Close-Up

A few close up shots of The Suburban Edge.

The Suburban Edge

Suburban Edge, 2007, Oil on Panel, 18x24

I have been working very slowly on the four underpaintings of houses that I did about two weeks ago. Whenever I look at them, I feel enthusiastic but when I actually get in front of them with a brush in my hand and the paint all ready, I freeze up. Where to start?

Usually, in the barns and landscapes, I find that the busier the image is, the less it works for me, so I simplify. The house images have so many more elements than the barns or the landscapes and so I struggle a bit with what to do and where to go. I am not used to thinking about color so much! Usually I just pick a color and the rest flows from there.

And coordinating the colors has been the biggest challenge. In this piece I had initially painted the house on the left a beautiful purple and the house on the far right was the same red that it is now. But the middle one wouldn't cooperate with what I wanted it to be. I probably painted it five different colors, white, blue, green, yellow, pink. Nothing worked to bridge the red an purple. Finally I wiped all the paint off of that house and left it until the next day.

When I looked at it the next day, the the answer seemed obvious to me. Even though I LOVED the purple house, that color was the real problem. I painted over the purple and changed it to the yellowish orange you see now, which allowed the initial color that I had envisioned for the middle house to work. So I ended up painting it almost exactly the very first color that I had tried the previous day-white (actually Naples yellow) with blue shadow.

It still needs just a bit of refinement, but it is basically finished and I am quite pleased with it. And it was good to be reminded of how important surrendering a part is to make the whole piece, well, whole.

Now I am off to try again with getting a purple house into this series.

A Sick Guest

We have a new house pet today. One of the chickens has been invited into the main house.

She's not been right for a few days and so finally I decided to bring her inside to see what I can do to save her. She was kind of out of it the first night and couldn't seem to move or walk normally. I put her in a cage the first night, pretty sure that she would be dead in the morning. I didn't sleep well, waking up often wondering if there was a DEAD CHICKEN in the house!

But she was still alive in the morning and seemed to make some progress yesterday. She seemed more alert, ate and drank water and even walked around a bit. I spent a lot of time on the internet trying to find out what she might have and although she does have symptoms for a few common chicken aliments, they don't seem conclusive for any of them.

Today again she doesn't seem well. I am getting used to the idea that she may not make it and that I am going to have to deal with a dead chicken body. I am not sure I am cut out for a farm life that includes livestock, as I find this part of it to be fairly stressful. I am also reconsidering our plan to get sheep and maybe a few goats. The last few days have made me feel sure that I can't and don't want to handle this stuff.

Wait! I need to remember to just buck up and deal. Of course I can handle this. The benefits far outweigh the drawbacks with animals. Our cats are the best lap warmers ever, Penny follows us around with complete devotion in her eyes. I love watching the chickens and their antics, their eggs and how they are so happy to see me each morning. Even if it is because I bring food.

So I will keep the chicken inside until she either dies or gets better. If she were suffering I would probably put her down, or to be more precise, I'd get someone else to do that part, but she isn't yet so I am just going to see what happens. I never considered myself to be such a bleeding heart when it comes to animals. But we have these animals and now I find myself washing off chicken butts, clipping hamster teeth or holding a cat's mouth closed until they swallow a pill (that's a story I haven't told here).

I managed all of that just fine, I guess.

The More Typical Day in the Life, Lately

Standing Guard, 2007, Oil on Panel, 12x16

I worried all weekend that after Friday's post (clearly I need a life), ya'll would think I am always that busy. Sometimes I am, but that kind of day only occurs once in awhile anymore. Since the beginning of the year, I haven't had much going on and whatever work I do have to do, I am just squeaking it by.

This is a more typical day lately:

I do all the same stuff in the morning, up at 6am, kids up at 7, out to the bus by 7:30, and then do the chicken chores, done by 8am.

Then I basically sit at my computer until around eleven or twelve (my how the time flies) answering emails, reading and commenting on blogs, reading the news sites, googling things that catch my interest and whatever else that doesn't require much effort and that I can do in my comfy desk chair.

Finally I decide to get up and consider doing a variety of things, drive into town to take care of some errands, or to take a walk or to ride my spin bike. Maybe prepare some new panels or clean out my painting storage cabinet.

Usually I end up deciding that all of those things can wait until the next day and I decide to get to work in the studio instead. Um, after lunch, which I eat at my computer which kills another hour.

By around one I get fed up with myself and finally get started in the studio, after checking my emails one more time, of course. After an hour or so I started to get in the groove and then soon after that the kids get home and I have stop which can be very painful. Mostly because I know that I could have gotten more done if I started earlier.

The rest of the day is the same as the busy one, although I do tend to let a few things go lately. Washing the pots and pans and scooping the cat litter can often wait until the next day.

What the heck.

A Day in The Life

The Road to Town, 2007, Oil on Panel, 12x16


5:55am The alarm goes off, I get up out of bed, shower, feed the pets, work on my post, and answer a few quick emails.

7am Get the kids up.

7:12am Publish my post to the blog.

7:30am Herd the kids out to the bus stop and do my morning hike over the 10 foot snowdrift in order to gather eggs, throw some scratch down and give the chickens fresh water.

9:01am Chris Rywalt posts a comment, theorizing why a link in my post doesn't work. We spend the morning going back and forth, with Chris valiantly trying to explain HTML, line breaks and other such nonsense to me. I am left feeling like an ancient relic of the not so distant past when the word computer meant nothing to me but a machine that screws up my bank account.

8:30-Noon I struggle with painting, despite being really excited about the pieces that I have ready to work on. I drop a loaded paintbrush onto the floor and finally have to spend 20 minutes cleaning out my jars of turpenoid because all three are so bad that when I rinse my brushes I am rinsing them in red sludge. I don't really make any progress on the paintings and what little I do make is less than exciting.

