Checking to See If My Blogging Mojo Is Back

A Quiet Setting, 2009, Oil on Panel, 18x24

Well, now that I have had a good long break from my blog, I think I am ready to come back to it. Things have calmed down a bit in my life (temporarily, anyway) and when the time is right I will discuss that here in more detail. But for now, I have many updates and new work to post so I will start with all that.

I have been a busy bee the last few weeks, trying to get work ready to take down to the Carrie Haddad Gallery in Hudson, NY. I am part of a landscape show and will be getting the front room again so that is gratifying. Not sure what to expect as far as interest or sales go, but I feel very confident about the work I have ready and so that is all I can do for now. I will be posting the images for that show over the next few weeks here.

AND, you can also see my work on my new fan page at Facebook. I stressed a bit about starting one up (what if no one joined?) but finally published it the other day and was extremely flattered when so many of my current FB friends joined almost immediately. I also have a few fans that I don't know, and of course I love that. Heh.

So if you are on Facebook and would like to be my fan (wow, that sounds SO ridiculous!) here is the link. Anyone can join, provided the whole "life revolves around Tracy" thing isn't a problem and if I haven't accepted an invite at my regular page, this is the place to try again. I don't want to offend anyone, but my other page is more personal and I'd like to keep that one for real life friends and other bloggers that I have gotten to know over the last few years. I will discuss the chickens, cat puke and other such silly things here on the blog so no one will really miss out on much anyway. And if you are following all three Tracyland venues, I apologize in advance for all the repeated info you will surely be learning about me.....

So that wasn't so hard, now was it? More tomorrow then!

Ginger Baby Is 10!

Another birth story.

Ten years ago today I woke up around 5am with pretty consistent contractions. Like all my babies, this one was over due by at least a week, maybe more, but unlike the others, I hadn't had days of on and off contractions. Somehow though, I knew that this was it. I woke Doug up and he helped me get our room ready, changing the sheets, getting out the baby things etc. He also got the kids up and called our awesome friends Kristin and Jason who came and whisked the other three kids away for the day (by that time we had adopted our nephew and so all of a sudden we were going to have four kids!).

And after awhile we called our midwife, who came up about mid morning. It was a beautiful hot and sunny day (nearly all summer days in Utah are hot and sunny) and after walking around as much as I could, I finally laid down on my side and enjoyed our peaceful, light filled bedroom. Doug and the midwife sat on the bed with me and between contractions we laughed and chatted. It was so wonderful, relaxed and peaceful. Finally just after 1pm, my breathing changed and even though I had noticed it too, I remember still feeling surprised when our midwife told Doug that I would soon be pushing! Oddly I was surprised that the baby was actually going to be coming out!

By this time my uterus and cervix knew exactly what to do, and so this little baby just easily came right out after about ten minutes of pushing. Even though we had chosen not to have an ultrasound during the pregnancy, I knew this one was a girl too (my instincts were right with all my babies) and sure enough I was right. The other thing I knew within moments of holding my baby was that she was the last baby we would have! It would not have been unusual for us to have another baby, or three, hehe, we were living in Utah after all! But when I looked at this baby I knew she would always be youngest in our family. It was a most interesting feeling and I still recall it to this day.

Of course some of that may have been due to the horrible hemorrhoids I had in the last few days of this pregnancy! The pain of all that even almost had me questioning my firm intent to not induce labor!!!

Anyway, we had a few names on our list for this baby. Annie, Rosie, Ramona (my favorite) but within a few minutes of looking at her, I told Doug, this is Ginger and he agreed. Our son had mentioned the name a few months earlier because he knew a girl in school named Ginger, but we didn't really think about it again until we saw her.

Ginger was in perfect health, but within an hour or so, she started humming. It was the cutest thing, but our midwife was a bit concerned and kept checking her stats and breathing. She even gave us some advice about how to handle the situation at the hospital if we had to take her in (the local hospital wasn't too happy about home births and most of the doctors wouldn't talk to the midwife), but since Ginger seemed totally perfect otherwise, she finally decided we didn't need to take her in. We all surmised that the humming was just Ginger's way of settling into her new life outside of me and we sat back and enjoyed it. She hummed for well over a day, even while she was nursing and sleeping, and eventually it tapered off. I missed it a little bit when it ended, because it really was so sweet!

Around dinnertime Kristin and Jason came back with the kids and the first thing Sophie (she was two at the time) said when she came in was "give me my baby" and she got right up on the bed and held her little sister. I still get teary eyed when I remember that. Of course eventually she bit Ginger's fingers a few times, poked her eyes and now they fight and yell and pull each other's hair fairly often but when not doing all that they are very close. heh.

