Week in the Cities

I have returned from a week in Minneapolis and St. Paul. I had a great time getting to know other artists from all over the state at a training weekend for “Artist Career Counselors” which is a program being set up by Springboard for the Arts. I will be the ACC here in my area, and I am looking forward to meeting with and helping artists in my area. We were able to visit some studios during the St. Paul Art Crawl, which was fun. We also learned a lot about community collaboration, and career building.

The "New" fireplace.

The 'before' shot.

After the Springboard weekend I visited my aunt and had a different kind of art project — she has a square of styrofoam in front of her fireplace to block cold drafty air, but it wasn’t very attractive. So, I got busy and painted it for her — turned out pretty good, and was fun too.

Next stop was Duluth, where I visited my son and his girlfriend. She had the opening of her first solo show at a downtown restaurant — a fun occasion to be a part of! The not-so-fun event was my brakes seized up and I had to have them repaired before I could go home. Happily, some friends of a friend were able to do it for me, and I made it safely home.

Before leaving town I finished another commission and delivered it to the clients. Here is the pastel portrait of ‘Sophie.’

Sophie -- a sweet Border Collie

My next task is to finish a metal sculpture I have started for the Bemidji Sculpture Walk. I hope we have some nice days so I can get out to the shop and work on it! (It is rainy today)

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Happy Christmas to all

Here we are, only a week until we once again celebrate the birth of the Christ child. Hope all who read this are enjoying the season and will have some happy times with friends and family.

I am happy to have finished a commission. I am just waiting for the frame to arrive, and then I will deliver it to the patient patron who commissioned it! Here it is, a portrait of Tucker.

"Tucker"

I have also been teaching a beginning acrylics class — what a fun time. My students are eager and hard working, and we made good progress on all our projects. We started with a small landscape, then did a still life study from life, and our final project was a portrait of an animal. Here they are, hard at work.

Acrylic class students, working on their projects.

Here are the still life studies:

Acrylic still life studies from beginning acrylics class.

Another thing that has been keeping me busy is helping with our kitchen remodeling. We have now pulled out the lower cabinets, and we are working on removing the ceramic tile flooring. It is much harder than I thought it would be! We have to pry, and hammer, and shred the old plywood to get it out, then lay down new plywood to make an even surface for the hardwood flooring we plan to lay in the whole kitchen and dining room.

Pulling out the old flooring.

We have moved the stove into the dining room, and have the refrigerator on a big cart so we can roll it out of the way. We have the sink hanging from the upper cabinets, so we can still use it (for the time being), and the dishwasher is disconnected, so I’m back to hand washing , — and using paper plates more often.  🙂

Sink, still useable for now.

I have another painting started, which I hope to complete before the end of the month.   I also did a mountain scene during my Acrylics class. Here is my landscape demo from class:

"That Perfect Day"

Merry Christmas Everyone!

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