Bad Cat Studios Art and Garden Blog

Paintings, Paw Prints and Proud Poultry

2011-11-22T22:39:00.013-05:00

A few more pictures of the American Gothic painting...

I needed a pattern for the cat's dress. I really wanted it to be a paw print, but I didn't want to paint one over and over, so I carved a tiny paw print stamp!

I tested it out before using it to see where it needed some trimming,

I'm really happy with how it turned out! Check back for the finished piece!! Coming VERY soon.

It was a busy weekend. Dan and I also took a trip to Watkins Glen to visit Farm Sanctuary.

Every year they have a "Celebration for the Turkeys" where they set up a feast and let people feed the turkeys. Dan and I have been to this event many times, so we generally hang back until the crowds disperse. I like visiting with the turkeys after everyone else has gone off to the other barns.

Pictured below is Queenie who escaped a slaughterhouse in NYC and fled into the streets. Fortunately, she ended up here and has been happily grazing with the herd ever since.

And this is Lawrence, one of the sanctuary's newer additions. Lawrence is very interested in the cup of cider I am hiding behind my back.

Lawrence came to the sanctuary with Alexander and Blitzen, pictured below. Blitzen was a bit of a spaz in his early days. Check out the video. I promise, it will make you smile.

We like to participate in the Adopt a Turkey program that Farm Sanctuary promotes during the celebration. This is Skip, our adopted turkey. He was having very proud day. There was a lot of strutting and showing off going on.

New Paintings

2011-11-12T07:08:00.022-05:00

Just thought I should take you on a little tour of the studio to see what's been going on recently. I have been working on a painting for the 2012 Pawcasso Art Auction to benefit the Spay and Neuter Syracuse clinic. SANS is "a non-profit clinic devoted to the sterilization of unowned cats and dogs (shelter animals, feral cats) and pets belonging to low-income persons."

This will be a little different from my previous donations to the event. The image is going to be printed on t-shirts and posters and the current plan is to have a live auction for this piece at the end of the evening. Kind of exciting! And a little nerve wracking. I'm used to the silent auction process where I can quietly sneak a peek at the bids throughout the night!

So anyhow, here is the piece in progress...

It's based on the Grant Wood painting "American Gothic"

My helpers are always ready to assist...

Lately I've been doing complementary under paintings when I start a piece. I put down a layer of the opposite color first. I find it brings a little extra richness to the colors.

I will post more about this painting as it progresses. The next pictures are from Veteran's Day. I decided to take a break from "American Gothic" (which will need a name of its own soon and I am WIDE open for suggestions) and paint something just for me. It was a cold and kind of snowy day. The cats wanted to go out, but they didn't stay long. And here I must explain- I realize there are two schools of thought on the subject of outdoor cats. While I understand that outdoor cats are more likely to get injured or killed, and it also puts small wildlife in danger, I have a hard time looking at them staring out the window knowing how much they just want to soak up some sun. So I have a rule that they can go outside as long as they stay near me or at least within my sight. They have always been pretty good about this.

They're much less excited about going out in the cold, so as the storms started to roll in, so did the cats. I love the way the snow clouds look look so ominous...

I started this painting of the view from the studio window. Cinders is assisting.

Bandit doesn't like to stay out for long either when it's snowy.

You can see the tree with its yellow leaves that was the inspiration for this painting through the window. I loved how it looked with the purple-gray sky behind it.

Another storm appears on the horizon...

Just a few final touches...

It was a beautiful day. But I always find Veteran's Day a little distressing- everyone in my family has the day off except my father- the VETERAN.

What's left in the fall gardens...

2011-10-10T19:52:00.011-04:00

What a gorgeous weekend!! We had sunny skies and 80 degree weather for three days. For upstate New York in October, that's pretty awesome. I spent a lot of time in the gardens today and thought you might enjoy a little tour...

There are mums, of course...

and ornamental grasses.

This is a ceramic fish that I made. He's swimming through the sedum that usually looks nice even after the snow falls.

I love the berries on the flowering crab trees.

This is what most of the gardens look like right now. Some people cut down all the dead stuff, but I like to leave some things for the birds. They like to eat the seeds on the liatris plants and the coneflowers.

There are still annuals left, like the impatiens. My new mini hosta "Twist of Lime" has a little blossom waiting to come out. I hope it has time!

Hydrangeas...

Sweet peas...

And a sweet old dog keeping an eye on everything. Welcome Fall!

Illustration Friday: Boundaries

2011-09-15T22:13:00.001-04:00

Continued from last week...

Illustration Friday : Mysterious

2011-09-04T19:43:00.001-04:00

"The small bed, the even smaller food dish... it was all very mysterious. Were they going to make him diet again? Whatever the situation, Max was certain it did not warrant a bow."

Beautiful Distractions

2011-08-11T20:26:00.016-04:00

So... I had big plans to spend lots of time in the studio today tidying up and starting some new artwork, but there are baby juncos outside. How is one supposed to stay inside when THIS is going on right outside the window??

Susan Branch made me feel a lot better with her post today. She was having the same problem. I felt a lot less guilty about my messy studio and lack of paintings, but then of course I started missing Cape Cod again (She lives on Martha's Vineyard and I've been having beach blues since getting back- more on the trip later!). I am loving her blog.

Engine had a far more productive day in the studio. He is Chief Hummingbird Swatter. He spends quite a bit of time staring at the feeder and jumping at the window. This is funny once. Well, ok, maybe twice.

I also did some reading with Bandit and Cinders (also known as "The Old Man" and "The C".) But I did not one thing in the studio. And I am forgiving myself for that- no, I am COMMENDING myself for that. It was a great day. And I do have something to show you that I just finished recently....

You can see my faithful subject asleep under the easel.

Almost finished...

A few days it was cool enough to paint outside. I liked the picture below because Bandit is sniffing the air just like in the painting.

And there it is...

I titled it "Stories Told on a Warm Breeze". A long time ago before I even had Bandit, someone at a park told me that you have to be patient while walking your dog when they constantly stop to sniff things. "It's their version of reading a book," he told me. I never forgot that.

Traveling with me...

2011-08-08T20:54:00.005-04:00

I love Martha Stewart. I love her crafts, I love her magazines, I can't get enough. So of course, I am a frequent visitor to The Martha Blog. For about a year I have been thinking about how funny it is that she seems to do the same things I'm doing at the same time. Of course, not exactly in the same way. When Martha does things she is efficient, organized and she does things on a much grander scale. When I was visiting some local garage sales, she was hunting for bargains in Palm Beach. When I purchased and planted a couple of trees from a local nursery, she started a reforestation project. See? Same thing, just on a different scale. It's crazy.

A recent entry that Martha posted was titled “What It's Like to Travel With Me”. She starts out talking about how she met her hair stylist at 8 am AFTER a vigorous workout. Her housekeeper makes her a lovely breakfast while she has a cappuccino, and her wardrobe stylist packs her outfits. If you click through the photos, there's a picture of G.K. her Chow, who has been beautifully goomed for her departure. She leaves her property director with a list of things to do as she climbs into her brand new SUV where her driver will be taking her to the airport. Here she boards her private jet and flies in quiet comfort to her destination.

When I read this, I was in the midst of getting ready to leave for a week long trip to Plymouth and Cape Cod, and this is when I decided it was time to start posting my "Just Like Martha" series. Like most things that will show up in this series, traveling with me is a far cry from traveling with Martha, but I have fun making the comparisons anyway.

My travel morning starts out with me scrambling out of bed and scrubbing down my shower for our house sitters. I do this while showering to save time. Then I put new sheets on the bed and vacuum the house for the 14^th time in two days. It is still full of pet hair. I start some kind of petty argument with my husband because he doesn't seem to care that we didn't wash the windows or dust the piano, even though our house sitters will see this and know I am not Martha. Plus, I am really irritated that he is already finished packing. Maybe he has a wardrobe stylist that I don't know about! In between checking my list on the computer, I hop over to the Martha Blog to see what she's doing and I am surprised to see the travel article (even though it was reposted from an old entry, I still find this uncanny). There is no time to sit down for breakfast (even thought there WAS time to check the Martha Blog) and plus we are out of milk, so I eat a granola bar while I am unloading the dishwasher again for about the 4^th time in two days. I am still trying to figure out how two people generate so many dishes.

Dan complains that the only thing he didn't have time to do before the vacation was get his hair cut. I restrain myself from reciting the list of things I didn't get around to, only because there isn't time. We cram our luggage into our rusting Subaru that has recently begun making strange and unidentifiable noises. We do have new bikes that we are excited to try out, but the bike rack is designed for mountain bikes and may or may not hold them. We go ahead and strap them on hoping for the best. The car so full there is barely room for the dog, who did not get groomed before our departure. He is sporting a big yellow stain on his currently off-white coat where we gave him his flea and tick meds, and he appears to have small mop heads attached to his feet.

I leave a list of instructions for my aunt and uncle who very generously offered to stay at our home while we're away. My aunt is deathly allergic to cats. We have three. We leave an hour later that we were hoping to, and I realize about 6 miles from home that we forgot to bring something. But, we're on our way and we're not turning back. I prop my feet up on the dashboard because there isn't room for them on the floor, pull out the old lap top and start typing. Ah, Martha. Could we be related somehow?

If you should have a lovely garden....

