This week I went back to painting the mason jars... I really liked painting the blue one in the painting of three, so this time I painted two. I think my family will be happy this one is done... it's ALL I did this week... now it's time to go back to the real world... cooking and cleaning and mom duties!

"Overlap"

48" x 60"

Spring is always such a busy time but I did manage to get some small works finished this weekend... the first is from a photo taken on our trip to NYC last month when we picked Cat up from college... it's an arrow to the parking garage and I loved the colors... ...This is the first of the NYC series.. titled "Enter"... 16" x 20".



























The second is for the Different Stroke challenge hosted by Karin Jurick... I had purchased the canvas to paint the last challenge of hers (taxis on Madison Ave in NYC) but just ran out of time.. but it was perfect this challenge as well! She provided a black and white image and we were to fill in the colors... I went with the spring colors.. my favorite!

8" x 24"

This is the other painting I have been working on.. Trying to get it done in time for the Ohio State Fair. The submissions have to be postmarked by Friday... I have plenty of time, right?!? :)

Anyway, I haven't chosen a title.. guess I have to do that by Friday too... but hey.. it's only Wednesday!!

36" x 60"

This is what I have been working on lately... lots of detail and very time consuming! I am almost finished so I thought I'd post a picture so my dad knows that I really have been working!! :)

48" x 60"

"Tying Up Loose Ends"

The Gallery in The Vault in Wooster Ohio called yesterday to say that they are in the running for an award from the Cleveland TV station, fox8. If they win, they will be featured on TV and it would be great publicity and bragging rights!! It's a lovely gallery with wonderful people running it and I'd love to see them win! If you get a chance, I would appreciate your help by voting here... Thanks!

http://fox8.cityvoter.com/contests/best-of-the-akron-canton-hot-list/4651/arts-and-entertainment/art-gallery

Spring is my favorite season! And a sure sign that spring here is the noise.. good noise! In addition to the birds, the spring peepers are out.. and last week the toads started singing.. trilling, if that's a word..... they were SO loud and EVERYWHERE underfoot. They were in full mating season and they didn't care who knew it.. I went down to the dock to snap a couple of photos and found this poor girl... I'm not sure if she was happy about mating season or not... but right after I took this picture some male toad hopped on her back and off they went... Who knows.. maybe this IS her happy face!! :)

36" x 60"

Thank you so much to the fellow artists, Chelsie Brady, Angela Elledge, Edward Burton, and Joanne Licsko who have been kind enough to tag me with blog awards! I am so blessed by the friends I have found on the artist blogging community. What a gift to not only experience so much creativity, but to gain so many friends along the way!

As part of this award I am to list 7 things I love and tag 7 other artists for this award.


1. I really love my family! They are always a source of joy, comfort, companionship, amazement and often entertainment!! :)
2. I love to paint.. I have always love to create, but have only recently found an unending passion and borderline addiction to oil paint!
3. I love to read these things and find out more about the people I care about, but am loathe to actually do it myself..
4. I love junk... the old, weathered stuff that most people would walk past, or, gasp!, throw away! 5. I love living in the country.. we have an abundance of wildlife and beauty in our yard and for me it's like being close to God out here...
6. I love going to New York to visit my daughter.... and I love when she comes home even more..
7. I love seeing other peoples art and ideas on their blogs! I find myself constantly amazed by how many talented, gifted artists there are and am always inspired to do better!

The artists I'd like to share do a group challenge amongst themselves and I am always so anxious to see what they do!!
1. Marie Fox
2. Silvina Day
3. Diana Moses Botkin
4. Michael Naples
5. Mike Beeman
6. Robin Cheers
7. Vicki Ross

Every morning I drive my youngest son, Ty, to school. He is like me, in that he is not a morning person... understatement!!... so he rarely has time to eat breakfast before we have to be out the door. So most every morning he eats his cereal on the way, and I am driving home after I drop him off with something like this in my lap, trying not to spill his leftover milk in the car. The upside is that I sometimes take a photo before I put it in the dishwasher and paint it! This painting is 48" x 60".

"Breakfast Ball"

This is my painting for the different strokes challenge... the challenge this time was this beautiful statue of Companion of Diana.... I didn't have any canvases or boards this shape, so i gessoed some watercolor paper and painted on that.. It was very challenging!! The paint moved very differently from canvas or board... and seemed to absorb in... I'd like to experiment with more sometime... If anyone has helpful hints on how to prime/paint on paper I'd love to hear them!!

At the last minute I decided to enter the two coke paintings that I had done together, as a diptych, into the Mansfield Art Center May show. I thought they were stronger together vs. individually. It turns out they were judged in individually anyway... but they said they would hang them together. One never knows .... :) but I was very happy to get in!!!

So.. this is what they should look like...

Every time I walk by my oldest daughters bedroom, these shoes catch my eye. They have been sitting at the end of her bed since she was last home for Christmas, and today was the day ... I needed to paint them.

"Cats' Chucks" 16"x20"

Wow.. It's been too long since I last posted... and so much has happened! I was accepted into a gallery in the Short North area of Columbus OH. My work will now be shown at the Kathryn Gallery and I am thrilled! It is a beautiful space and the people there are wonderful! AND they called to say they have already sold a piece!! Yay!

