Time to Start Christmas Decorating

 So today was spent doing just that.  First the two trees, one that is the big tree the gifts go under, the other is a smaller tree that stands on our landing.  Then the Santas came out -- well two Santas and a Sinterklaas.  We have several more but these are my three favorites. One made of a discarded Pendelton shirt of my husband's, this one even has a patch on his back that Ed's mother did for him.

Another is from one of my dad's discarded sweaters.

And the third one, Sinterklaas because my spouse is Dutch,

I don't know how much more decorating will get done before we celebrate with our son and grandson next weekend but we are ready enough just in case.

Giving Thanks

 We did that yesterday with Ed's family and we got this lovely floral arrangement for our kitchen table from his brother.

A bonus, the best part is always getting together with family.  I'm sorry we weren't able to join my side as well but living on opposite sides of the state makes it difficult.  Maybe Christmas.  I'm grateful that we are still able to travel to see everyone.

And speaking of Christmas -- that's on my list for next week. I start bringing Christmas into the house the week after Thanksgiving, a little bit at a time so it's all ready for the day.  The Christmas season is my favorite time of the year.  I love seeing all the decorations, both mine and those of friends, neighbors and in the shops.  And we have snow which makes it perfect.

I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving.

The Gallery Uptown is Ready for Holiday Shoppers

 The official kick off to the Holiday Season is this Friday.  I'll be there, hope you can join me for 

 

There will be lots of holiday decorations and many gift items to choose from.

Small Works

Today I delivered 5 small pieces to the Holland Arts Council for its Holiday Art Show: Small Works.  These are a couple of the pieces that will be part of the show. Each is 4"x4".

Shifting Tides

   

Silent Measure

The show runs from November 13 to December 20. There will be an opening reception on November 14 from 5:30 to 7 PM.  I'm planning to be there.  If you're in the area I hope you can too.

Steal Like An Artist

It's a lesson in Louise Fletcher's Find Your Joy 2025 workshop.  She asked us to select two favorites, figure out what it is about their work that we love and rather than copy what they do, steal that bit that you love and use it in your piece.  I have several favorites but settled on 3 for this lesson.  This is the painting,

My 3 for this exercise -- Karen Stamper, Alice Sheridan and Elwira Pioro.  Karen because I can see the influence of boats in her work and if you know me you know I love boats; Alice Sheridan and Elwira Pioro both have very textured calm areas in their work and Elwira adds a bit of line work to her calm backgrounds.

This is one that is done in my sketchbook/art journal because I was not going to make a good painting, just play.  Turned out not too bad I think.  What do you think?

The Coverup and a Selfie

 Last week I posted one that had several layers and I still wasn't liking anything. I covered it with more colors, then some white and I didn't like the brush strokes.  I had a baby wipe in my hand because I was cleaning paint off my fingers,  WHAT IF I smooth things out with it? I discovered it did more than smooth the brush strokes, it brought just a touch of the color underneath to the surface.  I finished one but didn't get it photographed before I took it to Central Park Place for the Gallery Uptown 50th Anniversary show.  This is the second one still waiting to be finished.

And another fun exercise this week -- blind drawing self portrait.  A Creative Restart Workshop exercise and I love how some of them came out.  None a really good likeness but fun anyway.

The one on the left is with a fountain pen, on the right, charcoal. One thing I realized looking at them later, if one has drawn enough faces one can come pretty close to lining eyes, nose and mouth up because one knows the nostril comes down from the corner of the eye and the mouth is just below that.  I have done a lot of faces.  Another advantage I have is a couple wrinkles across the bridge of my nose between my eyes, I can come pretty close to positions. Making them accurate is another story.

Sometimes You Just Have To Cover It Up

 And that is just what I'm doing on this piece.  What you see on the right is what it was and I've done several layers and keep thinking -- surely I can make this work. Well, I had several good compositions and decent finishes but didn't like them so I also did a lot of sanding.  Finally, this morning, I decided it's the color.  I just don't like the green and so I decided to sand again and use totally different colors.  That's started on the left.  Hopefully I can come up with something I'm happy with.  Still a long way to go before it's done.