Hang ‘Em High
Well, it’s on the walls. Seventy pieces of art between Sister Margie and Moi. Wheew…. Still a few loose ends to wrap up. Labels. Pricing. More publicity.
So here’s the photos I promised you yesterday.
Before.
After.
‘Twas the Night Before…
Tomorrow we hang ’em high. Today we tied up the loose ends. Friend Christina, whose toes I will kiss kiss kiss until I fall dead from the effort, friend Christina came over and put her Virgo nature to WORK. She stretched canvas. Screwed little eye-hooks into side panels. Wired frames. Lots of them.
Ahhhhhhh…. It was so nice to have help.
Tomorrow…tomorrow there will be photos. Lot’s of ’em. The paintings you’ve seen on the floor, you’ll see on the wall. They dried, by the way. Not all of them, not all the way. But dry enough.
We finished up around nine. That’s PM. Then we came back to the house and dined on potato chips. When the bag was empty we moved on to cookies. Nice butter almond things from Holland. Or somewhere. There was tea involved so I guess that made it dinner.
Tonight’s weather mentioned snow towards the weekend. SNOW??? Hellooooo Mr. Weatherman. Got an Opening RECEPTION Saturday. NO NO NO SNOW. Or I will have to move to Camelot.
Remember…photos tomorrow!
Home Stretch
Show hangs Monday. As I write this, that’s day after tomorrow. Although tomorrow is less than two hours away.
Oh. My.
There’s much to do still. Can’t begin to say what sister Margie has on her plate. Well, there’s some canvas stretching involved with the wrong size stretcher bars but…but…but that’s her thing, right? And she’ll figure it out. And if she doesn’t, friend Christina is lending a hand tomorrow. Hey and YAY!!! Christina! She’s a Virgo. And an artist. Which means she’s incredibly capable at doing things right.
Whereas I’m an Aquarian. Which means I drink lots of water, pee constantly and run around like a crazy chicken with ADD.
Mr. Spouse decided this would be a good weekend to go somewhere else. Far, far away. He’s hangin’ with da boyz in the mountains of Georgia, dangerously close to Alabama. Figured being with Sisters Lobb just before hanging a show would be akin to being the sacrificial male at a PMS festival. Safety lay three thousand miles and a whole damn continent away.
Smart move.
So here’s what Studio Grande looked like today. The following photos are taken in the kitchen of the cottage. I work in the two back rooms but this is where the heat is and these suckers need some encouragement when it comes to drying.
So that’s SOME of my work. The big pieces. Cold wax and oil. The encaustics are smaller, a few medium size, the rest 12×12 or smaller. I’ve got around thirty finished pieces. Finished except for wiring and touchup. Probably won’t use them all but it gives me stuff to choose from.
And hey, there’s a couple panels just begging for some wax. Aww geeze, whack me upside the head if I even THINK of starting something new, okay?
Now here’s a look at some of Margie’s work. Just some of it. She’s set up shop in Mama’s old bedroom because there’s not enough room for the two of us in my work area. Sounds like a line from an old western, “Sorry Pard’, ain’t ’nuff room for you ‘n me both in these parts. Now skee-daddle. Shoo.” But there isn’t. Really. So here it is, what you can see of it.
Hard to see what she’s got here but trust me, her work is spectacular. She’s amazing.
I can’t wait to see this all up and hanging. It’s going to be an awesome show!
Runnin’ on Empty
Just a quickie tonight. Long day in Studio Grande. Need to put my feet up, have a cuppa tea and Go. To. Bed.
So I can do the same thing tomorrow.
Here are two I completed today. Cold wax and oil. Snapshots, not great photos but you get the idea.
This one is 2’x2′. It’s my absolute favorite. OF ALL TIME. Did you get that–of ALL time. Or until something better comes along. But right now…sigh, it feels complete.
I think this one is 18″x24″. Maybe. Brain is totally disengaged right now…
Full House
She be here! Marjorie Ellen, chief tormentor of my youth, flew in from Norway yesterday. Today I drove down the hill and picked her up at the train station. The first thing we did, after the hugs and kisses, was hop back in the car and head to In-N-Out for a couple of burgers. I will NOT tell you how many burgers my skinny sister can pack away at one sitting. But I can tell you I am jealous–absolutely lime-green-with-envy-kind-of-JEALOUS of her metabolism.
After dinner we headed home. Home. The last time she was here was April, when Mama died. But the cottage isn’t Mama’s house anymore, it’s my studio again. A place where art happens. Smells like oil paint and beeswax. It’s messy with art supplies and cat hair and things of Mama’s that don’t know where else to be.
She started unpacking her stuff. It was like Christmas…bubble wrap, newsprint and ART! Gorgeous, glorious sister paintings. Etchings. Oh. My….. Photos tomorrow.
Meanwhile here’s a few photos of my own. Things I worked on today. This is new to me, COLD wax mixed with oil paint. I’m not experienced enough with hot wax yet to get where I wanted to go with the large panels, not with a show hanging on Monday. Actually I’ve got my fingers crossed that these will be dry by then.
Everyone, send some good dry mojo this way, okay? Thanks.
So this is what I did today.
Not this. (arrow pointing up) I did this last week, It’s the underpainting for (arrow pointing down).
This is after playtime with cold wax. It’s not the final photo, I straightened out the horizon but forgot to take the picture.
I’m REALLY liking the cold wax. Probably because it’s more in line with the way I paint. So it’s less of a learning curve for me.
Here’s another one. First, the underpainting, It’s 1’x3′ on plastered cradled board. Lots of fun with the texture here.
Starting the process. Just got to jump in and be bold.
And this is how it looks now.
Now it’s time to visit with Ms. Margie. YAY!