10:10am I receive a rejection from a gallery, by email, in response to the submission (also by email) of the link to my website. I knew it was a long shot that they would be interested but it still stings just a little bit. It reads as follows:

Thank you for your submission of images of your work for my consideration. We have a small stable of artists in the gallery and I am not interested in adding your work to that group. I very much appreciate your sending me your work and wish you all the best with your career.

Great.

12:20pm The kids get home and my studio time is essentially over. Probably a good thing anyway.

12:55pm I take our youngest daughter and go to the grocery store where I spend $275. Cripes. And my daughter spends $3 getting tiny plastic dogs from those machines that sell stupid junk that I always end up stepping on in the middle of the night on the way to the bathroom.

3:22pm I get an email from a blogger friend (who shall remain nameless, but you know who you are) who was concerned that he had overstepped his bounds. He had suggested me and my work to the gallery director of a gallery I have been eying for awhile. And who loved my work, by the way and so a new opportunity falls into my lap, which totally makes up for the earlier rejection.

3:42pm I email my blogger friend and assure him that I am not upset and that in fact, I could possibly be in love with him.

3:43pm until 7:30pm A flurry of kid related activities and small dramas plus laundry, baking (chocolate chip cookies, which were excellent) and a homemade pizza that the dog wouldn't even look at. I supervise while my son makes Eggplant Parmigiana for a school project, which smells really good in comparison to the cereal we all end up eating for dinner.

7:30pm I clean up the kitchen. And my dear son washes up the pans that he used while cooking, while I congratulate myself for training him so well.

8pm My favorite TV show Jericho starts. This episode is kind of stupid and I think that even I could have moved the truck off of Jake's leg so he could get out and not have to nearly die from hypothermia because of the approaching winter storm, after the marauders ran them off the road and then stole all of their supplies while Stanley, Mimi and Jake were on their way to go hunting to find food for the town. However, this plot device did allow for Jake to tell his father about the young girl he killed while he was in Iraq, and his father understood about war and so everything turned out peachy keen, except well, the USA is still nuked, and winter is coming and there is no food or oil. But I digress.

9pm Criminal Minds is a repeat so I watch the news, knit and do a bit of reading for the rest of the evening.

11:15ish Lights out and sleep until the whole thing starts all over.

Visiting Day

Lining A Field, 2007, Oil on Panel, 12x16

I must be brief today. The kids have only a half day of school and will be home around noon. If I were to actually get to work right away this morning, rather than fritter away the morning on the computer (like usual) I could get a respectable amount of painting done. So I am going to send you elsewhere, to check out a few blogs that I have been enjoying lately.

I have to put on my thinking cap when I visit Musings on Neurology and Lenitives in Simplistic Art Whatever Sunil Gangadharan is talking about over there is fascinating though and somehow always gets back around to art. His work is really interesting as well and worth a look.

Casey Klahn found me awhile ago and it seems we have much in common, including a similar color sense as well as an infatuation with pastels and Wolf Kahn. The photographs he has posted of pastels make me drool. Every time I visit The Colorist I come away swearing that I have to get out my pastels and spend some time with them again.

I don't recall how I came across Hazel Dooney's blog, Self vs. Self, but am sure glad I did. She is evidently a very successful and well known artist in Australia and I have the impression that she can kick some serious ass. If I knew her in real life, I am pretty sure I would be totally intimidated by her in a hundred different ways. From what I gather, she has worked primarily with enamel paints, but due to health issues she has recently switched to different mediums and I look forward to watching and hearing about that transition.

Now go visiting, but don't forget to come back to me, your first true (blog) love. Heh.

Oops!

Just realized that the book I was referring to in the previous post was Improve Your Vision Without Glasses or Contact Lenses. This one has the exercises, while the other one is a bit more technical and descriptive. If you only get one book, I'd get this one.

Sorry about the mix up. I read both at the same time and confused the info a bit.

Artistic Vision

Sliver of a Pond, 2007, Oil on Panel, 9x12

About 6 years ago, several things concerning my vision happened in the space of just a few months. I had to take the vision test in order to renew my driver's license and I just barely squeaked by, which kind of surprised me. I noticed at the figure drawing classes that being in the front, closer to the model was working better for me, not good for a confirmed back of the classroom kind of girl. And when I tried on Doug's new glasses, needed for his long distance vision, and could immediately see that the kids in the back corner of the yard weren't dancing and skipping, they were actually throwing dirt at each other, I realized it was time to see an ophthalmologist. Turns out my loss of vision was fairly minor, age related-and considered normal. I came home with a pair of prescription glass plus a pair of sunglasses as well. For several years I only used them for driving and watching movies in a theater.

In the last year or so I have noticed a marked decrease in the effectiveness of my glasses however. I began to wear them more, to watch tv, when shopping and at figure class, even though that is a bit of a problem as it bothers me to wear them while doing close things, but I need them to see the figure properly (don't even talk to me about bifocals!). Very irritating.

And so while it seemed clear that I need stronger glasses I am not exactly the type to simply accept what I am told either-that my eyesight will continue to worsen as I age, that it's normal. I have heard over the years about exercises that can improve eyesight, so I did some research and found a few books that looked interesting.

After reading Improve Your Vision Without Glasses or Contact Lenses. I began to do the daily eye exercises that the author recommends. He suggests doing them while waiting at traffic lights, but since our town only has one blinking light, and I don't even leave the house on some days, I do them in the evening before I go to bed. I have been doing them daily for about 2 months and there is a noticeable difference in my vision. I no longer wear my glasses while shopping, my driving at night vision is MUCH better (I still wear the glasses for driving of course) and I can almost read the scrolling news at the bottom of the news channels. An added benefit is that I am less tired and have had fewer, if any headaches since I began the exercises. The author also suggests a few lifestyle changes, such as diet, sleep and less "screen" time that will help with improved vision and um, well I am working on those. Kinda. Sorta.

