Garden Tour

On Saturday, we went on a local garden tour---all about sustainability and organic methods. We toured 10 gardens, several we wondered why they were on the tour (small raised beds between the street & sidewalk...uh cool...Next!) and of course several that were absolutely amazing gardening efforts (interestingly our favorites were gardens of friends!) Saw a lot of things we'd like to try, asked questions about the best mulch between beds (straw? peppermint compost? small gravel? All have their pluses & minuses...) These are some of my favorite shots of the day:











Of course, couldn't pass this up either, tho it's not very "gardeny"...

Happy 100th Birthday Grandpa!

Today is my Grandpa's 100th birthday---my Uncle invited us to their new house to celebrate, with pizza, beer & cake---all things my Grandpa never was able to eat when he lived since he was diagnosed with diabetes when he was 17. He died when I was a sophomore in high school. I remember him as being quiet, wearing plaid wool shirts over his tee shirts, kinda baggy khaki pants and paint spattered light brown leather shoes. What's really cool is that he was a sign painter, designer---just like my husband is now. Sadly they never met, but Brad's first shop was his old sign shop---which my Granny loved!

At the party today, my Uncle had a lot of little things out for us to see that used to be my Grandpa's---books, billfolds with his old drivers licenses, job related receipts, sketches, wooden bowls he made on his lathe, and a fun little diary from 1923, 1924 where he had short entries---"Went to school, came home, went out to the woods with friends to check mink or muskrat traps, bait "et" but empty. Played checkers, went to bed 15 to 12..."---totally cool! Brad really liked these stamps---one I've inverted so it's easier to read---I'm guessing Grandpa designed these and had them made.




The photo below shows my Grandpa---he's the one with the glasses---this is a close-up of a much larger photo showing 20-30 display artists in the Portland area---not sure when, but guessing the 30's or 40's. He worked for a while doing shop displays in Portland---way back when. Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Beads

Well, it all started with a desire to have a necklace like my daughters. I borrowed it for a couple of occasions recently and really liked the length---along with the colors & style.


So, a week ago I took a look at our local bead shop downtown, saw what was available, bought a few, then returned home to see if I was anywhere close to my inspiration. Not bad! I still needed a few more beads to finish it off, so went back the next day with her necklace in hand, hoping to find a few more beads similar. Back home I settled on the dining room table & proceeded to make myself a new beaded necklace! I loved it! My daughter came home, admired mine, said "Copy Cat..." then almost in the same breath said "Would you make me one?"! I said "sure!" (someday...!)


I had enough black beads leftover to make another necklace, adding some shiny black beads with streaks of colors embedded in the glass---this time a bit less bright and colorful---yep, like this one too!


Suddenly I was flashing on more---more bead shops, more designs, more bead information. I could hardly wait 'til Tuesday this week when a 2nd bead shop would be open after the holiday. I was there for over an hour playing in the beads, finding some treasures, asking questions... I had to go to Eugene to pick up my paintings Thursday so of course did an online search & found 2 shops to explore there... Yep, I was bit bad!! Hoping to play some more today with my new obsession... Wishing you all a great weekend finding something that feeds your passions! (hoping to paint some today too---that's a whole 'nother post tho...)

Latest experiments

So I was into limes this week...(see post from July 17th titled Too Many Limes & you'll see where these limes originated!) and decided to paint a few smaller (5x7) pastels, using the pva size & working on a primed board again. When I finished, I then sprayed them with a UV resistant glossy acrylic coating. Here are the finished pieces! I'm quite happy with the results (tho I need to shoot some better photos---this one has a bit of glare showing in the middle & last painting). I'm just bursting with motivation now that I've discovered a way to eliminate framing---one of my least favorite things to do!! Time to go to work on a new painting!

Red

Just uploading photos and other programs onto my new hard drive. This one stood out today! Love the different textures & values of grey plus the sparks of red... Wishing you some sparks today!

Glassless pastel attempt #2.

