saturday art

i started my art time cleaning (boo, hiss)....

but the table was missing ... hidden under piles .... 

i found the table, put away some art detritus that had piled up ..... 

and began .... 

and got nowhere much ..... 

this is how i left it .....

nothing finished ... lots of ideas that didn't make it .... if you go to this pic on flickr, you can see the notes that i've spread across it .... see what i was thinking and doing with all these bits of this and that ..... 

....and then... important:

rah for very mary! she sent me a grand set of magnets ... that are now being charming and useful across the front of my fridge .....here, little.e.beck.artist is holding them .... i'm thinking we could carbon date that bandaid, it's so old ..... 

.... and last ... in regards to yesterday's post? i am, in fact, going to be interviewed on a radio show next week .... how crazy is that? the show's format is two thirty minute segments of art interviews .... and i'm a half hour of the show ..... if i don't sound too dumb or high pitched or tongue tied, i'll give you a link for a listen yourself ... should you be so inclined .... most of you faithful readers probably know all the stuff i'll say anyway ... any of you want to do the interview for me? make me sound bright and charming? no? oh well, no harm in asking ..... 

a guessing game

oh my .... i have some interesting things to tell you about .....i'm moving a bit outside of my artsy comfort zone TWICE ......considering my summer is meant to be artfully toned down, i don't know what to make of two BIG things .....

here's the first one .....
go ahead click .... it's a puzzle ... all be it, an easy one .....
didja look?
how 'bout that? i'm gonna do it.....would it be outside your comfort zone? eep! if i think about it too much i get nervous .... so i'm choosing not think about it too much ..... 

did ya figure out what i'm talking about?

wish me luck!!

and here's my second one .....
i've been asked to put two paintings into a show in september .... ok? that's easy, right?
here's the kicker.... the outside the comfort zone thing ... the BIG thing ..... the paintings are supposed to be bigger than 4 by 6 .... that's feet ... bigger than four by six feet .... wow ... that's big! and thus far my biggest canvases have been four by three ... fully half the size of what is expected of me .... twice .....
that's a lot of paint ..... i need to have started last week or something!

wanna hear about my non artsy life? the dog, the kids and i went on two walks today that were miles each (it was unseasonably cool today) ..... i played LIFE with the girls (i had four children in the orange car, and millions of dollars)..... i made a great dinner for my family (fun salads with chicken strips on top, i feel like i won a prize, it was the first time EVER that all three children ate salad and no one complained)..... and i bought my kids books at the bookstore (three of us adore the alex ryder series)......not in that order ..... and that's just the easy, happy highlights ....

happy day to you .... what was your fun?

a test .... only a test .... good luck

68

this was a FUN test to take .... start typing colors ...... red, orange, yellow ...... but then you need to remember ones like wheat and goldenrod and buff .... i actually LOVE my golden's buff titan .... i thought i was at a test taking advantage since cerulean is in my day to day vocabulary ....

post and tell me how you did ..... what's the most surprising color you thought of under pressure?

how's this for one of the grooviest paintings ever? 

this is dixie ...my sweet and wonderful dog .... the art was done by my pal al....and was my birthday gift a short bit ago .... 

you can read about it here on al's etsy site ....

and here on al's blog ......

are you having a grand long weekend? 

i am ....

that's why i'm just quickly doing a short blog!!!!

what have you been up to?

the official start of summer is upon us!

hooray for summer .... 

i'm of the opinion that memorial day is the official beginning of summer .... 

summertime is also the end of my art every day moments .... i'll have other, different, important responsibilities .... 

tomorrow is the last day of school for children ..... we have big summer plans .... that include this and this.... and some of this ...  and some of our plan, in between basketball camps and golf camps and vbs weeks, includes art ... i need to keep up with my new year's resolution ... and my kids are always up for a grand art project .... 

i plan to continue on with this blog habit i have .... it will just be a bit less art ... and maybe more frequent skipped days ..... so ... fair warning ....  and happy summer ..... 

what's your best summer plan? 

wednesday

two finished paintings .... both gifted away today ..... 

that's the nicest bit about my artsiness and my craftiness!! the ease of gift giving!! 

i'm watching american idol right now ... it is great .... my two favorite moments are david cook with zz top ... (i had a hard time explaining zz top to my kids!) .... and david cook in the guitar hero commercial ..... 

i'm off to itunes ..... to browse zz top .... what music do you listen to .... i'm taking reccomendations .... 

tuesday is a fine day for art ......

i had an artsy lovely day ..... 