Anyway, I don't have to say how important vision is to an artist and to all of us in general and I am so happy to have come across this information, so I wanted to share it. Many of our problems with eyesight are the same as other health problems-lack of exercise. By strengthening the muscles around the eyeball, which is way, way, way easier than going to the stupid gym every day, it is possible to take some control back over a worsening situation. I am not sure that I will be able to throw out my glasses entirely but I will be happy if I just don't lose any more ground.

Progress

Mostly Yellow, 2007, Oil on Panel, 8x10

Progress is being made on several fronts around here lately.

Up until yesterday and today (more snow!), the pavement on the roads was visible and the snow was beginning to melt, creating the most impressive icicles. So just a few inches closer to spring, but I'll take it.

Doug ran into the the owner of Multiple Impressions (the NY gallery that is trying me out) last Friday and she told him that she had just sold two of the three paintings that I had sent her. Very good progress there.

And in the studio I am feeling really excited about painting again. Despite painting at a snail's pace in February, I am very pleased with the quality of those pieces. After working at such a feverish pace for so many months last year, it has been quite an adjustment to slow down and look at everything in a different way. I had gotten to the point of feeling that I had to be crazy busy working towards a deadline in order to do strong work and I am very happy to find out that working slowly is effective as well. That is the best progress.

We Don't Use That Door Anyway

Yesterday the snow slid off the roof of the garage onto the patio. Clearly, spring is just around the corner.

Cleaning Day

A few of the eleven underpaintings patiently waiting for color.

No real post today. We had an ice storm and school was canceled, even though the storm ended up being not as bad as predicted.

The satellite for the computer has been down all day, which meant I had to do something besides wasting half the day at the computer. So it seemed like a good time to clean out my dresser drawers. Which led to dusting the baseboards and vacuuming under the bed and the other furniture. Which then led to reorganizing the storage space behind the knee wall (so I could fit more crap into it) and cleaning out the closet space and sorting through my clothes. The real treat was cleaning our bathroom, cabinets and all. Woo-hoo.

This is the kind of stuff I used to keep up with before Doug bought me a shiny new computer last year and I found art blogs.

I Love My New Panels

I have been mostly painting on Ampersand Gessobord for the last few years. While I liked the surface I wanted to use a better, more substantial support, so I am in the midst of switching over to cradled birch panels. I am using up my gessobord inventory on the box paintings that I have been (slowly) developing and am now exclusively using the new panels for gallery bound work.

There are a few drawbacks to this, though. First of all they require much more prep. I apply 2 coats of urethane on the backs, then 2 coats of wood primer on the sides and front, and then a thick brushy layer of gesso for the painting surface. I also sand between each layer, something that I have spent my entire life trying to avoid. I had to set up a permanent table in the office to do all of this, and it seems as if I am continuously prepping panels now. Yuck.

It is also much more difficult to get them. I used to be able to just order the Gessobord panels, 30-40 at a time, get them shipped and have them at my front door in a week. Soho Artist Materials is located in Soho (duh) and is just around the corner from Doug's store, and that seemed like a real plus. Until the parking lot where he usually parked when he drove to the city closed down. Now it has become really hard for him to find a lot that will take his big stupid Chevy Tahoe (yeah, yeah, I know he should get a smaller vehicle, but it's paid for, it still works and it's big enough to handle the fossil murals that he needs to haul around) so he doesn't drive down very often anymore unless I beg him and offer lots of free sex. Heh. Last week I was desperate for some panels and when he was in the city he picked up about a dozen smaller ones and then had to carry them on the train (free sex did not outweigh finding a parking spot on the snow filled streets). Not very convenient. There is also much more planning involved and if I want to order custom sizes, they take 2 weeks. I go through a lot of panels and they never seem to have enough of the sizes I want in stock and so I have to special order those too.

The birch panels also cost quite a bit more, which of course is understandable, as they are really well made and much more solid than the gessobord cradled panels. The price is kind of a wash though, as I had a price increase in January which has offset the higher costs.

But the painting part is heavenly, and I just realized yesterday that every piece I have done since I switched over has "turned out." Nothing for the sand down pile yet! Totally worth the extra work.

Brad Teare

Brad Teare, Oil on Canvas, 2001, 11x14

Brad Teare, Oil on Canvas, 2001, 8x10

Doug and I moved to Utah in 1993. He had a share in a holographic company in Logan, which he had been working with on a consulting basis. We decided to move to Utah in order for him to put all of his energy into getting the company off the ground (it worked, as it was eventually bought by duPont). I was none too pleased about moving out there however, and it sure took awhile for us to adjust. But we started having babies, meeting other parents and we also became involved in the community. When I started to do volunteer work for a non-profit arts organization, I met all kinds of artists, performers and dancers. They were my people! While I was on the board of directors I worked with an artist, Brad Teare. He did these wonderful woodcuts which Doug and I both really admired. The first piece of art that Doug ever gave me was one of Brad's black ink woodcuts (pictured below). That purchase was the beginning of our art collection and gave us both the itch to buy more art. Brad also worked as an illustrator and a few years later wrote, illustrated and published a book that we are happy to have a signed copy of. And a few years after that, Brad told me that he had been working on plein aire paintings. I was definitely intrigued and I visited his home to see what he had been doing. We sat on the floor of his living room and he leaned about 10 or 12 pieces up against the sofa. It was very casual! When I saw them, I knew right away that I needed one and since I couldn't decide on just one, I went home with two.

