Letters From Home

Hi
Had a nice long day!
Was up at 6:00 Dropped J. at the school for his camping trip. I
should tell you I got to feeling guilty about his 20 degree bag. They
forecast the teens. So last night after dropping J. at the dance
and G. at a sleep over, S., K. and I went to Walmart and
got him a zero degree bag, and some new wiper blades for me. So today
he was all ready! Then I took S. to the swim meet. She had a good
meet. I should tell you about her music challenge from Friday. Well
S. is now the "First Chair" in clarinet. I guess she blew out K. then
D... She is feeling very good about it all. She spent every night
this week practicing. Anyway she swam well had fun. Everyone I saw at
the meet was wondering how you were doing. I told them you were
loving it and working on some new stuff. I spoke to B (friend) about
Sheep. He described the 10 lambs he got last summer (lots of chops).
He kept telling me how easy they were then he would talk about the
sheering, the vet, the butcher in Hartwick. lambing, fences, Coyotes,
keeping the water from freezing, burdock, finding hay.... Then it
was off to pick up G. who spent the night at E. (friend's) house.
While we were at the meet she and her friend went to the Winterfest. I
caught up with her at the pie eating contest (she didn't enter). Then
we picked up K. at the Great American because Judy had a 2:00pm
appointment with a masseuse on Railroad Ave. We then went in to the
Great American and got some groceries. Then to the video store where
I let everyone pick a movie. Sophie got Forest Gump, Kurtis got
Resident Evil Part III, G. wanted some movie that was out so it
was off to the Fly Creek General Store (didn't want to hear her cry)
to try and find her movie. Well by some stroke of luck they had it.
Then the ride home. It was snowing like mad! We got home to find two
cords of firewood dumped on the drive. So K. and I loaded it into
the garage and stacked it. Then I remembered I had not said my hello
the chickens yet. So it was out to see the chickens. 13 eggs! Then
back in the house in time to catch up with Javier (employee at the showroom in NYC) who is suffering
from food poisoning and didn't open the store today. Well I am OK
with that. then it was time to make dinner.... That reminds me, I
haven't gotten the mail yet.

So how do you do this? Anyway I am going to watch my movie Eastern
Promises and pass out!

Doug

PS: How are you?

And from my 12 year old son:

No, i have not been cooking, yes the dance was fun, and yes i improved my grades (even though intelligence should not be measured by how you do academically)

Routine

First I have to ask, what the heck is going on out there? I just checked my stats and daily unique visitors have doubled since I have been here in Vermont. Wow! Are my ramblings actually interesting? Huh. I feel like I should be a bit more entertaining now, but alas, I am too tired tonght.

Thursday, February 7: I went to the studio right after breakfast and puttered around until figure drawing class. I worked in black charcoal and really enjoyed that. I also focused a bit more on the model's face and am pleased with the results (the drawing looks better in person). Well, more or less anyway. After lunch (salad, cheese and the best crusty bread ever) I went back to my studio to put the color on the landscape and barn underpaintings that I did on Tuesday. They turned out ok, but I am not entirely happy with them. I am thinking my landscapes may need to be painted where they originate from? Maybe the hills, roads, fields and barns that surround my home and studio can only be best expressed there. A concept to ponder, I suppose.

Mid-afternoon, I took a walk with Karen and Stella, two women whose studios are in my building. They are both very nice and we all have much in common so there was much to talk about. And it was so nice to get outside and get some exercise. We got back to the studio and all went back to work until dinner, which was an American classic; meatloaf, baked potato, peas and carrots and a chocolate brownie for dessert. After, I checked my emails and then we walked over to the lecture hall to here a reading by visiting author Dave King. It was really enjoyable and I bought a copy of his book, which he signed for me. He was very nice to everyone, asking questions about what we do, where we live etc. I went back to the studio, did a quick glaze on the figure underpaintings and then went back to my house, fully intending to go to bed early. However, when I got there, a bunch of the other residents were in the front room talking, so I grabbed my knitting and joined them. A few other girls got their knitting and even though nearly everyone was practically a different generation than myself, I really enjoyed the evening. They are all very funny, smart and creative, so much so that before I knew it, it was almost midnight, way past my bedtime. I decided not to set my alarm and to sleep in but I woke promptly at 6am anyway.

Friday, February 8: Off to breakfast, which was oatmeal today. The breakfast alternates each day, either oatmeal or scrambled eggs and bacon. There is also always a variety of bread, yogurt and fruit available. I spent the morning preparing a piece of canvas, so that I could work on it on the wall. It turned out very badly, all wrinkly and poorly stretched, so I have to fix it tomorrow (um, just one of the reasons I don't like canvas-stretching it!). Lunch, (the visiting author wisely situated himself at our table, full of pretty painters, including moi, heh, and he was good lunch company) and then right back to the the studio. Sensing a pattern here? I spent the afternoon putting color down on two of the figure paintings and I have to say that I am not very pleased with them at all. In fact I was pretty frustrated. I went outside to take a break and bumped into a girl named Val, who came in and looked at them. She had some good suggestions, then we decided to take a walk down to the post office so she could do a few errands and so I could take a break. When I got back the good daylight was gone so I wasn't able to take any pictures of the paintings. I will take them tomorrow and when I post next time I will describe what is going on. And what isn't.

After dinner (do it yourself burritos and banana chocolate chip cake for dessert) I went to see Val's project in her sculpture studio (which I will post pictures of when she'll allow) and we talked about it for quite awhile. I am happy to find that I can still actually talk about art when I see it and I am feeling really good about expressing myself here, even about installation art, something I often have trouble connecting with.

Anyway, despite my frustrations today, I am bursting with enjoyment about being here. I love my routine, I love my new friends, I love my temporary studio and I love the whole atmosphere. I even love being so tired that I can hardly get to my house that is just next door to the studio. I am definitely coming here again.

Hear that Doug?! Let's just plan on this being a yearly thing.....

PS. I will post more info about the other artists who are here soon, along with links. Some of them kick butt!

Figures

First I am posting the figure drawings that I have done in the last three days. They are done with either black or sanguine conte and the last two are oil, done in the reductive manner that I do my underpaintings. Those were a lot fun, but I am very aware that all of them have "issues", especially the male (head, hands, and maybe even the penis) but it does capture the models pose quite well.

I had a great night's sleep finally, only woke up once in the night! Today I planned to do some more drawings and then maybe start doing some small underpaintings of the figures. However, I woke up thinking that I should just go ahead and do them on the larger birch panels. So this morning after breakfast I went right to the studio. When I got there, though, I decided to rearrange things a bit so I spent some time doing that. I don't really care for the easel (it's wobbly) or the stool (it's wobbly too). I considered hanging the panels on the wall and working that way, but I decided to make do with the easel, although I lowered it and used the plastic lawn chair that comes with each studio. Anyway, I set up my little painting area and it feels pretty comfortable, finally. I did four underpaintings, which are all shown below. Be gentle with me, I don't usually like to post works in progress, especially when I am feeling my way through them, but I fiigure what the heck. It's not like this stuff is really that important in the scheme of things and I promise admit it if they fail during the next stage.