The other thing that the kids talked about for years after the day Ginger was born, was how they spent a good portion of the day cleaning out our car with Kristin and Jason. I was horrified to learn they had done this because man, that car was so filthy!!! But I can't deny that it sure was wonderful to get into a sparkling clean car with my new baby. And every time we cleaned the car after that the kids talked about how much stuff they found under the seats on the day Ginger was born.

And of course Ginger has grown up to be quite the character. She keeps us all hopping with her bubbly energy and enthusiasm for everything. She has had a few close close calls too, including the time she fell out a second floor window when she was two (she broke her wrist and had a skull fracture) and of course now her Type 1 Diabetes keeps us on our toes too.

Oh and the other thing I loved about Ginger's birth was how I just woke up one day, had some labor, gave birth to a baby and went to sleep that night at my usual bedtime. The others were practically all nighters and I was always so tired from being awake for so long which was way worse than giving birth!

Painting, Health and Five Birthday Cakes

Things are really picking up around here lately, workwise and otherwise too!

Work: I have 6 new paintings for the show in August, plus a few I can pull from my inventory. I have 12 small painting (that are relatively affordable, I hope) in progress:
I hope to pretty much finish them over the weekend, or by early next week at least. I may do another 6, but will decide about that next week too. The 4'x4' painting is still sitting on the easel for 2 reasons. One is I am undecided about what to do with it. I made some adjustments to the pink swath across the field (thanks Lou!) and while it looks better, I am still not sure it has the ooomph that I want it to have. The other reason, um the main reason actually, is because I have been too lazy to drag the panel downstairs to sand it down. Anyway, I will resolve the issue this week too I think. Busy week for decisions coming up, eh???

Other: I officially got fed up with myself last February and started to see a hypnotherapist to help me with my food and health issues. I went to her thinking I was a crazy out of control sugar addict, but she seemed to think not, that my issues had more to do with self worth. So she treated me accordingly and voila! I started eating less like a crazy person and more like the health conscious person that I am actually am deep down inside. Heh. So far I have lost about 30lbs and because I am still a self conscious girl person I will refrain from posting photos OR from mentioning how much more I would like to lose. However, I will say I have more to go.

And along with all that of course, is exercise. I have always been reasonably fit underneath the extra weight until the last few years (I blame my computer heh) and so I am working on getting that back on track too. I started out by doing my 3 mile walk around the block each day, then alternated that with a 3 mile walk up a pretty steep hill every other day. And then when I reached a weight loss plateau a few weeks ago, I began to add a second workout several days a week. I still usually do the walk every day, and I vary the other workouts. I've been doing swimming, spinning, elliptical machines (I hate treadmills), weight training and a few core strengthening classes here and there. Some time in the next month or so I will probably get the nerve to do the other fitness classes at the gym and I may even try Zumba at some point. It looks fun, but I suspect I will look totally ridiculous doing it and so I definitely need some time to gather myself up to do that one!!

So between painting, all this damn exercise (which is making me feel really good, btw) and kids at home all day now, things are busy. I am making an monumental effort to not bail on the exercise though, like I usually do when I am busy preparing for a show.

PS. I forgot to mention that we are in the middle of birthday season-three of the kid's birthdays, one each week for three consecutive weeks. And because the tween girls MUST have a party we are talking five cakes in three weeks. So far it's two down, two coming up tomorrow and one more next weekend. Blech! And it is SO awesome I can now say that about cake!!! Double blech!!

Sophie and the Sun

So twelve years ago today I woke with pretty insistent labor pains. It was my second pregnancy and even though my first baby fooled me into thinking he was going to come out every day for a week, I was pretty sure it was the real thing this time! When the contractions were closer together called our midwife Chris and she got to our house within about an hour (she lived about 45 minutes away). We all hung out on the bed while she monitored me, Doug and I and our son who was 2 at the time (we hadn't adopted our oldest son yet) as we were thinking he might be old enough to watch. But in typical fashion, after Chris was there for about an hour, everything stalled. She waited for awhile longer before leaving and we agreed to call her if the contractions started up again. We decided to go about our day and since the plan had been to go to the local arts festival, that's just what we did.

By the time we got there I was having contractions again. They were fairly irregular though so I just kept going because I knew the walking would be help move things along. I was as big as a house, hot and sweaty and so naturally I saw everyone I knew there. I think most people were afraid to talk with me too long though for fear that baby was just going to fall out right in front of them!

Doug and I debated about buying a few things but not surprisingly we were distracted and couldn't make a decision, so we finally left without buying any art. Later after we were home Doug decided to go back and buy an iron cut out that we had liked. I always tell Sophie that we bought the sun for her on the day she was born.
After dinner I still had the contractions and was also feeling kind of funny, so I laid down on the sofa for a bit and then, whammo!!! Things were in high gear all of a sudden! I got myself upstairs and Doug tried to get things ready again, while I, um, spent a lot of time in the bathroom. Heh. A friend of ours who had assisted in Julien's birth came over but by that time things were getting a bit hectic and she seemed overwhelmed. Finally, we called Chris. We actually waited far too long, mostly because and get this: we didn't want to bother her since we had already had her come up earlier in the day!!! Are we polite or what?