I love these paintings. They have a van Gogh-ish feel, with thick, juicy brush strokes and I love the sparkly bits of color that come together to create a tree, a field, a road. Looking at Brad's paintings, I am reminded of the value of unexpected color, something I often forget about with my tendency towards color fields.

Anyway, we moved from Utah to NY in 2003. A few weeks ago, I received an invitation from Brad to an opening in NYC, where his work would be featured. And as is the way of this small art world, the event just so happens to be the same one that Stacey is in as well. And coincidentally, I had planned to be in the city the weekend of the opening, so I was pretty excited to go and visit with Brad AND meet a fellow blogger. Alas, I have had to cancel my trip down there, but Doug is in the city doing a trade show and he is under strict orders to go to the opening, see Brad and his wife and also to track down Stacey and say hi.

PS. I am only feeling a little sorry for myself, here at home in the snow with the kids and the chickens, with frozen pizza for dinner while everyone else is living it up in New York, looking at art, going to gallery openings and eating sushi. Heh.

Fish Totem, by Brad Teare

Good News and a Dead Mouse

Leading The Way, 2007, Oil on Panel, 24x36

Pretty exciting news today! I have been included in the New Acquisitions section on the website of the gallery in New York City, Multiple Impressions, that has been trying me out. Go see three of my paintings here.

Of course this step forward is balanced out by the realization that there is definitely a dead mouse somewhere in my studio. I suspected it yesterday, based on smell and today I am sure. I have tried to look for it (like I really want to find it), but there is so much crap piled everywhere. Finding a rotting little mouse corpse will be like finding a needle in a haystack. I tried to get our dog to help locate it, but all she wants to do is lay on top of the radiator and get baked. Heh. What a life.

Maybe I'll just stay out of my studio until the smell dissipates. Eventually I'll find an old dried up thing which would be much less traumatic all around.

Hair

This underpainting has been sitting in my studio for at least a month. I haven't felt inclined to work on it, but perhaps I will soon. I am putting it up today, because it's well, red.

Well, as if my last post about girl scout cookies (thanks to those who are buying some and I am still taking orders, by the way) wasn't far enough off the topic of art, today I am going a bit further. I will warn you right now that this topic will be about my hair, so if that is too trivial for any of you, just go on ahead and close the page. I will not be offended, I promise.

Like most girls, I have always wanted the kind of hair that I did not have. It's been awhile since I have actually seen it, but I think my natural hair is medium brown, the mousy kind of brown (now there is a bit of grey mixed in) and it is straight as stick. I spent most of the 80's getting perms in order to have the curly hair that I thought was my birthright. Around 1987 or so, when I was in college, I started to get my hair colored red, which seemed to be exactly right for me. I couldn't pay my rent half the time or cover the phone bill, but by god, I always managed to scrape up enough money to get my hair done! Sometimes it seemed as that's all I had going for me-nice hair.

Over the years, we have moved a lot and I have had many different people do the color. I stopped getting perms long ago, but the hair color has always been a constant. I had a specific formula that I gave to each new hairdresser and while there have been a few modifications, it was always red, red, red.

Here's an art connection: More than a few people have noticed that the overall red/orange color in my work, which is actually the underpainting, is strikingly similar to my hair color. This is a coincidence, or at the very least a very unconscious decision on my part. I feel a bit embarrassed when it is mentioned, worrying that people might think I am so in love with my own hair color that I would use it as a basis for my work. Um, except, well I kind of am, in love with my hair color, that is.

Since we moved up here though, I have had trouble with it. The hair color would look great for a week or two, but then would start to fade to an orangey color, which while not horrible, wasn't exactly what I had in mind either. I suspect our icky well water is the culprit, high in iron and sulfur, and since getting a filtration system installed is pretty low on our home improvement list, I began to think that I should try to switch to a different color, one that wouldn't be so affected by our water and one that would last longer. The reds are notoriously short-lived anyway. So all is very quiet here and because I don't have much going on for a few months, (good grief, I am so vain!) I thought I'd try a different color.

On Saturday I went in and discussed colors with my hairdresser/collector (she has purchased several of my paintings)and we agreed on a nice brown with red highlights. The color is beautiful, but it is so dark! There is no chance of anyone ever saying I am a redhead now and I can't believe that that bothers me. It has been a huge part of my identity for so long and even I am surprised at how attached I am to being a redhead. I have gone through so many changes over the years and silly as it may be, my hair has been a constant element for me. That never occurred to me until now.

But change can be good and I am going to spend some time trying to adjust to being a brunette. Not much can be done for the time being anyway, because of how dark the color is and I don't want to totally wreck my hair trying to lighten it. I do think I will keep trying to find the right shade of reddish brown though, though it will take some time I guess.

I may have to buy new clothes though. My whole wardrobe is geared towards red hair further proving that everything is all about the hair here in Tracyland. Heh. And I'd put a picture up, but I am totally not ready for that yet. I seldom even put a picture of me up with my comfy old red hair. Baby steps, ok? First I need to leave the house and let my real life friends see me.

Thin Mints, Anyone?

Does anyone out there want to buy Girl Scout cookies? Seriously. They are $3.50 per box and I will ship them (US only-I must draw the line somewhere) to you for free.

I have two girls who are in scouts, we live in the middle of nowhere, and there is 27 stupid feet of stupid snow on the ground. Taking orders via my blog and paying for the shipping (did I mention that already?) seems much easier than trudging through the snow, door to door, only to find that they already ordered from the neighbor girl, who is much more industrious than we are.

My favorites are Caramel De-Lites, which used to have the much more interesting, but politically incorrect name of Samoas. In April, just around the time that I start stressing about how I am going to look in shorts in the summer, those damn things come in and mess me all up.

