Two newly photographed paintings, one OLD, one NEW!

I just picked up 2 paintings from Aaron Mullins at Mullins Editions in Clovis after having them photographed, archived for future prints, and made into cards. The 2 paintings are at opposite ends of the 10 year span of time that I have been painting. One, "Flamenco", was done either in 2000 or very early 2001 and the other, "Alice's Adventure", was done in the summer of 2010.

Flamenco is a full sheet watercolor (22" X 30"), framed to 32" X 40" and floated on a cobalt blue background with a light top mat. It was done in an afternoon, wet into wet, at the end of a day-long Saturday class with Monte Guynes, the master of wet into wet paintings. Nothing but watercolor was used in the painting and I called it Flamenco right away because it made me think of the rose(s) a flamenco dancer might hold in her teeth.

"Alice's Adventure" was done in the summer of 2010 and I started it on an Art Hop evening at the Art Stand Gallery when Cheiko Delgado and I were "sitting" and no one came in all night. I had one sheet of paper and my pallete with me so I just started "doodling" colors and shapes out from a small circular shape. One thing led to another and this vertical 30" X 22" painting (matted and framed to 38" X 30") was the outcome. The painting incorporates pen work, dry wall tape, a bit of gold leaf here and there, and some glitter. At the very end, I added the darkest darks and all of a sudden I was thinking of Alice in Wonderland's fall down the staircase. I think it is currently my favorite painting that I've done.



What I'd like you to think about and comment on, if you'd be so kind, is how are these 2 paintings painted 10 years apart, different in subject matter and style, still alike? Or do you think they are? Please comment
here on my blog or you can email me or post a comment on Facebook. I'm dying to hear your thoughts
and then I'll tell you mine.

Blog Changes Continue as Focus is Applied!

Thanks to each of you who gave me a suggestion or two about improving the blog. I've implemented several and have several more to go. But it's getting better, I think! I really hated that LONG, LONG list of tags/labels but couldn't figure out how to make a tag cloud when I'd tried before. Today I was struggling with it again and went to my old "gadget" for the labels section and found that Blogger had added a "Cloud" choice to the previous single choice of "List". Thank you, Blogger! More changes and more news to come! Be patient with me, please. :)

Tell me what you think. . . . please. . . . .

And it won't hurt my feelings! Too much! This is change #99 since I started blogging, most likely. Some things I like better and better and some things I like how they used to be. But the good news is that I learn so much everytime I change things. The main changes were to the header which isn't what I want, really, but it's getting closer. I like the black titles and borders and the "grunge" corners--can you believe I set that up without using Photoshop, my nemesis? LOL

I got rid of the quote which was too overpowering--I'll find somewhere else to incorporate it, another day. For now, it's off to bed for me. . . . (yawn)

Another Monday, almost past. . . . .

I feel like I'll be doing good to blog once a week and I used to try to blog every day. What has changed?


I'm trying hard to get myself organized--EVERYthing organized, that is. My art studio, my computer, my files, my emails, my wardrobe, the home filing cabinet, Roy's music and the list goes on. I know that the outcome will be positive when the project is finished, but, meanwhile I am in a state of confusion and frustration. The intensity and immensity of the project is what is daunting and I have to keep reminding myself--how do you eat an elephant????

ONE BITE AT A TIME!!! :)

Short Post. . . .

"Miss Kitty"--the boss/supervisor of the organizational effort

. . . . to say that I'll be back very soon to write a longer one and to try to get back on a schedule of writing more regularly. I'm taking Alyson Stanfield's "Get Organized" class right now and one of the things we are setting up is an electronic filing system. I've put down a schedule for my blog posts so now I'll just have to start following it, right? My office looks like a tornado came through but I can see great progress in the filing system (I now HAVE one!), the electronic task program, my calendar, my social media interactions--and a real newsletter looms on the horizon! I'll keep you posted--hang in there and send encouraging thoughts my way. :)

Oh, Me, Oh, My, Oh. . . . . .

. . . . which translates to "Aaaaarrrrrrgggggghhh!"

I am trying to take all the suggestions I've been receiving "to heart" and trying to make the appearance of my blog take more of a back seat to the artwork itself. What you see right now is a very different approach than I've ever tried before. A different header, the use of my logo rather than a photo of a painting, a more subtle color scheme, and a natural, fresh look, I think.  I'm not sure it's "me" but maybe it's not supposed to be "me" maybe the ART is supposed to be "me".

