Ta-Daaa!

So here it is - a shot of the painting area of my new studio. These are just my basic supplies as I am still trying to finish up painting the trim before I really junk the place up.

I did a whole batch of underpaintings on Monday up there and it was lovely. The work didn't seem to be affected by the move (yet) but it did take some time to settle in a bit. I spent a lot of time moving things around, getting the placement of the easels and tables just right and especially adjusting the lamps over my easel (mainly I paint at the one on the left). It was difficult to get them in the right place because of the sloped ceiling, which I almost immediately dented with the halogen lamp.

I suspect I will be moving things around quite a bit more before things feel right.

One thing that is right is the color. While I appreciate the clean look of a white studio, it is not for me. I like to feel all cozy and tucked in when I am in my studio, and actually in any room that I am in in my house (none of which have white walls) and white walls just don't do that for me. But since most of the studio walls are actually the sloped ceiling, and because of the limited natural light I decided to paint the ceiling an off white; the same creamy white color (Aspic from Sherwin Williams) that we used on all of the trim in the house, as well as the ceiling in our bedroom, which is very similar to the studio. But then I had to contend with the short knee walls. I considered painting them Aspic too, but then well, the room would have seemed white. After collecting a ton of paint chips, I finally settled on a dark color called Peppercorn from Sherwin Williams. Even though it is pretty intense, it is actually a pretty neutral color, not exactly blue or green or brown and not too cool or too warm. Neutral. I also hoped that by just using it on the side walls that it would help to make the room seem a bit more spacious.

Even though I was sure about this color, I have to admit to being a bit nervous when I painted the first wall section. If I was wrong about it, it would be a real pain in the neck to change! Luckily, though by the time I was about halfway done with the first side, I was liking it and when it was finished I REALLY liked it. Phew.

After all that drama however, it probably won't really matter what color I decided on. I am pretty sure that soon I will have a lot of crap lining those walls and I'll never see Peppercorn again.

Jim, the floor guy came last week and sanded and polyurethaned the floors over the course of several days. As we suspected, the floors were the same wood that is in much of the rest of our house; pumpkin pine. No stain necessary, the warm orange of the wood was enough color for me and really contrasts perfectly with the wall colors. I am giddy about how beautiful the floor is. I will even admit to rolling around on it a few times. Heh. (actually I am not kidding)

The beams are amazing, even if they are kind of in the way and it hurts a lot to bump into them. Jim said he has seen only one other house in the area with this sort of diagonal structure. Our house is over 200 years old and is pretty dang plumb all things considered and these beams have a lot to do with that. They are connected to each other with pegs, not nails and you can see the hatchet marks where they were cut. As soon as I finish up the walls, I am going to give the beams a good coat of tung oil. I think they deserve it after all their hard work.


So there you go. This project cost twice as much as we expected, but I think it will be worth it. I am pretty sure that there will be some good art made up there.

Here are some pictures of the progress.

Painting the walls:


At first I was deathly afraid of walking out on this 2 foot wide ledge in order to paint the wall and ceiling. I was afraid that I would lose my balance, hit the stairs and break something. But by the first coat of Peppercorn on the wall I was practically bustin' some Coyote Ugly moves out there and feeling pretty pleased with myself.


Finished stairs and studio floor:

Still have to finish painting the trim and railing, but I also have a temporary table set up to prep a few panels 'cause I have a show in July to prepare for:

So-o-o, watchya think?

Fun, Fun, Fun

Ok. Saturday was a really busy day what with the kid's activities and preparing for the party. I basically cooked and cleaned most of the day, but at least I had help. Penny was so tired after all she did that day that SHE managed to get in a little snooze on the patio. At least someone was rested for the party (I didn't get a nap and felt a bit kooky all evening).

And I am thankful for Dorrie who helped out by anchoring down the strawberry box after I had emptied it.

Anyway, it was a great party. All my lovely friends came, bearing wonderful food and much beer. Despite a few threats, the rain held off and we were able to enjoy our patio. I gave many tours of our vegetable garden, my new studio AND the new shower in the kid's bathroom, because, well those are always pretty exciting too. Heh.

At dusk, Doug projected a silent movie (Charlie Chaplin) onto the garage wall that borders our patio. AND my silly music shuffle played all night. We heard such gems as Rock Lobster, I Walk the Line, Avalon, Somewhere Over the Rainbow (Jason Castro's version from American Idol) and I Think I Love You by the best singing TV family ever, The Partridge Family.

I had picked a full bag of lettuce from our garden earlier in the day, way too much for any one family, and so everyone received a party favor on their way out; a gallon size bag of fresh greens. Everyone enjoyed the irony of that; our kids all go to so many birthday parties, that we are all endlessly putting together goodie bags it seems.

And bright and early on Sunday morning (actually it was about 11am, but that sure seemed early) I began moving things up to my new studio. Tomorrow I will finally put up pictures of the remodeling process and discuss the wall color issues.

Still much to do up there but I am IN!

Pesto Potato Salad Recipe

(Sorry, I don't have a picture of the potato salad. I ended up not making it for our party, but I can tell you that it mostly looks like regular potato salad, but it's more along the lines of a green dish rather than white.)

