I am so blessed!

I am so excited about being in my new home. The light is good for painting, and especially for this "solar generated" body of mine. I feel so much better here than I have felt for a year in that dark and dreary house we just moved out of. My energy is high and creative and I can't wait to see what wonders I can achieve now.

Isn't it funny how good it feels when all your parts come together? I feel so blessed to be in this time and place and to have the opportunity and ability to be a creator. Sometimes I forget that aspect of myself. Yet, the creator part of me is so vital to my well being. Today, an old friend sent me a copy of a poem I wrote about 10 years ago, while I was studying hand analysis with her. It gave me goosebumps to read it again. I thought I'd share it with you today.

Mysteries of the Hand Revealed

When first we met

I knew not yet

The glories of your soul.

Until I peered into your hands

And Stories did unfold.

The lines and marks and fingerprints

so cleverly revealed,

The secrets of your inner life

Long zealously concealed.

The purpose that you came to live

The gifts that you so freely give,

The fears that tend to hold you back

And cause you to feel loss or lack.

The way you open up your heart,

The way you live your life...an art.

All part of your dear soul's great plan.

All neatly written in your hand.

Back in the saddle again!

I'm baaaaaack! Since I last posted to this blog, I have packed, moved, unpacked and gone on vacation. It has been crazy around here. I came back from vacation with a leg that has been complaining from lifting, hefting, moving, spending hours and hours in the car, etc. For several days I couldn't walk at all. Ugh! Not fun. Today, I feel almost human. Yeah!

My vacation was to Cloudcroft, NM, where it was cool, gorgeous and rained every afternoon. Two of my art buddies and I drove out and spent 3 days with another art friend who was generous enough to share her beautiful summer home with us so that we could all paint together. It was glorious. What a great way to recover from moving! I took lots of photos to paint from. We went to the Peter Hurd Gallery and museum in San Patricio, NM, in the beautiful Hondo Valley. What an inspirational treat that was. Peter's son Michael, is the resident artist now, but the gallery is filled with family treasures. Michael's mother was Henrette Wyath. So, there are many Wyath paintings (N. C., Andrew, Jamie and Henrette) throughout the gallery. What a talented family. Michael certainly can hold his own with his famous relatives. I came away from there, totally inspired, and surprisingly encouraged about my own paintings.

I will make a concerted effort to post more frequently, now that the moving and travel are over. Painting is the prime objective for the next few weeks. I have a show to prepare for at Austin ArtSpace Gallery and I intend to enter several juried shows around the state. Wish me luck.

Time Flies

I haven't posted in a while. I've been busy with preparations for a couple of trips. Last week I attended my Granddaughter's Graduation party in Garland. It was a wonderful few days spent with family and friends. My granddaughters and daughters took me shopping for a belated Mother's Day gift. I found some really cute things to wear to my class reunion, which is this coming weekend. Now, I am packing and planning for the trip to Canyon (in the panhandle of Texas, near Amarillo) and all the festivities around the reunion. I can't imagine that 50 years have passed since I graduated from high school. They say that time flies when you are having fun. Well, I must have been having a lot of fun, because this 50 years just flew by!

The Bass Concert Hall show is up and looks fantastic. I've had quite a few friends who have emailed their congrats after attending "A Chorus Line" and seeing my work on display there. Check out www.austinartspacegallery.com to see pictures of our exhibit.

I'll have pictures to post when I get home. Don't expect a post until next week.

California Gold

This is one of my paintings that is now hanging at the Bass Concert Hall. These sunflowers were in Arroyo Grande, Ca., and I have painted them several times. This painting is in acrylic, 30 x 30. You may recall that I am very new to acrylics, so I'm pretty pleased with my results. I can hardly wait to paint another big canvas!

Left behind

Well, a bunch of my art buddies took off this morning for a week of painting together at Port Aransas, on the Gulf Coast. I went with them last year and had a blast. So, I'm bummed to be left behind. An opening came up at the last minute, but I didn't think I was going to get to go, so I booked other stuff to do. I'll stay home and clean my house and studio, paint as much as possible and browse some more cool art blogs.

I talked to Patricia Bowler, who will become the President of Southwestern Watercolor Society in June, while we were receiving and hanging the Waterloo Watercolor Group's Spring Show, yesterday. She has inspired me to send in my dues to SWS, and maybe TWS. It is time that I started upping the anti in my art world. For 35 years I have wished I was good enough to have the SWS after my signature on my paintings. Patricia reminded me that you will never win the Lotto if you never buy a ticket, and you will never be a signature member of SWS if you never join the club. Enough said. I'm in.

I want to congratulate the WWG members on an excellent show, once again. It is a beautiful representation of the talent we have in our organization. I am reminded what a privilege it is to belong to such a marvelously talented and hard working group of artists. Congratulations on your gorgeous work everybody.