if you look back at yesterday's post, you know i had a PLAN for an artsy lovely day ....

well.... i'm not so great at plans .... cause part of the plan was to clean up the studio .... today, my version of clean up was taking all the junk that had piled up on my work side of the table and piling up on the other side ..... the side where a pal or a kid sometimes works ...or where i lay out papers to dry as i paint them .... so ..... no drying space ....or friend space....or kid space ....until i get my tidy on ..... oh well ..... but i did take this BEFORE pic ....even if i have no after pic to go with it .... so maybe that means it isn't a before pic ....it's an "it is what it is" pic .... and it is a mess! 

if you head over to flickr you can see this pic with notes when you roll over it ..... in case you are wondering about any of that stuff! 

so, after NOT cleaning, i started work on some six inch canvases ..... and actually, canvases are on sale at jerry's artarama TODAY or maybe for the whole memorial weekend .... but they are FAB prices .... creative mark, edge canvases are what i usually order ... and what i ordered box upon box of today...yippee for online shopping ... 

in today's artistic endeavor, i used a tampa map that i got at a garage sale while on spring break in florida ...i chose it today (as opposed to georgia, sc, nc, paris, chicago environs, iowa, idaho, the london underground) because of its blueness..... i though i'd go with the blue....... i cut the map to six inch square pieces .....

i use liquitex mat medium to glue the maps to the canvas ......can you see lake e.beck.artist on this one? 

and here below are the eight canvases i got going .....

here they are again with some fluid acrylic coloring .....

today, i used cobalt teal, ultramarine blue, cerulean blue chromium, cobalt turq., cadmium yellow medium and green gold ..... cobalt teal is the same base color as cobalt turq, it  just has white added to it, so they are the same color family .... my current favorite color family, in fact! i mixed an opaque blue paint with some mat medium to do some letter stamping .... i did four canvases with a darker blue and then added white and did four more canvases ....

here are all eight cavases papered, painted and stamped ......

and here is a close up of four of them .... ready to go ... ready to become whatever it is they are meant to be ..... 

hmmmm .... what will that be? 

did you do art today? 

there's still time! go do something good for yourself ....grab a paint brush, a sharpie, a scissors ..... be artsy..... then tell me what you did ..... even if it was just little .....

happy

i have seen this cartoon on a couple blogs lately ..... and it turned up in my email inbox this week ..... and it makes me laugh, so i thought i'd share it ..... for lack of art, it's all i have for you....

i am artistically in neutral!! ....not a good thing to be for an art blog blogger! 

but that's ok, right? ... cause i've just spent MONTHS in artsy overdrive ..... 

i'm in the mayhem that is the last week of school ....

i'm in the mayhem of cleaning up messy closets and my messy studio that i've been ignoring for a good long while now ..... 

i'n in the mayhem of getting my ducks in a row so that we have a fun and action packed summer at casa e.beck.artist ....

and i'm happy .... 

tomorrow, my plan is to tidy my studio and do a six inch canvas for a hostess gift for later in the week ..... 

best case scenario, i'll have before and after pics of my studio, a completed six inch canvas, and some six inchers started with backgrounds ..... 

worst case scenario, i'll have a before pic of my studio.... and i'll spend the rest of the day wallowing in happy and taking the dog for long walks to procrastinate ..... not a bad worst case .... 

how are you doing? what's making you happy? 

two days later......

Glitter Text Generator

my show was thursday night .... whew!

i'm all serene thing now .... done with the fuss and the hustle and bustle ..... whew .....

there was a nice turn out in spite of monsoon rains and dire warnings from all the local meteorologists .....

kristy, lola's owner, said she sold more canvases than she ever had at an opening .....

it was a really nice night .... i was really just happy .... lot's of that happy was probably just relief!

i'll be back to my usual artsy blogginess in no time ....

