Sunrise

 

What I love about having a little extra time off is that I feel a bit more free to explore multiple projects at the studio. I can let my "creativity-ADD" loose, so to speak. So this weekend I was working on my poppy series while also applying gesso and background colors to different canvases.

This morning I set aside the poppies to begin some new work.

I decided to kick off by starting on a second series of Women/Four Seasons paintings. Actually I've had "Autumn" nearly done for quite some time...I've been waiting for the time and inspiration to continue...

I worked a little more on "Winter"...

I was ready to head home for a little lunch...but then I grabbed another canvas that had some paint on it and started throwing on paint....it took off in a totally different direction than I expected. I wish I had taken a "before" pic, but I just kept going till I was done. A little over an hour later, I was done. Sometimes it's nice to do something fast...and different. I'll take a better pic later, but ...

I'm calling it "Sunrise".
(18x24 / acrylic on canvas) 

Spring is in the Air: Macy's Flower Show

 Spring is definitely in the air! I am off work this next week and I plan to get lots of stuff done! Mostly I plan to spend time in the studio doing lots of painting in preparation for the Spring Art Crawl--less than a month away! Yikes!

Today I soaked up a little inspiration by going to the Flower Show at Macy's with the hubby.  This is a annual spring trip. Even though it will be a few months till we can really plant flowers around here, it was great to enjoy this indoor garden! It's a bit more elaborate than your typical backyard garden.

The colors and smell of the flowers when you walk in is overwhelming. It's fairly dark in the auditorium where the show is held, so not the easiest venue for taking photos. With the help of Picasa, I was able to fix these up a bit.

There are a few of the scenes that were part of the show.

There were actually small birds in the rather large birdhouse above...it was wonderful to hear them sing.


After the show, it was back to the studio to do some painting. The flower show inspired me to continue working on my poppy series.

And I plan to head back to the studio tomorrow--I'm hoping to show you pics of works in progress then. 

Spring Fever

I've been enjoying a bad case of spring fever this week...brought on by warmer weather--plenty of sunny, blue skies here. In Minnesota, we're a long ways from planting flowers and such (think closer to Memorial Day), but thankfully we have a wonderful Conservatory at Como Zoo that offers us a colorful glimpse of spring. The spring flower show opens this weekend!

I'm also excited because next week I'm off for Spring Break! Time in my studio has been severely lacking of late, but I will be fixing that next week! The spring Art Crawl is only a month away...and I have a lot of painting to do! 

I'm also super psyched because baseball season is about to begin! I'll be the first to admit it, and my friends will confirm it--I'm a bit of a bit of a baseball geek! Baseball=bliss in my world! And last weekend I was able to tour the Twins new baseball stadium-Target Field. It was beautiful! We are ready to enjoy outdoor baseball (let's hope the weather cooperates most of the time!)

I could go on and on about baseball, but I won't here...but I do talk baseball on my baseball blog, Curlz and Curveballs that I just got going again. 

Family. Friends. Art. Baseball. Things that put such a smile on my face!

Wordless Wednesday

The river is rising...

Wednesday after the parade we took a walk along the Mississippi river to see how much the river is rising. Areas that are usually walkways are covered in water. Even though we're a considerable distance from the river, the historic building we live in is actually considered to be in the flood zone. There is talk about possible flooding in our basement. Our apartment is safe--we live on the 5th floor--but it will be interesting to see how much flooding there will be in the coming few days. I can watch the river as I type at my computer...

The picture below shows the level the water reached in the historic 1965 flood. (The water has risen considerably since that pic was taken on Wednesday, but we're still well below that mark) Thankfully, we're not expected to get anywhere near that, because that would be very bad. I'm hoping I can get back down to the river to snap another pic to show the progress of the rising river.

 

There are already preparations underway to deal with potential flooding. A load of sand was dumped in our parking lot for sandbagging today. Hopefully there won't be much need for sandbags!

Who doesn't love a parade?

It was a glorious St. Patrick's Day in St. Paul! A perfect day for a parade! I have just a wee bit of Irish in me, but that has nothing to do with why I took this day off to celebrate. I live just a few blocks from where this annual parade begins and it's always a fun day to be a St. Paulite! Even if you're not Irish, it's a fun day in the city. People are just having fun...

There are kids everywhere...well, kids of all ages in fun outfits!

Families and friends marching together in the parade...or watching from the street...

Men in skirts...

And men in skirts playing bagpipes (a lovely sound!)

Dogs are included...

and even an Irish Elvis!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Studio slideshow

I won't write much now, but wanted to post this little slideshow I put together on Flickr. Utilizing Flickr to share my work is another item on my "To Do" list, but this little project was a part of something bigger. I'll share more on that later...

(Oh ya, you can find me on Flickr here!)

Walk along the river

 

We've been having spring-like weather in Minnesota...here that means temperatures above freezing! Last week it was in the 40s with sunny skies--we're talking shorts and flipflops-weather! 

Not quite, but yesterday was a beautiful day to enjoy a walk along the river! 

We'll likely to still have some snow and definitely a lot of "brown" before things start "greening" up around here...but we've crossed a major hurdle...

Spring is definitely on it's way! 

  

Today at the Studio

 

Today at the studio I enjoyed my organized chaos...

 

  

one can never have too many canvases...

  

My work table was still set up for the First Friday event...

 

  

but it was time to get back to work!

 

 

Trying to take pics of a finished painting...

  

...detail below.

  

And outside the studio today...light rail construction!

 

 

A punch of poppies

Poppies, poppies, poppies--I've been painting lots of them. I've been painting a variety of them on small canvases--12x12, 8x8, 6x8, 6x6. They're small, but they pack a punch. The colors are vibrant. I've come up with a fun way to display them--that can show you how a grouping of small paintings can have a greater impact. These pictures aren't the best (it's a small space, so I couldn't take the pics head-on), but you can get the idea...I'm taking a large frame and grouping the small paintings within the frame. 

I will have these up for Lowertown First Friday...and then a whole lot more for the Spring Art Crawl. Come take a peek!