This recipe come from one of those silly little recipe books that are in every grocery store check out lane in America. I have a bit of an addiction to buying them and in fact have so many that I couldn't find the exact recipe for the potato salad. But no worries. I have gotten to the point where no recipe card is necessary, although it may be challenging to write it down. But here goes:

about four cups of baby red potatoes
a few stalks (?) of celery, diced
one container of pesto (7 0z)
mayonnaise (I use Hellman's)
pine nuts
salt and pepper

Boil the red potatoes (leave the skins on) and cut in half or so after they have cooled

I use equal parts of pesto and mayo, so usually I dump the pesto into a bowl, fill up the pesto container with mayo and add that to the pesto. No need for measuring cups and it's easy to double the recipe, which I usually do if I am taking it to a potluck or something.

Add celery to the pesto/mayo and salt and pepper to taste. Add cooked potatoes and stir to coat the potatoes.

Pine nuts: Place pine nuts in a saute pan and heat them until brown. Keep shaking the pan to turn the nuts so they will brown evenly. And keep an eye on them; the nuts always act like they aren't cooking and then all of a sudden they are burned. Sprinkle the nuts over the potato salad right before serving.

Sorry I can't be more specific about the amounts. I just do it all by eye, adjusting the amounts to our preferences. For example we like our potato salad with a lot of the pesto/mayo and we also like a lot of pine nuts, although I have a tendency to make too many and then someone will just eat them separately. I usually use a handful or so of the pine nuts.

Oh and this recipe is really good when the potatoes are tossed into the dressing while still still warm and then served right away. We like it much better right away, rather than out of the fridge the next day.

And of course one could add other ingredients. Sometimes I add some cooked chicken and that is really good too.

Enjoy! And good luck:)

Summer Solstice Party Preparations

Yellow Dream, 2008, Oil on Panel, 9x9

I am completely exhausted this evening and I expect I will be even more so tomorrow. We are having a pretty good sized party (20 guests) tomorrow night which has been great motivation to get our house and yard cleaned up. Doug spent the day weed whacking and mowing the lawn (in between the rain showers) and I had to go out and spend like a million dollars on food and other important things for a party like citronella candles and fashionable vinyl tablecloths. Oh wait, there is no such thing as fashionable vinyl tablecloths. The best ones I could find have big images of fruit all over them.

Anyway, tomorrow I will be finishing up getting the house in order and cooking. It is a potluck but in true mom form, I am worried about not having enough food and so I suspect that I will cooking way too much.

But I just can't resist making my specialties:

roast vegetable lasagna
chicken salad
pesto pine nut potato salad
green salad (with lettuce from our garden)
strawberry shortcake with homemade whipped cream
apple cake

Oh and I have all this great cheese from a local farm that raises goats and they make the best goat cheeses ever.

I do plan to try to take a nap tomorrow afternoon though, so that I will be able to speak coherently with all of our lovely friends.

And did I mention the soccer games in the morning? Good grief, this is the season that will never end.

The Economy of Art

Dark Pond Day, 2008, Oil on Panel, 18x24

A few months ago I began to hear from a few artists that their sales had slowed down a bit. Mine were still ok at that point but with so many bad things going on in the current economy I had a bit of worry at the back of my mind. April and May were a bit slow, but after I looked at my records I saw that historically those are the two slowest months of the year for me. Now it's June and with the exception of modest sales from the show I have up in Hudson, things are REALLY slow.

And while last year all of my work sold at the Affordable Art Fair, this year I didn't do quite so well. Only three small pieces sold. Sales seemed erratic at the fair-some say they didn't sell much at all and others sold out their booths. Hmmm.

I guess this could be economy related. Certainly when things look unsure, people stop buying the extras (that's our plan), which art is considered to be. Or maybe it's just the ebb side of my recent flow.

Whatever it is, I am going to keep painting. And then I really have to get my info together and get a new gallery and push the business side of things here.

Ack! I am sure feeling the loss of the NYC gallery!

Any thoughts out there about art sales and the economy?

This Year's Vegetable Garden

Last summer I read Animal, Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver which greatly influenced me to try and grow more of our own food. And so I spent the winter reading up an gardening. Four Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman was very helpful as well as a subscription to Mother Earth News. Not to mention many hours of internet surfing, looking for info about how to grow asparagus or potatoes or whatever else I thought we might want to try.

Our existing garden is a fenced area, 60x60 feet square. We have put in some sort of garden each year that we have been here and usually the tomatoes and squash have done well, however the rest of the garden was always overwhelmed by weeds. So this year I formulated a plan. In April we had a few weeks of really warm weather and we spent that time tilling and forming raised beds for planting. Right now we have about 24 beds each 3x8 feet and they have all been planted (there are a few more beds that need some work and I plan to put in a small cold frame structure on one of them in order to extend a few things into the winter and early spring). Then we will lay down weed barrier in the walkways and cover the barrier with mulch. We have begun this process but it's a ton of work and we got distracted from it while planting. Also in April, I planted things that could take a few frosty nights, which we had until the last week of May. I planted broccoli, lettuce plants, direct sowed carrot and sweet peas and Doug put together the asparagus bed and planted 25 crowns. We like asparagus! The strawberry and raspberry plants from last year came back pretty well. Then we spent another month building the garden, forming more beds and much weeding. Finally in the first week of June we did the fun stuff and planted seed potatoes, tomatoes, sweet peppers, hot peppers, pumpkins, zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant, cucumbers. I also direct sowed beans and spinach. Oh and I still have a few rhubarb plants to put in as well as two grapevines. And my daughter brought home a cabbage plant from school which is thriving. Too bad we all hate cabbage....

