Finn’s best friend, Tallie.
Running in greener pastures today…
A new star to watch over the Zink family… she was the best.
Blog
Down to the wire…
I am not looking at the calendar.But, un-like the light bulb in the refrigerator which may or may not be on when the door is closed…I know that the days are definitely still being crossed off…and the march towards the summer shows has become a sprint.
As mentioned in an earlier blog, when the snow was still falling, the Granary Gallery show is two weeks earlier this year, JULY 12th. Seemed like a doable time frame back in December but whoa Nellie here we are and it’s almost J-J-J-J-June. And, just to keep the old heart ticking…the Sugarman Peterson Gallery has added a special group show for the first week in July out in that art mecca of Santa Fe. Nellie needs another gear !
You will be getting the details on those venues, as well as a block buster of a show at Gallery 1261 coming this fall, but in the meantime…I’ve got to double down on the brushwork.
The 20 or so finished pieces are now working their way through the production pipeline. Fully dried, they now can be varnished, then Herself hauls them up to John to photograph, then I order frames and the folks at Artworks join them up, then we haul them back here to the studio and I turn me on some Suede tunes and pop them into frames and wrap for transport to MV or SF and beyond.
Just to let you know that I have actually been pushing some paint around for the last few months, I’ll give you a sneak peak at one of the new works.
The Citadel – 60 x 30
Now back to the easel… and I mean it !!!
Stillness
Finding myself in need of some inner peace,
I turn to the simple grace of the placing of a clothespin…
Now here’s a mystery…
Last night I started a painting.
And I replaced my crusty old palette box with a brand new one.
It is just a plastic box to hold the tablet of disposable paper palettes…and this new one comes with a lid… I misplaced the lid from the old one centuries ago.
But, in spite of my excitement over the prospect of being able to cover the paints every night, thereby keeping down the dust…and this week the pollen…which is coating EVERYTHING….
Well, it seems I forgot to cover it…and this is what I found this morning…
If you look really closely, you will see tiny tiny tracks.
It would appear, she writes putting her pipe down next to her deerstalker hat, that some creature crash landed into the raw umber which always anchors that upper left corner, and then walked, or dragged, her fee,t or perhaps wing tips, over to the translucent yellow brown, then ambled down to inspect the greys. The ivory black seems to have held no interest and the path doubles back on itself then forks over to make a straight line review of the warms, ending in a flurry in the bottom right corner as she built up the strength to climb up and over the side, leaving tiny amber tracks on just a few of the brushes before disappearing into the studio night.
I am filing this under the category, “At work in the studio”.
At least someone was…
My palette pal.
Anticipation…
Just that.
I’m waiting…or as Rex and Rocky Horror would say…SHIVERING…with anticipation.
This scraggly corner of the garden is supposed to be all abloom with beach roses…
That three week behind thing is messing with my head.
But Celeste appeared outside my easel window last night, right on cue, to cheer me up…
The dear one is taking on the mighty task of helping me to weed. Love that bunny.
OK…PAINT !!!
May the 4th be with you
After an afternoon of conversing, on the studio porch, about all things Star Wars with Steve and Denise, and hearing about their adventures at the convention in Anaheim, I dug into the archives for this painting, and a visit back to the blog entry about the book Visions…Here’s another look…and a link to read the full post…CLICK HERE
So this morning…
I was taking the first look at the newest addition to the studio library, STAR WARS Art: Visions published by Abrams, (the cheap version). It’s a stellar collection of Star Wars inspired art by contemporary artists.
And it occurred to me that I had done a Star Wars painting too…
Night Games…
While it wasn’t commissioned by George Lucas, that little McDonald’s Toy version of Yoda has been a constant muse since the very early days of the saga and sits ever vigilant by my easel watching… and whispering…
Kudos to the artists whose work fills the new book…I’ll enjoy dipping into that this winter…
and may the force be with you.
I love a craze…
This is Phyllis’s fault.
One photo shared on social media and now look…
And then there’s this…
And this…
Here’s the manual…
And the link to do your own research…click HERE.
This all seemed like a good idea in February. And Pat is now best buds with the farmer over the hill who has loaded up every one of the 40 plus bales we absolutely needed.I have had great fun experimenting with fertilizer and have replaced over 40 washers on the old rugged hose. And, despite our efforts, things are starting to grow…
Most of us on the east coast are experiencing the slow to warm up spring which has been a good thing for us old lady gardeners who have day jobs to which they should be attending. But I’ve already made use of the wisps of straw which collected in the back of the truck in two paintings…so…the bales are props !
There is new life in these old bones and the extra weeks of cooler weather has allowed this gardener to pace herself. I had time to add a new bed dedicated to blueberry bushes…
and build a better lid for the cold frame and an annex to the raspberry bed…
and …weed !
As of yesterday, all the bales are conditioned…read the book…and I’m ready to install the drip irrigation system. The back beds, with the strawberries, were started a month or more ago. There is good growth there and the row cover system allowed me to save the tenders from all three frosty nights.
We got a good rain last night, though it wasn’t enough to wash the poo off of the eagle cam…ugh. And Saturday is the SHEEP AND WOOL FESTIVAL …YEAH !!!!!!!!
So that means today I will have to knuckle down at the easel and limit my outdoor putterings. Seriously. I have a LOT of painting to do.
So, this is Phyllis Disher Fredericks fault !
Where has your hat been lately ?
I don’t get to use this category very often…
the “Where’s YOUR hat been lately” one.
Partly because they are now a vintage item. I’ve been meaning to update the logo
and order some new ones because it’s kinda fun and I’ve noticed the ones on the heads of friends and patrons starting to look a little ragged.
But yesterday I brought out the original to mark the occasion of our first visit to Camden Yards. It was the perfect day for a baseball game and Scott Allocco brought us to his park to play. Nice bonus that the O’s were playing the Red Sox, I left that hat at home.
And, in answer to the Sox fans who lamented my desertion…I’m a fair weather fan at best and a sucker for a good hat.
A beautiful day with a fine friend and another check on the bucket list.
Back in the studio it’s time to …PLAY BALL !
Fiddly Dee
It’s almost, almost that time of year again…
This morning my favorite mystery writer, Laurie R King had a post on her facebook page about the fiddleheads that she scored at a market in San Francisco and tried for the first time. It reminded me, among other things that I wanted to let readers know that her latest Mary Russell novel,
is a fantastic read. I usually save her novels to listen to when I paint especially complicated paintings because she is similarly in love with detail and I get swept away with her thoughtful prose. Makes the time fly at the easel and I always learn something new.
So run to your local bookstore and add this to that pile by your favorite chair. And then go take a walk in this fine spring air and hunt for fiddleheads. Warning, not all ferns are edible so do the research, or trust your local farmers market.
I am working too hard with the brushes to walk amongst the woods, but I am yours…
Dreaming of Fiddleheads
Bucket List
The recent powerful solar flare got me thinking about the aurora borealis and that got me thinking of this painting which is at the Sugarman Peterson Gallery in Santa Fe. They get some pretty fine skies out there at night…
but those northern most colors are still number one on my list…how about you ?