Crashing the Art Bar Birthday party

Chuck and I stopped by the Art Bar this evening to pick up my paintings from the WPA exhibition which ended this last Thursday. Lo and behold they were having a 6th anniversary party of the opening of the Art Bar. Free food, and free choice of wapatuli (fruit juicy but will knock you on your butt), house wine, or beer (Spotted Cow no less)!! Needless to say, I wanted to call all my friends and tell them the good news, but since we were already party crashers, decided to just stay and have a good time with some of the bar regulars such as Darcy, Dan, and Derek. Darcy is a hoot, warm and friendly and funny. She, along with Kara (who bartends), made us feel completely at home. Chuck and I don't usually hang out at bars, but we had such a good time, I want to repeat the experience.


Anyway, after 3 wapatulis, I was having a really, really good time, and Chuck and I were laughing quite a bit.
Then we went next door to "2" and drank the artists' drink of choice..... none other than......the infamous absynthe!!! My face is numb, and now I must go to bed.

Sunset painting

This is the painting I started at the studio last Monday. It doesn't look quite finished to me, so I will add a sailboat or something.

My next sunset will be one with a purple sky. These are just so much fun to paint.

Lorin's Class

This is the sunset I painted in the first class I took with Lorin last week. I just love it's warmth, so I went to the gallery last Monday and painted another one similar to this.

Violas

This is a really fun oil painting I did about a month ago. I just loved the colors--you just can't get a happier color than yellow, particularly when it's been so gray and cold around here. I'm really ready for spring!

Lilacs

How fun is this? I finished this oil painting a few weeks ago. I just love lilacs. Hopefully this year, I will get out and paint some en plein air while they're blooming.

Ahnna's Portrait

So here's the latest version of Ahnna's portrait. She has eyes now and a mouth, and even 1 hand! Lorin was very good at guiding me in the painting of her face, and I'm thrilled with the way it's coming along.

Yesterday, I finished an acrylic portrait of my son-in-law Nate with my grandson Julian. It turned out okay, but the photos didn't work, for some reason. I will have to take more and then upload maybe tomorrow.

Had a really good art week. I finished the portrait of Nate and Julian, painted a mini sunset, and finished Ahnna's face. Life is good.

Oil painting class

My first class with Lorin Willey was a blast! He’s so energetic and enthusiastic about sharing his painting knowledge! I took a small canvas and a pretty simple sunset to do because I didn’t know what to expect, but was bowled over by his energy and teaching style. What’s best is that he is teaching everyone to develop and paint in their own method, not his method. Sooooo cool. So now when I paint, I don’t have to ask myself “what would Fred or Jim do, I just have to make the decision based on my own knowledge, or lack thereof. Or I could ask myself what advice I think Lorin would give at this moment.


So now I’m really looking forward to the next class. Would like to start a larger project, but have to go through my photos first to see what “grabs” me. Should probably tint a canvas or 2 while I’m at the studio tonight too.


The Martini Girls Salon had an opening this last Sunday at the gallery in St. Mark’s Episcopal Church on the east side, but we really didn’t do any business. I think it’s because we really didn’t do any PR or marketing for the event. I can’t even remember if I put it on Facebook. Well….next time.

Martini Girls Spring Show

The Martini Girls Art Salon is having their spring exhibition titled “Spring Something On Me” at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church gallery starting on Sunday, March 7. Thank goodness, I only have 1 oil painting that still needs to be framed. It’s a still life of lilacs. Mmmmmmm…..lilacs! It should be a really nice show with a lot of variety.


I had my grandniece and grandnephew over on the weekend, along with my 3 grandchildren, so quite a houseful. I was having a wonderful time doing some collage with the girls, and they really liked their finished pieces. At the end of the weekend, I felt like I could barely move, I was so exhausted! Maybe I should have gone for a walk or something. So instead of doing all the computer stuff that I had intended to do after the kids left, Chuck and I sat down and watched the Olympic hockey game, and of course, now I feel that I really should have worked on the things that can only be done on the computer at home, instead of pushing it off until this evening.