I finished them up and found that it's true-if you don't get to lunch on time, some of the food is gone. So I had a nice salad and a few slices of cheese and went back to the studio. I looked at the underpaintings and realized that they were too dark, so I lightened them up. I went to figure drawing about an hour late and did one decent drawing, of the male, above. There are a few problems with it (face and hands, legs, and maybe even the penis) but it does capture the pose he had.

I took a good walk outside right before dinner, which felt really good and then, OMG dinner! It was some sort of hybrid middle eastern food, one dish had eggplant, chickpeas, and potatoes there was a cauliflower dish, and the best asparagus ever (yes I know, totally not seasonal), hummus, pita chips, crusty bread. And dessert was lemon poppy seed cake. We all rolled out of the dining room after.

I am totally getting into the social thing now. I feel comfortable enough to introduce myself to someone I don't know and then go on to ask the four most common questions here: Where are you from? Painter, writer, sculptor? Which house are you in? Which building is your studio in?

And this evening we were supposed to see slides of some of the artists here, but guess what, no one submitted any. Seems no one has slides anymore. We will be having a jpeg night next week instead. I have spent this evening sitting in the lounge chatting (with a few other women and now a sculptor, Greg, from Brooklyn), listening to the news and trying to get my ancient laptop up and running.

PS. Sorry for the crappy photos. I didn't bring my really good camera, and the oil figure sketches put up quite a glare, so I shot them at an angle.

Settling In

Well, I have been very busy the last few days. Bear with me while I track most of what I do each day. I want to record what I am doing here for me, as well as for any of you who may be interested.

Monday February 4th: I woke up at 5:30, took a shower and then did a little knitting. Wow! I never do that in the morning. Went to have breakfast and then there was a meeting for all of the painters to discuss the studio rules, etc. Then I went back to my studio and finished unpacking and arranging my supplies. I decided to do a few quick underpaintings before lunch, just to warm up. My usual work, one landscape, one barn image. Had lunch then went to the first figure drawing session. The model was wonderful, and I did a nice drawing in sanguine conte. (I will post the figure drawings in a few days) Then I left early to go to the hardware store with the girl whose studio is across the hall from mine. I think I can safely call her a girl, because she is only 23, and technically I could be her mother. But we hit it off and even took a walk later to check out the health food store. Anyway, before dinner I sat down at my table and did some pencil drawings, (using the vintage family photos I bought on ebay as reference) and I feel like I began to work out some ideas that I have about incorporating the figures into my work. Also, it was incredibly pleasurable to just sit and draw. I can't even remember the last time I did that.

After dinner (stuffed chicken breast, roasted potatoes and a salad) I went and worked in the studio for a few more hours, called home and talked to the family, then went to the lounge to check my emails. The ancient laptop I am using conked out before I could write a post, so I went back to my room, knitted, then read about a paragraph in my book before passing out.

Tuesday, 5th. Woke up at 4am, aarrrgh, could have used at least another hour. Went to breakfast and then on to Figure drawing where there was another great model. I did a drawing, then pulled out the paint and did two underpaintings. They were only half hour poses, so there are some funky areas that I didn't get too. But overall I am pleased with them. I tried a third one but had very bad luck with the two different posed so I took the panel back to my studio and did and image based on one of the pencil drawings. Lunch (black bean soup, salad) and then I went to visit another artist's studio. I had talked with Nancy about stapling a big piece of canvas up on the wall and I asked if I could see what she did. I don't work on canvas so I needed some tips, especially about painting on unstretched canvas. We had a nice chat and then went to my studio and she gave me some really good feedback about what I was doing. I had been feeling uncomfortable about using photographic reference so much, but I also couldn't do what I want to do without it. She felt I was telling a story about the people in the photographs, but that it was my vision, despite using other people's photographs. So I did a few more drawings, took a short walk around outside then went back to the drawings again. Dinner and now I am sitting in the lounge and listening to the primary results.

I am beginning to feel more comfortable here, although I have been hit and miss with the meals, as far as sitting near someone to talk to, or someone at all. Mostly it's just my bad timing, either I come in too early and no one sits next to me or I come in late and there are no spots next to the people I know. Oh and very few people her have kids and so far, of the ones I know about, I hold the record for most offspring. So there you go.

More in a few days. Oh and Steven, so far my people do NOT look like barns. However, Doug's advice was to approach them in the same way that I approach the barns and that has been pretty effective, so far anyway. I have yet to do a real, full out color painting that includes the figure.

First Day

My Studio.

First I have to say that as soon as I arrived here I had the most intense deja vu ever. I was pretty sure that I was back at ny first days of college. Um, but older and with bifocals this time. Thankfully it has subsided now but I have to say it was pretty freaky!

Ok. The drive went very smoothly (I heart mapquest) and although my car was acting suspiciously, the back end was significantly lower than the front end and I was convinced that it would collapse onto the back wheels, I made it here without incident.

When I got here a girl named Arista showed me where my room is, and then my studio, which is beautiful and big and freshly painted. I unloaded my things and then met up with Arista and about a dozen other residents and she took us on a tour. I think we all felt a bit awkward and no one talked to each other much, we were all just trying to get our bearings I suppose. However. this is where the deja vu kicked in-I was pretty sure that I had known some of the younger women from my college days, they seemed so familiar (the hair, the clothing, even the patchouli) but of course they were just babies then. Sigh. Anyway, it felt funny to be on the other side this time around, when really I still feel like one of them. Not sure if that makes sense.

I settled into my room and then went to the reception at the dining hall, where I stood around feeling like an idiot. I have gotten so used to people wanting to meet me at my openings and initiating the conversation, that I have seemingly lost my ability to just go up to someone I don't know and start talking. Actually I have never been all that great at that, but it was much easier when I a. drank alcohol, which I don't do anymore, and b. when I used to socialize more, which I also don't do anymore. Well except when it revolves around me. Heh.

At dinner I had the pleasure of sitting next to David Grozinsky. I was told by two people Steven LaRose and Tom Butter, a former teacher of mine at art school and who is frequently a visiting artist here) to find him, he works here, and I did find him at the salad bar. I had no trouble calling out to him that I know people that he knows (guess I just need a mission) and he was especially tickled to find out that I (sort of) know Steven. He invited me to sit next to him at dinner and we chatted a bit. Then I spoke to some of the other people at the table and everyone was very nice, of course. I look forward to getting to know everyone, there is such an interesting variety of residents here!

After dinner I puttered around in my studio and unpacked a few things and now I am off to bed. Tomorrow morning there is a meeting for the painters and I am totally excited about the figure drawing session in the afternoon!

So there you have it. A really big day in Tracyland. I will post in a few days, hopefully with some updates on new works.

Just a Song Before I Go...

Deep Shadow, 2008, Oil on Panel, 24x36

Well, finally, after months of anticipation it's here. I am leaving for the Vermont Studio Center tomorrow morning, hopefully by 8am, but it will probably be more like 9am.

