Artistic Relief From Hard Times

Looks like a great idea! Let's support Michigan!

Artistic Relief From Hard Times

Pay Pal

My Pay Pal trial:

Please take a look at my Julia's Paintings site (click the button on the top right, it will take you there, or go to http://www.juliaspaintings.blogspot.com/ )

I have started adding Pay Pal buttons. I don't have them on all the paintings yet, but I'm working on it. I hope this will be a useful, easy addition to my website. We'll see how it goes. If any of you have used Pay Pal on your sites I would love your advice and comments. Thank you!

Big News!

Cara and I both received news that we will be in the Ella Sharp Museum Statewide juried show. I'm so excited to be in a juried show with my daughter! Her sculpture of me twirling got in, and my Farmscape dyptich was accepted.

Here is a copy of portions of the email that I received :) Hooray!

We would love to see you at the reception.

Dear Julia,
Congratulations! Your piece Farmscape was selected for the Statewide Fine
Arts Competition. We look forward to it being on display from January
16-March 20, 2010! Please keep these dates in mind;
Jan. 16, 2010—Opening reception for artists and guests,
(2-4pm, awards at 3pm)

Blog Wordle

I wordled my blog :) It made me see which words I overuse- great!

new cool site to check out... Wordle

Jackson Civic Art Association

Mary, Mary Lou, and I went to the Jackson Civic Art Association tonight. Very nice demo by a water color artist tonight!

We signed up to be members :) I did the family membership since Cara will want to be involved too. We also signed up to put up pics in some exhibits.

It will be nice to be involved in Jackson.

We also got a little painting in tonight...

MAEA Conference in Kzoo

MAEA Conference in Kalamazoo this year! I went to some great workshops, great museums and galleries! Saw old friends, made new friends! Saw the awesome new art facilities at WMU! Entered 2 pieces in the member's show across from the Radisson- 100 w. michigan - it will be up for a month. This band was great! They not only sang and played guitar- they were artists and performed a speedpainting! Very impressive!
Got to hear the Guerrilla Girls!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_Girls

Awesome day at the DIA

Just a few of my favorite things at the museum! I couldn't take photos of the Avedon show- but it is up until the beginning of Jan. Don't miss it! It's wonderful! I could spend weeks in this museum- very inspiring!

Halloween Feast! Yum!

Look who's coming to Halloween Dinner...

Drawing of the Halloween Dance

Manistee Artist Workshop

Mary and I loved the Artist Workshop this year! We had the most awesome group of people. I can't get over how hard everyone worked. Everyone produced an incredible amount of work for just one weekend. I loved all the landscapes! We were very inspired by our beautiful surrounding. There is nothing quite like Fall on Lake Michigan. Once again we enjoyed incredible sunsets, and sunshiney weather to walk along the shore. Can't wait until next year!

Jackson Art Walk

We went to an awesome Art Walk today in Jackson. It was unique in that you visited Artists' homes. Thanks to all the artists that were involved! I went with my daughter and my mother-in-law, 3 generations, and we all loved it! Thank you Art Alliance of Jackson!

Arts Alive ArtWalk - Coldwater, MI - The Daily Reporter

Here is a link to an article in a Coldwater paper that covered the ArtWalk that Cara and I participated in on Fri. It was a fun evening! There is a pic of Cara's sculpture of me, and a pic of me with Louise at Northwoods...

Arts Alive ArtWalk - Coldwater, MI - The Daily Reporter

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cupcake update

almost done!

Cupcakes in Progress

Tuesday nite, paint nite! Cupcakes in progress!

Flash

Flash was a well loved hunting dog. I had the privilege of painting a portrait in memory of him. He had quite a personality! Here are the final paintings.

What a sweet mother and daughter team! It was fun getting to paint pictures for this wonderful family!

Head shot of "sisters"

I was just looking through old pictures and thought I would post this one so you could see it. This was at the opening of the Heirloom Love show in Lansing. I'm not sure who took this photo, but it's a neat view of Cara's sculpture "Sisters".

New photos

I just had photos taken of some of my paintings. I think Steve did a great job with the photos! We set up in our garage, and there were a lot of shots to take- he was very patient. It was rainy, hot, and muggy... Jamie was there to help too. Thanks goodness! It was a lot of carrying paintings in and out of the house and attic.

This is 1 of 4 paintings that go together. I started the paintings in Destin Fl. I think I showed them at the beginning, but never showed any final product...

Vase with Pink Flowers

This is one of the paintings in my Summer Flower series. I have posted the paintings in another blog. See the link on the right. All paintings are for sale for $200 each. I love doing these paintings- I do them all in one sitting, and they are on unstretched, gessoed canvas. I use more of my drawing style. I use lots of thin layers of paint, and I draw over the top with "sharpies" and paint on my liner brush.

Perrysburg Show

If you are anywhere near Perrysburg, Ohio stop in to see my work at the Municipal Building!  We just hung the show and it looks great!  It's all farm scenes and flowers.  My Summer Flower series is in the hallways of a building next door.  The women from the Art Council were wonderful! Sandra and Robin were so helpful and gracious.  

