PAAC's 14th Annual Members Juried Exhibition

This year's exhibit will be at Saks Gallery on 2nd Ave in Cherry Creek. My painting "Spring's First Colors" is 14x18 and was painted in Arroyo Hondo on our way back from the Bob Dunn Bridge. The spring water was running high in the creek and this scene felt so "Taos". I'm glad we pulled over for one last painting of the day.

The opening reception is this Friday, June 25th from 5 to 9 at Saks. I'll be there. Please stop by and say Hi.

Location, Location, Location

Here's Jeanne Hougen and I in front of our booth at this year's Summer Art Market. It poured all morning so this was taken during a brief dry period.

What I noticed right away when looking at these pictures was just how lucky we were to get this corner booth. Wow! I joked that we must've bribed the right people to score this location!

First and foremost, a great big Thank You to all my friends who ventured out in this miserable weather to come by and say hi. You're amazing. :-)

I was also so very pleased to talk with several collectors who made a point to come by and tell me about a piece they'd bought from me previously. Thank you, my new friends.  I love to hear where you have hung the painting (kitchen, bathroom?) and that you are enjoying it. That makes my day.

Lastly, I want to thank my booth mate, Jeanne, and her husband Glen. Putting up that whole exhibit is a ton of work and we could not have done it without Glen. And Jeanne, what can I say? You are a wonderful artist and a beautiful person. We had so much fun. Let's do it again!

Thankfully, we now get a 362 day break.

Doing Business

Lately I have been focusing a fair amount on the business side of things. I'm trying to keep balance between my day job, my painting, marketing and some personal life. As my friend Lee Ann would say, I'm a very busy woman!

So in preparation of the Summer Art Market, I have designed a postcard around this image. VistaPrint is a life saver.

I am also busy painting and framing 20 small 6x6 paintings so there will be a variety of price points available.

It's kind of fun to think that there are probably 200 other artists in this city, in the same mad rush to prepare for SAM. It will be a relief when it's here.

The Art of Schlepping

On a recent trip to Mexico, I decided against bringing all of my oil painting paraphenalia. All that schlepping and dealing with customs and all seemed counter to the idea of a relaxing vacatiion. The work I had intended on doing was mainly limited to gathering material for future paintings.

But I still wanted to paint, so I packed a small watercolor kit, a block of paper, 3 soft brush pens and 2 brushes. If I didn't even pull them out, I wouldn't have felt guilty about having brought it all along.

So I took my gear along with my sunscreen, to the pool. It was something fun and light and different for me, so when I finally pulled it all out, it just flowed. And since these were sketches, I allowed myself to just let go. And I loved it.

I have to thank Mary Byrom for inspiring me with her sketchbooks full of fresh and wonderful paintings.

Here are a few more from that trip.

The old town part of Cabo.

Along the Pacific

And Cabo Harbor.

Yes I Can Can(vas)

Cabo San Lucas, usually sunny and dry, was rainy and cool for most of my trip. So when the clouds finally parted, we were rewarded with this beautiful sunset.

Back to the canvas discussion...Just as soon as I pronouned canvas as my lesser preferred painting surface, I found myself with these nice little canvas boards for small sketches. So off I went. The painting came along nicely, but when it came time for the photo, I was reminded of why I don't like it. Light jumps and reflects in unpredictable ways when in any direct light. It took me several attempts to get this little guy's picture.

Surface Matters

I'm always curious about the types of surfaces people prefer. Some painters are purely canvas folks.I like canvas just fine, preferably with just a little tooth, and even better if it's mounted on something hard.But my very favorite is painting on board. For years, masonite has been my favorite thing to paint on. I like the way it feels..solid, not slick and slippery like that some of those prepared boards.And then more recently, several people I know have been painting on birch plywood. Hey, I'm game!

So off to Home Depot. BTW, I LOVE to go there, or any hardware store for that matter.So much great stuff, it's mind boggling. But back to my plywood. It comes in a 4'x8' piece and is the most fine grained of all the plywoods. The really great thing is that Home Depot will cut it up for you, and for free if you're nice. So I came home with 8 boards of various sizes. I am very excited to paint on it. But first I have to sand down those rough edges created by the cuts. Painting takes a lot of prep work before laying down that first brush stroke.

I just love the whole messy process.

Cold Feet

For me, getting out to paint in the cold is 99% a head game. I went out in the middle of a snow squall, convinced I would end up home with nothing to show for the trip. But there was a break in the clouds and I went for it. This little sketch was done along Lake Creek in Edwards. A little fine tuning and I'll call it good.

How do the rest of you get motivated when you know you'll be dealing with your least favorite conditions?  What helped me stay out there was setting a time limit, and cranking up the car radio to sing along to the oldies.

oh yes, and the other 1% -...warm boots.