At this point I was getting a bit flustered, the contractions were way stronger and harder than my first labor and I kept having to use the bathroom. I felt like I was screaming (I wasn't) and I made Doug close the windows because I didn't want the neighbors to hear me. He told me later he thought I was cold (I wasn't). He was also talking to Chris as she was driving up and I think she was going 90 miles an hour through the canyon (we lived in northern Utah) after he told her I was using the bathroom so often. I didn't realize it at the time but I was ready to push, this labor was so different than my first that I didn't recognize the feeling. Meanwhile, Julien was getting a bit worked up seeing all this hubbub and our friend took him downstairs and parked him in front of the tv to watch a video of about 20 episodes of Little Bear (his favorite show) that we had ready for just this situation.

Just after that, and while I was leaving the bathroom yet again I vaguely recall seeing Chris coming up the steps, pulling on her gloves and when I sat down on the bed, my water broke, I pushed about twice and there was our baby girl. She came out so fast and furious and I was breathing like I had just finished a marathon! As soon as I calmed down I saw our baby was blue and Chris was rubbing her back (I had missed seeing her unwrap the cord from around her neck) and as she pinked up, she started crying. Oddly, I wasn't worried about this at all, I just had this feeling that everything would be fine and then it was. She nursed within minutes of her birth and showed off her healthy lungs many times that night!

Julien came upstairs within minutes and was very excited to see a baby there and when we told him that her name was Sophie he kissed her and said "hi soapy". So of course that was her nickname for years!

A few other bits of info:

Sophie was born at 11:34pm on the first day of summer and it was also a full moon that night which we thought was pretty special and good luck too.

We saved the placenta in the fridge for a few days then Doug buried it in the flower bed in our backyard. More good luck.

And Chris told us years later that we still held her record for her closest arrival to the birth without going over. We like that!

I love to tell Sophie about her crazy birth and she used to love it too, but now it is highly embarrassing to her. I look forward to her enjoying the story again someday but in the meantime I will just tell everyone else about it. heh.

Good News and Bad News

Horizon Lines (38), 2009, Oil on Birch Panel, 12x16

Well, the good news is that I have six nice paintings (one shown above) finished so far for my show at the Carrie Haddad Gallery in August. I have about 3 weeks left to do about a dozen small ones and one or two larger ones. So I am feeling pretty good about my progress here.

The bad news is that I put the color on the 4'x4' panel (below) that is supposed to be the "centerpiece" of the show, and I pretty much hate it! (although it does look better in person than it does in this photo) I had a few doubts about the underpainting, but since that doesn't always mean the end result will suck, I kept going. However, in this case, I can see now how much better the whole piece would be if I had not extended the tree line up on the right. I usually catch those compositional issues at the underpainting stage but I guess this one slipped by me. Blech. And if I don't catch them, sometimes I can fix them with the color, but not this time. The underpainting of the trees here is so strong that if I were to extend the sky down over the them, I would lose the translucency in that area. And I hate when that happens.

So I will decide for sure tomorrow, but I have a strong feeling this one is headed for the sand down pile, and quickly. May as well try again on that same panel, since it's already prepped.......

Burn Out!!!

Well, I guess I should just admit it. I am a bit burned out on blogging. And not only have I slowed down on posting I am also not keeping up with my lovely blogger friends either, which makes me feel very sad.

I am not going to say I will post more often, because I don't really think that I can right now. But I don't plan on quitting either. So I guess posts will continue to be a bit sporadic until I get my mojo back. Just so you know. Heh.

I am getting ready for a show in August so I will at least try to post progress images of that, k?

In the meantime a crazy cat picture is always fun. I bought these baskets for the kids to keep their excessive bathroom stuff in. Almost immediately the cats hijacked them and no one wants to put anything in them now because they are all covered in cat hair. Today though, I had to laugh when I saw Jones and Dorrie. A rare tender moment between brother and sister.....

Painting and Dumb Stupid Exercise

Last Bit of the Day, 2009, Oil on Birch Panel, 11x14

Well, I have officially started to work on the paintings for my upcoming show at Carrie Haddad Gallery in Hudson, NY, in August. I feel very relaxed about this, right now anyway! I have a lot of work on hand already, which is good, because it is going to be tough to get much done in the coming month. The kids have crazy busy schedules for the next few weeks, then school is out for the summer and they will be home more.

