Merry Christmas 2019

Our Christmas card this year shows Roger & I in front of the stained glass windows that I featured in my last post which was at the end of October.

 November proved to be a very busy month.  I mention in the card that our son Mark and his wife Leslie would be moving back to the Burlington area.  Mark started his job here in mid November but Leslie had to stay in GA  to continue to work her job there through the holiday season.  We were involved with helping Mark hunt for the perfect rental house.  He found one that would meet their needs which is less than a mile from our place.  He has been staying there during the work week and traveling back to GA on the weekends.  Leslie ends her job soon and the movers come at the end of this week.  Mark and Les will officially move in on Dec, 22,  We are excited that they will be living so close to us.

Here is our 2019 Christmas card.  Click on it to enlarge.

I got 4 paintings and one train station done in the time since my last post.  I did 3 paintings of patterns I did in the past.  The size is 10X8.

I also painted something new.  I call this one "Heron & Cattails".

All of these painting plus a few others will be shown at the "Owl & Rabbit" Gallery in downtown Burlington.  Also, Mark has been accepted to show his wood crafts there.  He has already sold some Christmas wall hangings and quite a few ornaments.  I will feature some of his work in another post.

The other project I did was  a domino train station that was ordered from a previous customer.  She recently moved to Colorado where here brother lives and she will be giving the trains station to his family as a gift.  She requested a pattern that would represent Colorado so I did a mountain and lake scene. 

My studio has gotten pretty messy in the past 6 weeks so I have started to clean and reorganize.  I'll post photos of the new and improved studio soon. 

I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and many blessings in the New Year!

Stained Glass, Friends, Fall and New Paintings

October was a busy month.  Much went on and I have lots to post today.

 The first is the new stained glass windows that Roger built and installed in our great room.  I helped with the design of the windows and selection of glass.  It took him a couple of months to complete the windows. We love them and they add so much beauty to our home.  The first photo was taken in the day time from the inside and the second photo was taken at night from the outside.

  When two different neighbors saw these windows they asked Roger if he would take a commission to do some stained glass for them.  Both cases are smaller projects.  He will be consulting with them soon to give them an estimate.  He enjoys having projects to keep busy.

I mentioned in a previous post that we have had lots of out of town company this year.  The latest company was a couple of weekends ago when our good friends and next door neighbors from Tucson came to stay for a few days.  This is George and Gloria.  We met them in 1995 when we contracted to have our house built in Sun City Oro Valley.  They over saw the construction of our house and sent photos.  We have been good friends ever since.  George and Gloria are both quilters.  Their quilts are beautiful and artistic and they have both won many ribbons in quilt shows.  It was so nice to see them again.

After a long hot summer Autumn is finally here.  This has always been my favorite season of the year no matter which state we live in, OH, AZ, MI and now in NC.  The leaves on the trees on our street have turned a beautiful shade of red.  These are Maple trees.

Even though this has been a busy month, I still had time to paint.  The two paintings I finished this month were at the suggestion of grand-daughter Sam.  She wanted me to paint a dragon.  I titled this one "Happy Dragon".  Size is 16X20.

Sam also requested that I paint this scene.  I call it "Mission by the Sea".  It will hang in her bathroom here and when she moves out she will take it to hang in her next home.  Size of this one is 8X10 for the painting but framed size is about 13X15.

We will be having more out of town company later this week and I am not sure what will be on the schedule for the holidays.  It is hard to believe that October will be over in a few days and we will be into the holiday season soon.  I will try to squeeze in painting time between all the activities and as always, will post photos of my art when it is done.

Two Prize Winners in the Family!

Samantha and I entered art in the Burlington Artist League 2019 Regional Exhibition and both of us won an honorable mention ribbon.  How cool is that?  Grandma and grand-daughter win a prize  in the same art contest!

Sam's piece is a colored pencil drawing titled "Midnight Meeting".  This is not the first time she got a ribbon in an art contest.  She won honorable mention at the Kalamazoo Institute of Art along with a scholarship for a series of art classes.  A good start for a 20 year old.  I'm sure she will have more ribbons in her future.  Here is a photo of her art.

I entered two paintings.  The first was one that I painted for the contest called "Rainbow Ruffles"  I posted a photo in my last blog post.  I'll show it here again.

I decide to also enter a painting I did in the past and had never shown before titled "Masquerade" and it is the one that won the ribbon. It is an abstract with a hidden surprise.  If you look closely you will see silhouettes wearing masks. Here is a photo of that painting.

This prize is the 13th that I have won since I entered my first contest in 2007.  I have 5 Third Place ribbons, 5 Honorable Mention ribbons, 2 People's Choice awards and 1 Special Award from the Oro Valley Historical Society.  Eleven of these awards were in contests in Tucson, AZ,  one was in Three Rivers, MI and two are here in Burlington, NC.