I spent a few days covering the edges of some of the beds with newspaper (you can see them in some of the photos) which will help to keep the weeds at bay until the barrier and mulch gets finished up. In the meantime I try to keep up with the weeding, pulling out the weeds in each bed by hand every day. Also we haven't had much rain this spring so one of us has to go out and do the watering every day. We used to set up a sprinkler but that really encouraged weed growth everywhere, so we water each plant by hand now. It takes about an hour and believe me, my days now revolve around determining whether or not it will rain!

Our fence is ok but I think we have to do something else. A deer (or something) got in a few nights ago and ate a good part of two broccoli plants as well as sheared off several strawberry plants and some of the peas too. My son and I put a deer mesh around each of those beds and that seems to have done the trick. Some people in the area have electric fences around their vegetable gardens and so I suppose we will have to look at that option someday.

I planted way too much lettuce and have practically been throwing bags of it at anyone who unwittingly drives past our house! On Saturday I brought in a garbage bag full of lettuce (romaine, green and red leaf) and it turns out that just dumping it all into our big ol' sink is the best way to rinse it. My daily salads have been awesome though!

The strawberries are close to getting ripe and I have been eating the broccoli which is excellent. Too bad only Doug and I will enjoy THAT vegetable! The blueberry bushes that we planted in containers on our patio are doing well, although one didn't seem to make it through the winter. I was supposed to cover them with mulch and straw for the winter but never got to it because I was sick (and then kinda lazy).

Along with the food we are growing and our local farmer's market we are looking at not buying food in the grocery store for at least 4 or 5 months. We will have to eliminate a few things from our diets to accomplish this goal, but that can only be good for us. The kids aren't too happy about it but I suspect they will adjust.

This is all a ton of work, but a lot of fun, challenging and fulfilling too. When I am inside I often feel overwhelmed with how much there is to do, but once I am standing in the garden and looking at everything that is growing, and feeling the sun and a warm breeze I am very happy.

Washing greens:


Potatoes in the front and then four beds of tomatoes:


Asparagus bed:


Front to back, sweet peas, carrots, two broccoli beds, and asparagus bed:


Two beds of lettuces:


Green peppers (and a skewed bird house):


Squash and pumpkins:


Strawberry bed:


Table and chairs (for resting:)) and bean tower in the back:

I Got a Mention!!!!

Ok, folks, so this is pretty cool! Trendcetera evidently visited the Affordable Art Fair and mentioned a few artists, including MOI! Not sure I would define my palette as psychedelic, but whatever. I'll take it, along with the suggestion that "one can't help but imagine this popping off the wall of a stark white loft flush with light."

Flower Gardens

My focus this spring has been on the vegetable garden, and I haven't put a whole lot of energy into the flower gardens. Luckily though, they are fairly established and so all I have done is planted some annuals, and put up a few hanging baskets. The beds all need a bit of weeding after our recent rain when they burst forth big time, but overall the flowers are looking pretty good.





Basically our patio is finished although it's a bit of a mess right now and the weeds are crazy out there too. We do still need to add a few flagstones right next to our back step and the goal is to do that before our big party on the summer solstice.


That's Penny enjoying the sun and wondering what the heck I am doing and does it involve food for her somehow. I know that look.


I do not normally go for garden decoration or ornaments, but how could I pass on a pink flamingo? Even Doug (the ultimate snob concerning decoration) agreed that it was a good addition to the back flower garden.

I'm A Loser, But I Don't Really Care Much

Steep Red Roof, 2008, Oil on Panel, 11x14

For the most part I have stopped entering competitions. However, I still usually enter two that are sponsored by our local arts organization. One of those is a national competition and the other is regional. The regional is usually a slam dunk for me, but the national hasn't been at all. I was accepted into it once a few years ago but haven't been since then. This year I entered Red Carol (you see, I did jinx myself by mentioning it!) and while I hoped entering something different would change my luck I can understand why it wasn't accepted. I don't think it's quite right, plus it really doesn't translate in a jpeg, a common problem with my work, unfortunately.

Then yesterday I received a rejection letter from The MacDowell Colony. I wasn't terribly surprised, I have heard it is very difficult to get into, but I did have my fingers crossed anyway. I have a thing now about doing residencies and that one would have been a good one for my resume. In a way though, while I am sure it would have been an incredible experience I am ok with not being accepted. Partly because it cements my feelings of not fitting in anywhere (heh )and I am very comfortable with that feeling, but also because it sounds like a very solitary sort of residency and part of what I enjoyed so much about the Vermont residency was the social aspect. I can be alone in my own studio here at home everyday if I want, I don't need to go somewhere else to do that. But despite that I will probably apply again, because I do think it would be valuable to do at some point. Plus I do have a bit of a competitive streak and I'd like to be accepted somewhere, at some point. Know what I mean?