Oh, well, it's all been fun and a good learning experience. I still cannot do what I want to with the header as far as sizing it and centering it because I don't speak html or css. :) If anyone can help me, so be it and if no one can, so be it too--for tonight at least. Tell me what you think, if you'd like and I promise to listen and try to improve.

I'd like your feedback. . . .

Dear Blog Readers:

I'd like to start doing a giveaway on my blog each time I have a new greeting card available. To explain the process a little bit, whenever I complete a painting and decide that it's worthy of being photographed, I take it to Aaron Mullins at Mullins Editions in Clovis, California to be professionally photographed and archived. Then, I can request prints in a variety of sizes and on a variety of styles and surfaces, as well as small greeting cards. Usually, I get cards of each newly photographed piece and it is those cards that I'd like to use as my giveaways. Pictured here today are "Rose Window" and "Fowl Weather Friends", both relatively newly photographed works that I have in the Ag Show at Madera Arts Council Circle Gallery in Madera, California.

I will give one of each of these cards to a randomly selected reader who responds (in the form of a comment) to these 2 questions:

(1.) What do you like most about my "Mixed Messages" blog?

(2.) What do you wish I would change/improve/update on my "Mixed Messages" blog?

The winner will be selected on November 1st, 2010. I look forward to reading your comments and making some improvements to my blog.

Art Stand "Tent Event" on Saturday, October 16th

 

Saturday, October 16th, the Art Stand Gallery will be holding their annual"Tent Event" 

in the parking lot at the gallery.

Artists set up both inside and outside,
refreshments are served, and there are
demos throughout the day. Guest artists
are encouraged and invited to join us for
plein air painting of the fall countryside
near the gallery.

It's a fun day and the weather holds the
promise of being pleasant. :) Hope
you can come out and join us
this Saturday at the Tent Event!

Guess what's coming up on the first weekend in November?

What: Celebrate Creativity Artist's Inspirational Retreat (Third Annual)

When: November 5-7, 2010

Where: Kathleen Mattox's home studio/gallery in Sanger, California

Who: Artist friends (and friends of friends!) of Kathleen

 Why: To encourage, inspire, and motivate artists through association with fellow artists

How: Any way we can!

















For details, comment on this post
and I'll send more information via email.

Alyson Stanfield's "Cultivate Collectors" Class

About a year and a half ago, I was involved in a "salon" class based on the book "I'd Rather Be In The Studio" by Alyson Stanfield. It was a group facilitated by Julie Mitchell in Coarsegold and we met every for several months and continued to meet monthly for some time after the salon was over. We became the group of women artists now called "Sisters 7".

Well, anyway, it was a great experience and I learned so much from reading the book that I wanted to know more. So, I signed up for an online class of Alyson's called "Cultivate Collectors" and it has just begun. We have a daily assignment and homework and we communicate with each other via an online blog. It's only Day 3 of 18 days now and I already feel like I've gotten my money's worth out of the class. What it's done is renew my interest in moving forward at becoming a better marketer of my work. As they say, it doesn't matter how good of an artist you become if you have no outlet for it, no place or way to sell your work or make it available for others to see. Well, I've found lots of places and ways to "get it out there", now it's a matter of doing a better job of staying in touch with people and cultivating new people. It's all related to my mailing list or contact list--adding to it, keeping it up, and using it!

Onward and upward! Or, as Sheila Boyd (one of my six "sisters") would say:

"Sparkle and Shine!"

How Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

Where do the days go? Memorable moments from the recent past:

1.  Bebe Long and I traded paintings. I now have her "Pink Passion" and she has my "TuTu Tangle." We are both thrilled and excited with our recent acquisitions. Photos to follow.

2. Sierra Art Trails was a successful event in spite of the rain. The 4 artists there were a great team: Julie Mitchell, myself, Vivian Capone, and Gretchen Lee. We enjoyed each other's company and making new friends together. I had a successful sales weekend with 2 originals finding new and loving homes and numerous smaller sales.

