Baskets, Baskets!

I had so much fun making my basket at the Buckeye Retreat in February that I joined a basket making class here at home. I have made two baskets so far. They have both turned out very well. The weaving is very relaxing and uses different skills than painting. It is a fun way to spend a day. Here are the two baskets from my class. One is a shoulder basket that may be used as a purse (although it is a bit awkward for a purse) and the other has an insert so that you can serve food in it.

New Project

I finally had some time to sit down and work on a colored pencil project or two. Here is Miss Penny. She is a 12-week-old Miniature Schnauzer who lives across the street. Her portrait is done on black mat board. It is approximately 5x4.5. I selected the black background because I wanted to achieve a bit of a dramatic, contemporary look. Using the very dark background makes the lighter sections of hair stand out.

More from the Stallcup Seminar

Here are the remaining two projects from the seminar with Ros Stallcup. The Hydrangeas are on a large wooden tray and the porch scene is on a 12x12 wrapped canvas. I am working with Ros to select dates in 2010 when she will come to Franklin, PA, to do a 3-day seminar through my studio. I'll post more information as it is available. Contact me if you are interested in this seminar.

Recent Seminar

A couple of weeks ago, Town and Country Decorative Painters sponsored a 3-day seminar with Ros Stallcup. The seminar was very well attended and the projects were wonderful. Her is the project from Friday. Each student attending the seminar brought whatever surface they wanted to paint on. My piece is painted on a wooden lid that goes to a small basket.

Giving to the community

I think it is important to give of yourself and your time to your community. As an artist, I prefer for the contributions that I make to be in support of art and culture or at least to be artistic in nature. Our town sits on the Allegheny River and we have a bike path/hiking trail that runs along the river. The organization that supports this bike trail recently asked a number of artists and craftspeople in the area to decorate birdhouses that will be auctioned off in April as a fund raiser for this cause. The birdhouses are all alike and were made by a local company. They stand a little more than a foot tall. Unfortunately, the wood was rough and the birdhouses are somewhat rustic. Mine had a very rough roof--too rough to even consider sanding down to smooth. This presented a problem when it came to deciding how to decorate my birdhouse and how to turn the liability of really rough wood into a positive. I settled on making my birdhouse a seaside cottage with weathered siding and I covered the roof in seashells. Since the roof is hinged on one side, I could not run the shells to the hip of the roof. Everything you see is painted on the birdhouse except for the shells.

The Tote Bag Contest

The Buckeye Retreat held a tote bag painting contest at the Saturday night celebration. Everyone was handed a small canvas tote bag when they arrived. There were bottles of paint and bowls of "jewels" set out for us to use in decorating our totes. There were a lot of nice designs. Some people only glued on jewels. Others just painted a design and still others used both paint and jewels. Some people just took their totes home unpainted.

I chose to decorate my tote by painting a bouquet of roses, daisies and berries tied with a ribbon. The choice of colors was somewhat limited, but I think my design turned out pretty well. Mine did not win a prize. The winners were a painted beach scene, a musical score done with jewels and paint, and a design done completely in jewels.

Basket Making 101

Last weekend I attended a decorative painting retreat in Warren, Ohio, sponsored by the Buckeye Tole Painters. While I was there I taught 2 classes and had the opportunity to take a class taught by Howell and Company. They always teach several classes where you make a basket and then, if you choose, you can paint a design on it. I was there to learn to make the basket, so I made sure it got finished. I chose not to paint it. It still needs to be stained and varnished, but it is a lovely basket, if I do say so myself.