And I did get accepted into the regional show at the local arts org. This year was funny and I wasn't so sure about it being a slam dunk. The judge was Julian Hatton (he lives about an hour away, which qualifies him as local) one of the visiting artists that I got to know while in Vermont. I think he liked my landscapes, although he only saw a few of them, but he was somewhat negative about the figures that I was working on at that point and he questioned whether doing still lifes would get me any recognition (if that was what I was going for). He was also the artist that I prattled on and on to about me, me, me and I was pretty sure I was pretty irritating to him by the time he left. Poor guy. Anyway, I am still a fan of his work, though I doubt he remembers mine and probably didn't recognize the style of the painting he accepted into the show. But he and his wife, Alison Berry, who was also a judge, should be at the opening this Friday so perhaps we'll chat then. If he doesn't seem to remember me I will just slink around the edges of the gallery trying to avoid him.

Very mature, I know.

Now I am off to paint the new studio. We have had a bit of a heat wave for the last few days and while the attic isn't all that hot, it sure is when one is moving around a lot, painting the walls. But today is much cooler so I am hoping to make some progress up there. Pictures coming soon!

Recovering

Two Plus Two, 2008, Oil, 8x10

Well, I just barely survived the weekend. I do have a sunburn and six black fly bites on my right upper arm which are driving me crazy, they itch so bad. But the girls finished their triathlon, and my older daughter who had finished her race, went back and ran across the finish line with our youngest, the same little girl that she usually delights in tormenting. I admit to more than a few tears when I saw that. Sisters, you know? And Doug and I enjoyed a lovely dinner out with another couple on Saturday night. We know them casually, but this was the first time that we all had a chance to really sit down and talk and it was great fun to find all that we have in common.

I delivered my paintings to the gallery for the Affordable Art Fair on Sunday. The moment I drove into Hudson it began to rain and by the time I parked illegally in front of the gallery the rain was torrential. I dropped my umbrella which then blew across the street so between chasing that down and then running into the gallery twice with paintings I got completely soaked. I had to ask Melissa for a towel to dry off with. Sometimes keeping one's dignity is just not possible... And to top it all off, not four minutes after I left, the rain had stopped and there was a bit of sun showing. Typical.

I am going to take a week off from painting, even though I really shouldn't as I still have a few things to do plus a small solo show in mid-July to prepare for. But I have to finish painting the walls in my studio by Wednesday and then I really have to get the walkways covered in the vegetable garden before the weeds eat our plants. We didn't get that finished over the weekend and it still needs to be done.

I will start a new batch of paintings this Friday though and get back to some kind of schedule.

Probably. Maybe.

Weekend Madness

Between the Poles, 2008, Oil on Panel, 16x20

Today I am finishing up a new batch of paintings that will be on display at the Affordable Art Fair in NYC next weekend. I am excited to have my work there again, as last year's AAF was pretty successful for me and well, I still owe some money on my new attic so I admit that a few sales right now would be really great. I may have jinxed the whole thing by saying that out loud but there you go.

Last year my work was shown by Multiple Impressions, however, since they are closing (sob) I will be with Carrie Haddad at booth A-303, just in case anybody out there will attending the show. I was hoping to go but Doug will be out of town and things are too hectic around here for me to leave for a day or two, so my work will be there without me.

Speaking of hectic, this weekend isn't even officially here yet and my head is spinning with all that is going on. A soccer game tonight, my son is leaving for a Boy Scout camp out, a dinner for my daughters who have working on a triathlon, for which I have to bake a rhubarb cake this morning. The triathlon on Saturday morning, an end of the school year party for my older daughter, dinner with friends, and then on Sunday I have to drive down to Hudson (for the third weekend in a row-oh the fuel!) to deliver the paintings. I also have to stop at the paint store and finally decide on which color/colors to paint my studio, which has to be finished before the floor guy comes on Wednesday to sand the floors. I am only about halfway finished priming the walls and so have much more to do up there.

Oh and we have to finish up the vegetable garden. Everything is planted finally, but we want to cover and mulch the walkways so that the weeds don't overtake us all (more on the garden next week).

But I am thankful for the rain we finally had last night. At least I won't have to spend an hour each day for the next few days, hand watering the garden.

Flattery!

And much better than a good batch of paintings on display is this. And then this. Go see. Since I don't teach I am exceedingly glad to at least be represented in a classroom.

An Evening in Hudson

Doug and I had a great time at the opening in Hudson on Saturday. First of all the show was hung beautifully and it was hard to believe that I actually made the art that is hanging on the walls. It looks sooooo much better than how I remembered it!