But surely you won't have that problem. Email me privately if you are interested in buying cookies. Really. I am serious. I'll pay for the shipping.

Maybe Next Time

Aqua Green, 2007, Oil on Panel, 24x30


I have been keeping tabs on the workshop schedule at the National Academy in NYC. Wolf Kahn usually teaches a workshop there in late winter and I was hoping to be able to take it. Finally it showed up on the website and was set for this coming weekend, February 24&25. After looking at our schedule I realized that I could go to the city that weekend and so when the registration began on December 18, I called at 9am. Busy. I tried again. Still busy. When I finally got through about 20 minutes later, I was told that the class was full and I would be put on the waiting list. I chatted with the lady on the phone, hoping to butter her up a bit, but she told me that there had been a line of people waiting to register at the office, since 5am. It seemed clear that I had no chance to get in this year, and I was surprisingly disappointed. Actually taking the workshop seemed like a pain in the neck, dragging pastels and other materials down to the city on the train, on the subway, in the snow, etc, but I was so looking forward to meeting Mr. Kahn.

I'll try again next year, however I guess there is a good chance that he won't be teaching too many more workshops, given his age. But maybe I'll pull out my pastels and play around with them a bit this weekend. That would be nice.

PS. For those of you who may be new readers here, I have written about Wolf Kahn here and here.

Nothing!

Leading the Way, 2007, Oil on Panel, 24x36

Today will be a brief little nothing of a post. The kids are home this week for winter break, so including the three snow days, we are heading towards 12 days of harmony and togetherness. Heh. Actually we are all going a bit mental from all that, so I am going to get everyone out of the house this afternoon to do Something! Anything! Nothing!

I have a few hours this morning though, and will try to finish up a few of the larger sized paintings that I have been (slowly) working on. I also really need to get some of the work shipped out or delivered to the galleries who are waiting for more work. I am running into serious storage issues and have paintings stacked and/or leaning all over the house. Kinda has a warehouse feeling around here.

Sold My Soul to Rock and Roll

Enveloped, 2007, Oil on Panel, 30x36


Steven Larose asked me yesterday, in response to my remark about selling my soul, "how much does a soul go for these days?" I left a flip response, but I sure did think about quite a few more serious responses. The real answer is somewhere in between flip and serious, I think. While copying myself isn't my favorite thing, I don't really mind doing it either. Even when making few, if any changes in a piece, there is always still a challenge involved for me. There is always something new to explore, to see, to feel, despite, or maybe because of the more narrow parameters. In addition, repeating a painting keeps me painting, it makes a client happy, and it helps me pay a few bills, all of which have value to me.

So I don't feel as if I have sold my soul at all. I am perfectly capable of making a decision about where to draw the line for myself. And this is where taking a big long break to raise my kids and do other things has come in handy. During those years, I learned that I can do a number of things well, besides painting. I am not desperate for success, for recognition, or even to make a living at art. Those things would be lovely, of course and getting them because of my painting IS my first choice. And I don't deny that I feel the drive to achieve professional success. However, I now know that I don't have to put up with crap to get that, if I don't want to and I can if I do want to.

Today's paintings are based on a scene that I really love. I have probably posted them before, but I am putting them all up together this time. I keep painting it with the intent of changing the colors at least, but I always end up going back to the same combinations. Because I have found a strong connection and I want to express that.

That is why I am doing all of this.


Individuality, 2006, Oil on Panel, 16x20



Tree Grove in Spring, 2006, Oil on Panel, 18x24


Cherry Tree, 2006, Oil on Panel, 6x6


Against Dark Trees, 2006, Oil on Panel, 24x24

New Green

New Green, 2007, Oil on Panel, 12x16

After selling my soul by copying myself (kidding), I took a perverse pleasure in concurrently painting the same scene, yet again, but with quite different results. I really wanted to use the new tubes of green that I recently bought, and I sure enjoyed just plopping that paint right down in the middle of the painting.

The copy turned out well, actually. I don't recall the exact colors that I used the first time, and the colors were what the clients really liked about the painting, but I made do and Doug thinks it is even nicer than the first. Nice to know I can actually paint better than I could a year ago. Heh. I'd put up the new one, but I haven't photographed it yet and, well, it looks just like the old one.

Aftermath

Neighbor's Field, 2007, Oil on Panel, 24x36

Well, things are still a bit of a mess around here. We never did have any luck getting someone to plow our driveway, so Doug and the boys have been chipping away at it and there is a path just big enough for one car to get through. Doug missed his trip to Florida, but will be driving down to the city tomorrow and so of course it would be nice for me to have the option to leave the house. Not that I want to. I am in full hibernation, not having gone anywhere since Tuesday, actually I don't think I went anywhere on Tuesday either, so I guess it's been since Monday. huh. Anyway, the roads are still crappy, it's really windy, incredibly cold and we still have plenty of food. I think we will stay in for a few more days. This is the third snow day for the kids and then next week is their week long winter break. How appropriate. Thanks to tv, game boys and the computer, I have actually been able to get a bit of work done and have finished up a few more pieces that have been in progress. Tomorrow I think we will pull out the board games and a few beading projects, perfect opportunity for the cats to bat small beads around until they disappear into the spaces between our old wood floor boards.