2011-07-21T14:18:00.018-04:00

This was taken about a week ago. I couldn't do this today because it's about a billion degrees outside right now. But it makes for a perfect excuse to stay in and catch up on blogging. The main purpose of this post is to share some pictures from the National Garden Festival in Buffalo, NY. But I'm also trying to make sure I post artwork here, too, even though posting artwork is MUCH more scary than posting pictures of gardens. So here was an afternoon I spent sketching in my own gardens (which, I might add, have finally filled out and started to impress me!). Cinders and Bandit were more than thrilled to join me.

If you love gardens and live near Buffalo (and it's not a billion degrees out), I would highly recommend a trip to the Garden Festival. There are gardens open all over Buffalo (city and suburbs) on Thursdays and Fridays and then a featured neighborhood open on Saturdays and Sundays all throughout the month of July.

Dan and I headed out last Friday and toured several gardens in the Buffalo suburbs.

There are "rules" to follow, like don't bother the gardeners if they're in the middle of something, don't touch anything, etc... I spent a lot of time walking around with my hands behind my back because it is almost impossible for me to not touch things in a garden. This was kind of funny because all of the gardeners were more than happy to take you on a tour and answer any questions. Not one of them was "in the middle of" anything, other than entertaining the visitors. One of them ripped a branch off her curly willow tree and gave it to me when I mentioned I loved the tree. She told me to just plant it in the ground and I should have a curly willow, too very soon. Another gave me a rock from his garden that I mentioned I liked. I could not have been more excited about bringing home a rock and a stick from the garden tour- Dan found this all very amusing.

I have also fallen in love with mini hostas. I was kind of interested before the tour, and I had purchased two this year, but I can't believe how many different kinds there are!

We stayed at a fantastic place called the Roycroft Inn in East Aroura. Saturday morning we went for a quick hike to the Eternal Flame waterfall, which was totally amazing. Then we headed on to Lancaster, the featured neighborhood for that day.

This is the garden of Two Chicks and a Rooster. A little sign in the back yard said "If you should have a lovely garden, you should have a lovely life". YES.

They had awesome gardens and free slushies, which can really contribute to the loveliness of life in the summer.

AND they had a man cave. And here's where I lost him.

Next we went to visit "Ron the Recycler" as he is known by his neighbors. He finds old things and turns them into something else, like this dog rock complete with a lump of coal nose and driftwood bone.

Ron sent us to his sister and brother-in-law's house where I found a new project for Dan. Isn't this a great potting shed?

There were lots more gardens that we toured, and I can not wait to visit again. Thanks to all the gardeners for opening up your homes and a special thanks to the ones giving out sticks, rocks, and ice!

It spoke to me...

2011-07-01T21:31:00.011-04:00

This is the summer I am planning to really start focusing on getting my art "out there". I want to put more time into making paintings and learning how to market myself as an artist. All week I've been researching, sketching, planning out improvements to the Etsy store, the website and even starting up a Facebook page for Bad Cat Studios. So on this first day of July, I bought a piece of someone else's artwork. I've checked my plan over and over and that was definitely not on the list of things to do.

I saw it on Tuesday. I had just finished hanging some new paintings at Clear Lakes Animal Wellness in Skaneateles, a veterinary clinic where I display some of my work. I met Dan for lunch and then I planned to do a little bit of research in the Skaneateles galleries. I like to get pricing and framing ideas and I can usually get inspired to start painting by looking at other people's work. I had so much fun I decided to check out the Cazenovia galleries too. My last stop was The Gallery of CNY.

I was pretty tired by this time and I was only going to walk through quickly and head home. But just as I was heading for the door, I saw something that looked so familiar it stopped me right in my tracks. It was part of the road I grew up on.

The small oil painting by Linda Wesner was called Erie Canal 1, but you probably wouldn't know right away that the Erie Canal was part of the picture unless you knew this road. But I knew it. I knew it like a familiar friend.

This was the road where my family and I started our occasional Sunday morning bike rides to Erie Canal in the summer time. We would bike from there to Chittenango and have breakfast at Burger King (I know, it kind of defeats the whole exercise thing, but it was the 80's. We didn't know any better). There was the little white church and the barn that finally collapsed just last year. The longer I stared at that painting, the more I felt like the artist had painted it directly out of my memory. There was a tiny scrap of an old map showing Green Lake and Round Lake.

When my husband and I were living in an apartment, we had to keep our bikes at my parents' house and we would ride from there to the bike trails at Green Lake State Park.

And in the very bottom corner was a strange little pattern that at first seemed to be part of the road. Upon closer inspection, I realized it was the ghostly image of a canal boat. My grandmother used to take me for walks on the canal and we would look for the remains of the sunken barges that used to float along the waterway.

I didn't buy it right then. Like I said, this was not on my list of things to do. But three days later I had to go back. And now it's hanging in my studio. I spent my day unloading the dishwasher and then looking at the painting... hanging laundry, looking at the painting... weeding the garden, looking at the painting. I did this all day.

And I realized that even though "buying a piece of fine art" was not part of my business plan, maybe it should have been. I had a fantastic experience meeting the gallery owners (if you are in Cazenovia you MUST visit this gallery). They were very down to Earth people that really seemed to love their jobs. They were excited to talk about the artwork, but they were not pushy at all. I felt like I could wander around and look at the paintings without someone hovering over me or watching me from the corner.

But most importantly, I got a reminder of why I want to do this in the first place. As an artist, I want my work to make people happy. I want them to hang it in their homes and feel joy when they look at it. I want them to buy a painting because they feel like that painting belongs with them. I kind of always knew this, but experiencing it for myself was the best inspiration I could have found.

Welcome Summer

2011-06-23T21:38:00.012-04:00

Summer is finally here. The air outside last night was so thick and humid, you can see the haze hanging over the meadow. It was a nice night for a garden walk after the sun had gone down.

I can't wait to see this delphinium bloom. I just bought it this year at Baker's Acres.

The hummingbirds seem to really like the penstemon.

And here is one of our new babies waiting for his dinner!

The parents don't appreciate having their offspring photographed.

And finally, I think you'll have to open this picture to really see it. It's a time-lapsed photo of a firefly crawling up my arm. I had to hold very still and just as Dan clicked the shutter, a mosquito started attacking me. Not fun, but this photo was totally worth it!

Everson 60/60

2011-06-22T21:31:00.008-04:00

Every June for the past three years I have participated in 60/60, an event at the Everson Museum where 60 local artists have 60 minutes to create or finish a piece of artwork to be raffled off at the end of the evening. It's always a great time, but I think it's the fastest hour I experience all year. I tried working from a blank canvas last year, but I find it's much easier to talk to people if I start my painting the night before and just finish it during the hour. This year I worked on a painting of a fox.

Here is the finished product! I titled it "A Sunny Corner in the Meadow". Below is a picture of all the paint pails that people can put their raffle tickets in.

Perfect timing

2011-06-07T21:58:00.017-04:00

This weekend, Dan and I walked the Westcott Art Trail where about 25 local artists were displaying their work. It was a lot of walking, but really worth the time. Most of the work was set up under tents in front yards, but some artists had work set up in their back yards with beautiful gardens. I fell in love with this fat bunny sculpture by Candace Rhea, (you can see him in the bottom right corner) but I like to think about things before purchasing.

Dan found some artwork that caught his eye in Tim See's pottery booth. He bought a couple of very manly mugs , one of which appears to be made of metal. We had so much fun visiting all the artists and gardens that we didn't have time to see it all. We went back on Sunday to see the rest of the artists, and I was still thinking about the bunny. We stopped at Sabrina Nedell's booth (also know ad ADK Girl).

She had some fantastic ceramic pieces for sale. I bought a bird house and a feeder. I also really liked her fairy houses and mugs.

Right next to her booth, I ran into one of my "Squam Sisters", Linda. It was SO great to see an old Squam friend!

Then we went over to see my friend Jen Gandee who runs Gandee Gallery in Fabius. I've taken a few ceramics classes with her and I couldn't wait to see her new hypertufa art.

Dan was also very taken with the hypertufa gardens and ended up purchasing one made by Jen's daughter.

So finally it was time to go see the bunny and I had pretty much decided that if he was there, I'd bring him home. We headed back to Candace's backyard and there he was sitting on the deck. Then I made the mistake of stopping to say hello to Marley, the big gray poodle. As I was petting Marley, a woman picked up the fat bunny... and never put him down. “I've been thinking about him since I saw him yesterday!” she told Candace. So had I!!!

It was kind of sad and really funny at the same time. I asked the lady if I could take a picture of him, and I told her that she'd gotten to him just in time because I'd come back to get him too! She looked really sorry, so I told her I was glad he was going to a good home. She told me all about her gardens in her small city lot that she'd been working on for a long time and where she was going to put her new rabbit sculpture.

Candace over heard us talking and she said she had another rabbit down in the studio that I could look at, but he was very different. She brought him up and handed him to me. He was different, but totally adorable (AND quite a bit less expensive!!) so I was very excited to take him home. What perfect timing that all turned out to be!

And speaking of back home, we'd spent a majority of our weekend at the Art Trail so there was quite a to-do list waiting there for us. And there wasn't much left of the day. But every now and then, I think it's important to forget the to-do list and just be.

So, even though they're not all neat and tidy yet, here's a peek at what's coming up in the gardens, including some laundry on the clothes line... there is nothing like line-dried sheets in the summer!