In addition I have been working on getting my fitness back and have been trying to work out 2x a day almost everyday. I have been doing that for several weeks and while I am feeling good, it sure does take a chunk of time out of my workday. Love/hate dumb stupid exercise......

Crazy Corsage Girl

Crazy Corsage, 2009, Oil on Gessoed Paper, 12x16

So this is the third of the most recent group of portraits from the People You Know series. I have mixed feelings about it, I like the face and gesture, but am not thrilled with the dress and not sure about the corsage. But I am going to move on to the next batch anyway, and hopefully bring along only the good parts from these last few portraits. I wish!

That's it for today's post as I have a rocking headache tonight. This morning I spent two hours in a dentist chair having two molars prepped for crowns. Luckily, no root canal was necessary in the really bad tooth, although there was some "rebuilding" involved there which worries me a bit. Heh. Anyway, I had plenty of novacaine and have some great relaxation techniques (thanks Bradley Method!) to get through crap like that, but now the novacaine has worn off and my head hurts, my jaw and tongue hurt and all my teeth seem to hurt too. Tonight, I feel incrementally better, but today was a lost day and I really didn't accomplish anything. Hoping a good nights sleep will get me back on track tomorrow, I have so much to do!!!

Road trip with My Son

Julien and Sharon Butler

Saturday seemed like a good day for a road trip, so I decided to drag my 14 year old son, Julien, along with me to attend a gallery opening at the John Davis Gallery in Hudson. He was a good sport about it, after all he is already talking about going to art school, and even did his version of dressing up. He also brought along his iPod for us to listen to in the car and he was kind enough to play the music that I like (the music I downloaded and have brainwashed him into liking, I am SO proud!!) and not his so much. However, I was specifically asked NOT to sing, which was amazingly difficult when Creedence Clearwater Revival came up!

Anyway, it was a beautiful, sunny day and on the way down to Hudson I stopped and took a few pictures of some barns, as well as a few interesting signs. Always love passing Hubcap Heaven:

and of course we were SO tempted to stop for some dinner after seeing this sign:

The show was awesome, both the art and the space. I love the carriage house and its rough, industrial space:
So depressing to be on a strict budget! I was dying to buy one of these small paintings by Molly Herman:
There was a lovely courtyard between the two spaces:
I spent some time talking to Sharon Butler of Two Coats of Paint.which I really enjoyed and I also met Martin Bromirski, whose blog I have been reading for years (he has up a post about the opening too, and I am not the least bit offended that he didn't mention me at all, nope, not offended at all;)). Martin and I also went to UArts in Philadelphia, back in the 80's, although we didn't know each other then. We were in different departments and he was also two years behind me. I imagine we shared an elevator at some point or an evening or two at Dirty Frank's, but I don't specifically recall either of those. Heh. Anyway, Martin also brought his mom (who also reads my blog) along to the opening and she and I had several lovely conversations. Nice mom you have, Martin!!

After Julien and I left the gallery, we walked up the street and had pizza at Baba Louie's. My son is at the age where he can eat a crazy amount of food and the waitress was amazed that he easily put away a 14" pizza.:

The drive home was uneventful, although finally I just couldn't help myself and had to sing at the top of my lungs to Paradise By the Dashboard Light, by Meatloaf until in a huff, Julien switched it to something I didn't know. hehe. Good times.

About a Bird!

So a few weeks ago I noticed a lot of bird activity in the oval window at the front of my studio. When I checked I saw that a bird nest had been built between the screen and the slats. Within a few days there was a blue egg:


then two the next day:


and then finally five:


A google search told me that this is an Eastern Bluebird nest and that the eggs would hatch in about two weeks.

Since then I have been worrying about the mom when she is out, and also noticed that she would leave the next whenever I walked around the studio. So I hung a cloth over the window because I wanted to make sure she could spend enough time on the eggs. We have all been checking on the eggs everyday and there has been much interest in my updates about this on facebook!!

Yesterday morning, I heard a lot of noise from the window and when I checked there was a floppy, ugly little creature with about 4 fuzzy feathers flopping around on the other eggs! Super exciting event here in the studio!!!


And today there looks like three little birdies in the nest:


It's hard to tell, because all I see is a mass of gray downy beings!

I am very worried now though about the mother, and about all the ways that birds die out there. How will I feed these little babies if she doesn't come back? Should I make a cut in the screen to drop insects in their tiny little mouths and do they need water? I am sure everyone will be fine, but I am crossing my fingers for the mama bird's safety, anyway.

But besides the worry, I am enjoying this fun little studio event. Sometimes, it's the simple things......

