Art and ideas for creative living
The changing of the calendar can be fraught with good intentions turned sour when the implications of the must-do new goals interfere with our joy of living. But when sprinkled with creativity goals can become actual joy rather than drudgery. This concept of joie de vivre (joy of life) while making change is not a… Continue reading Experiencing joy while making change
Merry Christmas eve and happy winter solstice! As we dive deep into these dark winter days Dave and I live by twinkly light to remind us of springtime yet to come. It lights our spirits and helps keep our creative spirits alive. Part of my winter tradition is to light the exterior of our property… Continue reading Decking the halls and the walls and the tiniest of details. PART FOUR FINAL: Outside
Although we do more "living" in the rest of the house, this largest of our rooms is where our grandest Christmas tree and more over-the-top decorations live in this winter holiday season. The colors of our majolica collection in this room give a jumping off point for some unusual Christmas color themes, always, however, coordinating… Continue reading Decking the halls and the walls and the tiniest of places. PART THREE: the Living Room and hall
The center of our home is both literally and figuratively the kitchen. Besides being in the studio, the kitchen is my most favorite place to be. It's here where my creative nature takes hold and blend color and flavor to tickle our taste buds and add ceremony to our lives. In our reproduction Cape-style home… Continue reading Decking the halls and the walls and the tiniest of places. PART TWO: the center of the home
This year has been the year of birds in our household. David placed some of his charcoal-burnt-out bowls into my garden obliques to hold bird seeds. And what started as one small feeder has turned into many multi-stationed towers creating a live museum with birds of all sorts and a near full-time job for him.… Continue reading Decking the halls and the walls and the tiniest of places. PART ONE: The Keeping Room.
When I sell a piece of art I am grateful for the opportunity to go to my client’s home and hang it for them. The best height, the most flattering grouping around it, the lighting and the color on the wall behind it all go towards making the work look its best. And, in turn,… Continue reading How (and where) to hang your art; 5 tips
Artists are a solo batch by nature. We need solitude to create, we work in a vacuum and are mostly unaware—or don’t care—about what goes on around us. Yet we have a need for ourselves and our art to be understood, so we ‘put ourselves out there’. But the sensitive process of doing so often… Continue reading Understanding an Artist
It’s not a new concept. Plein Air painters have been sitting in gardens and painting them for centuries. However, using the shapes and colors of the garden as a jumping off point to assemble something entirely new is a different way of looking at them for inspiration. For me it all about shapes and colors.… Continue reading Painting from the garden
I have been teaching the art of fabric painting for most of the last 20 years. Categorized as Surface Design, the popular trend has been to create interesting manipulations of color on cloth that could then be sewn or layered into other finished works such as quilts or wall hangings. But painted fabric has many… Continue reading Fabric painting basics
Lucky green, plucky lime and sassy sage, March is all about green. And so apparently is this entire year according to those universal home-interior color experts. All paint manufacturers have chosen a shade of green as their color of the year. And with good reason. Green is the color of calm, that calm that… Continue reading Living with Green
Those of us who sew and quilt know about fabric scrap piles. They build up on the side of the cutting table where, after eventually toppling on to the floor, they are removed to some other safe place where we save them in case we will find a way to use them. But how many… Continue reading Note cards from fabric scrap collage
In my opinion, the only thing that separates everyday cooking from epicurean restaurant fare is the layering of flavors. That is to say, that the mouth-watering, sense-inspiring mystery of a well prepared dish is that it includes many, many flavors added bit by bit to create an entirely new flavor. In high cuisine those flavors… Continue reading Cooking with Condiments
No doubt the kitchen is the center of our home and this time of year is self-decorated with all the specialties of the season. The stove top starts our day with fresh-ground, slow dripped coffee, in-between is baking bread & hand-prepping meals then ends at the butcher block with the pouring of a day-clearing beverage.… Continue reading Decking the halls. PART THREE: the Center of the Home.
The Keeping Room. A term from the 18th century that refers to the room nearest the warmth of the cook-in fireplace where the family activities took place. The is the room where David and I start and end each day, over coffee in the morning and a "beverage" each evening just before dinner. So this… Continue reading Decking the halls. PART TWO: The Keeping Room
Continuing the tradition...What started as creative entertainment for myself during an isolated Christmas in 2020, recording my Christmas decorations through this blog turned out to be a way to share the holiday with family and friends afar. So, again, enjoy this years inspired journey in 4 installments to see what my I can come up… Continue reading Decking the halls and the walls and the tiniest of places. PART ONE: Outside
To create a work of art through another person’s Minds Eye is a difficult process. Understanding what a patron means when they try to describe a finished piece is tricky, when they themselves use a different “language” than the artist. They are, after all, asking the artist to do something that they themselves cannot do.… Continue reading The Anatomy of a Commission
Although it is officially fall here in the Northeast, we have not had a frost yet so the vegetable garden is still running its course. And if your garden is like most long-run gardens, you may have found yourself with some forgotten, very large and very tough zucchini. I came up with this unique idea… Continue reading Putting away summer’s end; Zarmalade
We continue to challenge ourselves, this Pandemic-driven virtual artist's group and myself. While much of our country seems to be headed towards opening up, we still have been meeting on-line inspiring each other to make art. Here’s the idea: we each have taken responsibility for a particular part to the challenge—color, shape, material, emotion, finish—and… Continue reading The Artist’s Challenge: April
Friends from afar, my COVID group of artists has continued to meet via ZOOM and stimulate each other to stay creative. Our monthly challenge project has proven to be a perfect foil for any stale thinking; we are all from different disciplines so our individual input pushes each other to “think outside the box”. Here’s… Continue reading The Artist’s Challenge: March
We met only once. Then the Pandemic hit. But so committed to our ArtistsU process, we continued to meet virtually for the next 6 months… then continued for an entire year. Encouragers, sound-boarders, jump-starters and as friends scattered over the whole state of New Hampshire, we are now going into our second year of challenging… Continue reading The Artist’s Challenge; February