I painted on Saturday

Yup, Yup...I got the paint out again. We put new counter tops in the kitchen; tore off the old wall paper above the stove and between the cupboards and the counter top. That little project was way over due. The wall paper was from the mid 80s, when earth-tones ruled interiors and shag rugs reigned over, or under, living rooms.

The adjoining rooms to the kitchen are a lovely blue gray but of course we couldn't find any paint left over from when they were painted. So, I dusted off my pallette, mixed white, black and blue and got a nearly perfect match. It wasn't a challenging painting job but a pleasant way to spend an afternoon.

I just had an art lover stop in to purchase a painting. The lovely little winter scene from January 12 will be traveling to Germany. Lovely place for it to go.

May 11

Exciting news from a fellow artist: I encouraged David Rickert to apply for an art commission at the University of Minnesota Morris. He put together a good application and was awarded the project. Check out his work at http://www.davidrickertart.com/

May 5

When I started this challenge the first of the year, I wasn't working a 30 hour per week job in addition to all of the other hats I wore. Nonetheless, I managed to keep up the daily painting schedule until I missed a day last week because of illness. With the rhythm broken and adding another job to my schedule this month (managing a blog for Minnesota Public Radio) I have to acknowledge that I can't do everything and something's gotta give. It's going to be the daily painting. I can't continue to work from dawn to dusk. I'll paint when I can and continue to upload images when I have something to share.

Thanks for checking in.

Nancy

May 4 Electric Candle

Time for a little B & W.

8" x 10"

May 3 Downes' House

Another whimsical rendition of an area home. The owners, good friends, actually like dandelions.

8" x 10 "

May 2 Belt

 Yesterday. A man looked at the sign then walked away. Skinny brown pants. A skinny brown sport coat. A small woven hat perched atop long thin curly gray hair. A thin short mustache. High heeled snakeskin boots. A brawny red jeep. A wood carver with character goin'on. Somehow incongruous.

Blue jeans. A plaid insulated shirt. Large hat. Handlebar mustache. A belt with a big buckle.

11"x14"  $1220

May 1 Galoshes

It was a rainy May 1 and now, just as the sun is setting, it's bright enough to cast long shadows in the grass. My galoshes are in the entry. I'd like to think that my puddle jumping days aren't over. Yet a flute of something sparkling, a cozy armchair and a book are more enticing.

This reminds me of a conversation I learned in German class long ago. I probably can't spell it correctly anymore.
Ich can nur meine gumishoe nicht finden.
Darf ich dir helfen? Sind sie feilicht unter dem schtool?
Nein, hier sind sie: hinter die tur.

This is the closest I've ever come to using words about losing my galoshes.

5" x 7"  $1210

April 30 Twin Cities home

I had to depart from my usual acrylics on hardboard routine to do a commissioned piece. What a week: painting on walls, a cream can and now, of all things, paper. With a time crunch I have to make the most of painting time. This painting is in the whimsical style I've worked in for about ten years, producing over 300 images. You can see more at http://www.whimsyhomedesigns.homestead.com/. It's pilot pen drawing with watercolor. I've scanned the image and will also make note cards of it for my customer.

I judged the Rotary Art Show in Staples today. Lots of great work from 4th grade through adult. Photography, sculpture, wood work and fiber arts as well as all forms of painting.

Tomorrow there will be three art shows in Staples: the Rotary Art Show, a display of railroad related art at the Historic Depot, and one by 2009 grantees at the Five Wings Middle Ground Gallery.

8" x 10"

April 29 Iris

I'm a little ahead of iris time. They're coming up and will be blooming in just a couple of weeks. I'm enjoying the tulips, scilla and bleeding hearts but always look forward, too, to the irises. On Monday, I painted irises in the birthing center bedroom so was inspired to do some on "canvas."

11" x 14" $1190

April 28 Cream Can

Over the years, I've painted on saw blades, mail boxes, shovels and cream cans as well as walls, doors, and floors. I was commissioned to do this cream can with a deadline of May 1. With the request to have trees, a lake, the camper and the 4-Wheeler, here it is as the painting of the day- on a cream can.

12" x 12"  Don't think for a minute that I could charge, let's see, the price of day 118: $1180.

April 27

Too sick to paint. Four walls yesterday. Zip today.

