Gratitude and Weekend Work

Hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving. We are grateful for so much this year- family, friends, good health and many opportunities for growth and creativity. The above window will go in a shrine I'm making for our Portland Art Collective Show in a couple of weeks. It's getting down to the wire and I'm spending a lot of time in the studio working. Fortunately, my muse is here. Everything flows so much better when she appears and helps to direct the process. I don't know if it's a state of mind, intuition or receptivity but I appreciate her presence.

Pink Week

Cynthia invited friends to celebrate Pink Week at her MoonSea Studio. When was the last time you ate a pink food or entered a pink room? Images of cotton candy, strawberry ice cream, cosmopolitans, Toys 'R Us Barbie doll aisles and Auntie Thelma's bathroom came to mind. We made tissue paper cut outs and ate pink cupcakes with our tea. For a few hours, we enjoyed seeing the world through rose-colored glasses.

Last Bouquet for 2007

Yesterday, I worked in the yard and pruned my roses. Here's the last bouquet for 2007. Even the roses' fall colors are rich and vibrant. They bring a bit of sunshine into the house today. Outside the wind blows and rain pours. It's hard to transition to colder, wet weather. It makes me want to hibernate and read. I'm reading Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper. It's a well crafted, thought provoking novel about a family struggle with daughter Kate's cancer and her sister, Anna, who was conceived to save Kate's life. It's written with lots of insight into coping with a chronic illness and dealing with life-death issues.

Curiosities PhotoArtJournal Book

I feel so fortunate to be apart of a group of artists/photographers who make books. Catherine Anderson hosts the PhotoArtJournal group and assembles each themed book with lots of creative imagination. The curiostities book has to be one of may favorites. The page I made is below. What has eight arms, keen eyesight and cannot hear?

Colorful Leaves, Value Study & Craft Fair

Playing with leaves and paint creates many different images. Here many layers of leaves were printed, stenciled and traced. To make the lines on the sides, I used a cork wrapped with a rubberband, added paint and rolled it onto the paper. Imagine what you could create with different sized rubberbands. This color palette is one of my favorites- French ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and quinacridone gold. I'm going to press & preserve these leaves in a phone book to use during the year.

Using the French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna, this value study was fun to make drawing trees one behind the other and painting the negative spaces with progressively darker mixes of watercolor.

The Clackamas County Arts & Craft Fair offered me the opportunity to share and sell some of my art. My Grandma Pearson made the beautiful quilt when she was in her 90's. I felt her presence with me all day. She taught me how to knit and crochet along with many other life lessons. I enjoyed the expereince, seeing former coworkers and meeting other artists. Plus, I met my goal in sales.