The Wedding Guest

Wedding Guest, 2009, 12x16, Oil on Gessoed paper

I kept trying to get this painting posted here all weekend, but I was busy, busy, busy. I pulled every muscle in my body doing the gardening that I have put off for so long this spring. And I have the most interesting sunburn patterns on my back and arms. heh. No pictures of those, sorry, but next time I am considering doing something with stencils, (thanks for the idea, Carla!), so maybe something will show up here next time.......

Anyway, I am quite happy with this painting, I love the thingy in the hair, not sure if I like how I actually depicted it here, but I can always try again in another version of this lady, right? There is one more in this group of three and I thought I was finished with it, but after looking at it this morning, I see that it needs some more work. Will post it in a few days.

Well, unless I ruin it.

A Girl with Glasses

A Girl with Glasses, 2009, Oil on Gessoed Paper, 12x16

Well, I have made some progress on the portraits I started last week. Oddly, the arms here look funny in the image, while when viewing the painting in person they make more sense. Still can't believe these are so difficult to photograph! In the landscapes if the photo is off, it's mostly just the color that is affected. Somehow though, when a photo of a portrait is off, the whole image looks strange.

My favorite part of this one is the face; there is really so little detail in it, however her expression is pretty clear. That is one of the qualities that I am striving for in this series and it is nice to know that I can do it. Just wish I could do it a bit more consistently, and maybe I will be able to if I do fifty more, a hundred more, a thousand more......

Distractions......

Underpainting, 12x16, Oil on Gessoed Paper

Well, somehow a few days of not posting here turned into a week. I have some personal things going on which have been distracting me from almost everything, so I think posting here may be a bit spotty for awhile. I hope you'll bear with me though! Things will calm down, I will be working more in the studio and at some point I will be prattling on again like usual. Heh.

Today is a dark rainy day here though and feels like a good day to work in the studio. A great distraction from the other distraction! I will be working on five underpaintings in the People You Know series, including the one shown above. I have decided to go back to the gessoed paper mostly because I am feeling this series still needs SO much more work. Even though I much prefer working on panel, the paper is less expensive and the finished work is much easier to store. Or throw away!

I will try to at least keep posting images, even if my words are failing me lately.....

This And That

Not much new to report today. I have done three underpaintings, one shown above, which I am quite happy with. I tried mightily NOT to overwork them and although I will have to then adjust how I handle the color later, I think that they will have more energy in the end.

I still seem to have some sort of mental blockage about getting out into the vegetable gardens. Not sure why but I suspect once I do get out there, I will be there forever, trying to catch up!!

Missed the deadline for a regional juried competition on Saturday. I have given up entering most competitions, however I like to support our local arts org, and plus I was planning to enter one of the portraits from the People You Know series, just to see what might happen. But I completely forgot about it that day! Sheesh!

I did go to a gallery opening on Saturday night with Lady Ostapeck (I wrote about her here). She is 92 and lives down the road from us in a crazy ramshackle house that contains more stuff than you can ever possibly imagine. Or at least she did until last fall when she moved into senior housing in a nearby town. She is quite the character and she talked to every. single. person. at the opening whether she knew them or not! She would have closed the place down if I had hadn't been my usual sour self at a crowded opening where I didn't know anyone. Heh. She also had two glasses of champagne, which is exactly two more than I had. Anyway, it was great fun hanging out with Lady Ostapeck (we had dinner too and she insisted on paying for her own pizza slice) and I am glad we went.

Monday, Monday

Horizon Lines(25), 2009, Oil on Cradled Panel, 4x6

Well, it's Monday again. I actually like Mondays. It's a good day for a fresh start, a day to anticipate what might happen in the coming week.

I have been in a bit of a funk lately and also just had a tough weekend and so today is a very welcome Monday. My schedule is open so I can spend a good part of today making art. I depend upon my art for so much; enjoyment, distraction, solace, energy. But somehow, when stuff happens, the art often gets shortchanged. I think I need to work on that bad creative habit of mine and not let it be so.

Anyway, I don't really have to do anything today, I have no imminent deadlines, no events coming up. I have plenty of finished paintings on hand, and in fact it seems crazy to make more paintings considering how little storage space I have, how low my birch panel inventory is, and how many other things I probably should be doing as well.

So even though my usual underpainting day is Friday, today is Monday and I could use a fresh start. Again. Heh.

Oh, and the painting shown above is one of eight new Horizon Lines paintings alvailable for sale on my sales blog.

Blah, Blah, Blah, Boring........

Horizon Lines, 2009, Oil on Panel, 8x10

Well, I think I would be posting more if I were actually doing anything that is even the slightest bit interesting. I just finished up packing the work for the AAF which is next weekend, but otherwise things have been pretty quiet this week. I should be getting outside more, as the weather has been beautiful! I have been doing my walks almost everyday, but have NOT done much at all in my gardens. Really need to get out there this weekend!!

I did spend a few hectic afternoons this week getting 16 pieces ready to send down to NYC for the Affordable Art Fair, which is next week.

