Poultry Project's international coop contest winners announced

The first place went to the University of Karachi where they designed a portable coop with awning that you can download the plans for building yourself. Check out the poultry project and one of the runners up...and interesting one...a coop made out of a shopping cart!
Now, today, MY bird's live mulch (chopped oak leaves) was spread in their winter palace... I am going to move them in from their summer portable, over the weekend. Suddenly, last Sunday we got an egg! New beginnings? I can only read into it what I want!

Nest egg for Black friday

Don't forget you can save a little money, make a charitable contribution, and add color to your life by purchasing an art calendar from dailypainters.com, or prints from my fineartamerica website.

Though this is a big shopping spree day- remember to take time to be thankful for those non-monetary things we possess. I like to make a list...

This nest-egg could be yours for $50 plus shipping.

Real goose egg and straw nest, wire, glue, paint.

Thanksgiving Beignets and pool in New Orleans

Max and Kent, my lovable sons, are living examples of living in a bounty of blessings. I am so grateful to be a part of their lives, to learn from them and to nurture them.

I also am grateful to all my blog readers, and wish you an inspired, creative, and tasty holiday.

Divorce Series for sale

It started at the lawyers office...

Faced with the 40-page document that defines the end of my 24-year marriage I was both skeptical and shocked that it took so many and so little words to cover it. For me there was only one way to process it.

In the days that followed I created 40 small paintings, one each day, to mirror the pages of the document in poetic narratives. Using found headlines (text) and an encyclopedia of personal images, I painted and blogged about the process of loss, grief, anger, denial, and acceptance. The commentary I received, both privately and publicly, took me by surprise. I can't thank my viewers enough. The insights shared sustained me through out the process of acceptance.

I am now offering my 8 x 8 inch hardcover book with 40 paintings in it for an art lover's collection. I have a very limited quantity right now. I plan to ship the books the first week of December.

Cost is $30 dollars plus shipping. Shipping is $7.99 US and Canada, and $13.99 international.

PLEASE ADD $6 to shipping on top of the $7.99 the button charges for shipping IF you need it shipped overseas. Sorry for the inconvenience- I can't seem to figure out how to successfully automate this button!

Opening at Twisted Soul

I'm still surprised by the many friends who made it to my opening in Poughkeepsie last night! Thank you! When I got home, I think my face actually hurt from all the smiling!

2011 calendars

The dailypainters.com national group have created several beautiful themed calendars for next year. A painting of mine is featured in three of them! I have my Nest Hair lady in the Figurative calendar, a chicken crossing the road in the Bird paintings calendar, and Shaker bed painting in the Still Life Painting calendar. Some of the money goes to charity. Most goes to spreading the word about daily painters. So your purchase helps a lot of people. Please consider it. Thanks.

The Grace of Dusk

With the daylight leaving us earlier each day, I've become fascinated by the new 4:30pm hour.
Five pm on Sunday I found myself atop Skunk's Misery Mountain at a tee-pee cocktail party. It was otherworldly. On Monday the center of Millerton, on the way home from work, was aglow in a mixture of rain and artificial light. Tonight at 4:22 the sun just tipped the trees... Isn't it all beautiful and inspiring?

(ndp)

going to visit my sons

I am so thrilled to be almost packed and ready to see my sons. It's been since August. Here is Max with his summer sculptures and stencil art... strumming me a tune about Paris.

the school website

has this link to my students art- look at the slideshow! I am so proud of the kids- they have really worked hard and also they have trusted me to guide them... my main lesson has probably been to "just try it. How bad can it be? It's only paint." And also to work the whole picture together and not get focused in micro-details or getting one section perfect at a time... the whole image has to be born as a unified composition and surface. After all- it's all illusion! (Illusion is made in Photoshop)

Berkshire School has heart

It's the last week of my temporary job providing ten weeks of coverage in the art department at Berkshire school. It has been a very wonderful experience. The faculty and staff are so nice and the students really have heart!
This is Eli's heart. It's amazingly put together with fabric, paint, and putty!

Berkshire Museum Show

The Contemporary Page Turners and the Christmas tree story book festival was a fabulous opening! Michael's Reinaldo y La Linia Azul jumped off the page!

Bed laid bare

This is how the painting I posted a few days ago started... What would have happened if it had stayed that way? If the effort I put to it was cut by 75%?
We can only imagine. Without the arts, artists, composers, dreamers, we would be left with bleak, confusing, and barren worlds.
Here is the point: The arts in Dutchess county NY are facing a budget with draconian cuts. A year ago the funding cost each tax payer .67 cents. With that low figure artists were able to partner with school teachers, performers were able to mount shows and screen films, artists were able to work with the under-served and the hopeless, to give voice and hope in the inner cities and bring music to the far reaches of the country. The current cuts proposed are 75% less than last year. The funded arts in education will be eliminated for the county and more programs, as well as the small staff at the county arts council, will be reduced. It is terribly sad. If you are a taxpayer in Dutchess county I urge you to contact your legislator and express your concern, as there may be time to restore some of the funding... lets make our beds, and color our worlds by supporting the arts at home!

Celebrating quietly with olives, french fries, and a glass of Chianti

In addition to my cell phone being full of text messages such as my eldest son surviving a parachute plane jump, my youngest passing a serious test, my former husband cashing the settlement check, my new book has just arrived! It's the Divorce Document Series. It is hard bound with twenty pages that feature 40 colorful transforming paintings! Just in time. I may not like where I am at- but I can accept it now.

Rembrandt looks down at the young artists

(ndp)
These are just a few of my students happily at work painting their likenesses. Such a lovely Monday it has been. They came in and immediately got to work.
Outside it is sleeting and dark and howling... but art keeps the flow and warms the place up!

Sleeping in a spare room that hovers over the hills

looking down on my own house. It's part of a new part time job and/or part of a dream... whichever... The vantage point is fantastic. A bird's eye view of my neighborhood. Paint and collage maps on wood panel 8 x 10 inches.

out on a limb

a love nest sets itself in paper collage

BE careful what you paint!

Or wish for!

Second demo piece from my class.
The eyes are a bit wild- wanted to reflect flames.

Felt so good today

to teach the painting class how to mix their own flesh tones. We mixed ochres and sienna's and blues and whites and umbers and alizarin and yellow and a little this and a little that. Then I got to do a quick demo! Not an exact likeness but that wasn't the point. The point was experimentation and leaping faith... to look closely in the corners, analyze the surface reflections, dance with the brush...ahh! The lovely sounds of palette knives scraping and bristles soothing canvas!

I confess to being one of those people

who can easily get overwhelmed and look to hide in the covers. I am fighting the urge right now. My head aches, my eyes are stinging, the mail piles up and I am off to another organizational meeting (or production or class).
I haven't been painting enough to think clearly.
So tomorrow I will rise up and make a plan that keeps the optimism palatable.
This is a bed from art history...any idea whose?
6 3/4 x 9 inches acrylic on wood panel