Well, not sure if I mentioned this, but I managed to ruin my first attempt at glassless pastel...(see previous post about success before I ruined it...http://phinearts.blogspot.com/2007/07/my-new-obsession.html). I became impatient with the slow blow drying process and while trying to hurry up it up I used the high setting on the blow dryer which I think caused the pva size to make tiny bubbles on the surface of the pastel. I initially just flattened them down with the back of my thumbnail, but then they began to pop which left open blisters on the surface. I thought I could just gently peel them off, but that just started everything to go downhill---one peel led to more, & soon the surface looked like a bad sunburn... I ended up taking out sand paper & completely sanding away the almost finished painting!! *sigh...live and learn...

So, this past week I thought I'd try again on another prepared board and created my 2nd pastel using diluted pva size as a sealer between layers, drying slooowwwly on low with the blow dryer, holding it about 2 feet away, being overly cautious of course---but I managed to not ruin this one! Yay! So it now hangs at the gallery in the "Dog Days" show, and I'm excited to start another---first a smaller one that I can try finishing off with an acrylic UV resistant spray. I wanted to on this one but was smartly told to experiment with something smaller & less precious. After that I want to go BIG! Can't wait!!

Here's the finished painting---"Black and White":

Studio Friday

It's been a while since I've participated, but thought this weeks theme was right down my alley!

"Let us have a look at one page from your sketchbook or notebook...just curious. It's up to you which one you would like to reveal. Should you want to you can show us more than just one, too. "

Well of course I can't just pick one page---or even two! So here are several pages from 3 different sketchbooks. It was fun to go through them and find my favorites---especially fun to see the drawings of my kids when they were younger! Click on the photo to enlarge it if you'd like to see the little notes that went with each drawing.

Frustration!!

My Mac Mini died on Friday----*poof*----just like that! I popped in my daughter's camera card into the printer to then pull off the photos she had on it from a great camping trip we took to Waldo Lake---for some reason it didn't show up on my computer desktop, so I thought---ok, I'll reboot. That was it! I tried to reboot & my Mac Mini just got stuck and soon was making this odd clicking/ticking/grinding noise. Dang! I rebooted over & over, turning it on & off, trying all the tricks the manual suggested, finally calling the local Apple store. They gave me one more thing to try---no luck, so I packed it up & popped down to see what their tech person had to say. She plugged it in & immediately said "oh, your hard drive is broken!" No Way?! The little arm that looks like a turntable arm supposedly had broken (so she assumed since she didn't pop open the hard drive to look). Ugh...that means if I want anything on it I need to pay oodles of $$ to retrieve it at some speciality recovery biz... I also need to buy a new hard drive and start all over! My Mac Mini is only 1 1/2 years old! I'm so frustrated!! Of course I didn't buy the Apple extended warranty... My oldest daughter bought an ipod (spendy one) and just after she'd had it for a year, it totally died too... What is with these Apple products? I thought the company was so reliable---it's why we decided to give their computers a try for a change---as the tech lady said tho---the hard drive isn't an apple product... ARGH! I'm now on my youngest daughter's Apple Macbook... brand new... I'm guessing she better invest in their Apple Care program (scam, scam, scam...) so she's not left high and dry in a year... Think I need to send this note to Apple... So, to wrap up----BACK UP YOUR COMPUTER TODAY!!! *sigh...

Beachy Keen!

Two weekends ago, we popped over to Florence---a little town on the Oregon coast. Time for us to get away and pick up some out of town inspiration along with a much needed beach fix! Here is what we saw that day--this first photo shows the bridge heading south of Florence taken from "old town".


The flowers at the coast always amaze me---I think it's the cooler temps, and abundance of water that makes for some pretty spectacular flower boxes!


We then drove up hwy. 101 and stopped to wander the beach at Bob Creek---a new discovery for us. There was the creek, and then further down the beach were some great tidal rocks that had more sea stars planted upon them than I'd ever seen before so close to the shore!



The colors of the day were orange and purple...and this tiny little shell was just shouting for attention amongst all the other tidal treats...


As we walked along we discovered another cool find at Bob Creek---a lovely green slime rock wall and cave that tucked under the highway we'd just been driving on!


Then to end our day, we found a couple of "wild" animals marching on the road as we headed home...Yep, it is a fine life...

