a peary good day .....

pear, pair, pare, square, squair, squear, for, four, fore .... 

this painting, finished today, is four square pear ..... 18 inches square .... dictionary papers ... groovy acrylics....mostly fluid acrylics .... 

though i said, i'd get the studio cleaned up a titch today, i did not ..... pal al didn't come over ...no gas in the car and we're doing the retro 70s gas crisis in this part of the country .... so, arting alone, i didn't feel compelled to clean ... i just painted ..... maybe tomorrow .... 

although...now that i think of it .... between the a.m. walk, the grocery, the tennis practice, and a HAIR CUT ..... not sure i'll be in the studio at all ... so the mess will stay .... 

and ... just for a titch of bragging, i've done 120 paintings this year ... ranging from six inches square (about fifty of them) to four feet by six feet (two of them) with all sorts of sizes in between ..... crazy, huh ..... my newest fret is that with the economic downturns that the three november shows won't be selling as much as i hope ... leaving me with one hundred and how many canvases taking up space .... oy! .... but .... i'll keep painting any way .... and cross my fingers .....

you crossing your fingers for anything? 

on friday, i did a HUGE clean up in my family room .... i've been painting and painting and then i prop my canvases up all around .... and it was getting pretty cluttered and full .... so ... i cleaned up piles of mail and magazines and books and kid stuff ... and canvases .... and the room is clean ....... and my fireplace is re-decorated ......the most lovely bit of all, when girl.beck.artist came home from school she said "i LOVE that!! ...." ... a pause .... "hey! can i have those" ..... yes, honey, of course you can  .... we have plans to finish out the attic with a bedroom for her ... and when that happens, she'll have three lovely bright heart paintings as our jumping off point to decorate ... rah! 

below, a mosaic of the many family room looks i've captured on film .....

which is your favorite? 
i'm partial to the top middle ..... and the bottom middle ..... really, i like them all .... there's not one i wouldn't choose to do again .... 

so....after all that cleaning , i did more than my fair share of mess making .... i trashed my studio in a creating frenzy ..... i have about 42 square feet of surface space in the middle of my studio there .... and i let girl.beck.artist have about one square foot .... and i rushed around making messes around her while she painted neatly, calmly, sedately, sweetly ..... she has not yet embraced art as an aerobic activity ....  

if you go over to my flickr site ... this pic has all sorts of notes on it that you can read if you roll your mouse over it ....

and one last picture .... 

when i was cleaning on friday, i was also assessing my paintings ... this one on the left didn't pass muster .. the tree seemed too wimpy .... so... i bulked it up ... with more paint, more branches .... i think it works better now ..... do you? 

today? i woke up at my usual time even though i got home super late last night .... we went to church...where i taught my groovy artsy sunday school class ..... got home.... read the paper ... had lunch ... then napped ... and napped ... and napped .... and ..well .....napped ..... so all that art frenzy today took place when i was VERY well rested from my zzzzzzzzzz's on the couch ..... 

anyone else get to take a nap today? nothing better than a good nap ..... 

have a great week ..... be artsy .....

poppy joy

this is a twelve inch canvas .... i used a map of england .... really, it was a map of france, but i just took the england portion of it! ..... one of my sister in laws gave this map, and many, many others, to me the last time she visited ..... this is one of the pieces i worked on friday... but am just getting around to posting today.... i have more to show you tomorrow .... i'd do it now...but i'm in a mad dash to get my painty self presentable for an evening out with a pack of friends..... mr.e.beck.artist is all adither that we are going out when there is just so much good football to stay home for .... the sitter is coming momentarily and i'm no where near ready .... very poor time management skills in this artist! .... 

how 'bout you? any fun this weekend? 

art progress ... and art in progress .... and my 193rd blog post ... that's a load, huh?

i had a tennis match this morning ... i did not win ... and ... actually i did not JUST lose ... i was trounced ... stomped.... smashed .... spanked .... slaughtered .... and .... the only reason i tell you this .... is ... because ... between sets, the other three players went to get waters, and i sat there ... daydreaming .... and wished i was at home painting ... it was a gorgeous day .... but not gorgeous enough to make up for that match! 

