In the studio last week:

One of my faithful studio pals

and a painting in progress...

 Photos from the trip to Calistoga, CA for the OPA show.  What fun! 

Now it's time to get back to work and create!

Images taken at our latest POBL retreat in the Mt. Rainier area.  It's always such an amazing event; beautiful scenery, delicious food, and extraordinary artists/friends!!! 

Already looking forward to next year...

Happy to be back...

It's been awhile since I posted last so I'll spend a few minutes and catch everyone up on what's up.

Summer was wonderful!  A bit rainy in the beginning but the beautiful fall is making up for it.

The painting with the old drill was accepted to the Western Regional Oil Painters of America Juried Show in Calistoga California and will be on display at the Lee Youngmans Gallery beginning October 8th.

My daughter Ellie moves into the dorm on Thursday at the University of Washington and will be on their women's crew team.  She is very excited.

The lower three painting will be in the Matzke Fine Art Gallery on Camano Island in their upcoming invitational show "The Show Must Go On".  It looks to be a pretty amazing show and opens October 8th.

I hope to get back to posting on a more regular basis and apologize for the sluggish posting lately!

Cheers,

Michelle

Studio Sale!!!

Well it's been a while.  Spring and early summer was very busy with my daughter graduating. 

Now it's time for my big studio sale, it's this Sunday, July 31st, at the Arts Umbrella, Country Village Bothell.  There will be over 150 paintings for sale.  Come by and check it out

Just off the easel

 It's SPRING so the flowers are running riot in the garden.  I could spend all day just painting blossoms.  This subject matter is challenging due to the fact that the minute you start painting the flowers move constantly, very slowly but markedly.  So I paint from life until they wilt then refer to photos to finish up.

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Hot off the easel

Here are a few new paintings, the 2nd and 3rd are to be entered into a local juried show.  My fingers are crossed.

The next challenge is coming up with some new compositions with a little more depth and story.  I'd like to enter the Art Renewal Centers annual Salon for 2012 so I need to design a little more sophisticated composition. 

The last two photos are from my garden, we had a glorious sunny day!

Here's what's on the easel at the moment.  I'm having so much fun working with bright colors.  Thinking SPRING!!!

The goal these days is to push past good enough and really work towards amazing.  Which means slowing down a bit more and really checking that everything is thought through, ie color relationships, edges, values, composition and story.

Images from our retreat

Images from our POBL retreat in March.  The portrait is baby Andrew... he's a delight!

The new digs...

Just in time for spring, I'm back in the studio.  The new improved version!  Hooray!  There are a few things to finish up, but for the most part we're back in business.  AND now that it's spring there is inspiration popping up everywhere.

Obstacle course of life...

Ok, so the last time I posted I was very excited after cleaning and rearranging my studio, ready for a fresh start.

Then as the saying goes "s_ _ t happened" and the water heater in the room next to the studio decided it would give up the ghost and flood half the studio floor.

Well... my hubby and I had been discussing the update of the downstairs for years.  Since the carpet had to be pulled up anyway we decided to jump in!


Now the studio looks like this...

So, no work is getting done with canvas and brush, instead I use a roller, brush, blue tape, gallons of latex paint, and laminate flooring.  Just when you think it's smooth sailing, life steps in to remind you of chaos theory.  At first it's really stressful and frustrating, but if you can hang in there new possibilities appear and something good comes out of it.  (Not without a lot of bitching and complaining I must admit)


Spring is coming and I am thinking of friends and family out there wishing them beautiful days and new possibilities.

Fresh start...

The show is up at Kaewyn!  We had a lovely opening.  Now it's time to start thinking about what comes next.  At first I thought I'd go a whole new direction but after some time realized I want to continue with the same themes.  So it's full steam ahead.  The studio is clean and ready, I have a whole new bolt of pre-primed canvas.  There's inspiration at every turn!

Two more weeks...

Here I am working away!  This is where you'll find me if I'm not eating, sleeping or teaching.  Come February I will be taking a lot of field trips!  Cabin fever is starting to set in.

Happy New Year!!!

Hope you are having a wonderful 1st day of the new year. 

Happy Holidays!!!

Wishing you all love, laughter and lightness of heart for this holiday season and the new year to come.

Update, finally!

Here are some works on the easel waiting to be finished up for the Feb. show at Kaewyn.  The plan is to have 30 new works finished and framed by the last week in January.

Wish me luck!

Visit the Small Works show at Kaewyn Gallery, Bothell

Come see my paintings at the Kaewyn small works show.  Go on and check them out as well as all the great art in the gallery!