I also had a painting accepted into the All Ohio show at the Ohio State -Mansfield campus that won the students choice award. Thank you to all who voted for my painting!! :)

It was spring break this week, so my friend Carmone, who is the high school art teacher, and I did some collograph printing... very fun! I will post the prints later this week.

But the very best part of the week was a quick trip to NYC to visit our oldest daughter! She is attending the School of Visual Arts and it's always wonderful to visit!

So now... it's back to work!! I finished this painting that I had started before I left for NY... I plan to enter it in the Mansfield Art Center May show... I'll let you know if it gets in..

48" x 48"
Coke2

Today I worked on the DSDF challenge while the boys put together the new basketball hoop! I definitely got the better end of the deal!! :) Tomorrow I am starting on a new glass painting and on Wednesday I will deliver paintings to Columbus just in time for this months gallery hop!! Woohoo!! Wish me luck!

This week has flown by.... I'm not sure where it went but I'm glad we get to sleep in tomorrow!! This painting took up quite a bit of my week. These are all bottles from the ravine. The one in front is a "Hinds honey and almond cream" bottle... In reality they are only a few inches tall, but this painting is 48" x 48". It was a lot of fun and while I wasn't painting this week, I foraged. I uncovered a few local milk bottles that I may paint next... the good old Ashland Sanitary Dairy.. Actually, I have uncovered enough bottles to keep me painting several lifetimes :) Have a fabulous weekend!

This is the piece I've been working on this week.. the same old dial phone along with my dad's old binoculars... This painting is fairly large- 36" x 60". I titled it "See no, Hear no, Speak no"... I will let it dry and then see if I need to come back with a little bit of finish work... but this is basically what it will look like!

This painting has been sitting on our mantle to dry this week... (there is no room in the studio due to the abundance of treasures!) and it has been bothering me since I put it up there so today I took it down and added the cord off the right side of the painting.. I think it grounds the phone a bit.

This old phone is another treasure from my studio... Once upon a time we actually had it as a working phone... and the kids, being much younger and not realizing it was connected, dialed 911 on it... We had to have a little chit chat about it after the police called to see what our emergency was.. so now I have to keep it around... sentimental attachment :)

I believe this is a rebellion painting against all the detail of the last painting... nice and simple!! Titled "Call Me" 36" x 48"

This week I was still excited to be painting glass and started a painting of three jars that we have excavated from the ravine. Not too far into the painting I realized that I really didn't like the composition but decided that I needed to finish it.... (I have issues with finishing things sometimes :/ ) ...just to get more experience with painting the glass.. and because I was already painting over a painting and I didn't think the canvas could hold another one...

So my lesson learned this week would be to really think about my composition before committing to it!

24" x 36"

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days... my computer had a nasty virus so I had to send it out to have it removed... GRRR!

I painted this last week but needed my photoshop program to be able to post it. This is a very cool old bottle.. this one is not from the ravine out back.. but I did find some old mason jars there this weekend that I am going to paint this week! I am amazed at how many old bottles have survived intact through 30-50 years of weather! It is always so much fun to dig out there... I never know what I will find!

36"x 48"

I also painted a small piece for the Different Strokes challenge ... it seemed appropriate since that's what we had for dinner Saturday night! I love Sushi! 8"x 10"

I have been working all week on painting this Coke bottle... also from the dump behind our house. I have become fascinated with painting glass... I have a little bit more to do on this but am almost done... 24"x 48"

This week I was just stressed and I can't say why... I really struggled with this painting and am still not happy with it but am moving on.. Laura looked at a it a few days ago and said it wasn't me.. no color.. I agreed. So I worked on trying to put some life back into it today..

This is a little glass dog that held wine once upon a time.. on the bottom it has 'Cohodas Vineyards, Inc, Geneva, Ohio. We have 30 acres with a deep ravine out back and once upon a time the farm that was here dumped all their garbage over the edge of the ravine, and when I get a chance, I go see what has been unearthed by the rain.. My whole family rolls their eyes when I come up with my treasures, but I do find some fun things!

30"x36"

I liked painting the rocks and thought of a whole bunch of ideas for a series of sorts... but maybe they should have stayed thoughts. :/ I struggled with this painting and decided in the end that part of what I didn't like may have been the composition of it... I don't know.. Called "Rock Takes Scissors".. 24" x 36"

Finally finished the new creepy bunny I found to paint. He is a hard plastic bunny head bobber with a human body... CREEPY! Had a hard time painting him.. a bit of a frustrating week, painting wise, but tomorrow is another day!!

24" x 36"

Thank you so much to Dan, from emptyeasel.com for the lovely article about my work! The website is a fabulous resource for artists- informative and educational articles on everything form current artists to painting techniques to the business of art to how to stretch a canvas (Wish I have read that one LAST week!) Be sure to stop by and check it out!!
Thanks Dan!

I was going to use the number in a collage once, but I wasn't ready to part with it... It is just an old house number that had been painted over then when it was removed, the paint chipped in a way that I liked...and so.. another treasure for my collection...

24" x 36" Weathered One