 

last post i said "i'm ready"... well now, i'm really ready .... and i guess my next post will say , i'm done!

tra la la ..... i took my 60 canvases to lola's today ..... and we put their name labels and prices on them .... and then hung them up ...... the gallery section is kind of three sections... two sides and a middle .... all my stuff is in the middle ...... this first pic is the right wall, from the front door ..... with my nests, then pears, then some flowers and a house .....

this picture is the other wall..... from the other end, looking back towards the door .... it is actually one long wall of monas, hearts, miscellaneous  ...and then turn the corner to a wall of hearts ..... 
....here's the same wall with a close up of the monas .... 

in the center there are some stands with some 3d art ... and some of my small canvases propped up here and there ..... 

if you want to read about any of my gallery shots, i have flickr pics of them with notes, so you scroll over the photo in flickr and get to read all my secret messages .... here's one, and another..... and a third ... and the last one ..... 

so, i'm ready ..... now i wonder, is anyone going to come? 

i'm taking deep breaths ..... and crossing my fingers! 

i'm ready....

today, i went through my canvases that i'm taking to the gallery for my show ..... i have an inventory sheet and i checked that each canvas has hanging hardware and writing on the back ..... 

here's what i have: 

these are 6 inch square canvases....12 of them ....

these are most of my larger canvases.... 12 of them .... 20 inches square to 36 inches square ....
these are my 12 inch squares....12 of them ....
these are my long skinny canvases ... 7 of them ....
and these are my 18 inch square canvases...... there are 16 of them, i think .....
so, i'm ready to go .... i go to lola's gallery tomorrow to help hang the show .... cross your fingers for me ..... 

what's going on in your artsy world? 

may 12th .... a very nice day

this was a great (appropriate) birthday card i got today from a brother and sister in law .....i had a happy birthday filled day .... my family is really, really lovely ...... 

....and in art land, i have five canvases that i need to get ready: eye hooks, wire cut and added, signature, some writing on the back ..... i also emailed the groovy gallery owner some wordiness to print out and hang with my paintings for MY SHOW ON THURSDAY .... oh my gosh! i can hardly believe it is HERE ..... yoinks!!

mother's day

i made this in 2005 .... i thought about it this evening because i read it to littlest.beck.artist..... i have one hanging in each of my children's rooms ..... i wrote it, made it for my own kids, then made loads of them to sell ..... 

then...i read donna's blog over at mice and moonbeams and she was asking about ideas for canvas boards ... i used to drill holes in them and string on ribbons and charms ....or wires, charms and beads ..... 

then i thought ...... i've spent the weekend in the mountains with my family and not done any art .... so this would certainly be an appropriate pic for a mother's day blog ..... 

happy mother's day to you or to yours .... 

did you have a great day? i did! 

good thing my head's attached ....

quick, quick ... so much to do!

this painting is number 60 for the year .... that just kinda blows my wee little mind ..... 

i now have 40 canvases hardwared, signed, edged, and rip roaring ready to go for next week..... i have about 20 still to go .... that's good right? 

i slept better last night with little.beck.artist in my bed ..... funny how a little company can be soothing ..... she whispers in her sleep .... or mutters ..... it's more of a mutter than a whisper .... 

i had a tennis match this morning ..... in a new league i'm doing ...my cute partner and i won ... rah for that ..... we played a very nice pair ..... we even played more with them after our match was done .... just cause it was a glorious day for running around in the sunshine and swatting at balls ..... 

my bloggage might be a bit erratic for the next week .... apologies ahead of time .... but between mother's day, my (teehee) birthday, and my first solo art show ....i'm short on time for painting .... and long on running around like a chicken with my head cut off (that imagery is completely unappealing and i promise to not use it ever again) ...... 

and in closing .... when i put my counter in my margin when i first started this blog .... i started it at one .... even though i had the option of starting it at a different number ..... and it has now passed 10, ooo ..... that's a mind blower too ..... thanks for reading about my artsy endeavors .... this blog really has been a good thing for my art .. writing about what i'm doing helps me process it .... and then your feedback makes it seem easier to keep plugging along .... so thanks to all you artsy blog readers ...especially those of you who amuse, entertain, enlighten and pick me up with your comments ... 

tra la la ..... can you tell i'm all giddy wild? or does my blog read the same as always? 

59

it is 10 and i am just getting to my blog ...yoinks!! when mr.e.beck.artist is out of town, my schedule gets all discombobulated ... the worst bit is that i don't feel inclined to go to bed when he isn't here ... i just stay up! yawn ...and when i do go to bed, i wake up a ton ... and usually i fall asleep and don't wake up at all til morning ..... today on the phone he recommended that i let baby.beck.artist sleep in our bed with me tonight .... so i can wake up and have a peek at her and be happy and go back to sleep ...instead of waking up and worrying ..... so now she is thrilled to have been asked to sleep in my bed...... it's the small things in life that are the greatest joys, huh? 

