Back to Work!!!!

Well, time to take a breath!

The Fine Art Show is up, the reception was yesterday and very nice. Lots of visitors to see all the work. And my fans showed up! I was proud I had 4 paintings accepted to the show. My first show so it was very exciting. It will be up for several weeks.

And my daughter and I took a quick trip up to Port Townsend, Washington to visit my sister and her husband. . . . The trip was sooo quick I didn't even pack my paints! It was hard to go to such a paintable place for any length of time with out even one tube of paint!

I enjoyed seeing Diane Ainsworth's paintings the the T's Restaurant and the Upstage! Love her work!

And now, I have to catch up on some housework and washing, then to the easel! I have a few tiny ones to do and others pulling at me. Tomorrow, Plein Air! Just have to decide where!

Jurying for the Fine Art Show

This morning all 225 art pieces were on display to be juried. The judge looked around and studied all the oil/acrylics, Watercolor, mixed media, ceramics and sculpture. Then she started eliminating. As each piece was eliminated it was recorded and the piece was removed. Many times she explained why a piece was eliminated. After many times around the gallery and many rounds of elimination we were finally left with 140 pieces.

Then the judge had to choose the Best of Show, the gold, silver, and honorable mentions of each of the categories.

It was all very interesting. All the work was so good.

I ended up with 4 still in the show so I was very happy. Hope to take some pictures of the prize winners when I come back from Port Townsend. The Reception for the Fremont Art Association Fine Art Show is on Sunday, Sept. 27, 1-4 at 37659 Niles Blvd., Fremont, CA 94536

Please join us!

A Slice of America!

This is exciting!

My eldest daughter (she is going to just love THAT term!) and I have talked about taking a road trip for a couple of years now. Things kept coming up that put it off. We are back on again, we will see if it happens this time!

The initial plan is to go up the coast from the San Francisco Bay Area up to Port Townsend, WA (beautiful little Victorian town and my sister lives there). From there head west by way of Yellowstone to Sioux City, Iowa (we have lots of relatives in that area). Then head back by way of the Grand Canyon to home. Drawn on the map it looks like a slice of American pie, thus the name! We are planing taking time and seeing lots of things and have lots of adventures, as well as, painting lots of pictures on the way!

We will start this American Pie trip in June 2010 and we are having lots of fun planning it. We may be quite a sight with a little caravan going down the road. At this point, we will have one car, one van, 3 adults, 3 children. But we are starting to gather others for parts of the trip. Can't wait.

I plan to journal our travels on this blog so you will be hearing more as time goes on!

The first night we know for sure at this point we will be camping at Humbolt State Park along the Avenue of the Giants. The Giants are Coastal Redwoods creating a beautiful forest along the California coast all the way up to Oregon.

Update on the Lake Elizabeth Paint Out

I sold my painting I did at the paint out. Patty was visiting with me as I was painting just about the time the sun popped out from the clouds and kissed the hills! She was as thrilled with the view as I was and bought the painting to remember the moment.

Thank you, Patty!

We are so lucky to live in a world with such beauty!

Recieving for Fine Art Show

Today I helped at the fix-it table at the Fine Art Show Recieving. Not much to fix though. Sheryl was worried a week ago that there would not be many entrants. Well, did everyone fool her! Over 220 pieces of beautiful art were recieved today! We have them hanging from the ceiling to the floor (well, almost). There can only be 140 pieces accepted to hang for the show, so the "Show - down" is tomorrow.

The Juror is Claire Verbiest, signature member of several national art societies, watercolor and pastel class instructor, workshop instructor in US, Canada, Europe, and art show juror for 10+ years, has art work in “Splash 4”, The Best of Watercolor Painting, The Best of Portrait Painting, and The Best of Pastel. She will be making the decisions on who stays up and who goes home.... all the art is beautiful so I would hate to be the juror. It will be interesting how she makes the decisions.

I am not hopeful of keeping anything in the show, but who knows.

The whole thing is a big job and my kudos go to Sheryl and Valery for all their work!

And it was Wicked!

We did it! All 30 women attended the wonderful play Wicked. It is the story behind the relationship between the Good Witch Glenna and the Wicked Witch of the West of Wizard of OZ fame. There is always another side of the story.

We had a great day!

Off to "Wicked" today!

Can you imagine, 30 women coordinated enough to get on the BART at the same time, same train and head up to San Francisco to enjoy a wonderful play!

We are going to DO IT!

Painting Day!

I'm heading for Don Edward Wildlife Refuge along the San Francisco Bay. Beautiful wetland and a few hills that where once billions of years ago volcanos and have left red rock in rounded hills along the bay. The Penninsula Outdoor Painters are meeting there for their Tuesday paint out. Hope to meet them in person and hope they enjoy the scenes!

Next event for me - the Fremont Art Association Fine Art Show. This will be my first so I am like a kindergardener, worried I may miss a step in the system. I've paid my entrance fee. Sunday, I will take down the 2 paintings I have hanging in the gallery now, Monday, I take in my paintings. Tuesday, they are juried, those that don't make it I take home...and if any make it they are hung.

Then, Wednesday, Jen and I fly off to Port Townsend for the wonderful people and views there.
And back Saturday for Sunday's Fine Art Show Reception! Hope to see you there!

143 to go!

