"Spring Visit to Marblehead"

The Ohio State Park art project continues........I have finished my second piece in this series. It is a graphite drawing of Marblehead light and keeper's house. My husband and I frequently travel up to my friend's cottage on Catawba Island in the springtime. On this trip in April of 2011, we took the short drive over to Marblehead to see the lighthouse. We had packed a picnic lunch and planned to eat it at one of the picnic tables overlooking Lake Erie. But the sky clouded over and weather turned cold and windy so we went back to the car and had our lunch there instead. After we finished we braved the elements (it really wasn't that bad ;) ) and hiked around on the rocks by the shore. We continued on the path that brought us behind the keeper's house, an area of the park we had not been before. And that's where I shot this photo. Imagine - a chilly wind, the sun trying to peek out from behind the clouds that were racing by, the buds just beginning to break on the trees....

This is the result of our "Spring Visit to Marblehead". 

 A Limited edition of 100 prints are available of this drawing.

Holmes for the Holidays Art Show and Sale

A few months ago I thought it was time to contact some of my artist friends to see if we could get an art show together again. The new Holmes County Cultural Center provided the perfect venue for a weekend art event around Christmastime. So, this is where I'll be, joined by 7 other accomplished artists for the First Annual Holmes for the Holidays Art Show and Sale. Let me introduce you to these very talented people:    Vickie Boley of World Cup Teas, who will be offering her fine teas for sale and tasting. She is also a wonderful painter in oils and will have some of her paintings and prints for sale. ~ David Ernst with his pen and ink barn art and whimsical cartoon portraits. He also has created several comic books which are a lot of fun. ~ James Spires from Wooster who does amazing pottery and sculpture and is well known in the area and in other places around the country as well. ~ Sharon Strouse will have her wooden rose arrangements which are so beautifully and creatively done. ~ Robert VanNatta III, a watercolorist who paints in a beautiful impressionistic style ~ Don Weisgarber, who is also a watercolor artist, with wonderful paintings of many local scenes ~ and Heidi Yoder, an up-and-coming pencil artist, who will have prints and also does commission work. Her portraits are especially lovely and so very realistic.

So please join us ~ Opening Reception, Friday, November 30, 2012 - 7pm-9pm ~ And Saturday, December 1, 2012 - 11am-8pm at the Holmes County Cultural Center, 434 N. Washington Street, Millersburg, OH (beside the Victorian House Museum).

...and as a special treat at Friday's Opening Reception, Toni Shreve will bring beautiful music of the season from 7pm - 9pm.

***Make a day of it and visit the Victorian House all decorated for the holidays and the Millersburg Glass Museum also housed in the Cultural Center Complex.***

"Curt's Drive Home ~ somewhere along an Arizona highway"

Sometimes we have to live with a painting for awhile and continue to let it "speak" to us before we can officially call it Done. Such was the case with "Curt's Drive Home". It had been on our wall for close to a year and was telling me that something was missing. It was looking like a setting with nothing going on.

My husband's friend Curt had allowed me to use his photograph for reference. The telephone poles were in the photo and actually were what attracted me to the scene in the first place. But when I got to that point I questioned whether they were needed and, do I want to run the risk of ruining the sky? I know, color me "chicken". 


So this morning while feeling rather brave, I tackled the poles and I must say I am at last totally satisfied with the painting. Lesson learned. 


As a side-note....while I was working away at it this morning I noticed that I had "forgotten" to sign the piece last year when I thought it was finished. :)

Sunrises at the lake

("Catawba ~ early morning") 

5x7 pastel

In the summer of 2010 my husband and I vacationed at Catawba Is. on Lake Erie as we have been doing for the past several years. I like to take at least one morning during the week to go to the beach to watch the sunrise. On one of these early morning beach-walks the sky was just stunning. It seemed to get more beautiful with each passing minute. I was able to shoot many, many photos to use as references for the paintings I would do at a later time. 

This will be my project for the next couple months--learning and painting lake sunrises. This little piece is the first of that series.

Ilex (holly) branch with berries

It seems with every picture I do there is a story...


I had so much fun working on this piece. It all started back in November. I was having lunch with my friend, Vickie B. and noticed the beautiful hollies she had growing in the foundation plantings around her house. I later went back and she was kind enough to let me snip a couple branches. Wrapping them in damp paper towels and sticking them in a plastic bag, I brought them home. I've had success in the past storing my botanical subjects in the fridge until I was finished with them so that is where it lived for several weeks. It made it through the Christmas season and, finally, I was ready to start the first week of January. (My family was very happy that they would soon not have to navigate around the "plant in the refrigerator" while getting out the milk jug. :) )


It was just the perfect branch. I did nothing to change the composition. I took many photos and made color swatches before I started in case I wouldn't finish before the leaves and berries would wilt and fall. Leaves tend to move and change color in the process. As I neared the end of the project I was very thankful for the photos and color notes. But the original holly branch served me well. I was amazed at how long it survived. (You can view the work in progress on my Flickr Photostream.)

Winter

Now that the busy Christmas season is over for another year, I'm looking forward to entering the winter months with a long list of art projects. Some will be revisited for minor tweaking, like a landscape I've had on my wall that's been begging me to add "something". Others I hope to begin new ~ lake scenes in pastel and acrylic and an idea I've been kicking around for mini canvases. We'll see where that goes.....


Today I finally brought out the holly branches, pictured here, that I cut from a friend's bushes more than a month ago. I am amazed at how well they kept with a damp paper towel wrapped around them in a bag in the refrigerator. I'm sure my family will be delighted to have it out of the way. I can't tell you how many times I heard, "What is this plant doing in here!?!" Ah,well..... But I am excited to once again be working on something green and living. The rest of the winter's botanical work will most likely be pine cones, shells and autumn leaves. So much to choose from to keep me busy til the warm, spring weather of April and May brings out the first of the flowers in my garden to be looked at with artwork in mind.