Wallowa Valley Festival of Arts 2015 Entries

 Sunset in Seville

Cerises Rouges

My Three Entries for the Wallowa Valley Festival of Arts

Calabaza de Cuero

 It's nail biting time again. Funny, I always worry about being accepted, and haven't been turned away yet, so why the nail biting? I guess it's that old lack of self confidence creeping in. Keeps me humble right? Lol.

Sunset In Sonora

 This was an interesting challenge, but a lot of fun to do. I wanted to try and use my doilies in a tree painting, and it worked, although I had another style in mind prior. What's nice is I can still try my other idea. I've learned though that joint compound does not like cold basement floors. It was a bit hard to spread, and a lot more crazing happened than I like. The paint filled most of that in luckily, and the antiquing process brought out what was left, to my advantage.

The Red Hen

Pastels and chickens, who knew that would be my new fun challenge to try?! I have a couple of other challenges in that regard, and my temptation is to blow past the sketch step and get right to it, but I think I will try and sketch out my idea first to make sure I have my light and dark areas figured out. I can do that while Kent is doing his dulcimer practice so it works for both of us.
I'd better get to finishing getting ready for work. I am introducing Mary Cassatt to my students today. It will be interesting to see how they settle in after Spring Break.

Western Style Tooled Leather Look on Carved Gourd

 Got this done finally, and it turned out pretty nice if I do say so myself. Nature Guy and I were both sweating it, as two days ago this was not looking the way I had hoped. Proof that details matter.

I had to change a plan or two, for instance, the holes around the top band of the gourd weren't doing it for me. As I was rummaging through my jewelry making stash I found some eyelets that intrigued me so I tried placing a couple in the holes and they sure made a difference so that was a nice discovery slash inspiration. I had another plan for the base of the gourd, but acrylics weren't working the way I had hoped. it's all good though as the end result turned out great as well. You can't really see it well in this photo, so when we get back from our travels I will share more photos. All in all, my art pieces for the show are going better than I hoped, whew! Are you working on anything new?

Gourd Carving... getting ready for the WVFA

 Trying out a new technique and flying by the seat of my pants so to speak. I see a new book out on gourd carving, right after I already started this...lol. Oh well, I've always wanted to try a tooled leather look on gourds, but I have another piece in mind. This may be titled "Trial Run".

I am getting close to my deadline, so I'd better get this done. So far, so good. I have a few tweaks to do before I finish the painting, but I am nervously and feverishly working to finish this and another piece before my deadline. I know, why wait to the last minute right? Well, work, and family stuff and illness and a family death put me behind big time so as usual I'm scrambling. It will all work out. In the mean time I think I'm going to order the book I saw and see what I can learn.

I've been accepted into the Wallowa Valley Festival of Arts!

All three of these pieces made it into the art show, yippeeeee! Okay, so I sound a bit giddy, but I am excited about the show. I would have posted this sooner, but wow does life get away from me at times. Gardening has started, the household chores are still there, and work has given me more hours, so with that, and travel and so on, I almost forgot to share. I also see I didn't share the apple painting, so here it is, along with the other two. The Textured abstract has a buyer if it doesn't sell at the show in Oregon.
Well, off to post a recipe on Simply Sheryl's. Stop if you can!

Trying to get the color right.....

Not sure how you will see these, but I'm trying to get the color right in photos. It's tough, as the light has to be just right, or the shine on these paintings throws things off. I need to do some research. Anyhew..... these are previews. Trying to decide which will be entered into the Wallowa Valley Festival of Arts, and which go online. Let me know what you think!

Pears are done...

I thought I had shared this, but lately our so called 4G connection has been acting up, so downloading photos has been a bear. I finished the pears painting so now the debate on a title has begun. My original thought was "Ready for Market", but we had a lot of time to deliberate while on our way up to Brighton ski resort yesterday. Nature Guy said I should call it " Eight Pears In a Box",  or "Market Fresh", which is a local grocery store slogan. Then he came up with Market Morning. Still thinking about that one. What do you think? I'm planning on entering this one in the Wallowa Valley Festival of Arts, unless I come up with something much better.

