Desert Glass

These are a few of the fabulous glass pieces in the Dale Chihuly exhibit at the Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden. The mix of art and plants was wonderful! What a fun day walking through this installation.

Christmas Windows

Here's some photos of the windows we painted with the Art Club. I only included myself and buddy Larry who I teach with. I didn't want to show students online...It was a fun charity event for us. The students were great helpers..everyone was hard working and creative.

Gallery Space

I finally took a step to get on a gallery wall here in Phoenix! Thanks to Jane, my niece, who introduced me to Randy the owner of Red Dog Gallery. He saw some of my work on my website and is going to hang some in his gallery. This is fun as I haven't been in a gallery in ages! I will be going down with a few pieces just in time for First Friday. He likes zany animal pieces and surrealism so the recent little ones will be perfect. If you are in town go check it out on Friday!

Community Service

Tomorrow I will be up and out early for a Saturday. Some dedicated Art Club members and Larry my buddy art teacher will be with me as we paint a Winter Scene on some big storefront windows. We are doing it for a group that puts on Christmas parties for needy kids. They will have a few hundred kids there for a nice holiday that they might not get otherwise. It is nice to be able to do our part to help...Hope we get it all done in one morning though as squeezing in this sort of thing is hard after school. I will post some pictures of how it goes.

This Week's Paintings

This week I did a painting...(Why can't I get them from landing sideways????) that was inspired by a blog by Karin Jurick who takes a photo and then everyone paints it and sends her the image. It is fun to see what people come up with. I did this sideways walking lady which reminded me of a Hopper motif.
Then I did the crazy who is afraid of quantom physics chicken painting...It seems to make sense to me...

Time is Like an Onion

This is another 12x12" acrylic done at school. I enjoy doing these little paintings at my desk. They make the days go by so much faster! I get the kids working and then pick up my brush. It is nice to have pretty good classes to work with instead of babysit. I have a couple of kids who need to be monitored, but most are busy doing their art. I used a glaze to separate the onion from the land and add a bit of shadow to the dinosaur egg. This is all about time being in layers like an onion...are we adding to the layers or peeling them away?

Kelli's Graduation

This was Kelli's graduation picture...She is now in intermediate obedience class...I hate to imagine what would have happened without classes! She can be a handful! But she also is a great cuddly baby once she is settled down for the day.

The Key

This little painting is another 12x12" acrylic called "The Key". The students were asking what does it mean and I tried to have them think of their own meanings. I guess I thought how you get home and maybe the rock you took helps transport you back to a special place. Then the key maybe is how nature helps you seek enlightenment and answers... So nice to sneak in some work during the school day...

Work week

Snuck a painting into the work week. It is called "I Dreamed of the World" which is a little surrealist image..sort of a global warming message. I haven't painted fire before and it was fun...

Good Day!

Today was a good day- I painted pretty much all day at school. The kids were working independently for the most part. My buddy teacher and I both worked on projects almost all day. He was working with clay and I painted on a small canvas. It was great! I will get pictures posted soon.

Give It a Try

I am giving a new website called Imagekind a try. You can order prints and greeting cards of artwork there. I have a link from my website to this new tool. I don't know what the outcome will be, but I can't lose with the free option. I will give it a try!
Well the weekend has gone by with me getting lots less done than I hoped. Once the election is over I will spend a lot less time watching TV! Hope to have some new stuff to post soon....

Time/Energy

Well it has been a hazy September. In spite of really putting out some intense positive energy I caught that nasty virus all the kids at school have had. I wash my hands like mad, but think just too many instances of grabbing a pencil or paint brush from someone to give them a bit of instruction finally caught me. This was like running into a wall once you got it and it took a full 3 weeks to recover fully. Meanwhile I never missed a day of work (sub plans are too much work!) and just slept away my weekends. Now I am catching up on chores that I couldn't quit manage beyond laundry.. Where is the art work? I haven't been able to sneak in more than a couple of small things into the school day. This weekend I find myself trying to get going, but it is already Sunday afternoon.... I have been very preoccupied with politics...watching the chatter surrounding the election...wondering if that many Americans really feel that way, etc...(worries about the average IQ) The weather has cooled a bit so I was out trimming a palo verde tree in the front. I filled the trash can so had to stop. Now a few more computer chores and I promise to go to the studio...

Rethinking

Looking at the paintings resulting from the frantic work last weekend..I have an awful cold that is giving me the exact opposite type of energy...I wonder if these are too frantic and should be reworked to have more of a serene presence..less is more attitude. I looked at paintings by others over the week and responded to many beautiful abstract painters. The work seemed less worked, and had a simplicity as if they knew the destination during the whole of the journey...hum...

