Somewhere in the middle

I just thought I'd give you a quick peek at what is going on inside the studio this weekend. I have three separate pieces on the go right now. "Smarty Pants" just has a little bit of stitching left to do, "Little Bee" is drying, and this one is coming along nicely. This will be a new "Good Egg." But I am just so darned pleased with the chickens that I had to show it off. The chickens are linoleum block prints on rice paper, the paper is so transparent that I was able to flop the image to have them pair up beak to beak. There is still plenty more to do, but I hope to have this in the van with me heading to the Des Moines Art Festival next weekend. If you want to do a little artist surfing you can find their web site at www.desmoinesartsfestival.org If I have a moment, I'll post the finished piece before it goes in the van!

Chicken and Prettybird

Chickens! I have to tell you I am really having fun with this. I have been bringing linoleum block prints into the dress paintings for a few months now. Printing them directly onto the canvas. But the more of this I do, the more I want to do. Now, I'm printing them onto rice paper, and collaging the paper onto the paintings. All these chickens will be in the background of my newest piece, "Good Egg." I've just started it, so I have a way to go, but I'll post when it's done...provided I don't completely mess it up on the way!

But in the meantime, here is a piece that I finished last week, "Prettybird." I love how this turned out, and already have plans for more. The background is a collage of lino block prints, the little yellow bird, ( a pine warbler I think) is painted. And the little halo of seed beads is stitched through the canvas.

A good start to the week!

Buttercup

Buttercup is the latest piece to come out of the studio. The dress was found at a great vintage clothing/costume shop in Austin, TX. The dress itself was so perfect it needed very little work, the velvet ribbon and thick lace are fabulous. The background is collaged linoblock prints on rice paper. The image of buttercups are repeated in varying tints and shades of yellow. The tricky part was the embroidery. It may be a little hard to see in the first picture, but it is front and center on the dress, so scroll down...

One of the best parts of being a "street artist" is getting to meet the folks who love and buy my work. And I have to tell you, I am really looking forward to meeting whoever buys "Buttercup." Talk about a conversation starter. Enjoy!

"Buttercup" is 30" x 40"

Our web site is back!

I finally have The Spring Gallery web site back up and running. You can find it at www.thespringgallery.com You be able to find Scott's few available cupcakes, most of my dress paintings, and other stuff all in one spot. Take a look. And thanks!

A new "Wallflower"

If you've known my work for very long you'll know that I often revisit my titles. I've done a few different versions of "Wallflower." This is the latest. Washes of pink covered in lino cut flowers.

And a little closer. Sometimes I just like to make them pretty.

"Wallflower is 40" square.

Attagirl

It's been a while since I've done an "attagirl." An "attagirl" from my Dad was the best thing ever. They were few and far between, you knew you deserved it when one came. While working on this piece I was thinking about two possibilities; a little girl brave enough to climb a tree, or the encouragement needed to learn to fly.

The tree branches are full of life, washes of color from mauve to yellows. Cut into with a semi opaque sky. "Attagirl is stitched through the canvas, right next to the yellow Pine Warbler.

24" square.

what did I do all day?

I often chastise myself at the end of the day for not seeming to get anything accomplished. I started it today. Mostly because it's getting dark, and I don't seem to have a painting finished, I hardly even have one started. So I made myself stop and think...

Well I did put together a rough idea of a commission for approval. I like it, haven't heard if the client does though. Decided on the path for a new painting, complicated, but beautiful. That wasn't intended to be the title, but it may fit? This is the commission idea by the way...

Simple, pretty, but not too girlie.

Oh, and I attached a handful of photo transfers to a canvas, a new "4 eyes" is on the way.

Some arts council stuff came next, we have a small art festival going on in Jackson on May 7th. Scott and I are helping put that together, if you are in the area it is really going to be worth coming to. So that took a little time. Then errands in town...what a boring list, have you quit reading yet? But then I was distracted and wound up in the garden center. I was going to buy one tomato plant. $50+ later I was driving home.

Whoops, I actually got back to work, framed three large oil paintings. Then next thing I know I'm in the garden drinking a glass of wine with my neighbor. My neighbor has spray paint, and she let me rob her spray paint collection. Now my tomato cages are deep electric blue. And I've planted about half of what I bought, a bunch of different peppers, two tomatoes, cucumbers.

Hmm, and I'm blogging now, and when I actually walk away from this computer I'll walk out to the studio, and poke around a little longer. I guess that is a pretty good day.

Smart Cookie

Smart Cookie is a piece I finished last week during a major painting flurry. If you've been watching my work for any time now you'll recognise the numbers in the background as pi. I've used them before, and I'll use them again! The peanut butter cookies have no shadow, because they aren't really supposed to sit on the dress so much as rotate around it, which explains the little vapor trail of vintage mother of pearl buttons.

Smart Cookie is up in Illinois somewhere having her picture taken this week. So I don't have it in front of me to get all my facts straight. But I think it is 30" square.

There is another "Smart Cookie." It's a smaller one on a pink baby dress in my new gallery in Austin, TX. If you're in that neck of the woods, check out Haven Gallery, they are on 6th street. And they have a great collection of work available.

New challenge

Not that I really need a new one, I have plenty on my plate at the moment. But the painfully slow pace that I post on this blog is boring even me. So I'm going to blog about something every day for a week, starting tomorrow. Unless I chicken out, and I don't think I will.

My Husband's Work

It just dawned on me that some of you may not know that my husband is an artist. Introducing R. Scott Coleman, and his latest series of watercolor landscapes. He is painting a landscape a day and I post them on his blog. You can see the blog at www.thedailylandscape.blogspot.com

This is his second painting a day series, his first was www.scottscupcakes.blogspot.com Scott painted 365 cupcakes, very few are still available, but they are worth a look!

Later Gators!