Pencil Shavings

Painting Week

Earlier this week I agreed to participate in a group art show in New York City. 

See, no fanfare, no fuss, just a statement.  Of course inside my heart is leaping, and my stomach is in knots!  I have agreed to provide five paintings for the exhibit and I need to have them at the gallery by the end of February.  I'm not really sure what I was thinking when I said yes to this.   Actually I do.  I was thinking Whoooo-hooooo a New York Gallery!  LOL  I was also thinking that this really does coincide with my slow but sure business plan and it really is time to get my work off the net and hung on some white walls where total strangers can look at it and give it the thumbs up, or down.

What this means for me is that I have a hell of a lot of work to do between now and the end of January so I can get these pieces shipped.

That means that the Painting of the Week is going to be suspended for now, and that I am going to really have to be organized if I'm going to pull off the kids' birthday parties and Christmas, and stay sane in the process.

I will keep you advised about my progress, and I will let you know more details about the show a little closer to the date.

In the meantime feel free to send me a) chocolate, b) baby-sitters, c) large containers of coffee and d) more chocolate!

Fresh Picked!

I have a newly completed Painting of the Week this week.  It's a mixed media still life composed on an 11x14 Fredrix watercolor canvas hardboard.  It started as a collage, then I painted over the collage with Golden OPEN acrylic paints.

Like a lot of my work this piece has a story behind it.

This summer, if you recall, I had pneumonia.  I was totally taken out of the game for the whole summer, and anything that wasn't essential was put aside.  That included the gardens.  I had worked so hard on them all spring, and by mid August they were overgrown and choked with weeds..  So many seeds I planted didn't even have a chance to sprout.  When I finally got my strength back (to some extent) and managed to get out to the garden for a good look around it was September.  I lifted some of the weeds away and found my four, poor, neglected tomato plants, and shockingly, they had ripe tomatoes on the vines!

I was so excited, I picked the fruit and tucked them into the impromptu basket I made with the skirt of my dress and brought them into the house.  I washed them and put them in a bowl and in the low, slanting, light of the evening I took their picture (but not before my husband and I ate one!)

That night I dreamed about how I would paint them, and even the title.  But life got in the way again, and my neglected tomatoes were long eaten before the painting was completed.  But it is done now.  A little slice of my life, brought to life.  It is called "Tomatoes of Neglect" and it's for sale in my Etsy Store

It's Worse!

The sore throat turned into a full blown cold, luckily I don't have any serious commitments today (other than meeting the school bus).  I'm snuggled up on the couch with my cashmere/silk wrap (thanks Karen – it's the best gift I ever had!) and my laptop, sipping tea and listening to the wind howling outside my window.

Somehow it seems fitting that when I feel sick, that the weather should be awful too.  I have to say that even though I feel sick, I am not entirely down for the count.  I have done some laundry and puttered around the house a bit.  But it is nice to take a little time to just be still and quiet.  In the long run a cold is just annoying, there are so many other things that I could have, so many other things that could be going horribly wrong in my life.

I've been feeling a little contemplative today.  It's been a busy week of working, packing and shipping the Christmas Card orders (warning – shameless self promotion – don't forget they are for sale at my Etsy Store), and hustling back and forth to school volunteering and being the Mom taxi, feeding and clothing the family.  Sometimes it's all a little overwhelming, and I feel like the weight of the world is bearing down on me.

It's on days like this that I like to look out my window.  I have a view of the Rocky Mountains from my kitchen and my bedroom.  It's one of the reasons why we bought the house we did.  When I feel like my life is controlling me, that I have too much to do, too many people counting on me, I look out at the mountains.  Today is perfect day for mountain gazing.  On cold days the mountains stand against the sky in crisp relief.  They are so clear, even though they are miles and miles away, that you can see the ridge lines, and where the wind is blowing the snow off the peaks.

The mountains dominate my part of the world.  Despite all the concrete and building and urban encroachment, nothing can compete with the size, and the endurance of the mountains.  When I look at them I feel small and insignificant, and that is comforting to me.  To know that what ever I do today will have little or no impact on those towering walls of stone makes me realize that so many things that I let myself worry over are really, in the long run not that important.

