Today I went to the studio to get packed up for Monteagle to paint for 3 days.  I think there will be 14 artists on this trip.  We paint in the mornings and afternoons and we have a critique in the evenings.  The critiques are very helpful, but you can get your ego hurt.   Sure enough, once they point it out, you think “I knew better than that”. 

Packing for Plein Air can be tricky.  You want to be able to walk in and carry all your stuff in one trip!    It can be a lot like primitive camping.  Yes, you have to carry your water in too!  Since, I’m doing watercolors; I have to bring more than just my drinking water. I carry in a quart for the painting, and hope to the goodness I don’t spill any.  Watercolors can be trashy too (Paper towels, cotton swabs, tissues), I have to carry all the trash out too. You need more than two hands, so a backpack comes in handy.  Of course, you can also park your car on the side of the road, and work out of your car.  I'll try to post some photos Monday Night after we've painted all day.

I had a wonderful day! One of my former students visited me at my Studio!  I'm very proud of her and her accomplishment.  Nothing is more satisfying to a teacher than to see her students excell and go forward with their dreams.   Talking with her actually helped me.  She is just getting started in the ART business.  We are both working on finding our niche and our own style.  There are so many different styles of "art". I love them all but what do I want to say in my art.   And for every style, there are so many techniques.  As a teacher, I had to learn so many of them.  How do I decide?  So much I want to do, and so little time. 

The weather was suppose to be bad today, so I stayed home.  I have been organizing my art supplies.  I have to boxes of art stuff to take to the studio tomorrow.

I’m home today and getting organized in the basement.  I'm getting all my art stuff together to take over to the Studio.  I have so much stuff!!!  I need it all in one place!  You would not believe all the erasers, every color and shape.  And Sketchbooks, some that talented students left behind and I can’t throw good artwork away.  It just hurts!!

I left at 9am to go draw from the model.  I thought I had the right time and place.  When I got there no one else was there, and I mean NO BODY!  So I waited a while and then left.  I went over to the tannery to work for a while after that.  One of the other Artists was there, and we got to talking.  I love talking about other’s artwork because I always learn something.  She actually gave me some ideas on how to handle my work.  I can’t wait to put her information into practice.  I’ll let you know if it works for me like it does for her. 

I thought about art!  It was a beautiful Easter

Nothing makes an artist feel better about their work than to get it framed and up on a wall.  I finished up 3 more frames today and hung most of them (including the 6 from yesterday) in the studio.  They really do look good.  It’s starting to look as if an artist is working in that space. We had several visitors to come in today and I enjoyed talking to each one of them.  Again, they had some very nice comments about my work.  I always like hearing nice comments about my work.  It was a beautiful day and a beautiful week-end for Easter.    

I went back to the studio to mat and frame today.  I did much better, because  David went to help me.  We managed to completely frame 6 double matted works. Watercolors and charcoals look so much better after they are matted and framed.  I have to say, I am proud of them.

A gentleman came in and was so complimentary on my Bluegrass drawings of musicians.  (Not pictured on the web site)  So, It was a very good day.  I will go back tomorrow and try to frame two more and get some actually artwork done.   Life is good!

I had to “fire” myself today.  I was cutting mats and I was doing really well, then I messed up two in a roll.  I was useless, so I packed up and came home.  Now I have to stop by Hobby Lobby to get more mat board for tomorrow.  I got two backs cut, 3 single mats, and one double mat done today.  I just messed up the last two, but what a mess.  I’ll get in earlier tomorrow and get this done.  

I bought home the “Go Green” piece that I did earlier; I wanted to see it in a different light.  I like it much better here in my living room.

OK, it was suppose to rain today by early afternoon.  I stayed home to work and it’s almost 7:30pm and there is NO rain in sight!!!!  I did get out to get framing supplies.  I got matt boards and frames at Hobby Lobby for 50% off.  It’s one thing to create art, but then you have to display art as well. The walls of my studio still looks a little bare.  It is presumed to rain tomorrow too.  I just hate driving in the rain.