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.