The last week has passed in a blur of activity, packing, organizing, kid's activities, appointments and painting. I just finished up four large scale paintings that Doug will deliver to The Harrison Gallery next week. My show there went very well, not sure what the final sales count is yet, but they want new work for their inventory, so I guess that's a good sign!

Doug and I sat down and went over the kid's schedule and I gave him all of my best tips in handling it. He says he is going to "try some different things". I give his plan a week, before it all falls apart and he has to revert back to mine. Anyway, the kids all know that he will always be late picking them up, and I have given them instructions on how to make the next month easier on Daddy. Heh. Poor guy. I'd feel sorry for him, except for the fact that all through our marriage he has always traveled A LOT and left me alone for days and weeks with the kids. When my youngest was a baby (at that time we had three kids under the age of five) he went to China for almost three weeks. Anyway, it's taken awhile but I am now exacting my revenge......

My supplies are pretty much packed up and I will finish that up today, in addition to packing my personal things. At first I was worried that I was bringing too much stuff, but after getting it all together it doesn't seem terribly excessive. I have one medium plastic bin with supplies, another that holds my paints and brushes, my drawing tackle box, plus a stack of drawing pads and primed paper and canvas. I decided to take about a dozen panels, 18x24 and smaller and then one large one for fun. I think I will do a lot of work on the primed paper and canvas, especially at the beginning. All of this will easily fit in my car, which has just been serviced and which I will also be praying makes it there and back without incident. It's a ten year old Mazda MPV and ever since we paid off the loan, it's been randomly breaking down.

I still have some things to do around the house today, most notably 57 loads of laundry and later on I have to go and get my hair done. 'Cause, you know, the hair has to look good at an artist's retreat. Heh.

I don't think I will be posting here every day, but I will try to post at least a few times per week. I want to keep track of what I am doing too and keeping the blog going will be a great way to do that. If I get wifi in my room or studio, I may post more often. So check in on me once in awhile, ok?

And please feel free to email and say hi! I am not sure if I will feel lonely there and missing my family, or if I will be the socialite of the year. Either way it will be nice to hear from friends, family and lurkers. My computer is still messed up (getting it fixed is on Doug's list of things to do while I am gone:)) and I don't have my address book on the laptop, so if you don't email me, I can't email you.

So here I go!

Drudgery

In the middle of all of my preparations for leaving for Vermont on Sunday, I have had to tackle the part of being a painter (well, the way I paint anyway) that really sucks.

I use cotton rags to wipe off the paint when I do the underpaintings, as well as to wipe off my brushes and to wipe off the color paint, especially if I have put down a color that doesn't work. Mindful of how wasteful this is, I use the rags until they are so saturated and/or stiff from oil paint that they can stand up and walk away on their own. I bought two fifty pound boxes of rages from Rose Brand about two years ago and I am just now using up the last bit of the first box.

Normally I have quite a few on hand, but of course I always get to the bottom of the pile just when I am the busiest-like right now. Plus this time I will need to take a batch along with me to the residency. So the other day I loaded up a laundry basket of rags, which turned out to be two loads in the washer (I wash them first to get rid of as much of the lint as possible). Then I have to go through them and cut the larger pieces into smaller sections. I try to make different sized pieces-large ones to wipe the brush on after I rinse them or to get rid of excess glaze or paint, medium/smaller sized pieces to use during the painting process and also for the underpaintings. Then all of the pieces get sorted, folded up, and stored in their own cabinet.

This is all very tedious, and I usually end up with a blister or two from scissors. I have tried to get the kids to do this job, but I can't even pay them enough to stick with it, they hate it as much as I do. It is slightly more tolerable when I do it over the course of a few days, and if I have music or the TV on. I try to do enough at one time though, so that I won't have go through this torture more than a few times per year.

Super exciting post, huh? Well, that's what I have been doing the last few days-painting, and washing/cutting/folding cotton rags, very fulfilling work that will surely change the world. Heh.

Directions

I don't like to talk too much about the directions I'd like to take as far as my work goes. I firmly believe in jinxes and I have noticed that whenever I discuss what I will be doing, it all fails miserably. Thinking about it too much and trying to envision what the work will look like has the same effect. But I need to do a little bit of planning here, and I have decided to risk a big fat jinx by publicly stating what my focus will be while I am on this residency.

When I began painting again after years of being a stay at home mom, I just sort of fell into painting the landscape. It wasn't anything I had done before and I certainly have been exploring that genre for the last four years! I feel like I have really developed my painting skills and so now I'd like to explore some different imagery. Back in college I was quite proficient at drawing and painting almost anything (EXCEPT the landscape) which is a byproduct of being an illustration major. We did a lot of drawing and had to cover a wide variety of subject matter.

Anyway, the figure was always a favorite subject for me and I had a pretty good eye for it, I think. I was good at likenesses, but I was still working on developing my painting skill in college and I never did get those two things to work together very well. Now I have the painting thing down pretty well and since I still love my painting process, it is still challenging and fulfilling to me, I don't intend on mixing that up during this time (someday I will, but perhaps that will be a more gradual process) and so I will focus on developing different imagery. Since there will be three hours of figure drawing sessions each weekday during my residency, I plan to take full advantage of working on the figure.

So this is my plan: First of all, I am going to toss off a barn or landscape or two just to warm up and get comfy in a new studio. After that I am planning to do a lot of drawing at first during the figure sessions, then will move on to doing some underpaintings directly from the model. In between all of that I am going to try and incorporate the drawn images into paintings along with some kind of background. In addition, I have about a million vintage photographs which I am going to take along. I have used those as reference before; I've taken figures from those and have put them into different backgrounds, with varying degrees of success. That was a direction I have always wanted pursue but didn't have the time and am hoping to do that now.

Now, having stated my plans, I have to add that I don't necessarily think I will follow through with them. I just need some parameters to start with. The thought of being able to do whatever I want while I am there is too overwhelming for me and I will flounder and probably accomplish nothing. I need a goal, a focus, along with the ability to be flexible and change directions later on.

So it's anybody's guess, including mine, on what kind of work I will be bringing home at the end of February!