3. I'm taking Alyson Stanfield's "Cultivate Collectors" online class. Time to clean up my act and move to the next level. :)

The Madera Ag Show

Last Tuesday was judging for the Madera Arts Council "Ag Show" and the reception and awards were on Thursday evening, September 16th. There were about 74 accepted entries and the judge was Paul Buxman, a artist and farmer from Reedley. I love his work, but I wasn't sure he'd love mine. So, I was pleasantly surprised to find that "Fowl Weather Friends" received a second in the Poultry category. Good friend Grace Rankin's wonderful Rooster got first place and fellow Timberline artist Janet Morita's beautiful white chickens got third place. Here is a photo of my entry:











My second entry was entered in the "Vines' category and it is called "Rose Window" because it is a painting of bottles of (Rose) wine in front of a Rose Window. A play on words, as is often the case. :)

Painting a half sheet painting still feels very strange to me--I'm not in MY element while doing it, but it is nice to have paintings in a variety of sizes available. The poultry painting is my normal full sheet, framed to 30" X 38" and Rose Window is framed to 22" X 29". This is Rose Window:


The Ag Show is held at the Circle Gallery in
Madera and is a show well worth viewing. For
future reference, the categories offered are these:

Citrus

Dairy

Farm Machinery & Structures

Fruits & Nuts

Irrigation

Livestock

Poultry

Vegetables

Vines

Entries are made by category rather than by medium, so this is a unique show in that respect.

Calling All Artists--the search is on!

If it weren't for doing things at the last minute, I wouldn't get anything done at all! I don't think it's necessarily that I work well under pressure--it's just that I have to take one thing at a time, complete it, and move on to the next "deadline", so to speak. Yesterday and today, I was entering a competition that I've intended to enter for months. When was the deadline? Today, of course! At 5 PM--and I finished about 3 PM. :)

My favorite inspirational magazine is called "Cloth, Paper, Scissors"--promoted as
"Collage, Mixed Media, and Artistic Discovery". One of the high points of my month is the day that I find it in my mailbox! The magazine is  sponsoring an Artisan Search 2011, searching for 5 outstanding artists--1 each in 5 different areas of creativity: Mixed-media Stitch, Art Journal and Book Making, Printmaking and Silk Screening, Mixed-media Jewelry, and Collage and Assemblage.

Yesterday, I started the submission process, knowing that I had what I needed on my computer already. The first images I submitted I decided were not right for the category "Collage and Assemblage" since they were of a painting with no collage at all. Deleting the pieces proved to be the most challenging part of the whole process, but I was semi-successful doing so. Sometimes, we love a piece and aren't willing to admit that it isn't really the right piece for a certain show or theme or whatever. Once I got past that hang-up, I moved on to quickly upload 1 large and 2 thumbnail photographs of 3 different  projects and write a description for the 3 pieces.

Front View of Candy, with ribbons hanging below

After some time spent in thought, I selected 3 of the 3D mannequins that I did last year. They all use lots and lots of collage and actually are assemblages. They should "stand out in the crowd", hopefully, and I am proud to introduce you again to Candy, Sherry, and Clementine.

An unfinished Candy, showing doilies and texture of collage

This is "Parallels" and it compares/equates women and wine. :)

This is Candy, so named because she is "pink and white and, oh, so sweet"! You see here a front and back view of the finished mannequin and an unfinished view of her, in progress, where you can see the paper doilies etc. that make up her camisole. She is all different types and textures of pink and white paper, with embellishments of off-white ribbon and lace and a pink ribbon rosebud.








Next, you see Sherry, so named for the type of wine! Sherry was entered last year at the Madera Ag Show and she received a second place in the "Vines" catagory. She is a small bust, painted with skin-toned, thinned gesso and then covered with images and cut outs of wine bottles, grapes, leaves, glasses and vineyard rows. Her skin is enhanced with gold-outlined calligraphy words that describe both wines and women. The idea is much like what I used in the painting "Parallels", which compares them in even greater detail.

 

 

Sherry/Front View

Sherry/Side View

Clementine/front view

This is Clementine, my favorite of  the mannequin "sisters". She was entered in the Citrus category at the same Madera Ag Show and she received a third prize. She is more detailed than the other 2, larger, and has a lot more embellishment. She has old doilies and lace, buttons, and an asymmetrical ribbon "hem" and shoulder decoration.

Detail of Clementine showing texture etc.

Clementine/back view

So, wish me luck, please, since there are so many entries in this competition. If you have a chance to look online at clothpaperscissors.com, please do. When you get to the site, click on "Galleries", then "Artisan Search 2011" and then Collage/Assemblage.There are about 630 entries (3/person) so about 210 people have entered. Five semi-finalists in each category will be selected to send their pieces in for 1 year and then a winner will be selected in each of the categories as an Artisan for 2011. Quite a process! Take a look, vote for your favorites, and make some comments. I think my 3 pieces are on page 6 but it might be page 5. . . .

