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ART

in the garden.  I have been working in our garden.. and look at the wonderful garden bed my sweet husband built for the backyard.  It is amazing!  I have planted carrots, okra and more.  Now just add water and lots of sweet sunshine.

ART

Marley monkey napping.  Now that is true art.

ART

in the studio.  Having FUN doing some new art using a new technique.  I am planning much much more.

ART

Keeping the funky in the garden.  Just always makes me smile.

ART

I was delighted to be commissioned to do the art for our local Strawberry Days t-shirts.

I will have my booth selling my own designs on kitchen towels, etc and lots of my original art.

Looking forward to the FUN.

ART

A local public bench in downtown painted by me and and idea has been launched for more

art benches.  Such a lovely bright and colorful way to art up the town.

I have been remiss in blogging but not remiss in my art.  Lots keeping me busy... and art is still a big part of my daily life.  LIFE IS GOOD.  

ta for now

Hello Spring!

We have had a wonderful spring, lots of snow, lots of rain, and FINALLY some nice

weather!  Dan and I loaded up the RV and Marley and did a 2 1/2 week road trip to Florida and back.

It was delightfully fun.  We avoided the freeways, and found ourselves traveling through small towns and seeing the most beautiful green scenery.  It was so relaxing.  We stopped for a week in Valdosta, Georgia

to visit with Dan's daughter, husband and our sweet grandkids.. which was so fun.  We got to see Jillian

horseback riding and Seamus doing his karate.  Then we headed to a beach with everyone and had a wonderful weekend camping near the ocean.  Then we hugged and kissed everyone goodbye and 

Dan and I and Marley headed south into the land of palm trees and retired people.. Florida.  We stopped

to visit some distant cousins of Dan and enjoyed cooler than normal weather and saw so many great things.

Manatees, stingrays, a real live armadillo ( I have seen a zillion dead ones on the highways) and we ate and drank and laughed... it was just the best time.  I loved spending quality time with Dan.. he is such a happy go lucky guy and and I am so grateful for that energy of happy that is his natural state.  It was what attracted me to him in the first place.  I am very blessed.  And Marley was such a great dog.. all 100 pounds of him.  

Thank goodness we have a big RV!  I now understand why most RV folk have little dogs.  But of course, we wouldn't trade Marley in for the world, but he is a big, adorable galoopa.   

But, dang it,  it was time to head west towards home and jobs and we almost made it  but then hit a snowstorm so we stayed the last night of our vacation in a small mtn town and then headed over a pass with an elevation of over 11,000 feet early the next morning arriving home on Sunday.  

We are back to our normal lives now, and enjoying some great spring weather.  After I cleaned the deck last weekend, Willie our cat, promptly claimed the swing as his favorite napping spot... as you can see.  We are now in the process of cleaning the yard and getting ready for summer.

The apple tree is in full bloom!

The cherry tree somehow managed to survive all the snow storms and we

have baby cherries and now keeping our fingers crossed that we don't get a frost.

No frost would mean we will have a bumper crop of cherries... always an iffy

thing with our mountain spring weather...but I am hopeful.  

I am working fast and furious getting orders out and doing a show this weekend at the 

Four Mile Bed and Breakfast.. the annual spring Whimsical Women of the West show Friday and Saturday.

And tomorrow I will be doing another art demo day at Confetti Designs.. a wonderful women's boutique here in town.  Here I am doing the art demo last month.  It was really fun.

They are doing a big window display today at Confetti with my art and when I go there tomorrow, I will take pictures of the window.  I am going to be art painting the outdoor wooden bench!  Taking a big tarp and lots of bright colors, and will have a blast painting outdoors.  I love doing this kind of thing... and that's a big step out of my comfort zone, because the actual "doing" has always been a very personal thing for me. 

Next month I will start doing two farmer markets a week.. whoopie.. there comes a busy summer.  And I am  starting two new exciting adventures..more about that another time....  It's never a dull moment around here!

artfully yours,

linda

Weekend art!

I worked a show in Denver for three days and part of the deal for the entry fee was I had to demo my art.

I grabbed a bag of  art supplies and during the lulls, I would work on some art.  It was a wonderful way

to pass the slow times.. and I thoroughly enjoyed working instead of sitting idly between customers.

I have decided this will be a tradition for me when I am doing these shows.  

It was a decent spring show though three days is a bit of a haul.  I met some really wonderful artists and

that is always such a bonus when I do these shows.  And of course, the customers are always so fun to chat with.

One woman in particular, caught my attention.  She was near my age I think, and nearly bald.  In the world of  what many would call beauty, she was not a likely candidate.  But she had such an aura of joy and beauty that she brought tears to my eyes.  She was with a group of her friends and they were laughing and chatting and I was so awe struck by this woman, I had to step out of my booth and approach her.  I told her she was so beautiful that she brought tears to my eyes and I hugged her.  She was surprised but smiled her glorious smile and told me I gave her goosebumps.  There passed between us a sense of heart touching.  I am continually struck at how shallow some people are.. there seems to be a great deal of presentation and little heart.  But here was a woman who had transcended surface beauty and let her inner beauty radiate from her.  

I was so grateful I had spoke to her.  It's one of the perks of getting older I suppose.  And it truly was a moment of encouragement that humans have the ability to be real.  And when they are REAL, their inner

light shines strong and true.

ta.

Finished the "topper" from the scrap arch shaped wood I found

in the woodshop's dumpster.  I bought the wooden feet at Lowe's

and attached them to the base just to give it a more finished look.