List of supplies to take to the Vermont Studio Center:

Studio

2 pads of 18x24 newsprint

4 pads of 18x24 Strathmore Drawing paper

1 pad of 18x24 Charcoal paper

Tackle box, containing drawing supplies, includes:
a variety of charcoal sticks, conte crayons (lots of sanguine, my favorite), woodless graphite pencils, mostly 9B, graphite sticks, 2 litho sticks, pencil sharpener, chamois cloth, a box of Pink Pearl erasers, straight edge blades, sandpaper block, a box of band-aids, fingernail clippers

3 Drawing boards, and a few masonite panels as well

All of my oil paints, (how can I possibly leave any of my dear colors behind?) including several huge tubes of my favorite underpainting color

Most of my good sable brushes

A few crappy brushes

A box-o-rags from Rose Brand

My ceramic butcher trays and several pads of disposable palette paper

2 Glass jars with coils

1 Liter bottle of Liquin (maybe 2)

A gallon of Turpenoid natural

Primed oil paper pads, Daler-Rowney in a variety of sizes

Tape, white, masking, blue

Box of latex gloves

A gallon of gesso

Gesso brush

As many panels as I can fit in my car

A roll of primed canvas, maybe

Roll of glassine paper

And for those times when I feel like I need to just putter in the studio rather than paint:

My toolbox which will have a hammer, nails, my drill, and hanger supplies (for the panels)

Black paint

Ace Hardware sanding blocks, coarse

Digital camera

Tripod

ipod with the awesome headphones that Doug gave me for Christmas

Personal Items:

Clothing (duh)
Toiletries
My pillow
A blanket
A stack of books
Knitting project
An alarm clock
My watch, which needs a new battery
Cell phone and charger
Laptop computer and accompanying cords and attachments
My new bifocal eyeglasses which will be really great for drawing from the figure-no more choosing between the blurry figure (glasses off) or being bothered by working close (glasses on)
Cold weather gear, including my fake fur hat with the ear flaps that makes me look like a Russian!

Any other suggestions? I am sure I am forgetting something....

Worries

Deep Red Woods, 2007, Oil on Panel, 18x24

I think my posts may be a bit sporadic for the next few weeks. I am overwhelmed with work right now, which is feeling slightly painful. I really wanted to be taking a break before I go to Vermont, but instead I am actually starting some new paintings today, which, hopefully I will be able to finish and get shipped out before next Friday. I love that a number of my galleries need more paintings, but I am also concerned that I will arrive in Vermont burned out. Probably the change in environment and focus will deter that, but who knows?

And the the whole residency thing is really on my mind a lot now. I am worried about being homesick, missing my kids, my husband and my own bathroom (will be sharing one there). I am concerned about socializing so much more than I am used to and what if no one wants to sit with me at dinner? Do I really have to just go and sit next to someone I don't know? Oh the pressure! Stuff like that takes me right back to that torture known as middle school every time. Note to self: Grow up!

Anyway.

Yesterday, I did a blog search and came across two blogs (one here and one here. written by artists who are currently at the Vermont Studio Center. These blogs, in addition to what Kesha has told me have given me a pretty good idea about what to expect. So in addition to being nervous, I am also incredibly excited and can't wait to get there and get started.

I am taking my own pillow along though. That will help.

Birch Panels

Through There, 2007, Oil on Panel, 18x24

Ok, last week, several people, including Michelle, Janet and Kim, asked about my panels, so I said I would write about them in a post. However, the whole topic seemed familiar and so I looked through my archives and found two posts that discuss switching over to birch panels, after having used gessobord panels for quite some time. At first I bought several large ones to work on, you can read about my panic attack concerning the scale here. And then last year I began to exclusively use the birch panels and I wrote about that here.

And with that bit of background info I will explain why I have my panels made for me, rather than buying them at a wonderfully low price in a Home Depot. Mostly it's because rather than framing my work, (I do not think my paintings look good with a frame) I prefer the cradled panels. Which leads me to reason #2: In many ways I am a full out girly-girl. While technically I know my way around a woodshop, I really prefer not to have to actually do work in one. The dust, the noise, the possibility of losing a body part, ick. Um, and I don't have a workshop anyway. AND there is no way that I could ever possibly have enough time to build nearly 200 cradled panels each year either. Even if I did have enough time, I have about a million other things I'd rather do. In theory, I'd like to be that self-sufficient but instead, I must comfort myself with the knowledge that I am helping to keep others afloat in their professions and so most of my panel business goes to Soho Artist Materials in New York City. They have been great to work with and I can't tell you how exciting it still is to get a batch of new panels from them. They are so beautifully finished and so full of promise! As I said they are a bit pricey, for example an 18x24 costs $40, but since I don't have any framing costs, that price becomes much more reasonable, and my time involved in painting the cradles and putting the hangers on etc, is fairly minimal. However the prep is kind of a pain in the neck. I apply two coats of clear polyurethane to the backs and two coats of wood primer on the front and sides, sanding between each coat. And then I apply a coat of gesso to the painting surface. If I really keep at it I can do a table full of panels in a day, but more often it gets spread out over a few days or even a week sometimes. My son is going to work as my assistant next summer and prepping panels will be his very first job!

So that's my panel story and I am sticking to it. And to follow up on the painting that the 48x60 panel became in the post linked above, the image was a barn and was not hung in the show that it was intended for, as the gallery director didn't like it. It then went to another show where it didn't sell and proving that third time is the charm, it finally did sell last summer at yet another show. The other large panel sold last summer as well, as a sort of commission. I feel like I dodged a bullet by getting those two huge panels sold and out of the studio!

Supply Shopping and Supports

I have been gradually getting back into the studio for a short time each day. Although today I have waited just a bit too long and will not be able to get started before I have to leave at 1:30 for an appointment. Darn. Anyway it turns out that I can still paint. Good thing because things keep coming up; galleries need new work, a commission, etc. I am glad to be getting back to it, however, I also have to get things together for the residency, which is fast approaching. I just plunked down a big chunk of money for some supplies to take along. I needed some good drawing paper, more charcoal, woodless graphite pencils, 9B, which are one of my very favorite things to draw with, and sanguine conte crayons, which are #2. Getting ready for hours of figure drawing sessions!

I have also been trying to decide what kind of supports to take with me. Normally I paint on birch panels and I plan to take a variety of different sized panels along. However, they are pricey and god only knows what kind of crap work I may end up doing there so having some different options seems wise. I have some hardbord panels and in the past I have used primed paper, mounted on board and that was fine for studies. So I bought several pads of that (um, no time to be priming paper, in addition to the birch panels as well). I will have a variety of surfaces with me, plus there is an art supply store there as well, and I am feeling pretty good about my options. I had considered taking along a roll of primed canvas or linen in case I want to work on a larger scale, but I quickly became confused by all of the options so that bright idea is on hold. I don't like working on stretched canvas and I probably wouldn't want to stretch it later either. It would have to be mounted on board, which I haven't done in many years. Plus rolling up the painting to take it home seems wrong even though I know it is done all of the time. Any feedback on any of that?

Also, I stocked up on some new paint, which is always fun and bought a few new brushes while I was at it. I have finally found my favorite sable brushes-Old Holland makes a great kolinsky sable, wonderfully soft and they lose very few hairs. Expensive, but they last much longer than the others I have tried and not having to pick brush hairs out of the painting all of the time is worth it.

For some reason blogger will not download any of my jpegs. The little spinning thing freezes on the upload images page and then nothing happens. Is this me or the computer or is it blogger? I suppose it's mine......

