Getting Ready for the Big Time...

High excitement at Working Cat Studio. I was invited to participate in a local exhibit during the month of December. It is called "Off the Grid" and the theme is--you guessed it. Grid. It's the first time I have been asked to join in such an event and I'm super psyched. Is that even cool to say anymore? Whatever. I am. So we are allowed to submit four 6"x 6"boards which is a lot smaller than I usually work. That is my first challenge. My second is to complete what I envision for my entries. I have an idea but I don't know whether it is beyond my skills. I am going to go for it. Don't know whether I should make back up entries in case it doesn't pan out. Does anybody else do that? And holy crap, I've got to price them...
Oh well we will leave that to the last minute...like usual.

Sketching some ideas...

Preparing boards...with some extras.(just in case)

Gessoing the boards.

Stages...

That's a painting?!
Umm...not yet. It will be when I'm done, but it's got a long way to go. At least a dozen walks, countless sessions on Netflix and Amazon Prime streaming episodes of series that do not tax the brain too much and get you "in the zone", multiple cups of tea and coffee, and long sessions in the thinking chair deliberating on what to do next.

Thinking chair-complete with fuzzy blanket and pillows

Sometimes I believe that people think that paintings and other projects spring fully formed from the artist's head like Athena from Zeus (Don't get the reference? Greek mythology. Look it up. Lots of fun. Sorry. It's the librarian and the mom in me...) Or they think it's sort of like a coloring book. We draw the outline and fill in the colors. If only it were that easy...Sometimes you do have a vision what the finished project should look like and when you do try to put it down on canvas, paper, your media of choice-it never ends up looking like what you envision. That's when I feel like I have settled. Either because I have made peace with my mind and what I actually have created or because I have realized that I do not have the technical skills yet to complete it. But maybe someday in the future I will and I will try again.

Most projects evolve with many layers. The painting, uh background above started out like this:

I made this for an online class a couple of years ago and I can't stand looking at it any more. She has a really long face and crazy hair but the husband made a nice wooden support for it so I decided to recycle/reuse and covered it with lots of green paint. I've got a goal in mind so we'll see how long it takes me to get there.

Another project I started is this:

I think this had cute little bunnies on it and was headed to my daughter's room when she was 10 but I got sidetracked for about 10 yrs and decided to experiment with texture so I covered it with masking tape and gesso, put a layer of blue paint on it, and dabbed it with paper towel. I stared at it for a couple of days and decided it looked like a snow scene, so I added a layer of white acrylic along the bottom:

It seemed as though there was a cottage along the snow line, so I sketched that in too:

Who knows where it will go from here? That's the fun part. And if you don't like it-you can cover it up and start again. Hopefully I will have enough courage to go with the vision and try to make it come alive. There are more than enough seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation to make it so...

And Then I Went To Camp...

In order to recover from the stress and trials of organizing and presenting Daughter# 1's wedding, I gave myself a little present. I gave myself the permission to go on my very first art retreat. I signed up pre-wedding and the goal of going to Susan Schwake's Art Retreat Camp 2013 kept me focused and sane throughout the month of July. I first read about it in an email from Mati Rose with whom I had taken an online painting course. I thought,"Art, like-minded women, good food, on an island-and it's in New Hampshire? I'm there!" From there it was a bunch of serendipitous (is that a word?) incidents. I told Susan I had found out about it from Mati. Susan told me that Mati was originally from nearby Kittery. Who knew?  Susan, I discovered, was moving her business Artstream to Dover where I worked. Then I realized I had actually received a poster for ARC 2013 at work and hung it up in our foyer thinking all the while , "This sounds interesting". I guess it was just meant to be. I had so much fun and met a great group of women. And it all took place at such beautiful location at Mayhew Island on Newfound Lake.

The Lovely Lake

Awesome Music!

Two of the wonderful women I met there!

Mati's future is so bright she's just got to wear shades...

Some of the art work I did....

Proud graduate of the Jack Shack!

Had such a great time and I can't wait to do it again.  Miss you guys!

Summer's End...

