Mosaic

Long time since I have been here and my studio. Ran into a serious health problem on our trip to Italy. I became very ill on the plane due to oxygen depravation. I spent 7 days in a hospital in Zurich., then came home with a doctor and oxygen, fine trip back. I am currently going through bunches of tests to determine cause and treatment.
I was really impressed with all the art around Zurich. The hospital grounds had sculptures everywhere. and the hospital itself had paintings thoughout the halls, including children's and one huge mosaic which was vey impressive. I hope to be back to my studio soon.

Finally back

It has been a hard summer with surgeries and illness, but everyone is on the mend now and I finally went to my studio today after not having been there since June. Felt very nice. I tweaked this painting and went to the frame store and bought a frame. All finished.

I also continued to work on a small boat painting that I started in June.

When I came home these beauties were blooming in my garden. Some are a very dark maroon color.

Fall show

Summer show

Finished?

I think this is finished now and may tweak it a little. Need to decide about the right side - finish it off or crop....

A WIP

I have so many unfinished paintings that I should be working on, so what did I do? I started another one, but I will finish this next week....promise. Something about it spoke to me.
This is the progress so far. Yesterday and today.

Award

I recently entered my oil pastel of a rooster titled "In Charge" into the South Shore Science Center's juried show "Inspired by Chickens". I was quite surpised to learn today that it received 3rd prize.

demo finished

It has been awhile since I posted, very busy month.....
Here is the finished demo I did for my class several weeks ago. Since then I have tweaked it a little more, but not much.

Since doing this, I thought I might challenge myself during June to do a series of boat paintings. Not sure how many, but hopefully at least 6 - 10.

new grad

We have had a whirlwind long weekend as one of our granddaughters graduated from Northeastern. My daughter and family werehere from MD and we had a big cookout on Sunday with the whole family. Fun time. She goes to BC grad school in the fall.

Meghan at TD garden

All 3200 graduates..

with Mom and Dad

with the proud grandparents

The whole crew....3 daughters, 2 granddaughters and a family friend.

missing were 4 grandsons and a granddaughter who graduates next week from St. Lawrence U.

another demo

I did this for my Tuesday night class as they wanted to learn about boats in water. I finally remembered my camera. I will probably finish this up a little more in my studio.

Next class we are going to start some drawing basics and then work them in color. They have been a liittle frustrated with some drawing issues, soooo.....

Demo

I recently did a demo for the Weymouth Art Association. I decided to do a bird as I was familiar with them, having done a bunch for a challenge. With a familiar subject I was able to get most of it done.

Here is another image with what I was able to finish.

Great group and a fun time.

Collaborative project

One of the artists in our group decided to get a collaborative project together using plastic water bottles. Every artist was given a bottle and asked to design it in some way. These will all be put together in some kind of unified display. Here is my attempt, using 2 bottles.

Not really my thing, but it was kind of fun.

More snow and a redo...

This is last weekend's storm.....It was supposed to be about 5" and we ended up with 2 feet!!! Amost gone now though due to rain and March sun...

I also pulled out some old work and have been refurbishing this piece a little....think I will leave it alone now.

Snow!

I have no painting this week, though I did start a new one at my studio but was sidetracked by our big storm. We were exceedingly fortunate not to have lost our power. Our daughter and family from a neighboring town came to stay here, get warm, shower and enjoy. The dogs came too. We had a good time...also friends came to shower and eat warm food. We were happy to have them all.
We needed a small front end loader to take the snow from our driveway, our plow guy has one.
Time to regroup and hopefully get to the studio this week.
This picture is the morning after the storm....hard to see, but there is a 5 foot drift in ftont of the tree. I love going out in the morning after a storm and just taking in the 'silence'. I don't think there is any other silence like it....just amazing.

All together

Here is a collage of the 24 paintings that I did for Leslie Saeta's 30 day challenge.

Day 24

This is the last day of the challenge and I want to thank Leslie so much for starting this. I have learned much this month, even though I didn't quite get 30 paintings done. I learned a lot more about the medium I use and I also learned how to paint better, making every stroke count. This challenge was the perfect nudge I needed after the holidays and weeks away from my studio.
This bird arrived in our yard 2 years agao during a very snowy winter. He liked the bird seed. Not sure whatever happened to him as we have not seen him since.

Day 23

These lovely singers annoy some, but he sits at the top of one of our pines and sings his heart out every morning in the spring and summer. I realize it is often at 4 or 5 am...reason for annoyance..I love to listen to them.

