Illustration Friday - "Clumsy"

Here is my entry for Illustration friday from a few weeks ago.. finally finished. I am happy with my "Clumsy Skunk"- thinking of making it into a short story or children's book someday too!

MIA Show Opening was a Mad House!

Went to the show opening last night and had a lovely wait in line for 45 min to get into see all the artwork. There were almost 5,000 individual artworks from local MN artists. There were three rooms lined with artworks from floor to ceiling. It was a great show to go to even with the long line just to see the diversity of work on the walls and sculptures on the tables. See some of my favorites pieces below and one of mine. They do have a database so you can search for who the artist is while at the show, as there was no room for names on the wall.

 

Mine is in the middle there - squeezed in..

"Foot in the Door" Show at MIA

I entered the "Foot in the Door" show today at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The show is named as such because your piece has to fit into a 12" X 12" box in order to qualify for entry; (luckily I work pretty small anyways). I entered the piece below that I just recently finished for my self promo postcard. I had to quickly mount and frame it today since I just heard about the show yesterday and the final day to enter was today. Looks like I will be exhibiting with thousands of other artists in MN as the show is open to all artists in the state. The show only comes around every ten years so I thought I should catch it this time around. The opening will be on February 18th from 6 - 9 pm. I am looking forward to it already as it should be a great time to see other artists in my new home state.

"Blackberry Jam" 
  gouache,
  2010

(click to enlarge)

New Name Painting Finished

This is a name painting I recently finished for a little girls birthday present. It has her name in it with the letters integrated into the nature scene. I made another one for a friend in the past and decided to try another one. I had fun painting the scene with some really bright colors using gouache paint. Lately I have been straying from using my old favorite of watercolor and moving on to gouache paint. The paint being a blend or acrylic and watercolor is easier for me to get great bright colors that are more opaque but I can also water it down and get a wash look as well. I enjoy getting more of a contrast in my pieces then before when I would just use light tones in watercolor. But I still enjoy using cold press watercolor paper as the texture is great.

Planting Vegetables Indoors

I recently placed an order for a small greenhouse online to put in my kitchen in front of my only south facing window to catch some winter light to grow some vegetables. I got my greenhouse last week and also received my order from the Seed Savers Exchange of Iowa. I got a wide variety of seeds to test out to see if they will grow indoors well or not. I researched a bit online and found many people had luck with, bush beans, herbs, and leafy vegetables like spinach and lettuce. So I ordered some of these vegetable seeds as well as some fun heirloom varieties that I thought I might enjoy. I plan to keep a spreadsheet of how well my plants grow. I will be supplementing my greenhouse with a small light source as needed, for cloudy days, etc. See the seeds I got below.


Dragon Carrots,
Red Romaine Lettuce,
Tennis Ball Lettuce, Chives,
Genovese Basil,
Alma Paprika Peppers,
Fiskeby Soybeans,
Calabrese Broccoli,
Dragon's Tongue Beans,
Red Swan Beans,
Bloomsdale Spinach.

I planted my seeds in some peat pots so that when they do sprout I can plant the pot itself with the sprout in a larger pot to be kept in the greenhouse. I also used some paper scraps and folded them in half to make some simple labels so I would know which seeds are which. I also used some black trays for the bottom to catch water and hopefully hold some heat from the sun. My mini greenhouse has been a warm 70 degrees as its high without an added light source. Overall I hope to be growing my own fresh vegetables in my own kitchen soon! If not then I will have a good spot at least to start sprouting seeds for the spring.