Summer Studio and Gallery

It's been a lot of work but now I think I can say the Summer Studio and Gallery in our barn/garage is just about complete thanks to my dear husband who did all the cutting, nailing and painting!  Thank you, Rick....

We used homosote panels painted dark brown to hold smaller works....

When the doors are open, the space is filed with north light--a perfect spot to finish plein aire paintings....

Smaller, unframed pieces reside in bins....

And I found a great old drawing table at a used furniture store--with a bit of sanding it's perfect....

Just a few more finishing touches and we'll be finished.  Then, we'll have an opening and you're all invited!  If you'd like a personal preview, just email me and we'll set it up!

Book Art and......

It has been a long time since my last post.  Life in and outside the studio has been busy and I've been preparing work to enter into local shows.  At last the long book made with round teabags is complete.....I've called it "The Book Worm."

The other book, made with tea sacks kindly supplied by Laura at Mon Vert Cafe, is also finished.  I've titled it "Reading Tea Leaves."

Combining printmaking with the teabags inspires me, so I've experimented with teabags on paper, using an old woodcut as an overlay.  I'm not sure where this could take me:

Also interesting has been to introduce beeswax with the work.  My brother Greg in California has sent me long pine needles that are filling tea sacks.....I then seal the sacks onto canvas with the beeswax:

Today I tried painting the filled sacks with beeswax, then stacking the bags on top of one another.  There seems to be a lot of opportunity to play with different combinations and configurations of wax and the bags, so I imagine I'll spend some time exploring this option over the next days.

Re-Working the Packaging for my Floral Line

My floral series of coloring pages have been packaged in a black case.  It looks elegant but doesn't show up well in shops so I've re-designed them with color.  You should see them in my venues in a couple of weeks when they are back from the printers.

A New Set of Coloring Pages

I've just finished the cover layout for Set 3 in the Mandala series of my adult coloring pages.  If all goes well with the proofs, I will be printing these and offering them for sale in a couple of weeks.