Home From the Holiday

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with family in San Diego but we hit a bit of a snag on our way back home. We experienced our first snow event of the season....

Here we are...waiting to chain up.

Max looks a bit worried. What is all that white stuff?

But oh, so beautiful!

I See Faces

There is a certain comfort to me to make order out of chaos. I am thinking that is why I am so drawn to collage.We just got our shipment of fire wood for the winter. A big pile of chaos that would surely take hours to sort out. It would have been faster if I did not keep removing pieces from the pile because I saw "faces" in the wood....

Once the photos were taken for future drawing projects, we were able to finish our creation..

A thing of beauty!

Back from Journalfest

I am finally unpacked from our trip to Seattle and Port Townsend. We spent 2 days in Seattle. We ate some amazing  food - new favorites are  Flying Fish and Crow. Both meals were unforgettable. We walked everywhere and saw the Picasso exhibit at the SAM. I had to laugh when I looked at the pictures I took....a little like "wierd" Seattle.

The sprout eating gekko

This was a window display. The reflection on the glass made it ghost - like.

A haunt...

We travelled to Port Townsend with a mandatory stop at the Steamliner Diner in Bainbridge, for their famous buttermilk biscuits. Journalfest was great. I love the smaller groups, classes and relaxed atmosphere. I had Julianna Coles for the first day. She is an energetic teacher and really encouraged us to be more brave,take risks with our journal pages. Here are a couple paged I worked on...

This was a cool technique using carbon paper - do they still make it??

A warm-up

A drawing of Judy Wise drawing me....

I spent the next 2 days with Carla Sonheim. What a wonderful experience. She is so relaxed and has so much to share as a teacher. Here are a few of the pages I did....

I love the conte crayon as a drawing tool. This was a drawing made better with gesso and collage.

My "one liner" lion

My Picasso Dog - he looks a lot like my dog Max...All together a great experience, well worth the effort to attend. 

Artist Studio Tour

Working off my favorite advise - "Say YES, then figure it out..." I agreed to be on the Artist Studio tour for the Grants Pass Museum of Art next weekend (September 11-12th from 10am-4pm each day). Once I agreed, as usual, things started getting bigger than I thought. My husband graciously helped me build a path from the driveway to the studio, so folks would not have to use the stairs. I have cleaned and re-organized - realizing more of that is needed once this is over. Just when I thought I could take a breath, a reporter from the local paper asked to visit and do an interview. She also did a video, which is on the papers website. Here is the link:
http://web.thedailycourier.com/video/vidpage.html?v=090210Studios The process was pretty fun and I am once again glad that I said YES!

Exquisite Corpse...

I was doing some research on the Surrealists and found this neat site based on the "Exquisite Corpse" game.
Drawn and Fold Over . If you go to the site, you can start a drawing and email it to your friends to finish. When it is done, you get an email back showing you the completed drawing. I started one and emailed it to my grand-daughter. It was fun to do it together.

Awsome Abstracts

I just finished a class by a southern Oregon artist Janet Bocast: http://janetbocastfineart.com/
I am not an abstract painter in any way, but I am pleased with my results. We did an ink pour to start off the painting and went at it from there.

the pour....

the finish!

Here is another...

and my final piece - a full sheet of watercolor paper.

I will be doing more with what I learned. I see some people in there......

New Journal Pages

I have been playing in my journals more this summer. It seems there is so much to do, I have less time to get into bigger pieces of art. This one was an experiment with alcohol dripping and negative shapes.

These two are back to my "people". Collage fodder from my trips, pen, pencils and watercolor crayons.

This one is killer fun. I took a lesson from Carla Sonheim's new book "Drawing Lab." The exercise is to draw with an eyedropper and ink. I added a little white paint pen and black marker. 

Flower Obsession

Lately, I have been obsessed with painting flowers. Abstract flowers in glass vases...small 5x7"

and large 20x20"

Not sure where I am going with this, but I am having fun and they make me happy!

Maybe something even larger??

Oregon Coast

We picked 2 days in June to take advantage of the Oregon coast. Bad luck for us it was VERY wet!

We stayed right on the water - literally. Complete with Tsunami warnings. It was magical, despite the weather. We came across an outdoor "art gallery" which was amazing.

You can see the rain pelting down, but these huge sculptures, made of fiberglass demanded some attention...

There were some amazing views of the rocky coast.

And some really awesome eating. My favorite was this place in Gold Beach.

I had a gourmet chicken burger with provolone and basil mayo. I was in foodie heaven!

It was a nice break, but I am glad to be back home and ready to get to work in the studio.

Garden Progress

We are moving forward on the garden. I can't believe how much work we have done and still no plants!
We have the raised beds built and started an outline of 2 rock beds.

The last 2 days my hubby has slaved digging holes for the deer fence. This contraption is called a Dingo.

I had to laugh. When I was taking photos, I noticed my hubby's tee shirt logo. Very fitting.

Lucky for us it was successful- all holes dug, even without Max's help. Next is the fence....

My journaling....

I have been doing a fair amount of work in my journals. I think I have finally found the tools that work for me and travel well. Basically pencils - Derwent Inktense watercolor pencils and Prismacolor colored pencils. I am amazed at how much can be done with them.

Can you believe it...the only thing extra I used is a fine line permanent ink pen. Here is another:

I am definitely hooked...

Life in the Country

I love living in the country. Each day is a new adventure ( aka: challenge), learning experience and project. It also  brings wonderful eye candy and inspirations from nature. We have learned many obscure things since moving here, the latest is to leave the hood up on your car when you go away for a week. Why? Because mice will fill your car fan with dog food and insulation! I got into my car to drive - the fan sounded like ground glass when turned on and the car smelled like dog food. Much investigation revealed ....

My fan! This took a major effort for a squadron of mice...

We have wonderful neighbors with a large farm full of all manner of creatures. Here are 2 looking at me from across the yard.

We are undertaking the ultimate country task - a vegetable garden. No small feat. The ground here is rock with a little dirt, so we have decided on raised beds. The project begins with digging...

My two favorite men at work...well at least one of them is working, the other is looking for gophers.

Phase I is to spread a layer of gravel....oh my aching back.

Probably a little ambitious, but I rarely do things small. More to come on this....

ArcheDream for Humankind

ArcheDream for Humankind (click on the link)

I saw this amazing show this weekend called Deep Blue. The masks and costumes were exquisite. There was a talk at the end of the program and they use everything from feather boas to lace table cloths for the costumes, which are transformed magically under black light.

Yummy Fabrics...

Whenever I visit my kids in San Diego, I shop. Not for just any old thing, things that are rare in rural Oregon. This trip I had a bee in my bonnet - I bought fabric - yards of it. Silk and velvet in amazing colors.

I have no idea what will become of them, surely some fabric pages for the new book collaborative I am doing with 11 amazing artists called "Signs and Symbols." It is based on the zodiac, but who knows where it will lead. Here is my cover, a recycled 45 record album. I slipcovered it in hand dyed fabric and used some of the vintage optical stuff gather dust in my studio. The images are printed out on fabric and I did a bit of hand quilting and added some doll arms covered in text. It was pretty fun!