Cricketts Inky Art Blot

We made crazy vehicles in Michael DeMeng's workshop. Here are a selection of some of the works in progress: Here we had a critique with Michael discussing everyone's progress. I loved this steampunked up critter! This is the cool studio by the harbor that we worked in for four days, pretty cool view! Later in the day we had a project with Tracy and Teesha Moore with a bunch of artists from different workshops.

Last week my hubby and I went to Petaluma on an art retreat. It was more of an art treat! This is me looking smug because we had arrived at the hotel! Yes, I brought costumes ;-) We love the art of Michael DeMeng, so signed up for four days of working with him. Here are examples of his work (photos from his blog). He is represented at Blumfields Gallery in Boise. We actually bought the "Babbage Yabba Birdhouse" and spent some time under Michael's direction making our own versions. This is mine (awaiting a beak). Below is my husband holding his creation.

I have entered an art contest for Wine Hill Hotel, called "Wine is Art". The winning art piece will be used for the wine bar and it's publicity materials. The artist also gets to exhibit in the hotel for a year, which makes it an attractive proposition, so I figured that I might give it a try. I headed up to St Mary's Art Center to use their beautiful press. Prior to arrival, I had scratched a drypoint etching into a plate and prepared it for press work.  I also had a clear plate the same size to add a monotype. The next stage was to add, then run some leaves on blank paper through the press on the inky plate. The clear plate was then discarded and then the inked and now flat leaves were laid onto the drypoint plate. The drypoint was inked up using a heavy amount of brown, the leaves were almost completely black. This was done to add some visual weight to the activated edge of the print and to emphasize importance of the wine i...

Recently I took part in an open studio event at Wildflower Village. There are pros and cons of open studio events, a big con for me, is that I am not always sure that the work is finished enough to show. One big plus, is that I don't have to frame the work, so it is no biggie to change up the work after seeing it in a gallery type setting. All of the paintings below are oil paintings and easy to start reworking. The palette is much lighter than I usually use and I am still deciding whether to glaze deeper.

The art retreat starts tomorrow. Apart from clothes, I just have one final thing to work on and pack; an art donation to 'The Fabulous Women'. This is a nonprofit group that provides emotional and financial support for families facing various challenges. I am adding the last touches to a Tree of Life image that I thought would be a suitable image for the cause. The image is now finished and signed, ready to be framed. All done and I found a small piece as an addition to the larger one. I guess that just leaves packing the clothes!

I have a bunch of little tradigital art pieces made up for art retreat later this week. These will serve as art trades between the other artists. Half my studio is scattered around the dining room floor and table, so packing needs to start before the kids get lost in the mess or someone does themselves an injury! I'm SO excited to go, I know it will be a fun time.

Last weekend was the big event of the High Desert Steam Ball and Medicine Show at Virginia City. We drove up Friday and attended an art show to kick off the festivities. Saturday morning we joined the Steampunk parade through the main street of Virginia City with many folk from Nevada and California. There were even some cool art cars such as the two behind me. Here my husband and I are shown carrying the banner.   The old train in Virginia City takes a tour down to Gold Hill. We joined many steampunks from Sacramento on the journey that highlights much of the silver and gold mines from the days of the gold rush. After checking out some of the vendors, we returned to the hotel for some tea and a change before heading out to see the Medicine Show. This was the highlight of the weekend for me and I thought the acts were quite splendid! The Ball was immediately after the show and the Grand Finale was a performance by Unwoman. Airship privateer...