The Delinquent Blogger

I wish I had a good excuse as to why I haven't blogged much lately. We were gone. Then gone again. Then back for six days and now I'm leaving for the third time. It has all been good, but hectic and I am feeling some of the effects. I was late with my Somerset Studios column for the first time ever. I have found that I am forgetting things that I would normally remember. I am also kind of snappy to those I love, mainly poor John who is around me the most. I don't like it when I act like this.
Truth be known, I said yes to a few too many things. I thought I had learned that 'how to say no' lesson a few years back, but apparently not.
Anyhoo, here I am, trying to get packed for Art Unraveled, doing laundry, shuffling paperwork, eating aimlessly (yeah, that's what I do when I get nervous), etc, etc.
But here right now I am going to stop whining. Enough already.

Here is a collage mosaic of photos I took at the Missouri Botanical Garden last week. There is an unreal lantern festival there. If you are anywhere close to St. Louis, get your behind over here cause it is really cool. These are just a sampling of my unedited photos. Looking at them makes me smile and I can see a new series developing right before my eyes.

StencilGirl

I feel like it's my alter ego, StencilGirl Products. 

Ahem. 

Anyhoo, we have lots of new stencils over there. 

Jane LaFazio has designed her first of many (at least if I have anything to do with it). 

She talks about it HERE. It is a beauty.

And Tracie Huskamp has bunnies! And Eggs! Oh my!

Check them our at StencilGirl Products!!

Painting and painting

Now that I am back from France I have a rare break in the action that is called my life. This means I need to paint like a crazy woman in order to have enough art ready for the St. Louis Art Fair. Thankfully, painting is pretty much what I always want to do so I am happy as the proverbial clam and really, how do we know clams are happy? Could be the simplicity of their life although I am totally making that up as I have no idea if their lives are simple or not.








Here are two of the pieces finished. They are each 24x24.
I also finished some blue green works too. The top one is the one that Jasper accidentally jumped on and had his claws sunk into its upper edge. He also completely coated his belly with paint, purple not being such a great look on a gray cat.








I can't remember the size of these. The top one is smallish, say 12x16, the bottom one 18x24. For this batch, John accidentally stepped on the bottom one. How it happened I can only imagine but good golly, do I have extra challenges or what!??! He had mylar stuck on his foot (from a stencil) and it was imbedded into the piece. Such if my life.
As you can see, this new series is circles. Again. I can't get enough of them. I want to do a bunch of different colors and I hope they hang together. I am having a great time playing with new techniques and pushing my vision of circles.
ps....the black corners is an artistic border, not actually part of the painting - these will be framed in black floating frames

Leave the Light On

 
One night when we were in France, someone (one of the girls) suggested we go visit the cemetery.  It stays light really late over there, way later than here in Missouri, so we all headed out and it was light enough for me to snap some pictures. This is the view of our street as we walked back home.
I love this picture because it gives such a true flavor of Durfort. It is the cutest village ever. Enchanting really, I think they must blow magic dust on each person as they enter because I felt transported to another world.
 
This is a photo taken by the side of the road while on one of our excursions. I have no idea why I was so drawn to this scene. We had stopped to look at a castle which was fabulous. I was putzing around and saw this sleepy little vignette. There was something about the lights, the doors, the door knockers....oh my, I could go on and on and trust me, I have the photos to prove it, ha!