Number 18 (plus a rant)

It seems my computer's problem is hardware related, given it's symptoms. Um, especially the not starting up part and maybe the noise that comes from the back too. Doug is going to take it down to the city next week to see if it can be saved and if any of my info can be retrieved. I did manage to back up my jpegs before it totally crashed, but it will be tough to lose the files I didn't save-family pictures (don't get me started on how much I resisted storing our photos online, for exactly this reason! And yes I know that I am a complete moron for not backing up everything.) and my emails especially. And naturally we don't have Apple Care, so no matter what happens, I will be parting with a big chunk of money. Can I just add here that my computer is only two years old? Shouldn't this stuff really be lasting longer? Our iMacs from 1999 only lasted until 2003 before they too crashed and burned. Literally. Smoke came out of my computer. This technology crap sure is handy but is also infuriating and I totally suspect a bit of planned obsolescence going on here and it's really ticking me off. I am going through this with my car as well. Just after the car loan was finally paid off, it started breaking down. Big things too-axles, the timing belt, all kinds of engine thingys. I am very suspicious of all of this.

Ok, I am done with my rant. Sorry, got a bit carried away. Haven't I ever mentioned that I have a tendency to believe in conspiracy theories?

Anyway, in December I came across this post and was really interested to see who ranked where. And because I am completely self-involved I immediately high-tailed it over to technorati to see what my ranking there was. Seeing that it was pretty good and concerned that I wouldn't get my due, because, you know, this is all SO important, I left my technorati link in the comments section. Kim updated the list in January and I admit to being pretty pleased to see that I am in the top 20. Number 18 to be exact. Lisa is Number 12-cool! I am also slightly shocked that anyone finds me even remotely interesting; in my real life, I have noticed people looking around nervously for an escape route when I approach to say hi and no one wants to chat on the phone with me, which is one of my very favorite things to do. Heh. I am only partially kidding there.

So go check me out on Kim's list and then take a look at some of the other artist blogs. I frittered away a whole day looking through all of the ones I hadn't seen before.

Live!

I started to write a long detailed post about what we did on Saturday night, but I deleted it and I think all I really have to say is Alex P. Suter.

Ok, well there is a bit more I can say, big surprise, I know. Doug and I were lucky enough to see Ms. Suter and her band perform a few years ago at a Midnight Ramble at Levon Helm's barn in my favorite place, Woodstock, NY. They were incredible and we have never forgotten their show. Or Ms. Suter's voice. Neither did our friend, Jeff who we went to the show with. Jeff now puts together a local concert series and when this group came up as an option, he immediately signed them up.

Doug and I knew what to expect when they took the stage and so we really enjoyed hearing the entire audience exhale in awe when Alexis Suter began to sing the blues. She was in top form and even though our town must have looked pretty uptight to her, there was a lot more grooving and dancing than I ever expected by the end of the evening! There were a lot of kids dancing up front, including many of my daughter's friends (which made me feel bad for leaving the girls at home) and it was great fun to watch them dance. We have been living here for over four years and in many ways we still feel new to the area. But every once in awhile there is an event or activity where I really feel like I belong here, and this night was one of them. I found myself a bit teary eyed a few times seeing so many people that we know having such a good time.

Anyway, Doug and I are now all worked up about going to another Midnight Ramble and I think we will try to get together a bunch of friends to go. And in the meantime, while I am way too uptight to dance in front of anyone (I used to dance, but only after much alcohol) in private I will be practicing some of Vicki Bell's back-up singer dance moves. Ms. Bell is anything but just a back-up singer, but she sure can groove.

Oh and the other back up singer, Glenn Turner (Doug thinks he looks like a shorter version of Marvin Gaye) sang "Come Together" and I am pretty sure I like his version way better than the Beatles'. Heresy, I know, but it was really awesome.

If you want to hear Alexis P. Suter live, they just released this CD and it's really good.

Don't Feel Like It

Well, I wish I could say here that I have been so busy the last few days that I couldn't even find a few minutes to post. I meant to be busy, but post show meltdown has set in and I am floundering a bit in the studio. I did two underpaintings last week that are still just sitting there and I did manage to do about six new underpaintings yesterday, but that's about it. I could be putting paint on the big ones, but don't feel like it, I could be trying to figure out what to do about my computer, but don't feel like it, I could clean out and reorganize my kitchen cabinets, vacuum up the pet hair, go grocery shopping or get started on the paperwork I promised myself I would get to this month, but don't feel like doing any of those things either.

See? No matter how aware I am of what is happening, the good stuff throws me off my game. I am going to try again tomorrow, though, and hold off on totally freaking out about the loss of my mojo for at least a few more days.

PS. I haven't been totally inactive, I have gotten back into my (almost) daily 3 mile walk and I have been keeping up with the latest on Britney.

PPS. Am having trouble posting images today. Sorry.

The Essay

This is an essay about me written by Peter McLaughlin. Peter interviewed me by phone, and later he told me that he was glad I didn't do "artspeak". I said I was just a plain old regular girl from the midwest and never did quite figure out how to talk like that.


Tracy Helgeson

If you saw a Tracy Helgeson painting in a window in San Francisco, or Fort Worth or Chicago… you’d know immediately who painted it. Her vibrant pink barns and fuscia colored trees leap to the eye and stick to the mind like images from a pleasant dream … the kind you can’t forget even after you wake up.

Helgeson’s landscapes – inspired by the old barns and farm lands around her home near Cooperstown, New York – are original, distinctive and surely unconventional. Where others see green trees and weathered barns, she sees them as magenta, purple, orange or even blue. But in her hands – despite the unorthodox treatment – the colors seem perfectly plausible.

When Helgeson moved to upstate New York in 2003 with her husband and four children, she was deeply affected by the beauty of the area and decided to start painting nature for the first time in her life. “Until four years ago,” she says, “I had never painted a landscape.” Helgeson admits that before moving to the little village of Fly Creek she was thoroughly a city girl who had lived and studied in Minneapolis and Philadelphia and whose forte was figure drawing. “Not having any preconceived notions of what a landscape painting should be gave me great freedom to explore and experiment. At first I just wanted to paint simple trees and horizons and skies. But then I started to notice and include the structures I saw on the local farms. I became intrigued by barns. With their strong sturdy shapes and dramatic angles they became focal points for many of my paintings. Barns served the purpose of hinting at human presence in a landscape without having to show humans.”
“When I started painting landscapes, ” says Helgeson, “ I thought the traditional paintings of that genre were rather dark and moody -- for me anyway -- and I felt a strong urge to break out of the conventional landscape tradition by using brighter, livelier colors. So I started experimenting with colors not usually seen in landscapes.”

Although they’re done in an abstracted fashion, all of Helgeson’s paintings are of real places. They may or may not be recognizable, though, because she freely changes what she sees… eliminating doors and windows from barns, putting in tree lines where they didn’t exist and, of course, changing colors. Helgeson calls her paintings a combination of observation and imagination. “In each painting I struggle to leave out details. I fight to keep my paintings simple, which goes against my natural instinct to be representational. That’s why I paint from memory or photographs and not from life. If I’m looking directly at the subject while I work I’m tempted to include too much detail. I often have to remind myself that I paint to express myself, not to depict something.”

