Studio Stuff

I have been trying to work on some new paintings but life, as usual, seems to take over. Christmas is looming and I have yet to finish wrapping my gifts, which means that I will be up past midnight on Christmas eve playing santa mom. I have been enjoying a mix that my sister made of ecclectic holiday songs a few years back. It has been keeping me from turning into a total grinch. So in my spare time between making cookies, running kids around to various activities, and my afternoon teaching job I have semi completed two paintings. They are still in progress, but I thought that I would post them...a friend brought to my attention that it had been quite a while since my last post. So check out these pics straight from my studio, still wet with paint...

Let the music play...

I am a sucker for any kind of movie involving music or dancing. Recently, I watched the movie Take the Lead with Antonio Banderas...And I have to say it was pretty good. Music and dancing definitely are uplifting and were in part the inspiration for the piece that I am posting. Originally this was going to be a painting about dancing, but as usual it took on a life of its own and morphed into something different. Over time my mood changed and so did this piece. It is more a metaphor for life...You can sit back and listen to the music or you can join in. I think sometimes it is hard to decide what to do if there are risks involved, but ultimately I would rather take the leap and join the band rather than just sit back and watch.

Going Green

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  I recently completed this pastel drawing...of a woman, of course(so what's new). I seem to be drawn to images of ladies sitting leisurely drinking wine- one of my many ways to decompress. Maybe it has something to do with a busy life revolving around my four kids...hmmm. I seem to paint a lot of pictures of women sitting alone.My self diagnosis would be that I need more time to sit alone and drink wine. Who needs a therapist? I also added a lot of green to this one, it is a very serene color. To me it even seems less busy than my usual fare. But then again...I could be wrong.
  I like the wine and the apples( they seem to crop up now and again). The apples represent my occasion to be sinful...a lovely Catholic reference to Eve getting Adam to be bad( who knew what an apple could do?). The wine and coffee are my escapes .The bird reference...a longing to be free( from afterschool activities...) and follow my bliss.

Cherries and Cherry Pits

I am nearing completion on a painting which is exciting considering I have barely had any time to work in my studio lately. I posted a picture a few weeks back of a lady with a green leg...the painting was in its "ugly stage". It has been evolving over the past few weeks into a painting of a woman contemplating her life while painting her nails, reading the newspaper headlines, and later her horoscope( she likes to see if it relates at all to her life at that moment). She is surrounded by her stuff...magazines, coffee, her favorite blanket.

I kept thinking that no matter how crazy life gets I still go through basic daily rituals. As I was painting different images began to crop up...like cherries, a bird and her sweater morphed into a patchwork quilt. It made me think of things that comfort me. I am still trying to figure out what the newspaper headline will say. So far it reads...Girl in trouble is a temporary thing. It's a line from a song that I was listening to. I liked the idea of her reading about something that she could relate to. I am still unsure...I might go in another direction if I can figure out what that is. I like the cherries because they taste great when they are ripe, but they can be "the pits" too when they are sour or if you drop a pit onto your shirt and it stains ( just a wierd random thought). They are a metaphor...life is messy but yet is still enjoyable. I may be reaching there....

It is still a work in progress, but I thought I would post it anyway.

Black Sheep

I have been showing some of my pastel drawings at an indepently owned coffee shop in South Saint Paul during the month of September and through the rest of this week. I actually sold two paintings...maybe the caffine had something to do with it. This painting was sold to a couple and it is titled "Save the Last Dance." I remembered to bring my camera during one of my visits and took a few snap shots of the shop. As always my little apprentice Emilie was along for the ride. She made me listen to the soundtrack of Disney's Highschool Musical all the way there and all the way back...that's 90 minutes to you and me! The scary part is that I actually started to sing along. At the end of our visit we came away with a check for my sold painting , some hot cocoa, and a latte for moi. Just my type of business meeting.

The Ugly Phase

Ahh yes, another year come and gone. I am officially rounding the bend to fourty...Where, by the way ,I hear is a great place to be. I decided that this year I would throw myself a little wine tasting party to celebrate my inner wino. I invited all of my favorite people, so it should be a good time.

