which came first?

In my case, Le Poulet, or "Ms Salmonella" as my daughter calls her, was painted first.  I don't know why I have such tender regards for this piece.  The eggs were bought from Kurt Schwarz, an artist who raises chickens.  I suspect he is 'bogarting' the blue eggs for himself.  I can hardly blame him, I'd have hoarded the green ones as well.

Don't tell my husband

I went to a barn sale yesterday and picked up these industrial pieces.  Someday they will figure in a still life composition.  At least that is my intention.  My husband, who is understandably alarmed at the bizarre colony of 'still life' items swelling the seams of our home, has a hard and fast rule:  Nothing else comes into the house unless something else goes out. But really, what doesn't qualify as a potential still life character? I've used wooden block and tackles, railroad oil cans, vintage windup toys, dessicated Japanese umbrellas, and pharmaceutical posters.  This may explain his fondness for my food still lifes.  At least he can eat those.

Having lost sight of our goal, we redoubled our speed...

I am supposed to be weeding out paintings for the April Food, Glorious Food show.  Like so many of my diets, this one has gone in the wrong direction.  I need less paintings, and yet here comes another, "My Darling Clementine".  Someone should lock me in the basement.

Food, Glorious Food

It's official! I'm having a Solo Show at the Art League Gallery in April.  Alas,  it seems I've painted too many pieces to show.  Now, I  have to eliminate some of my favorites.   Sounds suspiciously like dieting to me.

Once again, with feeling...

I haven't posted on this blog in nearly a month.  In trying to link the blog to Facebook, it became corrupted, repeating ad infinitum all the posts.  It was like the man who learned how to  spell banana but didn't know when to stop.  The above piece, If the World were Square, no longer exists.  It wasn't working and was 'whited out'.

Stop your Grousing

Whenever I feel down about my abilities as an artist, I remember a quote from Willem de Kooning : "An artist is like a man at the circus, standing off by himself, trying to balance on one finger.  The point is, no one asked him to do it."    Amen!

Art is Everywhere

I haven't painted in weeks.  It's beginning to scare me.  When I was a writer, the occasional block would threaten.  (Muses are a cranky lot.) I followed a friend's advice and forced myself  to work at the computer everyday for several hours. If you can't write, rewrite.  If you can't paint, repaint?  I've tried it.  It's not especially gratifying.  Yesterday, I looked through my "Desperate Still lifes" file.  Today, I took inventory of my stretcher bars.  The above painting was done in Diane Tesler's 2003 workshop.  I heartily believe that art IS everywhere.  It's just eluding me at the moment.