While I was mulching the lilac garden, a Swallowtail kept landing on the leaves of the peony bush. It took me a while to realize that she was laying eggs! I don't know if you can make them out, but I put some circles around them to help you find the eggs.

Card #3

2011-04-05T21:38:00.003-04:00

Here it is... third in the Endangered Species card series!

Birthday cards

2011-04-01T21:41:00.007-04:00

My niece turns three tomorrow. Every year I make her a hand painted birthday card of an endangered species. I can't show you the one I'm working on right now, but here is a peek at the last two years...

This was her first birthday card. The image on the front is the Karner Blue butterfly. I was working on this card in a hotel room during a weekend getaway. Dan had gone off to get take out while I finished it up. I love painting when it's raining outside.

The Black-footed ferret was the chosen critter for the 2nd birthday. The paint is just about dry on the current birthday card, so back to work!

Pawcasso 2011

2011-02-25T11:01:00.011-05:00

The snow is coming down hard outside, but it's a great day to be snowed in. I have tons to do to get ready for the 2011 Pawcasso Silent Auction tomorrow! If you're in the Syracuse area, it's a lot of fun and there are some great deals on artwork. I dropped off my auction pieces about a month ago, now I'm organizing and pricing work for the table I'll have in the lobby. Engine has once again donated one of his wire sculptures, and I've donated a print, a jewelry piece, and an original acrylic painting. Dan has been making a contribution, too. He has been making beautiful floating frames for my original pieces. Usually I paint them black, but he made this one out of oak and it looked so nice we decided to leave it natural.

I also want to show you a new piece I'll have for sale. This tiny book is a collection of prints of my Polar Animal series. The book itself was inspired by the work of the brilliant Geninne over at Geninne's Art Blog. She does beautiful work and her blog is one of the first places I turn when I'm in a creative slump.

And in between the snow storms, I've been enjoying watching the goldfinches flocking to the maple tree outside the studio. Even thought they're wearing their faded winter feathers, they still add a nice little splash of color to the gray outside.

Valentine's Day

2011-02-23T16:06:00.002-05:00

I painted this for Dan for Valentine's Day. Prints available soon in my Etsy shop!

Surrender

2011-02-02T21:24:00.003-05:00

A painting for this week's Illustration Friday topic "Surrender". The garden has definitely given up.

Shhh...

2011-01-24T09:48:00.044-05:00

I have to admit that I hesitated to publish this post because I'm pretty sure I'm about to give away one of Pennsylvania's best kept secrets. This past weekend we attended a wedding in Gettysburg. We had made reservations at The Shining Dawn Bed and Breakfast in Hanover. Even though it wasn't right in Gettysburg, we thought it was funny that on their website they mention that the breakfasts are vegetarian, but "meat-atarins" can make special arrangements if they really want to have that bacon with breakfast. Now, there were other reasons too- the place looked really beautiful, but that comment was such a shoe-on-the-other-foot kind of thing that we couldn't resist booking a room. We're usually the ones making special meal arrangements. So anyhow, we arrived late Friday evening and were met at the door by the owners Helen and Bruce. They helped us with our things and gave us a little tour of the main level and then left us to enjoy the house (they live in an apartment on the top floor). Within a few minutes of walking in the door, I had left any stress behind and was completely in love with this place. Some people have talent for sports, some for art, Helen and Bruce are masters of calm.
Dan's parents arrived shorty after we did and had the same reaction. So here is a little tour for you...
Here is the foyer that took my breath away every time I entered. There was a meditation room complete with pillows and Tibetan singing bowls, a beautiful living room where we all spent lots of time reading the books from the zen-themed gift shop (where we later added significantly to our bill),

and my favorite place, the sun room.

The wedding was beautiful and Gettysburg was only a short drive away.

Dan's uncle had brought some presents for Dan that he'd found at a garage sale...

On Sunday morning I got up at 6, used the meditation room and then did some journaling in the sun room, enjoying the fountain, the tea station,

and the gorgeous stained glass windows that changed colors as the sun came up. There was a fridge in the sun room stocked with sodas (we aren't soda drinkers, but we still thought it was pretty cool) and a basket of complimentary snacks.

I spent the rest of the morning there until breakfast. And speaking of breakfast. Poached pears, pineapple parfait, German apple pancakes... need I say more?

The town of Hanover had some fun little shops, too. There was the Clark's outlet, a great bead shop, a coffee shop/tanning salon called The Bakery...odd combination, cute name, and a baker that seemed to enjoy giving out free samples! We were NEVER hungry on this trip. Then Dan spotted the penguins in the gift shop window. I could tell from across the street they'd be coming home with us. Here is a picture of the same shop from a book on Hanover history that we found in the reading room.

So we headed home on Sunday completely relaxed and loaded down with boxes of shoes, some medieval armor, and a bag of penguins. What more can you ask of a weekend road trip?

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-22T17:27:00.007-05:00

The cards are mailed out, the shopping is done and Mother Nature has provided a beautiful winter wonderland in my back yard. Dan and I went for a quick walk when I got home from work on the 22nd to see all the ice on the trees. I love living up in the hills. It was raining on my way home, but I knew when I hit a certain elevation (about 2 miles from home) it would be snowing. Now on the 24th a light dusting of snow has covered all the ice on the trees.

Most of the presents are wrapped too, but we had a little problem this year. We did some rearranging of the livingroom furniture which meant the tree had to go in a place where we cannot barricade it from the animals. This is a problem because the cats like to eat the ribbons and the dog likes to unwrap and eat the presents. So I bought a little tree at Michaels and put it on a table in the studio. We've been able, so far, to keep everything safe in there. The cats can still get in there if they try hard enough, but they've been more interested in all the empty boxes lying around the house from Amazon deliveries.

I've done a few paintings, but I have to wait till after Christmas to post them!
I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday!

2010 Christmas Card

2010-12-05T19:54:00.022-05:00

For the past several years I've been making the Christmas card that we send out to friends and family. Every year I do it a bit differently and every year, I get the a few people that ask "how did you do this?". So, here you go. The making of the 2010 Christmas Card....
Step one is coming up with an idea. This is the worst- absolute WORST- part of the process for me. Every year I say I'm going to do this in August and every year I'm starting to panic around Thanksgiving. It usually only takes me a few days to a week to decide what I want to do, but it's painful. Since 2001 I have been featuring the pets in the card so I've tried to stick with that tradition which makes it harder to keep things new. There are only so many different ways to depict the naughtiness of these critters at Christmas time. This year, I decided to base the design on the Demotivational posters from Despair.com. LOVE these. I wasn't sure how many people were familiar with these posters, but once I sketched out this idea, I had to run with it.
The next step is sketching. I do several rough sketches of my idea and then decide on one or two for reference shots. My models are very cooperative when there is food involved, so Dan and I had a pretty good time with this photo shoot.

After gathering photo reference, I start refining the sketch. In this case, I actually pieced together a sketch in Photoshop using the actual images I'd collected. Then I draw it out in the size I will be using for the final piece.

Here, Engine has ventured into the room and peace in the studio will be short lived. He's pretending he's more interested in the birds, but I know I have a matter of minutes, (seconds, maybe) before the drawing process becomes severely impeded.

Here I have created a sketch I am happy with and I'm transferring it to a piece of illustration board. I don't want to draw it again, so I just color the back with graphite and trace it onto the board. I hope it doesn't move at this stage. As you can see, this is not easy. Still not as hard as coming up with the idea in the first place, though.

The beginning of the final piece. It's hard to see the lines after the transfer so I go over everything one more time with pencil before starting the painting process.

After the pencil lines are drawn in, I paint an outline around everything.

Then we do a little color check...

and start painting. This is my favorite part.

When I'm happy with the finished painting, I scan it and bring it into Photoshop for some final touch-ups. The lights are airbrushed to create a glow and other details are adjusted.

I add the background and the text and save it as a JPEG file on a thumb drive. I bring it over to the local drugstore, print out 4x6 satin finish photos that are then glued onto blank cards, and there you have it! And I'm finished early this year! I'm REALLY happy with this year's design and I'm looking forward to having a little extra time before Christmas to do some more painting that doesn't revolve around a deadline. I will have prints available on my Etsy shop if you are interested!

November

2010-11-11T20:48:00.010-05:00

November 2010 is having trouble deciding what kind of autumn it wants to portray. We had some snow last week and some frost early this morning, but Dan and I had lunch on the front porch in shorts and t-shirts this afternoon. I have no complaints. I love both types of weather. And I certainly can't criticize November- I can't seem to sit down and focus on one kind of art. I really want to do more painting, but last week I was spending all my time in the studio making jewelry. It's less scary than painting (for me). And certainly less scary than posting my paintings on the net. But I finally started working on this:

It's a house I saw on a walk Dan and I took last November. I've been thinking about painting it for a while. I have a ways to go, but I'm happy that I actually sat down and picked up a brush today. Bandit seemed very content to spend his morning under my table keeping my slippers warm.
And if November could settle down and start acting like late autumn, perhaps I could start spending more time in the studio.

Happy New Year!