Too many Limes!

My youngest daughter is working for a real cool flower/event shop that makes wedding flowers (bouquets, boutonnieres, "tosses" arrangements etc.) and helps decorate wedding sites or other business events around the area. They do centerpieces, linens, drapes and often hang out at the weddings to help with other parts. A lot of the flowers they use are preserved flowers---which means a bride can keep her bouquet and it'll look pretty much the same years later as it did on her wedding day. They also use real flowers too (lucky us, after an event is over, my daughter often comes home with gorgeous flowers!)

A week ago they used limes in vases with the flowers on each table at a wedding reception---and after they cleaned up they returned to the shop with buckets of limes! We ended up with a ton so decided to make juice using our old Sunbeam mixer with its juice making attachment. This mixer has been tucked away for years, I wasn't sure it still worked, but it plowed through 1/2 of the limes we had and made a pitcher of lovely sour lime juice! We're freezing it in ice cube trays then transferring those into baggies to use for margaritas, daiquiris, limeade, gin & tonics & sorbet. Sadly, when we turned on the mixer the next day it barely ran...think we may have burnt out the motor! Another friend said we could bang on the thing with a hammer & it'll probably work again---haven't tried that yet. In the meantime we bought an inexpensive hand juicer...and have been handing out bags of limes to anyone that stops by! Want some?!!

My new obsession...

I've been in search of a way to paint in pastels and then frame the finished painting without glass. Impossible usually because of how fragile pastel is on paper---just the slightest touch will brush away the pastel, smear the image, or rub out any texture you've created. Most pastels are framed under glass with a spacer between the painting and mat to allow any loose pastel dust to fall between the mat & spacer to avoid marring the face of the mat. Pain-in-the-butt framing, but a necessity with pastels. Because framing is one of my least favorite things to do (and it's darn expensive too having to use archival matting, acid free foam core, etc!) I've dreamed of finding a way to paint in pastel without all that framing fuss. After doing some extensive research, I went to work on Wednesday and tried a technique for the very first time that was suggested by another pastel artist (http://www.rockmouthart.com/art/content/glasslesspastels.html) whom was very generous with sharing her method. (Thank you again Tricia Messinger!)

As I sprayed the first layer of diluted PVA size onto my pastel, I was just a touch disappointed to see it melt the pigment and watch bits of it drip down the surface I'd prepared... Once I blew it dry tho, I was beginning to get excited---the color that seemed to melt while wet returned almost completely (tho a tad darker which she warned about). The drips added texture (ok, so I didn't really want texture right there, but that was ok---it was my first attempt and I knew this was essentially an experiment!) I have a hard time not producing a piece of artwork that isn't supposed to be immediately saleable upon finishing...so I don't often experiment like I should! Happily, I was able to continue working on the piece and with added layers of the size (and a more careful application to avoid dripping) and continued use of the blow dryer I was able to produce something in pastel that was truly "sealed"! It still looked like a pastel, it was still brilliant with color, but it was protected---WITHOUT GLASS!!!

I'm just a little EXCITED!! With an abundance of wood boards leftover from signs my husband has made, I have materials galore to draw from to create surfaces of all sizes for future pastel paintings---no more am I limited by what I can afford in framing materials---no more do I have to even use frames (the latest look in galleries seems to be wrapped canvases where the painting extends around the edges of the canvas or board) which means NO FRAME!

Here is the finished painting---I used the pastel I painted in Independence as my subject matter, so now I have one to keep and one to sell---tho this one is not quite finished---close tho.


This next photo shows the board I used as my surface---I puttied the edges and then used acrylic silicone to seal the edges which I'll probably just paint black now or use some simple wood molding painted black to frame the piece. I covered the surface I painted with 2 coats of Art Spectrum Colorfix Pastel Primer in black (http://www.cheapjoes.com/art-supplies/5643_art-spectrum-pastel-primer.asp) before I went to work with the pastels. Time to go finish this painting and start a new one---think I'll try something big next time...

