Residency for Latrobe High School Fall 2011

I am probably the luckiest artist in residence ever.  My pleasure has been to be invited this fall for a 5 day residency with Latrobe and then a 10 day sculpture to start out my 2012 year in January.  Working with Ms. Ross and her students is always such a joy with their strong work ethic and interest in the projects.  With such a short painting project, my primary goal is always about color mixing, composition based on an Impressionist approach.  This class we concentrated a good bit with working on our paintings upside down so that students did not get too focused on their subject matter.

I can hardly wait to see the finished pieces!  It is a short class period and with clean up and start up we have about 30 minutes to cram our lessons and painting in at the same time.  It is a large class but well intentioned and I am sure they will end up with some fine paintings.

Finishing Residency at Altoona

Today is our last day at Altoona.  The class diminished a bit but we ended up with between 14-16 students.  I fired four full loads in my kiln here at the house so that each students ended up with at least two viable sculptures to take home.  The class was quite a mix with gifted, learning support and life skills students.  All in all, I think it went well and that the students were successful in their ventures.

After School Arts and My New Work

I am at Altoona After School Arts and happily there in the fall.  This is my first year in many that I do not have to battle blizzard and hazardous road conditions.  My initial class sign up was 72 students, but I only have taken about 20 students.  We are making clay works and with my travel time and having to fire in my own kiln, any more students would have been too many.  This is a great class size and although the ability levels vary, this is a really nice class.  I am always so happy to be working in this capacity.

On another note, our studio business has probably tripled in the last month, so other than the teaching, I am quite busy with orders and new designs.  It keeps both Rick and me out of trouble but does not allow for much down time.  No complaints here:)

New Pieces....Working Hard

New pieces are forthcoming...so excited with what we are making and how it is being received!

New Pieces On Wholesale Crafts

Some new pieces that we are working on....fun, whimsical and humorous.  I will be posting new pieces as we make them!

Story Walk Images from Seven Springs Mountain Resort

Saturday for the Story Walk turned out to be a glorious day!  Rick and I got to Seven Springs around 7 am to help put up the murals and to place the wooden cut outs.  After the installation, we headed to Ohiopyle for Over the Falls and a day of selling my artwork.  From what I heard afterwards, the event at Seven Springs was a hit and hopefully we will do it again!

Working Thursday

I am finished with the Moses and Foxxy Acrylic piece and re-worked an Iris piece also.  I have two more small paintings to finish while I still have paint in my pan.

You had me at WOOF

I have started another painting and as you can see, the favorite subject now is the dogs.  This notorious pink bone depicted has shown up in our house in many locations.  These would include the middle of the bed, under the covers and even conveniently in the middle of the bathtub where I think Moses believes he also belongs.

I have a show coming up at the Jenners Art Gallery located at Green Gables and the rest of the month is filled with fun shows and a bit of pressure to make some cool pieces.  Our work with wholesale crafts is coming along very nicely and being busy like this has been a gift to treasure.

Once this heat dies a bit, I will be off to see Zora and to go for a drive....unless we get the big storm that weatherwoman Jane is predicting!

Some of us Rest, some of us Work

Granted it has been a fairly hot week in July.  Weather and temperatures have soared into the high 80's and even the 90's but today was a bit more tolerable.  You might think though that these dogs have worked long and hard by the looks of them.  In fact, the majority of their day has encompassed trying out various bed locations much like Goldie Locks trying out beds.  Most often, Moses would prefer to be with me, but since I am painting orders, he is officially banned from the room.  Not that I mind nose marks in paint but I think customers might!  Ah, the life of a dog.....