Vacation, All I Ever Wanted

Wow, it's been so long since I signed into Blogger to write a post that I had to look up my password. I am feeling kind of sad about that actually, but yet still cannot seem to keep up with this blog. Facebook has taken me over, I admit it! I have considered making my fan page more like my blog, but haven't decided yet on that. For now, I will keep trying to post here, and will just see what happens, I guess.

Anyway, last week we went on a family vacation. We rented a cabin on Lake Winnepesaukee in New Hampshire and had a great time, even if it was REALLY cold for the first few days. (what was with the weather this summer???? cold, cold, cold) We did a lot of swimming, fishing, rowboating, canoeing, and a lot of sitting around. That was my favorite part. Heh. We also spent an afternoon doing some watercolors, finished up the school clothes shopping at the outlet stores in North Conway and drove to Ogunquit, ME for a day to swim in the ocean and sit on the beach.

And then we got home and boom! Kids back in school yesterday and suddenly I have a ton of work to do. This last year has been so quiet for me which was nice (if somewhat demoralizing) but now I have two solo shows scheduled, and a month long residency in Vermont coming up early next year. As soon as papers are signed, I will give up the details about all that!

So I have some more new work to talk about next time but in the meantime, go ahead and check out the small abstracts of 'The Reds' on my sales blog.

A Real Nothing of a Post!

Well, I have very little to report on here, which accounts for the lack of posts lately. And also for the photo of a very unusual egg from our one of our hens on Easter, rather than a new painting. I haven't really done any painting (or much of anything actually) in the last few days. Partly because I am feeling somewhat overwhelmed about it and also because the kids are home this week for spring break and every time I get close to starting on something I get interrupted somehow. And to really prove that I am in some sort of funk, I actually turned down a chance to stay in NYC overnight. Doug and I were going to take the girls and go down for two days. Instead, I insisted they go without me. I just couldn't muster the interest or energy to go. Bleh!!

And then because of that I had a few days to myself and did I even take advantage of that? Noooooooo. Sat around mostly and accomplished next to nothing!

I think I will take the weekend off from the studio entirely and try to get the gardens cleaned up. That always makes me feel better and and also gives me something different to stress about, like which way to rotate the vegetable plantings or whether not it's a fracture or just a pulled muscle. Heh. So I will consider next week to be a clean slate.

PS. Doug was kind enough to bring back a very special chocolate bar from a shop in Soho. Am not really eating chocolate lately but I had to try this one. Applewood smoked bacon, alderwood smoked salt, in deep milk chocolate. I had one little square and can only describe it as incredible, yet completely disgusting. Very intriguing!

So. Tired.

Color in the Woods, 2008, 16x20, Oil on Birch Panel

Well, today is the big day. The kids are at school (I personally observed them boarding the bus), the house is quiet, I have prepared panels ready to go and am really excited about my studio plan for this year.

The problem is that I am so incredibly tired today. We succumbed to temptation to stay up late, get up late and just oversleep in general during the last two weeks. I knew I would regret it, but it was lovely staying up late the last few weeks and there is nothing like a Monopoly game that goes past midnight.

I did attempt to get close to our usual schedule at the end of last week, but no one, including me, did very well at it. Yesterday was a mess, due to a number of events one of which included a vomiting child the night before. So no one was asleep before 11pm last night, I was up until 1am and since I was worried that I might sleep through my alarm, I am pretty sure that I didn't fully fall asleep at all. Luckily though, even though none of them had enough sleep, the kids all popped right up out of bed this morning. I suspect that they were very excited to get out of the house and away from the 'rents too.

I however, am left exhausted. I will not nap today because if I do I will be up late again tonight, but I am not too sure what I will be able to accomplish today. Um just so you know.

My first excuse of 2009. heh.

Purse Lady

Oil on gessoed paper, 11x14

So I did manage to get quite a bit of painting done yesterday after all. I finally got the color on to three underpaintings that have been sitting here in the studio for nearly two weeks. The ones that have making me feel really lazy during this entire last week. You know, for trying to have a holiday without working in the studio.

I am still feeling giddy from last night's late night painting session as my true calling is to be a night painter! Alas, real life is suspended right now during school vacation and so the possibility of night painting will end next week when I must start my days before 6am which will render me totally unable to see clearly after 8pm, or 10pm if I am lucky.

Anyway, this painting shown above is the first one I did yesterday. It's another portrait of my favorite unhappy looking woman and I like this one much better than the first one I did of her a few months ago. Doug says it's a little creepy and somewhat disturbing and I take that as a high compliment.