The Austin ArtSpace Gallery show was hung today at the Bass Concert Hall, on the UT campus. I can hardly wait to see it! I'll take pictures and post them here soon. It feels like a really big deal for me to have paintings hanging in the Bass. Maybe someday it will be old hat, but today it feels very exciting. Yeah!!

Have a great week. I'll be back . . . . .

Done at last

Well, I finally finished my 3 paintings for the Bass Concert Hall show. Just in the nick of time. I'll post pictures of them after they have been scanned. I took photos, but they didn't turn out very well, so I'm not going to waste time posting them here.

What a relief to have this accomplished! I had no idea that it would take me so long to paint a 30" x 30" painting. I hadn't even painted a full sheet watercolor for a long time. (22" x 30") Now, here is my dilemma; I still see myself as a watercolorist, but now I love how big & bold these paintings in acrylics are. What to do? Will my watercolors become bolder from my exposure to the acrylics? I guess we will see when these new paintings are hanging in the gallery (or the Bass) and I can get feedback from the public. Time will tell.

MS150 Weekend

This was my birthday weekend, as well as the MS150 Bike Ride from Houston to Austin. My daughter and her family came over for both events. We played games, went to a movie, ate lots of wonderful Austin food and then met our friends Cheryl and Andy Neil (who rode in the MS150) at the Finish Line. This is such an awesome annual event. The riders all raise money from their sponsors , friends and business associates to help eradicate Multiple Schlerosis. There were 13,000 riders this year. All shapes and sizes, ages and ethnic backgrounds riding 150 miles to make a difference for people with MS. I especially appreciate their efforts because my oldest daughter happens to have MS. This year the weather was cool and rainy, so our friends said it was an easy ride . . . . compared to some of their previous rides over the last 8 years. It is a completely awesome experience to see all these riders passing the Finish Line, most of them grinning from ear to ear at seeing the huge crowds waiting to greet them. My thanks goes out to every single one of them, whether they made it all the way or not.

Whew, what a week!

I have hardly had time to do anything but paint all last week and the weekend. I'm still working on my 3-30" x 30" acrylics on canvas for the Bass Concert Hall. The acrylics are pretty new to me, so this has been a real challenge. However, having the challenge has forced me to "put up or shut up", and I have learned to find my own way with the medium. If I hadn't pushed myself to do it, I would probably never worked with the acrylics enough to get proficient with them. I will post my results as soon as I have all 3 of them finished. I'm getting very close to completion, so watch for them here.

Okay, I will admit it here and now. I am pretty excited about these three pieces. They make my watercolors feel a bit quiet and safe. I'm certainly not ready to quit the watercolors. They have been my medium for over 30 years. It does feel good to have more tools in my box. I'm thinking this is going to break me out of some mighty deep ruts. And, that is a good thing.

Windows on the World

Now, I will begin to post some of my paintings. I chose this one to be first because I named my blog, "Nikki Atkinson's Windows on the World of Art And Life". This painting is from my trip to Italy with Judi Betts, 3 years ago. It was just one of the gorgeous windows at our residence, a 500+ yr. old farm house named Selva, outside of Lucca. The flowers there were incredible. What a wonderful trip. I'll never forget it.

I'd like to do this again, larger. I would probably darken the inside of the room to make the flowers pop some more.

Have a great day!

Austin Art Gals Night Out

Last night was the first of what we hope will be a regular networking event. Eight of us (Art Gals) met at Iron Cactus for happy hour. It was really fun to meet, greet and get to know several artists in Austin, that I didn't know before. Some of these ladies are already members of Creative Arts Society, which I just joined this week. Some were also members of Pastel Society Austin. Though we paint in different mediums, we have many issues in common and it was great to share our successes and concerns. Well worth the time it took to go. Marilyn Rea Nasky was the instigator of the event. Kudos to Marilyn! I am already looking forward to the next one.

Sign of the times: At one point, I pulled out my IPhone to show someone my paintings. Within a few minutes almost everybody had their smart phone out showing their own works. Each phone got passed around and around. It was hilarious! The technology of 2010 is AWESOME.

My studio @ Austin Art Space Gallery

These are the first pictures of my studio since Brad and I rehung everything. (Austin ArtSpace Gallery is a co-op gallery in Austin, Texas. We have 10 resident artists and have been open since Nov., 2008.) Since my blog is so new, I plan to gradually show you many of these paintings, along with new work, or works in progress. I hope you will come back many times to see them.

I spent considerable time this week, perusing the blogs of other artists, to learn what I want for my own. The up-shot of that time spent is that I am so inspired by the talents of so many of the bloggers I visited, and the sense of community I found among them, I now aspire to achieve new heights in my own art. I could hardly sleep for the excitement it instilled in me. What an amazing resource this blogosphere is! I will continue my blog searches and add many of these awesome artists to my list, here.

Enjoy your Sunday.

Spring Break & SXSW

My family is here visiting from Katy, Tx., for Spring Break. I'm looking forward to taking them by Austin ArtSpace Gallery to see my studio. They haven't been there in a while and I'm excited for them to see how we got it re-hung.