April 26 Bedroom painting

I spent the afternoon painting in a bedroom in a house 12 miles from Long Prairie. This house is being converted into a birthing center for families who would prefer to have their babies at home. The local hospital insists that the midwife not deliver babies further than 15 miles from the hospital. If they live more than 15 miles from Long Prairie, they're required to have their babies in the hospital. Until now. With this new establishment, they have an option other than the hospital even if it isn't their own home. The request was for flowers and butterflies in the birthing room. I painted on all four walls. The butterflies are in memory of the owners' sister who died in a tragic car accident.

April 25 Waterfall or cabbage

We'll call this a four-and-a-half minute abstract titled "Waterfall" or "Cabbage."

5" x 7" $1150

April 24 Poplars

Across the landscape, many trees are brown and budded. But the poplars and some willows have already leafed out lending a light green in the otherwise drab view. Having had a day of rain, the rest of the trees will be quick to to follow suit. Dandelions are everywhere.

11" x 14" $1140

April 23 April Flowers

Sometimes photographing the painting is more difficult than painting. Forgive me for paintshopping this one.

Today I did some painting in a lovely home bordering 500 acres of wildness. I touched up a marred fireplace, painted a door jam of a bathroom (vines, berries, leaves and a bumblebee), disguised a putty filled hole in a wood floor, touched up a metal rooster and a cement statue of a deer.

I was tempted to just photograph the door jam and call it good for today; but didn't.

11" x 14"  $1130

April 22 Birds

There's a little bird
That somebody sends
Down to the earth
To live on the wind
Borne on the wind
And he sleeps
On the wind
This little bird
That somebody sends

He flies so high
Up in the sky
Out of reach
Of human eyes
And the only time
He touches the ground
Is when that little bird
Is when that little bird
Is when that little bird dies.

5" x 7" $1120

April 21 Pisces

If you're a Pisces, this one's for you. But how it came about...hmmm...Ron made chicken and rice for supper so it couldn't have been that. After doing the dishes we were watching the history channel about the volcanic and glacial activity of Iceland. Did you know that the sulphur cloud belched up by Icelandic volcanoes in 1782 caused widespread famine throughout Iceland and Europe, millions of deaths and ultimately the French Revolution? Still doesn't have anything much to do with fish.

As I was driving home from Staples today, I got a call (ooh, I know, driving while talking on the cell  phone- both of us) from my sister who was on her way from Wadena to Fergus Falls. She said she had to get back to Fergus earlier than usual since she was to be the announcer for the dress rehearsal for the annual synchronized swim show there, tonight. Now, we at least have a swimming reference.

As Ron and I were watching the flowing molten lava on TV, I glanced over to the whirlpool tub's tiled area and noticed the two carved wooden fish that Ron brought back from Jamaica several years ago. Swimming, molten lava and wooden fish resulted in "Pisces."

11" x 14"  $1110

April 20 Strawberry

Fresh strawberries from the garden? Not a chance. Boughten strawberries in a plastic container sitting on the counter.

5" x 7" $1100

April 19 Pallette Collage

I've been painting with acrylics for years and years. Acrylics are interesting materials; liquid when fresh and very plastic-like when dry. I keep the pallettes of paint covered but they gradually dry out over a few days. I peel the paint off and since the first of the year, I've plopped it on an unused pallette. Those peelings are often very beautiful with interesting patterns and color mixings. When the pile of dry paint got to be about five inches high, I should have thrown it away. But it occurred to me that I could put a thick layer of paint on a piece of hardboard and apply the pallette peelings to make an interestingly beautiful collage held in place by paint. It would have made a good 100th day painting since it's actually made up of "pieces" of all those earlier paintings. But, I hadn't thought of it then. New day; new idea.

11" x 14" $1090

April 18 Rhubarb

I raked the leaves off the herb garden this afternoon. I cut off last year's dead stems of echinacea, mugwort, oregano and anise hyssop. The lovage is up as are the mint, tarragon, chives and garlic chives. I robbed the rhubarb cradle and cut enough for a pie. I MADE A PIE !! How about that?

11" x 14" $1080

April 17 Grassroots Gourmet embraces the vinegar

Ron spent the day in Minneapolis. He took vinegar and gave samples in the Grassroots Gourmet booth of the Global Market. It was a great opportunity to meet folks interested in specialty foods. Today's painting: grass roots embracing a bottle of vinegar.

11" x 14" $1070

April 16 Body Witching

Ron and I went out to eat tonight at a lovely lakeside restaurant not too far from Sauk Centre. A former co-worker of Ron's was at the bar and we invited him to join us. He told us of his particular interest in a local legend. In 1862, a group of soldiers and civilians left Fort Abercrombie, near where Fargo is now, and headed for the Twin Cities. A blizzard, similar to the Armistice Day Blizzard, blew up. Unable to see, the group strayed from the ox cart trail they were traveling on and unknowingly went out onto a frozen lake. They fell through but were able to get out. However, since the blizzard howled on, they were unable to start a fire and ultimately perished. Three of their group had traveled ahead as scouts and after the blizzard came back and found them. They buried the dead and the site, unrecorded, has been lost.