Wallowa Valley Festival of Arts Success Story

 What an incredible show it was this year! I won a ribbon for the above piece, and it was one of the first pieces sold at the opening night reception Friday night. I was/am so tickled! I had a fun time Saturday as I was asked to demo my sculpting and textured art skills. The textured art demo was the most popular, with people of all ages watching and asking questions. One lady asked me if I considered what I do fine art or a crafty thing, and so I to pointed out to her that the above piece was accepted into the show and it is a fine art show.... she didn't ask any more questions after that, but I'm not sure what I could have said otherwise. The look on everyone's faces when she asked the question was funny, some shocked, some frowning, some with a wondering look, but when I answered they all nodded yes and smiled. I hope I wasn't too harsh as I said it gently, but firmly. The sculpting demo was fun as well and I was asked to join the quick draw next year to sculpt a piece with the idea that it would be sculpted to a finished stage, and painted later, with an example of what the finished piece would look like so folks bidding would know what they could expect. That will be quite a challenge as we have an hour and a half to finish a piece, so I had better settle on a theme and practice now.

 Sunday when I went to pick up my art, I found out that the same person who bought the one piece, bought my chicken as well, score! I hear she is a very nice person so I look forward to getting to know her.

To top everything off my silent auction piece sold as well, to a local chef, and this year half of the sale price goes to the artist, whoohoo!
All in all, it was a very good year for me, and I'm thrilled! After not working all year, and not really having much artistic time it was a sweet gift from above. I know where my blessings come from and I consider this such a blessing!

Virtue.... a finished WIP

I'm still in my jammies as I have been working on this and getting the photos and entry done, whew! I can go on vacation with peace of mind now. At 32 inches tall, she is the tallest/largest sculpt I've done to date. She is made from a total of 5 gourds, one for the body and two for each of the arms. No baby though. I had to remove the baby as it was looking more like a cocoon from outer space than a child, even a folk art one...lol. This is a bit different than I had planned for her dress as well, but sometimes things change as we go along. Now, to wait and see if I've been accepted.

Here's a closer look at her base. I tried to achieve a turquoise stone look to the panels on her dress. I hope that will show up in person. Photos are hard to take here.

Another one of my entries for the Wallowa Valley Festival of Arts. A mixed media abstract.

I know I've shared this before as well, but here's "Who's Chicken?" again. Now the waiting begins. Will I be accepted? I hope so as I'm supposed to demo my sculpting and I usually volunteer to help. I do enjoy this show, but will be looking for others to enter as well. They are great experiences and you can get good feedback on where you need to improve. If you haven't entered a juried show before I urge you to give it a try. You never know!

Large Gourd WIP continues She has hair!

 I finally got to the first layer of her hair yesterday and then had her baking in the warm car for most of the day. I added more bulk to her hair and have now stuck her head in the oven to dry. That can be a tricky thing, as she is very large, but it's working.

I'm still thinking she needs a tad more height to her hair to give her a balanced look. What do you think? I need to finish the sculpting and get her drying today as I have two days to sand and paint her. What do you think so far?

My biggest sculpt yet...WIP

 It's time to finish my pieces for the Wallowa Valley Festival of Arts in Joseph, Oregon. Hubby says I should enter the chicken pastel I posted in my previous post so now I have two more to add. I am also adding one of my abstracts, but I'm going to do some touch up before I post that one, so now I'm working on a sculpt I've been wanting to do for a long time. I have a friend in Wallowa Valley that snagged some very cool and very large gourds, this one happens to be 26 inches tall. She offered to let me buy a couple as she has plans for the rest. I originally started on a Santa with this one, but I just couldn't bring myself to finish it, so here I am, working on an Indian mother and child. I peeled off the face of the santa, which will need a new and very large gourd. :-) I'm using more than one gourd in this sculpt, the arms will be made up of two gourds each.

Here are the forearms. Look Mom, no hands! Actually, I have to wait for the top of the arms to dry before I add the forearms and since I'm not completely sure of the way the hands will go I am waiting until I attach these gourds and let the clay dry before working out the hands. For now I will work on the head and the baby that will be cradled in the mother's arms. The most exciting part of this will be the design I'm planning for the mother's dress. I'm working up a stylized version of Nez Perce designs to finish the piece off with. I only have a couple of weeks left so I'd better get to it! I'm hoping to have more pieces before the show, which is in June because they've asked me to demonstrate my sculpting so I want to have a variety to share. Gourds are so much fun to work with, the possibilities are endless don't you think?

An Apple a Day....

There are a multitude of reasons you should eat apples. Here's an article on 10 Reasons You Should Eat Apples.

