ValeArts Spring Show "Destinations"

  It is Spring and ART is in the air at Vale!!  

It is hard to believe tomorrow is the last day of the show.  It has been a wonderful and eye opening experience.  The ValeArts Members are a terrific and remarkable group of ladies. And oh my, do they have putting up a show down to a lean mean machine science.  I always learn something new with every show I do, but I cannot tell you how impressed I have been with the way they handle everything.  Their organization, from how they put the show up, hanging art from 12 foot high hooks and never getting on a ladder (my personal favorite new tip since I'm usually the one on the ladder), the way they divide up the space so fairly, how they do their inventory sheets even their accounting methods.  They are amazing.  
It has been fun to see how so much art by 9 artists just works together.  You can't believe how much can be fit and be enjoyed a in small historical school house.  There is one more day to enjoy it.  

Keep your fingers crossed for us that the sun will come out tomorrow....We about froze today!

Historic Vale School House

3124 Fox Mill Rd, Oakton VA 22124

Corner of Vale & Foxmill Roads

at the flashing red four-way stop

Hours: 10 am to 6 pm

Vale School House

Mom - the Tennis Player

"Tennis Anyone"

10x20” acrylic on canvas (NFS)

"30 - Love"

10x20” acrylic on canvas (NFS)

I just visited my parents and hung these 2 paintings I did of Mom in her room.  I hope they give her a little joy when she looks at them.  

My dear Mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer's last fall and had to move to a memory unit in assisted living facility.  When I saw her room in February I knew she needed something bright for her walls and something of her past.  I decided I'd paint Mom playing tennis from some old photos of her playing tennis just a couple of years ago so she would have been 79 or 80 in the photos!   I hoped the paintings might also help her remember how much she loved tennis at least for a little while.   Mom, who always was a gifted athlete but didn't have time to play sports when we were kids, started playing tennis when she & Dad retired to Florida. She became an excellent tennis player who could even beat the grand-kids!   She played 5-6 days a week until a few years ago and "cut back" to 2-3 times a week until she had to shop playing about a year ago.  

What these paintings have taught me was I loved painting them on all sorts of levels including they made me feel closer to my Mom.  Love you Mom. 

Uggs and Kisses

Uggs & Kisses

10x20” oil on canvas (sold)

So adorable in her Uggs and Tutu.

This is another new painting for the ValeArts show.  Its hard to believe that the show opens this week.  Lots a admin things to do for the next week.Two BIG boxes of frames have arrived from Florida Frames, one of my favorite places to get frames.  So I will be framing, writing inventories and making labels.  

MOVE Over

"MOVE Over"  8x8" oil  (Sold)

I'm finding that there is something really appealing about painting birds.  It is amazing what great expressions they can have.  This painting was a challenge photo sent to me by a friend.  I put them on a wire and changed the background using turquoise, currently my color. I had the best time painting this adorable trio.  They made me smile whenever I looked at the painting.   They will soon be enjoying a spot in a friend's office.  I hope they brings her smiles everyday too. 

 ValeArts show is coming soon!!

Historic Vale School House

3124 Fox Mill Rd, Oakton VA 22124

Corner of Vale & Foxmill Roads

at the flashing red four-way stop

I am honored to be a guest artist with the Vale Arts group.  If you live nearby please stop in and enjoy their Annual Spring show "Destinations."
 

Visit their website for more information.  ValeArts

Murphy Oil Soap - an Artist's Friend

ART TIP -  Removing Paint from Your Brushes and Clothes

Brushes are expensive so you don't want to accidentally ruin one.  It happens to everyone...You meant to clean your brushes later and get busy doing something else.  Its a shame to have to throw them away or even put them in the "old" brush container if they aren't a solid mass.   The solution is to buy brush cleaners that will remove dried paint from your brushes. 

Winsor & Newton Brush Cleaner and Restorer.   I wrote about it in an earlier blog.  It is reasonably priced and works like a charm to clean both oil and acrylic from your brushes.  It has saved many of my brushes.  Just make sure you only use a little of the cleaner in a jar so that it doesn't get the wooden part of your brush in the solution.  Remember...it removes paint so you will have a naked brush if you get it on the wooden handle.
  

