The Floral Print Calendar

Here are the images from my Floral Print Calendar.  I have attached them to the months they represent....

January is "Amaryllis and Paper White".

February is "Cyclamen and Snow Drop".

March is "Daffodil and Crocus".

 April is "Tulip and Pussy Willow".

May is "Trillium and Blood Root".

June is "Iris and Forsythia".

July is "Daisy and Bell Flower".

August is "Poppy and Sunflower".

September is "Lily and Morning Glory".

Both the front cover and October are "Foxglove and Black-Eyed Susan".

November is "Rose and Holly".

...and December is "Poinsettia and Berry".

I hope you enjoy these flowers as much as I do!  Both Pear and Floral Print calendars are $20 and note cards (which I posted last week) are $8 plus shipping.  Please email me if you're interested....

Pear Calendars

So, here are the images for the Pear calendar--$20 each plus postage--the resolution isn't great but this will give you an idea of what is in there.  Just click on the image to enlarge it.  If you would like ro order one, please email me. 

Next time, images from the Floral Print Calendar....

Note Cards are finished!

It's been a long time coming but finally I have finished two sets of note cards.  The first is a set of four floral prints....

and the second is a set of pear watercolors....

These images are taken from the pear watercolor and floral print calendars just off the presses.  It is an exciting departure for me--from fine arts into a bit of the commercial!  Hopefully they will be packaged and for sale in the area in the near future....

Sidewalk Art

On Saturday while the Woodstock Arts Festival on the green was going on, three Artwise Women, Barbara, Anne and I,  took up chalk and created a flower and butterfly sidewalk mural in our assigned spot in front of the Woodstock Pharmacy.  The event was sponsored by the Change the World Kids.  Here are a few photos of the work we did that morning....

Barbara is working on her first block here.  Sidewalk art is a bit hard on the knees and the back so knee pads were the order of the day.

We checked out some books from the Norman Williams Library and used them as reference for our butterflies.

Anne's beautiful monarch butterfly.

And this is the butterfly that flew to the middle of the sidewalk....

An interested spectator, who asked if he could take a picture, came back after we finished and took this panoramic photo which he emailed to Barbara.  Though it's a bit hard to see, the caption reads:  "with love from Artwise Women"....

After the Storm

It has been a long week, this week.  When hurricane Irene came through this state she did lots of damage.  We were fortunate to come through unscathed.  But lots of time was spent taking care of people whose lives were turned upside down by the flooding of virtually every brook, stream and river.  So many roads and bridges washed out.  So many houses damaged and lost.  So many lives altered dramatically.  Every morning folks met at the elementary school here in Woodstock to volunteer in whatever way they could.  What a fine community of generous, involved, caring people we have in Vermont.  I am so grateful to be part of that community.
And, finally, despite the storm, my floral print calendar is complete--here is the final print intended for November....

"Rose and Holly"

9"x12" -  soft cut linoleum print

"Rose and Holly"

9"x12" - hand colored linoleum print

At the moment, all twelve prints are being scanned and turned into a proof calendar.  I'm excited to see what it looks like!  I still need to make some decisions about typeface, binding, etc. after I see it.  But I'm almost there.
And then the question becomes what to do next?

One More to Go!

It has taken me much longer than I thought it would to create twelve finished prints for my floral calendar.  Buying one house, selling another, moving from place to place and then painting and renovating is very time and energy intensive!  

But I am now working on the last month of the calendar, involving roses, and here is the latest print, for the month of January. 

"Amaryllis and Paper White"

linoleum print - 9"x12"

"Amaryllis and Paper White"

hand colored linoleum print - 9"x12"

It is just wonderful to have time to work in my studio today and I look forward to more of it in the days ahead.... 

A Spring Floral Print

It's been a busy summer with not much studio time.  We've had a great vacation on the Cape, a wonderful visit from our son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren, lots of work on the house and normal, fun, summer activities.
Here is a spring flower print, perhaps March....  I think the little bee in looks suspiciously like "Flying Piglet" and that entertains me!

"Daffodil and Crocus"

linoleum print - 9"x12"

"Daffodil and Crocus"

hand colored linoleum print - 9"x12"

Plein Aire Paintings at the Chandler in Randolph

Here is an excerpt from Dian Parker's review of the current Area Artists Exhibit at the Chandler Gallery in Randolph, VT where I am exhibiting plein aire paintings.  I am pleased that my painting, "Swimming Hole on Locust Creek" was singled out by her for favorable comment...


"Saturday, June 11, 2011
REVIEW: 50 Area Artists on Display at the Chandler Gallery in Randolph

Every spring the Chandler Gallery offers an opportunity for area artists to exhibit their work. This year 50 artists display more than 140 pieces of their art in the expanded gallery. You’d think it would be impossible to show that many pieces without the gallery feeling crowded, a mish-mash of art. Instead the show is a wonderful surprise. Not only is the show pleasing as a whole, there are also many different genres of art displayed. To consider each of the artists is not possible so I have selected only a few.

"Swimming Hole on Locust Creek"

12" x 16" - oil

Two landscape artists, Kathleen Fiske and Katherine Ravenhorst-Adams, have 3 paintings each in the show and they alone would be worth the visit. Fiske’s Swimming Hole on Locust Creek, oil, is striking with its meandering stream with sunlight splashing across the water, and when seen from a distance takes on new dimension."