I have a bunch of new Horizon Lines paintings to post on my sales blog and hope to get to that this weekend too.

My show is down now at The Harrison Gallery. I am not sure what the final sales count is yet, but I know that at least six pieces were sold. I am happy with that, especially during this crappy economy.....

And I have to choose a few paintings this week for two juried competitions at our local arts org. I think I will enter work from the People You Know series.

Otherwise, really, really boring here in Tracyland lately...........

Poor Hen

I went out to the chicken coop this morning and found one of the black chickens, all curled up in the corner. The other hens seemed worried and were hovering around, clucking softly. I am sure they were just a few hours from pecking at the poor dead hen, but at that point at least they were definitely unsettled.

This is the part of having animals that is tough. We have had several hens die over the last few years and even though I don't like it, I have gotten more used to it. I do what I can to save the sick ones and but of course this one was different; it looked like the hen just laid down and died, probably earlier this morning. She was one of 5 black hens (not sure if the one above is her, but that's exactly what she looked like, heh) from the original flock that I got three years ago. So it could be age related or it could possibly be something she came across while they were free ranging yesterday. I hope it is not some sort of illness, but will be watching the rest of the girls just in case.

Usually Doug just so happens to be out of town when pets die around here but he is home today and was able to deal with the dead body. I can do it if I really have to but it sure is nice not to have to for once!

Springy Spring!

Horizon Lines (29), 2009, Oil on Panel, 4x6

I was on a Horizon Line binge this last week. I painted fifteen to add to the series. Ten very small ones, and five larger ones. And, well actually two of the larger ones may end up being duds, so maybe it is just thirteen.

I will be sending several of the ten small ones to a local arts organization to put in their gift shop, and the rest will go on my sales blog. The larger ones will go into my inventory, unless Betty decides to take any of them to the AAF.

And we have a beautiful weekend coming up and I am itching to get some work done outside. Am planning to plant some lettuces, snap peas and carrots, as well as some pansies in the pots on our porch. But of course all that will have to fit in around the first two soccer games of the spring season, not to mention the boy scouts bottle drive and who knows what else.

Finally feels like spring!!

Affordable Art Fair

Bright Trees, 2008, Oil on Birch Panel, 40x60

This week, I am busy gathering work that will be going to the Affordable Art Fair in NYC. At least eight of my paintings will be taken to the show by my New York dealer, Betty Feinman (who was the owner of my NY gallery that closed last year), and can be seen in Booth H-108 with Behr-Thyssen Ltd. Betty has always been incredibly supportive of me and my work and so I am extremely pleased that she will continue to represent me. She showed my work at the AAF two years ago and sold everything I gave her (I wrote about that here) and even though the art market is all screwy right now, I am hopeful that good things will happen there again.

The AAF is May 7-10 and I am considering going down to the city so I can visit the art fair. Will have to think about the expense of that though, as well as whether I would be jinxing things for myself by showing up there. Heh.

Bright Trees, shown above, is one of the group of paintings that will be on display. It has been hanging in my living room for the last 6 months ago and I admit to being a bit attached to it. But it's a nice painting and I will also be very happy if someone were to buy it and enjoy it as much as we do. (one of the things I love about being an artist!)

My Palette

I have been meaning to talk about my palette for awhile and since things have been so slow around here lately, now seems like a good time.

When I first moved into my new studio, I had all my paint tubes set out on the top of my flat file cabinet, which is right behind me when I am at the easel. Doug suggested that I put them all in one of the flat file drawers but I pooh poohed him and informed him that having to open the drawer would be WAY TOO INCONVENIENT.

Around Christmas time I had a get together in my studio and wanted to have the top of the flat file clear so that I could put out some of the small paintings I had been working on. So I loaded up the top drawer with all my paints (they fit perfectly). When it was time to get back to work after the holidays, I just left them where they were. Turns out that it is pretty easy to just open the drawer when I need them! Of course it helps that I just leave the drawer open while I am working. This also give me the top surface of the cabinet to clutter up with stuff. heh.


Obviously I like to have a lot of paint on hand! I like to have a good variety of colors available although to be honest, I mostly just use about a dozen or so of them regularly. Each day though, I try to put out one or two colors that I don't normally use. The colors that I currently am obsessed with (these colors change periodically, I am very fickle) are Indigo Blue, Green Ural, Medium Cadmium Yellow, Azo Green, Gamblin Light Blue, Caeser Purple, Vasari Ship Rock, Gamblin Light Magenta, Gamblin Cadmium Red Deep, Cobalt Green Pale, Cinnabar Green Light, Old Holland Violet Grey. I don't stick to a certain brand of paint because while I do like some brands more than others (I am loving Vasari paints lately!), the colors are what's important to me and every color varies from from manufacturer to manufacturer. For example I use a yellow from Grumbacher in almost every painting. Not the best quality paint ever, but the color trumps that for me.

