Good Day!

It was a lovely day yesterday!

First of all, I won a Merit award for "Gourd & Peppers" at the Mountainside Art Guild's "Views of the East & West". It's on display at the Lakewood Arts Council's Community Center and Art Gallery this next month.


"Gourd & Peppers" 3.75" x 4.5" colored pencil on sanded paper

The other good news is I sold this lovely little cobalt blue perfume bottle

New Painting - Cream and Sugar

I'm starting a new painting in class, using a lovely Peach Lustre sugar bowl and an Alfred Meakin white vintage pitcher.

This will still be a light and shadow design, but in high key. The light and shadow paintings I have done up to this point have been the full range of values (1-10). High key will keep the values not quite so dark with a range of value from 1-6 with a few punches of 7.

We have also been studying dynamic symmetry (DS) as a design tool. I have included the sketch of my DS grid on tracing paper. My painting is 12 x 18, so I took a piece of tracing paper the same size and drew my grid. Then I placed my items on the grid, moving the still life items as necessary. The idea that DS will help you have a more pleasing composition (similar to the golden mean).

Sorry about the quality of the photos, I was using my cell phone camera in the dark.

A photo of the setup I'm using

My drawing (a little askew) on the DS grid

Wallis paper with drawing transferred and dark (value 6/7) structure blocked in...

Stay tuned!

Lemons and Blue Glass

Finished! This one will be in our Studio Exhibit coming up in November.

"Lemons and Blue Glass" 12 x 18 pastel on Wallis paper

(You can click on the picture to see a close up of the strokes)

Pastel Class Setup

Thought you might like to see my setup in class. The group rents a space in an office bldg and it is petitioned into smaller spaces with black drapes. We have a small kitchen and a bathroom along with space to store still life items. I took in my taboret that I was using at home and it's a great place to put my art supplies. It also works to put my pastels on as I'm working. Cool still life stands are available to each of us.

The group is planning an exhibit in November to run through mid January.

I finished this piece tonight and will photograph it tomorrow. I"ll be having it framed and will be part of the exhibit.

Note my Starbucks coffee made it into the picture!

Newest Fiber Art ACEO

"Bubbles" 2.5" x 3.5" Fiber Art ACEO

August has been such a busy month, five birthdays (including mine), two wedding anniversaries (including ours), and just general ramping up after taking a week off for the CPSA Convention in Atlanta.

My sewing room/art area was being considered for an episode on A&E's "Hoarders" until this last weekend when my sweet hubby goaded me into cleaning. I hate cleaning but it always gives me such energy. Enough so that I could finish "Bubbles".

The other great news is I am returning to pastel class on Thursday nights, and will be able to paint in my new space anytime I want. So I hope to be able to work more on pastels and get back into the swing of entering exhibits, and more blog posts.

Thanks to you all for following along on my artistic journey!

ACEO Fall Art Show

Ah, the first of September!

To celebrate the coming fall, our 1000Markets.com ACEO Market has put together it's first Art Show.

I have two pieces in the show, "Autumn Leaves" and "Copper and Jade".

Enjoy the show, and read the blog post about how one artist displays her ACEO's.