A big thank you to Melissa and Carrie who did an excellent job of hanging the show and of bringing people in. There was a great turnout and I talked to so many interesting people. The first couple that I spent quite a bit of time talking to had bought a small piece at my first show at this same gallery in 2005. They were so nice and we also had a gratifying chat about how my prices (and therefore value) have gone up. He is also a painter and so we talked technique for awhile and the next thing I knew they were buying this painting and we were all posing in front of it for a few pictures!

Then my friend Jane and her husband Paul came in. Paul is also in this show, his work is in the middle section and is just beautiful. I particularly like his still life paintings. Jane and I showed together in 2006 and we have emailed quite a bit since then. She has been really helpful to me as far as career advice goes, plus we have other things in common as well. So nice to be able to chat with her in real life!

I spent some time talking to artist Wes Wheeler who is also represented by Carrie and again, great to talk technique and the business. I also really like his work, although I was at a disadvantage while we talked-I wasn't familiar with it. Now I wish I had seen it beforehand so I could have asked some better questions of him, but I'll just have to do that another time.

Carrie Waldman, whose work was also on display was very nice. We chatted for a bit and I hope we can keep in contact. She is one of those people that I feel like have met before, you know?

Two pieces sold by the end of the evening and I am crossing my fingers for a few more. Mostly so Carrie will keep showing my work ( and maybe keep giving me the front room) AND because I still need some money to pay the floor guy when he comes to sand the floors in my new studio. Heh. Actually I am serious about that.

And the sooner I can move up there the less I will have to deal with cats settling into the back of my panels in between coats of polyurethane.....



More show pictures, obviously we remembered to actually use the camera this time.

The Joy of Painting

Elemental, 2008, Oil on Panel, 9x18

So exactly five years ago this month we were still living in Utah and just finishing up the renovations on our money pit house here in NY. Our excellent contractor and his crew did a wonderful job, but naturally we went way over budget (well I did, I kept adding things) and the bid for painting the interior was about 20,000! Yikes! No money for that at all. So we hired the painter to do the ceilings and to prime the new walls. And our brilliant plan was then for me to spend a week or two out here, painting the house. The first trip was for about a week and there was electricity, telephone and heat in the house but nothing else. No appliances, satellite service, furniture. We had brought a load of things the previous summer so there was a bed and a few chairs and I did have a portable stereo, thank god, or I would have totally gone crazy, but that was it. There was one sink, a toilet and no shower (only a tub) hooked up. I kept food in a cooler on the porch and I would have gone out for dinner each night but I ended working almost every single minute that I was here. On that first trip I lightly sanded all of the previously painted woodwork with a palm sander, which sucked so bad I can't even tell you. I remember sitting out on the front steps just crying because I was so sick of the endless sanding. But I got the woodwork sanded and primed AND I even managed to get sides of the kitchen cabinets painted so that the appliances could be installed after I left. I also managed to paint the walls where new sinks and toilets would be installed.

The next visit a month later was better. I had a refrigerator and a microwave. The utility sink was hooked up. I had shipped out a few boxes so I had some things like dishes, a lamp, a few books, etc. I was only planning to stay a week or so but even though I was working almost every minute of the day, I still needed more time. So I talked to Doug and we agreed I would stay longer, but unfortunately that meant I would miss my daughter's sixth birthday, something I still feel guilty about and something that she doesn't even remember. Heh. Anyway, my strongest memories of this trip were of sitting on the front steps at two in the morning rinsing out paint brushes in mineral spirits while the neighbor (a doctor) drove by very slowly peering at me and probably wondering what the heck I was doing. I got most of the house painted though before I left to go back to Utah.

When we moved about a month or so later I went out ahead of the movers and finished up a few more things. And over the next month or so I did the last odds and ends. Finally I put everything away (without painting the last two window sashes, and they are primed but still no top coat five years later) and even though there are spots that could use some touching up, um thanks to the movers and to the kids, I have had a mental block about any kind of house painting whatsoever. I developed a newfound respect for painters and at the time, if we had actually had 20,000 dollars, I would have happily handed it over. On the other hand, painting this house really did help me feel connected to it, in a way that I have never felt about anywhere I have ever lived before. So I guess all in all it was a valuable experience. Um, yeah.

Why am I writing about all of this? Well, because it's another blog post to fill AND because I am having major flashbacks to that time. I have been painting my new attic studio for the last few days and all of that work five years ago is rushing back to me. I can't say I am feeling physically ill like I thought I would if I ever had to tape off a window or use a paint roller again, and in fact I am somewhat enjoying the mindless activity and loud music (see #4 below).

I have noticed a few things though:

1. I definitely am not in the same physical shape as I was five years ago. Ok, I admit it, I have gained a few pounds since then and I don't exercise near as much as I used to either. There is little chance that I can work all day, or for even more than a few hours, even if I wanted to. Crap. I need to get back to gym when this is all over.

2. I have the jiggly arm thing going now too and it is most noticeable when rolling paint onto the sloped ceiling. Yayyy.

3. My music options are much better. When I painted the house, I listened to about 10 different CD's over and over and over again. This time I have my iPod and unlimited talk to listen to on satellite radio.

