another new studio

Moved into the Kennedy Gallery & Art Center yesterday - Angela came with me, for which I am very thankful. Of course, Sparky always goes where I go, for which I am also thankful. (Good dog!)

We've got it looking pretty good, but we're waiting for lighting, so it will look much better after that.

Our space is arranged different than the one at the SAC, longer and shallow and completely open to the rest of the building, which we all like better. (All of who have moved to the Kennedy so far came from the SAC together, so it's been a group thing in a lot of ways.)


(click to see this one bigger)

We're very pleased with our big wall, and how our work hangs together in general.

Still working on the pedestal thing, but this will work for the moment. So much of art is process, and Angela & I are both big on process.

sketching

(click to enlarge)

east of walerga

May 18, 09
morning
along Dry Creek trail - east of Walerga Road
West Roseville
comfortable, light clouds, slight breeze
high predicted 95*

Lots of birdsong
fairly close to the road here, so nearly constant car noise, too - other trail users pass by on foot & by bike, with a curious look as to what I'm doing.

Sparky is very restless as we've just begun our walk

Ground is covered with knee high dry grasses here - foxtails galore, so I'm watching Sparky closely - of course the right angle for the shot I'm after isn't from on the trail...

First exposure - a little underexposed.

Second shot better but having a little trouble with the initial film pull -

Farther along our walk, I notice several ladybugs on thistles - thinking there might be some little aphids the ladybugs like on those thistles -

cactus blooms

Looked out the back window & saw my little cactus were blooming like crazy! This won't last for more than today, so I had to catch it...

thursday morning

May 14, 09
Thursday morning
Along Dry Creek, Gibson Ranch
comfortable - 70ish - no wind, clear skies

Out with Sparky and full pack for the first time. She hasn't quite got the patience to just sit and wait while I sit and look and shoot and write - she'd rather be moving and smelling and moving and seeing what nasty things she could be getting into.

Birds sing and chatter and twitter endlessly all around us, occasionally flitting from tree to tree but mostly invisible. Knee high grasses and plants are starting to dry out, despite the heavy rains of just a week or two ago. Everything is blooming and setting out seeds before dying back again.



Alot of tree saplings fill the space between the creek and the bridle trail - mostly Valley Oak, some Cottonwoods and the occasional Catalpa tree - a testament to how well suited and potentially invasive the non-native can be.

Full grown Valley Oaks arch overhead, while the Cottonwoods just stretch up as tall as they can, leaves shimmering with the slightest air movement.

Sparky is getting particularly impatient, whining then poking her nose in my book as if telling me it's time to move on.

before...

I'm looking forward to moving my Midtown studio into the new Kennedy Gallery & Art Center - but the space isn't quite ready yet, so I thought I'd take a few "before" pictures:

(Artist Keith Hopkins waltzes through the slow-ish shutter speed.)

The red walls make quite a statement, but not one that is flattering to all kinds of art work. Preview pieces from several of the incoming artists are on display right now - soon there will be some shorter gallery walls up to delineate spaces & create more places for hanging wall art.

Phil Meyers (aka Phil the Wood Guy) doesn't have to wait for walls to show off his functional wood pieces. The rest of us will wait for those walls, new lighting & white paint!

art & wine affair

Busy this weekend at the El Dorado Hills Art & Wine Affair -

My booth (on the left) and Michelle MacKenzie, my art buddy's booth set up in tandem, so we can enjoy each others company all weekend long.

Looking up the row from the edge of Michelle's booth -

right next to our friend Kristen Hoard's booth - a good time was had by all.

time to kill

April 16, 09
4:25 p.m.
McKinley Park
warm - slight breeze
blue sky - a few wispy clouds
time to kill

Funny how I like this park but I have a hard time finding a photograph here -
Alot of different species of trees, several kinds of oak - plenty of London Plane, Redwoods, California fan palms - Lombardy Poplars & Ginkos along H Street, a grove of Zelkova by the tennis courts, where I am now. A couple big Tulip trees by the rose garden, several Ashes of a variety I can't name, a couple Liquid Ambars scattered about and a few Camphors near where I sit. They're the most interesting to me right now, with branches that twist and stretch out in all directions.



