Designing for the holidays...

Today was the day to design holiday cards, so I pulled out a design that I've been noodling with for about 7 years or so. It was great to see the piece grow from a sketch into a final product, which is now available from my CafePress shop as regular size greeting cards and notecards. Notecards are also available locally from Indigo Coffee and Tea and at the 28th Annual Holiday Craft Boutique.

Leggy Study

Last week, the weather remained quite warm here in South Central Wisconsin. As I finished my pastel demonstration at the Verona Public Library and began my very short drive home, I noticed this Great Egret among the gaggles of geese resting at Silent Street Pond. This pond has definitely helped me reconnect with the natural elements of the neighborhood and appreciate the local wildlife.

I grew up in a rural area of Pennsylvania with a pond on our property. The biggest wildlife in the pond seemed to be the muskrats, and only occasional visits from a pair of ducks. Here in Wisconsin, we seem to be in some major flight patterns, and with all of the lakes in the Madison area, the waterfowl are plentiful.

The adjoining cemetery had been home for a pair of nesting owls and their offspring. Despite a number of photographic attempts, I was able to only capture a few fuzzy silhouettes of the adult pair, and some underexposed shots of a fledgling, all at dusk. I haven't heard their hoo-hoo-hoos in over a month, so I hope they're settled somewhere else for the cooler season. It's been a great year for birdwatching!

Slow Day in the Studio...

Today was the first day of Madison Area Open Art Studios. As usual, I've been frantically working at cleaning and organizing the home studio so that it's a welcoming environment for the outside world. As a self-proclaimed cleaning-challenged individual, these kinds of events place a lot of stress on the system...and rearranging the dust particles just wreaks havoc on the sinuses.

As somewhat of a starving artist, I had high hopes that this weekend would bring a bunch of people out to Verona to check out the new works of art. I believe that everyone MUST be waiting until Sunday. I'm hoping that today was slow because it was an unusually warm October Saturday--and all were off doing whatever pleasing outside fun they could muster.

On the flip side, I loved seeing old friend Elaine and her daughter, Christine. It is fun to get together with college chums--there is something revitalizing about it--must be the great field hockey experiences we shared. And it was good to spend time talking about some art ideas with Stephanie and Kara. After brainstorming for a few minutes about a new trivet idea I have in the works, the suggestion of using the wonder-tool known as Velcro came into play, and, by George, I think it's an absolutely WONDERFUL solution! Now it's back to the prototype drawing board to produce the item. No doubt that I'll be back with examples of the finished product sometime soon.

The day did end on a high note with some real customers looking to stock up on small gifts for friends and family. Thanks Lois and Tom!

Life in Pastels

Okay, so I'm not fond of wearing those light pastel colors, but, now drawing in pastels--that's a whole different beast. And, oh, what a beast...

This lovely snow leopard had just woken up from a summer day's zoo nap when I first photographed him. I'm not quite sure what he saw or heard up above--likely some kind of plane or bird flying above. I love the ability to build a drawing in layers that allows some forgiveness and corrections. Definitely an advantage to developing a more accurate representation of the 3-dimensional structure for a big cat like this.

There are parts of me that forgot how pleasurable it is to draw (or paint) depending on what you consider pastels to be. I consider this image more as a drawing than a painting, but that's just me. I have covered the entire surface of the paper with medium, so according to my past instructor, I'm definitely painting...But, then again, that instructor said that getting a good painting on a dark field was difficult and just not as attractive. On the other hand, I love the dark charcoal Fabriano Tiziano surface, and I think I covered it quite nicely. I've also used fixative throughout the process, which many pastelists don't like because it often darkens the colors too much. I have to say that I've become a really big fan of Sennelier's Latour fixative, which really darkens things only slightly (and often only temporarily).

Madison Area Open Art Studios 2007

This is the fourth year I'll be participating in the Madison Area Open Art Studios fall tour. This is the time of year where I open my home studio to everyone so that you can see all of the wonderful creations I make which range from crocheted and beaded jewelry to handbags to my photography, marble coasters, and pastel images. See where I make and refurbish frames, mat my images, print, and how I integrate art into my lifestyle. Click the image below to view this event's full size postcard in JPEG form, download the PDF, or read all about the studio tour at www.maoas.com .

Another Fowl Day

I pulled out the pastels again to re-draw my buddy, the heron. This drawing has the leggy guy looking into the sunset and is significantly smaller (7x8 in) than the one I drew in August (18x20 in). I love the blues and greens in this version, and the curve of his neck! Almost makes me want to hang out in the pond up to the top of my calves...
The days here are getting too short way too quickly. My dog now thinks that our evening walk should begin as soon as the sun drops, and since that seemingly has changed from 8:30 to 7:30 in a couple of weeks, his sense of urgency has definitely increased. On the other hand, doing an earlier walk has messed with my internal clock and has me heading off to bed shortly after the walk. I'm sure that anyone who knows me would be shocked that I'm getting to sleep BEFORE midnight...and even getting out of bed in what others actually consider the real lovely part of the morning.

