Woodshedding. . . . .

. . . . the title may make my community concert band director AND my oboe teacher think that I've been practicing!

But, actually, that's NOT what the title refers to. :(

Woodshedding. . . . means exactly that. Spending more time in the woodshed, stacking firewood. We are making great headway on all the piles of eucalyptus, locust, pine, and mulberry stacked around our 2 acres. One of the joys of living in the country means a lot of trees--a lot of trees that fall at inopportune times. But it also means a lot of firewood. We have a great woodshed and it was literally empty after this past winter so it's good to see it filling up again and the piles in the yard disappearing.

I did paint this evening--almost finished with 2 more word paintings and I have 2 more in progress. Enthusiasm, knowledge, diversity, and compassion--coming your way soon! And a new painting started for my critique group. The topic is "The Eyes Have It!" Or maybe it's "The I's Have It"? Actually, according to Roy's reminder, it should be "The Ayes Have It" from the days when votes were taken by a chorus of "Ayes". So, it will be interesting to see what comes out of the topic when we next meet in April.

The last day of March

Well, the framing is done, the driving is done. . . .and the judging is done, too. The ACA show at Arts Visalia was judged this afternoon by the curator of the Bakersfield Art Museum. There were around 90 entries and the gallery holds about 55 paintings comfortably, so quite a few were turned away. The good news is that all 3 of my paintings were accepted and will hang through the end of March. The bad news is that I had hopes of a placement or 2 and there were none. Not even an honorable mention. Oh, well, it's just like when we were showing dogs for years and years--every day is a different judging situation. The judge is different, looking for different things, and the competition is different also. I am pleased with all 3 of the paintings and, to me, that's what counts . . . . but it's nice when the judge and/or other viewers like them also.

The reception is Friday night, March 6th, from 5-8 PM. Hope to see you there!

Philosophizing after a Monday in the mountains

Today was a "sitting" day for me at the Timberline Gallery in Oakhurst, California. It was rainy all day, dark and quiet with not a lot of visitors. Still, the shift (10 AM to 4 PM) went by quickly because I had things to do and I also had a lot of new pieces to study. That can occupy a lot of time for those of us who are part of the gallery  (as we study and enjoy new work bimonthly at each gallery change) and for our visitors.

On another note (but a somewhat similar one), I love today's quote about art, taken from the bottom of my blog. Stella Adler said: "Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one."  Sometimes life does beat us down, for whatever reason, and enjoying art or creating it lifts us back up again. Illness, depression, poverty, crime, loneliness, and natural disasters--these are but a few of the things that quickly come to mind that beat us down and verge on stealing our souls. Even at the lowest times, looking at something beautiful or putting our heart into creating a small piece of art or crafting an object or piece of clothing can bring us some measure of satisfaction and peace and reassure us that our soul is undamaged. 

Perhaps I should have added "doing taxes" to the list of what beats us down because that's what faces us this week. And it's not just taxes, but getting all of our paperwork in order. That includes my art-related paperwork, so in the upcoming days I will be happy to remember that I spent most of last week soulfully creating new paintings as I endure the stressful moments to come.

And one large one that's almost done. . . .

. . . but it doesn't have a title either. It is very Oriental in feeling (but not in simplicity) because it is a collage of almost all Japanese papers brought back from Japan by my friend, Chieko. There was one beautiful "centerpiece" paper which I glued down first and then painted out from it. I wanted to extend the patterning of the different papers in the fan (?) and then I felt that the cut paper flowers should be flooding off the page, as an extension of the printed flowers in many of the papers. 

The photograph is of just a portion of the painting, which is not quite finished yet. More to come on this one. . . .

Please send me any thoughts you might have regarding a title, please!

Making Up For Lost Time!

Three more images to go with this post. One is called "Topsy Turvy", one is called "Focus" (that one's easy!), and one has no name as yet. Any ideas? The untitled one has what looks somewhat like a four-paned window in it, to the left of center. Quite often, the name comes before the painting is finished and sometimes even before the painting is painted. But sometimes, good names that are "provocative" but still mysterious and open-ended are difficult to come up with. My husband is terrific at naming paintings. He mulls the content over for a few days sometimes and then comes up with a great suggestion. Thank goodness!