Murphy's Oil Soap:  A less expensive alternative for removing oil and acrylic paint is Murphy's Oil Soap.  Unlike the Winsor and Newton cleaner, it can also be used on your clothes.  Who hasn't gotten paint on their "good" clothes?   You walk by a painting in progress and decide it just needs a couple more strokes and the paint seems to migrate to your clothes every time.  Murphy's to the rescue.  Carefully rub a little at a time into the paint on your clothes with your finger or a clean rag until the paint looks loose.  Then gently wipe/drab as much as you can off and throw the clothing in the laundry.  For brushes, put about a 1/4-1/2 inch into a glass bottle and swish your brushes around.  Unless the paint is really harden (then let them soak) it shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes to have your brushes clean and in working order again.  Once the bristles are pliable, rinse them in cool water (never hot).  Don't forget its easier when you leave a little soap in your brushes for them to dry and hold their edge. 

Making Stamps to use in Mixed Media

I am posting Kathy Kromer's Quick, Easy & Inexpensive Way Create Custom Stamps video for the members of the Springfield Art Guild. Our monthly meetings with guest speakers are free and open to the public. We always encourage members to bring family and friends. We will be making stamps that can be used in mixed media art at our February 11, 2015 meeting. The meetings are held at the Richard Byrd Library, 7250 Commerce Street Springfield, VA 22150. The doors open at 6:00 with refreshments and socializing. After a short presentation on selling your art on EBay the guest speaker presentation begins just after a short upcoming events meeting at 7:30pm - 9:00pm.

Having daldrums after a solo show? ENTER small shows

As everyone knows you paint like a crazy person for a show and sometimes its hard to get back into a rhythm once its over.  Sometimes I fight that by dragging out a couple of old paintings that just didn't work, but I haven't thrown them away.  I "play" with them.  Its just fun!  Rarely, do I salvage them so I could sell them (you really should start over for that) but looking at them with a new critical eye and what was lacking in the first place is a great exercise for me.

Local Art Shows:  Fall is also a great time of the year for art shows.  We have lots of them in our area. Back in January,  my critique group decided we'd write an "art bucket list" for the year.  I had about 20 items (probably should be cut it back a little) and I've actually accomplished most of them.  One of the items was to enter local shows sponsored by new groups I had not worked with before.  I am doing 3 this fall.  I don't usually do more than one at a time and never thought about how much time they take, so everyone should keep that in mind... KEEP a calendar of events...drop off, pick up if rejected, some require volunteer duties, receptions, and pick up.  With that list you can see they can be a big time commitment. 

My tip: Enter shows with a friend or two so you trade off on some of the duties if needed and most important can help with drop off and pick ups if something comes up.  

Prospectus Read each one carefully.  Rules can be different for each event.  It is surprising how many people enter paintings, pay the fees, drop of their work and it is rejected not because it isn't a wonderful painting, but because they didn't read the prospectus and it doesn't fit the theme/requirements.

Fees:  Many shows have entry fees, but there are just as many small shows that do not.  Many will keep a percentage of the sale.  From 10-40%.  

Volunteer requirement?:  Keep in mind that in addition to entry fees, many local shows require you to do some volunteer work if you are in their show.  That can be making spreadsheets or labels, helping with advertizing, logging in paintings, assisting the judge, hanging the show, attending the reception (which everyone should try to do because it is fun), set up and/or clean up at the reception, bringing food for the reception, taking down the show, & checking the paintings out.

Dates you have to track: (It doesn't sound like much but if you are entering multiples it can get confusing.

• When the entry has to be mailed 
• If entering more than one show tracking which paintings are going where!
• Drop off date (and pick up times if they aren't accepted into the show)
• Reception
• Pick up 

The Traveling Chicken

I've just learned that I needed to change the write-up for my blog so it isn't too close to the one I wrote for the Traveling Chicken blog (apparently that causes problems) Here's my updated story: 

I signed up hoping for a visit from the Traveling Chicken a few years back.  TC is a very popular chick!  She finally arrived at my house for her grand portrait.  Painting a famous chicken proved to be nerve racking! 

Rather than TC arriving from some exotic place (sorry Johnna), she only traveled a short distance from her last stop.  As it turned out, it was fun TC was close, because her last 'handler' Johnna called me and arranged for us to have lunch where she passed the baton (or rather TC).  We had a nice long lunch and were able to enjoy getting to know one another.  I hope it’s going to be a lasting friendship.  Who else can honestly say it was a friendship started with an introduction from a Chicken!  

To see where the adventures of the Travel Chicken has taken her, check out her blog, The Travel Chicken.  

"Show Off" 6x6" oil on RayMar $50

TC's companion rooster was taking a vacation

so I found this one dressed in his Christmas finery.  

 

The other artists at the Loft Gallery were introduced to TC.  The Loft is currently having a miniature show so TC fit right in as she checked out my frog!