And in other news (about me, of course, what else is there, heh) I got second place in Making a Mark's Best Portrait by a Female Artist. Thanks to everyone who voted for me! I really was excited to have this new work nominated, but I also think that the piece that did win "Zen" by Nicole Caulfield, deserved the top spot. I actually might have put "Paul" ahead of myself as well. Katherine has also awarded me the “Tales from the Frontline” Mention in Despatches / The “Amusing Musings” Trophy for 2008 in her end of the year awards and I am very excited to add a new trophy to my shelf full of 30 year old bowling trophies. Especially if it is a virtual trophy and not a shiny statue of a bowler with some sort of tacky, yet very glittery five inch high base.

Thanks Katherine, you have been so supportive of my art and also of my little blog here. I really appreciate it!

Painting, Painting

Under the Sky, 2008, Oil on Gessobord, 5x7
Well, so far this vacation has passed in a somewhat boring haze of nothingness. The kids are watching just a bit too much tv, we are all staying up too late and sleeping too late in the morning and are wasting away much of the day as a result. I have been trying to get some painting done and I could, since no one is bugging me too much up here in my attic hideaway, however I have been caught in the web of my computer and so not much has been accomplished.

But today I turned on the lights at my easel, which nearly always gets me going. Then I set up my paints which is the real clincher! I have finished one of the the portraits that I started before all this holiday silliness began and I am planning to do another one after I post this.

So you'll forgive me if I go now. My paints are calling me, and I am anxious to put some color on my crabby old lady portrait. I will leave you with this link though, to a couple of self-described old ladies whose blog I came across during the recent election. I have been enjoying every word they write and I can only dream of being so blunt when I am their age. Warning: If you are a Sarah Palin fan or a George Bush fan, do not go there - you will become upset, I promise. If you are NOT a SP or GWB fan, go forth and enjoy!

On, But Mostly Off

Those Cabins on Route 20, 2007, Oil on Panel, 8x10

Steven has asked me a few times, about whether I am on "on" or "off" as an artist when I am on a trip or out of the studio for a length of time. My answer is usually that I am somewhere in between on and off.

On this trip it was no different. As usual, my intentions were to be "on" and just have some fun with drawing and watercolors. I took a box of supplies along and for the entire week, it sat in the exact spot where it was placed on the night we arrived. None of us did anything creative, I am afraid. I actually looked at the box often, longing to pull out the supplies, but I just couldn't do it. I guess I really needed the break, which is puzzling because I haven't been working terribly hard this last summer. Maybe it was a break in advance; now that I am back home and have gone over my schedule, I see that I will have to work at least full time until I leave for the artist residency in February.

But still, I wasn't "off" entirely. I took a lot of reference photos. New Hampshire has some wonderful barns, and I have already incorporated some of those images into the paintings I started yesterday. I also have references for new landscapes, water imagery, including lily pads, which intrigue me, and a few new houses as well.

Most importantly though, I spent more time than usual just sitting around observing my surroundings and while I probably won't remember the details of what I saw, the feeling from all of that will show up in my work at some point.

Little Pond, Near Squam Lake. NH

View from the screened porch

I have never been a water person at all. In fact, after 2 near drownings, once in a river and once in a pool, I was mortally afraid of going into deep water as a child. When I was around 13 or so, and hanging out at the pool at the mobile home park I lived in, staying in the shallow end of the pool really became embarrassing. I was a good swimmer, but felt mortally terrified if I couldn't touch the bottom. However, personal embarrassment can be very motivating and one day I just dove into the deep end and swam to the shallow area. I still preferred to swim in pools, rather than bodies of water, but at least I conquered at least one issue that day. And I have kept swimming. I have done many, many laps over the years, especially while I was pregnant.

For the last few years, I have been feeling like we really needed to have a vacation on a lake. This seemed odd because of my pool preference, and also because I have never really done much boating or anything like that either (I get motion sickness very easily). But since I try to pay attention to my instincts, I told Doug we should do a lake vacation this year, since we had decided not to do a full on vacation in Cape Cod (I only go into the ocean up to my waist, by the way) this year.

And so, first thing on our first morning at the lake I found myself swimming along with the kids, from the landing outside our rental house out to a dock, in a very cold lake. Then before I knew it, I was in a canoe with my son, paddling around the lake. Luckily, my kids have not inherited my water fears (I was always careful not to show any of that to them) and they were very helpful in showing me how to use the oars, as well as helping me with the kayak, another experience I have missed out on. Always good to have scouts on hand, who have been kayaking, canoing and swimming for years already. Heh.