: )

Going Postal

When I volunteered to paint a mailbox, I wasn't quite sure how far I'd go. It's been quite awhile since I've painted anything, let alone on a curved metal surface that's exposed to the elements. Then, of course, I began to think about what I'd paint on the mailbox, and began coming up with some designs.
My first source for designs is my photo archive, and since this house has become a recurring nesting ground for robins, it was easy to select a lovely red-breasted beauty. The ever vigilant parents were great guardians for the little ones, and became increasingly courageous around me, my camera, and my lovely German Shepherd.
My next design was a reprisal of a purple coneflower drawn on a smaller scale (2.5 x 3.5 inches) that I enlarged to about twice that size. Rather than working with a broad, pre-mixed palette, I mixed a pleasant set of secondary colors, all from the basic source bottles of primaries red, yellow, and blue, plus black and white.
Final touches include street address numbers, and some birds flying in the sky. The boxes have already brought compliments and many smiles of their own. And, of course, since the name of my neighbor's eldercare facility is Sonrisas, that's just what I like to see! : )
Kathy, the director of Sonrisas, had initially suggested a happy face as a starting point. I wanted to integrate it into a bright sun...so that through whatever weather comes our way, there would be at least a little bit of sunshine on our street. So each mailbox has a smiling sun on one side and either a robin or a coneflower on the other side of the box.

Each box was painted with weatherproof metal paint and sealed against the major elements, and I have plans to refinish the old mailboxes to new life with great new colorful designs. I can't wait for the next inspiration to hit!

Local Wildlife

I've been very fortunate this summer, especially with respect to the local avian residents. Across from our local library is a lovely area, coincidentally named Silent Street Pond, that has served as a nesting and resting area for a number of wading birds. Of course the ducks and geese love the area too, but their presence isn't nearly as calming as the visits by the long-legged wading birds. I've had the fortune of spending hours watching and photographing the lovely Great Blue Herons and Sandhill Cranes that fish in this little water hole.

Earlier this year, I enrolled in pastel class, primarily to bring all of those drawing skills back up to a respectable level--and use some of those lovely art supplies I've been investing in over the course of a lifetime. The misfortune of the class was that I sprained my hand such that most of my drawing dexterity was pretty much unavailable for months, including 2 of the 3 day-long classes. After a number of months of continued pain, reduced range of motion, and constant swelling, I made my appointment with an expert orthopedist. He was definitely an "old-school" orthopedist, who pretty much told me that all I needed to do was to do some pretty harsh "massaging" and stretching, and I'd be good to go (bedside manner is, of course, NOT his specialty). Frankly, I'd have loved to hear that kind of diagnosis about 2 months earlier, because the hand would have pretty much been completely healed by now. Anyway, after suffering the twinges from the massaging and stretching, the hand no longer looks nor operates like a claw.

And now, again, I've dusted off the pastel box and chosen to render the Great Blue Heron wading in Silent Street Pond. I love that I was able to once again execute the detailed portion of the drawing, but also able to render some of the more subtle shading and coloring needed to make the water flow around the bird. As I sit here composing this blog, I look over at the original, and it reminds that those things that trouble me can result in very productive and beautiful pieces of art that, in turn, help me re-center and regain my spirits and my self.

Back Again?

Well, well, this summer has definitely been filled with ups and downs. I've just finished setting up a CafePress storefront under my lovely ElectriKolor identity. CafePress is an interesting venue that enables one-off printed pieces. So I can select one of my lovely images, and it can be printed on a tote bag...or another image that can be printed on a lovely coffee mug...or create a calendar of 12 amazing images that will help you keep track of things in 2008!

Go to www.cafepress.com/electrikolor and see my first product--a tote bag featuring this lovely bouquet of calla lilies--in a never-wilting format!

I have not dropped off...

...the face of the earth.

There have been a lot of things going on this summmer--some good, some not-so-good. For now, I'll just write about the good things.

I pulled together a 40+ piece show that is currently on display at Alicia Ashman Library, here in Middleton. I wanted to mount each piece on something lightweight, but that had the same kind of bulk as the wood and plywood sources. This brought me to Gator Board (or Gatorfoam, if you prefer).

It's a wonderful medium that has a foam core and thin layers of wood on both flat surfaces. I had been forewarned that cutting this was a major chore, and that IS true--if you're trying to cut the pieces by hand. If, however, you use the recommended power tools, it cuts like butter, and the edges sand down nicely with a power sander. I had initially planned on routing the edges of the pieces to round them over, but instead wound up purchasing quarter round molding at the local big-box hardware store, cutting with my miter saw, and assembling everything, then wrapping my artwork that has been printed on either canvas, photo paper, velvet paper, or whatever surface I created onto each of the boards.

This was my thought on creating a kind of glassless, frameless presentation piece, which in reality has an integral frame as part of the structure of the art. Granted, if a piece goes home with someone and they actually want to reframe the piece, that option is always available, but for me, I love the piece rising out of the wall.

I need to head back to the library to take some photos of the show, but if you're in the Madison area and want to visit the show between 9-9 Monday through Friday or 9-5 on Saturday, you can find the library, read my artist's statement, and learn more about this show from the description below:

FLORA AND FAUNA
“Flora and Fauna” is a nearly a half-century collaborative effort between Mother Nature and me. Mother Nature has kindly provided all of the subject matter and offered the unique opportunity to perform the perennial treasure hunt to discover what She wishes to share, and in so capturing, enables me to also share these riches with you.

The Flora portion of this show features a broad spectrum of flowers, leaves, and trees, the Fauna portion of the show features a variety of animal species, and both subjects are presented in my altered state versions. Although neither botanist nor zoologist, I am, however, thoroughly enamored with the efforts of Mother Nature and others who instigate and nurture these types of growth.

I always respect Mother Nature’s design sense as it relates to her organic forms and elements, and allow those to remain in their true, natural states. On the other hand, there are times when I disagree with Her choice of colors and choose to alter them to states of super saturation, enhanced contrast, and elevated mood. In that She has not yet struck me with a bolt of lightening, I like to believe She approves of these alterations. Our one disagreement involved large hail, but that has long melted into a refreshing stream, and I have not crossed those waters since. I believe in the strength and permanence of our collaboration.