Whooping Wade

Here is "Whooping Wade", an 18 x 24 inch oil pastel painting on a canvas panel, finished earlier today. This is one of three images that I'm hoping to have on display at Overture Center later this year as part of the Mount Horeb Area Artists Association.

I've been cited for blog neglect...

...or should have been.

Rather than dash everyone's holiday spirits, I went into hibernation for a few months. Great for the artistic creativity, and I was able to pass the holidays--plus there have been plenty of opportunities to play in the wintry weather.

The snow has been piling up again this year, and just before the second big snowstorm of the year, a lovely little snow blower joined my arsenal of home and garden tools. Whew! It's saved me hours and hours of labor and offered some abominable snowman moments. No one tells you that some days it really doesn't matter what direction the exit chute is pointing, the wind tends to whip it right back at you or over the path you just cleared.

Another clipper is headed our way over the weekend. After last week's sub-zero temperatures and -40 wind chills, this week has felt downright balmy--and it's just approaching 32 degrees!

My latest online adventure has been getting bamboozled into playing on Facebook. Friends out there anywhere?

: )

29th Annual Holiday Craft Boutique

Again this year I'm showing pieces at the 29th Annual Holiday Craft Boutique, a home show out in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin that my good friend Stephanie Funck alerted me about several years ago. It's a good way to get the jump on fun holiday shopping without the crowds.



Jan Dorner opens her home for three successive weekends to a group of artists who provide a broad range of art and craft items for the holidays and gift-giving throughout the year.



Snowmen. Reindeer. Dried and pressed flowers. Dolls. Wreaths. Soaps. Glass work. Hand painted wood. Ornaments. Purses. Handwoven Baskets. Baked sweets and treats. Quilted pieces. Garden stones. AND much, much more.

The show is open from 10 am to 5 pm
• Friday, October 17 and Saturday, October 28
• Friday, October 24 and Saturday, October 25
• Friday, October 31
and from 10 am to 3 pm
• Saturday, November 1

Map your way to 829 Davis Street in Sun Prairie.

Some of the proceeds from the show go to The Empty Stocking Club.

New Website FINALLY Launched!

I've been promising it for months, and here it is! I'm proud to introduce the new ElectrKolor.com, which contains online shops for photography and sticky note packs. No need to visit another venue to shop!

Too few posts?

I have to admit that I've been too busy with other things to post as regularly as I'd like. I keep trying to "step away from the computer" more and more, especially now that I'm back working full-time as a contractor. I continue working on my pastel craft, and the grape hyacinths and brick wall shown here are the subjects of my next drawing. I hope to show some decent progress on it later this week.
I've been woefully neglectful of officially finishing my new ElectriKolor website, and have let all Etsy store items expire without replacement. I feel like I'm going to be heading toward dealing mostly in pastels from this point forward, so I'm pondering the possibilities.

In search of...

...a good photo opp...sometimes results in something totally different...Last Saturday morning, my intent was to shoot a GOOD photo of the "mystery bird" that, in the bright morning sun and from a distance, looked pretty much like an inverted bald eagle--a dark head and a stark white body. It's sad to say that I was disappointed in the fact that it was simply a large, healthy red-tailed hawk. He or she did not appreciate my stalking methods, and I was able to shoot only three frames of it before it continued its hunt elsewhere.

Undaunted, I went out on a local photo safari, catching some local residents in action--horses and cows mostly, although there were a few frisky geese working on repopulating the species...I did run across a pregnant cow with what were probably her yearlings, and they were curious about the gal across the street in the car with the funny-looking mechanical device...after a bunch of reference photos, this time intended as reference materials for some pastel work, I headed back to the homestead, and after a day of thought, began this pastel on PastelBord, which I put the finishing touches to on Thursday.

Today was a day off work, so I finally shot a photo of the finished cow to share with my blog audience. Enjoy!

I'm pretending that it's really spring...

Yes, another snowstorm passed through here the 2nd day of spring. Much of the piles of previous precipitation had already melted, and the temperatures are creeping up above freezing during the days, so this won't last long. We did, however, break the 100 inch milestone for winter snowfall records, and it wouldn't be unprecedented to have a few more measureable inches of snow before all is said and done.