A long and difficult post for me today because I struggled with the images and their placement. Will I ever learn? When I first started blogging, everything was difficult. Now, only a few things are difficult and image placement (and prediction) is the hardest for me.

Onward and upward! Sparkle and Shine! :)

How it "Ended" with Fleury 2. . . .

. . . . actually, NOT how it ended at all! But at least a step in the right direction with a blog post for the first time since some time in July. Yikes! Where do the days and weeks go? I realize I've been doing too much on Facebook and not enough here so I'm going to try to switch that around and start doing my longer posts here because they will wind up on Facebook FROM here, anyway. Makes a lot more sense but it isn't quite as portable nor as easy as doing it on the iPhone or the iPad.

Since July, things have been pretty busy. I was painting for the Ag Show (judging is this week and the reception is Thursday evening in Madera) and for the Alliance of California Artists' Arte Americas show and for "Walk on the Wildside" which began at Timberline in Oakhurst last Monday, September 6th.

So, to back up a bit--I finished the paintings for the Ag Show and was working on 2 paintings for Arte Americas. After a great deal of contemplation, I decided that one would be a painting I did a while back but hadn't quite finished and the other one would be the Fleury 2 painting that I talked about and showed a couple of posts ago.

The first painting was an abstract but as I worked on it, it started looking more and more like an aerial view of patio umbrellas. I put it away for a few weeks and when I got it out again, I knew exactly what I needed to do to finish it. I needed to add a very dark "pathway" connecting the umbrellas, with some symbolic planter boxes and a fountain. So, I finished it, framed it and named it "Mai Tai" to go along with my earlier work called "Pina Colada" and my newest piece called "Strawberry Daquiri". (Can't you see what's coming next?)

Then I begin to add the flowers to the red origami painting. The first painting had white rice paper flowers but for this painting, I used embossed blossoms from a different handmade paper. Very beautiful, but more "structured" and denser in appearance and feeling than the flowers in "Fleury". As the painting neared completion, I posted some photos on Facebook and someone fell in love with it and will be the loving owner of the second Fleury painting. I asked some of my Japanese friends to help me with naming it and I'm so happy to say that Danny Okamura (trumpet playing friend in Fresno and Clovis bands) suggested "Origami Ohana" and that's what she is to be called. Some paintings are genderless but some are definitely masculine or feminine. There is no doubt that Origami Ohana is a "her"!

So, off they went to the show and off I went to sit at Timberline on that judging day.
The judge was Kevin Bowman, curator at Arts Visalia, and I love to watch the judging because I always learn so much from it. I was sorry to not see it and when I didn't hear anything from anyone, I assumed neither painting had done anything spectacular. But later that evening, I checked my email and I had a congratulatory note from Val Dann saying that "Origami Ohana" had received a second place in Mixed Media. . . and that "Mai Tai" had received a Best in Show!! Yippee! I was SO excited and I still am but I wasn't sure that I'd ever receive the top honors because often abstracts are less likely to be seriously considered by some judges. So, thank you, Kevin Bowman! I am so honored!

And if that weren't enough, when we went to the Art Hop reception on Thursday evening, September 9th, people were asked to vote for their favorite painting and "Origami Ohana" received the "People's Choice" award. Can you believe it? I've had a very exciting couple of weeks and I'm pleased and proud and happy! Thank you all for your notes and congratulations! They've meant a lot to me.

So, the saga continues. . . I surely can't stop painting NOW, can I? Next time I post, I'll show you my 3 entries for "Walk on the Wild Side" and tell you about the Ag Show judging and reception later this week.

My Artist's Assistant

This is Miss Kitty, my well-loved, devoted, and extremely encouraging artist's assistant. Her help is invaluable, as you can see in this photo. She was keeping me focused on my work, making me move from one area to another so that the glue could dry, and adding cat hair to every single inch of the painting for textural purposes, of course!

Artists' Assistants can be hard to find and very costly, if you are even able to find the right one. I feel extremely lucky to have found the perfect companion, in all things artistic. :)

I love Miss Kitty! XOXOXOX

How it All Began. . . .

. . . .  in regards to Fleury I and Fleury II!

Here is what the "knot" or "tassel" looked like that was the inspiration for the 2 origami paintings.