Something new and something old

In my last post I was deciding what type of painting I would do next.  I thought maybe an abstract or flowers.  I settled on doing an abstract.  I filled a canvas with burgundy and patches of blue and lots of texture.  When I was finished I looked at it for a few days and just did not like it.  I decided to start over.  I covered the painting with two shades of red paint.  Now I had a very textured red canvas and no idea what to do next so left it and started a new 8X10 painting with a familiar subject.  I did a small version of "Mighty Mustang". Here is that painting.

While I was working on the above painting I continued to think about what I would do with the red textured canvas. I kept staring at it and finally I "saw" flowers appear within the texture.  As soon as I finished the 8X10 I grabbed a large brush and some purple paint and started to freehand in the flowers I saw in my mind.  I added leaves and some chartreuse highlights.  My abstract painting had turned in to a flower painting.  I had a hard time deciding on a title and finally settled on "Textured Purple and Red".  The size of this painting is 20X20.

I am now working on a new 16X20 painting which will feature a dragon. Next week I will be entering 3 works of art in the BAL Regional Competition.  I will post photos in my next blog post.

Oh, I forgot to mention we had even more overnight company.  Our son Brian came for a short visit at the beginning of September.  In October our friends George and Gloria from Tucson will come for a few days. We don't have anyone else on the schedule for the rest of the year but I'm sure we will have more company around the holidays.

Finally a new painting!

It is almost a month since my last post.  The month of August has been a busy one for us.  We took a short trip to Newport News, VA to visit family at the beginning of August.  The same day we got back Samantha's boyfriend arrived from SC for a visit.  The day after he left our friends Terry and Libby from MI came and stayed a few days.  We enjoyed all the company and our trip but I had little time for painting.  Here is a photo of us with Terry and Libby who were our bowling team partners when we lived in MI.

I had started work on a painting at the end of July and worked on it on and off between our trip and all the company.  It is a new version of a painting I did twice when I lived in Tucson.  Both of those paintings sold.  One sold in Tucson and the other sold when I lived in Michigan.  I thought I should do another one now that I live in North Carolina.  I call this one "Rainbow Ruffles".  The size is 20X16.

I have not decided what subject I will paint next.  I might do an abstract or maybe another floral.  I am not sure which direction to go in.  I will have to stare at a blank canvas until I "see" something. 

I mentioned at the beginning of this post that August was a busy month.  I realized that not just August was busy but the whole year has been busy with lots of visitors.  I counted back and so far we have had 12 groups of friends or family come to spend time with us since the first of the year.  I am not counting those who came in the 6 months after we moved to NC last year.  We have enjoyed seeing everyone that has been here.  We still have 4 months in 2019 left and I expect we will have more company come during that time. 

Horse Paintings

Things have settled down since the last of our company left.  It had been a year since we had seen Mark and Leslie and we enjoyed the time we had together.

I decided to do a couple more horse paintings to take to the Owl and Rabbit Gallery along with a set of 4 horse greeting cards.  It seems that my horse paintings are the ones that have sold there so that is the reason I decided to do a few more.  Here are new versions of "Mighty Mustang" and Flaming Mane".  I took them there yesterday along with another "Run with the Wind' which sold a few months ago.

I also sold a painting at It's All Good.  "Sunflowers in Red Vase" was bought by a friend that is giving it to a friend of hers as a birthday gift.

I replaced it with "Beautiful Bird and Blossoms"

Before I did the horse paintings I started a 20X16 painting titled "Rainbow Ruffles".  I decided to put it on hold and paint the two horses to take to the gallery.  I will now finish the ruffle painting.

Iris

Our busy summer continues.  Samantha is unpacked and settled in her room and we set up a work area for her in my studio.

Sam is working on a colored pencil drawing and I did two 8X10 paintings of iris.  I'll post a photo of her work when it is complete.  Here are my 2 iris paintings titled "Pink Iris" and "Purple Iris" for obvious reasons.

Since my last post a week ago we had more company.  Sam's boyfriend from SC came for a short visit.  He left yesterday and our next guests are Mark & Leslie who arrive on Saturday.  Today we go to the DMV to get Sam's NC drivers license. She hopes to get a job soon.  As I said at the start of this post, "Our busy summer continues".

Our busy summer continues

In my last post I wrote about our schedule of guests for the summer.  The month of June went as planned.  Brian came on the 11th and the day after he left Carol and Frankie arrived.  They stayed three days.  We had a break from company for a couple of weeks then on the 27th our daughter Kim and her husband Ray came with our grand-daughter Samantha.   Kim and Ray left yesterday and Sam is now living with us.  Our son Mark and wife Leslie will be here on July 13 and will be staying a few days. 

Between all of the company I found time to complete three paintings. Carol wanted to watch me paint flowers so I showed here some techniques on two small canvases.  I finished the paintings after she left. When Kim was here she saw them and asked if she could have them so they are now on the way to Michigan.  Here are photos of both of them.  The size of these paintings are 7X5 and 6X6.  They look huge in these photos.

I had started a 16X20 fantasy flower painting before the all the company came and was able to finish it during the break between guests.  I call it "Elegant Flowers in Yellow Bowl".  I have never been able to figure out why large paintings look small and small paintings look large when I post them here.

