…there are too many other things to do, but I wandered off anyway, missing the Alberta Spruce, so brought some back to Texas with a few ink-pen and digital pen scribbles.

Norway Maple in Madison, Wisconsin, 36 x 48 x 2 inches acrylics and modeling gel on canvas, gallery wrapped sides painted.

Left: detail image of Phase 3 on Jan 28th,  painted using a dry brush so paint would catch mostly on the textures. The bottom half still needs more attention.  Work has reached the stage where every mark makes a difference, and I don’t want to cover up the fresh colors and intuitive strokes that help give it life, so the next few days I’ll just study it from a distance and contemplate what the next move will be.

All paintings and Art forms created during the next three months will be specifically toward the Dancing With Trees Exhibition to be held at the Steinhaur Trust Gallery, Wisconsin-Madison University Arboretum, scheduled May through June 2010.

Above three thumbnails: 1) Started December 10th, 2009 2) Modeling gel - available in varied textures, finishes and viscosity (thicknesses). Acrylics paint can be mixed with the medium or when dry paint can be applied over top. 3) Jan.18th, work in progress; applying modeling paste to the base painting, and sculpting with a small trowel.

Above: finished final details yesterday. Started Aug.7th: A Heart Filled to the Brim, 36 x 48 x 2 inches, Water soluble graphite, acrylics on canvas. On exhibit along with Polypore Fungi February through May at the Oxide Gallery, Denton, Texas

An excerpt from the song, I Don’t Believe by Paul Simon on the CD, Surprise:

I don’t believe a heart can be filled to the brim

then vanish like mist as though life were a whim.

Maybe the heart is part of the mist

And that’s all that there is and could ever exist.

A portrait of Alzheimer’s honoring my Grandmother, my Mother-in-law (whose portrait this is, and whose 80th birthday is in two days), and now recently my own Mother who is in the earliest stages; and with empathy for all those afflicted, including the families dealing with the awful emotional reverberations caused by this disease.

Here are a few websites providing information about Alzheimer’s Disease

http://www.alz.org/index.asp

http://www.alzheimersrxtreatment.com/learnaboutalz.html

http://www.alzheimers.org/

Merry Christmas from Airdrie, Alberta

столове~ Snow on French Lilac ~

Check out the Alberta/Texas phone interview for a pull-out feature in today’s Denton Record Chronicle.

In honor of my French Canadian mother-in-law who used to bake the best pies every year at Christmas time, and who is now in the advanced stage of Alzheimer’s, I decided to bake Tourtiere. I only tried making crust once before, but it was more like an edible jigsaw puzzle.  TV ads for brand-name shortening imply that flaky crust is a good thing, but it should probably stay on your fork long enough to reach your mouth. Making pie crust is not for sissies! Well, don’t despair my fellow bakers…as long as it ends up tasting good (using a tablespoon to get the job done) it’s the thought that truly counts.

No title yet, work in progress: 36 x 48 x 2 inches acrylics, will sculpt edges of leaves with modeling paste medium on canvas. Gallery wrapped sides painted. The watercolor classes really helped with awareness of color choices, keeping those colors pure and marks fresh, and also a desire to leave more abstract elements alone; less realism and more expressionism. All of those things will be magnified in this painting.

After today, blogging and Artwork will be infrequent until mid-January. Driving up to western Canada, there will be plenty of snow-covered trees and winter photo opportunities along the way to Alberta, B.C. and back. Working up until the last possible moment, I started this painting of purple Maple leaves that were seen in Madison, WI during late August. Modeling/Molding paste will be applied, then painted with acrylics when dry, this will be a 3 dimensional (ish!) painting, similar to Polypore Fungi (also see this earlier posting of that painting).

Happy Holidays everyone!

Creating Art and talking about are truly two different ways of seeing; the theory of right and left brain thinking is matter-of-fact. As an Artist it takes some effort to ”switch brains” and reflect on the processes and progress of work in order to accompany my Art with writing on this blog, so I’m really impressed with the mature quality of the critiques given by students at  Olive Stevens Elementary School of paintings on their school Art blog every month.

In collaboration with Oxide Gallery, the Denton school has started a blog where students - or anyone else actually - can give a critique of a different work of Art each month. This month the comments regard the recently finished Sounds of Silence, which is also at the gallery.

The Tree of Life, 29 x 29 x 29 inches mixed media; refurbished vintage plastic lawn chair, woven canvas strips and white glue, thin layers of drywall compound: cured, sanded, carved, acrylics paint, varnish. Durable, completely functional.

There was an interesting buildup of colors after a lot of changing colors and repainting the design many times, so the impressions of this chair are created like the other chairs in this series; ancient artifact replicas. The back design is still in progress. View an earlier post of this chair, April 18th, 2009, and the other chairs are listed on the Art, Prices page.

Upcoming exhibition: monthly featured artist at Oxide Gallery in Denton, TX. Among the items on exhibit: most of the Magic Square series, Dawn at Bell Rock, Sounds of Silence, Polypore Fungi, Shadows of Summer, Eastern White Pine, and three of the vintage chairs. Opening Reception Tuesday, December 1st, 6:00 p.m. - 8 p.m., and the show runs until December 31st. Click here to view the work and price list.

http://oxidegallery.com/Flier-December.html

Left: Chapala Winds, Mexico, 11 x 11 x 3 inches acrylics on canvas, gallery wrapped sides painted, 1/16 of the Magic Square series, all painted as various aspects of trees for the Dancing With Trees Exhibition collection..

Dawn at Bell Rock, Arizona 24 x 18 x 2 inches acrylics on canvas, finished today. Below: phases 01, 02, and 07