Trip Photos

I haven't left YET. I leave at 2:30 in the morning so I have just enough time to throw a few more things in the stuffed suitcase.

I just had an idea which may or may not work. I'm going to be posting images via my camera phone of my trip directly to the site: www.keenescene.blogspot.com which is where my husband and I usually post images from around the town of Keene NH. Well it will have a vacation this week to Alaska I guess! I'd post them here but I thought of it too late to reprogram the camera phone. I don't know when I will have reception or not, so it may or may not work, but its worth a try! So I'll see you all soon and hopefully you all can have a peak from time to time of maybe the workshop, some glaciers etc!

Here's that address again! www.keenescene.blogspot.com

Time to go

Well I've finished getting everything ready for my mother doing 10 days of babysitting duty while my husband and I are on board the Sun Princess Alaskan cruise and workshop with me, Ann Kullberg and Anne De Mille Flood. I've cleaned out every cabinet, pantry and cupboard. I've painted all the walls except for the stairwell, which I am having wallpapered while I am gone. I've cleaned out the garage, but unfortunately did that first so its messy again. I've spring cleaned our 1/2 acre yard, picking up all the branches, cleaned out all the plant beds, the veggie garden, the kids play house, etc. I'm, for the lack of a better word - pooped & ready to get on board and draw and relax. I have not however finished packing for the trip... Here's a little peak at one of the harbors we'll be docking in in Juneau Alaska via webcam.

I get back on the 30th and we will be busy right from the start. There is a new art gallery: Monadnock Fine Art Gallery at 99 Main Street in Keene New Hampshire. They will be opening while I am gone. I won't have anything displayed there until I return and create a few more pieces to give them a good grouping. Its very exciting to get a gallery right in our town and I'm equally excited to be included in it.

& then there's that photo I put with this post. It is the window for Trikeenan Tiles on our Main Street in Keene, NH. They make handmade tiles that are just gorgeous and also make very interesting window displays from time to time - this photo was from the town's Pumpkin Festival last year. They also are one of the businesses that donate window space each year to local artists for Keene New Hampshire's Art Walk. There will be artwork displayed in most windows down Main Street and around the circle where people can walk and view art at their leisure. Jess Westa Ventura and I will be working on sidewalk pastel paintings on Wednesday, June 6th during Artist's Demonstration Day. ArtWorks (the art school I teach at) is again hosting the Art Walk reception Friday, June 1st, from 7-9pm. The address in 30 Washington St if you can come.

Birthday Portrait

This is a little aceo sized (2.5" x 3.5") portrait of my niece for her birthday. My sister-in-law had everyone in the family draw a picture of her that she will frame up all together in one frame. She did it for my other niece and it turned out really fun.

& yes she is really that pretty!

Art History around town

I don't think this is the post you would guess it is from the title. The other day I jogged down to a local park in Keene, NH - and was admiring the park's carved wooden sign. We have a couple of very talented sign makers around here but I don't know what their names are. I've just seen their work around town. This sign is beautiful and this photo doesn't do it justice as it was just a camera phone. There is line work carved into the wood resembling the woodcuts from old books and then there is paint washed over it all which has worn off over time leaving almost a metallic look. The rippling water is just beautiful in person as are the trees in the background. That's not really why I'm posting this though. I was staring at this sign for a while with this niggling feeling that the people just seemed so familiar when it dawned on me! They are the people in one of my most favorite paintings of all time - Gustave Caillebott's Paris Street Rainy Day which I had the pleasure to see every day one summer when I worked at the Art Institute of Chicago where the massive painting hangs. You can even see that the woodcarver left a bit of the man's umbrella in there.

I'm not sure how much artwork I'm going to get to do this week as I have more gardening and more walls to paint inside but I'm hoping I will get to do a bit.

Banana: Illusion in Yellow and Blue 2

OK you asked for it! I tried to add more color in the clouds this time but it is not showing up too well in this photograph. This is the fourth piece I've done of hanging fruit in front of a sky. The influence for this little series is from two sources: The Dutch painter Juan Sanchez Cotan and surrealists Rene Magritte. I also borrowed the arched shape of the "portal" from Dutch still-life paintings most notably the florals set in arches or still-lifes in niches. Isn't this one by Bosschaert the Elder lovely of a floral set in an arched window with a small bit of landscape at the bottom http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Ambrosius_Bosschaert,_the_Elder_03.jpg

I went to see a Magritte exhibit while in high scholl at the Art Institute of Chicago and have always loved the humour in his pieces. The Dutch still-lifes are an interesting mix as they are seen as being the iconic still-life but when you look at more and more of them - the Dutch still-lifes were not shy at all about humor and especially illusions. These are a bit off from my traditional scenes of lots of white on white with just a pop of color that my most successful still-lifes resemble, but they are just plain fun and something that I will continue to play with in between my other still-lifes.

I wanted to put a link to the type of light bulbs I use in my tree lamp for my still-life reference photographs. See 2 posts ahead. I use GE Reveal light bulbs because they are supposed to filter out the yellow light you get from most light bulbs. The other reason is they are cheap and fit into a regular lamp. I really like our tree lamp which I got at Target but I also have used clip on lamps from Home Depot before.