I'm not sure when I will be starting a new painting.  Sam is also an artist and brought all of her art supplies.  Once she gets unpacked and settled in her bedroom we will be setting up and area in my studio for her to work in.  It will be fun to share my studio with her. 

Here is a photo of all of us that we took at a restaurant yesterday before Kim and Ray left for MI.

A busy summer coming up

Our summer is going to be busy with lots of company.  Our younger son Brian will be coming tomorrow and staying for the rest of the week. On June 16, Carol who was married to Roger's cousin Mickey, will be traveling here with another of  Roger's  cousins from Baltimore.  They will stay a number of days.  Then sometime during the last week of June or first of July our daughter Kim and her husband Ray will be bringing our grand-daughter Samantha who is 20 and just graduated from Community College.  Sam will be living with us for a gap year to establish residency in NC then continue to get her degree. On July 13 our older son Mark and his wife Leslie will come for a long weekend.  In August we will take a short vacation to Newport News. VA to have a mini reunion with Brian and Sarah and their daughters and family. We don't have anyone on the schedule for the month of September but are hoping that good friends from MI can come then.  In October we have good friends and neighbors from AZ who will be traveling through NC and will stay with us a few days. It is funny that for the 20 years we lived in AZ we had lots of company but  for the 2 and a half years that we lived in MI the only company we had was Brian who came often to help rehab a couple of houses. I guess no one was interested in coming to MI.  Now that we are in NC we are happy to say friends and family want to visit us. 

I did a couple of new paintings in the past few weeks.  This first one is a new version of  "In Memory of Mickey" that I gave to Carol.  I liked it so much that I did another one to sell.  I decided to rename it "Beautiful Bird and Blossoms".  Size is 20X16 on stretch canvas.

I also did another version of "Run With the Wind" which is 11X14 on stretch canvas.  I did this one to take to The Owl and Rabbit Gallery.  I sold a similar one shortly after I started showing there.

I am currently working on a painting to add to my "Fantasy Flowers" Series. It has been a long time since I did one.  Here are a few I did in the past.

Two new paintings and a new layout for my studio

I finished two new 14X11 stretch canvas paintings since my last blog post. Both paintings are new patterns. One is a bird painting to add to my bird collection.  This one is called "Birds of a Feather".

The other painting is a horse painting to add to my horse collection.  The title is "Flaming Mane".

About a year or so ago I did a series of small 5X7 paintings that I sold on easels.  Recently I got some frames at a yard sale so decided to frame one of these small paintings.  I call this one "Pretty Little Bird"

I sold another painting at the Owl and Rabbit Gallery.  It was this version of "Forest Royalty".

I am now working on another version of "In Memory of Mickey". I posted the photo of it in my last blog post. I gave the original to his wife Carol and she was very happy with it.  The new one will be a little different and I think I will call it  "Beautiful Bird and Flowers".  I'll post photos of it when it is done.

A few months ago we got a new lounge chair and put the old one in my loft studio.  Shortly after that we got a futon which was also put in my studio.  It made things a little crowed so last week I rearranged my painting area to open things up more.  I am happy with this new arrangement.  Here are some photos of my new and improved loft studio.

It is one year ago that we decided to sell our house in Michigan and to move to North Carolina.  We are happy that we made that move but miss all the family that lived close to us.  On the other hand, we have had lots of company come visit us in the 9 months since we made the move.  Both family and friends have come and others have let us know they will be here this summer and fall.  We are looking forward to seeing all of them.

5 Peacock Paintings

I started a new peacock painting awhile back but things got busy and I did not have any painting time in the past few weeks. 

One of the things that happened is that we had a visit from our friend Sally who was here for a week.  She and her husband Bob were very close friends when we lived in Ohio.  Bob passed away about 6 years ago.  Shortly after he died Sally moved to FL.  I spent a week with her in 2017 and last March Roger and I flew down for a week.  We told her that now that we were living in NC it was her turn to visit us.  We had a great week together. 

After she left I got back to painting and finished this latest painting in my Peacock Collection.  I call it "Fabulous Feathers.  Size is 16X20

Here are the other paintings in this collection.  All were painted in the past few months.  This one is Peacock Pride and it is 20X16

Next is a 14X11 painting called "Posh Peacock"

Here is "Peacock Panache"  Size 24X10

I have to include "Contemplation" in my Peacock Collection.  Size is 14X11

I am done with painting peacocks and will move on to other subject matter.  I started a new painting today.  This painting has special meaning.  It is in memory of Roger's cousin Mickey who passed away last year.  I will tell the story in my next blog post after I finish the painting.

I sold two paintings at the Owl and Rabbit Gallery last month, " Mighty Mustang" and "Run with the Wind."  I will do new versions of both soon.

All of these paintings are on stretch canvas except "Contemplation" which is in a frame.  When we made the move to NC I gave away all of my empty frames.  Now that the weather is warm and yard sales have started I am beginning to get a new collection of frames.  I still have a good number of stretch canvases so will use them up before I do many framed paintings.