4. I am not so out of shape that I can't sing while I work. The acoustics in my virtually empty attic are amazing and even though I am a horrible singer. I sound great. Well, at least the kids are at school and aren't around to tell me otherwise. Heh.

5. Every minute that I am painting the smooth new sheet rock walls, I am mumbling thank yous that there is no wallpaper to strip, no woodwork to sand and no suspicious stuff to scrape off. Last time I was just complaining about all of that stuff.

6. I don't recall bumping my head at all when painting the entire rest of the house. So far I have bumped my head at least seven times in the last few days. Mostly on the beams, and when backing out of the knee wall storage space. Luckily, I am not so decrepit yet that I can't walk while bent over without putting my back out and so yesterday I avoided hitting my head entirely.

7. I am actually afraid to paint the short wall that is about two feet from the open stairwell. I am saving it for last. Surely when I was 38 that wouldn't have bothered me at all, right?

Anyway, I am hoping to finish this up next week sometime. There is still much that has to be done in the garden this weekend, finally time to get the tomatoes in! and so I will only be able to paint in smaller increments of time.

And a post about wall color next too. Oy, has THAT been an issue!

Opening Reception in Hudson

Clustered at the Turn, 2008, Oil on Panel, 20x40

OK folks. Here's the official info for the opening gallery reception at Carrie Haddad Gallery. It's this Saturday, May 31, 6-8pm, and the address is 622 Warren Street, Hudson NY. Just two short hours by train from NYC.

And just a note about the images on the gallery's website. I neglected to load my jpegs of the work onto a disc and give it to the gallery when I dropped off the work. I was busy trying to get all the paintings finished and wrapped and I just didn't get to it before I had to leave. Not only that, I photographed the large painting, 40x60, the centerpiece of the show, AND DID NOT LOOK AT THE IMAGE BEFORE I DELIVERED THE PAINTING. Bad, bad girl. The next day I sat down at the computer to photoshop the image, and email it and the rest of the images to the gallery for their website. Of course, the photo was very bad, irretrievable even in photoshop. Large pieces are difficult to photograph anyway, but if I would have looked at the image I could have tried to photograph it again. So I decided to send the other images that were ready but when I checked the website to see if they had posted any of the earlier jpegs I had sent previously, I noticed that all of the paintings for the show were posted. The gallery had photographed and posted them within a day. Agh! At least someone is efficient! The images look OK, but they aren't quite right, there's too much contrast and the colors look harsher than they really are in real life. Probably not so noticeable to anyone but me, but they just don't look quite right. However, the gallery obviously took some time to do this and I will not be asking them to reload a bunch of images all over again, especially not now, right before the opening.

So let this be a lesson to you all and maybe I will get it this time too. Make it a priority to ALWAYS include the jpegs along with the work when delivering work to a gallery.

But jpeg issues aside, I am very proud of the work I did for this show. The big piece that I mentioned freaking kicks ass, if I do say so myself (actually I wasn't sure how it would look outside my studio, the lighting I had on it was BAD and frankly, I wasn't too sure what the heck it would look like under better lighting) and Doug stopped by the gallery yesterday on his way to the city and he said it looks great. Not surprising since Carrie and Melissa always do an excellent job hanging the shows. This is my third show at Carrie's gallery and is the first time my work has been displayed in the front room so that is way cool.

But before I get too obnoxious with how great I am, I must remind myself that this is the last big exhibition that I have scheduled until next summer. I suppose things will come up, but one never really knows, huh?

Busy (and buggy) Weekend

Well even though my new car is a terrible gas guzzler, it is perfect in every other way. It has the best cup holders ever AND very easily fits 22 paintings into the back (including the 40x60 panel, wow!) not to mention more annuals than a girl could ever want.

So this was a busy holiday weekend. Doug spent most of it in the vegetable garden, I spent half my time in my studio finishing up the paintings so I could deliver them to the gallery on Monday, and the rest of the time I planted flowers and cleaned up my flower gardens a bit. The drawback of being outside so much this time of the year are the bugs that have been saving up their toxins all winter for us. We get the worst bites this time of the year! Doug and I both have bug bites that are red, swollen and incredibly itchy; his worst is on his left hand, mine are on my ears. Lovely.

But despite the killer bugs it was a lovely weekend. And I am very happy to have finished up the work for this show. Now it's time to tackle everything that has been piling up around here. Oh yeah, and get my new studio painted. Yayyy!

Studio Update

Sky Cover, 2008, Oil on Panel, 11x14

Unfortunately, I have hardly stepped foot into my new studio in the last two weeks. I did take painting supplies (to paint the walls) up there but that was about a week ago.

I have had to put the new studio (and all of that glorious space) out of my head so that I can focus on finishing up work for my upcoming show at the Carrie Haddad Gallery in Hudson NY. This weekend will be the last push and in between a few sleepovers, soccer games, work in the garden, and sleep (I hope), I will be painting cradles, putting on the picture wire, doing the paperwork and then wrapping everything up for delivery to the gallery on Monday. My new assistant (my son) will accompany me on the drive down, which means I will be listening to a lot of Beatles music and his new "discovery": Meatloaf. Like I haven't listened to Bat Out of Hell so many times that I wore out two vinyl albums, and one CD (now it's safely downloaded to my iPod and will last forever; or at least until they come up with a new format). Besides being shallow I am also very immature. Just so you know.