Featured Artist

It's been a while since I was the featured artist at our local gallery of which I've been part of for 16 years this month... I've had at least 4 other shows thru the years, but this is the first that only has one painting in it! With all the fun I've been having this spring with taking photos I decided to feature them for a change with a painting tossed in just to mix things up. After we hung the show a week ago, along with the little tags and sign, I shot a quick photo of the finished product.




We also visited my two paintings hung in a group show at the Eugene library at a reception Friday night. Our first time inside the library there---what a nice facility! Not sure the history, but it seems pretty brand new.

Feels good to be finished with those two projects!

Painted in the little town of Independence last Tuesday, the day before Independence day! Our plein air painting group that meets on Wed. met a day early 'cause of the holiday---most people stayed on main street painting some of the historical buildings, or were down in the park painting the Willamette River. I was in the mood to paint fields and sky, so spent too much time hunting for the perfect scene---finally finding it on the north end of town. Because of my shortened painting time (we were going to meet at 12:30 and it was already 10:45) I painted fairly small (8x10) and fast! It's now my favorite painting!! Might have to create a 2nd and keep this one... Sorry for the tease, but I haven't taken any photos of the finished painting yet---so you'll have to come back and see it in a later post!

Show time!

Well, have been framing, finishing, photographing, refining, and signing some pastels for a group show at the Eugene Library that goes up next week. Also have been framing photos for my solo show at our local gallery starting in July. Still dreaming that I can create, finish & frame one more painting before that show (don't tell me July is less than a week away please...!) but am not stressing yet! In the meantime, here's one painting---going to Eugene probably (still haven't 100% made up my mind which paintings I'm submitting...)---plein air Poppies from Schreiner's Gardens:

COLLEGE WORLD SERIES CHAMPS AGAIN!

They did it again! 2nd year in a row---one of 5 to ever pull off two world series wins in a row---YAY BEAVERS!! What a terrific group of kids and an amazing coach! They return today with a parade thru town and ceremony on campus---guess where we're going this afternoon?! Such excitement!!

Stop! Slow Down! Help!

This month has just been whirling by---so much going on! I'm not sure it's going to slow much yet---but I'm about ready for a totally empty day to just sleep, relax, do nothing, sleep, read, clean house, sleep... Can you tell what I'm missing most?!

We had a nice party on Father's Day to celebrate my brother's graduation from OSU, + his birthday the next day along with the actual holiday festivities equaling good eats & companionship. Right after though, I was home packing to go with my painting group to Menucha ( http://www.menucha.org/ ) the next morning. Menucha is a lovely retreat "resort" on 128 acres above the Columbia River. Most of the painting group stayed 2 nights, but I was just going up for Monday night since we had another party to attend Tuesday evening. Spent a lot of time hiking around the property, worked on 2 1/2 pastels---one of Crown Point, the other of a gold fish pond, the 1/2 just a quick sketch, ate great meals, slept lousy (my two elderly roommates snored 1/2 the night!) and had a great time chatting with the other painters.

Started & finished up 2 more pastel paintings yesterday---small 5x7" pieces---one as a gift for friends moving away to remind them of their home here, the second to frame and sell eventually.

Next on the old agenda is framing photos for my upcoming show in July---along with popping out another painting to go with the acrylic I just need to sign. Time to frame a couple of paintings for a show at the Eugene library that goes thru the summer---to be delivered for hanging next week. I think after the first part of July I might get to catch up on that missing sleep....

Here are some pics from Menucha:



Painting by the pool & the almost finished painting below:


This shows the pond I painted with Wright Hall behind---where we had our meals.


My version of the pond:


Lastly, here's one of the little 5x7 pastel paintings I created yesterday morning:


Time for a nap... ;)

Our baby has graduated!

Dumm da da da dummm dummm,---come on sing with me! Graduation has come and gone once more---Monday was the big night---high school graduation then some family photo time ending with an all night party with both local high schools participating. Brad and I headed over at 12:30 am to put in our parent volunteer time---we dealt blackjack in the "casino" for two hours! Such fun at 1:00-3:00 am... I'm still recovering from the lack of sleep that night---yesterday was a bit of a blur as I tried to just get thru the day, barely able to make it 'til time to crawl back into bed!

Here she is---Graduation 2007!