides and approaching dusk, kicked up the wind, and to keep the hair from constantly blowing in my face, I donned my favorite green bandanna and set off across the sand. 

     I had not seen a single soul for quite a while when I saw an approaching man.  “Should I turn around and walk the other way in order to avoid him altogether, or should I continue on in the direction I was going?” 

     I walked on.  We passed each other and both said hello.  He stopped me and said, “I saw you coming my way and was struck by the sight of the sunlight on your bright green scarf.  I wish I had my paints with me so that I could capture that image.”

“You are an artist?”  I asked.

“Yes, I am.” He replied in a foreign accent that I couldn’t quite place.  To my 21 year old eyes, he was an old man (probably in his late 50s).   My intuition told me that he was someone who I could feel safe with.   In that moment we both decided we had enough of solitude and decided to walk together. 

     I learned that he had escaped on foot, from Hungary during the war, many years ago with his son, Attila on his back. Shortly thereafter he came to this country and began to make his living as a painter and had a gallery just up the road.  I explained that I was a girl of very little means with a strong desire to become an artist.

      I can’t, now remember who suggested this arrangement but both of us, being people who love a good barter,  made a move to become coworkers and eventually great friends.  Needless to say, I ended up working in his gallery for the rest of the summer in exchange for painting lessons. 

I would now find myself starting the day at 5:30 in the morning, standing on that same beach, painting with my new friend and mentor, John Szekes.  It was from those early plein aire lessons where I began to have the confidence to continue on as a painter.  John and I remained friends for many years until his death. 

     I would not be the person I am today, and would not have lived the charmed life as a painter had it not been for a windy day and a last minute choice to bring a green bandanna.

Persimmons

Yet one more example of foraged food that ends up in a painting.  I love to take walks on the back 40 of the Gilcrease Museum.  These were gathered from deep in the woods last fall and are on sale as a group right now in my ebay gallery.

EBAY GALLERY

3 Daily Paintings Apples

Years ago I was asked to create a 5x5 painting for a sale to benefit a local cooperative gallery.  I was not looking forward to creating something so small but decided to go ahead and give it a try.  To my surprise, I loved it!  I could really concentrate on one or two objects and give them my full attention for a short period of time and come out on the other side with a painting that I just adored.  Later I discovered the Daily Painting Movement and began the practice of painting quicker sketches on small canvases.  It freed me up to respond to my subject completely in the moment.  Some of these smaller works and almost all my on site sketches are my favorite paintings.  I decided to put several little series of 2s and 3s on Ebay this month.  I usually sell them as singles but frankly they look so wonderful in groupings that I decided to lower the price and sell 2 or 3 at a time.  This is one of the sets on ebay right now.  If you love only one and want only one AND there wasn't a sale, let me know and I can sell separately for you.  They usually go for $100 - $125 as a single.
To Visit in my Ebay Gallery CLICK HERE

Wildcrafting and Painting

When I look at my body of work, I begin to notice how many paintings involve wildcrafting/foraging.  This painting is called Gathering Herbs:  This painting began, as many of mine do, from a class demonstration.  We started with a master work and then changed scenery, hair styles, clothing etc.  I think she was originally standing in a chapel or some sort of fancy interior and she wasn't holding a basket of herbs.  She found a nice place above my mantle for a long time, but as many of my paintings, she is for sale.  If you would like to bid on her or just visit my ebay gallery, CLICK HERE 

This is Spring Creek where I find Wapato

Finding Sand Plums

plums, black berries and poke

from the top of a mulberry tree

gathering berries, notice the tall mulein plant 

My own little flower garden where I just found mouse melon