Curious Elements: The End is in Sight

I am totally nearing the finish line. My Curious Elements are in place at Guardino Gallery and at the Mary Lou Zeek Gallery. Next up is the Portland Art Collective Show and Sale and I've made, get this:

123 Curious Elements for that show alone!!

Yikes Almighty! When I counted the pieces today, I thought I must have made a mistake because I couldn't possibly have over 100 pieces. So I recounted, and yep, 123. I snapped photos of my most recent completed pieces, but let me warn you, there are a lot of them. So zip your cursor quickly down the side and take a peek. But even better? If you live in Portland, come on out to the show on Friday, December 2 and Saturday, December 3. Here's a LINK for more details about the show.

Small Things For a Prettier Life

I delivered my art to the Mary Lou Zeek Gallery on Wednesday for her upcoming show: Small Things For a Prettier Life. In addition to a small batch of my Curious Elements, I also dropped off a couple of my metal birds. I can't wait to get down to her gallery and see the work in place.




I popped into the gallery this afternoon when Steph was dropping off her art for the show and was able to get a few photos -- the display, Steph with Mary Lou, and me with Steph.

Fearless Faces: Meet Numbers 17, 18, 119, & 120

I just finished four of my quirky Fearless Faces - two in an old oversized atlas journal and two on repurposed boards. The faces on the boards will be available for sale at the Portland Art Collective Open Doors Show and Sale on December 2 and 3 and all of them are being made into cards that will be available for sale at the show. The first two are from my journal (Nos. 119 and 120) and the last two are on boards (Nos. 17 and 18).

Little Things at Guardino Gallery

I've been invited to participate in Guardino Gallery's 11th annual Little Things Show during the month of December. We had no restrictions on what we created except that everything had to be 7x7 inches or smaller -- it truly is a show of little things!


Here's a sneak peek at the batch of Curious Elements I selected to be featured in the show:


I also created three pieces that are a cross of my Curious Elements and my Funky Junkyard Birds. I designed one of these for my contribution to the recent Audubon Society of Portland Wild Arts Festival and I liked the result so much that I made three for each of my three upcoming shows. Here are the ones that went to Guardino:




The show runs November 25 through December 26 and the opening reception is Friday, November 25th, from 6-9 pm. Guardino Gallery is located at 2939 N.E. Alberta in Portland.

Painting With Wax

I got to spend all day Friday playing with colorful wax. I was sicker than a dog, but I had signed up for this all day encaustic workshop a couple of months ago and didn't want to miss it. So armed with cold meds and a very large handkerchief, I made the drive to Deanna's beautiful country home and studio. This was the setting and the view from a couple of windows. It felt luxurious.



My work space. So tidy and full of promise . . . but not tidy for long! Here are before and after shots.



I just love paint pots! I even love the drips, or as Deanna says: Drippity, drip drip.





A word about Deanna. She is everything I want in a teacher: thorough, generous, and patient. She gave us time to create, but was always available if we needed or wanted help. She was encouraging, but not afraid to challenge us. I recommend you take one of her classes if you live in the area.






By the end of the day, I had completed two little encaustics. I was quite pleased with myself and the results!







Toward the end of the day with a little time to spare, I pulled out an unfinished encaustic I had started in Serena Barton's class in the fall. I didn't get a before photo of what I was working on, but here's a link to the class I took with Serena and here is how the piece looked at the end of the day yesterday. I already have an idea of what I plan to do with this encaustic, but will save that for another day.



Deanna and I recently did an art trade and I got to see my Curious Elements hanging in her sun room!