Artistic Weekend

This was quite an artist's weekend!

It began on Friday afternoon, getting judged into a local artists group.

Friday evening was the Middletown Area Art show - 2 out of 3 paintings I entered were accepted, even though they did not win a prize. However, like the Oscar winners always say - "it's an honor to be nominated." I do truly appreciate gaining acceptance into that show since it draws from a large area with some regionally and nationally-known artists.

Saturday was the Miamisburg Art Guild show - won second place in watermedia for my Sunlit Pears 2 (photo below). And in addition to that - something really fun and exciting happened to me!

As I approached my painting to place my ribbon the lady standing there said "Deb, sorry to be blocking your painting". I asked if she knew me and she told me she gets on my blog all the time! Wow! We spent several minutes chatting - so I now have to coin a word for her, unless one already exists in the blogging community - I'll call her my "Bloggerite". Her name is Gaylynn and that's her, on the left, standing in front of her painting of a little girl. She had another of horses - they are both very good! She and her sister were so nice!

So, all in all, a fun weekend - great weather, great friends, great art, spoke to some folks I've know a while, made a new acquaintance and my husband treated me to dinner on Friday night and paid me some high compliments!

I't doesn't get any better than that!

p.s. Does anyone know how I can superimpose a photo of Raquel Welch over mine in all future photos of me???????

Retreat Paintings - Part 1

Below are some photos from the recent artist retreat.

Our days consisted of painting, eating, talking, painting, eating, drinking wine, sleeping and painting!

One of the artist’s has a daughter who is a chef and as a treat, she and her boyfriend, also a chef, came for a day and prepared a delicious meal for us.

We did reserve one day for a trip into Knoxville to the Jerry’s Artarama. We’ve been there several times, but we consistently get lost each time, mostly due to road construction. This year we had two GPS navigation systems with us – how could we possibly miss it? Well, we still took one wrong turn! But once we were there we had a great time inspecting everything on the shelves and then checking out what we were each buying to make sure we didn’t miss anything. As usual, I went in with one or two items in mind and came out with a few more. We also lucked into a “tax free” day, too, so some of our supplies were considered school supplies and had no tax on them.

Here's an explanation of the paintings:

Mine - I'm attempting a series of laundry paintings - these were OK, can't find photos good enough of the other two, but they are most likely do-overs, anyway, as is this one.

Another laundry painting, courtesy of a photo from my daughter taken during a trip to Venice. Needs a little tweaking, but this one's a keeper.

The next two are by Nancy - done in pastel. I love the waterlillies!

These two are by Cora Mae - she said this top one was just "play", but I wish I could play that well! The bottom one represents a nautical theme - she lives on the coast of North Carolina.

Watch for paintings from the other ladies coming soon!

Retreat Surprises

Each year I go away with a group of friends, all artists, and I always take presents. This is my own personal Christmas! I usually try for a gift a day for them!

Since the retreat is over for the year, this year’s gifts can now be revealed to the general public (if you are interested).

The gifts were:

beaded pencil/pen holder

beaded pen, beaded bookmark – all beaded by yours truly (check out an upcoming blog relating to “the beading experience”!)

pack of cards with goofy saying, note pad with goofy saying, Russian Sauce

and hand painted (by me) Christmas ornaments.

And I’ve already got some ideas for next year’s festivities!

Artistic Retreat

People will say that art is a solitary experience, but that just means they have never painted with me!

I began painting with a group of women on Thursday nights in the instructor’s home and I continued that until I felt I needed to “do my own thing”. I maintain ties with these women still, through email and phone. Periodically we see each other and so remain in each other’s lives, even though we don’t see each other frequently.

Several years ago a group of artists got together to paint for a few days, sort of a mini-workshop, at one of the artists’ homes on the Crystal Coast of North Carolina. I traveled there with two women whom I had known for a few years, and met three others there. I must say, I went with some trepidation, but after 5 days we realized we had so much fun that we wanted to do it again and we have had a yearly retreat since 2001. This art retreat has become the highlight of my life – an annual gift to myself. It’s my vacation, art workshop and spiritual retreat, all wrapped up with a big bow of laughter (and chocolate!).

There is a certain ebb and flow to these events, because to be with the same people in a confined space for more than a few days is to sometimes tread on each other’s toes. But we seem to tread lightly and our laughter (and tears) seem to overcome those moments. We eat very well, stay up very late, and laugh until we cry and cry until we laugh, all week long, intermittently stuffing ourselves with chocolate. By the end of the week, even though we are ready to resume our normal (???) lives, we have also made our plans for the next year’s adventure.

