Monday, December 17, 2007

Open House

Farm Structures, 2007, Oil on Panel, 12x16

I have had a busy few days which is why I haven't posted since last week. Despite the fact that I am frantically trying to finish up work for my show in January, and still have much to do to get ready for the holidays, oh like, you know, go shopping for gifts for the kids, Doug and I decided to have some people over for a bit of a holiday thing. Since I lost three days in the studio, this decision proves that I could be somewhat unbalanced. Heh.

I spent all day last Thursday, cleaning out my studio (everyone likes to see my studio) and sorting through a lot of junk and also through what seemed liked a million paintings that have come back, unsold, from various galleries. I learned that the world will not stop rotating if I throw a few lousy paintings into the garbage. We also cleaned the house. Well the downstairs anyway.


Friday, I did some baking, while Doug shoveled the driveway, by hand, because naturally we had had a good snowstorm on Thursday and we have been really lame about buying a snowblower or hiring someone to plow us out whenever it snows.

Saturday was a really enjoyable day, with many visitors, a warm fire, food, drink and the occasional embarrassing song playing through the stereo on my ipod (I confess to owning more than a few one hit wonders from the seventies), and I even sold a few of the paintings that had been returned from the galleries and were sitting around waiting for "their people" to find them. I was exhausted after all of this so it was lucky that we had yet another snowstorm on Sunday and I didn't have to actually go anywhere. The girls and I worked on a really tacky Christmas themed jigsaw puzzle all day.

Thanks to everyone for coming by, it was fun!

PS. I am also exceedingly happy to now have a clean studio to get back to work in. There are actually empty surfaces!


10 comments:

Melody said...

Geez, it does feel so good to have a clean studio doesn't it?? Mmmm maybe I'll head upstairs and start slogging through mine. Yikes....don't throw away any more paintings..I'm sure there a hundreds of us who read your blog who what buy them.

Natalya Khorover Aikens said...

I love having a peek behind the scenes, so inspiring even if it is cleaned up... thank you!

Nat said...

Wait a sec. What's up with studio pictures 2 and 3? Is this like one of those "find the differences" games?

Tracy Helgeson said...

Melody, I can assure you that the paintings I threw away were REALLY bad. Really, really bad.

Natalya, I should have taken some before pictures. Before I cleaned it there was no way to walk through without bumping into something or knocking things over.

Nat, I should cover for my idiocy and say yes, it is that game, and you win!!!! However, no, it's just me not noticing that I put up the same shot twice despite previewing the post 3 times before I published it. Anyway, I changed it AND added a shot of my (relatively) clean kitchen, complete with guard dogs, because I am sure everyone wants to see my kitchen. heh.

Angela Wales Rockett said...

Am totally jealous and really wish I could have visited!

Christine DeCamp said...

Loved seeing your kitchen and your studio!! I only saw one "guard dog" at first--had to go back & look! I am in the process of moving into a new studio space..without a real kitchen--no hot water & a shared bathroom....but the space is lovely & spaces are hard to come by out here in paradise. Will be posting some pics on my blog soon. Am looking forward to a big surge in painting activity in 2008!!! Happy Holidays!
Christine
http://passionforpainting.blogspot.com

Making A Mark said...

I am so jealous of this wonderful studio and you are so blogged (as in featuring on a blog near me in the very near future!)!!!

Dean H. said...

My studio has been in the "before" mode for about three years. I should follow your example and clean it up. Thanks for sharing the peek into that very important segment of your life...your studio.I enjoy your blog and paintings tremenously.

Dean

Steppen Wolf said...

Gosh, Tracy - that is one clean studio... Good thing nobody asks me to show the basement where I do some work...
Happy December!!

Anonymous said...

It's fun sharing open studio with you on Katherine's blog. Thanks for the encouragement to throw away bad paintings. I've got a whole flat file drawer of early watercolor paintings that I've wanted to dump for ages. I love the way you have panels displayed (drying?) on molding (is that what is?) mounted on the walls. How perfect. Would you be willing to share how you made that? Your studio looks beautiful, especially with all the wonderful colors in your paintings.