2010-09-06T20:04:00.003-04:00

So I guess it's finally over. I don't know how summer disappears so fast. To me, tonight is like a second New Year's Eve. Except I don't have the next day off, it's just the beginning of a new year. All my handmade calendars start in September- I start teaching again tomorrow. I'm excited, but it's never easy to let go of summer. I'm not going to bother saying much more about that since I know that no one wants to hear the whinings of someone who has just finished up a two month long vacation. So I'll leave you with the image above which I hope to have up for sale in print form in my Etsy shop soon, as well as a few images from summer 2010...

Dan and I got really into hunting for old furniture to paint for the bedroom. More posts on that soon (I think we went a little overboard), but these are a few treasures we brought back from the Madison-Bouckville weekend. We ended up finding more goodies at sales along the way than at the actual antique show. You can see what the weather was like through the glass door. It did that ALL DAY. It was a great day to come home, put on sweatshirts and make homemade granola while drinking hot tea!

And also, I have completely lost control of my vegetable garden. Again. But I grew red peppers this year which I am very proud of. Usually the peppers rot before they turn red. I used them tonight to make this recipe which was delicious! BUT, instead of Mancini fried peppers, I used my own peppers fried in a little canola oil with salt and pepper.

Hope you all have a wonderful 2010-2011 school year!

Caged

2010-08-12T10:10:00.005-04:00

This is my submission for Illustration Friday's theme "caged". The rabbits almost completely destroyed this one kind of annual I had planted in the garden this year. So when I found this wire object at a garage sale, I wasn't sure what it was, but I knew just what to do with it. Of course, I was only able to save one flower, but at least it's a start.

Harvesting

2010-08-10T22:33:00.003-04:00

I was looking forward to relaxing for a day after coming home from vacation. The garden had made other plans. I spent all morning hunched over rows of green beans and then most of the afternoon making salsa and blanching and freezing. We've got a good crop this year!

Vacation

2010-08-09T21:06:00.021-04:00

I love NY, but every year I have a fling (or two) with Massachusetts. We just returned from our third annual Plymouth trip. Happy to be home, but I always miss it.

It's so easy to unwind when you can wake up in the morning and just step into the ocean. Not that I need any more, but I always find beautiful rocks and shells to bring home. We brought Bandit along this year, and he seemed to really like wading and walking on the beach. He tried to drink the water once, but he learned quickly.

We really enjoy Plymouth, but one of the real perks is its proximity to the Cape. Our two favorite towns are Sandwich and Chatham. We love to bike the CCRT from Dennis into Chatham which we did on Monday and Friday (when it was about 90 outside- yuck!). We found a nice place for lunch where Dan was able to create his own sandwich. When the waiter brought it to our table, he asked to watch Dan take the first bite because he'd "never seen anything like that before". Being vegetarian has brought out his inner artist- he's very creative with food. This sandwich is made up of hummus, cranberry chipotle relish, provolone cheese, sprouts, roasted red peppers, lettuce, tomatoes and Granny Smith apples. Fortunately, it was better than it sounds. I have a rule when we go out to eat- he has to order first. I sometimes like to steal his ideas. But not this time.

I stuck with something right off the menu- grilled portobello mushroom and sundried tomato sandwich.

Then we headed out to the Chatham Fish market where we could watch the harbor seals from the pier.

We try to do something new each time we visit the Cape. This time we decided to try out a boat tour in Hyannis. It had been raining that day, and there was no one in line for anything but the Pirate Adventure which was mostly parents with little kids. We ended up getting a private tour on a big catamaran out to a lighthouse and the Kennedy compound! I highly recommend the Bay Spirit Tours- lots of fun and the father and son that run the tours were great to talk to. And apparently, even if you're the only people in line, they'll take you out anyway!
So, like I said, we brought the dog with us this time. This was my biggest concern about the trip this year. I can't bring myself to board him while we're away and understandably, it's not easy to find people that want to spend a week of their summer living at someone else's house. But here is where I have to say, hats off to you, Massachusetts. You really know how it's done. You may have some serious traffic problems getting on and off the Cape, and yes, you had a few sharks on the beaches this year. But you have towns connected by bike trails with little cafes and ice cream shops along the way! Your cars stop for pedestrians! You let dogs into your stores! But MOST of all... you had a pet resort where I could leave my dog from 8-6 for $14.50 per day where he stayed in air conditioned comfort or under shaded tents in the play yard. The groomers did the best grooming job on him that I have ever seen, and he now insists on being referred to as MR. Bandit.

Usually when we ask if he wants to go home, Mr. Bandit will jump around, barking happily. This was not the case on Sunday morning. Maybe he was just tired, or maybe he was too hot, but now when I see those paws wiggling away when he dreams, I'm pretty sure he's running on the beach behind closed eyes.

What do you love?

2010-06-22T21:32:00.008-04:00

Junebug... he's just begging to be painted, don't you think?

The end of the longest day of the year

This picture probably needs no explanation

Inspired by Penelope (once again!), here is what I love right now:

The anticipation of summer on the way
Junebugs
The longest day of the year
A husband who loves animals
Yoga classes with Mom
Thunderstorms
Fat cats sunbathing on hardwood floors

And what I love most right now (ok, BESIDES the husband) is Firefly Walks. We've been taking a walk around the yard almost every night to see the fireflies. I think they are one of the most amazing creatures... and seeing them is such massive numbers in the meadow this time of year is incredible. There are so many that they bump into us every once in a while during our walk. I think I will have to start another firefly painting soon. Especially since I can't seem to photograph them.

More garden tours

2010-05-01T21:26:00.004-04:00

After touring the Cleveland Botanical Gardens, we visited the Secrest Arboretum at Ohio State University. The timing was perfect because all of the crabapple trees were in bloom. I came away with lots of ideas for the gardens at home. And that's just what we need at home- more stuff to do!

Cleveland Botanical Gardens

2010-04-27T21:58:00.014-04:00

Over the weekend we traveled to Ohio for a friends wedding. Before our trip, I did a quick Google search of places to visit in north eastern Ohio and found the Cleveland Botanical Gardens. The Botanical Garden consists of ten acres of different outdoor gardens, as well as the Eleanor Armstrong Smith Glass House, two indoor rooms that replicate the environments of the rainforests of Costa Rica and the spiny desert of Madagascar.
Inside the "Cloud Forest" they did an incredible job of making it feel like you were really walking around outside. There were also bridges up above the trees that gave us a bird's eye view of the forest below.

These leafcutter ants are really doing a number on the plant in the left corner of the photo. If you look closely, you can see them carrying their leaf pieces across the vine in the next picture.

The Cloud Forest was filled with beautiful butterflies...

This tiny bird lives in the Madagascar section of the Glass House,

along with a VERY slow chameleon

and a Mossy Tailed Leaf Gecko.

Outside, the spring flowers were in bloom. The hostas are coming up and getting ready to cover the tulips after their blooms fade.

The Japanese Garden was beautiful... I have new plans for my hill garden at home!

New Banner!

2010-04-21T22:06:00.002-04:00

Wow. It took me less time to paint the image than it took to get it on the blog. Ok. Now that we're over that hurdle, maybe we can get back to posting! That I can handle.

Winter wonders

2010-01-09T14:50:00.004-05:00

So I've been living in awe of nature over the past three days. Everytime I think I've seen the most beautiful winter landscape ever, God taps me on the shoulder and points out something new. EVERYTHING is completely covered in white, and with the deep gray of the sky, it just takes your breath away. It started three days ago on my way home from work- deep gray sky, totally white trees, deer in the field. I ran inside to get my camera as soon as I got home. But by the time I was suited up to go outside, all the light had changed. Still beautiful, but everything was blue. The next day I brought my camera to work with me and took pictures on the way in. Interestingly, it turns out that our little town was the only place that had this type of landscape. Once you dropped down a little in elevation, there wasn't any ice or snow on the trees at all. So Dan had not seen this yet because it's dark when he goes to work and dark by the time he gets home. I kept telling him how amazing it was and he listened, but I could tell he didn't know what I was talking about. So this morning we got up and went for a drive all over town because the trees are still covered. We went for a walk around the back yard and spent a good chunk of time today staring out the windows after we were too cold to be outside anymore. I know a lot of people are not big fans of winter, but I can't imagine being without it.

Traditions

2009-12-23T14:01:00.006-05:00

Oops. I guess I got a little behind in my blogging. We'll see if I can keep up in the new year. Anyhow, this post was inspired by a post on Penelope's blog titled, "good things- traditions". I love the holidays and I really enjoy hearing how other people celebrate. My family has so many traditions I thought I should share a few of my favorites. One of the newest is the wreath making party that my husband started. He wanted a casual, adults only gathering with something fun for the guests to do. So we covered the studio with plastic tarps, purchased some bundles of pine boughs and invited people to come over and make a wreath. Or to just stop by and say hello. Last year the party divided- men in the kitchen talking and having wine and the ladies (and one brave male guest!) made the wreaths in the studio. This year, a few more men got brave and ventured into the "wreath room". They all did a great job!
Another yearly tradition is the "Tree Hunt". The whole family gets together for breakfast at a restaurant and then we head out to a tree farm to find a tree for my parents' house. Usually, Syracuse University hosts the Hendricks Chapel Christmas Concert that same evening. My aunt and I have attended that for at least the past nine or ten years. I like to hear the handbell ringers and at the end of the performance, the choir lights candles and everyone sings Silent Night.
Some of the other traditions are:
- Mom and Dad's White Elephant Party
- Driving around the neighborhood to see the Christmas lights
- Dan and I open gifts to each other on Christmas Eve
- making cookies
-watching Christmas movies
-Girls scrapbooking night

Daily Paintings

2009-08-19T11:25:00.007-04:00

Here are all 5 daily paintings from last week...