Day 22

I love the subtle coloring of the female cardinal. I had to do this one again as the first attempt was not to my liking...

Day 21

Back from the busy weekend and here is a little charmer that we enjoy all summer. oil pastel, 6 x 6.

I may get 24 of the 30 done by the 31st. Pretty good for me. Check out the other paintings in the challenge here.

Day 19 & 20

I cought up on one today, but sadly will have no time over the weekend to do more, maybe next week I can catch up more.
These are both oil pastels 6 x 6. This is a redbelly woodpecker that visits our suet frequently. He is very shy.

And this is a carolina wren that visits our suet also. A friend of mine has one that makes a nest in her mailbox every spring, so she puts out a pail for the mailman until the babies are gone.

Day 18

I did finish another bird today. This is a mourning dove and they frequent our yard all year long. My husband calls them the ladies as they slowly walk down our driveway every morning to the feeder.

I did start another today so by tomorrow I should be able to have 2 more done. Thanks everyone for all your nice comments, much appreciated.

color

I had my first class last night in our gallery space. Much better, lots of room to spread out. There were 3 new students along with the 4 that have been coming for awhile now, making a total of seven. A larger group is much more fun and the new students added another dimension to the mix.
Last time I started with Pegg Kroll Roberts value lesson using the cubes, so this time I added the color and caught the new people up on values. I didn't take a pic of my demo as it took them a while to draw the set up. We are working in oil pastel. I brought mine to the table as the new students didn't have any and I wanted them to try the different brands to see what they liked and what they might want to start with.
Here is the set up

And here are a few of the students work. They didn't have time to finish, but the person who did the second one said she had no idea how to draw. I indicated we would learn as we went along. She did great! It is going to be a fun class.

2 birds coming up for tomorrow.

Day17

I did get another in today. Do you think spring is around the corner?
I was mostly busy getting ready for my class tonight. I will be teaching in our gallery now as the number of students won't fit in my studio.

Day 15 & 16

Well despite the business of the past 2 days I did manage to get 2 birds done today. I didn't get to the studio until noon, had lunch w/my 2 studio mates and then did these.
Another junco who seems to be rather scarce this year...not wintery enough, I guess. Also a chippping sparrow. These little ones are around all summer in the grasses.

Missed

EEk, I missed today but I am sure I can do 2 tomorrow....So much going on, life happens and it is good..Maybe snow coming....and I hope it doesn't interfere with the beginning of my class on Tuesday. Thanks, Nancy for Peggy Kroll Roberts instructional kits. I am using one of them, started last week and the class found it difficult. Good to review the concepts.

Pat

Day 14

Here is today's entry....another nuthatch, but the variety that we most often have in our yard. We refer to them as upside down birds as they are usually running down the trees. For the past 2 summers we have had a family nest in our old apple tree.

Day13

Here is the next one...still not caught up, but working on it.
Every now and then we will have one of thse acrobats on our suet.
oil pastel on colorfix 6" x 6".

Day 12

Still 3 behind...was hoping to catch up yesterday, but spent 3 hours shoveling our driveway...not enough snow for the plow and then today there was no one sitting in the gallery so I took that shift....anyway, I do hope to catch up before the end of 30 days. We don't have as many of these little fluffs as usual. They often arrive in November as a harbinger of winter, but they were late this year...mild winter??
Forgot to say that this is an oil pastel on uArt paper 6" x 6".

Day 11

Here is day 11, still 2 days behind....
I had a hard time with this one as the oil pastel yellows are transparent and really need to "set up", but there was no time. This is oil pastel on 6 x 6 uArt paper 800 grit.
I love to see the goldfinches changing color in the early spring. It is a sure harbinger of warmer weather.

Day 10

I am a few days late, but trying to catch up now over this coming week. I will be judging Globe scholastics tomorrow so no post then, but the rest of the week will give me time.
I love these little birds, so friendly and perky and they nest all summer in one of our birdhouses.

None today....

Well, I am now behind, but I will catch up on Sunday. We hung the gallery show today and tomorrow is the opening so I will be there doing stuff and making things.....
If you are in the area and want to see a great photography show please stop by.

Day 9

Here is todays entry and I did it in the gallery while taking in work.

Day 8

Onward and upward, here is the next entry. I took my pastels to the gallery today as I was accepting work for our new show and I finished him there.

Day 7

Amazing that I am still keeping up....here is #7.  I had fun with this one...sometimes a painting almost paints itself and this was one. We have a pair of finches at our feeder every morning.