Busy Few Weeks!

Summer's Sanctuary 36x48

We had a whirlwind of activity:

• paint long hours over 2 1/2 weeks to finish one of my most complicated paintings
• use heat gun over 4 day period several times a day to dry the impasto touches so the painting would be eligible for the show last Friday (a couple spots were stubborn, but I just prayed hard I wouldn't hear about ruined clothes from the show staff)
• stay up late varnishing, arise a few hours later to pick up frame, prepare for full day date with Kristie traveling to Nashville, Indiana for the first time
• deliver painting for judging at Indiana Heritage Arts Show
• hike, get lost on hike and cover 5 miles instead of 2, decide hiking would be great for the whole family the next week
• prepare to camp on Thurs and Fri at Browns County State Park while simultaneously getting everything ready for the Zionsville Paint Out on Saturday
• receive card with award winner stamp
• camp at rv park 30 min from desired destination because van is shuddering like naked Alaskan Eskimo and car shops are closed
• have a great time with family even with the life-draining swarms of mosquitos
• discover newly mounted tire is about to disintegrate, replace tire, go hiking at park for more than four miles with seven children-the 4year old (Danni Girl) kept up easily with the oldest five (19, 17, 15, and 14 yr old twins) and Enoch (20 mths) acted like he had been raised in a backpack
• get incredible peach ice cream in Nashville and see the shops
• find a very posh YMCA, shower and get presentable
• arrive to find I have won the Margaret Colglazier Memorial Award
• meet wonderful people including a request from a gallery owner to consider representation
• drive home late, run to sudio to gather up painting supplies while children unload van, sleep couple hours, pack van and head to Zionsville
• arrive at Sullivan Munce Cultural Center, get maps of garden homes, paint two paintings in 4 1/2 hours, take painting to park for judging by Todd Reifer
• win best of show and get earnest pleas for a future workshop (I will have pics soon)
• walk through beautiful historic Zionsville, eat a wonderful dinner and head home to figure out workshop details

Richard Schmid Fine Art Auction

I'm excited to be a part of the Richard Schmid Fine Art Auction on September 6th, 2009. My painting Summer Sonata was one of 52 out of several hundred paintings juried by Richard Schmid for the live auction. I hope to be there and to meet the wonderful people who support this show each year. I met Richard Schmid while at a show in Vermont, a very generous artist who I have admired since my early days in college more than 20 years ago. I look forward to seeing all of you there!

Perceptions

When we mention we moved to Muncie from Colorado we get a lightning response, "WHY!!? Why would you leave such a beautiful place and come here?" Oh yeah, we miss the mountains and Colorado is definitely a beautiful vacation spot. I can understand the confusion.

As you can tell, I paint a lot of flowers. I love rich, juicy color and flowers offer endless variations and subtlety. Now, Colorado is a desert state. We have a photo of Kristie's mom on a horse in the middle of endless prairie grass appoximately where they built Academy Blvd. - that is what used to be the bulk of Colorado Springs. Every tree and plant is dependent on constant watering and care. I called a Muncie realtor before we moved and asked about putting in a sprinkler system - "why would you want to do that?" He was serious. In Colorado everyone has sprinklers or a dead lawn. Here we just let Mother Nature take care of all that.

Our first spring we walked over to introduce ourselves to our neighbors on their porch. They had lived in that same house for more than thirty years. Kristie looked around at all the trees in bloom and asked "is it always this beautiful in the spring?" The sweet older lady looked around and replied "well I'll be, it is beautiful isn't it, I never noticed before." Don't let all the beauty around you slip by unnoticed. Take a walk and enjoy spring's gifts.

I painted this to prove the point. This is a few blocks from our home.