Artwork and Weather

I have an order for two big resin boxes. This is a process best done in summer. I normally use the back room of my studio for this, and open the windows. Can't do that now with temperatures in the thirties and a wintry mix knocking the rest of the leaves off the trees. I've plugged in a portable heater in there, it might be warm enough by tomorrow to start pouring resin. Brrrr!

Instead of trying that today I am putting together a proposal for a hotel resort project in Lake Tahoe. I have been there, though not in many years. I'll have to google and see what the area looks like.

And I'm working on an order for my West Coast rep, hope to finish that up this week.

I've heard from my client at Texas Clinic -- not with any comments about the installation (alas) but with a request for pricing to paint additional "Texas Roundup" paintings in different sizes for people who have seen the original installed at the clinic. I guess it's the most popular piece.

Me and Frank Stella

This is the painting installed at the Ritz.

Amazing things happen! I've already posted about getting one photograph in every room at the new Ritz-Carlton hotel here in Dallas, but I have something new to report. Now I have one original in a suite, in the company of modern art heavyweights like Frank Stella. The Ritz had a nice budget for artwork, and if the design firm had been local I would have had a better chance to get more paintings in there, but as it is, I feel lucky.

Today I'm shipping off a stack of paintings to my rep in California. Once that's cleared out it's back to work on the sunset paintings which really need to be finished up and out of the way.

I'm printing today, too, with this being the first major test of my newest printer. These are large digital paintings on canvas, 44" x 72". They will go in a hotel in Burbank, CA.

Got my new washer and dryer installed, so I've been washing everything I can find to test it out. Have you ever seen a top loading dryer? I love it!

More Self Discovery

Forest Fern, 8" x 16"

One of the things I learned at the workshop in Mendocino is that my work is (generally) very orderly. I wouldn't have described myself as orderly however. My office area is a wreck, and my studio is the same.

This weekend I continued the purge. I dumped out the contents of any drawer that was too full to open, and started throwing things away. If I forgot I had it, it went in the trash. Did you know that up until fairly recently lots of bank statements and medical bills had your social security number printed right on them? Consequently I have several bags of trash that can't be thrown away. It would take me days to shred using my home machine. I might wait until my bank has another "shred day".

So the point of all this is that since I determined that my work is organized there must be something about me that's organized. I think I have discovered the secret. If I have a place for something I can easily keep it there, and labels help a lot. It's all the things that fall into that grey area, that don't clearly belong in one place or another. Those are the things I have to tackle.

With all the chaos going on around here, it was very soothing to work on the new Spa series. I have fourteen paintings completed and ready to send to my rep, Capstone Art.

No Delivery Today

I shipped my paintings home from Mendocino, and expected to receive them today - but no delivery. I guess Monday will be soon enough to take them down to the Design District and show them to my client. They've already seen the photos, and have sent them off for projects. All in all from my current perspective the Burridge workshop was good for me.

I've started an experimental project. I know this will undoubtedly sound "crafty", but I've just soaked a National Geographic in CitraSolve. It's something that came from the workshop. The orange oil cleaner reacts with the soy dyes and clay paper, creating some interesting patterns. I happened to have both things in the house at the same time, so I couldn't resist trying it. As always, I'll report back.

Sent off a shipment to my West Coast rep, Capstone Art. He had to wait longer than usual since I had the trip to Mendocino. I'm really happy with the photo paintings I sent out. Nice spa colors, and ocean photographs.

Think Spa

The pale blue green tints that came into vogue several years ago are now the hottest colors. A recent order from my West Coast rep said "think spa". To me that describes white-lightened shades of turquoise, glass green, and sky.

Those are the colors I'm using for the current series of photo paintings, one of which is shown above. The photo was taken in Florida, south of Miami in the Keys.

Delivered and Packed

I'm late posting today, because I've been running all day. I varnished the digital paintings and they were dry enough to deliver this afternoon, with the 20 spa paintings, and "Blue Cosmos" which I posted yesterday.

So I'm all caught up, except for the order for my rep on the West coast, who will have to wait.

It's hard to pack both painting supplies and all my photo equipment for the same trip. There's a weight limit on luggage, and everything is heavy! I'll have to buy some painting supplies when I get there, and I've already shipped a package of paper to the workshop site. By the way, I'm going to the Mendocino Art Center, taking a workshop with Robert Burridge.

It's Earth Day in San Francisco, so we might have to make a few of those events before heading off north.

Today is my dad's 92 birthday! He's become a wonderful role model for me -- still healthy and mentally active at that ripe age. You go Daddy!

Sp*m Blogs?

I've been notified by Blogger that my blog has been marked as a sp*m blog. What the heck is that? I now have to "word verify" my own blog. Yes, I notified them that they were wrong, and got a lovely form response that they are sorry. Yea right.

So here it is Easter Sunday. I have uncovered my flower beds so they won't suffocate. They didn't freeze, and I'm glad of that, but I still have the heater on in the house.

And yes, I've been in the studio already. Got another order from my west coast rep - which means I now owe him 31 paintings. Most of them are the small size, 8" x 16". Not too motivated to work on those today. I'm spending some time designing a large digital painting. Not sure at this point whether it will be successful or not. Glad to have the work, though, since I'm soon taking off for Mendocino for a workshop.