Getting Ready

The end of the school year consumes all my time and energy. Yearbook production and distribution, art show to prepare for (student show)the grading of final exams and many projects. Then entering grades, clean the entire classroom as if no art teacher ever was there...combined with being a proctor for regents exams.

I have been horridly sick too, but cured miraculously with allergy meds which under normal situations, I would not put in my body. But a girl has got to breathe.

I have barely been in the studio, but with the advent of summer vacation, I will be making it a steady part of my daily routine. I am taking off as soon as they let me out the door on Thursday and heading with artists Pamela Hastings and Loel Barr to beautiful Nova Scotia, to meet up with friends of Pams.

My plan is to have fun on the road trip, read, think, write, and bring along my sketchbook and watercolors. I can't bring my other art supplies with me as we are not taking a big car, but I am sure I can get a lot of sketching done.

I was in Barnes and Noble the other day on my lunch hour, and passed by the bargain isle. I found a few things for gifts, and picked up the book pictured here "Create Your Own Artist's Journal" by Erin O'Toole. I don't know what the original price was, but I got it for a mere 3.50. I will peruse it, and pass it on.

Now I have been sketching in journals for years, and studied the journals of great artists, but there is always something to be learned by other artists. The author uses watercolors, pencil and ink pens, which is what I carry w/me on my adventures. She sketches the landscape, the neighborhood, hands, flowers, weather, at the zoo, at parks, etc. and the book is illustrated nicely with visuals and text. A BARGAIN for the price, and it will provide me with a nice jump-start for the trip.

Off to do a few things in between storms here. I have taken this Sunday slowly, starting with a lovely brunch at 11, complete with Chamboard French Toast and Mimosas. Oh, and of course a vase of flowers to decorate the table from my garden. I may have been refused entrance to the Martha Stewart school of Living, but damn, I can carry my own weight well enough.

patti

For Sale on EBAY

Two fabulous auction items that I listed on Ebay tonight. My seller ID is Catskillpaper of course!

One is a 1901 Burpee seed catalog, in nice cond for its over 100 years of age. FABU for the paper artist or collector!

The other is a scrapbook of about 90 pp and 180 steel plate engraved illustrations from books, magazines, perhaps newspapers. All from the Victorian era, pre 1900 or so. GREAT for the paper artist/collector.

Unusual, spectacular, one of those "needful things".

Patti

I'm IN!!!

First of all, I am in a horrid mood. Combine hormones with my studio flooding after a heavy thunderstorm for the upteenth time in the past 4 years, and I am fried.

I will don my heavy metal, and get ready to face the engineers and highway department of my city, which can't seem to do anything right. I am one house over from a major road that has drainage problems that dumps the run off water right into the back of my studio, wrecking havoc on my life each time we get a heavy rain fall.

But stress and complaints aside, I got into the Fall for Art show, put on by the Jewish Federation in my city! It is a one night affair, hosted at a local country club, where people come with the sole intent to buy art. How novel is that? The sweet part about it is that the 40% commission from the artists work is donated to a cause.........it is a socially conscious way to be seen and sell art, while giving back at the same time. I am excited and hope to be able to spend a good part of my spring and summer getting ready for the show. (which means making art and framing what I have already done!)

My submissions were a combo of landscape paintings and my mixed media art. The store that I sell to LOVES my quirky mixed media pieces....I am not sure WHAT to concentrate on for this show.

It is always that struggle for me and for many artists. Do you do what you love, or do you do what you know will sell?! People LOVE landscapes, especially those of the area in which they live. Yet I also want to be true to myself and show my mixed media work...that is very different than the landscapes.

I will probably do both, and cull from that. Since I do both, I am still being true to myself.

Off to finish watching a movie and read some. It has been a trying day.

Patti

Detroit Photos

I am on another trip down to see my daughter who is now in Kentucky. Since I am away from my studio, my camera comes out so that I don't suffer withdrawal.

The photos here were taken in a tunnel in the Detroit airport. It was the first time I have passed through this airport, and though large, I did not have to take any buses or trains to get from one part to the other. Plus, I got smart and purchased a rolling laptop/carry-on case, which really helps when getting from one place to another without killing my back or shoulder.

I used the dodge tools in a few places in two of the photographs, but most of the photo was taken with available light, no flash, on a moving walkway, and left as is directly from the camera.

It was the coolest thing, with the changing colors and abstract New Age genre music!

Patti

Still Life Workshop

Head on over to my Eat Man Drink Water blog on my latest painting adventure.

We shall see how this workshop pans out when all is said and done this afternoon.

Patti O Painter.

Fabulous Prints for Sale

This week on eBay I have the most wonderful antique 1800's prints for sale. I don't know why no one is "watching" them (save for the horse race print)or bidding, but these are all worth framing and for next to nothing you could have these antique prints gracing the walls in your house, OR to use in some fabulous artwork.

I am trying to thin out my collection. I save these prints, and it isn't like I will ever get to use all that I have in my home OR in my artwork, so I am putting them out into the world. I have quite the collection!

If they don't sell and you are interested in them, make me an offer, lol. I will combine shipping, like I always do!

patti

Catch Up

Wow, I can't believe it has been this long since I have written.

My life has been taken up with work at school, then work at home. In between all of that is my looking for a car, trying to fix my computer and keep my house in some semblance of cleanliness. I have failed at that.

Spring time is packed with stress for me. The publication of a yearbook for my students , grades, trying to get seniors to graduate, orders, shows, the yard which needs so much work after the long winter.

Yet I feel alive, and rejoice in being able to walk instead of going to the gym. I observe the changing landscape, and the cycle of life.

And this spring I am buying a new car...a hardtop convertible, which when the weather is just right, I can put down and soak up the sunlight, the smell of green, feel the wind on my body.

I do what I can do, and try not to obsess about what I can't. I am awaiting the results of the jury for a show, and keep making art. That is all that counts for me.

Tonight's print is going up on ebay..my ID Catskillpaper of course.

I came across a pair of Mallards on my walk along the rail trial. This print is from the late 1800's and is a chromolithograph. Fabulous.

To spring. Patti