Lots of last years' leaves are scattered on the ground - brown old leaves on fresh spring grass. Fresh green leaves in light bright hues cover the trees, having just pushed the old ones off.

A squirrel hops up on the little bleachers where I'm perched, hoping I'll hand him goodies, then wanders off when he sees I'm busy writing. Some smaller darker squirrels play nearby - maybe this year's offspring?

I break out the Crown Graphic and go through the process of making an exposure - it's been a while & fells a little awkward - but the results aren't half bad - already I can see a painting breaking out of the frame.

dry creek

April 7, 2009
Dry Creek, Gibson Ranch
morning
sunny, windy, light clouds, pollen high

(Playing with my little digital Nikon)

Out with Sparky, my latest canine companion: small, sturdy & cute enough to make up for any shortcomings (right now: looking for something smelly to roll in...)

Birds are singing, talking to each other, a jay chides among the songs - then a coast guard four engine prop plane roars overhead on final approach to remind me exactly where I am -

The oaks all have bright green spring leaves bursting out. The grasses all tall green and lush as well. Tiny flowers peek up - big black butterflies flit about in pairs.

Water flows past at a moderate pace, about as deep now as other years it's been in summer - this summer the creek is likely to earn it's Dry name.

Little flowers drop down from the oaks onto the beach I'm sitting on.

Sparky gets restless and wants to move on

ta-daa!

Finished the Sacramento News & Review newsstand today! Just need to put a clear coat on it...

I'm actually pretty pleased with how it all came out - I wasn't really stressing about this, just not really thinking about it at all, which put me in the perfect state of mind for creating.

So often, I find that the worst thing I can do is overthink a piece while I'm working on it. It's best to go in with a general plan, then just let it happen. That's what I did with this, simply because I had been so busy, I just didn't have the time to plan much beyond the basic idea -

turned out to be a pretty good thing.

newsstand news

So - now that my 50 artworks are done & I've shipped off 48 hand-embellished pigment prints for the new Ritz Carlton being built at Northstar, Tahoe, I think I can get back to things like blogging...

So now the deadline I'm working on is to paint a Sacramento News & Review newsstand, I've got until next Wednesday. Not that I haven't had access to the box before now, but I just had paying gigs to get done, so now I'm getting to the community service.

Actually a pretty cool thing, this is - I get to play and participate in another public art project. This is the first stage completed, where I've collaged all the elements onto the box.

And here's the Sparky-girl, the newest addition to our family & my studio. She's a two-year-old Staffordshire bull terrier who just loves everybody who comes in to the studio, humans and canines alike.

I'm continuing my "City of Trees" theme here - with images of Sacramento landmarks combined with leaf image transfers & bird sketches.

Sometimes Sparky feels the need to get involved in my creative process...

How can I tell her "no"?

So by the end of the studio day, I've gotten the first couple layers of glazes on, blocking out some painted elements and colors over the image transfers.

The front & top of the box - my web address on top, and the required "SN&R" to identify the box's eventual contents.

So far, so good - and it's nice to break out a bit larger than little wood panels...

love grows

Found time in between 6x6" panels to get another piece done, using the image I called "Tree Lovers" before - this one is called "Love Grows."

35 of 50

Been hard a work, too busy to blog much - I've gotten thirty five of the fifty completed now - you can see individual pieces on my Tree Stories blog. I'm calling the series "City of Trees"...


(you can click on this image to see it all bigger)

50-50

I got accepted to the 50-50 show at 20th Street Gallery here in Sac, where some seventy or so artists each have to create fifty artworks in fifty days. I'm doing mine in batches since I've got so many layers to do that no one piece could be finished in a single day...