I also started a new painting on my b-day. My son asked me why I was working on my birthday, I said painting is not work when you are doing something you love. I have barely had any time to get into the studio lately,and it made me happy just to be creative if only for a short period of time. My other son was trying to make sense of this new piece-it had some wierd colors going on for a figurative painting. I said that the painting was in its ugly stage, a.k.a. the underpainting. This piece will be part of my figurative series that in my head I call the "girl in trouble" paintings. I stole that line from a song, but it seemed to fit. This piece will depict a woman painting her nails as she is staring at a newspaper headline and trying to make some sense of the world. I haven't quite decided what the headline will be, but I am tempted to use one from the Daily Astorian- a paper that my sister subscribes to in Astoria, Oregon. It has a small town quirkiness that is very amusing, and fits with my sense of humor.

Hot Mama

I am so excited to have some of my art work hanging at Hot Mama. If you haven't heard of this store it is probrably because they are a small independently owned shop located in three locations around the twin cities and in one location near Chicago. They cater to pregnant woman as well as women with children or no children at all who are complete clothes hounds and love style. The owners chose four images of mine that are about women to adorn their dressing rooms...I like a captive audience! I dragged my best girl friend and our daughters into the store the other day to check out how everything looked. The cool thing was that our daughters were entertained, not by the art work, but by the fun things they had in the store for kids while the moms shopped. I actually had to convince my girls it was time to go...that is a first! Their website is www.hotmamaonline.com

The Big New Tent

I am entering this summers home stretch for art fairs. I just completed the Powderhorn art fair where I got to show off my new trimline tent...I feel an advertisement coming on. I recently upgraded from the ever lovely e-z up ( easy for who?) , which broke at an earlier art fair. I decided to bite the bullet and spend the big bucks on a sturdier tent meant for art fair lifers...one that doesn't leak or take off like a kite when the wind kicks up. It also is a lot bigger height wise, and is able to display my ever growing canvases to their best advantage. My largest painting is just under 6 feet tall...let's just say it doesn't take much to fill my booth. The only problem with the new booth is that it is quite labor intensive...meaning it has a lot of parts, unlike the other thing that just popped up. It took me 5 hours to set it up in my front yard the first time, three hours the second time and about 2 and a half hours at my last fair. My neigbors asked me if I was going to put a keg in it and have a party. Maybe next time. The tent may take forever and a day to set up, but it looks great , so no complaints here.

Even cowgirls get the blues...

My sister sent me a picture of her friends five year old daughter all dressed up for a visit. What I loved was the total pride that this little girl took in her miss matched sequin tank top and pink flowery skirt. But, what I truly loved, were the red cowgirl boots and the diva pose she had in the picture. I have two daughters, and this picture drew me in on so many levels. My girls love to dress up, and by the way, so does their mother. I think we all need a pair of red cowgirl boots, if not for any reason, just to remember our inner diva. I created a painting based on the picture that my sister sent me. I love nostalgia, and this may be the closest that I will ever get to a nostalgic type of painting.

Beyond the Looking Glass

Ahhh, another new painting. I have to say that I am having fun figuring out these figures. My sister posted my previous painting on her site liquidskyarts.com , which was really nice of her. This painting actually was completed before the one of the lady drinking coffee. She is another day dreamer taking a mental break from her life.

A work in progress...

I have been working on a series of figurative paintings for a few months now. I have been using myself as a model, and having my kids help me with the photographs that I have been using as a jumping off point for the paintings. The kids are enjoying their new level of involvement in the creative process...it used to be just do you like it or not.

I am trying to keep these very loose and painterly. The images move from realistic to somewhat absract with some loosly drawn cartoony elements. This painting is #4 in the series and is untitled. I am currently debating whether or not to add a box of Krispy Kremes into the picture...the jury is still out.

New Work...Yeah!!!

Believe it or not, somewhere between art fairs, soccer, and an extremely long car trip out to Montana, I have gotten a few new pieces completed. Just in time for my next few art fairs.

I have dubbed this the Hot Mama collection

Oy! Art Fairs

I just completed the kick off fair of the season. I have to say it was not that great...hopefully things will pick up at the next one. On a positive note I had a lot of great feed back from fair goers on my new paintings. I didn't see any disgusted looks, and most people saw the humor in my painting titled Beautiful Disaster, which I had as the focal point in my booth. By the way...I have officially dubbed it the Cheez-it painting. More people commented on the Cheez-it and Merlot combo then I ever would have expected. Anyway, my next fair is in two weeks and it is one of the bigger fairs with over 400 artists...yikes! So hopefully some of my original art will sell...if not, that's just more art for my walls!

studio friday- contrast

My studio goes through many changes over the course of the year. Sometimes it is clean and it feels just right to start a new painting. Then comes summer with all of the art fairs and in contrast to the lovely clean workable space I love, comes the disaster strewn studio. It looks like a tornado hit it...and hard. There is canvas and packaging in every corner and barely room to set foot, let alone work.

I just finished loading up my van for a show tomorrow and my studio is once again a clean space to work.

Art Fair Mania/ cd swap

It is that time of year again and art fair mania has arrived at my house. This basically means that my studio is a total disaster, and I have become a total nut job. I have spent the last two weeks trying to get organized, while at the same time trying to be the good soccer mom, personal chef, launderer of all things grimey, dog pooper scooper and so on. I haven't actually painted anything in a couple of weeks, which is also making me crazy...because painting actually calms me down. The one thing that I have enjoyed lately is this cd swap that I did with my sister at www.liquidskyarts.com. I have received some amazing cds with such creative artwork. It was all very inspiring. When I received my sisters cd, all I could think was wow that's amazing...she set the bar high, which meant I needed to redo the crap I was going to send out. I loved the songs I chose, but I didn't think that my packaging was up to par. I am not the most computer saavy gal, so I actually was forced to learn something while creating my covers. I thought that I would post a picture of the cds I have received thus far.

Studio Sounds-Studio Friday

There are a lot of sounds that I can hear from my studio. The construction sounds coming from down the road, my children playing or fighting in the family room, but mainly I hear music. I like to listen to music while I paint. It helps to take me away and focus on the canvas in front of me. I generally like to create mixes of music that I have down loaded and the play list depends on my mood. Last week it was an 80's revival mix of old Morrisey, Chili Peppers, and a few other artists that I had grown up listening to. My sister also sends me music mixes that I listen to while in the throws of creative outbursts. Some of my favorites are Aqualung,Sia, Imogene Heap, Frou Frou,Cold Play, Dido, Jem....And the list goes on.

Fun with Paint- Studio Friday

This is me trying to have some fun in the studio for this weeks studio friday. I have to say that I did try to paint using my mouth- brushes are heavier then one would think. I cheated a bit and steadied the mouth held brush with my hand. I used well diluted oil paint...I like to live on the edge, and just goofed around with it. So here it is...Picasso watch out!

Thoughts on Pots

It's spring, and as usual I always find new house plants to try not to kill over the course of the year. This year I found a plant called string of pearls and I got a beautiful rustic pot to put it in. It is a low light plant so it just might survive my house. I'm crossing my fingers.

I am also posting a picture of a painting that I have been working on. It has gone through a few changes, but I think it is finally close to completion. I am almost afraid to touch it, because I don't want to overwork it which I have a tendancy to do at times.

Studio Friday-shine and shimmer

Shiny paint pots are the first things that came to mind when I saw this weeks studio Friday. I use these disposable muffin tins to mix paint in and thin it out. The paint shimmers when I add different mediums to it. I also like these colors together.

Spotted-illustration Friday

When I think of spotted, I think of my dog Sam. This is a detail from a painting that I am working on, and Sam just happens to be a part of the composition. I thought I'd add a picture of Sam as well. He is an English Pointer...Not a Dalmation and he loves the camera!

A Work in Progress

I just thought I would post this piece that I have been working on. It is still very much in progress. I added my dog into the picture yesterday after he got home from the vet. He had to have fluid drained from his ear and will probrably need an operation. He just looked so sad and in need of extra love yesterday, so I immortalized him in paint, and gave him extra hugs.

Meringues Geantes

Call me crazy but I am an extreme bake-a-holic. I recently made some giant meringues from a recipe that I found in a French cook book. The first batch bombed, I basically made liquid egg. But I forged on and managed to figure out my mistake about a dozen and a half eggs later. They actually turned out and were quite pretty. And, they passed the true test of the picky eaters...My kids, they loved them. So I thought that I would post a picture of these beautiful things. They definitely are a good way to get rid of all of the extra eggs in ones fridge!

Tag...I'm It!

This is a first, I'm 35 and I am playing tag. Here are my answers to those questions.

1. Five minutes to yourself:How would you spend them? Drinking a cup of coffee and reading the paper without interruption. Those are my favorite cups by the way.

