For those doing The 100 Day Project 2026, today marks day 50. Here's what the first 50 days of my project looks like this year - 100 Days of Artist Trading Cards. It's fun doing and it is never too late to start if you've thought about participating but haven't started yet. No rules!
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100 Days of ATCs.
This year I am creating Artist Trading Cards (ATC) for The 100 Day Project. It is my sixth year participating with a global community sharing 100 days of creativity and posting images on social media. If you are new to The Project, you can learn more about it at www.the100dayproject.org. Years ago I had ATCs available in my studio during open studios at Nu Arts Gallery + Studios in Pittsfield just for the fun or it. I recently found there's a large ATC trading community online and am hoping to find others locally who might also be interested. It could be fun, right?
Keep your light shining bright friends!
Another wonderful creative collaboration between the Hudson Valley Writers Guild and the Upstate Artists Guild is coming to a close, but there's still time to check it out. The show runs until 11/16 at the Honest Weight Co-op Gallery in Albany. The authors submit a poem anonymously and then the list of poems is made available to artists to paint from. I love the process! This is the poem I chose.
Haiku
I woke up again
as a watercolor painting
in drizzling rain
This Friday, June 20th, BOTANICALLY SPEAKING will open at the Meeting House Gallery in New Marlborough, MA. I am excited to be exhibiting along with these other amazing artists. The art reception is on June 20th from 5-7 PM and I'd love to see you if you are in the area. Otherwise, here are the paintings I will be showing.
The Meeting House Gallery, New Marlborough
Route 57 on the Green, New Marlborough, MA
I've been a bit obsessed with creating gelli print collage papers, as you may have noticed. The thing is that it's so much fun creating these papers that my focus on finishing a painting diminished. So to remedy this, I created an experiment. First I made four paintings in watercolor. Then I collaged two of them with gelli print papers I had on hand. The watercolors feel more serene to me, while the collaged pieces are more vibrant.
I realized I need more variety of gelli print papers to choose from or I could create papers after I finish a painting. Maybe it's a combination of both in the world of creating paper paintings. Imagine the different vibes one could achieve depending on the papers chosen.
A new year brings fresh ideas and dreams to the forefront. Where do I want my art to take me? What previously unexplored direction shall I go in this year? Lots to explore. So I've been pondering as I color mandalas, which is my number two favorite way to let ideas percolate in these matters. My number one way is walking in nature, but it's too cold this morning - maybe later.
I finished this large painting in November and there's another one that's a work in progress. I used heavy body acrylics, which is not my usual medium, but I wanted to try something different. I may always be a watercolorist at heart, but who knows? What's similar in each is the upward focus. While I'm not sure either painting will be part of the new series, they are the inspiration behind "Look Up!" For this series I will consider anything you can see when you look up - trees, sun, moon, birds, butterflies, buildings, clouds, mountain tops, UFOs, airplanes, literally anything. It should be a fun multi-media journey. No rules!
I love this time of year for so many reasons, not the least of which is that my favorite arts organizations hold their member shows this time of year. It's always fun to catch up and see what people have been doing artistically over the year.
There are a million reasons to participate in The 100 Day Project. Some years I have used this time to focus on themes like gratitude or serenity as I paint, but this year my focus is to build skills. The "why" may change throughout the journey, but being part of this global community is my #1 reason to join in each year!
Here are a few pages from this year's project from my art journal. I found the Treasury of Flower Designs For Artists, Embroiders and Craftsmen by Susan Gaber in my new favorite used bookstore, Rodgers Book Barn. I am inspired by her drawings as a starting point and then I dream up a painting palette for each one.
This is one of the warmest and most beautiful autumns I can ever remember in upstate New York and I've been enjoying it fully. While it feels like late summer, time marches on and now we are at the end of the first week of November. Surprise! This time of year brings so many member shows for artists in my area. So in addition to preparing for all these shows - which I love because it's all about art and community, this year I am participating in a Holiday Makers Market.
I'll be offering art cards, mini journals, key chains and silver necklaces along with a selection of small paintings. The Holiday Market is happening at Arlene's Artist Materials on November 19, 2022.
My Secret Garden opens June 29th at the Clifton Park-Half Moon Public Library. This solo exhibit was created to hang right outside the Children's Library for the month of July.
The series was inspired by memories of long summer days spent lying in the grass, looking for fairies and reading stacks of library books in the garden with my young daughters. Everything seemed so vibrant and magical in the garden and that’s the feeling I want to evoke with these paintings.
Using watercolors, fluid acrylics, collage papers
and ink I created whimsical and playful flowers hoping to delight children of
all ages. All works are on watercolor paper, two with a gesso base. For each
painting I used a minimum of two mediums and several have all four.
Can’t you just imagine the fairies and gnomes that would be hiding in a garden like this?
These are just two of the paintings in My Secret Garden series.
This time of year springs alive for me with all things art centered. So many ideas have been percolating, images floating through my mind and colors tugging at my wintered soul. Exhibits are finalized, website is cleaned up a little and my project book is over flowing. There have already been two group shows and more are lined up. I'm working on paintings for my solo show through Saratoga Arts this summer. Stay tuned for more info on that.
Happy Spring my friends; let's bloom brightly this year!
Spring is in full bloom and my attention has been on all the glories of nature. I am enjoying my flower and veggie gardens so much this year. George built me enclosures for the veggie patches to keep out our manic urban squirrels. They were obsessed last year and showed signs of carrying on again this year. George to the rescue!
In my art work I've been as drawn to nature as usual. But while I've painted a number of more representational works, it's the surreal ones that have intrigued me lately. I am enjoying abstractions and wild imaginings for a lot of reasons and the pandemic may have a bit to do with that, too.
xo
It's a new year and a new 100 Day Project. What an "interesting" year 2020 was...right? It's been tough, no lie. Everyone has been impacted one way or the other and we are still in the midst of it all. That brings me to my theme this year for The Project of gratitude and acceptance. I need to step up my daily gratitude practice anyway, so this seems like a natural progression.
Backgrounds are important to me both art wise and metaphorically speaking. This week I'm working on painting just backgrounds - slowing down to hear my soul's whispering.
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| works in progress |
So this is fun! I got an email three weeks ago from the Upstate Artists Guild (UAG) saying they were looking to past members for a pop up art exhibit for the month of October. Always a last minute kind of gal, I thought. "Heck yeah". I'm pretty excited to be part of this show. I always found the UAG members to be such an interesting group of artists creating really interesting and often unusual art. And I miss these folks!
So the UAG is holding The Goodtime Revival Show! held at the Art Associates Gallery, 21 Railroad Avenue, Albany. I dropped these two paintings off yesterday for the show. Both mixed media pieces were created this year and vary quite a bit from what I usually do.
1) How My Garden Grows 2) Summer Burst