In the years we have been meeting:

I’ve been hot on the North Carolina coast and cold in basements in Indiana. We have been massaged, manicured and pedicured.

I’ve been so wet in the rain forest of North Carolina that:
· I had to dry my pillow in the clothes dryer before I went to bed at night and my undies in the morning before I put them on;
· my camera got waterlogged and my SD card didn’t work so I lost all the pictures of that trip;
· my watercolor painting on 300 lb. Arches got so damp overnight that it literally draped itself over the top of the garbage can next to my work station. Fortunately, by laying it flat on the table and leaving it alone, it flattened itself out and was good as new (although still damp) the next day.

Fortunately some of these locations have been in close proximity of a Jerry’s Artarama outlet in Knoxville, TN and so we have had the added experience of art supplies mixed with laughter and an overloaded (possibly dangerously so) vehicle.
· Some of us have purchased and loaded full sized easels and a full sized barstool made of wrought iron and canvas which wouldn’t fit into the cargo area while still boxed, so it had to be taken out of that box and inserted into the already full cargo space by “us wimmin” while the workmen watched, shaking their heads.
· I have observed the incredulous looks of men carrying boxes of art supplies (yes, I said BOXES) to a van already so loaded with art supplies, luggage and prior purchases that, when the tailgate was lifted, several items fell out.
· When the workmen say “this won’t fit, we can ship it for you” we immediately tell them, “of course it will fit, there’s plenty of room”, and out comes more “stuff” to be rearranged and reloaded until it all fits (more or less) and we don’t really care, because the next time that hatch is opened we will be home – and let the art supplies fall where they may!

These adventures just give us more to laugh and talk about at our next retreat!

And through it all we have managed to create some pretty darn good paintings. It seems that any painting(s) I create at these retreats go on to be sold or win awards, and that seems to be the case for the other artists as well. I believe it’s because each of those paintings has been created in such a nurturing and loving environment.

Just got back from this year’s retreat and can’t wait for next year!!

More Computer Woes

Well, my life just gets better and better.

Sat down at the computer this morning only to be staring at a completely black screen. Some time after midnight my fairly new (less than one year old) monitor apparently decided to commit suicide.

So for the interim I will use my husband's laptop - and have no access to my Word documents or digital pictures. I'm heading out of town in a couple days anyway and just cannot deal with this now. Perhaps when I get back I'll be able to figure out how to get some of my stuff into this one (won't he love that!) as a back up and will deal with whatever the problem is with mine.

Oh - and did I mention that last night my husband came home, sat down close to me on the couch, lowered his voice and said "Deb, I've got some bad news for you." Well, of course, my thoughts went immediately to death - what else could account for this type of mannerism? (Had he just run over the dog????)

Turns out that the car, which I'm to drive on the above mentioned trip, needed service - the "Service Engine" light had come on. (deeeeeeeeep Yoga breath . . . . .)

So taking the car in for service shot most of this morning, and also messes up my Friday plans. Hmmmmm, what else can I complain about! Hopefully in a couple of weeks I will have more interesting info to post, along with more paintings and/or pictures.

What is that saying - "the best laid plans go astray" - (and I had big plans!)

By the way, today was my husband's birthday - I found the perfect card for him - it was in booklet form, all about (those of you who are a bit squeamish might want to skip this part) . . . FARTS! (If you knew him, you'd understand!!!)

Here's hoping you are achieving your art goals better and faster than I am! Happy Painting, and watch for my return in a couple weeks.

Hang in There!

For those of you who visit my site regularly, and for those of you who are new - thanks for hanging in there!

I'm no longer on dial up - I'm using a Sprint card which is faster than dial up - but not that fast! It's very hit or miss for me to post - this morning I spent over an hour and still couldn't get it to connect to Blogger!

But I promise I'm trying to keep this site current and interesting.

So, please stop back often and watch for new items as I'm able to get them uploaded.

Painting Lace

This is another in my casein series of lace, fruit, flowers, etc. using some of my grandmother’s things. There is one more in this series planned, if I can just get the picture figured out and drawn!

I do enjoy working in a series. Sometimes the series is planned in advance, but sometimes it dawns on me that I’m doing a series without realizing it. I’ve got several paintings composed of roses, peonies, pears, that I didn’t really realize until I sat down and looked at my digital photos the other day. Well, DUH!