Anyway.

Bright and early on Tuesday morning I will be getting into my studio and will be priming and painting the walls and trim. Good times. Then the floor guy will come in to sand and finish the floors. I considered painting them for about two seconds, but they are 12 and 14 inch wide pine planks, original to the house and somehow it seems criminal to paint them. So natural wood it is!

But I will have to wait until the floor is finished before I can begin moving up there. That's ok, I have much to do in the meantime. I still have to keep painting as I will be going to the Affordable Art Fair in mid-June, with Carrie Haddad, and I also have a small solo show in July at a gallery here in Cooperstown. Plus I think that nearly every single drawer, cabinet, and room in our house needs to be cleaned out and reorganized.

Like I said, good times.

American Idol (sorry about this)

Round The Bend, 2008, Oil on Panel, 16x20

Well, I have to admit that I really enjoyed most of the American Idol finale last night. This is only the third finale I have watched-the first one was the year that Taylor Hicks won and I recall feeling as if I was in pain during the whole thing- it was so stupid. Same with last year's even though I had watched most of the season and felt a bit invested in the outcome. So I fully expected to hate this one too.

Parts of it definitely were lame, like the Mike Myers bit and the endless product placement. But I really enjoyed the performances by ZZ Top, Graham Nash and we were all hysterical during the Gladys Night and the Pips bit. And was it just me or did the Idol contestants look a if they were going to burst open with joy while performing with the guests? I loved that.

But the best part was seeing my honey, Jason Castro again, and I felt proud of him for singing Hallelujah in front of such a big audience. He IS pretty new to singing you know (yes, I have read a few interviews with him, so sue me).

And heaven help me but I even liked the group performances by the top 12 contestants. Normally I hate all that, but last night it was kind of like seeing a bunch of old friends again.

This year I have wasted way too much time reading other's opinions about AI and the contestants and while I appreciate the snarkiness, I have to say that I have mostly enjoyed the performances (except for Kristy Lee Cook singing Eight Days a Week, that was so unbelievably horrible and the girl sang it TWICE!). I think it is because I am such a bad singer myself, that nearly everyone sounds good to me.

My kids were horrified to hear me blurt out "holy shit" (they are kind of uptight) when the winner was announced. I was pretty sure that David Archuleta would be the winner and in fact, thought that would be better for David Cook, who could then go on and probably have much better recording options. But since I love a good contest and can't help but want to love the winner, I was happy that David Cook won.

So there you go. Now you know how shallow I truly am.

The Family Farm

Soft Sky Over Farm, 2008, Oil on Panel, 12x24

My mom's cousin Judy, who lives on the same farm in Ohio where my grandmother grew up, sent me a bunch of photographs of their beautiful barns. Since I have become intrigued lately with painting clusters of barns, I was immediately interested in using her photos as reference. Her photos were beautiful, great light, great composition, but it turns out that they were maybe too good. I found it to be very difficult to translate them, perhaps because they weren't my vision in the first place.

I had suspected this may be the case for quite awhile. Doug takes pictures and even they they are almost exactly the kind of landscape imagery (and sometimes he'll even take a shot of a barn that he thinks I might like) that I like to paint, I have not really felt interested in using his photos as reference. And I don't take great photos or anything, in fact the worse they are the better they are to work from. Guess the painting just works better when it's my view that I begin with. Thank goddess!:) It is all me after all.

But.

I really wanted to portray the family farm and because I like to think that I can transcend the reference if I have to, I decided to work from Judy's photos. The first few paintings I did crashed and burned, the third one was good and was included in a solo show, the next one was ok, and then the one pictured above worked out pretty well. It is my favorite so far. I struggled with the sky/treeline relationship, and after wiping off the paint a few times, I finally covered the whole area with green and then worked back into the sky with the blue. Normally I paint in sections but I liked changing it up and I am pleased with the soft and moody sky here.

I guess this painting represents quite a few lessons learned.

Finished!

Red Carol, 2008, Oil on panel, 24x36

I am not entirely happy with how this portrait turned out, but I am not exactly unhappy with it either. It reminds me of the first series of paintings I did (here is one) after taking time off to have babies; fine, but too precise and not expressing whatever it is that my heart wants to say.

Ugh, terribly sappy, eh?

Anyway, it is a good start I think, and because the piece doesn't totally suck, I entered it (yesterday, exactly one half hour before the deadline) in our local arts organization's annual national competition, the one that I enter every year, but have only been accepted into once. So we'll see.

I've probably just jinxed myself now by mentioning this though.

A Little Break

Land Fall, 2008, Oil on Panel, 12x24

I have been a bit neglectful lately concerning this blog. Mostly because I have been really, really busy the last few days, but also because I was feeling a bit out of sorts before that. For about two or three weeks I sat around doing as little as I could possibly get away with and was sliding down into a pretty decent funk. This coincided with a closing gallery, fewer sales, our house being upended during a bit of remodeling and Doug being out of town for quite awhile. None of those things have really changed, however last Thursday I saw my acupuncturist and told him how lethargic I had been and he treated me accordingly. That night I poured out my problems to Doug and told him how overwhelmed I was with everything and how I have had to give up so many things in order to keep painting. Waaaaaa....