Fleury 2--a look at the process

Last Saturday, at Sierra Second Saturday Art Hop, I spent the day at the Mind Shop Bookstore in Oakhurst. Since I was there for several hours, I worked on putting the origami pieces on Fleury 2. It all started with a rectangular piece of beautiful Japanese paper that looks like a tassel or knot. I glued it down and then drew sweeping lines out from the printed paper, each one to be filled with one basic color of small (patchwork-like) pieces of origami paper. You can see the edges of glued-down rectangle in the photo above.

As I'm gluing small pieces down into the sweeping areas, I save the very small ones that I cut off and I use them right away on some really tiny little collages that use up the left-overs of beautiful origami paper. I have two 4" X 6" pieces of scrap mat board in front of me in the photos and am adding to both of them. They will wind up being "mini-collages". 

I counted the "sweeps" and there  are 15 different colored areas that need to be filled with bits of cut papers. When I went up to Oakhurst, I had done one large black area. By the end of the day, I had six of the areas completed.Nine left to go! And then I'll add large collage"flowers"to the foreground to make the "Fleury" come alive! Those flowers will be the "surprise" in this painting.

The thing that's bothering me a bit at this point in the painting is that the red "background" areas which were navy blue in the first Fleury painting are too similar in color and value to the sweeps that touch them. I will have to probably darken up the red painted area on either side of the loop/knot to make it recede into the background.

Fleury 2

"There once was a painting called Fleury." She was very beautiful and very unique. She sold to a couple in New Jersey before her time. :) She was made from a lovely piece of Japanese paper that came in a paper assortment brought back from Japan by the artist's friend, Chieko. The artist never dreamed of doing another Fleury but when she, the artist, was in Berkeley a few weeks ago she (the artist) spent some time in a lovely, Japanese paper shop. She bought a package of assorted papers and when she opened it in her hotel room, lo and behold, there was another piece of paper that looked like a tassel or knot with origami papers emanating from it. The beginnings of another Fleury! Almost exactly like the original one except that the color scheme is different. The artist is now working on Fleury 2 and will show you a photo of it later today.

Art Hop at the Mind Shop Bookstore tomorrow!

If you're anywhere near the Positive Living Center in Oakhurst tomorrow, Saturday, July 10th, I hope you can come by the Mind Shop Bookstore and visit for a while. Sierra Second Saturday Art Hop is from 11 AM till closing time at 5 PM and I plan to be there all day. Sisters 7 has a group show hanging there right now and several of us will be there on and off during the day. The group of seven artists includes myself, Sheila Boyd, Anita Stoll, Julie Mitchell, Valerie Runningwolf, Vivian Helena. and Joan Constable. The show is called "Tropical Breeze" and it's quite "refreshing". Come and see!

We also have made our blog a public blog and will be adding events and information to it on a regular basis. Come and visit and see what's happening with Sisters 7. The blog address is sisterstotheseventhpower.blogspot.com

Hope to see you tomorrow!

No Italy this year. . . .

I keep forgetting that not everyone knows that Grace and I will not be teaching a painting workshop at La Romita School of Art in Italy this year. We were to begin on July 13th but we didn't gather enough people to do the session in 2010. I am very disappointed and a little sad, but maybe the opportunity will be offered again another year. Sometimes things happen for a reason . . . . but I'm sorry to say we won't be experiencing Italy in 2010. La Romita is such a life-changing place to be!

Feedback needed!

What do you think of the new look? Very watercolorish? And much lighter feeling! But is it easier to read and is it "me"?

Blogger. . . . and Blogging!

How can a month or six weeks go by so quickly? I guess time DOES fly when you're having fun! And I have been having a lot of fun, though I can't say that I've been as productive as I might have been. I have taught 3 one day classes in the last 3 weeks and also gone to Berkeley for a 3 day workshop with Charlotte Huntley. And I've been trying to make myself do the things I've promised others that I'd do, but I'm having a hard time with getting them done. That's my goal for this week: to try to do what I've promised to others so that I can get back on track with doing my own creative things.

I like being involved in gallery projects etc. because I like the people that I work with. But the distractions, if that's what they truly are, derail me from my own projects. And right now, I've got to finish a painting for the Madera Ag Show. Slides or CDs are due on July 12th and one of the 2 paintings is no where near completion. That doesn't leave me much time for adjustments, evaluation, photography and getting the CD to Madera. Here we go again! Hello and goodbye yet again, I guess. More blogging as soon as I can--and more word on whether I catch up on my obligations, too!

