Garden Wandering...

I've been wandering around the garden taking photos of all things blooming-anything that might inspire a later painting. The peonies have gone and the roses are doing their thing now. Most of them came through the winter unscathed.

I guess I'm already preparing for the winter months...you never know when you'll have the urge to paint a Fourth of July rose in the dead of winter. Here are a few of the latest pieces I've done.

The dandelion above was inspired by a photo taken by my friend Jocelin. She does awesome closeups of all sorts of flowers.

I don't know if I'm done with this one...the stems and leaves look too raggedy to me. I might have to stare at this one for  a while. While I'm waiting for a solution, I've prepared a lot of small boards to play with-perfect for noodling about while watching TV or listening to music. Hope everybody has a happy Fourth!

New Place To Show My Work!

My friend and stylist extraordinaire, Tatum, has just opened her own salon on Main street in Durham called Adara. Along with keeping my hairs in tip top shape and stopping me from shaming daughters 1 through 4, she has kindly offered to display my artwork in her salon. Last Friday I delivered 5 paintings to Adara and hope to deliver a couple more at the end of this week. Here is what is on display at Adara....

Ok, This is  sideways but for some reason iPhoto and blogger refuse to play nice...

Going From This to That...

Here is the painting that I was working on the other day. I didn't really like where it was going so I went elsewhere. That peach around the edges really was disturbing me. I don't know why. I just wanted to get rid of it. So I queued up Amazon Prime and started watching episodes of "Dead Like Me" until I got bored of that and switched to "Galaxy Quest". I love that movie...

And this is what happened while I was watching. (See below). I also don't know whether I am finished with this. So I will let it sit for a while and stare at it from time to time while I mess around with other projects...

Sketchbook Envy...

Lately I've been looking through this book, "Sketching from the imagination" edited by 3DTOTALPUBLISHING. I gifted it to myself at Christmas-ordering from Amazon and throwing it into my husband's closet when it arrived(My favorite way of ensuring I get what I want...). 

It caused a severe case of sketchbook envy. I love checking out other artist's studios and their sketchbooks and I'm always amazed at the intricacy of some-ok let's face it-most of their drawings. I'm more of a "bare bones" type sketchbook person, as seen by the sketch of one of my projects below. Granted, it is not a painting so it was more plotting and gathering ideas and suggestions of materials. I also tend to sketch with really light pencil so I put in black and white so you could see the actual sketch.

I wonder about the amount of time they devote to their sketches and whether or not they are a basis for a painting. Are they going to cover up all that beautiful drawing with paint? Or are they just messing around? I think I am too impatient for that. Here are a few sketches that are intended for paintings or have ended up as one.

Future painting

And another....

Preliminary sketch of Crow Maiden

Finished Crow Maiden

And that's as complicated as it gets.

Plants and Projects are Springing Up All Over

Well this winter has been a mother...and I don't mean that in a kind, devoted, and loving way. Didn't get much painting done. I felt like I was hibernating in my studio-gathering ideas and images-but little else. Then over the last week, the snow has melted, the sun has come out and plants are bursting through the surface. Now it's a race to get the garden cleaned up before the plants get too tall. In the meantime, I've got several projects I've been working on in the studio too.

Started working on this piece a couple weeks ago and have been gathering and testing materials on it. I want to kind of weave a sky between the two branches. Discovered wire won't work-not enough tension. Trying embroidery thread next.

Then I started cleaning up the frames I've been collecting from friends, the dump and wherever. I think I can stop for a while...

Don't know where I'm going with this one below. Just playing with some colors, drips, and splotches.

Again with colors and plant shapes. We all know they won't end up looking like this...

This one is based on a photo I took of the swamp in the woods last fall. Still needs lots of work, but the colors are in the right places...

 Hopefully I will be able to keep up with it all. I feel like I'm in a race but I don't know who I'm competing with... I would like this to be a calm creative summer. There is no wedding to plan. No guests scheduled. Just a lot of painting and gardening.

Mystery at Working Cat Studio

Sounds like a Nancy Drew book and I'm probably dating myself... but I walked into the studio this afternoon to place a bracelet I need to repair on my jewelry bench and I found this-

"Instant Gratification Jewelry". Who put it there? What were they trying to say? Were they trying to say anything?  Asked daughter # 3 and she had no clue. Texted friends and asked if they had broke in and left it on the bench and one of them suggested that maybe I ordered it after a couple glasses of wine and had forgotten it. Possible, but I don't think so. And yet, I did have a mimosa this morning....

What I'm Working on Wednesday...

So I got a little off track there during the holidays-too much good food, libation, and Pinterest! In between all those activities, I took a little break from painting and messed around on the jewelry bench the husband built for me.

I've been wanting to do that for sometime but between getting ready for the"Off The Grid" show and the holidays, it just didn't happen. I spent most of my Christmas vacation listening to music and surfing the web. I guess that's ok-it's all inspiration. On the jewelry bench, I did a lot of repairs of my own jewelry and created a few things. My goal was to complete at least one project from one of the many jewelry books I own. I made several milagro bracelets from the book "Inspiritu Jewelry" by Marie French.

I am also determined to bring eyeglass chains back into fashion-only because I keep losing my glasses at work and don't want to look like an old lady! I also made a necklace out of a snowflake ornament I purchased at the Button Factory in Portsmouth several yrs ago. That's the extent of my creative exploits during the last few weeks. It's time to get working. It's a new year!