Our friend has been researching this event for some years and believes he found the burial site. He knows a local man who is a water witcher. This man also digs graves and is reputed to be able to find the sites where people have been buried. Our friend asked him to accompany him to the site and when they "witched" the site, found strong indications of bodies buried there. Good story or the basis for further investigation? The basis for my daily painting, anyway.

11" x 14" $1060

April 15 Catcus

Savannah has a little calico kitten, Pandora. She's about a tenth the size of Jed. Jed likes to pounce on Pandora, roll her over and thump her or simulate a bite. She takes it all very well and as soon as he lets up she attacks him. But when she's on her back with him hovering over, she's like a little four-armed cactus, her needle sharp claws raised in defense. He respects those claws. So today's painting is a take off on our little cactus cat: a catcus.

5" x 7" $1050

April 14 Potato, Potato, Potato

They're red, they're white, they're brown

They get that way underground....

Cheryl Wheeler sings a great little ditty called The Potato Song. You'll find it on YouTube under "The Potato Song." I heard it nearly every morning of one year when the girls played the CD version as I drove them to school. It alternated a little with the Bare Naked Ladies' song Post Card, otherwise known as the monkey song. Or maybe that was another year entirely since I seem to remember it being a daily emanation, too. We'll save it for another painting.

Here's my tribute to the Potato Song and potato growers everywhere. It's potato planting time, you know. These aren't just any potatoes. These are seed potatoes. There's a difference. Not washed nor stored in the same way as other potatoes. These are a little dirty and just starting to sprout. They came from my friend the potato farmer, by way of my husband who works for the potato farmer.


11" x 14"  $1040

April 13 Light a Candle and Curse the Darkness

Chickens-3
Dogs-1

8" x 10   $1030

April 12 Plunder

Two dogs attacked my chickens today. A German shepherd type and a dark Lab. Feathers were strewn everywhere. I chased the dogs off and went to see what was left of my hens. Two wounded. Three dead. Nine missing. Ron went after the dogs with deadly intent. Came back with no hint of where they had gone.

After taking stock I got in the car. I drove slowly watching for the marauding beasts, knowing they didn't belong to close neighbors. You know the neighborhood dogs in a place like this. I found them. Two miles away by road; a half mile cross country. Three large dogs in a yard. I know who lives there. I drove in, ready to confront the owner of killer beasts. There was no one home.

I went back home. Three chickens had come out of hiding. I got out the phone book. The guy doesn't have a phone. I wrote him a letter, checked the price of laying hens on Craig's list, and billed him for destroying my flock. Ron went with me to leave the letter in the guy's mailbox. The dogs were still there.

I have mourned the loss of my hens in such ways one too many times. This time it just made me angry. So angry.

Eventually, nine hens came out of hiding and appear to be OK. Ron buried three. I don't know if the two that were injured will make it.

If the dogs come back, they'd better be saying their prayers.

8" x 10" $1020   SOLD

April 11 The Light

Here's the philosophical question: Is it more imperative to praise the light or truly understand its source?

11" x 14" $1020

Apr. 10 Made in Maine

Another busy Saturday. Good friends over for coffee this morning. Some quick cleaning and when Ron got the window screens out I did some unplanned window washing. Ron washed on the outside while I washed on the inside and now we have glistening transparency and I didn't even have it on my to do list for today. Then Savannah and I picked up Calypso at her other grandparents' and we went to a fun bridal shower with many more good friends.

Days like today don't leave much time for painting, nor for planning what to paint. I headed down to the studio and picked up one of my boots on the way. So here it is, like one of my favorite sons-in-law, made in Maine.

11" x 14" $1010

April 9 Horsehead Nebula

I asked Savannah what I should paint for the 100th day. She said, "I know exactly what you should paint; I just don't know what it's called," and disappeared into her room. She came back with a book called Galaxy, Exploring the Milky Way. She paged through and said, "This one." I suppose it's fitting to paint a nebula in the Orion molecular cloud complex, something I'll never see. But it broadens one's perspective to consider all the things "out there" that we'll never see.

11" x 14" $1000

Apr.8 Beer

Set the beer bottle down on the hardboard. Painted the bottle. Imagined the flower.