Forgot to mention what prompted the title of this post--when I finally sat down to post after over a month away, I found a lot of changes in Blogger in terms of design possibilities etc. so that "derailed" me again as I explored a few of them before making this post! With 3 blogs to work on, I need to keep up with changes etc. and I haven't been doing that lately.

Blogging has gotten the short end of the stick lately....

Hope that things are calming down a little and that I can settle back into a routine of sorts that will find me blogging again on a regular basis. Wine Trails this weekend including the "realease party Saturday night on the grass. Should be fun!

La Romita Workshop in Terni, Italy in July 2010

May 6, 2010

Dear Fellow Artists, Art Lovers, and Lovers of Italy:

As most of you know because I’ve personally told you or you’ve received an email or a Facebook event message regarding it, I am co-teaching a painting/journaling/sketchbooking workshop in Italy with Grace Rankin this coming summer.  It will be held at La Romita School of Art in Terni, Italy about 60 miles north of Rome in the Umbria region, between July 13^th and 27^th. You can google La Romita or look up further information at laromita.org. Most of you have received an informational brochure from me already with details and the mailing address.

I attended La Romita in 2002 with Grace as the instructor and it was a life-changing experience for me due to several factors such as being in another country, looking at things in a different way, the golden light and the golden artifacts, the history, the architecture, and feeling like I’d stepped back in time about 200 years. I wish all artists could have the freedom to spend time in a studio/monastery chapel built in the 1600’s, to be able to paint at all hours of the day and/or night, and have no cares in the world other than creating art related to the wonders seen daily in the small hill towns. When I was asked to co-teach the class I was SO excited at the prospect of returning to Italy (for the 3^rd time) and especially to La Romita. I was already thinking of the wonderful food, wine, staff, scenery, inspiration, fellow artists, co-teaching with dear friend and highly-respected artist Grace, and the pure joy I experienced there in 2002.

But my excitement is faltering slightly because our deadline of May 15^th for “firm interest” as evidenced by deposits in the amount of $500 is fast approaching and we have 5 deposits of the 12 needed. I just know there are at least 7 very special people out there who are meant to join us at La Romita this July. Lots of people say they want to go but they either don’t have the money, they are nervous about the long flight, they are too old or their children are too young, they are too tired or too busy, they want to go another year but not this year, they have pending family emergencies or home situations, they have health concerns, or they don’t paint! Well, painting is NOT a requirement to attend—non-painting spouses can gladly attend and they will enjoy it as much as the painters do. Photographers, cooks, scrapbookers, fiber artists, sculptors and so on will also have a productive, interesting, exciting, and enjoyable 2 weeks. Even shoppers, with no other skills, can enjoy the experience! J I am NOT making light of the reasons mentioned above—it is so true that often “life is what happens while you are making other plans” but it is also true that sometimes we have to just do something for ourselves. Since I last spoke with some of you, you may have received an expected tax refund or sold a large painting or two, or decided that you need a way to celebrate a special birthday or anniversary, or reward yourselves for a job well-done or a life well-lived.  La Romita can be the answer to that need—a very special way to celebrate life and art.

Registrations have come late this year and we are still hopeful of meeting our minimum but please don’t wait any longer if you are considering attending. If everyone waits to see if the trip is a “go”, it will not be. L Please email me back at kathleenmattox@gmail.com with your intent and to ask any questions that you may have. My phone numbers are (559) 876-1540 (home) or 905-3517 (cell). With only 12 students (though there can be more), Grace and I will be able to give everyone a lot of personal attention. The problem with waiting till next year is that we may not be invited back next year so you cannot count on having the  “dual artist” opportunity that you will have this year. If this truly isn’t the year for YOU, but you know someone else who might like to join us, forward this letter on to them right away. I am going to ask Edmund Zimmerman to send all of you an email with more information and links to many of the hill towns we will visit so you can read more about them. Please watch for his email—coming from edmund_zimmerman@yahoo.com.

Artistically,

Kathleen Mattox

kathleenmattox@gmail.com

mixedmessagesbykathleenmattox.blogspot.com

gracenjack@att.net

gracenotesbygracerankin.blogspot.com

Art Stand Gallery Open Studio Event, tomorrow--May lst, 2010!