so.... when i got home, i went right to my studio ... IN my tennis clothes ... now, i am a messy messy painter ... i always change into paint clothes .... but did not .... i just wore an apron ... luckily the tide turned on my luck and i do not have paint on my tennis clothes ... whew! .... 

anyway ... here is how i salvaged my day: 
above are six more canvases that will be home sweet homes soon .... the bottom middle one even has some bushes growing on the downheart side of the hill .... 

and this one above, is a 12 inch square ... england map background ... turquoisiness ...two soon to be red poppies ... and a red bud ..... 

and the last thing i worked on was this 18 inch square orange canvas .... that i have no idea about ... no clue on how i'll finish it out .... so .... we'll just have to wait and see on that one .... 

how was your day?  hope you had some bright spots ... i guess the key to life is to make bright spots in sour days .... 

good morning ....

a morning blog!

as of 8.30 this morning, my blog has had three visitors, sweden, australia, and washington state ... hi and good morning .... my blogging has been off .... life is just so full tilt busy .... something gives.... laundry .... tidying .... blogging ..... i usually blog in the evening but last night stretched out on the couch "for a minute" and that minute lasted til i made my way to bed ..... 

i've been painting this and that ... not taken any process pics for you ... and have no final piece pics for you either .... 

this morning is gorgeous ... cool, crisp, clear, fresh ..... i noticed a tree this morning with heart shaped leaves ..... so i thought about that for the whole dog walk ..... heart leaves .. and heart art ... and leaves and hearts and art in general .....

i talked to a soccer dad last night (while i was fulfilling my role as soccer mom) ... we talked about my art for half an hour ..... it was interesting to me that he was so interested .... and interesting to me that he asked so many questions ..... the why questions and the how questions and marketing questions .... it is helpful to have to answer the questions .... and examine my answers ..... i got some food for thought there ....... 

so ... no pics ... no art ... just a hello from me .... i'm still artsy girl .... just not so bloggy ... i just didn't want a whole day of visitors looking at three day old posts! 

tra la la ... i'm off to a tennis morning and then a short art afternoon .... hopefull, with pictures! 

have a grand day ... 

nine

i have nine newly completed small canvases .... six inches square ... doing them in preparation for my november shows ..... my goals is 60, 70, or 80 small canvases so i can have one of my display grids covered in them ... partly cause i think it'll look cook ... partly because i think with this economy that it will be nice to have a smaller price point item available ..... 

if you dash over to flickr, you can get a better look at them ... there are small nuances of difference .... my happiest part of today was when girl.beck.artist saw them in a pile .... and sorted through them ... "i like the sun on this one ...oh,  a blue moon ... oh, this house is my favorite ...no! this house is a jack, it's my favorite ..... oh, a bottle cap ..... " and she was gleeful about every single one ..... even if no one else in the whole world likes any of them, one of my favorite people on the planet loved and appreciated all of them! 

i had an art day at allison's house .... so it was grand and easy to (finally) get these finished up ... i think i still have five or six more to work on .... already done with hearts .... not sure if i'll do them tomorrow ....or something else .... i have an 18 inch orange canvas that i've been working on ..... so maybe i'll do that .... we'll just have to wait and see how the spirit moves me .... 

so, which home sweet home do you like best? 

small things

it was a good day for angels ..... to learn about that angel, read this post from a week ago......

here's your life lesson for the day ... you might already know it, but it's always worth reading again .... 

appreciate the small things ..... 

...and ... if you are appreciating the small things, then go ahead and do the small things, live the small things, comment on the small things, love the small things, give small things ..... all the little things add up to be the big things .... 

i went to a funeral today .... it was a small thing i did for a friend whose dad died ..... but i got great things from that small thing ..... i thought about my people that i love and appreciate .... i thought about life and death and love and loss ..... i went there, on an hour and a half drive, with three girl friends .... how often do you get to ride around with a bunch of girlfriends and just have girlfriend talk? the day was just horrible and lovely .... just like funerals .... and we ate chocolate on the long ride home .....

