Harley Chrome Painting

In September I donated a certificate for a chrome painting at a fund raiser for a friend who needed to have his home retro-fitted for his wheel chair. The fund raiser was quite a show and there were hundreds of dollars raised for him. I have been working on it for quite a while now. At least a month a couple of hours a day four or five days a week. The man who won the certificate really is getting a bargain. If you consider time and labor on the painting. (wink)  Here is a photo of the work in progress. There is lots of work to go on the cooling fins. This is the motor of a Harley Davidson. It was fun doing the skull. The cycle is green and the blue shadows are a nice contrast to the blues. I work on the painting one little bit at a time. As soon as it is done, dried and varnished it will find a new home. I hope that the owner will loan it to me for a show later next year.

I do not know how long I have followed the Painter's Keys, a bi-weekly letter from Robert Genn of Canada but I do know that I look forward to each news letter as it drops into my inbox. He is a facile writer seeming to always have something pertinent to say to us. I have put a link to his page here on my blog. Click over and see if you like him as well.
His home page is full of all kinds of information including quotes about art that can come in handy for a none writer like me. For example:

The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the ordinary. (Christina Baldwin)

Seeing the miraculous in the ordinary truly is what I feel every day and what I try to put into my paintings. 

My life has been really busy lately and this blog suffered my neglect. With a little perseverance  I will be posting a bit more often. If just for my own record of my work. 

This is one of my plein airs from a workshop that I took in Scottsdale AZ in April with Marc Hanson. That workshop lead to lots of work for me in my studio. Palm trees are way outside of my comfort zone. 

Painting Accepted in Regional Show

It is 20th Annual Prairie Lakes Regional Juried Art Exhibition time. Lots of my artist friends have entered their art to be juried into the show. 226 pieces were submitted and 104 pieces selected for the show.  I received a good notice in the mail this year.  My abstract experiment from this winter was accepted

On a whim I change the name of my painting to "Fractured Comet" to fit with my theme of outer space.  And decided that I like it viewed vertically. My other painting was called " Solar Flair." I'll post jpeg tomorrow.

The show is in the Carnegie Art Center here in Mankato and will hang from April 26 through June 8th.

Starlight

This is the beginning of my winter series. I started with a photo of one of our wine glasses. Cropped it very tightly, did some adjusting on Picnic (good bye Picnic I will miss you) and transferred the design to my canvas. Once on the canvas I painted my shapes with a fine brush so I would not loose the shapes under my brush strokes. I liked those lines so I was careful to leave some of them showing. I think they help with the texture and in leading your eye around the painting. Until next time.

Carnegie Art Center Members Show

I rejoined the Carnegie Art Center this summer as a member.  Personally I wish I would get a reminder to rejoin,  details like renewal of memberships always get lost in the clutter of my life. Just ask my friends how many times I have to be reminded about our next outing.

Any way.........I rejoined so that I could be part of the current member show going on at the art center. A cheesy way to get my paintings out there so people can see them and admire my wonderful work. (this is me being a bit sarcastic) No juries to tell us what they like. The show is up all month and the Carnegie has hours on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Hope you can find time to stop by to see all the work. Here are the two I decided to show. I am glad I could just put them out there. Have a feeling neither would pass a judge. (sarcasm..again)

"Lisa on the Beach" (oil on canvas) on one of those hot days this summer that required that you spend it near water. I wanted to give that feeling of hot humid air. I hope Lisa had her feet in the water to keep her cool.

This is a semi-abstract that I did this past spring. It is watercolor on paper that I then mounted on a gallery wrapped canvas. It really is a change in my work and needs to be seen in person to get the full effect of the close values of the painting. Called this one "Intersections"

I am working on new projects at my studio and trying to find a theme for my next show a year from now.  I need to work toward another theme besides flowers and landscapes or try to make those themes newer and  more interesting. I am feeling frustrated....................and reading about creativity.

Playing with Glass

Like running with scissors, playing with glass can be dangerous. Not so much that I get cut, but in the fact that I get carried away with a new little passion. I have always liked garden junk as long as it is tasteful and as long as I do not get carried away with it to the point that you cannot see the flowers for the junk.
The other day my friend recommended my garden for a garden tour next summer. So I got to making lists of things that needed to be done in the garden to make it interesting to any visitors who come. Move this here, take this out entirely, find a new plant for more interest here and there...and make some new garden art! Yea! Let's go shopping in one of my favorite places, second hand stores.
My newest project is making garden flowers and totems out of glass and ceramic. They are really addicting and fun to work with. As I walked down the aisles of the thrift store and started picking up this vase and that bowl, I quickly realized that I needed a cart to carry all my treasures.
Here are some pics of finished projects. More than I can use so I will sell some at a craft show this fall.

I made these in one afternoon of playing with all the pieces I found at the thrift stores.

A sample of what they look like from the side. This one is nice and delicate, tiny little pink flowers and crystal like glass glued together with silicone glue that holds up really well out side in all weather even though a Minnesota winter. The next step is to attach a hook on the back that is made by flattening a spoon with a sledge hammer, bending the handle into a hook and then attaching it with a really good automotive glue. The hook then slides into a pvc pipe that is pounded into the ground. The flowers hover over garden plants and add sparkle to the garden, especially after the flowers are are through blooming.

The black plate behind this one really shows off the pattern in the glass plate. A candle votive light is the center and a glass gem tops the flower off.

This one is my favorite. The dark blue plate sets off the ruffled glass plate, a candle holder looks like the center of the flower and then a small gem to pull the blue forward.

This is a tower or totem that is built step by step gluing two pieces together letting them dry and then building up until you put the finishing touch -- a little glass bunny topper. Building all of these is a matter of trying something and then changing your mind--but not after they are glued! This tower is held in place by a piece of pcv pipe that is pushed into the dirt in the impatient's planter.

This is one of the flower plates that really came together, lavender plate, little violets painted on a china saucer and a pretty glass candle holder that looks so flower like from this angle. Fun Fun Fun. 

Hubbard House Gardens

This painting is one of the Hubbard House gardens here in Mankato. I did this one before we left for the Salt Flats. The gardens are at their peak right now. I had painted the carriage house previously and wanted to do something that did not require technical drawing. So picked the garden where artistic license is not as obvious as it is when you paint a crooked building. 

Gerry was painting on the other side of the garden in the sun.  I chose a nice shady place to stand to paint. I just had to move sideways when sun spots would land on my painting making it hard to see colors. That day I got the painting blocked in nd went back the next to finish the painting. Instead of my usual brush work, I decided to finish this one with a pallet knife. The painting has lots of texture and was lots of fun to use the knife to finish the painting. I think it stayed fresher and the knife marks really gave life to all the foliage.

Now that I am back from vacation, I need to keep on making plein airs so that I will have a good variety  for our show in January at the Blue Earth County Historical Center. Gerry and I will have a two person show of our plein airs in Blue Earth County.