A Fun Tuesday In A Garden

I do enjoy sketching in gardens and my Tuesday Painters group went to a friend's garden this week.  Thank you Mary Merritt, your gardens are wonderful.

I also enjoy old barns and shacks and that was the subject the week before.  The group was there to paint the new barn at Green Vale Farms. I'm not big on new barns but I did have fun with the vent on the roof of the barn before wandering around the old barn and taking photos.  I see I didn't take a photo of my vent sketch.  These were much more interesting to me.

In between and since I have been clearing things out of my studio office.  It's now very pleasant to be in here working and just sitting in my rocker reading a bit. I can tell what books are on the bookshelf and I can get to them now. 😊  It's been a good couple weeks.  

I have a few other projects in process but for now, I need to sit and read a bit.

 

The Art Tribe Is Back

 Art is a solo sport, sort of like playing solitaire. It’s just you and your art supplies. Like many of my artist friends, I thrive in the “aloneness” which is why the pandemic didn't bother me.  However, there are times when we need to be with friends, other artist friends -- the Art Tribe.

Memebers of my tribe are showing our latest creations at the Gallery Uptown in Grand Haven.  The opening reception is Friday, July1 from 5:30 to 7.

We recently lost one of the tribe members, Carol Brauer Schmidt, so we have dedicated the exhibit to her memory.  This is one of three florals that I did for the exhibit.  It wasn't until I did the 3rd one that I realized what paper I was using and most likely why I was using it for this exhibit.

The day I learned that we lost Carol I went to one of those Wine and Paint workshops with a friend.  It's not my thing but the friend wanted to go so I went.  We were painting sunflowers and mine were nothing to write home about.  But the paper that had been covering the table had some wonderful paint on it and so did my palette.  I went to work spreading paint all over that paper and took it home.  The pots holding the Flowers for Carol are cut out of that paper.

I believe an angel was with me in my studio as I worked on these.  As Mary Oliver wrote: "Only if there are angels in your head will you ever possibly see one."   Do come and see the exhibit if you're in the area.  The rest of the tribe: Margaret Benefiel, Carol Cousineau, Bette DelVecchio, Barbara Fugazzotto, GG Havens, Sandy Meyer and Annie Morgan. 

New Work Delivered

 And I'd like to introduce you to the Cause and Affect Gallery in Fenton, Michigan.  It's a gallery with a mission and it's a mission worth doing.  This diptych is one of the newer paintings I delivered there recently.  Every quarter Cause and Affect gives a percentage of it's income to a different charity.

If you are in the Fenton area stop in and see my work and this very welcoming gallery. It's located at 126 Leroy Street. 1

It's mission: To promote creativity, learning and growth through a changing program of visually stimulating and thoughtful work and exhibitions, and to inspire passion and appreciation for arts and culture while engaging the public on social issues through the visual arts. 

The owner, Ann Anglim, started the gallery to fill a need. She wanted to find space where a friend who is differently abled could take a class in silversmithing. I like that term, differently abled. 

Ann says "The gallery is accessible to all and our classroom space is adaptable for people of differing needs. Inclusion of all is very important to us. The gallery name speaks to what we do. We take various causes and want to have an affect in the greater community. This is done by donating a portion of all of our sales to non-profits. The donations are done on a quarterly basis and we have a list of non-profits that we choose from."

In addition to a gallery hosting many different Michigan artists working in a variety of media Cause and Affect offers a number of workshops in its studio space which is accessible to those who are differently abled.

26 N. Leroy St., Fenton, MI126 N. Leroy St., Fenton, MI 

​

​

An Artist's Date And A Workshop

 This week, an artist's date.  This is something I bought tickets for in 2019 to do in 2020. The pandemic interfered. Finally on Thursday this week I got to see the VanGogh Immersion.  Fascinating!

When I bought the tickets Detroit was the only place it was showing in Michigan. Since then it has been scheduled to show in Grand Rapids.  I may go again.

Meanwhile, I'm taking a Karen Stamper workshop, Free Up Your Sketchbook and Grow.  The idea is to learn to use your sketchbook pages to eventually make paintings. I did use my sketchbook when I was doing poured watercolors.  For those I did a value study or the drawing before I started a painting.  I haven't used my sketchbook for abstracts so I decided this course may be a good one.

Karen uses a concertina sketcjbook and recommended it for us to use.  I had done on for our Florida trip and liked it so I bought one for this class.  This is the start, just making marks without thinking and using a variety of mark making tools. I can already see boats. They may or may not stay. I'm guessing at least one will survive.

Another lesson for the first week was to use a separate piece of paper to make marks on and then tear it up and use parts to make a collage and/or add parts to your sketchbook. I did both.  My collage is on the left and parts added to my sketchbook on the right. I see a couple sterns, may have to turn flip the left piece to horizontal.  

 

That's all I got done on this weeks.  Fortunately with internet workshops one can work at a time that works for them.  I'll have access to this workshop for a year but I want to get it done by the end of the 6 weeks it's live.  I'll post an update next week.

New Works In Process

 

It's been awhile since I started some new work.  These two are 8x8" and totally different from the way I normally start new work.  My normal starts on mixed media pieces are some collage papers and mark making, no color, just black and white or cream.  I decided I needed some color so -- these are the starts. 

I'm seeing flowers right off but I want to live with these for a bit before deciding on the next layer.

Meanwhile, the paper that I cover my table with when I'm working got replaced when I started these.  The old paper is too good to throw away but has a lot of interesting stuff on it. Spilled paint, testing a color, trying a stamp and over spraying are just a few of the marks.  I use it to make envelope journals.  On sheet makes two journals.  So far I've only finished one with this sheet.

Closed it can fit nicely in my purse or in a travel bag.  And below you see its contents.  A few pages for notes or sketching and some papers to use for collage or the pockets can hold ephemera that I pick up when traveling.  I got the inspiration from Robyn McClendon.  These also make nice little gifts for artist friends.

It's also a way to get rid of some of the many scraps of paper I have cluttering up my space.

The #100DayChallenge Continues

 And I have a mess but this is often what a piece of my art looks like part way through the process.

Stay tuned, this is no where near finished.  At this stage I did get some wonderful collage papers.

Some of this paper may end up in the finished pieces -- or the next piece.

The Bundles Unwrapped

 But first -- this is the second post I've started that way.  Why?  Well the images of papers that have been out in the elements all winter isn't nearly as nice to look at as this so first --

This painting reminds me of my favorite season.  I don't do watercolors like this anymore but that's a topic for another post.  For now, the bundles.

Last fall I wrapped some papers around two 8x8" and one 4x4"canvas panels, partially covered them with beeswax paper that I have for who knows what reason and set them out by my birdfeeder. I promptly forgot about them.  

In January I was filling my feeder. We had a thaw and the bundles were visible so I brought them in and unwrapped them.  This is what I found.

Wonderful collage fodder! That inspired me to wrap up more papers, we were still going to have more winter.  This time I put a note in my April calendar.  "Bring in the bundles that you put behind the garage, east side."  So when we got back from our trip south I brought them in. This time the paper was wrapped around 6x6" pieces, one a cradled gesso board and one canvas.  More wonderful collage fodder and two substrates already started.

The wood panel and papers

The canvas panel and papers

I've made a note on my September calendar -- "Do bundles and put them behind the garage."  This is as much fun as echo dying which is a summer project for getting interesting papers.  

And summer is coming -- eventually.