I have left the house in order to take care of the chickens though. Each and every time it is a new adventure. Yesterday morning I tried to climb over the snowbank (six feet high). Going there was ok but coming back out proved to be impossible. Each time I tried to step up, I would sink into the snow up to my waist. Finally I got about halfway up, crossed my arms and did a sideways half tuck flip over the top and down the other side to the road, landing on my bottom. Naturally, because I had just did the most ridiculous move ever, our neighbor just happened to be walking on the road towards me. Gah! I hadn't seen another human being for three days and the minute I did an intentional, but very clumsy flip over a snowbank, a neighbor witnessed it. Typical. So now I know that the path through the snowbank has to be shoveled out everyday, to save my dignity at the very least. Later on in the day, I found that the plastic food bins had cracked open so I had to dig them out and get those into the garage. Now I have to take a bag of scratch out along with the bucket of water every morning. Another time, after having to shovel snow out of the hen house, that had blown in through the drafty door, I decided that I had to find something to cover the doorway with. In the garage I found and old door and Doug and I dragged that out though the snow and propped it up in front of the existing door. Things seemed a bit more toasty in there this morning so I think it did the trick. The chickens are totally fine considering they have been stuck in a poopy, cold, rather dark little room for weeks now. Egg production is down a bit, I only had six eggs yesterday, but we have three dozen eggs in the fridge, so I think we're good.

Plus the sun is out and the power has not gone out through all of this. Sure appreciating all of that!
Sorry, couldn't resist putting one more! Had to show off the hand shoveled driveway. Unfortunately, the garbage cans are buried under the snow on the right. This would be a problem if the garbage trucks might come by soon (the regular day is Thursday and they did not come), but that doesn't seem likely. We'll get them out someday.

Last Snow Photos-I Promise

The fence is just barely visible today.


The patio today. This is the north side of the house and the drifts get really high.


The snow finally stopped. That's the good news. Well, that and the fact that we still have power of course. This would all really suck if we had lost power. Instead it is just a pretty cool, if a bit intense winter snowstorm. Frankly, the fall weather that extended into late December was a bit unsettling, so I am not complaining about real winter weather. And we knew what we were getting into when we decided to move to upstate NY!

Plugging away.


Doug has spent the morning trying to shovel out the driveway by hand. He was supposed to leave for Florida today to go on a fishing trip with a friend and I think he thinks he could still go. That is, if he could just get the driveway cleared of the ten foot drifts so that he could move the car which is also almost completely covered with snow. The rest of us are taking turns helping, but the shovels are not holding up well. We don't have a snowblower, like everyone else within a 50 mile radius and no one who does plowing is available. So we are embracing our lack of technology and going it alone. Along with not very helpful child labor.

I don't care about the kid's brain development much today and will allow them to watch much more tv than usual in order for me to get into the studio. And I am running the bread machine so we can enjoy the smell of baking bread all day. Mmmmmm.

Our new porch, covered with snow.

Ten Hours Later

At the risk of becoming like my weather obsessed mother (no offense Mom) I am putting up a bunch of photos concerning our current weather event. This is quite the winter storm and the most snow any of us have ever seen. The roads are closed, along with everything else and surely there will be no school tomorrow and possibly Friday.

I had to venture out to the hen house again to collect the day's eggs and there was twice as much snow this time. Their food which is kept in bins outside the door was buried in about two feet of snow. Which I had to dig out with my hands because the boys had mistakenly put the shovel that I keep out there, away in the garage. Digging it out by hand seemed much easier than trying to get back up to the house. But the chickens are fine and actually the snow piling up outside their door is creating good insulation. Their water didn't even freeze today!

Oddly, we still have power, phone service and satellite, which is why I am putting this post up now. Tonight we are supposed to have high winds and since the power often goes out here for no apparent reason, surely we will lose it after 40 inches of snow and wind gusts.

Our son was not happy about shoveling this morning. We finally let him off the hook.


Penny is keeping an eye on things.


Our patio is buried.


The kids have ventured out a few times, but there's no sledding yet. Mostly because there's no walking yet either.


Poor hens, they haven't been outside for weeks now. And it looks like it will be a few more at least.


We forgot to take the grill in last fall. I blame Doug.


My hero. Doug is shoveling me yet another path to the hen house.


Doug actually thinks that he will be able to drive down to the city tomorrow morning at 4am.



The bench on the patio.


We have a bit of an issue here. The top part of the storm window is missing and we haven't replaced it. Um, it's been four years. So when there's a lot of snow, it comes in and is probably rotting the sill, as I speak. I blame Doug for this too.

I know that this is a massive storm affecting a good part of the country (except for my mom with her silly little half inch of snow and 60 degree temps). I hope that everyone will stay safe and warm, hopefully at home with loved ones.

Happy Valentine's Day!

The hen house buried in snow.


Wednesdays are usually a good day for me to get some serious time in the studio. The kids have school, of course, and they all have activities after so no one gets home until 5:30 and Doug goes down to the city. With my recent difficulties in getting back to a steady painting schedule, a full day was looking like a good way to get a jump start. However, real life and Mother Nature have decided for me that today is not the day. We had at least two feet of snow last night and it's still coming down. In fact it is a blizzard, reminiscent of my childhood winters in Minnesota. So it's a snow day, we are all home and while I may be able to get a bit of painting done (tv will be allowed today), it's not going to be a good long painting session.

My quick morning trip to the hen house turned into an hour long suicide mission. I had to shovel some kind of crazy path off the porch, across the yard, and through a five foot snow bank (courtesy of the very efficient snowplows that were out all night). I had to go back and forth several times because I couldn't carry everything through the snow in one trip. I also had to dig out to the door of the hen house, in order to get in. I am pretty sure that I pulled all of my upper body muscles about ten different ways and my fingers and toes still hurt from the cold. There was much cursing when I sunk into snow up to my waist and had to flail about wildly in order to get out. I knew that no one would be coming out to help me, because everyone, including Doug, was inside still sleeping in warm comfy beds.

I better get some really good chocolate today.

Busy vs. Not

In The Mood, 2007, Oil on Panel, 24x24


I am slowly getting some paintings finished. I have been distracted by a number of things, in addition to just having some difficulty getting back into the swing of a regular painting schedule again. Now I officially have four galleries patiently waiting for new work and so I really do need to snap out of my funk. Anyway I am working on that, making a deliberate effort each day to accomplish more, not just in the studio but around the house as well.