We plan to see "The Bounty Hunter" and eat some good food . . . . . if we can ever decide which of everybody's favorite restaurants to go to. Decision making in this group is a joke. Too many followers and not enough leaders. Or, maybe it is just that there are too many good places in Austin to eat at.

Jamie (my techy grandson) is here so maybe I will learn a lot about posting and getting my web site updated.

A New Day

Well, enough of counting the days of this post. I've proved to myself that I can post something almost every day. . . . .except when my Internet service is screwy and I can't get online at all. Suddenly, it works, so here I am again. I took the weekend off, spent time with friends, ate good food, read a book, spent more time with friends and worked around the house. No art this weekend, other than the lovely paintings I got to see at East Side Cafe and at Austin ArtSpace Gallery. I'm starting the new week feeling inspired and excited about my own work and all the possibilities for future paintings. It is going to be a great week. See you later,

Day 7

Today turned out to be glorious after all. Eight ladies and one intrepid gentleman, out for a day of painting in Gruene, Texas. I set up next to the Gruene River (a favorite for river rafting) and spent the morning listening to the roar of the rapids and the birds singing. We've had lots of rain lately, after several years of drought, so this is the most water I've seen in the river for a long time. I've painted here when there was only a trickle, so this was exciting and encouraging to see. After painting for several hours, we all gathered at The Gristmill for a late lunch before heading back to Austin. What a great day.

Day 6

Yeah, I did get to paint a little bit today. Tomorrow I'm going to go with a bunch of painters (mostly watercolorists) to Gruene, Tx., for a paint out. It is a cute little town, just outside New Braunfels, full of quaint shops and restaurants. If we don't get rained on, it should be fun with lots of places to paint. I hope the sun shines!

Check you later. . . . .

Day 5

Today was all about searching through my photos for new compositions. I was bummed to find that the boxes of photo reference material, stored away for who knows how long, has begun to lose color. Aaaawwwww, pooh. Oh well, I've decided to see if I can challenge myself to pick a random photo from a box, choose a color pallette (warm or cool), maybe play with some of the gorgeous new Daniel Smith watercolors I got recently, and find something in the poor, sad, faded photo that I can get excited about. This is going to be the material for my "almost daily" paintings. Wish me luck.

Did you enjoy the Academy Awards last night? I managed to stay awake through the whole thing! I was so proud for Sandra Bullock. Yeah!

See you tomorrow. (Oh, you may have noticed that there are still no pictures here.) Soon.

Day 4

I admit it. I didn't wet a brush today. Cloudy, rainy, ooky weather. So, I went to the movies with my son after a great burger at Mooney's. Now it is time for the Academy Awards, so I'm hunkered down with my dog, Zoe, my blankey and a drink, ready to enjoy the evening. Tomorrow is another day. Make it a great one.

Day 3

Wow, three days in a row. I'm on a roll! High 5's for me.

Brad and I finished re-hanging my studio last night and it looks AWESOME. I'll take some pictures today while I'm working at the gallery and see if I can get them posted on here. My techy friend, Dianne, has offered to show me how to post images today.

I started this quest when I clicked "Next Blog" while viewing a friend's current post on her blog. It took me to Diane Hoeptner's blog and I was hooked at first sight. She has a long list of fellow bloggers, which I have since checked out. I'm intrigued by all the Daily Painters and their small works. What a great way to start your day. I can't promise that I will do a painting a day, but I am going to challenge myself to do several a week. Watercolor, to begin with, and we'll see where it goes from there.

Have a great weekend.

Day 2

Well, I got a lot accomplished yesterday. It all started with getting this blog up and running. Yeah! I spent the afternoon working on my San Miguel de Allende street scene. Last night my son, Brad, and I went to Austin ArtSpace Gallery to re-hang my studio. We were there until midnight, took everything off the walls and started from scratch. Two walls are done and more to finish tonight. It is looking great. If you live in Austin, come by and check it out. There will be a reception this Saturday evening, for Donna Crosby. Thursday, March 11, we will be open until 8:00 pm to celebrate the 25th birthday of Northcross Center. Big party on the parking lot. Lots of food, fun and people. Come join us.

I tried to attach a picture yesterday and failed dismally. Today, I am going to get this figured out so I can post pictures easily and regularly. Wish me luck. I'm not the most technically proficient puppy out there.

Day 1

I've been planning this blog for months. Literally, months. I've dreamed about it, talked about it, worried about it, journaled about it . . . . always trying to figure out what I have to offer that anyone would really want to read. My life is at a place where I can do just about anything I want to, within reason. Painting is my drug of choice, so this blog will probably be mostly about my art, my art friends, my art travels, etc. Paintings will be attached, along with links to many of the art blogs I love to read. I hope you will join me.

For now, this is enough for me to say that I finally have a blog. I can now go paint with my friends and think about what I will post on Day 2. See you then.