WIP - rooster

I started this for a demo for my class and then put it aside. Then the week before Open Studios, I thought I should finish it and put it in the bin. No such luck, but am working to finish it now as it was very popular and probably could have sold it 5 times over. Oil Pastels on green colorfix.

Open Studios

Our 20th Open Studio event will take place this Sat. & Sun. Nov. 19 & 20, noon - 5pm.  I am in the ET Wright building along with 50+ artists and there are 20 artists in a neighboring building. Red balloons lead the way between the buildings. Free parking, entertainment, refreshments and artists of every discipline. Gallery show, works for sale and demos. An event not to be missed.

Another goose

Here is a second geese painting, oil pastel on sand colorfix about 9 x 12. I am finished for now as I need to start matting paintings and prints, put cards together and then start cleaning the studio....eeek!
I still need to do a little tweaking around the geese heads as that is where I changed my mind and scraped out the background.

Geese

I have been trying to get ready for Open Studios, which is in a few weeks, so I decided I would so some small painting s for it. This is the first....Some Canada Geese. We have them on our pond a lot.

Finished?

I haven't had much time to do a lot of painting. Putting up apples from our tree and trying to put the garden to bed for the winter. However, I do think this is just about finished with maybe a little tweaking to do. I really do need to get busy to get ready for our big Open Studio event next month.

more cupcake

I kept looking at this painting and decided I really didn't like the way the background was going so I completely changed it, but I like the dark background better. Still a lot of work to do on this.

cupcake update

Here is an update of the cupcake. Worked on it today and hope it might be finished by the end of the week. I am getting a chocolate one next.

Fundraiser

This is my donation to the Dana Farber fundraiser "A Spirited Affair". I couldn't do their 12 x 12 piece as my work needs to be under glass so I donated this to their auction. 12 x 16 oil pastel.

Fall

I did more work on the cupcake, but didn't get a chance to take a picture. Will do when I go to my studio on Monday. However, we did pick our first batch of tomatoes this past week. We really weren't sure they were ever going to ripen. These are Romas and Better Boys and they are delish..

New series

One of my daughters and her husband own a small cafe in Kingston and one of her specials are her homemade cupcakes. They are very popular. Several weeks ago one of my students suggested that I do a series of the cupcakes. I thought about that for awhile and then decided to try it. I am starting with their most popular...the coconut one.  I haven't decided where I will go with this, but thought it would be fun to try. Here is the beginning of the first one. 16" x 16" oil pastel on gessoed board. The blue is a background test color.

Finished

Finally finished this, I think before we went away to Maine for awhile. Here it is:

We just returned home form Maine, the Boothbay Harbor area.....wonderful 5 day respite.

an update and a sunflower.

Here is what I did yesterday on this. I am hoping that the old AC we have in the studio will be enough for us to work there tomorrow.
This lonely sunflower grew up between the cracks on our patio. It always keeps its face to the sun and I can see it from the kitchen window every morning.

Back at the studio

I was away from the studio for so long that when I went back last week I was at a loss for what to do. Sort of wandered around and reorganized. I then decided to finish up some work I had started awhile back until I could figure out what I wanted to do next. I started this piece 3 years ago for a show and never finished it. I am now going to finish it and have worked on it for several days. Not doing anything else until I finish. oil Patel on gessoed board about 15" x 26".

Better

Feeling a lot better now, just great, but still need to cool it untilI see the doctor this week. I have been poking away at this 2,000 piece puzzle to help pass the time.

Also am trying not to look at the weekds overtaking some of the garden. Most of it is fine except for the rows of beets and chard. Can't see them for the weeds. Hopefully over this week I can clean it out. The snap peas are just about done and now the squashes are coming into bloom.

Will be at my studio by week's end......Yay.

out of the loop

Messing around with blog designs since I am laid up with an acute attack of sinus and bronchitis....sheeesh, on meds and oxygen therapy for 2 weeks. Guess it's better than being in the hospital. That means no art and I am really missing my studio....at least the weather has been disgusting so I don't feel the need to race out in the garden. Maybe by mid week I could go to the studio for a few hours.....we'll see.

The finish

Okay here is the finish and the client will pick it up next week. Always a nervous time for me. Will they like it?

Almost finished

I haven't been here for awhile as we were away at a grandson's HS graduation and then returned home to find our house had a lightning surge during some bad storms in the area. Many of our electronic and phone services were destroyed including my computer. Husband's computer was fine. Strange the way the lightning went trough the wires. Computer is now replaced and we are dealing with the other items and the insurance company.
Anyway, I did get a chance to work on this one day this week. I have only a little more to do.
I also took Stephen Early's 2 day figure work shop this week. Well worth it.