 

my dear, sad friend at the funeral was wearing the guardian angel pendant that i gave her last week .... she says she's worn it every day since she got it .... she got it on her "darkest day" .... 

i can't even imagine ..... allison's small thing for me turned into a big thing for my sad friend .... 

so .... pay attention to the small things ... they might be someone else's big thing .... 

alas, no art today .... instead, my small thing appreciation list for the day.... it includes reese's, diet coke, having enough tissues to share, a pal driving me around, mr.e.beck.artist walking me down the street to catch my ride while holding my hand, girlfriends, the start of fall weather, the relief of taking OFF church clothes, all three of my children now eat salad ..... 

tell me some small things you are mindful of right now ..... 

friday art day

i had a GRAND art day ... that was almost as unproductive as it was fun ... those two things, productivity and fun, aren't usually mutually exclusive, but, somehow, today, allison and i were so chitty chatty animated busy talking that my painting was just fine ... but not as fabulously productive as i can be sometimes ...... basically, way more talking than painting! 

here's a canvas that i stenciled some letters onto ... to give the background some depth and interest ....

then i put on a paper i glazed turquoise paleness .... and i added a tree ... with two heartstrings ... this pic below is truer color than the above photo of the background ... the background photo above was taken in the basement studio... meaning, no good light .... the pic below was taken on the front porch, in indirect bright sunlight .... like it's supposed to be done! 
i actually finished this tree painting AFTER allison left ... because i felt like i didn't have much to show for my day ... after i promised yesterday that i was going to be painting prodigiously today .... 

while allison was here, i worked on the fifteen canvases that i showed you yesterday (scroll down if you missed it) ...... i got letters stamped on all of them today ....and let them dry ... usually i'm impatient for drying and take a hairdryer to them ... but instead? i watched them dry... and talked and talked .... and then i decided i was going to work on some home sweet homes .... and that meant making hearts with houses on them .... the yellows were meant for home sweet home ... the blues for fishes ... and the browns for pears .. but .... it was so nice and easy and relaxing to paint big ole' ordinary hearts on the the canvases ... that i just kept doing it ... all fifteen ... hearts and hearts and hearts .. no houses, no trees, no bushes, no sunshines, no clouds ....and certainly no fish, no pears ... and no progress ... just lots of hearts ... cause they were easy! ha! .... and i just lied to you ... i did make a few bushes .... on a couple ... as you can see in this pic below:

i also started cutting up bingo cards and playing cards and stamps and such to make the houses ... but really that was just more dithering than working! ...... 

so .. there you have it ... one single finished painting! and lots of partways! .... hopefully tomorrow i'll have a bit of time in my art room ... we have a soccer game, a basketball game, a tennis match and a birthday party  .... somewhere in there, maybe there will be room for a titch of art .... come back and check! 

do you have any artsy weekend plans? 

a hodge podge of this and that .... my 288th blog post ... yoinks!

how did i get so very far behind? good grief!

but ... two entire weeks ago, i had a contest ... and never announced a winner .... but ... since i've been thinking about making itty bitty fishy canvases ever since 3rd eye muse suggested such, i'm sure she should be the winner .... so ..... 3, send me your snail mail and i'll send you a prize any day now .... ok ... any week now .... once i figure out what it is ... or make it .... or something .... 

and here's my studio from today .....

if you dash over to my flickr site here, you'll be able to push your mouse all over the pic and see little notes about the various this and thats in the picture .... 

mr.e.beck.artist? out of town .... 

boy.beck.artist? out of town....

girl.beck.artist? out of town .... 

the kids are actually on a middle school retreat .... leaving me with little.e.beck.artist ... mini me ..... we've had a grand time ....i  let her stay up way too late .... played wii for way to0 long .... let her have mnm's for dessert (desert is one of her spelling words so i knew just how to spell dessert) ..... 

tomorrow, i hope to do art much of the day .... with some dog walking and mystery reader duties at school thrown in just to make me well balanced ..... and then everyone else comes home from their trips .... rah .... 

come back tomorrow for finished works ...not sure what they'll be ... but i can surely get a couple finished with so many canvases started and ready to become something .... definitely, tomorrow will be a happy day ..... 