Abstract Weekend

These are 3 of 4 paintings I worked on this weekend. The extra day off sure helped get my energy and mood up. I started by using watercolor paint sticks to add calligraphic lines to the middle painting that was close to this stage. With those lines to loosen me up I added the lines you can see most with a brush and paint. The watercolor sticks are sort of like crayon and don't show much. I used them again on the 2 paneled painting on the top. This was a high energy painting with Red Hot Chili Peppers for inspiration. I was dancing this one out. I like the panels together and apart and think it has an Asian feel to some of the lines. Finally I painted over a scene of a tranquil pond that just never went where I wanted. It is a big 4 foot square. The original painting is almost completely gone, but some of the mood remains. I felt the voices of my favorite college professors as I did all of these. I had been very focused on non objective abstract painting in school, but years of working figuratively made this a challenging weekend. These were so much fun, but also so much brain work! Lots of labor on Labor day!

Trying to Get in the Zone

I painted over that image of two figures falling from grace..it just wasn't working for me. I was glimpsing that zone that painting sometimes takes you to, but couldn't sustain it. When working on an abstract painting I feel that I need to relinquish the control and let that intuitive part of my brain take over. I could see some parts that worked but most need more exploration. I feel better about the canvas though...Meanwhile puppy Kelli is growing up with her ears erect all the time now. Notice the evidence behind her of a once lovely potted plant. There was even more debris inside the house where she brought her conquests in. We are on the third week of obedience training..haven't covered plants yet!ha!

The Longest Week

This may be the longest week in the history of the world...or at least it seems that way. The first week of school is always an anticipated and exciting transition. We go from sleeping and waking whenever we want to that slavery to the clock. We go from blissful time wasting to sighs of envy when we see neighborhood joggers and others still going about those days of freedom. And we think of all the things we could be accomplishing if only we weren't at work..of course ignoring the fact we squandered so much of that summer. But then we excuse ourselves with "but we need to rest and recharge" and "it's too hot in Arizona in June and July to go out and do much". Well it will be time to get that time management under control and find the studio again in the hours away from work. But first I have to get through one more day...!

The Last Day!

Today is the last day of my summer break! I know it sounds silly to people outside of the teaching profession when we complain about the end of our break. Yes, I know we get more time off than others..but we need it! :>) With thoughts of summer I did a really long wave painting. I found these 4x12" canvases and put them in a long skinny row. This was fun to paint. It has a bit of glare from the Arizona sun...but you get the idea..

Thinking of my Dad

Tomorrow is the anniversary of when my dad passed away. I have lots of his things here among all the objects I collect. I have thought about painting some of these things for a long time. Today I painted an old musket that he had passed down through his family from the Civil War. It is another small little painting that is good practice. I do feel the slightest bit lazy when I sit and do these at my table instead of the physicality of standing at the easel working large. It sure is a lovely way to spend time with puppy at my feet and nice tunes in my ears.

Back to Reality

I had a great time in Vegas at the Blackboard World 08 conference. I teach an online drawing class that is on Blackboard, thus the invite to attend. It was fabulous. The Venetian/Palazzo Hotel is amazing. The trip included seeing 2 musicals-Momma Mia and The Phantom. Both were at discount prices and were great. One thing that had my attention is the vast amount of art to be seen. Murals everywhere! Lots of work for artists in that town.
Meanwhile I finished a painting of the California poppies I had in the front yard this spring. They were in their second year and twenty times more flowers came up. I harvested lots of seeds so next year should be great too. I enjoyed the painting, but don't know that I came anywhere close to the beauty of the flowers. Their petals were so brilliant and the size and movement of them were very intense.
I painted another little cigar. This time the tobacco leaf is more evident. I also did a little fortune cookie. It was fun. A big painting on my easel has a long way to go. It is "Fall From Grace". I have been looking at Michaelangelo and feeling very inadequate. We will see where this one ends up. The little studies are an easy break for me after that one.

Remembering Nacho

Today I painted our dear dog Nacho's collar. (I don't know why it is sideways in this posting.) The puppy is Kelli our Boston Terrier who is my summer project. She helped fill that sad void left by Nacho's sudden passing. You can expect some paintings of her soon!

This Week's Paintings

These paintings were all done over the past few days. It has been fun to paint "from observation"various subjects. The sunflowers gave me the most trouble. I changed the background several times. I like the dark edge that overlaying the lighter blue left.

Getting to Work

The month of July hits teachers like a rude awakening. We begin to panic that summer is almost over and the big plans for the vacation days have not been even started! My plan was to paint and paint. Well I did clean out the studio space which somehow turns into the "catch-all". I am really pretty happy with it now. Got a nice adjustable chair for the table and a tall stool for contemplating work on the easel.
After all that prep I am finally cranking out the work. First was a couple of pet portraits- Pearl and Ruby which are 9x12" acrylics. Took several photos and printed up the best to paint from. They really kind of flowed on to the canvas without a hitch. Nice start to the month!

First Things First

Finally getting to set up a blog...I am just trying to keep up with the rest of the modern world! How exciting and unnerving to know that these ramblings can go off into the universe of cyberspace to be viewed by unknown eyes. I have been a faithful reader of several blogs myself and am sure mine will pale next to theirs. Insightful musings and well written texts..I hope share some of my creative process with others...maybe inspire...maybe let one other person know they are not alone in the community of artists..