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"