and speaking of small things: 

this painting is six inches square ..... it has had an arduous life .... i made a fab background and then wrecked it .... so i rubbed it all out with alcohol and tried again ... and again .... so the background is very aged ..... and altered ... and layered with bits that didn't come off .... that background has lots of history ..... but finally was beautiful again ... with the map and some stray marks all beautified with some turquoise and gold green glazing ..... the flowers in the foreground are a bit of a breakthrough ... partly because i'm finally satisfied with this canvas, but also because i've never done such a small flower canvas .... though i've done loads of flowers .... you can go look at my flower set here .... 

this logs in as my 59th canvas this year .... my new year's resolution is to do 100 .... when i made the resolution i thought it was going to be a big push, a big concerted effort, a marathon at the end of the year to get it in ... but now? i'm wondering how high can i go? but before i work on breaking the 100 mark, i need to sell some of these!!

what was your new year's resolution? and how is it going? 

obsessive compulsive painting disorder ....

i have so much to do in my life ... but i am just ignoring it ALL and painting, painting, painting! i think about painting and my art and my upcoming gallery show CONSTANTLY ... like, i think there is something wrong inside my wee little brain .... i'm not especially compulsive historically ... but apparently, i'm quite capable of single mindedness..... i imagine (hope?) that i'll just be like this for another week and then i'll return to some sort of normal where i'm only in my art mode while in my studio ... and not having artsy thoughts 24/7 ..... we'll see ... maybe it's a permanent change ...that'll be weird, huh? 

so .... this is a three foot square canvas .... i've been working on it for quite a while .... the background is map (mostly pinellas county, florida) ..... i've named it nest (double word score) .... i've written about it in my flickr site ... but should add to it that i wanted a BIG nest piece ... but not a big nest ..... so there ya go ... this is a huge canvas ... but a fairly usual sized nest .... 

so, do you ever go crazy about something .... obsess over raw umber? .... dream about nests? .... compulse over whether or not fifty canvases is enough for your show? .... worry that your best painting is going to be the NEXT one ... so you keep going and going ..... i guess the most extraordinar thing is that i sometimes do get artist block .... and can't finish anything ... so i'll just appreciate this motivation while i have it .... 

come back tomorrow .... while allison was here, i actually worked on loads of paintings .... as did she! ..... so there will be more, more, more .....  cause all i want to do is paint, paint, paint! 

cinco de mayo, 56, 57

if you are taking notes on my blog, because one day, there will be a test .... you need to know this .... i adore ADORE adore mexican food ... my fave .... quesadillas, tacos, burritos, enchiladas, queso, red rice, salsa, guacamole (walk a mole, eh?), margaritas, corona, cancun, white cheese, fresh tortillas, yummin-uh, yummin-uh, yummin-uh .... ok ... that's a weird thing .... i SAY yummin-uh all the time ... but i'm sure i've never written it ... but .... i digress ... i love mexican food and what better way to adore mexican food than to celebrate cinco de mayo ... and ... actually, i went to a tres de mayo party ..... yummin-uh .... and all this is just to be au courant (that's french) and wish you a happy cinco de mayo (not french)..... 

and since we are on blog studies and test taking...anyone out there remember my college major? my minors? my second languge? my favorite color? my favorite shoes? wild guesses allowed .....

all this because i have been tagged by kelly at the happy shack .... to tell you random tidbits about myself ..... i get tagged fairly frequently and usually (eep!) ignore the tag .....  but .... mr.e.beck.artist is out o' town .... and my evening is stretching out in front of me .... plenty of time for a long blog .... jump ahead if you want to get the the art section of this wayward art blog....

so .... 

1. Link back to the person that tagged you.

2. Post these rules on your blog.

3. Share six unimportant things about yourself.

4. Tag six people at the end of your entry.

so....

1... i have three brothers, no sisters... grew up pretty tom boyish, wearing any handmedowns from them i could .... mostly, i think this is what made me low maintenance... not so girly or fussy about clothes and hair and such .... 

2... my mom had a sewing machine and a whole sewing room .... i adored it ... i think i mostly sewed with her during the summers (she was a teacher) .... i sewed a sleeping bag for every doll one summer ....another summer i sewed myself and each brother quivers for our arrows ..... the arrows were really palm fronds and the bows were home made ... but it was a cool sewing activity ......

3.... i took piano for one year and HATED it ... but apparently learned enough that i'm now teaching youngest.beck.artist to play ..... i'm going to get her real lessons in the fall .... i'm not musical at all ... but all my kids seem to be ... that's a great thing, huh? 