I had an instructor in college that told us that as an art director, he always gave work to an artist who was really busy, rather than one who didn't have so much to do. He found that the busy ones always met the deadlines while the artists with an open schedule often did not finish on time.

While there are always exceptions of course, my experience has mostly held true to his theory. Not that I really miss deadlines, but when I don't have much to do, it is often difficult for me to meet them. When my schedule is crazy, the adrenaline of a hectic pace plus the necessity of organization help me to stay on track. In the slower times it is so much easier to veer off that track. Being aware of the ebb and flow helps, but still I have to make more of an effort to keep going, and I sure am struggling with that right now.

I have been working on a number of larger pieces, including the one above, that are 24x24 and up, so I could possibly blame my slowness on the size of the panels. Let's go with that version of events. Heh.

Not Quite Sure How This All Happened

Bull Dog. The boys had put huge icicles as teeth on the bottom of the mouth, which looked awesome, but they got knocked out by the time we took the picture, probably when someone tried to get inside the mouth.


One of the most interesting things about having children and moving to a small town in a rural area has been that I continually find myself doing things that I never dreamed I would ever do in a million years. Anything and all things farm related, of course, community meals such as pancake breakfasts and spaghetti dinners. Chinese auctions for used, donated items, hats with ear flaps and wearing long underwear everyday. Heated discussions about Polaris snow boots and about a hundred small town parades each year.

This weekend was the Cooperstown Winter Carnival. It started out on Friday evening with, you guessed it, a parade. My girl's scout troops were included on two of the floats and I spent the afternoon trying to iron badges onto a Girl Scout sash. The positive aspect of iron on badges turned into a negative, when I realized that I had applied the badges so that the seam of the sash was at the shoulder rather than the hip, where it belongs. Since some of the badges won't come off, I suspect I have to start all over and buy a new sash and badge set. Of course. Anyway the parade was short (it is a small town after all) but much candy was thrown, a snow king and queen waved from the back of a convertible and we watched the fireworks at the lake afterward. Um, in 5 degree weather. That's where the long underwear thing came in handy.

Saturday morning I had to take one of my daughters to a swim meet about an hour away. While I sat fully clothed in a sauna, oops I mean pool deck, all day, Doug was outside all day, monitoring our son and his friend while they built a snow sculpture. He also took our youngest to a pancake breakfast and then stood outside at a skating rink while she and her friends raced around the rink.

When we got back to town, my older daughter and I attended a chinese auction, looked at the snow sculptures, walked through the chocolate contest and stood in line so that she could ride on a dog sled. Just as we got to the front they ended the rides because the dogs were tired. Dang...

There was a concert by Catie Curtis that I would have liked to have seen on Saturday night plus several other restaurants and bars had live music, however, I was a zombie by 7pm and pretty much fell asleep by 10. So that whole stay out late thing is all gone too, unless I have a nap during the day. Heh. Like I ever get to take a nap.

My son insisted that I enter the chili contest so I spent Sunday morning making my fab chili, while Doug took the kids to the sledding contest and then to the ice rink again. I met them there and hung around talking to some friends.

I don't think I won the chili contest, and I really doubt we won the snowblower in the raffle, that would just be too much to hope for, but my son did win the snow sculpture contest. His sculpture, pictured above is a bull dog's head (the theme of the carnival was "Dog Days of Winter" so the sculpture was supposed to have a dog theme) and it looks a lot like the characters that he includes in the stories and comics that he is always writing.

Next up: the school carnival. Many cakes to bake for the cake walk. Chances are good that I will end up working at the popcorn booth again or serving hot dogs even though I am morally opposed to their very existence. Can't wait.

Time Flies...

One year ago today, I impulsively decided to do this.

I spent the next two days wondering what the heck I was doing and then I reluctantly did this.

It's been an interesting, challenging and surprisingly social ride. Thanks for joining me.

Snow

It's a very white day here today.

Yesterday ended up ok. No major mishaps in the studio and in fact, I managed to make some progress on two paintings. Well, in between doing nothing.

Today is much better although I did fall in the snow bank again. Kind of hard not to when they are nearly waist high and we are all too lazy to shovel a stupid path. But I wasn't carrying the chicken water this time and our neighbor, the cardio-thoracic surgeon was NOT driving by at the precise moment that I fell into the snowbank while carrying a bucket full of water and the chicken waterer thingy, like he did on Monday.

Can't ask for more than that.

It's a Bad Day So Far

In Progress.

Well, the last post obviously went over like a lead balloon. Okay, I'll move on.

Except I am in a really bad mood so far today. Our furnace stopped working last night and Doug realized it when he got up at 4am to go down to the city. So I had to get up unbearably early to wait for the repairman. Luckily he was able to fix it and now I am waiting for the house to warm up (it's up to 57, woo-hoo!) and for there to be enough hot water for a shower. The kids were incredibly dense this morning, and I am still irritated, PLUS I feel guilty about sending them off to school after having yelled at each of them for one reason or another. And for the third day in a row I fell into the snowbank while trying to get over it to get to the hen house. That wouldn't be so bad except that I was carrying a bucket of water, which of course spilled and I had to go back to the house and fill it again. My hands were painfully cold after try to loosen up the frozen wood shavings on the floor of the hen house, with a shovel (in case you wondered, fleece lined gloves do not matter when a metal shovel has been outside all night).

But I have a lot of work to do today so I will hibernate and hopefully my mood will improve. Though chances are good that a loaded paint brush will hit the floor, or a freshly painted panel will fall off the easel. It feels like it might be that kind of day.

