Update With Pictures and LINKS!

And again, weeks have slipped by since I have posted here. Sigh. In my defense however, I have been pretty busy. Half my time has been spent in the garden and the other half has involved a lot of driving and watching girl's softball and soccer games.

The garden needed so much attention, I am truly ashamed of how poorly we kept it at the end of the season last fall. Um, actually I think we just sort of left everything out there, the watering can, the hoses, the dead plants in the beds, and fled the scene at first snowfall. I guess there was a good reason for all that but right now it seems like pure laziness. So I have decided to go all hardcore gardenchick and have been spending a lot of time in the garden in the last month, reorganizing it, weeding, mulching, planting and did I say weeding???? There are a lot of weeds out there. Anyway, I have been posting pictures in a photo album on FB which you can view, I have made it a public album. I am making a superhuman effort to keep up with things out there all summer instead of doing what I usually do which is bailing around July when it gets hot and too weedy. hehe, is weedy even a word?

Barn Study#325, 5"x7" Oil on Panel, 2011

And a few other brief updates. I have been working a little bit and very slowly. It feels like it took me forever to prep eight small format panels, paint, photograph and edit the images, and post them on my sales blog, but today they are finally all up. Although I wouldn't be a bit surprised if I messed up all the paypal buttons! Also, the winner of my last birthday giveaway, Denise Rose, chose one of the paintings (pictured above) from this group so I am shipping that out to her within a few days. I would have liked her to have her gift in a more timely manner, but I haven't done too many small panels yet this year for her to choose from......


I also recently painted five small bird paintings for a local show called 'Fins, Fur and Feathers.' I am sure there will be a lot of fun art in this show, but all I could think of doing was black bird paintings, and I mean that in a very literal sense, they are pretty much just black. I did some drawings (above) but I knew when I got to the paint, they were gonna be a really deep dark black (below). They were also incredibly difficult to photograph and so they must be seen in person. Totally worth a plane ticket to Albany, a car rental and a hotel in Cooperstown to come see them, right??? haha. Well, if you can't do that, you can see the crappy images here and if you don't already, go ahead and 'like' me while you are there.
Black Bird#4, 5"x7" Oil on Panel, 2011
I photographed them several times in all different situations and trust me, this was the best I got. I guess they are holding their secrets.

And one more link; I was having a twitter conversation (follow me@tracyhelgeson) with Robin Pedrero this morning even though I am fairly bad at keeping up with the threads there. Anyway, a friend of hers sent me a link to a map contest, which looks reallyreally cool, so I am passing it along. Looks like a good kid activity for the summer, and/or a fun detour for an artist. I love maps and even though I can't recall ever actually making one, I think I may try my hand at this one if I have time. Maybe a map of my garden since that is the only place I ever go anymore, heh.