And in case YOUR garden is overflowing too, here is a great marinade recipe for veggie kabobs:
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
4 cloves of garlic (chopped)
salt and pepper to taste

Marinate veggies in sauce for about 20 minutes and place on skewers (remember to soak wooden skewers in water for 30 minutes before grilling!). Grill on medium heat for about 20 minutes, basting occasionally with leftover sauce.

I had enough marinade leftover to pour on top of a veggie pasta dish the next day.

Try again...

2009-08-11T21:30:00.009-04:00

It was probably a bit optimistic of me to start the whole Daily Painting project the week we had my grandma's memorial service and out of towners flying in to stay with us for the weekend. So I forgave myself and started over this week. And hopefully by tomorrow I'll be feeling like an artist again. The past two days I've been feeling very uninspired and not too thrilled with my work. But I painted anyway and I'll post later. In the meantime, you can enjoy this picture of my studio friend that I have been trying to photograph all summer. She's very timid.

Don't know why I can't find anything to paint when I'm surrounded by this all day...

And here are a few images from the weekend. We all went for a nice walk after the memorial and we got some pretty good family photos. It takes a few tries to get good kid shots, though. B likes to help out by holding the other kids down by their heads, but he wasn't holding down the right person. This is one of about four shots that look almost the same. G thinks it's pretty funny to jump up as soon as we're ready to take the picture.

Daily Painting: Day 2

2009-08-05T11:28:00.005-04:00

So I put off my daily painting even later yesterday and this is what the sky looked like while I was working. And now I have even more to distract me now that this arrived in the mail:

It's a sketchbook from the Hand-Book Journal Co. that I discovered on Geninne's Art Blog and then ordered from Dick Blick. It's hard to find a nice book that will take watercolor that doesn't have the big, thick watercolor paper, but this one is supposed to be able to handle it. We will see!

Daily Painting: Day 1

2009-08-04T13:44:00.004-04:00

Here is my first of 15 daily paintings. I spent a good portion of the morning yesterday harvesting and freezing beans. Of course, this meant I had to put off painting until the last minute of the day. Procrastination is my true art.

Just do it!

2009-08-02T12:05:00.002-04:00

Ok. I'm finally going to open an etsy shop. If I write it down publicly, will I actually do it? We'll see. I don't have a huge amount of traffic here yet, so there will only be a few people to hold me accountable. So here is my big plan for this week:
Open the Etsy shop
Get the web page up and running
Take the Painting a Day challenge
Host a giveaway (really looking forward to this one)!

The Etsy shop I hope to have open by the end of today. As I am pretty computer-challenged, this is going to be a big deal if it happens, but that's the plan. I've been a member of Etsy for a long time, but have just never gotten around to putting any items in the shop. I'm tired of thinking about it. It's time to make it happen.
The web page requires a lot of help from the husband, so I have to be a little more flexible with that.
The Painting a Day Challenge... I've seen a lot of artist that participate in this. I am going to bend the rules a little since this is my first time. My challenge for myself will be to create 15 painting over the course of three weeks- one a day on the weekdays. I will be starting tomorrow. I am a little scared.
The giveaway is probably my favorite... What I'd like to do is give away a print of one of the daily paintings at the end of the three weeks. I will give out more details on that later.
So that's that. I guess I'd beeter head over to Etsy and see what I need to do!

Putting the gesso on the masonary panels for the Painting a Day challenge

Putting on the second coat of gesso and watching Martha Stewart. She would have these all done with 5 coats and would probably OWN Etsy before I even figure out how to post anything.

Unpacking shouldn't be this hard

2009-07-31T12:45:00.005-04:00

These pictures are from a couple weeks ago, but I had to share. I had big plans to get unpacked COMPLETELY on the first day back from our Plymouth trip this year. The cats had big plans, too. Their plans involved re-covering everything with hair and making sure no unpacking would get done on my first day back. There's an unwritten rule at our house that pretty much I follow and my husband doesn't. "Don't move a comfy cat". So I figured Lia would probably only need a little time sleeping on the suitcase and I would go put other things away. My plan was to return in a bout half an hour and break the house rule.

Apparently, they work in shifts.

Pottery Class... the end results

2009-07-31T08:23:00.005-04:00

This is ONE of the tables of pottery that five ladies created over the course of 6 weeks. I signed up for this class at The Gandee Gallery in Fabius, not really sure what to expect. Turned out to be not only a great learning experience, but more relaxing that yoga (once I got going)!

Two of my four class mates who provided endless entertainment and several bottles of wine! Maybe that's why it was so relaxing.

Scully, the studio dog. Every studio should have a dog. Even Bad Cat Studios has a dog- we should probably jut reconsider the cats...

Goodbye

2009-07-27T13:33:00.003-04:00

Monday June 29, 2009

Dear Grandma,
I'm wearing that big, goofy, fold-out hat you gave me so I can go out to the garden and do some weeding. I'm going to weed the garden, clean the house, make dinner and go on about things just like you'd want me to. I won't promise not to cry. And I won't promise not to have moments of overwhelming sadness. But I promise I will remember how to make Garbage Soup and how to play the card game Spite and Malice. I will write letters and thank-you notes and make rhubarb pies. I will make crafts with my niece and nephews and I will give things away. I will be kind to animals and I will be a good teacher. I will always believe that nothing is more important than family. I will never forget who you were and I will always remember who I am. And I will miss you for the rest of my life.

And it's not even summer yet!

2009-06-13T22:11:00.012-04:00

Back when we first started dating, Dan and I used to love to squeeze as many activities into a day as we possibly could. It was early June and one of us would often remark, "And it's not even summer yet!" surprised by how much fun we were able to cram into our evenings and weekends and knowing that when summer came, we'd have even more to do.
This weekend reminded me of that. But it also reminded me that I'm a little older than I was then. I'm so ready for a nap.
I went rollerblading on Friday after work and when I headed for home, I got stuck in Balloon Fest traffic. I had forgotten it was going on this weekend. So Dan and I scarfed down dinner and ran out to the clearing to see if we could see the balloons. The wind was JUST right. All of the balloons headed straight towards us and ended up landing all over our neighborhood. As you may remember from a previous post, Bandit is NOT a fan of balloons. So even though Dan and I really enjoyed this, we ended up having to put Bandit in the house because I was afraid he'd have a heart attack. The balloons were coming right over our house!

The Barn Balloon landed down the street from us. This was Bandit's least favorite balloon.

We spent all evening running from the clearing to the yard and up and down the streets (literally running- did I mention that I'm getting old?) chasing balloons.
Then we spent most of today in Ithaca. We took my parents out to Moosewood and then wandered around Cornell where my dad went to school. We walked through all the gardens, checked out the buildings and got to go up in the bell tower for a little one man concert that was being performed. Those bells are REALLY loud when you're standing directly under them. My dad was a little dismayed, though, by all the new buildings and changes over the last 40 years. "How's a man supposed to reminisce if they keep changing stuff?" he asked at one point.

And, since I have another show coming up at the coffee shop, I thought I'd better spend a little time in the studio today, so I worked on the butterfly painting when we got home.

There's always a distraction... I kept looking up and seeing more balloons out the window, so I finally took a break and walked Bandit down to the clearing to see if they were headed this way again. But the wind wasn't quite right tonight- probably for the best. I need to put curtains up in the studio and chain myself to the table or I am never going to get these paintings done. And it's not even summer yet!

Spring

2009-06-06T21:40:00.008-04:00

I've been waiting to post the pictures of these little friends... I wanted to make sure everything turned out ok first! Dan was looking for the step ladder some time in mid May, and when he finally found it in the shed, he also found a nest on top of it. This was after he was dive-bombed by the mama robin. A few days later, I had to go down to the shed to get mulch and I brought the camera with me. The robin was not in the nest at the time so I reached up and took a picture of the eggs. Every couple of days I would sneak in and take another picture. It was amazing how fast those little birds grew. And how they came out of those tiny eggs! It was kind of scary, really. I know some of the neighborhood cats wander around near our shed sometimes. Ordinarily, I don't mind the cats dropping by for a visit, but I worried about these birds everyday. Today when I stopped by for a picture a bird flew out of the nest, but it wasn't the mother. The babies have learned to fly. So I guess we can have our step ladder back now. I don't even remember what we needed it for in the first place.

SPCA Pet Walk

2009-05-22T21:55:00.004-04:00

Dan and I participated in the Finger Lakes SPCA pet walk last weekend. I have to shamefully admit that it was really hard for me to tear myself away from the gardens, but it was worth it. Worth it, of course, to raise money for this organization AND to get this photo...

Look carefully at the front porch of this house. There is a very angry looking cat sitting there watching the dogs go by (and there were at least 50-60 dogs or more). What's really funny is that he was out there LAST year too. I thought this was hilarious, but I didn't have my camera on me then. I kept telling Dan that I hoped he'd be back again, out watching the dog parade, thinking how this is probably the worst day of the year. Dan said "No way- that was a once in a lifetime shot." But sure enough, there he was.

He's probably thinking he'd like to plant some land mines under the sidewalks for next year.

