Upcoming Exhibition

I have been very busy preparing for an exhibition opening Saturday December 3 at the Wyatt Art Studios in Rochester New Hampshire. It is my first exhibition with them and I am very excited about it. It will be in their new back room which is small so I decided to show small works. I started with the 3 vintage-y still lives I already had which are nice and cheery and created 6 additional small paintings to accompany them which are all painted from my collection of vintage salt and pepper shakers and Christmas ornaments. Unfortunately I won't be able to go up there for the opening but I'll be there in spirit!

Creativity is slowly returning

I have been in a bit of a creative slump lately, mostly because I've been consumed with my textile design work; working weekends and really not having time to think. However I am happy to think that Halloween is right around the corner (I know that may sound premature to some of you but it is my favorite time of year and I am thinking ahead). I have been planning some "odd" still lives for awhile using some of the odds and ends around my apartment such as my mannequin hands, my replica human skill, vintage doll heads and  a stuffed raven. Let's see if I actually find time to begin a painting this week... I don't have a bell jar yet but I'm sure I can find one. The squiggles in the background indicate a moody damask wallpaper.

That wierd thing hanging on the wall is a pair of vintage blinking doll eyes! I've been dying to use them for something significant.

Some Still Lives

I am taking a little break from the Mr. Peanut paintings and working on something new. I have lots of vintage knickknacks around my apartment that I've collected over the years and I thought it would be nice to have some of them in a series of paintings. One of my favorite collections is my wind up alarm clocks from the 40's & 50's. I began with my first Westclox Big Ben that I bought on Ebay because it was just like the one my Parents had in the bedroom of our house in Wildwood, NJ where we spent our summers. I just love falling asleep to the rhythmic, tinny ticking of that clock that brings me straight back to a very happy time in my childhood. After that I added a gorgeous cream and tan Baby Ben and a beautiful Moonbeam which doesn't tick but glows when the alarm goes off.  These are the subject of the first painting that I just finished.

I also have several General Electric clock radios from the 50's and 60's that I love, 2 of which belonged to my Parents as well. These are the subject of 2 more paintings (sketches below) both shown with a little scottie dog pull toy I found in a flea market. I even threw in a few of the vintage desk accessories that I have; a beautiful old inkwell with a dip pen that was in a cabinet in our basement, a little silver desk calendar that you flip every day to show the date and another of my alarm clocks.  I decided to put all these on a vintage red tablecloth against the pistachio green wall of my kitchen. I think they look very cheery and I can't wait to turn these sketches into paintings!