What is important are the people I can touch.  The only impact I choose to make on this world is by making it a better place.  By loving my children and their classmates and helping them grow to be good people.  By being a good friend, even to people I don't know yet.   Even in a small way, by making some beautiful things for people to look at to make them feel some peace in their lives by seeking my work. 

I can't change the world, just by existing, but if everyone thought about doing some small things to make the world a better, kinder, more peace-filled place, imagine the mountains we could climb.

See I'm feeling better already.

OPEN, Christmas, Blues

I think I might have convinced my oil painting instructor to try Golden OPENs.  Not that OPENs are an acrylic version of oil paint, but they do share some similarities.  The OPENs dry slowly, so you have lots more time for blending and smoothing and shaping your work.  They seem to work best with a “fat over lean” approach.  They don't really work like traditional acrylics, they don't work like watercolours, or oils.  They work like OPENs.  I do think that the techniques for oils benefit these paints a lot.

I will be interested in hearing what my instructor has to say about them.

In the meantime the work continues.

The last two days have been spent filling orders for Christmas Cards.  I am all caught on my mail out orders, I still have a few to either deliver or have picked up. 

 

There are still card sets left if you want to order them, you still have time to have them delivered and mail them out to your nearest and dearest.

Look for them in my Etsy Store.

Tomorrow I'm free of commitments (so far) and I'm hoping to get some more painting done on my “blue” series.  That is assuming that this irritation in my throat doesn't turn into something worse.

Come and Get 'Em While They're Hot!

The Offices of Calliopes Musing Inc.¹ are all a buzz today with the delivery of our first set of printed fine art Christmas cards.

Firstly I have to thank Alison at AM Graphix, for doing all the technical mojo and dealing with the printers to get the cards completed.  And I need to make a public apology to my mailman, who delivered the boxes to our door, and whom I may have greeted a little too enthusiastically.² 

I did decide to go with two images this Christmas.  The first was A New Season, a watermedia piece that I used resist and a pouring technique on.  The second is from an acrylic painting called “Winter Solstice”.

The sets of cards are available for sale at my Etsy Store.

I'm really excited about this.  I hope that you will be excited enough to wan to buy some!

1. aka. my dining room.

2.  assualt suit is pending.

Compulsion

I wonder if there is a twelve step program for artists like me?

I wonder how many artists there are like me?

I'm a victim of my own imagination.  It usually starts when the new crop of art magazines start to appear in my mail box.  Or after I go to the library and see a stack of 6 or 8 art books that I HAVE to have.  I start to read, and  I get inspired, and then I start to dream about painting.  And not just any painting, but usually a specific painting that I can't get out of my head.  And when I start to dream that painting I am compelled to stop all other projects I might be working on, and begin working on my new obsession.

The problem is that I leave my current project unfinished to move on to my new love.

I have thousands of semi-completed works  (more or less – did I mention that I am prone to exaggeration too) that are taking up valuable real estate on my art table.  I swore to myself that I would work on finishing some of them up and gessoing over the worst  and starting fresh on new works on those canvases and boards.

That is until I read the description about how an artist mixed graphite and water to make a wash like watercolour to sketch with.  And I had to try it.

So I'm in the midst of a new project with a half-zillion projects waiting in the wings, and the process has me totally excited about working again!  Maybe I don't want a cure.

The Stress of Togetherness

I love my family.  I have to state this clearly, because I don't want any misunderstandings.  I love them more than anything else in the world, except perhaps my sanity, and some days it's a toss up.

That being said, I'm not a person who need constant companionship.  In fact I need alone time, what I often refer to as “head time”.  Just time to think things through, imagine, think about might be's and could be's.

My kids have hit the cold and flu season with far too much enthusiasm.  Both of them are sick (the youngest with a new deep scratchy voice that makes her sound like she's had a few too many nights on the town smoking and drinking)  and have been extra clingy.  I have not had any time alone (not even in bed) for going on four days and I'm starting to feel a little claustrophobic.  Add into that, a need on their part to be physically touching me nearly constantly and I am getting more than a little crazy.  I feel like I'm dragging two big sacks of rocks around every where this weekend.

I put my foot down after dinner tonight and told them that I wanted to do something for myself.  They still were near me (within feet) but at least they were mostly occupied with their own projects while I did an experiment that struck me earlier this week.