Perrysburg is just south of Toledo.  The Art Council has a lot of things going on!  They are really promoting the arts in this town!  They have a great sculpture exhibit along the river right now. 

booth pictures

Here are a couple of pictures of my booth at A2 Summer Art Fair. Thanks to Jamie, Mary, Cara, and Jena for all the work setting up! and to Jamie, Mary and Ned for tearing down! I could never do this by myself!

I had a great time. I met so many interesting people, there were over 500,000 people at the art fair- from all over the world! I really appreciated my friends that came to see me at my booth, that meant a lot to me. There was a lot of interest in my work, and great comments... I was especially pleased to have so many painters stop in for a look. I enjoyed chatting with everyone. It was inspiring! You all made my first solo Art Fair a success!

A2 Art Fair

It has been a great experience to be in the Ann Arbor Art Fair! Everyone has been so helpful to me, from setting up, bringing me food and water, giving me advice, making sure I have everything I need. So many people have stopped in to see me, I am overwhelmed! I have had great feedback, and have loved meeting so many people. Tomorrow is the last day! It ends at 6, so I hope to meet a lot more people. I really love the location of my booth. I'm across from the Cupcake Station, which I am totally in love with! You have to have the banana pudding there! And I am near the ice cream store! and, for the last 2 nights there have been wonderful banjo and guitar players near my booth. I am soooo lucky! Maybe I'll see you tomorrow...

Ann Arbor Art Fair '09

Today we set up the tent in the backyard, and checked everything out to make sure I'm ready to show my paintings at the Ann Arbor Art Fair. Yesterday J helped me finish framing, C is helping me with printing, and J scanned my newest paintings for me. Tomorrow I have to set up! Wednesday is the first day of the show. It's a long show with long hours. 4 days, early in the morning until late in the evening. Hopefully I will do well! Wish me luck!

sign the guest book

Yesterday my in-laws and some of their friends went to see our art show "Heirloom Love" and the guest book wasn't out.  If you go to the show, please ask at the desk to sign the guestbook!  I'll really want to know you were there.  Thanks so much to all who have gone to see our work.  We appreciate the time you took, and we love your comments!

Heirloom Love, mother-daughter art exhibit

Our show is up, and will continue through July 25th.  I love the museum it is in.  It's the Women's Historical Museum and Hall of Fame in Lansing.  It's in a beautiful old home, and it's surrounded by a gorgeous garden.  It is well worth the visit!

Heirloom Love

 Cara and I have our show next weekend!  The Title is Heirloom Love.  It's a collection of our work.  It's inspired by the bond between mothers and daughters.  We are so fortunate to have each other, and to have the heritage of wonderful mothers, daughters, and grandmothers.  

We are getting our work together and ready to hang this week.  I still have framing to do, and tags to make.  I also want to work on a few paintings a little more.  Hopefully, I'll have time for everything!

going to an Art Show

Today my Student Teacher, and the Intern that was with me in January are having their Senior Art Show.  I'm looking forward to going!  They are both sweet girls, and exceptional artists.  One does acrylic landscapes and the other does mixed media abstract reliefs.  Beautiful work!

My youngest daughter left to go back to school today :(  - but she went with me to see the show when the girls were putting it up, so she got to meet them and see their work.  My oldest is home for the weekend and is going to the show with me today :)

going to an Art Show

Today my Student Teacher, and the Intern that was with me in January are having their Senior Art Show. I'm looking forward to going! They are both sweet girls, and exceptional artists. One does landscapes and the other does mixed media abstracts

week 2 for 4 generations of women

good start...

tues nite

these aren't great pictures, but it gives you an idea of what I got done tonight. The tractor is painted according to the paper with the grayscale. It's going to be part of a mural. There will be 100 paintings that will form a grid and create a bigger picture. It will be unveiled in May. We had to do something with a rural theme.

The quilt pictures are 4 I am working on right now. I have the colors pretty well blocked in...

new mother-daughter paintings

4 new paintings started.  The idea behind them is that a Mother-Daughter relationship changes with age, there are "seasons" to the relationship.  I'll post pictures soon.

writing statements and taping today

C is home and we are trying to get our writing done for the art show!  We got one statement done yesterday.  We need to be done by 3, because I have to start cooking for the Super Bowl Party!  Yeah!  Maybe she can tape after everything is in the oven.  She has to get at least one figure done.

for May 3

C. and I have a lot to do for the May show!  But, this is fun!  I guess May 3rd is  I spent most of Tues. nite painting night making a Dick Blick order.  M. and I both needed paint, and I ordered stretcher bars. -big stretcher bars-  It costs a small fortune... if you paint, you know what I mean.  Those little tubes of paint, on sale, are $$$$$, and I go through them too fast.  M. zips through orange, and I zip through Prussian Blue.  It should come soon.  Hopefully I can get it stretched, gessoed, and sketched before next Tues.  

By the way, at school I've had a wonderful intern all of Jan.  She's going to make a great teacher.  I hope she gets a job right away.  Some school is going to be lucky to get her.  My student teacher starts Mon.  so, I will have both of them for 2 days!  I already know my student teacher, as she was one of my interns last year.  She's so enthusiastic, and she's good with the kids, and she's a talented artist.  It's going to be a great semester, we're going to have fun!

slow progress

I think they're getting close to being done!  This has taken a long time...