Fall already? I guess so. It's my favorite season. Time to set new goals for the year even though I'm not going back to school. I just want to sharpen those pencils, straighten up that studio and start creating. And my birthday is coming up. Guess I shouldn't be so excited about that at this point in my life, but I go out to dinner and I splurge on myself and hey if the husband wants to splurge on me too-I'll let him.

So I haven't blogged in a while. After the big June blowout (mentally/emotionally) of my library show, I hung up my paintbrushes for a while. And then about an hour or so later began making and creating for daughter # 1's wedding-reception to be held in our backyard. It was a long hot rainy summer with the wedding to be held on the last weekend in July. The daughters and I crafted our hearts out.

We covered, stamped, and tagged jam for wedding favors.

We made signs and containers for wedding cards.

We framed wedding portraits of the bride and groom's parents and grandparents.

We created a guest tree to sign instead of a guest book so they would have a piece of art to hang on the wall.

We decorated the stairs with blackboard paint, chalk, and an appropriate wedding quote.

We made pies and cookies.

We made signs for the wedding.

And then it was over. Bride married and gone. Guests gone, daughters 2 thru 4 remained until just this past Monday and I am finally cleaning up my house and putting my studio back in order. There was a little foray to adult sleep away camp which will be  continued next time. I know. The suspense is killing you.

Library Show 2013

I never thought I'd be writing that blog post title, but I did it. Got myself organized. Created, gathered and framed 24 pieces of my artwork and carted it off to our local library to be exhibited for the month of June. That was my goal for this year and I made it before my birthday in September. That's how everybody measures goals right? From birthday to birthday?  Anyway now that I'm a lady of leisure once again, I put together a slideshow of the pieces that I'm showing. Some of them are from photos I took at the library but most of the ones I took there did not turn out to be very good quality. It's hard to take photos when you are not at the same level as the paintings. So some of these are also from my studio, some when they were framed , some even earlier when they were not. Hope you enjoy it!

Whatever Feeds the Muse....

I tend to work two ways while painting. The first way, I am totally relaxed and sitting in front of my easel with a blank canvas and streaming a documentary or a television series that I don't have to concentrate too hard on in order to follow. So far I have re-watched the entire original series of Star Trek, I'm halfway through the fourth season of X-files, and have dipped into several other series, jumping around as the mood hits me.

I'm just playing and paint anything that comes out of the end of my brush in a stream of conscious sort of way.

The other method involves more planning. I see something-a piece of rusty metal, a photo, a tree, etc. and I have a germ of an idea. I walk with it, I plan it, I daydream about it. I sketch things, I research, I scribble little notes about it. And then when it all seems to be coming together in my head...I make the playlist. I love making playlists for my projects. They just get you in the mood. I have a playlist for mermaid paintings, for angel paintings. I have ones for specific paintings like "In My Father's House", "Fern Geisha", and "Our Lady of Mass Destruction".

Here's something I'm contemplating for my next project. I'm thinking that it's used as a mask...

Somehow the sadder the music is, the broodier it is-all the better. I don't like to watch sad or traumatic movies or read books like that...but I love a good auditory weep session. Coldplay and Keane are especially muse inducing. What kind of music do you like to listen to while creating?

A Little of This and a Little of That...

I got myself downstairs today finally and went into my studio to work. Only felt mild guilt for not being outside gardening. True, it was sunny, but there was a cool breeze blowing and that was enough to send me into the studio with no regrets. I did check on the new plants and there was some attrition. Two basil plants have left this earth. I don't think I will be ordering easily found herbs from that company anymore. Also the bird netting that I used to cover my new strawberry plants, seems to have deterred whomever was using that bed for their personal toilet. I have my suspicions....

Not me...

I am above such actions...

Finally inside, I set about trying to organize myself and attempting to tie up some loose ends. I have five paintings that are in various stages of completion. My one lady needed some more stars and a little shine one her hair. I think she actually might need another layer...

Then I added some excellent Japanese calligraphy to my Fern Geisha....Just kidding. I used a stamp.

Moving on I fiddled with my other project and decided to give that one a miss until tomorrow. Too many moving pieces...

And then I found another discounted frame during my travels today. I think it looks good on this painting.

Hmmm...Looking at all the pictures I have posted, I realize I have quite the thing for gold paint. Lucky for my husband, it is just paint. Lol.