Anyway, I’m very pleased with the lace on this one. My husband said I have the cup, etc. too high, there is too much lace. Well, gee, this was planned to be “all about the lace”. I took the coffee cup which appeared in my original photo and redrew it shorter and wider to become a tea cup, and made up the rose patterns on the cup and saucer.

Even my Darling Daughter (my harshest critic) whose normal critique always consists of “needs more detail” said “Looks good, lots of detail.” And my husband’s final comment was “you have raised the bar” – which I think means that I’m improving (maybe?).

Hope you enjoy looking at the “in progress” photos.

Pears and Lace, casein on watercolor board, 18x14

Chicago Trip

Arrived home safely from a 3-day trip to Chicago. It’s the third time I’ve been there, but the first time I’ve had a fun time – (perhaps it was my previous traveling companions???) Our tour guide/hostess is a true Chicagoan – which I call “She-kaw-gan”!

On Saturday we went to the Art Institute of Chicago, via train. I must mention here that I’m a small town gal – born in Batesville, Indiana, raised in Cincinnati, Ohio (which, while considered a “major city”, isn’t really all that large) and now living in rural Indiana.

I must also mention that it was my first train ride – other than the usual tourist trains here and there. So I was as excited as a little kid. And, just like a little kid, I managed to make a fool of myself! (For those of you who know me and know how dorky and daft I can be, this should come as no surprise).

After we had boarded, we were walking single file through the train – our hostess, my friend and myself. Much to my horror, the door to the next car closed in my face and I was frantic – so, of course, I let out a shriek. My friend turned around to see my look of horror, whereupon she began to laugh, but did bail me out by opening the door – which I thought I could not open myself due to the sign on the door which said “Do Not Open Door”. Well, she let me into the next car, much to the highlight of all of the She-kaw-gans there! The first few groups, closest to the door, who had probably heard but not seen the shriek had a shocked and surprised look on their faces – not sure what was going on and whether they were included in it(!) while the next few groups had most likely seen, rather than heard, and so were laughing at my expense. By the time I got through that train car I was laughing at myself and fully expected a round of applause (and somewhat disappointed I didn’t get it!).

But wait, there’s more!

After we de-boarded (is that a word??) at the station I was taking a photo of the rafters – after all, I am an artist! – when, much to my amusement I overheard two people next to me talking – “look, that’s the woman who got stuck between the cars, taking a picture of the ceiling”.

Well, I’m sure I’ve got quite the reputation now – probably along the lines of “that poor old lady with dementia”.

Blog Comments

My husband asked me to show him my blog the other evening. After reading a few posts, his comment was “it’s a lot like talking to yourself”.

I think he’s right! I know I’m getting “hits” since I was, through some miracle of computer time and space warp, able to get a site meter uploaded. Now I’d like to do the same with my website, but . . . due to slow internet, everything takes me so long to do. And, by now, I’m sure that I will never remember how the heck I got the thing linked here, oh well.

So, anyway, yesterday, July 4, 2008, was the one year anniversary of my website and, once again, while the nation went outside and celebrated (and, according to various PSA announcements, lost body parts and suffered many and severe injuries due to fireworks accidents!) I remained inside, safely but slowly attempting to blog and add to my website. (I did not want to be outside anyway since it was raining – again!).

However, after hours of attempting to update the aforementioned website, and losing some info before it got saved, and then attempting to publish it, but it wouldn’t make the connection, I gave up in sheer frustration. Compounding my frustration with the computer was my frustration of attempting to do some beading while waiting on the computer.

While I love living in the country, I do envy you city folks your high speed internet. Guess everything in life is a trade off!

Since it seems we should always have a picture attached to our blog, but I had none to go with this particular topic, here is a photo of me at the 2007 Viewpoint - my painting is the pears above my left shoulder. They sold! (Also note my wonderful sense of fashion - gee, how I love to get dressed up!)

p.s. This morning I was finally able to update the website. If you haven’t seen it, you can go to my link or just hit this: www.debwardart.com.

Old Glory

In visiting several blogs, I see that some of you are putting up flag paintings, so here is mine. This is one of the small paintings that I use in beginning watercolor classes. Of course, there is the usual grumbling from the students – no way can they accomplish such a detailed painting! But then, of course, they do!

Makes me think of all the grumbling we Americans do. But in reviewing our nation's history, seems like we all pull together when the chips are down.

Our American flag, symbol of liberty and justice – long may she wave.