Helgson’s paintings achieve their visual glow through a process that starts with an underpainting. “I put a big old glob of oil paint on a wood panel. (I won’t reveal the secret color but it’s of an orangish nature). Then I coat the entire panel with the paint using a cotton rag. It’s messy. I use my fingers and cotton rags to do a basic drawing, using my fingernails to scratch in the sharper lines on, say, the roof of a barn or the edge of a road. At this point I have created a full and recognizable image (it’s called a reductive drawing) that I let dry for several days. Then I apply the colors, by brush, in thin layers of transparent and opaque glazes that allow the image and the texture of the underpainting to show through.” Large areas of pure color define the simplified forms of structure, land and trees. However, closer inspection reveals many subtleties and variations within the color field. Pink is never just pink, green is never just green. Fiery orange and reds may be undercurrents, while deep blues and greens are subtle overtones.

“ I get a visceral thrill from the process of doing the painting. I delight in the texture of the surfaces, the smell of the paint, the softness of the brushes, the color of the underpainting and the process of applying each layer of color. This makes every painting a sensory pleasure for me and – I hope – for whoever else sees it.”

Despite her success with landscape painting, Helgeson would still like to add to her repertoire and do more figure drawing, the skill she developed at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and the Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts). “While in school we drew the unclothed figure nearly every day and I became quite good at it.” To that end, Helgeson has accepted the offer to do a month-long residency in February at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont. As artist-in-residence she’ll be free to pursue any art form she likes. “I’ve decided to do figure painting with the same technique I now uses on my landscapes. This will be a huge challenge because as an illustrator I did the figure in a conventional way. Now I’ll have to do it in a totally different style. The results should be very interesting.”
- Peter McLaughlin

Its Own Art Form

I had planned to post yesterday, but my computer is giving me trouble. It hasn't been starting up very well, although I did manage to get it up yesterday and quickly backed up all of my info before it froze up again. Including the jpegs of all of my work for the last four years! I am such an idiot for not doing that sooner. Anyway, I am able to access my email (and blogger on Doug's computer) and when he gets back in a few days we will try to figure out what to do. I am incredibly stupid when it comes to anything technical involving the computer, so I am not too keen on even calling Apple for help though I might do that though if I find that have a few hours to kill. As much as I love my Mac, I am not too happy with Apple. Their longevity leaves something to be desired, in my experience. I have only had this computer for two years. The last one I had collapsed and died (along with all my info) after only four years.

Sorry, no image today either. It's a long story, and mostly involves me being stupid so I won't go into it here.

So a little bit more about the opening last Saturday. Jo, the gallery owner and director, and her staff, really do an incredible job of organizing their shows, events and openings. They send out postcards, email invites, and I have been receiving many google alerts for articles announcing the show and the opening reception in the local papers. When Doug and arrived to the opening, our coats were whisked away and we were offered food and drink (which was excellent, of course), and since I only drink water, someone rounded up a bottle for me. As you could see in the photographs I posted yesterday, the show was hung beautifully. Everything was balanced, not too crowded (something I tend to do when hanging a show) and Jo chose the perfect variety of sizes and images to put together. The ones she didn't include in the front room, were displayed in the back room and a number of those pieces sold, so clearly none of the work was shortchanged by the staff. My work can be tricky to light, because of the rather shiny surface, but they hung each piece at just the right height and with the correct angle of light on them. And no bulbs were burnt out. I suspect they would have been horrified if there had been a bulb out at an opening, unlike a few other galleries I have showed at in the past. Each piece had a number next to it on the wall, rather than a label with the title, etc., and the corresponding information were in a price list, a few of which were on a table, along with an essay (which I will post later) about me. I was formally introduced to everyone that was interested in meeting me and left to chat with them. Normally I feel sort of of awkward and shy when meeting new people, but somehow I don't feel that way at the openings. I guess talking continually about how I work, how I prepare the painting surface, choose my images and colors, and discussing the area where we live makes me comfortable. It's all about me, baby!

I have put together a few openings myself, and I understand and appreciate how much goes into putting them together. It's a lot of work, an art form really, but should look like it's not. The Harrison Gallery accomplishes that perfectly and I am incredibly giddy pleased about working with them.

Opening Reception

The opening reception at The Harrison Gallery on Saturday night was awesome! There wasn't a huge crowd, but nearly everyone who came was there to meet me. And they all seemingly bought a painting or already owned one or more. One couple bought four! By the end of the evening the sales count was at eleven. Several pieces, including Red Gambrel (above), were sold before the opening. Doug and I were a bit giddy on the way home!

This is all very exciting, of course, but it is also the kind of stuff that messes with my head. Everyone was very complimentary about my work and while such feedback is great, if I start thinking how fab I am, my work really suffers. I will think every mark I make is the best, when in reality they aren't always, and I need to be able to see that.

So I indulged myself a bit last night with a satisfied feeling of pride and accomplishment, plus a little grandiosity thrown in, but today I have to shovel out the chicken crap from the hen house while it is relatively warm and then get right back to painting tomorrow. The Harrison Gallery wants larger scale paintings for their inventory before I leave for Vermont next month!

Woo-hoo!!! (Sorry, just a bit more self-indulgence, couldn't help myself:))

Inspiration!

Thursday was a very nice relaxed day for me and I thoroughly enjoyed having the house to myself (kids at school, Doug in the city). Um, you know, so I could do laundry and clean with MY music blaring throughout the house.

Surprisingly though, what I really wanted to do was to paint. Usually I feel like a limp dishrag for at least a few days after I ship or deliver work for a show and I generally take some time off before getting back to work. But seeing my work all spread out at the gallery on Wednesday inspired me to get right back to it. It all looked awesome together! The process of painting for this show had been filled with stops and starts, not to mention a few gaps filled with work from another show. And even though I always spread the work out and look at it as a group for a show beforehand, strangely, this time it didn't even cross my mind to do that. So I was pretty lucky that it worked out.

Anyway, after seeing everything and having a (positive) conversation with the gallery director on Wednesday about the larger paintings I felt really excited about starting a few more. I forced myself to take one day and clean up so that I wouldn't be distracted by that, OR grossed out by the condition of our downstairs bathroom, and then this morning I spent a few hours doing two underpaintings, both sized 30x40. I would have liked to do a few more but I had a hair appointment, which frankly, takes precedent. Heh. Maybe I'll do a few more on Sunday.

That is unless, the opening tomorrow sends me into Post Show Meltdown, of course.

Delivery To Williamstown

Today, Doug and I are driving to Williamstown, MA, in order to deliver my work to The Harrison Gallery. I always enjoy these trips. I am usually filled with relief to be done with everything, for the moment anyway, and when Doug comes with, we always enjoy having a few hours of uninterrupted conversation,

The painting that I have posted today is one that I am very happy with and if we had more wall space I might consider keeping it. But we don't, so I am not and so it will be included in the show. Anyway, it's a big panel and the whole thing, start to finish, just burst right out of me. I can't explain it any better than that. I like the colors, the tree and I don't know what made me do it, but I especially love the blue at the horizon line on the left side. It's quite different than how I usually resolve those areas. And now, as is my habit, I will probably do that in every painting I do until Doug shakes me and tells me to stop!

