Industry

Growing up, it was our family tradition to decorate our tree (even go out and TRY to find one) on Christmas Eve. Advent, the four Sundays before Christmas, was a time of quiet preparation for the big day. My father, an Episcopal priest, reluctantly went along with his family's holiday need to trim and tassel, but laid down the law that it couldn't happen until the day before our Lord's birth. Then, we kept our festive plumage up until January 6th, Epiphany, or the day of the Three Kings. We lobbied and railed and begged to be like everyone else we knew who decorated on the Friday after Thanksgiving-- to no avial. And, heaven forfend we should ask about putting lights on the house and reindeer on the lawn. I shudder to think...

By the time I had children, I learned something of the joys of quiet anticipation, and so we continued that tradition of last minute decoration and celebration as our own children grew up.

Fast forward to 2015, and I find myself in retail, and an artist who creates all year long, but knows in her practical heart that the next two months are the golden time of the year for sales. Puts me rather in a spot. I wrestle with the issue every year.

This year, I wanted to make a new ornament. Since I have fallen head over heels for bookbinding, I decided to make tiny books as decorations. One hundred and twenty-five of them. Six hundred little pages to measure, cut and fold, two hundred and fifty 1 3/8 inch square covers to measure and cut and cover, two hundred and fifty three inch square cover papers to measure and cut and glue. You get the idea.

As I worked, I discovered that for me, Advent came early this year. Folding paper after paper, covering a mound of small book boards, choosing from a rainbow of ribbon colors to match my collection of decorative papers, became a very contemplative, focused, almost prayerful activity.

So, I'm ready for Christmas early this year, and I'm going to decorate trees in my studios this week to be ready for the rest of you to catch up.

For those of you who celebrate it, may you have a blessed Advent and Merry Christmas. For those of you who celebrate other holidays at this time of year, may they be meaningful, prayerful and bright.

Interview

I have been invited to exhibit my work next month at The Fine Arts Company in Hagerstown, Maryland. The kind folks there made up interesting interview questions for a post on their blog, and I was a good girl and answered them all. Sit down with a hot cuppa something-you-like and click this link: Interview with Elizabeth Seaver.

Of course, if you happen to be in the area, come meet the artist the second Saturday in January, the 10th, from 6-8. Company....I want company! The show will be a mixture of cats and birds, bright and cheerful, no matter the weather and guaranteed to keep you awake!

Here are a few of the likely suspects to be on display:

No Fly Zone2, 18 x 36, collage/acrylic

While You're Away, 36 x 48, acrylic and paper

His Friends Were Orchids, 24 x 36, acrylic and paper

I'm So Fine, 24 x 36, acrylic and paper

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa. May you enjoy the gifts of the season.

I've Been Away Awhile

Nero Fiddled, 16 x 20, Commissioned Work

Elizabeth W. Seaver

sold

 

Not literally away, but away from writing and posting on my blog. You may imagine me, paint-stained and wild-haired, industriously stacking the canvases against the wall, hoping to have enough work to fill the amazing Bistro Bethem. 

 

The real kicker, as you painters know, is to have work you are proud of and what looks to be a body of work when it all goes on the wall. Interestingly, though my work will have been created within about a six month period, it changes as I go along. Earlier paintings don't fit as well with the later works as I would like. Which leads to fiddling.

 

Anybody else have that problem? I can't leave them alone. I have already painted over two of my earlier works and while the consensus on one is that it is a good thing, the jury is still out as to whether the latest painting on top of the second is better that the original one.

A wise teacher once said to me, "Put down the paintbrush and back away from the canvas." 

I hear her voice in my head, but just like that petulant child who wants what she wants enough to try throwing a tantrum to get it, I keep painting anyway. Sometimes.

But when one has the inspiration of the real Nero the Cat, well, one is careful to stop in time.

Just Finished

Ballet on the Beach, 24 x 24, acrylic and collage

Elizabeth W. Seaver
Sold

Who says swimwear is required at the beach? Katerina dances to the beat of a different drummer.

Ah, sand, warm breezes and cool ocean. It's hard not to feel we deserve it after such a tough winter, right?

Blessings and happy creating to you all.

Team Manager

Team Manager, acrylic/collage, 16 x 20

Elizabeth W. Seaver

The Team Manager currently oversees the selection of paintings I've chosen for May's First Friday at Water Street as a preview of my big upcoming show in downtown Fredericksburg in August and September.....because every endeavor needs a bosserhead (a term my elder son coined when just a toddler to describe those people in his life who irritated him with all their directives.) It was usually said under his breath, and sometimes he would spell it in the air in the offensive one's general direction.

The show opens on May 2 and First Friday runs, well, really all day from 10-9, but the snacks and beverage come out about 5. Hope you can join us. The cats are on the wall already, so come on by beforehand if you can. They'll be up all month. I also have about ten new paintings at LibertyTown. I've been a busy girl!

Using Protection

Using Protection, 22 x 28, acrylic and collage

Elizabeth W. Seaver

Distracted

Distracted, 22 x 28, acrylic/collage

Elizabeth W. Seaver

Personal electronic devices. 

 

It's pretty bad if a cool customer isn't even tempted by the birds on the beach....