I attached the middle heart cut from painted linoleum as are the two red leaves using

 copper finishing nails.  The copper makes a nice contrast.  The two hearts on either side of 

the middle heart are cut from dictionary paper and painted with watercolor and then sealed of course.

I used my favorite pencil to draw the swirls and curls and a few leaves.  I had collaged some other

hearts but was not happy the way it was turning out, so I painted over them and started all over again.

Much happier with this combo. The top of the arch is about 2 inches thick and it's painted black and

white stripes as well.  I should also mention the black and white stripe on the front bottom is paper that

I collaged on.  When I need striped black and white paper, I make my own.  I simply take a sheet

of paper and use my Sharpie Magnum marker.. it's huge btw, and make the stripes.  Then I can

make copies to use in collage.  I like that the stripes are loser and not so precise.  I finished the 

piece by spraying it with my favorite clear acrylic spray that looks so glossy.  Love this stuff.

Will make more of these for the upcoming show in May 17th & 18th  at the

Whimsical Women of the West.

It's at the picturesque Four Mile Bed and Breakfast on the road to

Sunlight here in Glenwood Springs.  A wonderful group of women

with talent galore and I plan on having some different art this year besides my

usual kitchen towels etc.  

OKAY MONDAY
seriously need to get to work.

ta.

PILES of to-do-s

more piles.

WIP

these arches are wood scrapes that  I scored at the dumpster behind the cabinet woodshop.

(pause while I smile!)

What I love about these, is they make cool art pieces that I can sit on mantels, high dressers, etc.

in a very different but very cool shape!

I also picked up at Lowe's some fat screw in round feet like knobs that I can attach for a standing arch look.

I am thinking these will be fun to art up for the May show at Whimsical Wild Women of the West.  I would love to get more of these, so will plan on popping into the woodshop and ask if they have more, or if they don't, will they hold them for me.  Obviously they chuck these out..  and I am happy to rescue them.

Here's the first one I did.  I painted it turquoise and I added a heart from dictionary pages and then wings from various found objects.  I had the iron blackbirds with their nests and they immediately found a home around the new art piece.  

The other rescue was this rattan headboard I found in the alley ready for trash pickup.  I knew it would be too wide but figured I would try it anyway.  I couldn't even fit it in my Subaru Forester - too long!  So, thankfully, I found 3 bungees and a cell phone cord and lashed it on top of my rack on the car.  Perfect.

After I got it set up,  hey, I even liked that it was oversized!  The tapering design works for the wider expanse.  Perfect.  FREE.  Perfect.  If you notice the walls in the guest bedroom are gray.  At first, I wanted to paint them a different color.  But now I like the gray. It's a nice neutral and creates a comforting color for the room.  

So that's my ART day for Sunday.

ta.

LOOK!

I made the front page of our wonderful local newspaper.

I did an art demo day at my good friend's adorable boutique Confetti Designs yesterday.

FIRST time for me.. to do art in public.  I made up my mind prior to doing it..

just do it.  Don't worry about what any  one would think.. just DO IT.

It was easy and FUN!   And I think people enjoyed seeing me sitting in my corner arting away! 

This is really a biggie for me by the way.. I have always felt really uncomfortable doing art with someone watching.  Well, I guess I finally conquered that yesterday!!!!  YIPPEEEE!

Here's how I prepped for my demo...

 I copied a bunch of color prints from my art journals to have a stash to

collage with.  I also brought an old dictionary to pull pages out of.. and I brought my cheap watercolor set

(shown in the paper photo above) because I didn't want to lug my acrylics.   A small squeeze bottle

of mat medium and a few paper plates. and a travel blow dryer completed my stash. Oh.. I also brought two pair of scissors.. one regular and one crimping.. though of course, I tore a lot.  And a set of alphabet stamps with black stamp pad and a four sided design stamp too plus a roll of paper towels and a bottle of water.  

  What I discovered while I was working yesterday, is after coloring the dictionary paper with watercolor, blowing it dry quickly with a little travel blow dryer, and then a light coat of mat medium over the watercolor which  then quickly sealed the paint so I could continue working without smearing the watercolor.  It worked perfectly!  Collaging then using my favorite pencil to outline and texture elements.. was really a fun process.  I liked using my own art  to pull images from rather than a magazine.. making my collage a lot more personal!  I was collaging on scrap cuts of wood from my neighborhood's cabinet shop (free) that I had prepainted for these demos.  By the late afternoon, I had done 3 of these and the last one I  had to resort to using cardboard with dictionary paper collaged on to create one more design.  

This morning I scanned one of the collages from yesterday and in photoshop did a bit more designing and added the words for a new design for Lunar Designs!  

To finish off the original art boards, I spray paint them with Krylon's Triple-Thick Crystal Clear Glaze.  

I spray it on thick and it gives it a really deep glaze.. a "bright, glass-like coating" as the can says.

Plus it dries in minutes.. which I love.  

And cripes.

It's snowing today.. off and on.

Just a typical SPRING thing here in our mountains.

Which makes me bury into my work and just avoid looking outdoors!

brrrrr...

ta for now!

Just finished this fun bird this morning...

I am blooming with COLOR!

A few tweaks to my garden angel..

She needed a skirt bursting with ladeda.

Adore the colors.. the "I can't keep from smiling"

kind of art 

that makes my morning studio time shine!

Decided to add a skirt on her as well..

It ties the four pieces together for the trunk show

tomorrow @ Confetti Designs here in Glenwood.

Doing art makes me smile and raises my spirit.

That and a  few cups of coffee..

Here's the sunrise that greeted us this morning when I 

let Marley out to get the morning paper.

WoW!

It's gorgeous, isn't it?

ta