Snow Bunny

2009-03-02T19:03:00.003-05:00

Thought you might like to see this year's snow sculpture. For some reason, I feel like I missed part of winter if I don't make at least one snow creation during the season. But the snow has to be just right and hopefully it's "just right" on a weekend! This was created on a Sunday in early February.

The Lion

2009-03-01T21:04:00.003-05:00

The lion-like entrance that March is supposed to make will probably be arriving tonight. And I think I've reached my limit. I'm all done with both sets of skis for this year. I've had enough fun trudging through the waist-deep snow (seriously, I actually find that fun) and watching the dog pretend to be a dolphin. I've made my obligatory yearly snow sculpture. I am ready for the lamb. I've ordered all my seeds and they arrived a few days ago. The snow has melted enough for me to see the remnants of last year's gardens, and I'm getting the bug again. I'm ready to see some color. But I think I have a few more weeks at least before I get my wish. So I will try to enjoy these last few days of confinement and get some more housework done before I can't stand to be inside anymore. I spent Saturday cleaning the kitchen and part of the studio and then today I helped my sister-in-law with her wedding scrapbook. I also went to my parents' house to visit with my sister, brother and all the nephews and the niece.
Friday night was the third annual Pawcasso silent auction to benefit our local spay and neuter clinic. Engine (pictured above) donated one of his many wire sculptures and I did a painting of Lia. We didn't do as well as we have in previous years, but for a silent auction during a depression, I think we did pretty well.

The Altered Page: Natural Evolution

2009-02-22T19:32:00.001-05:00

There is an interesting winter project going on over at The Altered Page called "Disintegration". If you want to participate (check out the link below), all you have to do is create an art piece that you place securely outside, and expose it to the elements until sometime in April or May. Photograph it when you put it outside and then we will all photograph the pieces again at the end of the project. I wedged this into the branches of a pine tree that we planted last spring that didn't make it. This will be its last hurrah before we have to remove it. Hopefully I tied the piece up tight enough! As I was securing it, dark storm clouds started rolling in and it started snowing pretty hard. I took the idea of the tea bag from Judy Wise, who is also participating. I am curious to see how this turns out. One more reason to look forward to May!
The Altered Page: Natural Evolution

Welcome to 2009

2009-01-03T08:05:00.003-05:00

There's another Flickr mosaic project floating around... Here are the new questions!

Looking back on 2008, what might the theme have been?
If 2008 was a movie, who would play you?
What was your greatest gift of 2008?
What is your New Year Resolution, or, what are you committing to this year?
If January could be represented by one song, what would it be?
What do you wish for your body in 2009?
Name one new thing you would love to try in the New Year.
What do you long for 2009 to bring?
If that happened, how would you feel?
Where would you love to vacation in 2009 if money were no object?
What would you like the theme of 2009 to be?
If 2009 was a book, and the title was 5 words or less, what might the title be?

Ringing in the New Year

2008-12-31T23:53:00.003-05:00

For as long as I can remember, my family has always ended the year laughing our heads off with a game. It's a good way to end 365 days- or was it 366 this year? Anyhow, I only have a couple minutes before I have to go give the husband the New Year's kiss, so I will make this quick. I have chosen my word for the year. I'm going to work on "Love". Not just the people I already love, that would be too easy. I'm talking about the challenging people. This is probably going to be harder than I think. But it's late, and that's the word I'm sticking with. Gotta run!

Fireside Reads

2008-11-09T19:51:00.002-05:00

Winter is on its way and it's time to start a big stack of wonderful books near your fireplace or your favorite chair. I found this book by accident at my local Barnes and Nobles. Our eyes met from across the room and I fell in love. And I'm sorry, sometimes you CAN judge a book by its cover. It is the most perfect "fireside read" I have ever found and the illustrations are just beautiful. It has inspired me to create my own illustrated journal- we'll see how long that idea lasts, but I'm pretty excited to try.

One More Ghost

2008-10-26T20:10:00.003-04:00

I almost forgot to show you this because it was taken in my pre-digital days and required a scan! Anyhow, if you're headed out to any Halloween parties this year and you want to bring the grossest dessert anyone has ever seen, I've got the recipe for you. Now, I've seen people bring yucky looking food to parties before- dirt cake, finger cookies, etc. It was always creative and cool, but it was never too gross to eat. This will make you gag. Some people won't eat it. But if you can force down that first spoonful, you're in for a treat. Feast your eyes on Andrea and Heather's Kitty Litter Cake:

They actually went out and purchased a new kitty litter pan and scoop and washed them. Then they filled the pan with a mixture of pudding and crumbled yellow cake (I think they added a little blue-green food color to some of it). And as an added bonus, melted tootsie rolls. I dare you to try scooping this on to your plate and eating it. This was the coolest Halloween food I have ever seen.

Ghosts of Halloweens Past (part 2)

2008-10-26T12:36:00.006-04:00

We have a few activities that go on during the Halloween party aside from the costume contest. Almost everyone brings a pumpkin and we all sit around in the studio carving and making a huge mess. If the weather is not too warm, the carved pumpkins generally last until Halloween night. After we're finished, we light them all on the front steps or out on the deck. This is the point in the party where I really start to wonder why I spent so much time worrying about cleaning the house.

One of our more unusual activities is the weed maze/scavenger hunt. You're probably familiar with corn mazes. I don't have time to grow that much corn, but the weeds in the back 5-6 acres of our property grow pretty darn tall and they work just fine for making a maze. So every year Dan goes out a few days before the party and mows an elaborate maze for our guests to run through. The first one through the maze wins a prize. However, there are also little trinkets hidden in the maze and the person(s) who finds the most also wins a prize. Megan and Andy are our scavenger hunt experts. I think they've won every year. They have flash lights that attach to their heads. Dan waits at the end of the maze to see who comes out first and I usually run around with the guests to make sure everyone is doing okay. Most people seem to enjoy the weed maze, but I never know if they're just going out to humor me or not. I always welcome people to stay behind and watch from the windows if they want to, but they all end up out on the deck racing to the starting line anyway. I don't think Troy and Mindy are big fans of the maze, though. Troy usually waits with Dan at the end and Mindy does her Mindy-thing, whatever that might be at the time. In the picture below, she is miming the dog. (Squamettes- do you recognize the giant flash light that Dan is holding??)

Ususally, there is also some small disaster that happens at the Halloween Party. As I said, I skipped the BIG party this year, but I did invite the immediate family over to carve pumpkins. We mowed a mini-weed maze (photos to come) for the nephews and while we were outside, Engine knocked over Erin's Pampered Chef baking dish and it shattered all over the floor. She had brought over turkey meatballs and Engine, who much to his dismay lives with vegetarians, goes a little crazy when he smells meat that is not cat food. He couldn't help himself. In the confusion, I did not take a picture of this inicident. BUT I did capture this from 2006.... Dan was VERY concerned that year about the number of children that would be attending. Something was bound to get broken, ruined or otherwise destroyed with multiple young goblins running wild in our house. Well, not one child managed to do any damage. EXCEPT for my husband, who thought it would be really interesting to see if he could throw his friend's slimy, plastic fake heart up in the air and get it to stick to our ceiling. It stuck. It also STAINED. To this day there is a faint, oily blob shape on our ceiling in the livingroom. I love Erin's face in this picture.

The Ghosts of Halloweens Past (part 1)

2008-10-21T18:09:00.021-04:00

For the past 4 or 5 years, Dan and I have put on a big Halloween party at our house every October. This year, I am taking a break. I'm watching the colors change, taking walks and just basking in the beauty of autumn. I'm not worrying about keeping my house perfect and I'm not trying to come up with a new costume or an invitation design.
But part of me is feeling incredibly guilty and a little disappointed. We always have a great time and love seeing everyone. And the creativity of people with their costumes just blows me away every year. Probably my least favorite part of the party is the costume contest- we have a "people's choice" vote and the winner gets a prize. But how do I give a prize to ONE??? At first it was funny. People found out about the prize and got competitive and the costumes were amazing. But I hated not giving prizes to everyone. I can't imagine the effort that must have gone into creating some of these costumes.
So, I picked out a few pictures and, as promised, here is a little glimpse into Halloweens Past...

Aunt Thelma as... well, we were never quite sure what she was, but it was creepy!

Kim and Dan as The Mad Scientist and her unfortunate subject... this peering through the window thing made for some freaky photos!
Mindy and Troy in 2006
In 2007 they went as a clown and a mime because they know I hate clowns (and mimes are even worse). Every time I turned around they would be peeking around a corner at me.

Mom and Dad as cowboys
My nephews as little bats and their dad behind them as a mummy
Ryan and Erin in 2005 as Donald and Martha
Ryan and Erin again in 2006 as Johnny Cash and June Carter...
Baby G

And some of our winning costumes...

Ryan and Erin as the Chef and the Lobster in 2004

Mindy and Troy in 2005

My sister's family as monkeys in 2006. This one cracked me up. They all came running up the driveway when they arrived, shrieking and eating bananas.

Ryan and Erin as the Maytag Repair Man and the Oven, complete with bun... there's a sonogram of Madalyn inside the door!