With the exception of the two days that it rained, we were in the lake several times each day. Doug took the kids fishing quite a lot and we played a lot of board games and cards. We spent a day shopping at the outlet stores in North Conway, and on another day we went to The Flume Gorge and I took the younger kids on a gondola ride at Loon Mountain, which was very cool (Doug and I did this last year on our little trip to NH) yet unbelievably terrifying. Doug stayed at the bottom with our older son who refused to go on the ride.

Besides spending so much time with the kids, my favorite thing about this vacation was sitting on the screened porch reading books! I read two whole books and got about halfway through The Great Deluge, which coincidentally, I started reading this on nearly the exact day that Hurricane Katrina wiped out New Orleans. I am making an effort to continue to read more each day, mostly because this is a really good book and I'd like to finish it before I forget the first part of it.

Anyway, even though it was a great vacation, we are all glad to be home. I am having some trouble getting back into the flow of things, and am feeling distracted and a bit scattered. But I think things will be smoother when the kids go back to school tomorrow.

Surely you can hear my big sigh of relief about that!

Almost Gone

Almost Gone, 2007, Oil on Panel, 8x10

Well, obviously my studio time got a bit off track over the last few days. However, I did manage to get nearly all of the work done that I had planned. I also have a really nice piece going that I had hoped to send along to The Harrison Gallery, but alas, it is not quite resolved and so it will have to wait until I can get back to it. Since there will be no funeral for my mother, just a private memorial in September, we have decided to go on our family vacation as planned. Doug and I really need to spend a nice quiet week without computer, phone or television, on a lake, enjoying the company of our children.

I will be back in early September, and hopefully ya'll won't forget about me and my little blog here!

Juggling

Red Roof, 2007, Oil on Panel, 8x10

Well, despite being pretty busy the last few days, and being terribly lazy about getting started in the studio, I did manage to get quite a few 8x10 paintings finished up. I am juggling a few deadlines right now, and they are all on this Friday, mostly because on Saturday we are going on a week long family vacation to the Lakes Region in New Hampshire. So this is what I have to do before we leave (doesn't count packing or cleaning the house):

The Harrison Gallery has been doing a bang up job selling my work lately and they need more paintings in their inventory. So I need to ship them at least four, although six would probably be better.

I am in a group show, called Upstate Landscape at a local gallery, the Smithy-Pioneer Gallery in Cooperstown, NY. I have to drop off about six pieces on Friday, and the opening is on Monday. We will miss it, which is unfortunate, because we usually know so many people at their openings.

The Blogger Show needs to have jpegs by August 31, of the two pieces that I plan to put into the show which is in November. So, um, I have to paint those paintings this week....

And the local arts org is having their annual Arts on the Lawn sale and so even though I have decided not to participate this year, I probably will end up doing it anyway. Since the events starts before we get back from vacation, I will have to drop off the work before we leave.

I have about 15 paintings in progress (five are essentially finished) and will totally be holding my breath this week, hoping that I don't screw up more than one of them. Heh.

After a bit of trial and error, I have a pretty good system for keeping track of all of this stuff. I have a calendar next to my desk which has the deadlines written on it, plus as a back up I take notes on a notepad on my desk. Cause sometimes I don't even feel like actually turning my head to look at the calendar. I also have a Day Runner type month-in-view calendar in a binder which I use to map out shows and projects for the upcoming year. Although I don't refer to that very often, it's great to have the overview easily available. And I always add the opening receptions that I have to go to, to the FAMILY MASTER CALENDAR, centrally located in the kitchen. That way the kids can see when the 'rents are going out of town!

The interesting thing I have found is that if I write everything down, I always remember all of it and rarely have to check the dates. If I don't write it down, I forget the info entirely. So I take special care to write the important stuff down leaving the rest to mysteriously disappear into the recesses of my shrinking brain.

Cape Cod Redux

Naturally we got a late start as we left for Cape Cod last Thursday. So what else is new? We stopped in Albany to pick up some very important accessories for Mr. Wilson and then to pick up a rental car. Neither of our cars have working air conditioning, which is mostly tolerable around town, but for a 5 hour highway drive on a hot summer day, it totally sucks. Then we had to stop at the Harrison Gallery in Williamstown, MA to drop off some new paintings. A stop for lunch, and assorted bathroom breaks and we ended up getting to the Cape Thursday evening. We stopped at the gallery to meet up with the owner, Glenn, and then we all went on to his beautiful house, where we were going to be staying, daughter, puppy and all.