8" x 10" $990

April 7 Bowl of Mangos

This little silver bowl with a lid was a wedding present, almost 37 years ago. I usually keep a (small)sport card collection and tubes of watercolor in it. Odd assortment, I know, but it landed on the window sill in my studio and that's what it has in it, usually. I pressed it into fondue duty on Saturday so it was washed and ready to hold two lovely ripe mangos and model for the daily painting tonight. I set them on a piece of hardboard as I did with the vase of pussy willows a couple of days ago. I like the backgroundless effect so went with it again for today's painting.

8" x 10" $980

April 6 Spring Green-up

I don't know if the pines have already put out fresh green growth or if they look greener because of recent washing by passing showers. But the contrast of their green against the bland landscape is striking. If you look closely, you'll notice the willows and dogwoods are turning to spring green and a light green haze of pussy willows crown the mounds of swamp shrubs.

8" x 10"

April 5 Pussy Willows

I set the vase of pussy willows, ones Michael had picked over the weekend, on a piece of hardboard. It made little sense to paint a background to replicate the hardboard since I was painting on a piece of identical hardboard. So, no painted background; just the vase and pussy willows.

11" x 14"

April 4 Easter

Easter morning came awfully early, before 5:00. It's been a good long day, but a long day nonetheless.

5" x 7"

April 3 Black hen's eggs

After a many-months break, the two black hens have started laying eggs again. The black hens lay green eggs - long and slender, light blue-green. We've boiled four of them for Easter. Lovely pre-colored eggs.

5" x 7"

April 2 Ant and Gnome

You really can't blame me for this macabre little scene. Someone had to dream it up. Someone else thought this little statuette would be a good shelf item for the grocery store. And Laura, who now has a gnome collection, decided she had to have it. It's too dark for my camera to reproduce properly. Sensitive thing, my camera. Or sympathetic.

11" x 14"

April 1 Fool

There were a lot of good April Fool jokes. According to the Independent News Herald, Bertha decreed that 90% of their buildings were going to be painted red and white to show loyalty to the school. Oprah thought it was such a good idea, she'd invited the mayor onto her show. American Idol was coming to film a show there. Jennifer Love-Hewitt was coming to check out Hewitt.

David Letterman, according to the Staples World, was coming to broadcast his show from the Dower Lake pier. There was even a photo. A second daylight savings time was coming in April.

MPR broadcast a movement dedicated to reducing the year by 18 days. No month would have more than 28 days. It would save an incredible amount of money, or so said the theory.

So, I've painted my little April Fool. We all need a little more fun.

8" x 10"

March 31 Knock, Knock

Who's there?
Banana.
Banana who?
Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Banana.
Banana who?
Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Orange.
Orange who?

11" x 14"

March 30 Pineapple

Jed woke me at 5:30 this morning. He was playing with the cactus on the landing and eventually tipped it over.

I made coffee and ate a bowl of frosted mini-wheats with raisins. A pineapple was on the counter. With an early morning start and a fresh pineapple for reference, I headed off to the studio to do the daily painting.

There's a legend that sea captains, having returned from a long voyage, rested a few days and spent time with their families. When they set a pineapple out on the newel post of the gate, they were ready to entertain friends.

After my long voyage of proofing the book, I feel almost ready to entertain. I will by Friday when the Easter weekend visitors start pouring in.

11" x 14"

March 29 Proof 1 is Done

Who knew that proofing a book could be such a trial. Oh, well, proof one is done. With any luck, proof two of the vinegary book won't be as tumultuous and it will hit the book shelves yet this spring.

8" x 10"

March 28 Oil

Today the Olive Oil. Yesterday the Vinegar. Tomorrow the Salad? I don't think so but we'll see what tomorrow brings.

8" x 10"

March 27 Vinegar

With the third Saturday in a row of attending horticultural events with our vinegar as well as lots of orders for vinegar coming in after a nice article about the vinegar in the Star Tribune, it's proper to give a tribute to vinegar in the daily painting. It's also proper to feature this bottle because we're phasing it out and phasing in a sleak slim line model. TO VINEGAR!

8" x 10"

March 26 Laura's Cup and an Apple

When Laura comes home, this is the cup she uses. She likes light French vanilla coffee creamer in her coffee in this cup. I wasn't a very good mother the last time she was home. No coffee creamer.

I was going to put a banana across the top of the cup. No banana. The apple fit all the way in the cup so there was no point in doing that. That's why the cup is upside down with the apple on top.

8" x 10"

March 25 Blue

Hmmm...tired. Ron's been sick. I'd prefer if he'd share chocolate.