I won't call this a Painting of the Week.  Maybe next week I'll have something interesting to show you.  What this is, is my sanity break. And an experiment using Derwent Colored Graphite pencils on black art board (it measures 11x14 inches)  the weird thing about this is if the light isn't right on it, the drawing nearly disappears.  I like that now you see it now you don't feeling.

Art, Capitalism, and Perverting the Cause

I opened up my Artist's Magazine today, all excited to see what was new and wonderful in the wold of art and was delighted to see an ad by Strathmore Artist's Paper's promoting “The Great Holiday Swap for Artist Trading Cards”. I couldn't wait, I wanted to participate in the a great world wide swap, I mean this is a part of the what ATC's are all about, making contact with other artists.

Last fall, I sat in on a symposium of ATC veterans, I even got to meet and trade with the woman who participated in the first card swap 11 years ago. ATC interest and excite me, and I love making them, just for the purpose of the trade. There are no rules for ATC's. They can be made out of anything (Chuck Steak, the speaker at the symposium even described an ATC he got that was made out of marshmallow), they can depict anything, they can be anything. The only thing they have to be is 2.5x3.5 inches.

That is until now.

Now, if you want to participate in “The Great Holiday Swap” they have to be made on Strathmore Artist Trading Cards. I understand that some people like to have their blank cards pre-made... (heck I don't always have a steady hand cutting out my own cards) but to force people to buy the blanks in order to participate in the swap goes against everything that ATC's stand for.

I'm very disappointed in Strathmore for insisting that every ATC be accompanied by an “original” UPC from a trading card pack. It's crass. It goes against everything that ATC's are about. And it really makes me wonder how much more of my business I'll be giving them, if they can't even respect the tradition, and work within the spirit of ATC trading that has been going strong for more than decade.

Why Men and Women Can't Communicate

I was standing in the kitchen looking at all the bread, muffins and cakes I baked up while my husband was watching TV in the living room last night.  I said to him “Wow, we have a lot of baking in here.”

He sat straight up in his seat, his eye's dancing in delight, and said “We have BACON?????”

(I know it's Election Day for my friends in the US – I have a deep interest in this election and I hope that this election brings about some good things for both our countries)

Feeding My Fetishes

There are so many things in life that I can't seem to get enough of. 

Buttons are a huge weakness, I love buttons.  Not the fancy ones, but just plain, four hole, shiny buttons.  The kind you find on mens dress shirts.  I love them. I actually have one that I carry around in my pocket and rub between my thumb and finger when I'm worried about something.  It came from one of my husband's old shirts that I wear now for painting.

Paper.  Thank God I'm an artist and have an excuse for owning the reams of paper that I do.  I love paper.  Slick shiny paper, hand marbled paper, watercolour paper, writing paper, I even love the quad ruled paper we used so much in school... I used to fill each tiny square with an image in high school.

Pens, ink, pencils... I have a drawer full, and once again I can say that I need all of them, because I'm an artist.

Techonology.  I'm such a geek.  I am seriously jonesing for an iPhone.  I stop by the cell phone booth at the mall every time I'm there and wish, fervently, that Roger's would come up with a half decent plan for the iPhone so I could justify getting one.

New Stuff.  If I read about something new in one of my art magazines I NEED to try it for myself.  I think that it's part of my inquisitive nature.  I guess I'm like the ferret of artists (without the ferrety smell... I hope!)  ... I have to see if I can fit into that spot, or figure out how something works.

This weekend I spent an hour in a new art supply store poking around.  I got some paint, some medium, a butcher tray for paint mixing, all things I needed.  Then I started to shop!  I got a linen canvas panel to try, a Pentel brush pen (I think I'm in love!), a gold leafing kit for a project that intrigues me, some Gesso (a serious deal!) a spray bottle that I have needed for long time, and a tub of glass bead gel, that I have no idea how I will use... but it's so freakin' coool! 

The Painting of the Week is a winter painting, painted with Golden OPEN paint,with just White and Blue.  It's wee, just 4x6 inches, but it certainly conveys the biting cold feeling I was trying to capture.  It's called Winter Solstice.  Hopefully I'll get  it listed in the morning.  The time change has totally kicked my butt today and all I want to do is take my new Watercolour Artist magazine and go to bed and read.

Hopefully this week has less sick children, more afternoons to create, and at least one large work completed!