Shakespeare Festival

Shakespeare Festival at Ardenwood

The queen's court gave quite a show of a procession. The court dress was quite interesting. A Mistress Seamstress gave quite a lecture on the fashion of the 1500's. Very informative.

(below) Donna's latest Guide Dog for the Blind loves Flute, the wolf. She kept licking his nose and snuggling in his arm. She had found a true compatriot.

Shakespeare Festival

The Shakespeare Festival was loads of fun today. They all seemed to love Ardenwood and are looking forward to coming back next year. The public certainly seemed to love it.

And the Jousters actually survived!

Lake Elizabeth Paint-Out '09

Wow, I'm exhausted!!!

Last night we had some really weird weather, leftovers from a hurricane from off Mexico. Lightening, thunder, and a bit of rain! We met at the lake regiistration room at 8am for registration starting at 9am. Set up. After registration I drove over to the dog park area at the park. I got a really close parking spot but had to walk in a couple long blocks to get the view I wanted. Nice and out of the way!

The clouds were beautiful! A touch of sprinkles here and there and then the sun would peak through. Mission Peak was mostly in the clouds for a long time. Then the sun broke through and hit the hills!

And this is the results of my efforts.

And then when it was time to get back to the pavillion,..... Thank you, Spencer! He stayed with my stuff while I walked all the way back to the car with just my painting since I forgot my wetbox! And then I had to walk all the way back to get my stuff. And then, Thank you, again, Spencer!!! because he asked a ranger driving by if she would take me and stuff back to the car in her truck.

That was great because when I drove back to the pavillion for the art display there were NO parking spaces except at the teen center, a LONG way away! So then before all was over I had walked from the pavillion to the car and back 5 times. Thank you, Patty and her doggie, for helping me carry things! Well, I got my exercise in!

And, by the way, out of all the beautiful paintings turned in, I was very honored and surprised to win 2nd place.
Thank you to all those that voted for my painting. It really means a lot to be so honored!!

Thank you all!

And tomorrow is the Shakespeare festival!! Need to go to bed early tonight!

144 to go

The water bottle. Kind of boring but I feel I know a lot more about that bottle than I did before painting it!

Today there is lots of stuff going on. Among other things I have to gather up all the stuff I need to take to the paint out tomorrow. Right now I am wishing I didn't commit to anything for tomorrow. Oh, well. All will work out.

145 to go!

Today's 5x7 painting is "apple". I have been picking, washing and peel/core/slicing them. A lot went to the freezer for the grandkids, the rest I am going to dehydrate.

So far so good with my "150 painting before 2011" project. I'm going to have to go out and get more panels. And again, I need to take a class on photographing my paintings. The shiny oil surfaces create a glare, if I don't use the flash, less glare but washed out.

146 to go!

Bet you didn't guess this was going to be next!

This is a very old light bulb. We don't know what it goes to but we like it.

147 to go!

Did you guess correctly?!

Railroad Faire at Ardenwood

The Railroad Faire was great today. One more day left!

I arrived around 11 am and walked from the staff parking to the front gate. The Monarch butterflies are starting to fly in for the winter and there were quite a few flitting about. At the front gate there was a long line to ride the trains. I hate to say but I used my influence and cut to the front. The ride was great, it had been a long time since I had taken it. I walked back to the farmyard from Deer Park.

Lots of people and wonderful weather! Tons of families with 3 and 4 year olds in particular. At that age children seem to really bond to trains. I was rather nostalgic about when the grandkids were really into trains, especially Thomas the tank engine!

After enjoying all the model trains in the farmyard I headed off to the house for tours. And did we have tours! 200 people in 3 hours! It was rather exhausting! But everyone really enjoyed the house to top off their day.

AND--I did do my painting for today but no charge in my camera battery so photo will have to be put up tomorrow...... till then guess what the picture is of : )

148 to go!

Sorry, I was going to paint the banana, but it looked so yummy there was only the peel to paint!

Tired. Spent the day at helping harvest honey. Our 2 hives brought in 3 gallons of honey. Yum,Yum! Good little bees!

Don't forget to enter the Fine Art Show! Deadline coming 9/14!

Check out Fremont Art Association's web site at: http://www.fremontartassociation.org/

If you can't enter, come see!

A Painting a Day? No way! Maybe a week...

Some artists have posted "a painting a day" unfortunately I am too truthful with myself. I know I can not do a committment to one a day so maybe I will choose a number and work for that. How about 150 small 5x7 by the Dec 31, 2010! It's rather scary actually, but putting it out thereon my blog that should help me get it done! Ok, I did the first one today. The Pear is #1!

Paintings Update

How Wonderful It Is!

Painting that is!!!!

I finally got a chance to get out and paint. Besides being so busy, it has been hot! And somewhat humid! Now, those of us, well, SOME of us in the San Francisco Bay area are just not used to anything over 82 and have a tendency to start wilting at anything over that. I know we are wimps, but what can I say. Then add humidity on top of that.... it's a sad sight! A lot of whine with the cheese. So, we were big and brave (and desparate) to go out and paint on a day that had a high of 98!!

We painted at Coyote Hills and it certainly is lovely. The colors are so great right now so can't wait for our next painting day!

The painting above is from the painting I painted at Coyote Hills in May at the Paint Out in the downpour! This one was a lot easier to paint than it's study. It makes a big difference when the canvas is dry and the paints aren't drowning in rainwater!