The annual Open Studio Tour at the Art Stand Gallery in Minkler is tomorrow, May lst, 2010!

My home/studio/gallery is one of the stops on this fun, "mini" open studio event. Preparations are almost complete and we're wondering what else can go wrong at the last minute that will top a broken vaccum, toilet problems, continual rain and gusty winds? Hmmmmmmm. Not much!

Actually, everything is now under control and it looks like the weather will be perfect. So come on out tomorrow and visit with Kay Owens, Toni Best, Vivian Capone, and Julie Mitchell at Studio #1 and then drive on to visit the other Art Stand artists and some guests and new Art Stand members!

See you tomorrow!

New Solo Show at the Sanger Branch Library

Last Monday, Roy and I took 18 full sheet paintings--
watercolor and mixed media--to the Sanger Branch Library
in Downtown Sanger, CA. It took a couple of hours
for one of the librarians to hang the paintings, with our help.
I haven't had a show at the library before, but I decided to hang large paintings there because of the high ceilings and spacious walls.

It certainly wouldn't have been something we would have
wanted to do--not me, for sure, because I am absolutely NO
good on a ladder. I do NOT like heights at all. But we helped with carrying, handing them up, and preparing the "cards" to hang with each painting.

I had decided to include a description card for each painting
so that people can read them and know more about why
and how each painting was created. If the venue is agreeable,
I have been using them at all of my shows and I find that they make a big difference. People seem to take time to read them and to "browse" more slowly when they have them than when they don't.

Here you see

several views of

the show, from

different angles.

Most of the

paintings hang in a

group of 3, but there

are three (like "Hocus

Pocus", below)

that hang in a narrower space by themself.

"Cosmic Quilt" also hangs alone, as does
"Strong Language". In the next few shots, you
see "panoramic views" of one wall in each photo.

The library is located at 1812 Seventh Street. The cross street is DeWitt Avenue and the phone number is 875-2435 so you can call for directions or to check on library hours. Going east on Jensen Ave. through town, turn right (south) on Hoag and go less than 1 block to turn (left) into the parking lot at the back of the library which is right on Seventh Street.

I hope you can view the show while it is in Sanger. It will probably be there until June. I will post hours of operation and the exact ending date of the show here. The only bad thing about showing so many paintings at the library is that I don't have many at home for the Open Studio Tour on May lst.

Guess I'd better get to work, framing etc! If you see the show, tell me which is your favorite painting, if you don't mind. We artists LOVE feedback and often we don't get much. It really does help us to know which paintings are appealing to people and why. Thanks!

Madera Wine Trail--back in February!

I'm finally ready to "catch up" on some posts that I started but never finished. The first event to  belatedly-blog about is the Madera Wine Trails "Wine and Chocolate" weekend which took place in mid-February. Fortunately, the weather was gorgeous--sunny, dry, clear, and quite warm. Roy came with me to Birdstone Winery both days of the weekend. We had 2 great lunches, tried some more Birdstone wines--our personal favorite, so far, is their port!--saw some old and new friends, and made some new friends.

I did my first Wine Trails show at Birdstone in November of 2009 and returned for the second time in February 2010. I really enjoyed being there and the events, in general. People love to do wine tasting and it's a great opportunity to meet new art lovers and collectors.

I decided to try something new with my art for the February event. Instead of painting new wine paintings, I decided to do some "Love" paintings instead since they would be shown over Valentine's Day weekend. I also decided to give a 14% discount on any one item purchased on the holiday weekend. Valentine's Day. . . . Feb. 14. . . . . 14% discount. . . . . .  :)

The discount and the wine paintings were both popular and I'm glad I tried a new subject. Everyone loves love, right? So it was a good decision, I think.

The next Wine Trail weekend is coming up in May--on the 15th and 16th. Roy and I will be there both days and also look forward to attending the "Release Party on the Grass" on Saturday evening. Day time hours will be from 10 till 5 both days and the release party is from 5:30 till 9 on Saturday night. The places to go to for more information are Birdstone Winery and Madera Wine Trails.

Mark your calendars and make your reservations--buy a glass!--for this upcoming special event!

Also, check to see my updated list of upcoming events and activities! And if you haven't "friended" me on Facebook, please look for me there soon. I have an individual page (Kathleen Mattox) and a Fan Page, under "Mixed Messages" by Kathleen Mattox. Hope to chat with you on Facebook, soon!