Organizing for teaching my upcoming class

I'm buying easels which were on sale just before Christmas in anticipation of holding a serious beginner oil painting class at my home starting in mid-March and shopping for some other supplies as well.  I found out that my plan to advertise in the local newspapers will be financially out-of-sight.  Now it seems that flyers distributed in the area and word of mouth will have to do the trick.  I hope it works.
The flyer will give my phone number for anyone interested to call and discuss details.  978-273-3496.
I hope to have a serious beginner class in the morning and a non-beginner class in the afternoon.  The focus will be on learning and discovery in both classes.  By all means, please spread the word, thank you in advance.

Motif No. 1 Rockport MA

I'm reading the new book that is a tell-all about the sweet old fishing shack in Rockport that has put Rockport on the map, sort of speak, with tourists and provides a new understanding for me about how Rockport got to be an art colony.  It also gives me a close-up, personal view of the lives of some of those early artists that have become household names here in the area. I highly recommend it.

Lully's Series Class

I'm signed up to work with Lully Schwatz to do a series of paintings.  She likes to paint in the large format and that's what I'm planning to do because while I was organizing my supplies, I realized I had a lot of large canvases. I love to paint large and haven't done that for a while, so it should be a lot of fun.  My ideas require me to take photos at sunset or sunrise, well, I haven't been able to do that yet, either slept late or there was no sun, and it get's dark so early, it's hard to realize at 3:15 that I should run out and take a sunset photo.

Ordered easels for classes

I took advantage of the Jerry's Artarama sale and bought 4 easels for the classes I am planning for March.

Framing-hanging my collection

I painted my stairway, hallway and dining room walls and finally framed and hung my personal art collection.  And my husband bought me a painting for Christmas.  I just love looking at all my beautiful paintings.  I never realized how satisfying it is to be able to look at one's own art collection.  Now I know what people mean when they say, "don't buy it if you don't love it".

This week in my studio.

I cleaned, organized, uncluttered, revamped, etc. my studio--just about every inch.  I built on to my vertical storage unit, ordered frames, a lighting system for taking photos, and shopped for classroom/studio furniture for the classes I will start giving in the early spring.  In the meantime, a friend gave me 10 years (at least) worth of International Artist (my favorite) magazines and I've had little sleep with all the reading I am compulsively doing.  It was better than Christmas receiving these magazines. I'm also deep into writing my book on Beginner Oil Painting, which will probably never get finished, but it will be a great help with my course syllabus.

I had oral surgery the day before Thanksgiving and ripped my stitches and got an infection, so I have still been busy as you can see, all things considered.

I've been running into friends since I'm hanging in the Sage Art Gallery, Haverhill, MA.

Sage Gallery--up and running

top left painting

Pardon the confusion, but I took these photos while the paintings were on the floor as I was arranging them for hanging at the gallery.  It was a busy day, bringing them there, hanging them, running to Newburyport to enter a couple of paintings for the Holiday Show there--Newburyport Art Association, until January 2nd.  Then I had to run to my dentist and tomorrow I'll be visiting a specialist about an old root canal that is acting up.  I did work on a spreadsheet for inventorying my artwork and will be inserting some data today to see how it will work.  As easy as Picasa is, I manage to goof it up.  I had to edit these photos in Photoshop's Elements for some reason.  Photos are my nemesis.   

Entering the Sage Gallery in Haverhill MA

I have a lot to do today to pack up and deliver 8 paintings to this new gallery in downtown Haverhill (136 Washington Street, just under the railroad underpass, parking in the back in a large public lot).  It opened last week and has demos scheduled with very good artists--the first of which was Judy Pumfrey last Wednesday.  You may enjoy watching an accomplished artist paint and talk about painting.  See the website for details.

The opening reception will be this Friday, the 18th.

  Link to Sage Art Gallery

Mural Pictures

There is a before photo here as well as a few photos of after--to show the finished painting of the walls.  There is a dog fence that has a very hard commercial finish to it, which could have been prepped and primed and painted to disappear, but we decided to do a snow fence and tie the fence in with the design instead. 

The main entryway is below and these stairs lead to the family room.  The mural is on this stairway from the front entrance to the family room.  The rather simple fade design faces the entry door before ascending the stairs.  There is a birdhouse on the snow fence with a chickadee on it as well as one in flight.

Mural Completed Tuesday

I couldn't work on Monday because on Sunday I was dizzy all day and was reluctant to work on ladders on Monday--probably an oncoming cold.  Tuesday I worked until it was finished, around 3 p.m.  I didn't bring my camera so will have to post the finished photos later on this week.  Because painting the swinging gate that is attached to the wall wasn't going to work out well without a lot of surface preparation, I decided to work it into the design by painting a snow fence behind it which somehow helped the gate to blend into the painting better.  Customer wanted Chicadees so I included a bird house and two Chicadees.  The customer also likes red and pink flowers so I included these as well to tie in with her red chair in the adjoining room.  The simpler tree design at the entry was done to blend the entry area with the stairway area mural. 

The overall effect of the mural opens up the living area in a cheerful way and expands the feeling of space.

Nope, not done yet.

I got to that point where I should stop and I did.  I'd guess that I'll need another day for this part, and I appraised the ladder situation for the part around the corner, and if I can get a ladder, I might even finish that part in the same day.  I'm busy now until Monday and then only have a half day to work on the mural, so it might go into Tuesday.  Oh yes, and then I have to add birds, so Tuesday looks like a good goal to wrap up the job.

Wall Mural should be done today.

This is the third day of working on this wall mural commission.  I will put up photos later today or tomorrow.  I downloaded Picasa yesterday and I think it will be a lifesaver for me.  The only photo software that I had that was still working was Photoshop and believe it or not it does have some limitations.