The owls have returned--I haven't seen them in the trees, but have heard them and seen them flying around and about--I believe celebrating the rites of spring...Even I, winter-lover that I am, have become a bit weary of this winter. Of course, that doesn't mean that I look forward at all to tornado season...

Warm-up Exercises

I start a pastel class again tomorrow, and decided that I should make sure that I'm not too rusty to draw...since having been in writing mode now for months in the contracting world. Yup, it looks like I still have a few neurons firing in the tips of the old arthritic fingers...in this 11x14 inch piece with a working title of Raven Haired Beauty. Granted it's a composition based on someone else's photograph--and wouldn't qualify as a totally accurate portrait, but it works for me all the same.

This is a 3-day class spread over three Sundays, one each in March, April, and May, and I took it last year as a "beginner". I'm coming in this year as an "intermediate" student, I guess. Last time I wrote about the surfaces that I most like for working with pastel, I was becoming a big fan of working directly on canvas. The piece shown in this post is on PastelBord, which could also fast become a favorite surface, and I've got some of the Colourfix paper from Art Spectrum to try too. Both have really toothy surfaces...akin to sandpaper. I have to admit that I love the way the pastels just crawl into the crevices. On the other hand, my blending fingers feel like I've been rubbing them on sandpaper--smooth and a little sore!

I look forward to learning something new...and to getting out of the house this weekend to meet a few new people. Now that volleyball season is all over, and the snow frequency has finally dropped to maybe once a week...with maybe just a flurry or two this week...there's more time to do things other than move snow around!

Parting with Artistic Donations

For whatever reason, the post that I wrote yesterday got lost in space. So, I'm here again writing about the donation that I made to Wisconsin Public Television for its annual Arts & Antiques auction to be held in May.

There's something even more difficult about parting with a one-of-a-kind pastel than with a print of a photo...and it's even more disconcerting NOT knowing what kind of home will display the piece. If I sell a piece directly to a person, I can at least do a preliminary evaluation of the adoptive parents...

Here's the description that they'll read "on air" for the piece:

This Giant Panda, drawn in a realistic style using soft pastel on a canvas panel, gazes wistfully off to his left while nestled comfortably in a tree.

Rendered primarily in shades of navy and cream, the panda rests against a pale blue-green sky and tealy-green undergrowth in the distance.

Unlike most pastels, this piece has been protected from the elements with a clear layer of acrylic gel medium and UV fixative, enabling display without the need to hide behind glass. The piece is framed by a rich brown leatherette mat glazed with acrylic in a simple square lacquer-coated birch frame.

It was a cold, dark night...

...and it wasn't snowing. Yes, the sky was absolutely clear last night for the glorious lunar eclipse.



I watched as much as I could in the early stages, and then caught up with it again after the last volleyball game of the season.

Crazy gal that I am, I really was outside for several 15-minute stints in sub-zero weather trying to get a decent photo of the event...both to warm my camera and myself. It always seems more troublesome for the camera and my glasses with the fogging factors than it seems to be for me.

I was able to watch a little more of the progress of the eclipse from my bedroom window, and even removed the screen and poked my head out the window to try a few more photographic attempts, but they were less successful than the earlier ones. Sometimes it's really better to just stop while you're ahead!

Thank goodness for the ecliptical distraction...otherwise I'd have been even more bummed about the volleyball loss. Since it's single elimination tournament time, it's quite disappointing. Even more annoying is our 3rd ranked team losing to a team that we easily won over a few weeks ago and that was ranked in 11th place.

I really appreciate the subs who popped in to play for our players who are recovering from a sprained ankle and working to achieve success in a finance class. I'm also disappointed in a particular team member who gives up well before the match is over, but that's their chosen lot in life, I guess.

Me, I've been involved in athletics too long to know that the outcome of the game isn't over until they throw us off the field or court or rink or track. I honestly don't mind losing if the game was well-played...or, at least, can get over the loss with a good night's sleep.

On the other hand, if players aren't playing the whole game or don't put forth effort when it's the stuff they don't like to do, that's another story entirely. There are parts of having been a competitive athlete in high school and college that seem to follow me FORevA. I want to win...but I want the team to do well and work well together as a unit. I don't think there's room on teams for prima donas, whether the team is an athletic one or a business one. It always has an adverse effect...