The Wrong One

Red Landscape, 2005, Oil on Panel, 24x36

Note to self: Get the exact title of the painting, when a gallery director asks for a similar piece. At the very least, double-check with her before beginning to work on the painting.

Around Christmas, the owner of one of my galleries called and asked if I could paint a piece similar to one that had been in the recent show there. She had some clients who loved the painting, especially the colors. I said I would, although it would not be exactly the same of course. And while I do feel a bit odd about doing the same piece essentially, I didn't mind doing it either. I paint the same scenes over and over all of the time, and so this isn't a huge artistic compromise for me. I feel that there is always something new to find in a scene. I agreed to do it, but told her I didn't want to take money in advance, as one would normally handle a commission. That is too much pressure for me! I just do the piece and if the client likes it, they can buy it. If not, I'll just send it off somewhere else. This generally how I feel comfortable with handling a commission, though I don't do them very often. Anyway, we briefly discussed the piece-the size, the colors and how long it would take.

I ordered the 36x48 panel and worked on the painting last week. It turned out nicely and surprisingly, looked very much like the first one. I took it down to the gallery on Saturday, glad to have it out of my hair. Carrie was very nice and said it was beautiful and she loved that image, but then gently let me know that it was the wrong piece! I was mortified and my face turned beet red. We tried to figure out where the miscommunication occurred. I always suspect that these kinds of things are my fault, and in this case I really should have double checked with her, confirming the title, size and price. Both were large pieces, although not exactly the same size and the color mentioned was red, which was a color in both pieces, though much more prominent in the one she was referring to. But for whatever reason, I came away from our phone conversation thinking it was this piece, when in fact the clients wanted the one pictured above. I have learned my lesson here and will always follow up in writing on these sorts of requests. Now have to get moving on the correct painting this week, while Carrie lets the clients know about the delay, hopefully without letting them know what a moron the artist is. Heh.

So now that I have publicly disclosed my most recent embarrassing art career moment, tell me your stories. We'll all commiserate.

Back at the Farm

This is what's up in my studio today.

My trip went smoothly, although it did start out with an extremely embarrassing moment, which I'll discuss tomorrow. I could keep it to myself (and Doug, and the gallery director), but one of my goals with this blog is to talk about all aspects of working as an artist, which includes my big stupid mistakes. Heh.

Anyway, I made it to Anderson-Soule Gallery in Concord NH, before they closed for the day. I had a nice chat with Terri, who works there, loaded up my paintings and went off to find my hotel. Had a lovely, peaceful evening watching tv and knitting. Nobody interrupted me! On Sunday I headed off to Williamstown Ma, but stopped on the way and did a bit of shopping at the chain stores that we don't have anywhere near where we live(probably a good thing ultimately). I bought a really nice book about Mark Rothko at Borders, crafty kinds of things at Michaels so that the girls can start making Valentines for their classmates, and a whole bunch of rather unnecessary, but fun things at Target.

At Harrison Gallery, I dropped off several pieces and loaded up a couple of the large paintings that were in the show and didn't sell. I spent some time talking art with Brian, one of the staff there. He is a painter and coincidentally, a few weeks ago, I had looked at his work on the website of that nice little gallery Three Graces (blogger Jeff Hayes shows there too), that Doug and I visited when we were in Portsmouth a few months ago, before I knew that it was his. Small art world. You can also see Brian's work here.

Driving home was the best part! I had taken along my iPod (I received a for Christmas from my brother in law, best gift ever!) and really enjoyed pretending that I can actually sing with as much power as Janis Joplin, as much attitude as The Killers, sadness as Damien Rice and with as much pain as my dear departed love, Rick Danko. I actually drove around the block in order to listen to It Makes No Difference so that I could hear it (for the 1 millionth time), because it started just as I turned on to our road and I was totally into a singing groove.

After being pretty stationary for the last two days I was looking forward to going for a walk this morning. However, it is incredibly cold, -24 wind chill and so I have elected to wait on that particular activity. I could ride my spinning bike, but then I'd have to find a place for all of the clothes that I keep on it. Heh.

PS. Our chickens have not gotten the memo about conserving their energy in cold weather, by not laying so many eggs. On Sunday we got 18 eggs, a half dozen more than usual. Big frittata for dinner tonight!

Here and There

White House with Barn, 2007, Oil on Panel, 12x16

Tomorrow I am off for a two day, three gallery, four state jaunt to pick up and deliver paintings.

First a delivery to Carried Haddad, then I have to pick up some paintings from Anderson-Soule in Concord, NH. As exciting as it was to sell so much work from January's show at Harrison, the reality is that that doesn't always happen. Of the eight barns that were included in a show in NH, one painting sold, the gallery wants to hang on to three and I have to pick up the rest along with a few others that they have had in inventory that also haven't sold. I am going to stay overnight in Concord and then drive through Vermont to Williamstown, MA on Saturday. There I have to pick up the large barn painting (didn't sell there either) and deliver some new work. Then home.

I haven't left yet and I am already tired. I had two fillings replaced yesterday and so my jaw hurts and I have a slight headache. I have about a 100 small details to take care of today before I leave, like painting cradles of a few paintings, printing up labels and images lists, mapquesting my route, things like that. I have also had to put together a detailed schedule for Doug to follow because it is an incredibly busy weekend at home (I shouldn't go but if I don't go this weekend, I can't for the next month because of HIS schedule). He will have to schlep them around to a basketball game, a scouts bottle drive, recycling, another game, a father/daughter girl scout dance and who knows where else. I'd feel sorry for him except that that is exactly what I have to do when he is out of town, and I don't have the advantage of an event planner or phone calls with a reminder to leave the house and pick up someone.

But we'll both get by, I imagine. See you Monday!