Another update

Here is the portrait so far. Did some background work. I will probably only have another day to work on this as we are heading south for a few days next week to attend one of our granddson's HS graduation. I definitely plan on finishing this the first part of June.

update

Here is an update. I had to stop working on the faces as they became too wet. I started mapping out the background and worked on some of the clothing.

Portrait commission in progress

This is my latest portrait commission. A grandfather and his granddaughter. I love that she is holding crayons in her hand. I hope to finish this by the first part of June with a trip to MD in the middle to see a grandson graduate from HS. This is about 16 x 20, oil pastel on uArt 800.

Storage

This is before and it got much worse.

These units cover one entire wall.

It has been awhile since I posted, but life has been busy. My studio mates and I decided to add some storage units to the storage room of our studio space. It was alost impossible to move in the room and forget  about trying to find anything. It kept getting worse and worse as we just dumed stuff in there to clear out the other areas. We now each have a section of large vertical space, small vertical space and a large shelf area.

Award

I just received news that I was awarded and Honorable Mention in the
Scituate Arts juried show. The award was given to my oil pastel "Side by Side"
The Scituate Art Show is held at the Front St. Gallery, Scituate, MA -  April 15 - 23

For more info go to scituateart.com

update

Finally got back to this and worked on several scenarios for the background. I think I will use this one, though needs more work. I felt I needed to resolve the background before I did more work on the figure.
I'll have to put this aside for awhile again as I have commission portrait I need to work on over the next 2 weeks.

Moving along

I have worked on this a few times and now it is so wet, I'll have to leave it alone for a few days. I am enjoying this change of pace.

Figure update

I had some time to work on this today and just blocked in some color. I am thinking about several background scenarios.....not sure yet what I'll do. I'm having fun with this. Using pigment sitcks.

something different

I have started a figure drawing of onr of my grandsons who is now 18. I thought it would be a good diversion from still life for the time being. This is the initial drawing and I plan to do it with pigment sticks. It is on gessoed board, took me most of the morning to get the drawing right.

BTW, the pheasant was here again today.

update and visitor

I have been working on my colored pencil while waiting for supplies to come in the mail.
I am mostly trying to get color over the entire picture first and then I will go back and add values and details.

While eating breakfast this morning we were treated to an unusual visitor. He satyed quite awhile eating bird seed.

Lola and Macie

Just had to put in some updated pictures of the dogs at my daughter's. The have a Golden, Lola, who is now 2 and a new Frenchie whom Lola was afraid of in the begining. Macie is now almost 4 months and the 2 of them have become inseperable.

Stay tuned

Well, the progress on this has ended. Yesterday I was framing a piece for a local show and it needed to be shaved a little to fit the frame. I took it upstairs to an artist who has a table saw and he shaved the painting just fine so it fit the frame. It was on hardboard.

I also brought the still life painting to him to have him cut it to the size I wanted. Well, the saw slipped and almost cut it in half.....EEK....A shock at first, but then I realized it was for the best....I hated the surface and knew I would be fighting with this painting all the way. I am going to start it again on a new surface that I found and really like.  I still have the drawing, so hopefully my new board will come soon and I can show you more progress...

progressing

Well, yesterday I finally managed to get to my studio. The times have been few and far between this past month. I returned to work on my white still life and as I worked, I kept fighting with the surface. I didn't like it all, so I decided to lay down an oil underpainting which might help the surface. I'll know on Monday. any way here is the progress so far.

Also during the storm this past week we had 2 visitors that we often have in the spring. We were very surprised and they were very hungry, came to eat our birdseed and I threw the pieces of bread. They have not come since. Fun to see them.

Update and new work

Finally getting back into the swing of things. I did some more work on the large colored pencil. I anticipate this will take a long time working on it on and off.

I also set up a still life for my next oil pastel. I have wanted to do a white still life for a long time and here it is. This will be a large painting, right now 24 x 24. I may have to crop som of it as I'm not sure it will fit in a square format. We'll see. It is snowing yet again and I have my class today so don't expect to get any work done on it today. The glass is tipped a little because of the cloth. Will fix that.

Classes

I am offering on going oil pastel classes in my studio every other Tuesday eve, 6:30 - 8:30. beginning Jan. 18th. $20 per class pay as you go. Also I will be offering the same class every other Tuesday aft. 1:00 - 3:00 pm beginning Jan. 18th. If you are intersested email me patisaac@verizon.net.

We are in the midst of another nor'easter and yeat another large branch of our other neighbor's maple tree has come down over the fence into our yard...pictures later...