Me, I like to paint apples as well as eat them so I always have models on hand. The above piece was done on Strathmore colored art paper. Just a study, and trial of what I can do with soft pastels. Am going to tackle some more this afternoon. 

The painting above is a pastel I did last night while sitting at the table. Hubby was serenading me with the dulcimer so we had a peaceful evening. I am heading back to the table to try my hand at more pastels. I have a couple of landscapes in mind, and need to get going on them as I have a deadline to meet for the Wallowa Valley Festival of Arts. Time to get painting!

Friday's Fish Tale and Flowers WIP'S

 A fish story in the making is this future wall hanging. Last year at Wallowa Lake, Oregon a man from Pendleton caught a world record Kokanee Salmon weighing 9.67 lbs, at 27.75 inches long. Wallowa Lake Fishing One of the galleries in Joseph, which is about a mile north of the lake, asked if I could create a fish wall hanging that would be about the same length as this big monster fish, so I've tackled the challenge. Watch, someone will break the record again and I will have to make another one, oh darn? Lol. Actually, these are fun to do. Hopefully this fella will take off to the art show with me on Monday, and be beaded and wired and ready to show at the gallery next week.

 This is another one of my fun and funky abstracts in the works, again hopefully destined to go into another gallery in Joseph next week. I'm trying to decide whether I like it better the way you see it above, or below. I still have a few layers of color to add to it, but times getting short so I'd better get this finished today or tomorrow.

My stepson is coming from California today, we go to Kent's parents tomorrow after work, Saturday we celebrate Kent's birthday, and Sunday we are back here to speak in church. I can see me finishing these and one more piece Sunday night as we are going to be sooooo busy for the next few days. Ah well, so much for a relaxing weekend aye? The upside is that I'll be stopping at a friend's place on Monday to spend the night and help her with a blog set up. I'm excited about that as she creates some amazing vintage western art and wall hangings as well as jewelry, so she needs to be on the web! We also get to visit with a teacher we had at church when we were 14. Gee that was a loooong time ago.
Then I will stay with a friend at Wallowa Lake as we have a house sitter I don't want to uproot just for a few days. So I will get to fish with my friend, and we shall see whether we can catch a record trout from her dock. Probably not, but a girl can dream right?

Have you ever had .....

..........  what appears to be a stress dream and not know why? Last night I dreamed I was in Oregon getting ready to help with the Wallowa Valley Festival of Arts, only to discover I had left my two entries back in Utah, EEEK!!! I don't know why it happened; for the first time since I've been entering into this show I have my work done well ahead of time due to the change in set up and the jury process, which is most of the battle in my opinion. Being accepted is the other part, and you can see by this photo that I'm in! So where the dream came from I don't know.
Sure I'm under a lot of stress right now. I live in a never ending, open ended life plan as we are not sure when my father-in-law will pass away. Each week as I drive the 100 miles one way to go spend a couple of days with Mom and Dad, he looks more and more gaunt, and complains of feeling weaker all the time. He sleeps most of the day now, and is in such pain that we just don't know how he stands it. He gets dressed every morning though, with a lot of trouble due to severe arthritis, and will try and do things such as water the lawn, take out the trash, and so on. Sometimes he looks as if he will collapse and we are amazed at how he keeps going. So hubby and I take turns tending to them, he goes in on the weekends and sometimes I go as well, and trying to keep Mom from doing things she will regret as she doesn't see very well and hears even less. I've put in a garden for them and us, and it gives Dad something to tend to in that he makes sure the little Parson's Patch is watered.
When I'm home my job, besides tending the twins 3 days a week is to help keep hubby's spirits up. His job is tremendously stressful, and while he doesn't dump all his problems on me, he is not a very happy camper right now and that wears on me because I hate to see him so frustrated with the mountain of work he has in trying to clean up a school that has been let go for over 10 years now. Add to that trying to keep up with children and grandchildren, church responsibilities and such, it gets so crazy I can't concentrate on the commission I have to finish, much less any other art. If you're like me a messy house is a downer and adds to all that. Right now I feel like a boat without a rudder, directionless and wandering aimlessly adrift. That must be the reason for the dream because I'm actually ready for the show and can't wait to head to Oregon. Thank goodness I get to stay home this weekend! All will work out I know, but it's funny how dreams happen.

Horse is finished, yay!