4... i'm happiest in sneakers ..... but love flipflops and sandals .... i usually have my toes polished with blue .... when i want to dress up i make them blue and glittery .... (note to self: need new glitter polish before my gallery show next week)

5... i have three kids and wanted another ... we ended up getting a dog to fill that new baby need ... and my dog is the most fabulous four legged thing i've ever known .... i truly didn't know you could possibly love a pet as much as i love this one ..... (can i complain? i walked for about two miles this morning ... and ended up carrying her for about 1.9 miles.... what's up with that .... she's nearly as stubborn as i am... she didn't want to walk ... and i wasn't about to turn back)

6... i'm stubborn(a taurus, may birthday) .... a middle child(well adjusted, diplomatic, peace maker, pacifist)... with some only child qualities (achievement oriented, spoiled ...eep! ) since i'm the only girl ....  and .... i'm bossy too .... just ask any of my brothers ... or mr.e.beck.artist .... or my kids .... or the dog .... yoinks ...none of that sounds too great ... but really, i'm nice ..... 

and ... thanks to darla's suggestion, this, number 56 for the year, is named saturday house ....18 inches square.....

and this, 57,  is sunday house .... it is just six inches square ......

......... i did both of these this weekend ... well, finished them this weekend ... started them in the last week or two .... since i always have quite a few pieces going at any given moment .... i'm working on a big one right now .... three feet square with map papers, brown glaze, blue stencil letters ... and a scrabble board ... i believe it will be my last nest painting for my NEST! show .... which is in ten days ... 

so ..... i'm supposed to tag six more people to do six random tra la las about themselves ... 

i tag kelly ... which means you have to do six MORE .... 

and i tag darla, jeannie, yogurt, lynn, and  donna

go to it girlfriends! 

come back tomorrow to see my three foot piece i spent today working on ..... 

mona's heartstrings ....

oh! .... do you see the mysterious haze of mona lisa in the background? i was working on image transfers .....was going for subtle .... and maybe got TOO subtle ... ha .... i'm not sure anyone will see mona if i don't announce her presence! 

i finished two collages on friday and two on saturday ..... and none on sunday .... not bad, though, considering i don't generally paint over the weekends ...... though, that makes me think to tell you, i did paint a bit this morning ... at my LAST journaling class ... i started it in august ... and now we're done ... and i have a pretty groovy filled in journal to show for it ..... 

so, here's my interesting thing .... i am thinking about art every single minute of every single day ... i am going to sleep thinking about art and waking up, still thinking about art .... my show is ten days away and it is ALL i think about .. what's up with that? i'm generally not a worrier, but i'm thinking that's what  this is ... i'm worrying ... or obsessing about the show .... i have been painting like a mad woman .... what if my NEXT piece is the best one .... i better get it done and out of me so that it can hang in the show!  ... i think i have far more pieces that i actually need ... yet, i keep going! i'm pretty sure that once the show is done, i'll just need a nap ..... whew ... makes me a little tired even thinking about all the things i'm thinking .... 

what are you thinking about? 

him and her pears

little.dog.beck.artist and e.beck.artist went to pal al's house yesterday for a painting session .... 

little dog came home with a turquoise chin that popped against her white furriness ....

e came home with this completed pear painting .... i'd started it a while ago when i worked on a pile of six by six backgrounds all at once .....

i adore painting pears .... and when i do them i always anthropomorphize them .... in my wee brain, i make them people .... he's leaning into her .... she's reaching out to touch him .... i don't think they are in love yet .... but there certainly is some chemistry that is going to send them down that path ..... 

hooray for pear love .... 

have a grand weekend ..... 

may day!

if you are at my house on may first, may day, you won't find a maypole to dance around... but you can admire the climbing roses and the flying pig ... and there's plenty of room to dance ....

i had a lovely may day ....

it started with a nice dog walk ....

then the fifth grade chariot races at school .... my daughter's team won .... zeus's lightning bolts .... it was so fun (funny) to watch .... 

then an end of the tennis season brunch .... three cheers for cheese grits ....

then (finally) home and into the basement .... and i finished el grande orange .... i wish i could really name my painting that ... but i don't really want to do joke name .... so it is called four egg nest .... it is 30 inches square and a LONG time coming ..... i'm most happy just to be done with it ... but i'm also quite happy with how it turned out .... whew! 

so ... whew!

whaddaya think?

was my obsessive compulsive orange worry insane or what? 

at least it is done .... 

now we'll move on to the obsessive compulsive green issue (it is 36 by 48 or something crazy like that...eep!)

happy may day..... 

may is my favorite month...

how 'bout you....what's your favorite month?