She's Baaaaaaack!

NOTE: PLEASE READ THE JUNE 2015 UPDATE (at the right) BEFORE EXPLORING MY BLOG. IF VIEWING WITH A MOBILE DEVICE, YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO ACCESS THE BUTTONS ON THE RIGHT --- IN WHICH CASE, CONSIDER YOURSELF LUCKY & CARRY ON.

FOR MY FANS, WELCOME BACK! FOR NEW FRIENDS, THANKS FOR STOPPING IN & YA'LL COME BACK NOW, YA-HEAR?

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Wow! I can't believe I'm back in the Land of Living! It's been a rough 6 months. Don't believe the picture below. It shows me in 2012 before I started going downhill with fibromyalgia. The old man has a picture of me on the day he sprung me from the hospital.  It's pathetic! Me in a wheelchair, covered with a bag of clothes and the hospital stuff you get to take home, balancing a vase of flowers to keep from spilling water.... Don't want anyone to see what a mess I was back in March.

Now the picture below, that's my goal: To be all healthy & smiling again!

***DON'T BELIEVE THIS PICTURE***

A couple weeks ago I finally got out of the house and did something fun. I went to a writer's workshop at my public library. It was an introduction to narrative journaling and family story writing. The husband-and-wife team who taught the workshop, Charley & June Kempthorne, were a lot of fun and very helpful. I wish them the very best during their month of traveling around the country giving this great writing workshop. (If you need an assistant, Charley & June, I love to travel!) Here's a link to their website:

www.thelifestoryinstitute.com 

I'm really glad I forced myself to do this. Even though I didn't know anyone there, it got me out of the house and sparked some interest in living again... (I rec'd a fun Mother's Day gift last month that's really revived me, too.) More on that later.

AND well, here I am. I have two blogs. It's silly to have two of the same type of blog, isn't it?  I wonder if I could exchange the names of the blogs. POSTCARDS sounds more like an art/photography blog, and THE HEARTLAND DAILY sounds like a newspaper, where I could journal every day.

I've been journaling for more than 25 years. I started when I was a new mother and it became a life-affirming habit. Taking the writing workshop with the Kempthornes has inspired me to turn one of these blogs into a writing blog, so I can share some of my journaling with family & friends.

So, I'm gonna go off and TRY to switch the blog titles.  In the meantime, feel free to look around.

WELCOME!

Next Show - AUG 23-24

& STUDIO CLEARANCE SALE

Besides my larger paintings on the walls,

I'll be having a Y'Art Sale! 

SEE Y'ART SALE PAGE button at right --->

 

$20 / Your Choice

small paintings on canvas

matted photography & watercolors

(+$5 shipping on mail orders)

Frames/glass not included.

Paintings shown in above poster not included in Y'Art Sale.

50-Year Retrospective August 1st

Here's my newest painting, the beginning of the "Two Weeks in Taos" series. I hope to have at least a couple more done by August 1st, when I have my art show at the Eclectic Gallery.

I'm celebrating my 50th year of painting. (Yeah, you'd think I'd be famous by now, right?) When I was 11, I got my first REAL oil painting set!  Wow! No more paint- by-number kits for me!

Included in my show will be my very first oil painting, a rather crude still life.

Also a portrait of Elizabeth Taylor, copied from the cover of Life or Look or some such magazine.  I had learned how to transfer an image to canvas using the grid system, so it turned out to be a reasonable facsimile of the Lovely Liz and her big diamond. 

Then there's a painting of a cowboy out west, lassoing a calf from a galloping horse.  And a big sunset with an elk, which I painted for my dad as a Christmas present when I was about 16. And several other early works, plus CC-The College Years (2003-2006), and my newest paintings from New Mexico.

Lake Watch

"Lake Watch" 7"x14" (Ring-billed Gull, Wisconsin shore of Lake Superior)

Here's my latest painting.  It's from the "Postcards from the Heartland" series. It's called "Lake Watch." It comes from photos I took while on a road trip to Lake Superior in 2007.  I started painting it last year, but had to put it away because I was having problems with it.  Now that I'm working on my "Two Weeks in Taos" series (Hey! I'm painting again!  Yea!), I decided to dig it out of storage and finish it.

BARON VON SPROCKETT II (2007-2014)

BARON VON SPROCKET II  

(2007-2014)

HIS OBITUARY IS ON:

http://theheartlanddaily.blogspot.com/

Back from Beyond

Hey, friends! Winter nearly pulled me under, so last month I had me "Two Weeks in Taos!"  My adventure in Northern New Mexico has given me a new lease on life!

I had a great time and will be writing up my vacation story, with lots of pix, on my photography blog.  Have a look!

http://theheartlanddaily.blogspot.com/

SOLD!

Just heard today that the ORANGE TREE (below) sold recently at the gallery! Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow!

New @ the Hop Tonight!

"Fruitful" acrylic, 12"x12"- SOLD

"Tree of Life" by Fred Smith

This painting was inspired by the folk art of lumberjack Fred Smith (1886-1976) whose Wisconsin Concrete Park (near the town of Phillips) full of whimsical and historical sculpture, is one of the 7 Man-Made Wonders of Wisconsin.

New Painting - Dawn Song

This is based on a photo I took of our resident mockingbird. Although my bird looked like a robin. Oh, well..


"Dawn Song"
acrylic
7"x14"
***SOLD***

Winter Storm Virgil

Winter Storm Virgil (3-24-13) 

was one of those Johnny-Come-Lately spring surprises 

 that stuns you with its beauty and then quickly melts away.   The snow on this picnic table had to be 

at least 15 inches deep!

"Tomato Cage" --- SOLD!

"Tomato Cage"  acrylic, 12"x12"   SOLD!

I wanted a painting with

 the rusty tomato cage wire in it

because I scratch myself on it 

every time I pick tomatoes. 

Ouch!

A Christmas Commission

12-12-12  
THE ASSIGNMENT: 
paint an old, old tin as a Christmas gift for a man's wife. He had the thing already prepped & primed, so I gave it two base coats of folksy blue.

What most people don't understand is that artists need time to mull a project for a while, then paint like the dickens, get almost finished, and then they need some time to mull it over again, before the finish. This can (and usually does) cause me to work slow anyway.  So getting the tin on the 12th and having it done less than two weeks later was a real push for me --- but I did it! The man seemed pleased with it.

2012  was a hard year on all of us, I think. This was my only commission all year, and I sold one other small painting. Without the support of my husband, I truly would be a starving artist.