tra la la .... what happy thing are you planning ...

ps..... happy birthday brother.2.beck.artist ..... i don't think he reads my blog... but his sweet wife does .....

yes, no, yes, no, yes, no, yes, no, maybe.......

yes, i've been doing a bit of art each day

no, i've not been doing as much as i'd like

yes, i've been a bit overwhelmed by the rest of my life

no, it surely won't last forever

yes, i've been looking for that missing canvas

no, i haven't found it

yes, i understand that tells you just how messy my studio, my life is at the moment

no, it doesn't really bug me at all usually

yes, it's just how i am

no, i don't have to prove anything to you 

yes, i do have a book backing me up on my theories of just how important that messiness is to my creative process

no, i'm not planning on cleaning the studio tomorrow

yes, i will find my photo card reader tomorrow and show you some pics ..... 

maybe?

was your day today a yes or a no .... mine was a titch more no than yes .... i'm working on having a yes day tomorrow .... a yes day and photos of art ..... yes? 

mosaic monday ......

i've done four more for my branch series ... and now it is done .... i think i did fourteen canvases originally... to be this new series ... but one of them i put orange poppies on .... and the other ... well ... it's just missing ... who knows where it is .... allison's house? under the seat in the car? stowed in some bag or basket or bin? lost in the abyss that is my art room? the dog ate it? alas .... just missing .... oh well .... i'm not heartbroken or anything .....

the biggest big deal? my 100 set now has 108 completed canvases in it ... how's that for groovy .... and of the last four completed (that i haven't shown on this blog) this one below is (in my wee mind) the grooviest .... you can get a close up of all 12 in this set on flickr ......

the grooviest bit of my day? i played tennis twice .... once first thing this morning ....once at almost dinner time ..... and had a couple hours in my art space ..... rah for that!  ... plus .... 

six loads of laundry (how can that be?) ... a trip to the bank ... a trip to target ..... four dog walks ..... one was about two miles (and i only had to carry her for about 100 yards!...progress!) ......all kinds of homeworking helping and quizzing for tests ... grill cheese for dinner .... and watermelon, grapes and strawberries ......lovely day, all in all... quite productive..... how 'bout you? what were your nice bits?

coolness for moi....

hey, look! what's that down there ..... that big turquoiseyness down there on the wall in the roswell cultural arts center? ...oh ... now i see .... it's my painting .... my el grande humongo painting in situ .... it's such a big ole room, that the painting doesn't look so big ... but it's six feet tall! .....
oh ... wait ... here it is .... with my pink purse in the pic for some perspective ... wait! did you say, surely e doesn't carry a pink purse ( i don't ...i'm neither a pink purse girl, nor, really, a purse girl at all!) .... so what is that purse .... oh! it's her dog's purse ... wait! her dog is in the purse ... um ... yes .... how weird is that ... have dog will travel .... and when you need to go inside somewhere that dogs aren't exactly meant to be ... well, you need a dog purse ..... 

ah .... and here's another photo ... at the far end of the roswell cultural arts center ... another e.beck.artist el grande painting ... look at that happy fish .... directing people to the stairwell .... do fish use stairs? 

and finally ... my art installment for the day .... a ten inch by thirty inch canvas .... an installment in the heartstring series ..... 

i didn't actually paint this over the weekend ... it is one of the ones i painted at allison's on friday ..... 

i have had a fabulous weekend .... mr.e.beck.artist got home from a far flung long trip .... girl.beck.artist had a tennis match and won ... little.e.beck.artist was thrilled to score a goal at soccer (they won)..... both girl and boy beck artist had guitar lessons ... always fun to hear them .. they really love it .... an indigo girls concert with pals ..... and i had my first sunday school class today, teaching an art and journaling class using 37 days as a curriculum ..... 

this week .... my fun? three days of tennis ... two days of art with allison .... a trip to target (i hardly ever go and always love it when i do!) .... a trip to michael's or binder's for some art stuff for my sunday school class ..... and who knows what other unknown joys? 

have a grand week ......