End of the 30 in 30 and a Happy Ground Hogs Day to You.

February 2nd is one of my favorite days of the year. 

It's Ground Hogs Day! And although I don't take much notice as to whether or not Woodstock Chuck saw his shadow or not, I do  acknowledge - with some joy- that we are half way done with winter. Yeah! I am also done with the 30 in 30 challenge for January. Another Yeah!


This time the 30 in 30 was very difficult for me.
I made the decision NOT to paint a new painting each day but to continue to work on what I was doing and count the hours, not the pieces. My goal was to paint a little over 3 hours each day for a total of 100 hours in the month. Happily, I painted every day of the month except for three. I had 2 classes and  2 commissions in the month. Most of my time was spent on the painting below. I started the month struggling to get painting time in and to complete all I needed to in a given day. How is that? 3 hours a day isn't much. Having said that, I fell short of my goal of 100 hours by 18 or so. It's back to the drawing board as far as my schedule goes. There's always some thing in the day that needs immediate attention.

The interesting thing on this 30 in 30 was that I felt as if I wasn't completing the challenge even though I painted everyday. There was a feeling that I wasn't quite producing if I wasn't making one complete painting a day. But the truth is. I have several smaller pieces from previous 30 in 30's and feel I need to spend my time building up a collection of larger, more substantial pieces.

I guess the bottom line is games. Games we play with ourselves with having preconceived ideas about how much we should get done a day or how fast we should paint etc. The painting below took me about 80 or more hours. I'm pretty happy with it with the exception of the large pink flowers which I will go back and add more shading to. But for now, I will live with it and continue to explore a daily schedule which will work for me. I will also be more aware of the mind games I am playing with myself and the messages that these games are sending.

Art in Bloom, 

Floral Arrangement by Amy O'Fallon

From the Rockford Art Museum Show of 2016

14" x 19.5" Alcohol Inks

$2350

This is a photograph of Amy's piece almost in its entirety. The painting behind the piece is what she used as her inspiration for her arrangement. It is a painting that is a part of the Rockford Art Museum's permanent collection. I was drawn to the colors and textures of the piece. I love its complexity.

Amy along with her mother, Kathy, own O'Fallon's Fine Flowers, 1605 N Bell School Road in Rockford. It's a small, charming floral shop with two ladies that are big on talent.

Art in Bloom at Rockford Art Museum

Summer is just speeding by with classes, shows, paint demos and more. 

I have made time to enjoy myself as I did at the art museum.

Today is the last day of the Art in Bloom exhibit at the Rockford Art Museum. (RAM). Works from the museum's collection were creatively interpreted through floral design. The works were stunning. Here are just a few.

I found Dee and Cathy enjoying the show.

 I felt honored to be a part of their Pop Up Shop.

The HeArt of Rockford

Friday night was the opening of  The HeArt of Rockford at the Rockford Art Museum. It showcases Rockford sites from an artist's point of view, an event to celebrate the 60th year of Rockford Art Guild. The show is free and will run through June 7th.

 

My New Series - Drive By

One of the reasons I want to do a series on Rockford is so I will have several pieces to choose from when it come time to submit paintings for Rockford Art Museum show. Only one piece will be chosen but I decided I could use this series for several upcoming shows.

My work will be on display at Katie's cup in April. I love going there twice a month to paint and always find myself in conversations with someone who is interested in my art. Yesterday, it was a gentleman who was a graphic artist major in college. He spoke about all his fraternity brothers who were going into business or law and didn't understand why he'd go into art. Wild flowers were his big interest so we had a nice conversation. I'd like to have at least one Katie's Cup painting, large enough for over the fireplace. But I'd also like a few more paintings of Rockford there also.


April 10th is the Spring Art Scene where I'd also like to hang several of my Rockford pictures done in alcohol Inks. So I think I'll need several paintings and this time I want some large ones say 23" x 35".

Yesterday, after the above mentioned conversation with Kyle, another one about labs which hopefuly will lead to a comision and the conversation with the two guild members who introduced me to Dr. Ph Martin's watercolors - a must try, almost bought them today- I drove around Rockford collecting photographs of some of the wonderful buildings Rockford has to offer.  I never left my car and must have looked quite silly hanging my I Pad out the window. Some pictures I took while I was driving - I know, silly and I did stop doing that, but I adore some of these buildings and wanted a shot. The result was some pretty wild pictures, but I think I got enough to start my series. Some of the pictures I'll have to piece together but that may be a fun challenge. My name for this series? What else but "Drive By". What do you think?

Rockford used to be the second largest city in Illinois until about 14 years ago. From about 1850 to 1970 it was a  thriving industrial city with a lot to offer including a wonderful a college. At the turn of the century there was a lot of money around to build some beautiful mansions and gorgeous buildings, many which are still in service today - several which are just too costly to bring the buildings up to code and they have fallen into disrepair. When industrial jobs went overseas a lot of these companies moved out leaving a lot of people without jobs. Today Rockford has plenty of problems with crime and gangs but it continues to be this city where one can have access to wonderful concerts by top performers like Elton John or see traveling Broadway shows along with wonderful orchestras, several gardens, an arboretum and museums.