Making Art in a Secluded Winter Cabin

The lovely view from the table were I was making my art!

 My husband and I were invited up to a cabin for the week. The men were going to go back country ski and do manly stuff and the women were going to go into town and shop and eat and do women stuff.

Well right before we left I found out that the woman of the house was sick and would not be coming up until later in the week, so as an after thought I packed 2 bags of art stuff. Glad I did. She did not make it up at all and neither did the other woman.

I cross-country skied on the lake everyday and saw an eagle and a fox.

 So as the men drove off every day, I was left to my own devises! With no distractions such as a computer or people, I had hours of uninterrupted time which I put to good use. Below are the five projects I made...

Horse Racing- found object assemblage 5 1/2" x 51/2"

Bright Beautiful Butterflies Mixed Media-5 1/2" x 7"

The Long Horn State- Mixed Media/found object 5" x 5"

 Around this time I started running out of substrates (a layer that underlies something). So I had to get creative...I went outside but everything was covered in snow...except for the wood pile and there I found this shard of wood which reminded me of something from a shipwreck and then I even went digging in the grand kids toy box and found this shark. (I still have to confess taking this and risk not being invited back)

I had brought my baggies of alphabet pieces so I could pull the piece together. The starfish, seashell and scuba tank were all in the S bag. The card on the left under the shark, is a little ATC I made onto part of a cardboard box of noodles I found in the recycling bin.

SCUBA found object 9" x 4"

For the next piece I used a piece of a map and a page from a dictionary as the substrate and made a collage. It is a weird size, so I think I am going to find a frame from my stash and so it may change a little.

17 Postcards from Peru 81/2" x 9"

So even though it was not the week I thought it would be, I had a great time and made a lot of art! I did take lots of photos and will go into more detail on some of these pieces in future blogs.

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.