Hmmmm blogger is up to no good again...lol. I have been slogging through back pain and mental fatigue trying to get this piece done, and finally! So I've taken the photos, filled out the entry form for the show, and it's off to the post office in a bit to send the entry off. 
I knew it! As soon as I try to add another picture below the text, it pops underneath the other photo, oh well. So here is El Caballo De Calabasa II, a gourd horse who has a bronzed and silver look. Hubby wants me to start on the next one now, while I'm in the groove...:-) It's so nice to have his support. My house is upside down right now, but it will get put back together next week, I think. I now have 3 art dolls as a commission to do, and so it goes. Thanks to all who were cheering me on. I look forward to seeing what you've been up to. Oh, if you want to see what is happening and more information on this art show here's the link. Wallowa Valley Festival of Arts  I'll bet you've never seen a more beautiful and inspiring place to have an art show...;-)

WIP's for Wallowa Valley Festival of Arts

 Oh boy, I told myself I wouldn't be in this predicament again, trying to get something done last minute for the show. They changed the jury process though and want to see the actual pieces for the show so this fella has to be done by the end of this week or so to get my photos and such sent in. Yipes!

 I still have the leather tooling design to add to the base, and then painting the piece. Or and smoothing out the rough areas a bit more. Although I do rather like a bit of texture to imply muscle.

So back to work I must get, as the time is flying and it's already March tomorrow! What a whirlwind week this will be for sure! What are you working on right now?

I have a secret.....

Today we helped hang and place the art for the show this weekend. I have a little secret that can't be revealed until tomorrow night, but it's good news for sure. I had a lot of great comments on this piece although it was mentioned that perhaps next time I let some of the natural gourd show through so I will have to ponder that for the next go round.
I worked with two great people in placing and hanging art. The fella who worked with Michelle and I commented at the end of the day on how refreshing it was to work with folks that didn't have an agenda, over blown egos, or anything like that...lol. It was very satisfying to help place pieces where they would look the best. I look forward to doing this again next year.

Wallowa Valley Festival of Arts Bushel of Apples Done!

Can I say, Hallelujah!!!! Time has flown this year as usual, and it's been so crazy! I fought the good fight though and won the battle over time versus life and finally finished this piece. I actually started this painting last summer, but the initial layers of paint were so scary I didn't think I could pull it out. I saw the painting sitting on my shelf last week and decided that by hook or by crook I was going to conquer this challenge and here's the result.

I love to use the gallery wrap canvases as they are a fun challenge to paint around. Funny thing, when I started this painting I was going to try and be loose and free flowing with my painting to make more of an impressionistic painting. The realist in me kept coming out though. So now I need to find a matte and frame for my donation piece for the silent auction part of the show this weekend.

No, this is not a painting, it's a photo I took. I love the vibrant colors and the black center so this or a similar one may end up as a painting later on. Should be a fun challenge!

Wallowa Valley Festival of Arts WIP Done!

Talk about a journey! I've never sculpted a horse head before but had looked at my goose neck gourd knowing it was destined to be one. I started out with a vision of the head looking like carved stone, with a base that had a tooled leather look to it along with an oxidized copper background for the tooled leather. Sometimes things don't always end up the way I start and this was certainly no exception.

After adding the floral flourishes, I realized that it wasn't quite the way I had envisioned, so I decided to blend the top and base together. So I thought I would try a bronzed look with a leather look base. After putting the first layer of the bronzing technique on, I had another thought come to me. So I tried burnishing the floral design with an antique gold, which really made the bronze too pink or well just not right.

I was getting discouraged and had all sorts of wild ideas running through my mind. After antiquing over the bronze to give it some definition and a more realistic look, I took some Champagne metallic paint and dry brushed over the gold. It toned down the gold and changed the whole feel of the piece. So I'm done! No more fussing, and lot's of lessons learned. I would really love to do another horse head or two, using my previous ideas but in a different way. Now I need to come up with a name. We've jokingly titled it El Caballo de Calabaza, perhaps that might stick!

Wallowa Valley Festival of Arts WIP continued

I got my clay order very fast so now I'm up and running again, getting the leather tooling design look on the base of my horse sculpture. I suppose I could pyrograph the design on, but since I don't know were my wood burning tool is or whether I could do it right, I will stick with what I know, and that is clay and paint.

I'm getting excited! I am itching to get this finished and get to the painting portion, but I better be patient. I do enjoy sculpting and designing with clay so I need to enjoy the journey. After the clay flourishes and design work are done, I will clean everything up, and start painting. I hope to achieve a tooled leather look on the base, at least in part. The rest will be revealed as I go along.