This review first appeared in the Randolph Herald on June 9, 2011.

Here is the link to the complete article.... http://vermontartzine.blogspot.com/2011/06/review-50-area-artists-on-display-at.html

"Trillium and Bloodroot"

Two weeks ago I was sitting in my chair in the garden contemplating--an assignment given to me at Shambhala as part of my "Wisdom in Everyday Life" class.  "Find a meaningful place outdoors and sit and contemplate there for ten to twenty minutes every day."  During that week, each day was different in the garden.  The birds sang, the sun shone (or didn't), the hawks soared around high above, the little brook burbled along.
And as the week went on, the bloodroot came and went and the trillium came and stayed.  Beautifully.  Not often have I just sat.  No weeding,  No drawing. Just contemplating.  I highly recommend it, because I fell in love with the trillium and bloodroot during those contemplations, and they became my latest prints....

"Trillium and Bloodroot"

9" x 12" - linoleum print

"Trillium and Bloodroot"

9" x 12" - hand colored linoleum print

I discovered that wild flowers are more about the leaves and less about the flowers.  The wild trillium leaves feel like they could fly and the quiet bloodroot leaves are like little fans of joy.

Cyclamen and Snow Drop

Just finished are the latest prints in the flower series.  "Cyclamen and Snow Drop" will be January in the calendar.  Here is the black and white original....

"Cyclamen and Snow Drop"

linoleum print - 9" x 12"

And the hand colored version....

"Cyclamen and Snow Drop"

hand colored linoleum print - 9" x 12"

The cyclamen plant itself will grace our dining room table now that its work in the studio is complete.

"Daisy and Balloon Flower"

Today, I put the finishing touches on the latest in my floral print series, "Daisy and Balloon Flower".  Now that it is complete, it reminds me a bit of "Foxglove and Black Eyed Susan" which I created last fall and which is one of my favorites.  Here is the finished print...

"Daisy and Balloon Flower"

linoleum print - 9" x 12"

I discovered that balloon flowers come in many colors including pink, blue, white and purple.  I thought about coloring a sunset sky of golds and pinks but decided to stick with shades and tints of blue in the sky and use pink balloon flowers to contrast with it.  Here it is...

"Daily and Balloon Flower"

hand colored linoleum print - 9" x 12"

I hope to enter three of these hand colored prints in Chandler Gallery's Area Artist Show in May.

"Tulip and Pussy Willow"

Here is the latest in the flower print series, finished this week.  First, the black and white version...

"Tulip and Pussy Willow"

linoleum print - 9" x 12"

And then, the color print...

"Tulip and Pussy Willow"

hand colored linoleum print - 9" x 12"

It is lovely and meditational mixing and blending the Prismacolors to get the shades and tints just the way they fit together best.   

I am rounding for home now with 7 prints in the series of 12 completed for next year's calendar.  Spring and summer months are much easier than fall and winter months.  So I still have to do January, February, October and November.  But June is underway!

Finished "Poinsettia and Berry"

This morning I finished hand coloring the latest in the floral print series and here it is....

"Poinsettia and Berry"

hand colored linoleum print - 9" x 12"

I may go in and darken the background a bit more, but basically I am pleased with the finished product....

The Next Floral Print

I've been working on "Poinsettia and Berry" and thought I would document what happens when the initial print isn't what one hopes it might be.  Here is the first artist proof:

"Poinsettia and Berry"

linoleum print - 9" x 12" - artist proof

It looks pretty good and I wanted some black areas--maybe even more than show here.  But I hated to lose the red of the leaves to solid black.  I decided I could always darken them when I hand color the print.  I did some more cutting and this is the result....

Poinsettia and Berry

9" x 12" - linoleum print 

I may have given up some graphic strength in service to texture and color, but I like it.  We'll see how it works....

The New Studio

I am finally back to making art after our move and my new studio here at home is wonderfully convenient!

The computer is handy for blogging, referencing images, etc.  And it's a dream to have lots of storage space for materials.  There's room to breath here and a nice view of the south field through the trees.  

Of course, today the view is of yet more snow (and the window screen is showing!) but I'm looking forward to a greener vista in a little while with spring only thirteen days away.... 

This afternoon I am working on designing my next prints in the flower series.

Starting over....

How can it take so long, require so much energy and eclipse everything else to move from Gaysville to Woodstock?  It's barely 25 miles but it might as well be 2500 miles because everything you own has to be picked up, considered,  discarded or packed, moved, unpacked and installed somewhere in the new house.  And that's after the new floors and walls have been sanded, patched, painted and painted again.

The most fun painting was the dining room floor which was painted with a checkerboard "rug" using the colors of the walls in the living room, dining room and office.  Here's Sandy working on the Rockport Gray squares (thank you Sandy!) using Carol's little stool (thank you Carol!).

And here is the finished product....

Now that the really necessary curtains are up and only a little tweaking here and there is required, I am back in the studio.  Two months and fifteen days since I last posted, I am starting over!   And having a studio at home again will be lovely....