Snow-Day #1

It's a Snow-Day, the first for this school year. Today is also the day the crew finished my new Snow-Day Studio!
I have a little trim painting to do and then I'll be moving in!

The day and night lighting in this new space is spectacular. With many lights and switches, I'll have a lot of options to highlight an area, or light the whole space.

This is truly a dream come true, and I am feeling very, very grateful.

Portland Yacht Club Holiday Craft Show

My mice, knitting, and fine art prints will be in the 1st Annual Portland Yacht Club Holiday Craft Show on Sunday afternoon November 27th, Noon to 4:00pm.
I'm looking forward to this venue, it looks like a beautiful location.

I've been knitting up a storm since the Etsy Artisan Fair at the Maine Mall a couple of weeks ago, so I will have plenty of children's mittens available at the Yacht Club.

My new studio is coming along. I now have heat - but no door!
I am hoping to have it all come together in early December.
I can't wait!

Etsy Maine Team Artisan Fair - Maine Mall

                         I will have my art prints and knitting at the Maine Mall this weekend. 
                                     Come check out the Etsy Maine Team Artisan Fair!

New Art Studio

My new studio is coming along nicely. I can't wait to move in! The walls need to be painted, then lights and heat added. I'm probably looking at a month before I move in.

Meanwhile I'm prepping for the Etsy Maine Team Artisan Fair at the Maine Mall next weekend 10/29 &10/30. There will be about 45 Etsy Maine Team members in attendance - stop on by if you are in the Portland area!

EMT Artisan Fair at the Maine Mall 10/29/16 - 10/30/16

300 students paint 'Still Life With Goldfish' by Henri Matisse

Here is my school mural for the 2016 - 2017 year. This is the 12th mural I have made with my elementary students. The original artwork is Henri Matisse's 'Still Life With Goldfish' (also known as 'The Goldfish') painted in 1912. This ought to be a cheery and welcoming image to greet the students when they come back to school. I'm pleased with the results. It is the smallest student mural I have put together at 60" wide by 86.25" high. It's a gem!

I had a little help hanging the mural. Good dog!

Welcome August!

Welcome August! I'm just back from Southern California. I attended a lovely family wedding at the South Coast Botanic Garden in Palos Verdes. My family is large and wildly flung across the USA. This summer has fortunately given us a BIG birthday in Vermont, a wedding in California, and soon a wedding here in Maine. It's been great to be able to be with my family this much in one year.
Now I'm back in the studio, the OLD studio. Trying  to get three paintings done before school starts! These two paintings are almost done and will be in my Etsy shop soon. My new studio is making progress. We met with our builder yesterday. The construction will start in 3 weeks - yay!

 

Driving home from school in June I noticed a dead Blue Jay on the road in front of a friend's house. As the sweet bird was no longer living, I saved his or her feathers. I love Blue Jay feathers. I love the blue next to the black and gray. I'm thinking there is a painting that needs to happen with these. Time will unravel this for me. Maybe a painting of blues in nature. Happy August!

Here is why...

Here would be the WHY I need a larger studio space.

Summer ~ Painting and Planning

Summertime, summertime. Painting in my studio. Weeding my gardens. Knitting. Repeat. Add to the mix something new this summer: planning a new studio! Our 1 story garage is getting a second floor which will become my new studio.

The old cement slab is now gone and a new one will be poured this week. I think I've got the windows and their placement figured out. It's a tricky business guessing how many windows to put in a space that doesn't exist yet. There will be eight windows, in case you're guessing. In addition to creating a larger studio for me, we are trying to make our garage look more like a barn. I will include photos when it is done.

New paintings this summer include a monarch butterfly with milkweed, another rock and shell design, and California poppies.

It seems that the red poppies are begging to make their way into something, so there may be a red poppy painting before the summer is out. We'll see.

Happy summer!

Spring

Here is a recent sunrise from my studio overlooking the Sheepscot River. It's not often I see pink water at the start of the day. In the pics below, I've been working on a pathway through a new flower garden. The floral design (?) points north. I planted 16 different day lily varieties in this garden last summer. I believe they have all come back. I tried my hand at cross pollinating some of the day lilies and ended up with just 3 seeds. I've got the 3 seeds in potting soil, hopefully they will grow into new plants. Happy Spring!

Dog, Snow, Clivia, Amaryllis

Video https://vimeo.com/161407208

Our new tripod in the Snow with Eagles 

The link above is a video of Niko discovering snow and eagles.

My clivia has decided to bloom. It is such a wonderful orange color.

My amaryllis is in bloom as well. Flowers and a dog... life is good!

and then there is this... on Snow-Day #3

Here is our newly adopted 'rescue dog'. He came to us from down south. Though he's been with us for just a couple of weeks, he is proving to be a most loving and wonderful dog. This guy is a 'tripod', a hind leg was removed due to an unknown accident which wasn't addressed soon enough. An amazing and dedicated vet in Georgia guessed he was probably hit by a car. Today our new dog, known to us as Niko, learned about snow... and he loved it. He ate it, he jumped in it, he chased it, and he pondered it down along the river bank.

I'm happy to share this early spring Snow-Day with Niko!

Snow-Day #2, New Fox Design

What should have been my first day back to school (after knee surgery) turns out to be a SNOW-DAY! Wahoo! Here's a new mitten design to celebrate! (The real celebration is actually a very successful surgery and this is affording me a lot of knitting time while my knee is 'resting'.) 

In pondering this new design... I'm thinking with a few changes, it could become a raccoon. Maybe there's another animal in there as well.

I love the 'figuring out' new designs.... there's a good amount of math, texture, and of course COLOR.

Snow-Day #1 Creating the Mood for the Cabin Fever Art Show!

View today from my studio on the Sheepscot River

 Finally, a SNOW-DAY! This lovely day afforded me the opportunity to get to Longfellow's Greenhouses to set up for the Cabin Fever Art Show. I'm excited to be in this show again. All the artists are so friendly and their work is of a high caliber. Stop by if you get a chance!

Here is a new print I will have at the show:
 'Blueberries and Tiger Swallowtail'. This is not a new painting, I just finally turned it into a print.

p.s. U2 has been on my cd player for hours, I'm truly in heaven...
Snow-days ARE my world.

Cabin Fever Art Show at Longfellow's Greenhouses

I will be showing my art prints again this year at the Cabin Fever Art Show. This is a wonderful event held at Longfellow's Greenhouses in Manchester.

This Morning Glory is a new print I'll have at the show.
I now have prints available in a couple of sizes.

Little Kitten mittens! The Cabin Fever Show is February 6 & 7.