Tag: Heather Neill

Welcoming the New Year…

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Zoe’s smiling face greeted me in the studio this last morning of 2010…

as my Aunt Lorrie said…it doesn’t get any better than that !  Right on Lo…we Grandmothers have it made….but they were only here for a brief visit and Finn is at a loss without her baby to take care of…

… to take her mind off of watching her sweet smiling pal being bundled up and tucked safely into the car and waving goodbye…Finn and I have begun to plan next year’s garden additions.

The seed catalogs have begun arriving and a mini-January thaw is promised for the weekend so we are going to build us a new bed and move the last of the dirt, which is threatening to become one with the driveway, into it and let it hang out with some compost for the rest of the winter and be ready to receive the salad green mixture of seeds in the early spring. I’m seriously eyeing one of those cold-frame covers in the gardeners catalog but the goal this year is to recycle the pile of construction materials from the old garage shed, and the other bits and pieces of clutter and debris that have taken up residence in our corner of the planet over the two decades we have been responsible for it’s care…and feed ourselves and a few neighbors along the way.

So…when Finnegan suggested using her old wading pools as planters…well we were off and running…

We’re thinking zukes and beans here…with some of those fabric potato pot planters as anchors…at least that’s what Finn is thinking.

We’ll head back out there after a morning session of painting…

and tonight, when we’ve put away the brushes and the tools and watched the last sunset of the year, and settled in with Herself by our fireside…we’ll pop a cork and raise a toast to all of you out there who make our lives so much richer for being at the other end of this blog.

Happy New Year !

 

 

 

Allied…with my roofers.

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This blog entry isn’t about painting…because not much of it got done the last week and a half or so…because I was watching from my studio windows as the most excellent roofers put a new lid on our old log cabin.

Under the direction of Mike Fleet, from Allied Roofing, carpenter Chris and his crew worked brilliantly to repair, restore and renew the old rotten roof. I can’t tell you what a pleasure it was to have competent craftsmen on the job. Not only were they skillful and hard working…right through two snow storms and the coldest temps of the year…but they were polite. Yes, they were thoughful, had good senses of humor and were kind spirited and boy was that refreshing.

It’s a small cabin with a roofline that looks a lot like the Weasley’s house…not a square edge to be found. Didn’t even slow down these guys. All four of them hustled and made it look easy.

We all have contractor horror stories… and believe me I have become jaded…but these guys have brought me back from the dark side. They’ve earned my respect and recommendation…and a place on the blog to show off their hard work.

Today it’s the Gutter King’s turn…they showed up and got right to work…

as Pat is fond of saying…”We may have to build a shrine !”

 

By Design…

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A frosty december day here in Manchester. Spent the whole morning cleaning out the office and now we could hold a barn dance in here.

Gallery 1261 invited me to have some work in their upcoming Small Works Show. It opens on December 10th out in Denver with an opening reception from 5 – 7 pm.

Here’s a sneak peak at a new painting that will be headed out west for that show…

By Design

Oil on Panel     16″ x 12″

Another in the Teacup Series this little one is jam packed with props that I  have had stored in the Prop Room for years now. When I went up there to snoop around for some inspiration they, one by one, jumped into the old suitcase.

Oh those magical muses…

The Mechanic

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OK, so Dick, the original owner of the overhauls as evidenced by his embroidered name over the pocket, was not a traditionally built woman. Let’s just say that I used a lot of artistic license in the rendering of that garment. But the rest of it went very quickly and in one sitting ….voila…

It has to dry for a few days and then I think a coat of varnish would bring it up to the same sheen as the metal.

And yes, I did use a coat of gesso first. I had done a rough sketch and taken some photos of me in the uniform in the mirror and then used the new puppet warp mode in Photoshop 5. That was fun. So I cut out the silhouette and traced it onto the hubcap and gessoed within that outline. It took perfectly and was dry in the time it took me to eat lunch.

Something different for the resume huh.

Now it’s time to baby proof and puppy proof the log cabin…Zoe and her new pal Hamish are arriving later tonight for a Thanksgiving that couldn’t be beat !

Many happy gobbles to you all,

h

Hitting the road…

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You may remember that some time back I showed you a photo of a hubcap that had just arrived at the studio door. Well today’s the day that I begin working on that project.

Some months ago I received an email from a fellow by the name of  Ken Marquis inviting me to be a part of a recycling adventure that he had begun…Landfill Art. The basic idea is that he is sending out old hubcaps that have been rusting along our highways and letting artists have their way with them. There is a gallery of the ones returned so far on his website and he plans to publish a book showcasing all 1,041 and then choose 200 for a traveling show.

His selection of artists has an unusual scope as well…

“The goal of this project, is to include at least one professional artist from each of Pennsylvania’s sixty-seven (67) counties, at least one from each of the 50 US States, and to include a number of international artists.

In addition, I have always been a believer inthe 80/20 rule. My goal is to have 80% of the project be completed by professional artists and 20% fulfilled by nontraditional artists. These nontraditional artists are mentally and physically challenged (ie, down syndrome and autistic artists), politically oppressed artists (ie, Cubans), young artists (ie, 25 NYC third grade school children) and incarcerated artists.“

So, today it’s my turn. I’ve been pondering this for months now and at first thought I’d do some form of teacup composition…aka roadside diner theme. But after I did a quick sketch I picked the hubcap up and looked more closely…and saw my reflection. Shazam….new idea. Waded through the mounds of leaves to the old studio, now the prop room, and brought down the old gas station mechanic’s uniform that hangs there.

A fun little side trip was discovering the trail of stink bugs that followed me back into the studio….and right back out onto the porch where I dug dozens of them out from each of the many pockets …ugh.

I also found an old cap with a Shell logo on it that I forgot was up there…and an old pair of lock pliers…

So, now I’m thinking of painting the reflection of a mechanic fixing to put this shiny sphere back on the good old chevy.

Not sure if I need to gesso first or just paint right on the metal. That will be today’s adventure…along with trying to fit into the overhauls !

I’ll keep ya posted,

and oh yeah…Finnegan wanted to say hi

 

On the bluff…

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I meant to post some pics from our time on the bluff as soon as we got home. Well now it’s been over two weeks and I’ve got a tiny little breathing room so without further ado…

We saw more almost every sunrise, and every single sunset…spent the first two weeks knitting and reading and finishing a sweater while watching dancing with the stars with Ted…dinners with friends…many walks on the beach  and around the meadows with Finnegan…spent the last week holding new grandbaby Zoe and teaching her to play Pinochle and boccie and what it feels like to have dog whiskers on her face and watching the reflection of her melt-your-heart smile in her mama and papa’s eyes.

I don’t know about you other artists but my creative channel seems to never sleep. The goal was to relax and enjoy the vineyard’s healing solace and shut down the side of the brain that takes everything in as a painting reference. All in all…I sorta did.

And here’s the proof…