Eventful Weekend

2008-10-07T21:54:00.008-04:00

Well, another weekend has gone by and I have done NOTHING in the studio. But I had a good excuse- it's fall, it's beautiful outside, the frost is coming, I had to harvest stuff... sigh. I have no excuse. Everytime I go to sit down at my table, something "more important" catches my eye. Like the dirty dishes in the sink, the cat hair billowing across the floor... you know how it is. Right? Please tell me there are other artist out there that need to be physically tied down to get any art work done! We did have a lot going on this weekend though. We finally got a game night planned over at my sister's house and I was bound and determined to be on time. She lives about 40 minutes away and we usually end up being late for whatever reason. Nothing was going to make us late this time. I had it all planned out that we would leave the house a full hour and a half before we needed to be there which would even give us time to run a quick errand at Home Depot on the way. You know how they say if you want to make God laugh then tell him your plans? Well, I think he heard this one. I was all ready to go and I looked out the front door and saw Dan staring out over the back yard and Bandit was barking. There was a hot air balloon coming. Bandit doesn't like anything invading our air space, so this was causing quite a commotion. The balloon finally came into view over the trees and floated across the sky. It was really low and we thought it might land in the field next to us. But then it went up again and JUST missed the tree line. We decided to follow it a little ways so we headed up the driveway and down the street (Mind you, just walking up our driveway has already nixed the Home Depot trip). The balloon was coming down again and we could see it at the end of the street landing in one of our neighbors' back yards! Everyone was coming out of their houses and running over to see what was going on. It was quite a landing- T & E's yard isn't small, but I wouldn't want to try to land a hot air balloon in it. Soon the chase van arrived and everyone got to help squeeze all the air out or the balloon and roll it back up and stuff it in the van. Then the balloon people broke out the champagne and the snacks and we had a little impromptu party in T & E's yard. Bandit was in heaven. He sat in the middle of the circle and went around to everyone to see if they would share something with him. One of the neighbors said he's lived on this street for 36 years and this has never happend before. That was my opening line when I called D to explain we'd be late. Again.

Girls Night!!

2008-09-28T19:06:00.005-04:00

Mom and Dad ventured out of town with some friends this weekend and I was in charge of watching their dog, Bailey. So the sisters and I figured this would be a great time to host a girls night. We had actually been planning to have a girls night for a while... Erin and I had made up a basket for Dawn for Christmas with a girls night coupon inside.
We started out with a shopping trip to Joanne Fabrics so Dawn and Erin could get materials for Halloween costumes. Dawn ASKS her 3 and 4 year old boys what they want to be. Just like with the birthday cakes (May '08), she always gets an interesting answer. And she always goes with it. So this year she is making a blue lobster and a red crab outfit. If I were her, I would offer choices, but she's always been braver than me. Erin is keeping her costume a secret for now. I'm thinking of posting some of our Costumes of Halloweens Past in an upcoming post. People really amaze me with their creativity.
Our next activity was making a grape pie with grapes from the backyard. This is kind of labor intensive- you have to skin and seed the grapes. But it makes a good pie.
Then we headed over to the Bonefish Grill for dinner. And a quick dip in Mom and Dad's hot tub before watching "Made of Honor"- I couldn't tell you how it was, I fell asleep through most of it. Here's to girlfriends!

More Squam!

2008-09-22T20:44:00.023-04:00

I have to say thank you to all you Squam ladies for warning me about the downward emotional spiral that often comes after one of these wonderful art retreats. I went home fully prepared for it and I think I'm doing ok. Granted, the "snow-day" the day after I came home (see post from 9/16) definitely gave me the upper hand, but I hadn't realized that I've had this emotional crash you all speak of many times (right after Christmas, usually!) - I just never associated it with the emotional high that preceded it. Being aware of it makes a huge difference.
Anyhow... as my new friend Linda said , "I'm not even going to try to put Squam into words". I did the best I could in the last post. Now I'm just going to show you pictures!
I had the privilege of taking Judy Wise's Art Journaling class. What an incredible teacher and delightful person! I got so much out of this class. Take a look at the studio we worked in... Even if Judy's class hadn't been completely inspiring, the room by itself would've been enough to make me happy.
Ice cream sundae on the dock...

On my second day of classes, I got to meet Penelope... she has been inspiring me with her writing for years and I was so completely excited to meet her. I took her Travel Journaling class and her Editorial Illustration class. Both were fantastic. Here I am with Beth checking out an interesting contraption on the dock during the Travel Journal class...

Then in the second part of the Travel Journal class, we all piled into Penelope's rental car (and a few other cars!) and headed to Meredith, NH, a little south of the RD Camps. Three of the girls in the class and I went looking for a coffee shop to do some sketching in. Along the way we found a cute antique shop that we walked around in for a while. I thought I smelled a funny burning smell while we were in there. Then we found a bead shop in the back of the same building. While we were in there, a lady from another shop within the building came in and told the clerk that she smelled something in her jewelry shop. About 15 minutes later, fire trucks and police cars were showing up to put out an electrical fire in the basement! Now, only true artists (and probably scrapbookers) can appreciate what happened next... two of the girls I was with went running up to the fire trucks and started posing in front of them! This was when I decided I wanted to spend the rest of my life at Squam. I had found my soul mates.

After all the excitement was over, we settled into a beautiful little coffee shop and sketched and painted for about an hour.

Now, my next pictures are of my blogging hero who pulled my out of a three year artist block. Judy Wise, in a recent post, dared anyone to get a serious picture of Penelope... I am apparently not up for the challenge.
and she's FAST. This picture I just whipped around and snapped without even looking while we were all waiting for the professional photographer to take our group shot. I didn't even know Penelope was in this shot until I got back to the cabin that night!! So yes, Judy, I'm with you. I dare you all.

Now this lovely lady is my new motivational kick-in-the-pants. Theresa asked for the mic one night at one of our evening gatherings and wanted to know (I'm paraphrasing because sadly, I did not write this down. ) what was wrong with all of us (artists). "Your work is fantastic. You are so talented and yet I hear you all saying that you're afraid you're not good enough... where is this coming from?" She went on and I just don't remember exactly what she said because frankly, I was stunned. You know what Theresa? You're totally right. And I'm going to do my best to try to remember that the next time I feel that way- which is a lot. This picture is going up in my studio. Rock on, Theresa.

One day I finally got brave enough to go swimming. It wasn't bad, but I don't think any of us ever really got warm while we were at the camp, so this wasn't easy!! One night I even had a dream that it was snowing. Of course, it hit 90 on my drive home. I'm not kidding.
Here is Cat's cat quilt (I love her name). Cat was one of my cabin mates and she runs Bad Cat Graphics. Cat and I found common ground pretty quickly.

My favorite thing was hanging out in the living room with the fire and all the girls creating art. These ladies were full of creativity all the way to the tips of their toes. I will not show you my boring white socks. I will be going shopping for artist socks very soon.

And I will leave you with this poem that I found in the Rockywold Deephaven history book. This pretty much says it all.

Still Soaring

2008-09-16T22:27:00.007-04:00

I went back to work today. Everyone wanted to know how the workshop went. Every time anyone asked I would almost tear up. How do you describe the indescribable? It was, I finally decided, like being in a little corner of heaven. I spent every day surrounded by beauty and love and creativity. People were kind and accepting and genuinely friendly. I think I was hugged about five or six times a day, usually by E (I forgot who said I could and couldn't use their real names, so I'll be using initials for everyone until I am told otherwise!) My biggest fear in going to Squam was would I really be able to make a friend in five days? Well, let me tell you...these were some of the nicest people I have ever met and I felt like I made a friend every five minutes. Here are some of my closest friends from Squam, my cabin mates, The Ladies of Easterlieigh. I am so grateful to have met each one of you!
And yes, if you caught that in the beginning, I went back to work TODAY, not yesterday. We had quite the wind storm in upstate NY on Monday morning about 2 a.m.ish (and elsewhere, I imagine). Power was knocked out all over and schools were closed!! So to top off my beautiful weekend, I got a "snow" day in September. God is smiling on me this week. Except that He didn't let me have internet access on my snow day, and after Squam, that was almost like taking away the air! That's my excuse for not having a more detailed post up by now. I would have blogged, but instead I spent the day making more tomato sauce. So for now, I will leave you with some more dock pictures (that's what seems to be on all the other Squam blogs!) and I will tell you more this weekend!

Denial

2008-09-06T19:34:00.004-04:00

I should be getting ready for Squam. That's what I told myself I would do today. But instead, I cooked. All day. The tomatoes finally ripened and I figured I should really do something with them. So last night I made sauce. Today I made roasted tomatoes and salsa. Then I got out the dehydrator that Dan got me for Christmas (No- I really did ASK him for a dehydrator for Christmas) and I got to work drying a small part of the endless cherry tomato crop. And last weekend we picked apples and I don't want those going to waste either, so I also made apple sauce and this really delicious apple upside down cake (I will post the recipe later if anyone is interested).
I'm really looking forward to Squam... I think I'm just really nervous about going. It's kind of like what everyone else is saying in their blogs- it really does feel like the first day of kindergarten (except I think it will be a lot more fun). I don't know. I guess it won't be any fun at all if I don't start packing! Thank goodness one of you other bloggers mentioned a flashlight because I had completely forgotten to add that to my list! All right... I'm really going to start packing now.

During a 5 minute break...

2008-09-03T21:53:00.005-04:00

Every now and then I think about changing the studio name... And then I am reprimanded.

