One Week Down...

I survived the dreaded first week of school with the kiddos. Its always so exhausting. With all of the new lesson plans, teaching the rules, seating charts, schedule changes, and being on my feet all day long. I haven't had much energy at the end of each day for creating anything new. I'm hoping to begin to feel creative soon. I start to feel useless if I'm not working on something! That feeling is beginning to creep up on me...and I don't like it!

Fun Painting!

I am known for how slowly I work on my art. Colored pencils, pen and ink are both very slow processes for me, but I have much better control over those materials. So I think that is why I am 'drawn' to them. But on the other hand, I really admire loose paintings and loose drawings, for that matter. I 'want' to work more loosely! My daughter tells me that "I 'try' too hard, Want it to be 'too perfect'. " So, as I said earlier, she just moved into an apartment, and needed art for her walls. Well after she took some of my art off my walls, she still needed more! So she showed me some styles and subjects that she liked and I said that I would try to paint something for her. Well

I ran out of time before she moved, so I took my acrylic paints with me when we moved her, but even then I just didn't have enough to time to come up with a painting that 'she' could visualize that I could also visualize. So I gave up on creating paintings for her. So when I returned home, I started moving some of my art supplies into her empty bedroom (specifically my paints). So last weekend, I felt especially creative so I went into her room and painted both of these paintings that day! And they are very large paintings, for me. 24"x36" each! But I enjoyed choosing my own color combinations, subject, and slapping some paint here and there, adding some textural medium and really enjoyed the whole process. I managed to break out of that perfectionist mode for the day. I hope to do some more paintings using this style. So right now these paintings are hanging on my previously empty wall (she took another painting that I had done earlier in the same style) and I am really liking the way they look on that wall. But I have listed them in my Etsy shop, so if someone else loves them as much as I do, then I will part with them. If they don't get purchased, I have a feeling that they may disappear when my daughter comes home to visit her empty bedroom! Guess I need to go buy a bed!

Close up of One of the "Flowers in the Vases"
Pair of 2 Large canvases.
Beth S. Macre © 2008

Starts, Stripes & Stitches II

"Stars, Stripes & Stitches"

Beth S. Macre © 2008

15" x 7 1/4"

Colored Pencils on Watercolor Paper

Earlier I did a smaller version of this as a practice piece. I decided that I did want to enlarge it and I just finished it. The earlier version is posted here. This one will be framed and hang in a show in a few months. Now on to start a new project.

Back to School...

My summer break is already over! Teacher in-service started yesterday. Students come back in a week and a half! Where does the summer go? I am grateful to have June and July off, but it sure does go by quickly! Especially if you take any trips or have alot going on. Since I started the summer with the trip to France and ended the summer by moving my daughter, it just seems like it only lasted a few weeks!

I had hoped to get more accomplished with my art, but I did not have as much time as I would have liked. I did do alot of promotion and setting up of my new Etsy shop, so now I hope to start adding some more pieces to my shop. This year will be testing the waters as far as sales go. There are tons of blogs that give wonderful advice on selling, especially for the holidays. I will have to spend some time reading through some of them. Of course, that is more time out of the studio and I really need to spend time this weekend in the studio.

Emptying the Nest

My daughter has recovered from her tonsilectomy...finally! She had a tough couple of weeks, but she is now ready for her next big adventure! She will be moving back to college this weekend! We've done this before (moving her to college) but this one seems to be even more of a big ordeal...getting ready, getting furniture, getting her necessites (that she seems to think are the decorating items). She wants me to paint some large paintings for her living room, so that could be interesting. If it turns out I will post a picture. I will be glad when the move is behind us, but I will miss her, and her Papillion, at home. So my nest will be half empty again. In a year or so, the nest will be empty (probably temporarily so) but it will happen eventually.

Etsy Trade

Last week I mentioned that a lady from Canada contacted me about my Clay Tiles that I list in my Etsy shop. She mentioned that she would like one with her dogs and asked me if I would want to trade. Apparently, there are many artists on Etsy that regularly trade with other artists. So I looked in her shop and liked this painting. Anyway, we agreed to trade, I created the Custom Dog tile that I posted here and sent it off in the mail. I received this painting in the mail yesterday and I am very pleased to get it! I love the painting. I think it is very creative and it is proudly hanging in my home now.

Because of this trade, I also added a listing to my shop for custom orders. So far I haven't had any orders, but I'm just going to try different products and see how it works out.

On a personal note, my daughter had her tonsils out last week, so I have been busy nursing her back to health and getting her ready to move back to college next month. So I will not get much accomplished until after the move. My daughter wants me to paint some things to decorated her walls, but I don't know when that will happen!

Tour of France - West Central

Tours, France
After our visit to the chateau at Versailles, we traveled to Tours, France. Our hotel was more of a traditional old style hotel in France. It had been renovated and updated so although it was very old, it was clean and comfortable, with the exception of the size of our bathroom. In the lobby, the one elevator was the old kind that you have to open the door on the outside and the inside and there was room for only 2 to 3 adults (or one person with several suitcases)!

Dinner in the Village
After we got settled in the hotel, we walked to dinner in the Old part of downtown Tours. In these pictures, you can see the old charming achitecture that is full of cafes, creperies, and shops. Our dinner was at a little restaurant called L'Auberge de Savoie. Its decor looked like a ski lodge. After dinner we walked through the old town looking at the sights...and stopping for ice cream. I don't speak French, but I did manage to order 'Un bule orange' or one scoop of orange sherbet. It helps when you are traveling with a French teacher!