Showing posts with label Ketchum. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ketchum. Show all posts

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Nothing Like a Pretty Day for Some Inspiration

Everything looks better with snow on it.

While entertaining family from out of state we went to visit Sun Valley ID and had a great time walking around. We visited some wonderful galleries...you may have seen these  three sculptures on my Facebook page whom all seem to be enjoying playing in the snow.



 We also snowshoed, skied, shopped and had some great meals. I always make it a special point to visit the wonderful contemporary galleries in Ketchum. One of the galleries I went into  had a large encaustic painting hanging above a lit fireplace which was quite warm. I asked the woman in the gallery about the placement of the painting above the fire and if there was any problems with that and her response was "Well, that would be quite irresponsible of us now, wouldn't it?" Nothing like making a person feel dumb to encourage a sale! Despite that, it was a wonderful show!

If I'm going to Die, I'm Going to Have Some Fun. (One of my pieces in Text Messages)
Unfortunely we got back to town too late to attend the opening of a local show Text Messages that I have 2 pieces of art in. This exhibition will continue through April 5th. I saw many of the pieces while the show was being hung and was very impressed with the caliber of work. The theme of the show was that the piece was to contain some text.

Monday, November 21, 2011

10 Days in a Snow Globe

I love it when random things fit together. This tin fits in part of this ipod holder and this random dollhouse drawer fits in the other. My next major project is going to be a series of secret places, drawers and compartments. 

Random new cards
 My husbands new job is teaching Wilderness Medicine classes. All of them to date have been to places that you have to fly to. This last class (10 days) was in Ketchum, Idaho (Sun Valley) ...which is only a 2 1/2 hour drive from home. So I got to tag along! Such a beautiful setting. I brought my mountain bike, hiking boots and A LOT of art supplies. In previous posts I have talked about weighing my art kit down to ounces for backpacking trips and camping trips, well this time we were bringing the truck...so I took advantage and filled the truck!

I called ahead to the hotel and asked about accommodations. They are in their "slack" time right now before the holidays, so they upgraded me to a suite for NO EXTRA CHARGE! When we brought Bill's co-instructor up to the room to show him some of the items I was working on, he told me the next night that he called an artist friend of his and told them that my studio space in the hotel room was larger than her regular studio.

It seemed a lot less stressful than being at home. I got to create all day and break it up with a hike in the snow over to the one thrift store in town for inspiration and even found an office/art supply store. I was looking for a razor blade, which they don't sell and the owner gave me his box cutter at no charge. So I bought some mediums from him. Black Gesso, Gold Acrylic and Impasto.


 This was one of the items I brought with me. It was broken on one end. I had also brought along an unpainted wooden candlestick holder. I snapped off the broken end and it fit in the candle holder perfectly. I painted it to match, and set it on a round piece of wood.
 Then on one of my trips to the "Gold Mine" I found the perfect base and something to go in that base. Finished photos to follow in another blog post.

 Some boxes showing all the little bits and pieces I brought with me.

Working on projects on the hotel coffee table.

"Christmas Spoon"

view through our balcony


Works in progress

Another view through our balcony

playing around with some miscellaneous pieces...nothing solid yet.
Some ephemera for a custom piece...Chicago Cats....

The finished piece, or so I thought. Found out the cat is a male and is still alive,  so I need to remove the pink bauble and words saying "she was always happy" and remove the trumpet. So I have some more to do on this one. Finished result will be in a future blog.

Besides making art all week, I also got to do a 24 mile bike ride before the snow hit and then hiked 2- 10 miles every day. It was cold but beautiful and sunny.