Anyway. In college, I got in the habit of using a disposable palette pad and still use that now. When my studio was downstairs it was necessary to put everything away at night (mostly because of the cats who spend their nights walking on every single surface of the house) so the disposable palette was convenient for that. Now that I have a studio with a door, I have been tending to leave my paints out for a few days. I may end up getting a more permanent surface to mix my paints on, but for the time being I am still using my old set up. The pad sits in a butcher's tray which helps to contain the flying paint and Liquin and I use a tin foil muffin cup to hold the day's Liquin. This is my whole set up; the palette, and another tray with a jar of Turpenoid Natural to rinse my brushes and a rag to wipe the brushes off. And other junk too, heh:

I put out the paint I think I will use each day, although I often add more colors, as I go, depending on what I feel like doing. I use very little paint and I don't do a lot of mixing of colors, maybe two colors, more if I want a mucky color. Mostly I thin out the paint with Liquin until I get the consistency that I want, and then mix another color in.

Unless I am painting more than one large painting in a painting session, I rarely have to move to a second sheet of palette paper. If there is paint left after I am done for the day, I leave it to use the next day. Or I will scrape it off with a palette knife and put it onto a new piece of palette paper if I need more space for mixing. This is my palette after doing about 10 very small paintings, 6x6 and 5x7's.

Traditionalists would probably flip seeing what I do with my palette. I use crazy colors, and different ones all the time, I just put them out in no particular order, and also different order each day. I have never felt the need to conform to the traditional palette and much prefer changing some things up, especially since some of the other parts of my process are fairly rigid. Makes a nice balance, I think.

So I would love to hear how you handle your palette. Traditional, crazy or somewhere in between?

A Real Nothing of a Post!

Well, I have very little to report on here, which accounts for the lack of posts lately. And also for the photo of a very unusual egg from our one of our hens on Easter, rather than a new painting. I haven't really done any painting (or much of anything actually) in the last few days. Partly because I am feeling somewhat overwhelmed about it and also because the kids are home this week for spring break and every time I get close to starting on something I get interrupted somehow. And to really prove that I am in some sort of funk, I actually turned down a chance to stay in NYC overnight. Doug and I were going to take the girls and go down for two days. Instead, I insisted they go without me. I just couldn't muster the interest or energy to go. Bleh!!

And then because of that I had a few days to myself and did I even take advantage of that? Noooooooo. Sat around mostly and accomplished next to nothing!

I think I will take the weekend off from the studio entirely and try to get the gardens cleaned up. That always makes me feel better and and also gives me something different to stress about, like which way to rotate the vegetable plantings or whether not it's a fracture or just a pulled muscle. Heh. So I will consider next week to be a clean slate.

PS. Doug was kind enough to bring back a very special chocolate bar from a shop in Soho. Am not really eating chocolate lately but I had to try this one. Applewood smoked bacon, alderwood smoked salt, in deep milk chocolate. I had one little square and can only describe it as incredible, yet completely disgusting. Very intriguing!

On Cropping

12x16

So these two underpaintings are totally kicking my butt. I enjoyed the process of doing them, as I always do, but when I was finished with the second one, I wasn't so sure about them and decided not to do the other two that I had planned. They just seemed so ordinary I guess. On Doug's advice I cropped in on the faces, but not as much as he thought I should have. He thinks I should go really tight on the faces. I might do that at some point but really do not feel that is what I want to do right now, so I did some half assed compromise. I should know by now that those never work!

Anyway, I keep trying to figure out what to do with the top one, I have painted that lady's face a hundred times and have wiped the paint off every time. I have about one more shot, maybe two at the most, before the underpainting layer starts to degrade! And I haven't even started to work on prom girl, although I actually think that piece has a bit more promise. Something about the corsage I think. Or maybe it's the strap without the corsage that is appealing.

Anyway, will keep y'all posted on what comes next!

It's Been a Good Wallow

Ok, so I admit to wallowing in my current post show meltdown. I was planning to ignore this one but well, I chose not to I guess. Heh. I floundered around last week, doing nothing particularly constructive and didn't even feel bad about it. Well, maybe a little, but that was just out of habit. I did start two portraits on Thursday. I was feeling a bit lukewarm about them and decided not to do any more until I had a chance to think about them a bit, then Doug came up and said he didn't like the cropping. Blech! But today, after looking at them again, I have decided to keep working on them. The worst that will happen if I do that, is that I might figure out a few things about this series. Oh and will probably have to add two more sucky paintings to the sand down pile, which I am totally used to doing. Not a bad worst case scenario.

