Flags for Memorial Day

Loved the flags my preschool artists painted to honor Memorial Day and study Jasper Johns. His flag painting sold this month at auction for 28.6 million.

Chair Auction

It case you missed it, here are some of the great chairs from the benefit this past weekend.

My Chair!

Musical Chairs event this Saturday from 6 to 9 pm at Ellie Blair's Studio.
I am very happy to have the chair completed. My mistake was thinking that it was going to be easy but I am pleased with the way that it came out. I am glad that I chose the monochromatic color scheme and it is not visible from the photos but it has touches of silver paint. It really goes well with the metal parts of the chair. I am excited to see how the other chairs are painted at the benefit. I hope that the auction is a great success for the worthy cause of the arts in elementary schools.

Musical Chairs Event

Click on the title to see details of this event benefitting the Arts in Public Schools. Thank You!

Preschoolers working like Jasper Johns

I had my preschool classes use charcoal and letter stencils to work like Jasper Johns. John's figure "8" is matted in orange. One of the artist's objectives was to create a rich and interesting surface. The preschoolers naturally do that, the teachers' attempts were much too clean and not as interesting. Their playfulness creates some really interesting designs too. A good lesson for graphic designers.

New Landscape

Here are some pictures of my latest landscape painting. It is fairly big measuring 48 in. across. I was concentrating on the surface texture in this one. I don't think it is going to fit in with my next show so I may try to hang it at Paddiwhack or at MT's Chop House for the Summer.
Speaking of the Summer, I have some definite art plans and that has helped me focus on what art needs to be done next. I need to focus and plan ahead more often. But I guess there needs to be times of too many ideas and wondering which way to go, then choosing one and completing it. I wanted to do a fund raiser art show for my fortieth birthday this Summer but I have settled on participating in a fund raiser to benefit the Arts in public schools. I will be painting a chair for a "Musical Chairs" night May 22nd. More to come as that develops. I will be having a birthday celebration by showing with abstract artist, Ande Lister at the Melrose Bay Art Gallery for the month of July. The show will be called Shaped by Time. It is going to be very cool, I can't wait to install it. The Harn store is also featuring four of my paintings. I am happy for this opportunity since wall space is very limited there.
I have been introducing the Modernist, Jasper Johns, to my preschool classes. I get so much enjoyment out of their creations. I'll post some of those soon.

Printing Scarves

Here is an option of printing directly on silk scarves. What do you think? I created the image from a photograph of one of my paintings. The printing process as opposed to painting keeps the silk soft.

Scarves

I'm going to keep working on this idea.

Fatal Flaw?

I tried painting on silk yesterday and I am happy with the way that they look. But I think they are too stiff to wear. They feel more like Gortex than silk. I am going to try soaking them in Fabric Softner, maybe dry clean? to get them soft. I am using acrylic paints and an acrylic fabric medium. I don't want to go the using dyes and a steamer route that makes for soft silk painting. I want to use the acrylics that I am familiar with. Maybe I should try painting on another material? I do enjoy them hanging from the light fixture in the sunlight though. Any ideas?

Art Walk

Hey facebook fans! I am showing for the ArtWalk this Friday night in the Sun City Center at SCORE. It is in conjunction with an Environmental Film Festival Downtown. Let me know you are a fan and I will give you an 8.00 discount on a 28.00 print. Hope to see you there!

Another one

I did one more late last night for the Open Air Arts event. I did this from a boat ride sketch that I did on Saturday. It is more illustrative rather than the painterly methods I was intending to explore. But it's fun and I can see doing this type of illustration for hire. I didn't put it in for the judging.

Open Air Arts Judging

This is the work that I have produced since last Wednesday for the Open Air Arts event in Melrose, FL. I have to choose just one of these for the judging and pick one category: either painting or mixed media. I am really happy with my experience. Having to produce so much so quickly made me experiment with my materials and use new methods of painting. Things that I want to explore further. It was like going to a workshop; really beneficial. I met some interesting people too. The closing gala will be so much fun to see all the work that they created. I feel it was all worth while. The only reason I want to win an award is to cover the supplies that I bought. It is really hard to choose just one. What do you think?

Affordable Products

I have been racking my brain this week trying to figure out a product that would be affordable and still worth my time to do it. I think it is impossible in a gallery shop with the high commissions. Having a shop on Etsy.com and selling some things like pillows with my images printed on them is feasible. I painted a lampshade this week and I want to experiment with different materials like parchment lampshades. I would need to offer this large hand-painted lampshade for 95.00.

Teaching Mondrian

I have been teaching Mondrian to preschoolers this week and have been truly inspired by their creations. I love it when a plan comes together.

New Paintings

With these I was trying to limit my colors and think more about playing with the consistency of the paint. I am also still working with organic shapes.


I have a new proposition brewing about using my images on home apparel. Would you like to see this in your home on a placemat? Mirror imaged for two pillow cases?

Open Air Arts is coming

Spring is fast approaching and that means lots of outdoor art activities in Florida. I will be participating in the Tioga Art Festival this weekend. The burst of beautiful weather this past weekend makes a very exciting start to the Spring Arts season.

I have also been working on designing the Melrose Open Air Arts poster this week. I feel like it is a work of art because I have been going through many delicate balances of color combinations.

I also designed a postcard on dark blue:

For the Dogs?

This painting really made me crazy. I kept going back to it and thinking it was going to really change as I altered the colors over and over. But it virtually remained the same. Not a free and fun painting experience. I like the composition of the close up view, perhaps I can make a print of that.

New Paintings in 2010

I'm trying to get into a rhythm of painting after being on a break for the holidays. I really enjoyed painting the palm trees in the frame. It is the fourth painting in recent months that I have painted over an old painting. Each one, I have really enjoyed the painting experience and been pleased with the results. Currently I am trying to figure out how to recreate that painting experience and layering without having to paint over another painting.

Homemade Christmas

Here are a few of my Christmas efforts. No wonder I want to add patterns to my current easel painting. I also painted another wooden sign with a bear theme.

My husband led many family projects including the making of soap and lotion, chocolate candy, fleece sewing and soup and cookie mixes.

Christmas Ventures

We began a tradition of exchanging homemade Christmas gifts with our extended family last year. I have been wanting to transfer some of my imagery into cloth and sewing so I figured this was a good opportunity to give that a try. This is my first attempt and I think I gained some good experience from it. I would like the stitching to be more organic so that the mistakes didn't matter. Not sure how to go about that.