Laundry Day

This is from another photo taken in Vermont. We were invited to paint at a textile artist's home, who is a friend of Susan Abbott. She had a huge barn behind her house. Her house was so cool - very Early American. This was the view from the front, minus the big tree that holds up the clothesline. The sky really was that beautiful blue color. Her garden was spectacular. I wish I wrote down her name because she is a weaver and teaches classes. In the barn there were several large looms and we met on of her students that was staying there doing an internship.

By the way, for those of you who are leaving comments, thanks so much for the encouraging words. I am unable to respond for some reason. It keeps saying:  choose a profile. I hope to figure this out asap. I can't leave comments on any blogs. Weird I know. Anyway thanks for cheering me on. I really appreciate it!

Chittenago Falls

Well, I debated whether or not to post this one. There are parts I like and parts that I don't. I haven't done much painting outside because of the extreme heat we are having here in Central New York. Probably nothing compared to those of you in the south, but to us it's scorching. No significant rain in many weeks and the landscape is starting to show the stress from lack of water. Anyway, I got up and out by 7:00 am to try and paint for a few hours. I lasted til 8:45 and boy was I hot! 

Little Gems

I have this nice 12" x 12" stencil that has different size squares and rectangles. I used to use it for scrapbooking, but now I use it to divide up the blank white page  that just stares at me, daring me to start drawing. I can handle a 2" square! Bring it on. I just sit in my favorite chair and listen to the news (don't look at the pictures on screen because they are too disturbing) and draw happy little doodles in the different squares and rectangles. Sometimes I just do one. The doodles seem to counterbalance all the lies being told by the newscasters. Cheap therapy, what can I say!

Backyard Beauty 11 x 14" oil on canvas board

11 x 14" oil on canvas board

I love to paint clouds, don't ask me why. I did this from a photograph I took In Susan Abbott's backyard last summer, during her 5 day plein air workshop. She is a wonderful, knowledgeable teacher, and Vermont is a beautiful place to paint.

Taking good photos of your work.

I wanted to show how I take pictures of my paintings. I learned this is in Qiang Huang workshop this spring. He posts everyday, Because at first he was working full time and painting at night, he came up with a good way to photograph his work inside, save it to a jump drive, then post at work during his lunch hour. So I tried it and liked the results. In Fayetteville we can't always  count on the sun shining to take pictures outside.  So I would get behind on posting waiting for a good day to take pictures. so this method is a life saver.
    Take a box - like a pizza box, that has edges about 2" wide. Set your artwork up and place it on a chair. Make sure the light is coming from the sides, no direct sunlight coming toward the painting. I have windows on either side of my studio (which would be left and right of my chair in the photo). Then take the picture. It seems to be a good option and I don't have to fight with glare. Give it a try!

Sketchbook Fun

I have been taking an online class about lettering by Joanne Sharpe. It's LetterLove 101 on Joanne's blog "Whimspirations". Really fun and something I've been wanting to work on. I use a sketchbook that is made from heavy watercolor or mixed media paper, 90 lbs or heavier, because I like to used markers, paint, colored pencil and all kinds of pens -besides pencils- in my book. The first page was painted with black gesso by Liquitex. It dries really fast and make a great surface for metallic gel pens. Very fun.

Environmental Art by my Students

I wanted to share this example of environmental art done by one of my students age 7. We looked at the DVD "Rivers and Tides" about Andy Goldsworthy's work with water, stone and other materials found in nature. It is a fascinating documentary on how he builds some of his structures. I got it from the local library. anyway the assignment was to make something non representational using red, black, white and gold stones and pebbles on the gray stone surface. 

This was done by two little girls. The challenge was to build a nest using the dried stalks in the field.

This was done by a group of girls. They had to use whatever they could find.