And on Sunday I decided to do a whole bunch of Horizon Line paintings. A few larger ones along with about 10 very small ones, which will be divided between my sales blog and the little shop at the local arts organization.

So I am pulling out of this stupid meltdown and good thing too because I really have much to do, even though my next show isn't until August. First and foremost, I need to find some additional gallery representation, I have let that go WAY too long!

But of course this week is spring break for the kids and so I know that I will not be able to get too much done, but whatever. Will probably squeeze in a few hours in the studio between my duties as cruise director and/or referee!

Choosing

Horizon Lines (Twenty Two), 2009, Oil on Birch Panel, 18x24

On Monday morning, I felt pretty energetic about getting my studio cleaned up, documenting and storing returned work, looking for additional gallery representation and then getting back to work on the People You Know series. Unfortunately all that energy crashed and burned by noon on Monday. I was planning to ignore whatever post show meltdown happened to come my way this time, but maybe mind over matter doesn't apply here. I have spent most of the last few days doing computer stuff; stuff that should get done, but none of it is crucial and I really should be doing the other things on my list. And all of this coincides with an inability to get a full night's sleep lately.

I would say that I will try again today to get back to it, however my hypnotherapist suggested NOT using the word "try" because it tends to set one up for failure. She encouraged me to use the word "choose" in its place and I have been working on that little switcharoo.

So today, after I choose to have a nap even though napping during the day will mess up my sleep even more, I will then choose to finish putting the returned work into storage and will also choose to prepare to begin a few new portraits tomorrow.

But first I will try to choose to get my butt up and out of my computer chair. heh.

Gallery Reception With Friends

At one of the endlessly long swim meets this last season, I was sitting next to our real life good friend Jeff and we were talking about the gallery receptions that are part of my job as an artist. I told him I had one coming up and invited he and his wife Erika (who is my good girl friend) to come along with us. Soon it morphed into an event, complete with a sitter, hotel reservations and an overnight trip to Williamstown, MA.

The details were complicated; six kids, a mature sitter, kids getting picked up and dropped off, cookies, a trip to the pizzeria and who watches tv where. But it went flawlessly and all the kids seemed to have fun.

The four of us left for Williamstown around noon on Saturday. When we got there Doug dropped off the extra painting at the gallery (I made him go in because one of my numerous superstitions is to not see my shows until the reception starts, something about not jinxing the whole dang thing) and then we decided to have lunch at the sushi place down the street. We lingered over lunch and by the time we left there wasn't enough time to visit any of the local museums before it was time to go to the opening. So we went to check into the hotel, The Orchards Hotel (beautiful place to stay, I highly recommend it), and when I gave the desk clerk my name he laughed and said I must be THE Tracy Helgeson, and pointed at the flier for my show that was not two inches from my elbow! It was funny!

It was pouring rain that evening, but thankfully, my hair was still ok by the time we got to the gallery for the reception. heh. However, I imagine the cold and the rain affected the turnout-it was rather quiet. But every single person who came in was there to meet me and was planning to buy one of my paintings, already had, OR was also an artist. So I enjoyed being able to really talk to everyone, much more relaxing than some of those really crowded receptions. I spent a lot of time talking with a couple, Patrick and Grant who own one of my paintings and were great fun. Patrick had read through my blog here, and it turns out we have much in common including an admiration for Ray LaMontagne. I also talked with a reviewer who I think will be writing about my work and he mentioned Rothko more than a few times. Love that! It's been awhile since I have had a review so am looking forward to that (I think!). Even a few women who work with the hotel we stayed at came by to meet me! So it was all good, and very enjoyable. Oh and two more pieces sold, my two favorites: Long Lines Late in the Day and Back Against the Shadows. The show looked beautiful; as always, they did a wonderful job of hanging my work so that it looked its very best.

After the reception, our foursome went to have dinner at Mezze, a beautiful restaurant a block away from the gallery. We were there for over three hours, and had a wonderful long dinner. The husbands got somewhat drunk and then silly, which was very entertaining. I heard "I love you, man" more than a few times and I am not even kidding! Anyway, it's good that the crazy artist stays sober nowadays and could be the designated driver!

Everyone bounced back pretty well the next morning, we had a nice breakfast at the hotel and then hit the road to get back to our real lives. All in all it was a great time and now I think we must always take friends along with us to my receptions!

PS. I should know better by now, but I put Doug in charge of taking photos at the reception. He promptly forgot to do that, although he did take a cluster of shots, most of which involved my backside, which I will NOT be posting here. hehe. I took a few shots of the show at the end though and am posting those along with one with my new best friends, Patrick and Grant talking with Jillian, who works in the gallery (above). Am still kicking myself, and maybe Doug too for not getting any pictures of my work that was displayed in the front windows. Sheesh!