backtracking 8/8: sticks and stones

And finally, the reason for our trip. The Sticks and Stones exhibition!

Welcome to Ciel Gallery.

Seems as though I'm often the outsider looking in...

Ciel Gallery owner Pamela Pardue Goode and her charming father.

My Jerzy sitting back and observing the evening.

My work and the wonderful work of Susan Springer Anderson. Followed by some of my favourite pieces from the show...

Amber Zavada

Pamela Pardue Goode

Susan Springer Anderson

Ken Knowlton

Jeannette Brossart

Follow this link and go to page 70 to read an article in the April issue of Today's Charlotte Woman. I was pleased to see a photo of one of my pieces and a paragraph describing my influences and my work (taken from my website I guess).

backtracking 2/8: blog buddies

March the 2nd. After delivering my pieces to Ciel Gallery in Charlotte we hit the road again especially to visit (and meet for the first time) two of my blog buddies. We headed towards the Great Smoky Mountains and the next day met up with Kathy Van Kleeck (above) and had a wonderful Southern breakfast with biscuits and grits (my first grits ever and I love them) followed by a visit to some galleries in the artsy city of Asheville. As expected, we really connected but we were absolutely certain of it when we bonded (and drooled) over some amazing art by the artist Leslie Walker Noell (click here as well).

After lunch we headed further into the mountains to the town of Boone (note the twisty road in the photo) to visit Jessica of Wayfaring Wanderer and her boyfriend Cody. Jessica recommended a walk near her house so we got to stretch our legs a bit and see the area where she takes many of her amazing photographs before meeting them and heading out to a Thai restaurant. We had a lovely evening and a delicious meal. Unfortunately almost all my photographs of us are blurry so I suggest you go to Jessica's post for some better photos!

Meeting my blog buddies was certainly a highlight of the trip. Looking forward to more of that soon...

away

If you've been reading my blog, you know that I was away over a week ago. I promised that I would write about it here. The main reason for the trip was to attend the interment ceremony of my aunt Jan who died in June. We had the interment ceremony on her birthday, August 24th. It was certainly a sad occasion but I think we gave her a lovely send-off. I hadn't been in touch with my aunt for many, many years. My Mom always kept me up-to-date on what was going on with she and my uncle. I always had great affection for her because she never talked down to me as a kid. She was a straight-talker and as my Dad would say, "a good egg".

Jan was an artist. When I entered her studio, I felt a pang of regret that I had not been in touch with her. It was clear that we would have had a great deal to talk about. A great deal in common. She worked with watercolours, oils, acrylics, and, when her emphysema became quite severe and she couldn't handle the fumes of paint, she did computer art. She was passionate about her art and had quite a library of books on art. My Uncle Bob generously told me that I could choose any books that I wanted from her collection of over a hundred titles. It was an honour to do so. Most of her books were about watercolour and oil technique, but she had quite an eclectic collection. Below are the books that I chose. They will hold a special place in my studio library and will be well used. Some of these books had small scraps of paper, marking certain pages that were probably of interest to her. I will keep these scraps in the pages where they were placed, in honour of Jan.

Instead of returning directly home after the ceremony, Jerzy and I decided to stop for a few days in Prince Edward County, an area noted for its sand dunes, wineries, and artists studios. We stayed two nights and basically just lay on the beach, had some nice meals, popped into an art gallery, and went for some nice walks in the woods and fields. A brief but enjoyable get-away...

Some images from our walk in the woods

Some images from our walk in the fields

happy 75th!

My Mom turns 75 today! Happy Birthday Mom!

This is a blind contour drawing of my Mom that I did for an artist trading card series. I covered the cards with black gesso and then used gel pens to do the drawings. I love the spontaneity of blind contour drawings. Sometimes you really capture the essence of your subject in all those muddled lines. And it's great therapy for someone like me who is drawing-challenged and often obstructed by perfectionism.

More ATCs. These are blind contour drawings of my two sisters, Jerzy, and my Dad.