A New Direction

I'm taking a new direction in my subject matter this fall. I've been pretty focused on coastal scenes for a little while but I get a little bored with landscapes (even coastals) after a while!

My big inspiration has been a painting I thought about for almost a year before I started it. I've already talked about it on the blog and it is still in progress..the huge painting of my son feeding a horse. The horse is one of my parents' from their farm in North Carolina. This summer when we visited, I took a ton of pictures of their cows and new calves.

These pictures have been the springboard for a new set of paintings. Since I'm sketching & painting cows..everywhere I look, I get distracted by cows. Here in Texas we have the ever-so-famous Texas Longhorn. I found one on a small farm outside of our neighborhood. Unfortunately, the farm is situated right before an extremely sharp curve. I decided I better find something other than that longhorn to look at or I was going to wreck one day! I went digging through my reference photos and found some photos from the Fort Worth stockyards and other areas. Longhorns are so cool looking!

So..look for these and other paintings with a "Texas-flare" coming up soon. Here is a completed 10"x10" title Not Sure. She was walking by me and hesitated as I started clicking the camera..not sure of whether I was safe enough to walk past.

Stepping out of the Studio

This is a totally non-art related post, but relevant nonetheless. I spent this past weekend camping by Lake Texoma with my Cub Scout son. I have to say I was very apprehensive about this trip. This was the first time my son & I camped by ourselves and it was the first time I had camped without my older daughter. She and I had our routine down for setting up the tent, preparing the inside, cooking, tear down, etc. To top it off, the Den leader's son sprained his ankle the night before so he and his mom canceled on camping with us. There was one other boy from our Pack but we didn't know him and he camped only 1 night.

So..we were on our own! Since I was in my usual state of preparedness, we left 2 hours late on Friday for the 1 1/2 hour drive smack in the middle of rush hour traffic. By the time we got to the Boy Scout camp, checked-in, unloaded gear, parked the van, and hauled the gear down into the campsite, it was dark! Nevertheless we set up the tent in record time. We were hungry and another pack was already cooking over the campfire so that gave us a little motivation.

The weekend went without a hitch. The best part of the trip was watching my 9 year old help set up a campsite on Friday, cook our supper Saturday, wash the dishes in a bucket, and take down the tent without any help on Sunday. I was impressed and so were the other adults camping with their scouts around us.

Ok..so where's the relevance to art? Was I inspired by my communing with nature? Did I compose countless landscapes from the beautiful surroundings? No, actually I never even took my sketchbook out of its travel bag. I didn't even take any reference photos. What I did get was some time to slow down and get out of my work. Having my studio at home means..I'm ALWAYS at work. I felt refreshed after being away from both of my jobs..artist and homemaker.

What was even more important...I found some new faith in myself and my abilities. I can't take all the credit for the trip..my son was an incredible partner; but even he told me, "You did all the work before and made it easy." I wasn't sure how I'd handle camping alone with 9 year old, no showers with 90+ degree heat, primitive latrines (smelly, spider ridden, nasty latrines!!) and our unpredictable Texas weather; but it all was so smooth that it was a lot of fun!

So, moral of the story...if you're unsure..give it a try. Whether its a new painting, a new idea, a new recipe or a camping trip...you're fear may be completely reasonable but it will be worth working through!

Of all the people I have ever known, those who have pursued their dreams and failed have lived a much more fulfilling life than those who have put their dreams on a shelf for fear of failure.
~Author Unknown

Lakewood Show-Done

The Lakewood Summer Arts Faire was this past weekend in the White Rock lake area of Dallas. What a neat little section of town. Sometimes it is hard to remember that Dallas is more than just highrises and crowded highways.

The Faire was a lot of fun and we (the artists) were well pampered by the staff and volunteers at Lakewood United Methodist Church which put on the show. There was rain on Sunday..but we were INSIDE!! woo-hoo! The rain even stopped when it was time to tear down and load up the van.

Classes started yesterday so I've been in a whirlwind trying to clean up my gear in time for students to come into the studio. Here are some photos of my booth.

Next event: Woodbridge Family Fest, October 6th - this is a small, local event that I'll have more of my "teacher" hat on than "artist" hat. I'm setting up a partial art booth and then a couple of tables to do some projects with the neighborhood kids. Should be fun I just hope the weather holds.