Cheshire Art League

My presentation will be on March 18, 2008.
Come to the Cheshire Library by 7:00 pm to learn about fiber as an artistic medium, view a slide show of various fiber artists' work and see examples of my art quilts in person.
Everyone is welcome; you don't have to be an artist or even a resident of Cheshire! Hope to see you there.
The Mary Baldwin Community Room
Cheshire Public Library
104 Main Street
Cheshire, CT 06410

Today's Best Moment: Watching my 3 yr old attempt to "skip" around the house, which basically means kicking and hopping around on each foot.

SLACKER!

I realize it has been over a month since I updated this blog. Mea culpa

So what has been going on lately? I finished 2 paintings as well as the Sherman project in time for Christmas. In addition to those sales, I sold one art quilt off my website and one at an Art Quilt Exhibit/Sale. So it turned out to be a good month.

Attached is a photo of one of the paintings. This was done for a rec room; as my customer calls "The Man Room", which is really a finished basement decorated in the style of an Irish Pub. I had the chance to see the space where my painting would be, and check out the rest of the room to get an idea for the theme. The best way to describe it would be a "grown up boy's playroom", complete with poker table, 2 flat screen TVs, fooze ball and mini golf.


He wanted something that would be seen from the top of the stairs as you enter the playroom; something that would compliment the room & reflect the atmosphere of the space.
This painting was SO much fun to do, especially with my newest discovery - water soluble Oil paints. I love them!! I always preferred the look of oil on canvas - rich colors, blendability- over that of acrylics, but have not used oils in some time. The reasons being difficulty in clean up, toxic fumes, and the health dangers it could pose to kids in the house.
So I was thrilled to see these Water Soluble Oils at Blick's. Is this some kind of scientific miracle?? How can it be possible? Don't know, don't care.

I couldn't wait to try them out & got the chance with this commission. I think I'm hooked now. I can't see going back to acrylics when I can have all the benefits of water-based plus the look & feel of oils.

Guest Artist

I just wanted to share my excitement!

I have been invited to be a guest artist at an upcoming meeting for C.A.L. (Cheshire Art League) in my home town of Cheshire, Connecticut. I haven’t been to any meetings yet; but I plan to rectify that very soon. The president of the C.A.L. came across my website and contacted me through email. She loved my work and said that the group is “always looking for topics that we haven't explored before. Creating art out of various textiles and textures would make for a fascinating program for us.”

I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to promote art quilts, and reach out to other artists in my area. (And it doesn’t hurt that it’s a paying gig).

My mind is racing with ideas, but I can't seem to focus during the holiday season. So I have until February or March ‘08 to come up with about an hour’s worth of lecture, demonstration & probably a slide show. I’ve taught classes before, so I’m not terrified of speaking in front of people. But for this meeting they really want to know about me personally, what inspires me, my creative process, etc.
Wow! Feeling a lot of pressure, but I love it!

Happy Holidays

Today's Best Moment: Tom, my love, coming home after a long business trip

Lately i've been working on 2 commissioned paintings that are due before Christmas, so i'm pretty swamped! The first one is almost finished & I'm quite satisfied with how it's coming out. I haven't started the 2nd one, but that one is smaller so i'm hoping it will go faster.

Loosestrife & Angry Skies

Wow! It's been a while since I posted something. To re-cap: I gave the finished "Sherman Project" (Renamed Loosestrife & Angry Skies) to the clients and they loved it. They said they will be contacting me again, perhaps to do a winter version of the scene. That would be interesting.

starting to come together

I have the tops tacked together for all 3 in the series.

The dark brown border is 2" wide right now (image is cropped), but after everything is quilted I'll probably trim that down to about 1/2" or so. I just wanted to give each one a sharp separation.

I can't wait to start quilting!!

revision

so.... after an unfortunate event involving my toddler, a black magic marker and the quilt top I had been working on.... I've had to make a few revisions. The barn and the sky had to be thrown out, but most of the other pieces are salvageable.

I'm still not happy with the sky yet. I think I'm going to try to piece a few curvy shapes in there just for fun.
Stay tuned for photos...