So if you are anywhere close to the Berkshires this weekend, please come by the opening on Saturday, January 5, 5-7pm to see this fab painting for yourself, and/or to meet me and Doug. Or if you feel a bit shy about that, at least visit the gallery sometime in January, the show will be up until January 31st.

Oh, and I came across this article about the show. I think it is a press release from the gallery as much of it comes from my artist statement. Not the adjective "passionate" though. While I love to hear my work described as that I think my face would turn beet red if I ever described my own work as passionate!

Resolutions (vs Reality)

Comfort, 2007, Oil on Panel, 9x9

Last year I publicly announced a list of New Year's resolutions. I was sure that if I said them out loud I would be more likely to accomplish them. HA!

I am listing my resolutions for 2007. What actually happened is in italics after each item.

1. Organize and then KEEP my desk and paperwork up to date.

Not even close. I still have not filled out an inventory sheet for most of the paintings that I did in 2006, let alone 2007. I do have all the info in various place on my computer, but have I even backed that up? No. I will be renewing this resolution for 2008.

2. Keep my studio clean and tidy.

Ha again! I did what I usually do-clean it thoroughly, then let it get so messy that I can barely get to the easel. Right now it is very tidy though, and I am loving it.

3. More studio time, less computer time.

Double ha! I totally spent way too much time on the computer in 2007, however I did get rid of the sore elbow that I had last year, by switching the use of my mouse to my left hand. It took some doing to get used to that but I figure I have at least another year of daily use before the radiating pain begins in my left elbow.

4. Attend weekly figure drawing sessions at the local art association, even though the models are usually clothed rather than unclothed and even though it's on one of my favorite TV nights.

I went once in January and once last fall. A spectacular failure.

5. Develop new imagery for my oils.

I started to work on some different things last January but then I got really busy with the landscape work again and so experimenting fell by the wayside. I feel sad about this but I was pleased with how my landscape and barn work evolved, so I am not too bent out of shape here.

6. Pull out some of the 7 million pastels sticks that I have (that are hidden from my kids who LOVE sidewalk chalk, if you get my drift) and play around with them a bit, without worrying about the following:

a). how to store the pieces
b). how to frame them or
c). how good they are OR
d). how bad they are and
e). whether the galleries will want to show them or not.

My pastels are in exactly the same spot as last year. Again, I didn't have enough time or energy to experiment and the thought of confronting a,b,c,d,e, was too overwhelming.

7. Work on getting some coverage in publications such as The Artist's Magazine.

Didn't even lift a finger here.

8. Update my info and start sending my packets out again to galleries in cities such as NYC and Boston.

Or here. Well, that isn't quite true. I did email the link to my website to a gallery in NYC, who now shows (and sells) my work. So technically I did lift a finger after I hit send. Does that count?

9. Save as much money as I can, in order to pay for a new building for my studio in 2008.

I did save a little bit, but because of our personal expenses (like having the house painted and property taxes) I didn't save as much as I could have otherwise, However, just being able to write that sentence is monumental and I am proud of it. I went for a dozen years with a big fat zero in my earnings column on our tax return and to now be able to claim a real income, let alone being able to pay for something like a new roof or paint job makes me feel a bit teary eyed. However, a new studio will have to wait until 2009.

10. Um, earn more money for #9.

This one I accomplished!!! My income for 2007 was a respectable number, especially for an artist, and it was a 70% increase over my income in 2006. I was hoping for a 20% increase so more than that was just icing on the cake.

With the notable exception of #10, I think I can safely say that my resolution list was pretty much a bomb. But that's ok. I didn't really feel tied to those goals, especially since I had so many positive things happening, things that kept me accomplishing those specific items, but allowed me to achieve things I hadn't really thought about yet.

These are some of the things that I did do last year:

1. My badly kept records (I can keep track by how many jpegs I have made) indicate that I painted about 170 paintings in 2007. About two dozen of those are currently in the inventory of the galleries that represent me, I have a few pieces here in my own inventory, plus the 23 pieces for the show at The Harrison Gallery. Which means that...

2. I sold 111 paintings in 2007!! A few less than in 2006 (114 that year), but....

3. 2007 was the year I painted big! I did 16 paintings that were 24x36 or larger (that's big to me) and working that large was a challenge to me in every way. And all of them have been sold so I guess it was a good direction to take.

4. I had 4 solo shows and participated in 5 group shows.

5. I donated 3 paintings to local fundraisers.

6. I applied for and was accepted to the Vermont Studio Center for a one month artist residency.

7. I read too many books to list, not as many as I would have liked, but more than I have been able to read in the past few years.

8. I raised 8 new baby chicks, saved them from being killed by the older hens, and we are now enjoying their eggs each day.

9. I knitted 5 scarves and one sweater. Again, less than I used to do, but more than I have been able to do lately.

10. I traveled more than usual. I went to New Mexico (twice), Atlanta, spent a few weekends in NYC with Doug, and had a week long family vacation in New Hampshire.

11. I was able to spend some time with my mom before she died last August, and am now happy to have my sister back in my life.

12. And my best accomplishment was keeping the kids, household and husband on track for another year.

These things were so much more meaningful and important to me than the resolutions I had made. But, because I am an idiot, I will extend the 2007 resolutions for another year and see what happens. Maybe I'll end up with a museum show. Or a field of sheep. Or a new baby. heh.

I shouldn't even joke about that last one.

Happy New Year! (plus a chicken update)

Neighboring Pond, 2007, Oil on Panel, 8x10

Been meaning to post for a few days, but to be honest I have been enjoying some time off from the computer, and from trying to think of some fascinating and witty things to write about. Heh.

We have all just been hanging around the house, staying up late, sleeping in (well, late for me is 7am, for everyone else it is 10am!) doing jigsaw puzzles and playing with our new toys. By the way I love doing jigsaw puzzles. I only do them once a year, usually around or just after the holidays. I would love to do them more often, but I feel guilty thinking of all the other things I should be doing. So I allow myself a few weeks in the winter. It's definitely an activity where the process is why I do it, the finished images are usually quite a letdown. Even the nice ones still look, well, they still look like a jigsaw puzzle when they are done.

Oh and I have a really thrilling chicken update. We have already had quite a bit of snow and cold weather this winter so the chickens have been pretty cooped up, not even able to leave their hen house let alone their little yard. The last few days have been milder and they have been outside, so I have been able to get a good look at them. The other day I noticed that one of them had blood all over her bottom, just dripping out of her vent (where the eggs come out of). And when there is blood chickens turn into cannibals! She had a line of chickens following her, pecking at her bottom, making it worse. So she is temporarily living in our garage until she heals up. Then yesterday, I noticed that our Naked Neck chicken had a big laceration on her chest, with stuff coming out, (it's like a bad movie, seeing that). She was acting fine, walking around, eating, etc, but today I noticed that it is bleeding a bit and she is now being followed around by the "peckers". So I guess she will also be a guest in our garage as well, but I have no idea what to do about that injury. I think she needs stitches! And Doug thinks I am crazy to even consider taking her to the vet. I guess we'll see if the cut heals up on it's own (doubtful as it is gaping open), otherwise I guess we may have to euthanize-especially if more stuff comes out.