Posting some work

2008-09-03T20:58:00.009-04:00

Ok... I'm finally posting some artwork. I don't know why this makes me so nervous, but here it is. This is what I did with what was left of my summer vacation after all the vacationing was over:
This is a box I painted for my neighbor's baby shower. It's her dog when he was a puppy. All I have is Christmas wrapping paper and I was about to go buy some plain wrapping paper, but then I thought of this and thought she might like it.
Here it is all wrapped up, waiting to be opened...
And here is a painting of our beach in Plymouth (in progress)...
And at long last, we finally got the kiln going, and I'm really happy with the way these turned out. Now I have to get some blades for the grinder so I can put groves in them and get them all wired for wearing!

Getting Away...again

2008-08-20T21:31:00.020-04:00

Well, so much for getting stuff done around the house this summer. My brother found a cottage for rent so we all went to Plymouth earlier this month with a few friends. Aside from the usual stress over leaving the animals, we had an incredible week. Fortunately, we have some great friends who were willing to stay with the little beasts at our house- that made things much easier. Anyhow, we were a little worried at first about renting a house because we'd never done this before, and on top of that, it was in Plymouth! What is there to do in Plymouth? Turns out, quite a bit. First of all, even if we hadn't left the cottage, we would have been totally content. There was a beautiful sun porch where we all spent a lot of time reading and playing games. I set up a little studio in the corner. There was a great beach, even though there were no waves. My niece Madalyn enjoyed having her toes dipped in the water. When the tide came in, the beach disappeared, but there were some nice rocks to sit on and read.
And in town, we found plenty to keep us interested. We visited the Mayflower II...

And Erin found a cute little stained glass shop where the owner taught classes. She could only take four of us, so there was a little fighting over who would get to go. That really surprised us. We had planned it to be a girls' day, but it so happened that the boys were pretty interested, too. Troy won. On the way to the class we went shopping for sweatshirts because it was a little cold and very rainy. There was a really big puddle on the side of the road that splashed up when cars went through it. I saw it happen once and warned everyone. But not everyone heard me.One of my favorite things was the "Dead of Night Ghost Tour". We picked up our tickets and lanterns from a hearse parked out in front of Plymouth Rock. Then the tour guides took us around the town and told us about the past residents of certain buildings. When it got really dark, they lead us into Burial Hill Cemetery.So while we were on the tour, we were told to take pictures... LOTS of pictures. And use the flash. We might capture an image of an orb which we were told was actually a ghost. Hee!! Totally silly, but tons of fun! The tour guides took this very seriously. Ryan got the best orb shot.
One of the days we drove out to Provincetown. We went up to the top of the Pilgrim Monument to see the view..
Then we checked out the museum. Here is the creepiest doll in the world.
Here is the second creepiest doll in the world.
So that's IT for the vacations this summer. Now I'm painting and making art. I am trying to get brave and post some of it, as this is a studio blog!

My Flickr Self Portrait

2008-08-20T09:35:00.003-04:00

This was a blast- you have to try it. I found this on Claudia's blog. I will copy the instructions for you.
Type your answers to the questions below into Flickr search. Using only the first page choose an image and copy and paste the URL's into the mosaic maker (3 columns, 4 rows).
1.What is your first name?
2.What is your favorite food?
3.What high school did you attend?
4.What is your favorite color?
5.Who is your celebrity crush?
6.Favorite drink?
7.Dream vacation?
8.Favorite dessert?
9.What do you want to be when you grow up?
10.What do you love most in life?
11.One word to describe you.
12.Your Flickr name.

Returning to the gardens

2008-07-24T16:41:00.005-04:00

With all the trips up north and the family get-togethers and the storms we've been having, I haven't been in the gardens in about 2 weeks. I can't believe how fast weeds grow. I started weeding the Maple Tree Garden today because it's the easiest and maybe I would feel a sense of accomplishment if I could finish it. Then this butterfly stopped by to tell me that he still enjoys the garden even if it's not perfectly weeded or beautifully edged. This made me feel a lot better because as we were enjoying each other's company, another storm cloud was rolling in from the west and needless to say, the weeds will live to see another day. Or maybe another week. Or longer.

Can't get enough

2008-07-22T22:48:00.000-04:00

We headed up to the Adirondacks again this past weekend for our annual camping trip with Dan's family. This is something I look forward to every year- I think this is my favorite piece of summer. We did some hiking, reading, swimming and took a few canoe rides.
When Dan and I were first married and we went camping, we ate things like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or hot dogs- you know, typical camp food. That got old fast. It was a part of camping that I really didn't like, but he kept telling me that was all you could bring with you when you went out in the woods. Then we started camping with his family. Imagine my surprise when his mom served fettuccine alfredo with asparagus for dinner. And then the shock of waking up to blueberry pancakes and hash browns. Granted, this woman could out-cook Martha Stewart, but I learned quickly how to improve the campfire menu. That was the end of PB&J on the camping trips, much to Dan's dismay. He claims to find this kind of camping ridiculous and would rather just pack some granola and be done with it. But I didn't hear him complaining over his steamed vegetable quesadilla, or the brown rice and beans with mango salsa.

10 Year Anniversary

2008-07-14T14:26:00.000-04:00

Dan and I celebrated our tenth anniversary at the end of June this year. We went to a beautiful lodge in the Adirondacks and spent three days canoing, swimming, reading and being completely lazy. The weather was perfect. I need some lessons in learning how to relax, though. I would read for a little bit and then think, "Oh, I should be painting!" and then "Hmmm, maybe we should take the canoe out again!". Unwinding is hard work.

Happy Mother's Day!

2008-05-10T21:07:00.000-04:00

We celebrated Mother's Day a day early this year with a brunch at our house. It was a beautiful day and the tulips were still in bloom, though they have seen better days. Bandit really enjoys having Grandma come to visit. As soon as everyone gathers at the table, he heads over to her chair and plops himself down right next to her.

Nothing says "high class" at a Mother's Day brunch like a dog licking yogurt parfait out of a crystal goblet.

2008-05-05T22:07:00.000-04:00

Spring has arrived. I've already started buying new flowers to put in the gardens even though the last frost date is probably several weeks away.
My nephew turns four this month. Dan and I gave him an inflatable basketball hoop. It's a little big- I keep forgetting to check the age levels on the toy packages, but it was a hit with the "older children".
My sister made the mistake of asking Ben what kind of cake he wanted (in our family, "what kind of cake" usually does not refer to flavor- it means how do you want it decorated). He's really into crocodiles, but apparently he is also developing an interest in ants. Never one to back down from a creative challenge, my sister incorporated both in her cake design. I'm thinking of asking her to make my birthday cake next year. So Dawn, I'd like Johnny Depp on a pirate ship in the middle of the ocean. Oh, and see if you can work in a gardening theme, too- I'm really into perennials.

Almost a snow day

2008-02-13T22:00:00.000-05:00

We ALMOST had a snow day today. We ended up delayed for two hours, which I should have been grateful for. But how could I not be just a little jealous that he gets to do THIS all day?

Super Bowl Sunday

2008-02-13T21:16:00.000-05:00

We have a special tradition for Super Bowl Sunday. Since neither one of us likes to watch sports (or even be in a room where a game is on in the background!), we like to spend that evening trying out a new restaurant. Preferably a restaurant that doesn't have a TV. So this year, after a quick hike in the upper section of Buttermilk Falls, we tried out The Moosewood Cafe in Ithaca. It was a bit of a drive, but really worth it. Our friends Megan and Andy joined us this year. For the first time in the eleven or twelve years we've been doing this, we had to wait for a table. Usually restaurants are practically empty during the Super Bowl, but not this one. But the wait wasn't long and they had lots of great cookbooks to look through in the gift shop. It was French Cuisine night and they had French onion soup, which I love. BUT French onion soup is traditionally made with beef broth and I was pretty sure that Moosewood was a vegetarian restaurant. So I asked the waitress if there was beef broth in the soup . She gasped and covered her mouth and looked completely horrified. "Oh, no! We would NEVER serve beef broth. It's completely vegetarian. It can be made vegan, if you want." Hee hee!!! I have a new favorite restaurant. The soup was amazing. So was everything else we ordered. Well, except maybe the carrot /beet/ginger juice, but guess who ordered that? And we were all dumb enough to try it.

Spittin' image!

2008-02-01T13:40:00.000-05:00

Here is Engine's wire sculpture for the auction. The cat sculpture beside it is something I picked up in Cocoa Village in Florida. Can you see the resemblance? Except usually Engine looks happier, like the sculpture. I don't think he was too thrilled about being interrupted from his cleaning. I think the whole school where I teach was ready for a snowday today and the weather ended up cooperating! There's a steady rain of ice falling from the clouds right now and I just finished the dishes, two loads of laundry and some work in the studio. I'm feeling a little more caught up now. Fortunately, I got the artwork for the SANS auction wired and dropped off yesterday so I don't have to go driving around in this beautiful mess. Bandit got a LONG walk today so he is no longer wearing his "Saddest Dog in the World" face...

Studio Helpers

2008-01-27T20:16:00.000-05:00

Engine and I have been busy getting ready for the SANS art auction, so I thought I would post some photos of what's been going on in the studio over the past few weeks.
Engine's wire sculpture is all finished, so he is helping me with my painting.
Bandit helped out earlier in the day. In the bottom photo, we are both deep in thought about what I should paint. I'm thinking something with a cat. He thinks the cereal I'm eating would be a very interesting subject.