It felt good to let it all out, to be reassured and taken seriously and when I woke up on Friday morning, I was nearly brimming with energy. The difference this time was that I had energy all day, not just until mid afternoon (if that) like before, and the best part is that I still have it. You cannot believe what I have accomplished in the last six days.

And now that I am tackling the mountain of neglected chores, new ones keep getting added to the pile. Painting the new studio, gardening - both flowers and vegetables as well as a lead on a new gallery, which naturally requires work to be shipped out ASAP.

So forgive me, all you lovely readers, while I take at least the rest of the week off from posting, so I can continue to make some headway. One of the things that really slows down my days is my morning time at the computer, something I thoroughly enjoy yet is also an energy sucking activity that really messes up the rest of the day for me. I am feeling like I need to stay busy, get things in order and then figure out a better daily schedule, one that I can still enjoy and that will allow me to be more productive and energetic.

I do have plenty of new work though, so I will post a few new images here and there. Y'all will just have to get by without my pithy remarks for awhile, but feel free to leave comments anyway since I am sure not giving up on obsessively checking my emails! No sense in totally cutting myself off from the world. Heh.

A Different View

Big Tree, 2008, Oil on Panel, 14x18

Mother's Day passed us by without much of any celebration, which actually makes me very happy. I don't go for all of the mushy stuff, especially when it's gradually turning into a highly commercialized, totally sappy "holiday".

But my kids still fall for the holiday aspect of it and so I play along. My youngest daughter made my bed for me and was really sweet and helpful all day. My other daughter had a hysterical fit (which made the day blissfully normal) and my son apologized to me for egging her on. Double blissful. Doug is out of town with our oldest son and that (heaven help me for saying this) made it a very peaceful day. Love him, but the occasional break is nice too.

Doug was probably the one who was the most disappointed in this year's Mother's Day and the fact that we were apart. He has always been good about planning things and giving some sort of lovely gift. I assured him that I was fine with it being low key and in fact prefer it.

Well ok, I won't complain if he brings me a little bauble back from his trip. Heh.

PS. I guess I'll explain my lack of interest in Mother's Day, and Father's Day for that matter. Pretending things are great and sending off a ridiculously flowery card to a "difficult" parent was always tough for me, some of you may understand that. My mother was the difficult one (and she expected a lot when it came to gifts and sentiments) and my father wasn't involved in my childhood at all.

My kids show their love and respect for me every day (almost:)) and that means so much more to me than getting recognition on Mother's Day ever will.

I See Dead People

Heavenly, 2008, Oil on Panel, 8x10

Just a quick hello today. I am booked for the rest of the day with meetings, errands, picking up the kids, dropping them off etc. In between those things I have to fit in a quick visit to an opening reception here at the local arts organization where I have a few paintings in a show. I agreed to participate because the title "There is More Under the Water Than Fish" was pretty intriguing and I immediately thought that I could connect this subject with the figures I have been playing around with. Cause, you know, I immediately thought of dead people underwater. Heh. So in the last few weeks I have done four pieces for this show. They were fun but I can't say I am entirely happy with them, because I didn't quite get them to where I had hoped. However, Doug assured me that I would not embarrass myself by displaying them in public. How is that for a ringing endorsement? Well, I did enjoy doing them anyway.

Oh and these particular paintings were difficult to photograph so I feel that I must say yet again that they look so much better in person.

I've Dropped My Purse, 2008, Oil on Panel, 8x10

Surprise Underpainting

So yesterday I sat down to do a landscape (sans structures) and ended up doing this:

For reference, I used a photograph that I had taken of one of the other residents last February at the Vermont Studio Center. I have a stack of photo portraits that I took there sitting next to my easel and look at them longingly each day. Finally those feelings overtook me I guess. I will have to start another landscape though, still need a few more for the upcoming show.

But in the meantime, I had a great time with this and am exceedingly pleased with how it turned out. I added more detail in the face than I plan to portray when I get to the color, as it's easier to take away the specifics later rather than adding them, and while I didn't really intend to capture the likeness, it actually does look like Carole.

When I was finished, Doug came in and said it was awesome and that I should leave it alone-not add color. I quibbled with him, because adding color was my intent from the beginning. He relented and said maybe I should add color to the background and leave the rest. I like that idea, leaving it sort of unfinished and I am considering it, but I would have handled the underpainting totally different if I had planned to leave most of it intact. I suspect that I won't be able to stop myself from adding color, just like I couldn't stop myself from painting this image in the first place.

I'll let you know what happens. It is entirely possible that I will report back in a few days with a complete failure. At least I took a picture of it at this point because then I'll know that it did look good once anyway. Heh.

Also, it was great to do this on a larger scale as I could easily rub out the lights with my cloth technique. Here are a few close ups: