walkin on sunshine

There has been so much to do in the last two months and I am finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. A photographer is coming to get a shot in the studio for the article, I will oversee the delivery of the work for the show, and I want to re-arrange a few photographs in the leather binder that will display all of my reference photos. I can also choose some music for the opening and am going to go through my CDs as soon as all the paintings stored in the home studio are moved. I have a CD of hammered dulcimer music that I think would be perfect.

The big beautiful trees outside my home studio window are budding and soon I will enjoy the first dappled shade from new leaves as the season changes. I want to get outside with the camera, go to a favorite garden center or two to take photographs, have a picnic at our joining park, and really greet the Spring. My wrist is feeling much better now and very soon it will be time for Spring cleaning in the studio to get all the windows washed and things tidied up and clean.

I am debating the first new painting to start and I think it may be a peacock crop I have been wanting to paint on a big square canvas... not the whole peacock but a partial image from a variety of reference shots. There are so many florals to work on and lots of good things will be happening in the studio, including some classes and workshops.

Before all of that I am just going to breathe a little and refresh the source.

Life is good.

there you go

Yesterday I added d-rings and picture wire to all of the new paintings at the art center, and for the first time in weeks headed home by noon to work on my presentation book and some of the final paper details for the show. It is not really an ending or a beginning, for as soon as all the work is delivered to the Washington School of Photography, I will start painting once again in the studio with lots of new work coming. It is, however, a landmark of sorts. We celebrate these things.

the stress and strain is getting to me

All these weeks of solid painting and working on all the components for the show are finally catching up with me. Yesterday I spent time in the studio signing paintings and adding a few final touches, and in putting my work easel up and down all day I strained my left wrist (the one that I landed on many years ago when I was holding my infant daughter in my other arm walking into that Florida Kmart with the wet floor after a rain storm.) It will be fine and only flairs up when I do too much with it. In a day or two it will be better if I rest it.

I am really feeling the stress of working straight through the weekends and starting all over again on Monday (too much work makes Judith a very dull girl) but in the end it is all worth it for the good PR and opportunity to showcase the work. All in all I know at this point that I have done everything that I could do to work hard, paint well, be prolific, do my PR, and breathe my essence into every piece I will show at the Washington School of Photography. That is a good feeling!

I had a very interesting visitor to the studio yesterday afternoon. Virginia had arrived to sit with me to do her computer work and offer moral support on a tough day, and into my studio walked an extended family.

There was a beautiful little girl with the most incredible blue eyes, and an eleven year old boy with a passion for art that has extended at least three generations - same as me. His grandmother was there (a museum goer and passionate arts supporter), his father was there (an art history major), and this young man and I had a discussion about my work in which he was eerily knowledgeable and expressively verbal.

I was delighted by his interest and he told me that he likes to sketch a lot. I asked his dad if I could offer him a gift, and went to get one of my new 6H (magical) pencils for him to take home.... they make very fine, light lines in sketching.... well, it turns out this young man had me beat, he has 9H pencils at home, a gift from his European mother. Well! I didn't even know there were 9H pencils!! I told him that I am going to have to go shopping for some at Plaza, and when he left the room with his sister (to whom I gave postcards) I told his loving dad that they need to keep him in all the art supplies he wants. Turns out that the young man and I like to shop at the same art supply stores too.

There is hope for the world yet in the children.

you might want to wring those out

Yesterday I left the house early in the rain to purchase cookies and treats for the Art After Hours event last night, and since I had put the egg tree up in the studio it seemed only fitting that I should find nice Spring-themed cookies. I am the unofficial nurturer at the art center.

The bakery let me pick out the prettiest cookies and then they created beautiful platters for me. I had great good luck and made it back to the art center with the bounty only a little worse for wear from all the rain... and eventually my pantlegs did dry.

Luckily there is a catering refrigerator on our floor and the big trays of cookies stayed nice and chilled for the rest of the day. I stuffed plastic eggs with wrapped chocolates just for fun and tidied up my half of the studio for the evening event. I think I enjoy getting the treats together as much as the guests enjoy sampling them.

After the interview and a break away from the studio for lunch (a rare treat recently as all my efforts have been focused on preparing for the show) I came back to open the studio for our evening guests. These events are always interesting as you never know who might show up.

Staff members and guests mingled with music in the gallery, a glass demo, and a talk given by one of the resident artist photographers, and everyone had a great time. Good things are always happening at the art center!

All in all it was a great day. Now the final push before I turn over all the work for the hanging. No butterflies about it yet, but it has been a long time since my last solo show in Florida.

et voila ici

Lots of smiles as people discovered the new tablescape in the studio yesterday. Today a newspaper reporter is coming to do an article before the solo show opens, and I have a lot of work to do to get all the paintings wired and ready for hanging.

over the river and through the woods

In the rain and drizzle sometime after 6:30 last night we donned coats and sloppy shoes to go out into the woods in the rain. With one objective Virginia and I walked and talked and chattered about our days as I looked for the perfect one. It had to be on the ground, and had to be of a certain shape... size was not an issue and could decide itself. We looked and hunted and walked and looked. Finally, finally along the path I discovered the perfect one and we carried it home, held high like a prize with Virginia laughing at me.

After a little work to shape it slightly we gingerly put it into the adventuremobile with the seats down, with me pulling and Virginia pushing. There! The back hatch closed. Out on the streets in the rain we made the short drive to the art center and my studio. As these things often do, it looked so much bigger inside the building as we negotiated it onto the freight elevator and up to the second floor.

There was an event last night but all the guests were in the event room as we arrived, coming off the elevator to be greeted by a knot of art center staff who just smiled and parted so that I could pass through with my large treasure. It is a measure of my relationship with them that nobody said a word or uttered a question... they just smiled as I went by.

By now it was after 8 and I was tired and hungry, but a special vase was ready and we were able to fit through the door and into the studio. Carefully placed in the heavy vase we now added a finishing touch that Virginia had found and purchased earlier in the day. Arranged just so, Virginia helped me balance the whole assemblage to place it up on my decoupaged desk in the display window of the studio.

A 6 foot tall easter tree with sweeping branches extending some 6 feet, a deadfall branch that only needed a little shortening with my handy saw.... and pastelly beaded eggs with ribbon loops on the branches, quite minimalist in nature and stunning in the gorgeous egg vase now sits on my lovely table. No images yet as we did not take the camera along on our rainy night adventure. Since childhood an easter tree has been a tradition, and this one does not disappoint.

A woman came out of the event room and said that she loved the display that we had just created..... to be augmented today with some special items from my collection here at home.

Photographs coming soon:)

do you always squint like that or is the sun in your eyes?

It was a gorgeous (with a capital "gor")in the burbs of DC yesterday. Not too warm but crisp and sunny and delightful to be outside. I started very early in the studio and worked all day on the orchid, taking some time to go outside and photograph my studio from the street with all my paintings turned around to street view. Those images will be coming soon.

After a very long day I came home and finished this month's version of the Artsy Newsletter and sent it out to recipients sometime around 8:30 along with some other business related web chores and tidying PR up. (It took a big broom!) Have you gotten your copy of the Artsy Newsletter?

One day soon some spring cleaning of another sort needs to happen in the studio to sweep out the debris. The windows need washing and some touch-up painting needs to happen to freshen things up for the visitors that will be coming by.