Kanuga: the excitement builds

Pat McGraw and I are thrilled to be heading to the Kanuga Watermedia Workshops (near Hendersonville, North Carolina) for a second year in a row.  What a great time we had last year! This year we are again in two different classes, suiting our respective styles and preferences.  My instructor is Judy Morris (click here to check out her website), and Pat is signed up with Carrie Burns Brown (and click HERE to see a Youtube video about her workshops).

Each of our homes, this week, is chaos as we plan and pack for a Week at Art Camp!  Art supplies, clothes for any and all kinds of weather, maps, cameras, our netbooks (can't go COMPLETELY off line). 

Tomorrow, Thursday,  I will borrow my sister's van so we will have LOTS of space this year, and we will leave on Friday, giving us two days to get there (the easy lazy way).  I expect I'll be posting more about the event as the weekend and the week goes by: maybe I'll even be able to post pictures. Fingers crossed!

Hit or miss, but more misses

Not my best spring for results.

First, I received my  notification from the Michigan Water Color Society (MWCS), regarding my entry for the 65th annual exhibit. It indicated that juror George James "NS"'d  (that's Not Selected)  BOTH of  the paintings that I submitted.  I'm disappointed, of course.  But truly not that surprised.  I had attended the projection of the nearly 300 entries last month.  Knowing that the juror would need to select perhaps 80 paintings from these, I did my own mental selection process.  It was pretty easy to see that there were many many (many!) more than 80 fine paintings present, good enough to deserve being included.  So it depended on what the juror was looking for.  I guess, not my style! But perhaps we will all learn more about his selection process at the lecture.    More information about the exhibit, the reception, the lecture, and the juror can be found here.

Second, an even LESS surprising failure.  I took a big breath and entered, wait for it, the competition for Northlight Book's Splash 14 book.  The painting I entered, Escape, is one of my favorites, and has been exhibited several places.   I knew it was an EXTREMELY long shot, but somehow felt like trying anyway.   The list of accepted artists was posted recently, and, no, no "Harra" in the "H"'s

Before and After - an artist's studio

Well, we are only midway through a complete basement makeover, but I'm liking it pretty well right at the moment.  I've 'scored' the small room on the southeast of the basement, which gets me daylight - actual sunshine sometimes -  and also allows me to keep my clutter all to myself. 

Here's a before picture, of my dark northeast corner of the basement.   This is often how I work: I drop half finished works from the tall stool to the floor, so I can get a  look from a bit further away.  Then I sit on the floor and pull out my bin of  rejected paintings.  My paintings often morph into collages as I throw the colors and patterns around  and they overlap, accidentally or on purpose.  Obviously I was having either  a wonderful or an awful day here. Probably a wonderful one!

 

 And, here's the current AFTER picture. Obviously not too much work getting done here yet, but just wait, it'll look like BEFORE pretty soon. 

Another opportunity to show my paintings

I'm pleased  that I'll be showing 17 of my paintings at the Martha Maxwell Gallery, beginning in early January.  The gallery is located in the Birmingham Community House, and features a local artist every month.  I'll admit that nearly all the paintings that I'll be showing were in last fall's Florabundance exhibit: just a couple of additions - but this makes it very easy to put together!  The painting below, "What's the Point", is included - it's watercolor, collage, and some gouache.

When Interests Merge - PAAW, Cats, and Watercolor

What lovely serendipity when one's various interests can merge into one.  

For the past year, Michael and I have been volunteering with an animal adoption organization, PAAW  (Pet Adoption Alternative of Warren).  Primarily we are 'cat socializers', spending a couple of hours a week at the local PETCO store, handling and loving the 6 - 12 cats that stay there waiting to be adopted.  Because there are Many Other cats also waiting, they must live in foster homes until there's room at the store.  Then the cats experience the stress of moving from a home to a store environment, and they need plenty of attention to get over it.

You can already guess, then, how the interests have merged. The painting above shows Minnie and May.  I painted this from a photograph graciously provided by Ed Spilker (another PAAW volunteer and mainstay).  I've donated it to PAAW to, I hope, be a 'sweetener'  and help get Minnie and May adopted.

May is the outgoing one (on the left in the painting), and will come for attention.  Minnie is shy, and depends on May for support.  In time she relaxes and becomes a lovely kitty.  She will likely always be shy, but she wants to be loved, and loves her sister dearly.  We really want them to be adopted together.Minnie and May were born in May of 2010.  More information about PAAW  can be found at www.paawarren.org, and you can see more of Minnie and May at www.paawarren.petfinder.com.

I'm planning on a doing a series of cat portraits to donate, choosing the sweetest cats who have waited longest for their Forever Homes.     I also hope that this could lead to more paid commission cat portraits - I do love doing them.     If it works out, I'll be donating 20% of sales from cat portraits to PAAW. 

What comes next? Florabundance ends . . .

Pat McGraw and I will  be taking down our shared "Florabundance" show at Birmingham Unitarian Church on Thursday.  It was quite an experience for both of us:  I feel like now I've at least  tasted what it's like to be in the Majors, the Big Time.   The paintings were mounted and displayed and lit beautifully in the lovely stepped hallway and the "pavilion" of the church.   It was a spacious and professional display, more gallery than art fair. 

Perhaps best of all was how well our paintings complemented each other.  We received a lot of Compliments about the Complement!

We had a lovely reception with a nice turn out . Were you there? If so, thanks so much for attending: we were both so proud of this venue we wanted EVERYONE to see it.  If not, no worries, the link to your right on this page will show a slide show of the paintings I had in the show.

Also, check the Sisters of the Brush site - I'll be setting up a temporary page very soon,  with pictures from the reception and the exhibit.

We are also feeling fairly successful as each of us sold a few paintings. This will make the church happy, as we'll be donating 20% of sales there, and will make us happy as we donate another 10% to the Mary McCarthy Anderson College Scholarship Fund.

FLORABUNDANCE opens in a few days!

Pat McGraw and I are very excited, stressed, and overworked! We've been preparing for our 'big show' at the Birmingham Unitarian Church, where we will each have about 15 mostly new works.  Today, I'll get the labels printed up, tomorrow we do a final inventory, and Tuesday the show will actually be hung. Here you can see the postcard we'll be sending out: we were SO pleased that each of our favorite paintings were so  compatible.  
Look around this blog site for further details about the show!