Going neutral

Remember those 2 pieces from my last post? They were on the bottom right of my easel at home.

I've been working on them at the store and they have migrated into neutral territory. Kind of interesting and fun to work with such limited color.

I'm not finished yet. Will show more later including closeups. I am wallowing in this texture.
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On the Easel

Nine new canvases all in a row. Actually not all new and obviously not in a row, but this was yesterday's work.


I am off on a new journey and will show progress during the coming days.

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Link Love

If you like abstracts like I like abstracts, you must click here now and read a wonderful interview of artist John McLaughlin. Go to his website also so you can enlarge the pieces - I adore the ones in the Paintings on Canvas category. His work reminds me a little bit of my friend Sarah Giannobile, you can click here to see her paintings.
I think I love John & Sarah's work so much because I cannot seem to paint this way myself. I get really hung up on composition and rarely feel the freedom to create this 'all-over' type work, but I greatly admire artists who pull if off successfully like these two. I love the element of drawing in their pieces and have recently explored that in some of my work. Every time I see work with small drawing elements it reminds me of the Paul Klee quote, "A drawing is simply a line going for a walk." That thought makes me smile.
In recent days I am moving in different directions, almost as though somebody turned me on my head. I don't yet know where it will lead......oddly, I have had probably a half dozen people (at recent shows) tell me my work reminds them of Paul Klee. Huh? Not sure I see it myself, but I wallow in the compliment.

Got Transfer?

Boy, not me. I am a transfer moron. Sure, I know how to do them, but I lack one really pertinent quality and that is patience......Geez, Louise, I am just way to impatient, I get so immersed in my process, all passionate, flinging paint and such. And that transfer thing just doesn't fit in too well. 
But Check this out. Cyndi has a blog post that has specific tutorials on all types of transfers. I might even find something that would work for me!!! Thanks Cyndi for a great post.

Color Mists

Check out what Aileen Roberts is doing with my stencils. Very cool and so easy.

Texture Play

I've been playing with texture. Lots of it, using Wood Icing of course, my newest love and oh how I love it. . Every time I say "I love it" I think of my grandsons, who invariably retort, "are you going to marry it?" and then laugh wildly at their elementary school joke. It makes me smile.

Anyhoo, I digress. I am bringing the Wood Icing to Art Unraveled and folks in my Three Times Charming class will get to use it. Knowing me, I'll find a way to jam it into my other class too, cause well, you know how I am.

In other news, I am finishing up edits on the book, hanging new art at the store, herding cats, and just generally trying to calm down. I don't have a show till the 2nd weekend in July. Whew does that ever feel good! I do need to paint some big stuff between now and then but that excites me and I am anxious to get started.

If you are local to the St. Louis area, consider participating in the Komen Walk on Saturday. Anyone who comes into the store with their race t-shirt gets a $25 discount!! We are celebrating our partner Rose, who is a breast cancer survivor, yippee!!

Artfest Here I come!

Woo Hoo, I am doing the Happy Dance cause I am so excited to be teaching 3 classes at Artfest in 2011. Two of them will be taught by me alone, but one of the classes is a collaborative effort between me and my brilliant editor, Tonia Davenport. We put our heads together and conjured up an interesting idea that will (hopefully) be interesting to others too! I don't want to reveal too much, you will have to watch the Artfest website - the schedule will be posted August 1st.

And don't forget to check Crescendoh today to see my new links. Every day this week, there is a new batch - tutorials, artist friends, videos, etc. Some good stuff. And geez Louise, somebody pinch me already as Jenny Doh has featured my stencils in her "What's Hot" section!!!!

Crazy Days

I was in Chicago this past weekend at the 57th Street Art Fair. We had heavy rains and bad winds interspersed with absolutely perfect weather. It was wild - the Midwest at its finest for sure.
Sadly, there were tents destroyed due to heavy winds, including one booth filled with all glass, yikes. Just horrible. As you can see from these pictures, the destroyed tents look very similar in construction - I don't know the exact brand of these, but we refer to them as EZ Ups (which is one brand on the market). They are also called EZ Downs and I am sure you can see why. Let me give you one piece of advice - if you ever consider getting into this biz, spend the extra money to invest in a sturdy tent and heavy weights. It is just tragic to see this kind of damage and trust me this was only a small portion.

There are 2 other pics which show my booth, including one where I had a painting sitting against the bike rack that kinda blocked entrance into part of my booth. It had become so very shady (I touched up this photo in PS) I wanted to drag all my art out of the tent so people could actually see it. Look closely at the other photo and you will see John sitting in his man cave behind the booth.....sound asleep I might add.

Incredibly, I had a good show. The 2 piece in the back left corner are gone. Along with another large-ish piece and a bunch of mid-range pieces. Oddly, I sold very few mirrors, geez it is so hard to predict what will move at a show.

Don't forget I'm curating over at Crescendoh this week. Click on over to see who and what I have linked up. There will be new links every day - they are good ones (at least I think so) and I hope you enjoy them too. Happy Monday everyone.

Oh, and some news....

This weekend, 57th Street Art Fair in the Hyde Park neighborhood - Chicago!!! I will be in Booth # 33 right smack in the middle of Kimbark. The show, in its 63rd year, is one of the oldest art fairs in the country and presents some wonderful art in all media. As usual, my goal is to bring home more than I spend, wink, wink.

Hours are 11-6 on Saturday and 10-5 on Sunday. Hope to see you there!!



Starting on Monday I will be a Guest Curator over at the CrescenDoh site. I am thrilled by this honor and hope you will check it out. Thanks to Jenny Doh for such a terrific opportunity.

Green thumb? It must be paint

I'm not so great with plants. My Mom is a world class gardener who raises amazing flowers which she harvests for pressing and then makes gorgeous paper that she uses in her handmade greeting cards. Me? Well, not so much.  I have never had a green thumb.

For years I would get this hankering for flowers and would spend way too much money planting them all around our yard. I would forget to water. I hate to weed. Forget to water. The 'dead head' thing baffles me. And did I mention I forget to water?? Oy, you can imagine how successful that was.

We have so many deer around our current house that now I don't even bother. Several years ago I got *really* into gardening(overstatement) and had a rather large Hibiscus in a pot on the patio(ok, so I bought one expensive plant). It bloomed like crazy and was beautiful. I had it right outside the door to the kitchen, thought it would be 'safe' from the deer. "Hahahaha," the deer said, "you silly woman." As one day I looked out at my 'pot of twigs.' They had eaten the entire 24 inch plant.

Anyhoo, I have majorly digressed. Terrariums are the thing for me. Love.Them. I have one on my desk at the store. It is a precious reminder of nature as I work in my Mall Environment. I just heard that Terrariums are IN now. Who knew!??!  Check it out on Design Sponge, a blog I adore.