Friday morning was overcast and didn't seem like a very appealing beach day, so we decided to go do some shopping. I wanted to find a shirt for the opening and, of course, my daughter wanted some new clothes and a few sparkly things. We took Mr. Wilson with us and quickly found out that everyone loves a puppy. In fact, we must have discussed Mr. Wilson, his age, his breed, his size and how cute he was with complete strangers at least 5000 times in three days. I can't believe I have missed out on the whole lap dog social world all of this time.

But I didn't want to compete with him at the opening (just kidding, we just didn't want to worry about him for the evening) and so we left him all set up in his crate at Glenn and Sharon's house.

The opening was excellent in so many ways. First of all, my work looked really good! I was dead sick of it by the time I shipped it out but I liked it again, looking all nice and colorful, hanging on the gallery wall. The show was hung beautifully and there was great food and wine. I broke my rule about not eating at my own openings, and of course the minute I shoved a mini quiche into my mouth someone came up to me to talk. I made a joke and all was well, but sheesh! I have that rule for a reason! I did stay away from the meatballs with sauce at least, mostly because I was wearing a white shirt and we all know the meatball would have fallen off the toothpick and bounced off the "ledge" leaving a good old highly embarrassing permanent stain. Anyway. I wouldn't say this opening was crowded, like it was last year, but there were a steady stream of visitors through the whole evening and I was able to speak to nearly everyone, which was really nice. And many of the people that came were people that I had met a few times before and/or who have previously bought some of my work (yes, I think I can now say that I have collectors! wow! how did that happen?!). And many of the visitors were other artists who show at the gallery. I love love love that so many of the other artists come to the openings at Salt Meadow Gallery. It happens to a lesser extent at the other galleries I show at, but definitely more at this one. There is just something really special about this group of people. Very supportive and encouraging.

And I was able to spend a lot of time chatting with one of my blog readers, Stephanie and her friends Jennifer and Donna, who came by last year also. Stephanie and Jennifer also account for two sales that night, as they each bought a painting. Thanks, you two!

After the opening we took Glenn and Sharon out for dinner, where my daughter proceeded to get completely wound up (thanks Glenn) and way too crazy for a meal in public. Finally she calmed down, but only after I made her cry by telling her that she couldn't talk (or sing) again until after we left the restaurant. She bounced back after we got home though and was even allowed a piece of her birthday cake left from the previous day. The evening ended with me just feeling like a regular old mom again rather than a way cool artist chick.

On Saturday we slept in! It was so quiet at their house that I actually slept really well (I am a light sleeper) both nights. Even though we live in the country there is all kinds of racket, bullfrogs, birds, the rooster, etc, so the quiet there was very soothing. We packed up and then before we left the Cape we stopped to visit with a couple that own four of my paintings including one of my favorites. Our daughter did some swimming in their pool, Doug made sure Mr. Wilson wouldn't drown (Mr. Wilson kept jumping into the pool) and I had the opportunity to chat with the couple and to look at their extensive art collection.

The drive home went smoothly, we traded in cool comfort for a crappy, hot old gas guzzler in Albany, got a nice welcome from Penny, our homebody dog, paid the sitter and were in bed by 11pm.

A good few days I'd say.

Thanks Folks

Trees Barely There, 2007, Oil on Panel, 8x10

Thanks so much to everyone who sent their good wishes, publicly, privately and telepathically in response to yesterday's post about my mother's cancer. She had the Gamma Knife Radiation yesterday. And by the way, I love the sound of that, Gamma Knife, it's like college sorority and futuristic all at the same time, Gamma Knife, Gamma Knife. I could just say it all day. Anyway, the procedure went fine, she was enjoying the morphine when we spoke last night and she and her husband will be driving back home today (they had to drive several hours to another city to have it done).

Today is the first day of spring break and the kids will be home all next week. Great timing because I am just starting to feel intense pressure to get the work together for my upcoming show at Enderlin Gallery at the end of May. I was hoping to have the work finished at the end of April so that I can take a week or so to visit my mother, before the show opens. So between trying to get a few hours of studio time in here and there, coordinating sleep overs and play dates and possibly tackling spring cleaning, I think that my posts here will be a bit spotty next week. I may put up a few paintings, but won't have much time for writing, I think.

Which is fine, we can all have a break from my constant yammering. Heh.