The third pump painting is also underway and, hopefully, I'll work on it on Saturday.  I had additional electric plugs installed in my studio and had to move everything away from one long wall, so now I have to put it all away and will take the time to sort through and reorganize and clean, so Saturday will be productive and therapeutic.

Another pump painting--in the series

I finished another painting yesterday in the pump series.  This series is inspired by a native of West Newbury who has fond memories of the town common where her grandmother used to live.  It has an old-fashioned water pump, probably was used for horses, and a memorial to veterans. I'm having trouble posting photos.  I'm only using Photoshop and the photos that I originally took in a vertical format post sideways.  I downloaded Picasa today and maybe that will help.

Today I started a mural and got the drawing done and some color tests.  Tonight I'll try to prepare some paint.  If that doesn't work out, I may go to Home Depot tomorrow morning and get some samples.  I did take some photos before and now during, so I'll post them when I get a chance to load them up on Picasa.

I may even finish the project tomorrow as long as the paint colors work out.

MoCA was great!

I'm just home from a sunny drive through great autumn scenery to North Adams and Williamstown.  We had an unexpected detour because Route 2 wasn't.  The hurricane washed a lot of it away and we never heard about it. www.massmoca.org was much better than I thought it would be.  Williams College Museum of Art and The Clark were also wonderful to see even though there were some exhibits that were closed.  My friend, Lynn Murray, and I ate at Spiceroot, an Indian restaurant in Williamstown, very delicious, highly recommended and it was.  We stopped in both directions to eat at the Wagon Wheel in Gill, MA.  Another great eatery.  So was this an art trip or an eating trip?  So I'm home after approx. 400 miles of traveling the by-ways.  We both took lots of photos.

Museum weekend

I'm excited to be leaving for a great weekend of driving through gorgeous autumn scenery and checking out museums I have been waiting to see for a long time.  Also the electrician has finally shown up and added lots of "juice" to my studio, of course, I spent a big chunk of time moving stuff so he could access the walls and now I'll have to "clean" and rearrange everything.  It's a good thing.

West Quoddy Lighthouse, Lubec, Maine

West Quoddy Lighthouse, Lubec, Maine

This 8x10" painting was previously done on site, updated last week and sold to Ron and Jan Deveau.  This spot in Lubec is where the sun first hits the United States in the morning.  The area around Lubec is very picturesque and I have lots of reference photos from which I plan to paint. 

I was all set today to work on my second painting of the West Newbury Common when the electrician came.  I've been waiting for him for a long time.  He decided that he wanted to start with the work in my studio, adding wall plugs and running wires all over the house.  So I think I'll try to get some work done on organizing my photos so I can find them and also doing some backups--necessary stuff that I never want to do.

West Newbury Green

Commission for Priscilla Flynn

This is the painting of the West Newbury Common Pump that I just completed last night.  I am working on another version looking in the opposite direction towards the monument with the pump in the foreground.

Two for Two at Newburyport Art Association

My Right Foot - Mixed Media 24x36" on canvas w/floating frame

Good news, the Newburport Art Association Fall Members Juried Show II accepted my two entries:

Mary	Pyche	Right Foot Forward	Mixed Media
Mary	Pyche	Life Has Its Moments	Photography

The jpg of the mixed media painting doesn't look clear enough, sorry.  

Degas Nudes at MFA

I spent the day today at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston mainly to see the Degas show but spent time in other parts of the museum and took lots of photos of "people at the museum" for future paintings.  My art friend Dale Prentiss Green and long time friend Ed Lemay were with me.  I also brought my finished painting of the lighthouse "West Quoddy" to it's new owner tonight.  I wasn't able to paint today and I'm disappointed about that, but I did work late last night on the two paintings of West Newbury's common with the old fashioned pump.

How about true confessions?

I'm doing this blog to force myself to confess daily what ART I've done that day.  I'm working daily these days and can't promise myself a daily painting, well, I could, but probably won't.  I don't really want to put myself in that tight a routine yet, and it might happen as a result of my work ethic, but I'm cleaning up old promises to myself and others.  I'm painting every day, sometimes all day, and like the walking regiment I started over a year ago, I'm letting myself do it without "pushing" myself too hard.  I'm somewhat compulsive or competitive and when I push too much, too fast, it gets overwhelming and I stop.  I found with walking that I do what I can, I enjoy it, then I keep doing it. 

There is a lot of art related work that I have on my plate, and I'm going to chip away at it, like teach art (which requires lots of preparation that I need to do), fix my web site (which requires tons of time on the computer), bookkeeping my art (which requires setting up systems to record everything, like deadlines, sold work, photographing work, organizing materials, flyers, etc.) get ready for shows (which requires all the the previous plus producing work that is cohesive--I have 2 shows in the works).

Today I'm delivering 2 pieces of art to Newburyport Art Association for entry into the juried show, Part II, which is not for oil painting so I'll put in a mixed media piece and a photography piece.  The photography piece was rejected at Newburyport a year ago, but it received an "Honorable Mention" at the Rockport Contributors Show shortly afterwards.  Was I surprised?  I was just hoping it would get in!

I've been working on a painting that I sold last week that needed a little more work, and yesterday I completed it, framed, wired, etc. and took a photo.  It's the West Quoddy Lighthouse in Lubec, Maine.  Yesterday I also worked on a painting of the public common and pump in West Newbury, Mass.  This one is for Priscilla Flynn.  I did drawings and gouache studies and she picked one and her friend, Ted, picked another, so I'll do both of them and see which one they take.