New Paintings

It has been a busy week or so, the whole-house remodel is still coming along, the new windows are in my studio, the bathroom has walls. Soon I hope to be back to work, but for now I can finish up a few small things.

We spent the weekend in Austin, and I joined both "Women and Their Work" non-profit gallery, and Women Printmakers of Austin, both of which offer an online portfolio. I'll get my work on the Oklahoma Visual Artists Coalition portfolio soon, I sent it in last year and they lost it (they are usually very efficient, no harm done).

In the next few days I'll be putting up about six 10" x 30" paintings on my web site. These work well in those weird narrow spaces of a room where a little piece wouldn't be quite right. I also really like working with this shaped format. This is a snapshot of one of those paintings, I'll have a better picture of it for the website. The colors are warm and fun, and it is not as linear as a lot of my other work.

And now

This is what my studio looks like now. The shop sink is being plumbed, and the new windows come tomorrow. In a few days the wall to the left will have a new door added, so in a way I am gradually losing wall space, but the light is going to be great. There are so many things to plan and organize. I think I will paint it white or a very very light yellow, with a blue-violet ceiling. I paint with those colors a lot, and think I would be happy and productive surrounded by that combination.

New Studio

This morning "Promote your art" classmate Jerry Cable wrote about the wonder of suddenly and unexpectedly finding the studio of his dreams. Our stories are very different, but I am also finding my studio. It is the room that was once the childhood bedroom I shared with my sister who now lives in Ohio. Here is a picture of my studio in those early days. The windows (there are four) look out onto the backyard and garden, and beyond there is a small pasture with horses. A few years ago a robin built a nest on the ledge of the window in the right of the photo, and my elderly mother and I got to watch the whole process up to the baby birds flying away.

Yes, that is a real fox stole around my sister's neck. I don't remember where it came from, but it definitely was a hand me down - and those are silk honeysuckle on my hat (loved that hat). The teapot played "you take the high road" when you picked it up. It is a little shocking how many of the objects in this photo I still have - the clock, the table, the teapot (not the fox!).