2. Five bucks to spend right now: How would you spend it? I would go directly to I tunes and download some new music to listen to while I paint.

3. Five items in your house you could part with right now, that you hadn't thought of already. Three old bookcases and two bags of well loved but out grown toys.

4. Five items you could absolutely never part with in your house. The red hutch that my mom painted( my dad hated it but I love it), my computer( it has all of our family photos stored in it, as well as pics of my artwork), my Chinese lantern that my father in law carried across San Francisco for me, my children's' birth pictures( I'm counting those as one thing), and my orange kitchen aid mixer( I love that thing).

5. Five words you love. cheers, whimsy, lyrical, icecream, and my most favorite...bedtime!

Now I tag anyone who happens to come across this post and wishes to play.

Studio Hands

Studio Friday

This is a pastel covered hand-a.k.a. my drawing hand. My fingernails are usually dirty. I do try to clean them, but there always seems to be some residual grit that I just cant seem to get out. Ah the life of an artist...Always creating but never clean!

Madonna Mama

This is another finished piece. Let's just say I have been in the creative zone lately. This drawing is pastel. I just got these awesome new pastels called terrage sticks made by Diane Townsend and sold through www.dickblick.com . I love, love, love them! I had just started sketching out this piece when they arrived. I titled this pastel Madonna Mama because it is about trying to be a good mother. I stay at home with my four kids. Sometimes they drive me insane and let's just say that there is nothing like a good glass of wine to help self medicate at the end of the day. However, I do enjoy their company when they are not screaming at each other. The apples represent temptations like going back to work full time. The birds represent those little voices inside my head saying this thing and that thing. I was inspired by Frida Kahlo and the way that she would paint what she was thinking on her forehead. I just painted what I was thinking about around the female figure who represents me.

Finished Work

Tra la laaaa! I finally finished my lunatic cat painting. It is quite large-5 feet across. I made the cat a bit larger and layered the colors. It makes me think of summer-I am so ready for some warm weather. Here is the finished picture.

Studio Friday-A view out my window

Here are two views from my studio. One real and one imagined. The real one looks a little gloomy because it has been raining and thundering all evening. The imagined view is one of Tuscany- how cool would it be to have a beautiful view like that? Unfortunately this is only a mural that is hanging in my studio. I love it. A muralist friend of mine and I made a trade a few years ago. I gave her a pastel painting and she gave me this. It makes me feel like I am some place else.

Spring-Illustration Friday

I just finished this new pastel that I have been working on for quite a while. I have been all over the place lately trying this thing and that thing. Now I have this collection of artwork that runs the spectrum from very absract to loose and whimsical. I was reading a french cook book and it had all of these pictures of cafes, pastry shops and bakeries. The book put me in the mood for food and it made me think of sharing it with a friend. This picture also looked like a scene from spring when everything is in bloom. Unfortunately, I live in Minnesota, and the only things in bloom are the things that live in my imagination.

The Lunatic Cat Series

This is the newest pastel from my Lunatic Cat series. My cat and I have this love-hate relationship. One day while I was shopping I came across a small oval plaque with the words chat lunatique. I immediately thought, oh my god, that's my cat and she is a total lunatic!

I saw that plaque a long time ago, but it wasn't until just recently that I started thinking about it again. I have been in a funk lately and some of my paintings were showing it- they were going nowhere and I wasn't happy with them. The news and the weather in Minnesota were depressing and I just decided one day to do a series of paintings based on an arbitrary subject-my cat- that was amusing and colorful. So far I like them. I think I might title the above picture Got Milk? but I haven't decided yet.

My Crazy Cat Painting

I decided that I needed to do a painting about something that makes me laugh and makes me crazy at the same time. My cat has been a constant source of the crazies for me for the past 13 years. We have an agreement- I won't have any more children and she will stop scratching up my furniture and attacking my feet as I get into bed at night. I also needed some bright color, some flowers and did I mention we need spring to come to Minnesota, I'm a woman on the edge. This painting is in progress. I like that it is sketchy and has the potential for lots of layers. I am also posting a picture of my cat that I took today as she was lounging on her favorite furry blanket.

New Stuff

I just wanted to post a few new pictures. I know it has been quite a while since my last post, but at least my excuse is that I was working hard in the studio. I have done mostly oil paintings this year. They are abstract with lots of texture. I have spent a lot of time working and re-working these things to get them right. So here they are feel free to let me know what you think.