8" x 10"

March 24 You've got to give a little...

You've got to give a little, take a little,
And let your poor heart break a little.
That's the story of, that's the glory of love.

You've got to laugh a little, cry a little,
Until the clouds roll by a little.
That's the story of, that's the glory of love.

Hmmm....so why does that old song come rolling into my thoughts? Hard to say. Today was a good day of laughter, no tears, but a fair amount of give and take with the first pot luck of spring at work this noon. The Five Wings Arts Council (that's us) shares a communal space between offices with female eye doctors and their staff so we had a pot luck get aquainted lunch in the shared space. Great fun and there's a plan afoot to do it monthly.

I spent a couple of hours photographing a Staple's area artist's watercolors and uploading them to the mn.artists website. That was an enjoyable process, too.

Now it's past dark and no one has put the chickens in for the night. Savannah doesn't want to go out alone, so I must finish up and venture out with her. She wants to look for Orion, the constellation, too and I won't deny a 14 year-old that.

She tells me the lyrics are from "Beaches." There were messages and mentions today of southern California, beaches of Lake Michigan, people coming back from Mexico, going to Mexico....maybe my subconscious mind processed it and came up with that connection.

8" x 10" $830

March 23 Quilter's Accoutrements

Here's a new development: paint on the sleeve of my nightgown. Painting had to be the first priority today so didn't bother to dress before heading to the easel. It was dark; the stairway a forboding challenge to my just awakened legs. I grabbed my Olfa cutter from the sewing machine, selected a spool of blue thread and with them as reference began the painting of the day. Reaching across the palette, my sleeve dragged in the blue paint. Acrylic paint does not wash out of fabric.

Up ahead, a twelve hour work day, with any luck a little volleyball and then debriefing at the VFW until midnight. I'll be painting again before I know it. Perhaps not in my nightgown.

5" x 7" $820

March 22 Doin' the Carrot Boogie

One of my favorite brothers suggested the subject for this painting. Now, most of you who get your carrots from your green grocer, packaged as uniform carrot clones,probably think only of monoleg carrots. Well, gardeners know that carrots can have two, three, four and more legs. They may not be ideal, but they're common as....carrots.

Since we're officially two days into spring, let's have a little carrot boogie.

8" X 10" $810

March 21 The Model T plane

Here's my dad's toy car, again. This time masquerading as an airplane. I can't imagine that a car like this wouldn't have spent some time as an "airplane" in the hands of my six-year-old Dad back in 1927. Avionics got a leg up that year with Charles Lindbergh's historic flight from New York to Paris. My Dad's Aunt Hazel gave him the iron car but I'm willing to bet he made it "fly."

8" X 10" $800

March 20 Dogwood and willow

For many years, I gathered willow and dogwood in the winter and early spring. I wove more baskets than you could count, sold them around Minnesota, wrote a book about weaving baskets and taught many classes. I haven't made a basket in years but I still notice the dogwood and willow in late winter and early spring.

Today we drove 69.5 miles to Perham to present our vinegar wares at the East Ottertail County Garden Day. As we drove along the back roads, through lowlands and along fields, I noticed all of the material growing in the ditches and meadows; perfect for weaving. No time for that but it inspired the painting of the day: a stylized vision of willow and dogwood against the lighter background of newly snow-free grassland.

We stopped in Wadena on the way back for a quick and pleasant visit with Mom and Dad. Mom's arm is many shades of black and blue but getting a little better every day.

8" X 10" $790

March 19 Food stuffs

Food stuffers might be a more precise title for this one. I was going to paint something on a black background. My black paint container was empty. Had to go to plan B. B for blue, rather than black. I was feeling rather stuffed after a meal of fish and hash browns at the local lodge. Hence the food stuffers.

The effect on this one is interesting, especially since the paint is thick and still very wet. That's what the shine is all about. The dark shadow comes from me leaning over the painting which is lying flat so it doesn't run.

5" X 7" $780

March 18 Sail and a red sunset

I thought I'd have a nice evening of painting. Forgot about a meeting at school. After the meeting as we left the parking lot I noticed a sign that said, "Police vehicle parking only." The was going to be in my painting of the day.

When we got home I checked the e-mail and there were lots of vinegar orders. A very nice article about the vinegary came out in the Star Tribune today and the Prairie Yard and Garden show (with the segment about the vinegary) aired on Pioneer Public television tonight. So, I've been responding to e-mails.

The painting had to go quickly. My plan for painting the sign dissolved in the first brush strokes.

8" x 10" $770