A Hodge Podge

First, I've got a WIP from the collage and birdie series. Lots has been going on in the last bit of the month, so I don't have as much to show of actual created work as I might have liked. But the busy-ness was wonderful, filled with teaching and more teaching and fun-filled fund raisers. More on those topics below--here's Crane:

This is on an 11x14 canvas, if I remember correctly. The gorgeous hairpiece, dahling, I decided would be best created by using the edge of a palette knife. I have only laid in the golds and yellows, and still need to add more "glow" and dark rings around the quills. I'm going to wait to see whether and what I will do for the background. This has been so much fun to paint.

We hosted two much-anticipated events at LibertyTown on Friday. In the morning, students from a local school came as the culminating event in their wonderful arts in residence program for their 4th and 5th graders begun by LT artist and their art teacher, Mirinda Reynolds. Mirinda asked me to do a workshop on printmaking with them, taking each of the four classes one at a time. The other group did a tour and scavenger hunt through the facility while they waited their turn to get messy!





After the kids went on their picnic to a local park, we scurried around getting spiffed up and moving things around to get ready for our Big Event from our May Patron Show Fundraiser. Our idea to raise money to support LibertyTown was loaned to us from our friends up the road in Alexandria at The Torpedo Factory. In a nutshell, here's how it worked at our place: 1) local and regional artists donated artwork; 2) the same # of tickets were sold for $100 as pieces donated; 3) a random drawing was held on Friday night and each person who had bought a ticket got to pick their favorite piece from the items donated.

It was great fun. Everyone who bought tickets went home with great pieces of 2d and 3d artwork at a bargain price. Someone said to me, "I hope you will do this again next year. I'm going to buy 5 tickets!" Even people whose ticket didn't get drawn until close to the end sometimes had their 3rd or 4th choice still available, given the variety of work given and the variety of artistic tastes there are in the human mix. The couple with the next to the last ticket picked went home with a wonderful Dan Finnegan vase filled with beautiful hand-picked flowers in addition to their artwork, and the last ticket in the basket not only got a wonderful piece of mixed media art, but gets the first pick next year, if they decide to buy a ticket for Patron Show, the Second!

And I forgot to say, that Cathyann Burgess stopped by for another visit in the middle of all the preparations, so we did not get to go for coffee, this time, but we did get to chat! She's a great lady and creative artist. Check out her blog.

I'm signing out for now, but before I go, you know I have one last word! Thanks to all of you who make comments on my posts. It enriches my life and art, and I appreciate it very much. Also--welcome to my new followers. Thanks for joining!