Happy Birthday To Me!

No, no its not my birthday - I just recovered from turning 35 earlier in the month, so I wouldn't want to have another birthday so soon!

This is my entry to the Derwent Coloursoft contest with a birthday theme. The deadline was today.

I was going for a pathetic birthday alone theme, so my idea was to put as many candles as possible on the ooey gooeyist item I could find at the bakery.

Grandma's Tea Cups

A big thank you to everyone who came to the artist's talk the other night! :)

Derwent is having a contest with a "favorite memory" theme and that is where this image came from. This is my grandmother's tea cups/saucers. Both my grandmothers passed away before my sister and I were born and we've both gotten to know a little bit of them both from old photographs, stories, and their old belongings. I can remember playing for hours with my grandmother's costume jewelry in a great box with a little ballerina dancer dancing away.

In this drawing I have her old tea set being wrapped, or unwrapped from its frosty pink packing paper.

It is 8" x 10"

I don't know if I will be sending this in for the contest or not. They want you to send in the original to be judged and won't be returning them. So I have to decide by their postmark deadline of the 30th.

Where have I Been?

I feel like I haven't posted in a while, even though it hasn't been that long. I've worked on a few drawings since my Autumn piece, but 1 is a birthday present, one is a contest entry and two are very very small. I'll attach the small ones here. I went to my framer and found these cute little frames: 3x3" and 3x4" and had them cut a piece of Pastelbord up to fit in 6 of the frames. So I will be making some more small ones as well!

I'm busy today and tomorrow getting ready for my talk at the Thorne Art Gallery, in Keene, NH on Tuesday the 25th (tomorrow) at 7 pm. I'm making a slide presentation on my computer for me talk about my work, what inspires me and how it all got started. :)

Autumn Still-life

Autumn Still-life
11 x 14"
$900

I was looking more at Dutch Still-lifes and tried to figure out what it was that gave them their atmosphere. Its not just values, its a very limited palette - almost monotone in the case of Pieter Claesz. So for this I desaturated the colors and then put an overall tone of warm oranges throughout the composition. I hope it worked!

Smaller Version Dutch Still-life

Today's post is an 8" x 10" that is VERY similar to my last piece. The apple is moved over a smidge and the lid is put on the teacup. I guess i could have not told you the differences to see if you all could find them!

& then on a fun note - I got this fortune in my cookie the other night & I thought you all would appreciate it! I'd love to know what your thoughts are on what it says! Such wisdom from take out food!