Ewww!

And on that lovely note, I wish you all a Happy New Year! I suspect I will be sleeping when the big moment comes, unlike when I was young and chose to party in a bar all night. But I hope that at least a few of you out there will be doing something fun on New Year's Eve!

New Books

Wrap Around, 2007, Oil on Panel, 18x24

Today I am basking in the glow of a very lovely last few days with my family. Our time was spent finishing the stupid Christmas puzzle, watching silly movies, wrapping gifts, baking (I ate way too many frosted sugar cookies, bad girl!) and just hanging out.

My studio was quiet and nearly forgotten, poor thing. But my fabulous husband gave me two books which will ease me back into work over the next few days. One was a book about Monet, which is quite different than the other book of his work that I have. This one shows the details of his business-sales records, receipts, influences, travels, personal papers like letters and photographs, it is so amazing to see those items and it's good to be reminded that even artists like Monet had to deal the with the more humdrum things like paperwork.

The other is a wonderful book about Richard Diebenkorn. I have been a fan of his work and am now especially interested in his figurative work as I am thinking that I will be focusing on that while I am at the Vermont Studio Center in February. Anyway, this book describes his background and the images of his work are just amazing.

And for my birthday a few weeks ago, Doug gave me a book of etchings, mostly portraits, by Lucian Freud. It too has been very inspiring, if a bit disturbing. Which I love, by the way.

I have another laid back day ahead of me, although I do plan to putter around in the studio a bit. Even though I am finished painting, I do need to paint the panel cradles and put hangers on about ten pieces. And as I have now learned from Monet, there is always the paperwork to do.

Done

Flatland, 2007, Oil on Panel, 8x10

I was assuming that I would be working pretty much through Christmas and right up until I have to deliver everything to the gallery in the first few days of January. However, after looking at my list of finished pieces I think I can safely say I am done! Yayyy! I guess I was in such a painting frenzy that I lost track of where I was. And there have been so many interruptions to my studio time, I just assumed that I hadn't gotten enough work done. I had four pieces finished before I got sick in November, plus seven that were at the underpainting stage. In the last three weeks, I finished those seven, plus eight more, including a 36x48 piece. So all of those, plus four that came back from another show and which fit in perfectly with the new group gives me a very healthy twenty three paintings for a solo show. I am tempted to do one more large landscape as I feel the group is a bit heavy on barns, but that might just be showing off. Heh.

It's good to know that I can pull together enough work for a show in a month but I do need to make an effort to NOT cut it quite so close, because things can happen (like pneumonia) to throw me off. On the other hand, I work better and can create a more cohesive group of paintings if I do everything that I can in a mad rush of creativity and energy. So a balance must be achieved, with work and life.

The One Where I Keep Plugging Away

My Blue Barn, 2007, Oil on Panel, 9x9

Well, I think that posts may be a bit more infrequent here in the next few weeks. Everything is converging in the next week; the holidays, finishing up the work for January's show plus a myriad of other activities such as holiday chorus concerts and plays, mundane but necessary paperwork, and putting together the dang family holiday card! At this point I will just be happy if I can get the stupid things postmarked by the 24th. Of course, WE have received many holiday cards from people who are either super organized or who have nothing else to do in November but to mail out their cards. Heh. Anyway, I humbly bow down to all of those people.

However, this is the second year that I have had a solo show scheduled for January and while at first I wasn't too thrilled about the fact that I would have to work pretty hard well into December, there is also a silver lining to that. It has forced me (and our family) to simplify our holidays quite a bit. There is less time for shopping for things that the kids don't really need (or will even look at within a month), I have learned to hand over decorating the tree to the kids, who fully enjoy that process and although I like putting lights up on our porch, in the last two years I have found that Christmas still comes whether they are up or not.

The activities we have kept up with are the ones we all can pitch in and do; baking, making gifts, wrapping them, attending the concerts and other activities and cleaning the house. Well, maybe not that last one so much, but if there is ever a shot that I can get the kids to pick up their stuff without asking twice, it is now.

And while the ever increasing commercialism and consumerism makes me more uncomfortable each year, it has not escaped my attention that both Doug and I are totally contributing to it by creating things that are intended for sale. I am not sure I can ever fully reconcile those opposing beliefs, but I hope that by simplifying our lives we can somewhat offset what we do for a living.

It's the best I can do right now.

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!

Tagged 2x

Opening, 2007, Oil on Panel, 5x7
Natalya tagged me way back in October and what with all the illness going on around here, I plumb forgot to do a post listing five things about myself. And then Stephen Magsig tagged me the other day. I don't normally like getting tagged however, post topics have been a bit harder to come by lately so so I figured what the heck. Although I am struggling to find five things that I haven't already disclosed here, I am going to give it a shot. Oh and I know I am cheating by condensing two tags into one. So sue me.

1. I absolutely hate cucumbers! Doug and I have been together long enough to have a system though, whenever I get a salad in a restaurant that has any cucumbers on it, he immediately removes them AND the surrounding items, because the flavor of what you hate always migrates.

2. I have the ability to make my shoulder blades protrude several inches out of my back. This was an excellent thing to do to impress the boys at the bar back in my younger days. And I have passed this talent on to two of my kids. They are so lucky. Heh.

3. I hated my hometown (Rochester, MN) so much that I moved to Minneapolis within days of graduating from high school. It was a good move to get away, however ironically, after living in all kinds of different places, we have settled in a town that is pretty much a smaller version of Rochester.

4. This one is a real shocker: I have always for as long as I can remember, wanted to be an artist. I have had a few other interests along the way; writing, working with handicapped people, and have had a few detours, most notably motherhood, but wanting to paint has always been a part of me. Well, that and being able to belt it out like Janis Joplin on stage!

5. Even though it's been 22 years, whenever I see the scene near the end of the movie Witness where the little boy rings the bell and all of the Amish neighbors come to help, I cry. Every. Single. Time. In fact that is the sort of thing that almost always makes me cry, is seeing or reading about people helping each other.

Ok, that's it. And now for the really hard part, tagging others.

Nat Dickinson
Kesha Bruce
Sheree Rensel
Angela Rockett
Gary Rith

I apologize in advance if any of you have been tagged recently, or if you prefer not to participate. Believe you me, I understand.

Cracked Ice

Road to Nowhere, 2007, Oil on Panel, 12x16

A lovely cozy day around the house today. We had an ice storm last night, so no school for the kids. Everyone is working on various projects and Doug and I are even getting some work done. It's incredibly beautiful outside, but treacherous too. I went out to tend the chickens and as I slid across the road and over the snow it cracked under my feet like ice on a lake. Our pathetic little sledding hill has transformed into a major speedway and we have had at least one (minor) injury there today.

I suppose someone should go out and shovel or something but sitting by the fireplace is just too perfect today and so we will just hope the temperature will go up just enough to make slush by tomorrow. Don't have to feel guilty about a driveway full of slush.