Keuka Art Festival - A successful weekend

What a beautiful weekend I had at the Keuka Arts Festival in Penn Yan, NY!  Even though we had to set up in a rain storm, and we had to tear down in another rain storm that actually lead to flash flooding....during the festival itself we had beautiful sunny skies and wonderful turn out!  Check out the beautiful scenery I had all weekend!

That's my tent with the dog painting on the outside:)

I brought with me my new "The Swing" picture book, some new prints from the book and from my other picture book artwork, and some new paintings.  Here's a look...

The Swing was a big hit at the show!  Not sure if it was the candy that I lured the children in with (heeheehee) or the artwork itself!  But I was so pleased with the many parents who stopped to look at the book.  The older parents and grandparents who were familiar with the poem by Robert Louis Stevenson, enjoyed my interpretation of his words, while the younger parents who were not familiar with the poem, seemed charmed by it and my "reintroducing" the poem to a new generation of children!  They also really appreciated that I am continuing to contributing 50% of the proceeds of the sale of the book to the organization Feed My Starving Children.  It's such a great cause and I love that I can do something positive with my art.

Sales of the book were good and many people were excited to see that I am working on a new picture book as well.  They said they would come back next year to see it so count on me being at the Keuka Arts Festival next year.  I also picked up several new little fans, two of them are pictured below.  I love the little girl with her feet in the air:)  

All in all a great weekend!  Thank you Keuka Arts Festival organizers.  Can't wait for my next show!  I'll be in East Aurora at the East Aurora Art Society Fine Arts Festival on June 27 - 28, and then in Rochester at the Cornhill Arts Festival on July 11-12, 2015.  Hope to see you there!

Keuka Arts Festival Preparation

Summer kicks off art festival season!  I am participating in four fabulous art shows this summer to promote my children's picture book The Swing and to sell my art.  The first one is this weekend - the Keuka Arts Festival in Penn Yan, NY.  This is a wonderful festival in the heart of the Finger Lakes along an outlet of Keuka lake.

So this week I have been preparing for the festival.  I ordered prints of my artwork from The Swing and also from my "as of yet, not released" Five Hungry Mice picture book.  They are all signed and numbered and cellophane wrapped.  I have also been putting the finishing touches on a few new paintings that I will debut at the art show.  A series of little girl dresses and some sweet ducks.  Here are some sneak peaks of what I will be bringing...

Boxes of artwork are piling up inside my studio...

And piles of tents, walls, and supplies are piling up in my garage....

I will be promoting my book The Swing as well as selling prints that I have made of my favorite illustrations...

Plus some new work!

My new studio is working out great for preparing for the art shows.  There is room for me to lay my work out and curate it.  I also have space for two easels, so I have two paintings in process on them as well as one on my desk.  My husband just made me a new work bench that is nice and high so I can stand at it and cut mat boards or fix hangers to the back of my paintings without having to bend over to the floor, like I was doing before:)  So happy with my new space!  This show season is going to be great!  Hope to see you there!

A Season of Goodbyes

This spring has been one of tremendous change for me and in hind sight I realize that I am going through a "season of goodbyes".  Some are very sad and others are more hopeful, but sad or hopeful I have found that they have left me with a deep feeling of sadness and melancholy.

It started with the passing of my father on April 13, 2015.  He lost his battle to cancer after many valiant years of fighting it.  My mother, sister and I were with him in the end, and although we knew he would pass from this retched disease, it was still a difficult goodbye.  How do you summarize the impact someone like a father has on a life?  I can't, but he has been on my mind every day since.  When I returned home I had to say goodbye to my Golden Retriever Buddy.  Buddy, a good natured and playful 7 year old dog, was involved in an incident where he could not keep his teeth to himself and bit a young boy who had come over to our house to play with my son.  While the family of the boy said we did not need to get rid of Buddy, for the safety of all children who would come by to play at our house with my children, we had to give Buddy away.  I miss his greetings every time I pull into my driveway.  During this same time frame I announced that I had accepted a new job teaching at St. Bonaventure University and would be saying goodbye at graduation to all my friends at Villa Maria College where I was currently teaching.  My new opportunity at St. Bonaventure is a wonderful one and I am so excited to be joint a great team of educators who are dedicated to their student's learning.  But my great opportunity comes with having to say goodbye to students with whom I had developed wonderful relationships.   I also had to say goodbye to faculty whom I have taught with for the past 10 years, and hardest of all I had to say goodbye to my best friend, confidant, and colleague Mollie.  She and I started together at Villa and have worked side-by-side every day since.  We weathered ups and downs at the college and cheered each other on.  We improved our program dramatically and just when it looks like we will reap the rewards of our hard work, I have to go and leave.  I'm sorry Mollie:(

So with all of these feelings and thoughts rattling around inside of me I decided to do a painting to express my sadness.  I was inspired by Matt Dixon's robot series which I found on Pinterest.

He shows such emotion in each robot and I love emotive paintings.  I have painted robots before so I thought I would try my had at a sad robot.  Because AAU has taught me so well, I knew that I could not attempt this painting without some sort of reference, and not wanting to copy other's work I decided to make my own robot and pose him for the painting.  This way I could control the pose, the light, and make sure I was accurate with the details and perspective.  You have seen me riffling through my studio for parts.  Then I had to make a trip to Home Depot for paint for the house so I took my son with me and put him on a mission to find robot parts!  We were laughing down every aisle but eventually we found enough pieces between Home Depot and my studio to create my "mini-robot".  Here he is below...  

I decided to paint him in oil on board because it creates a "chalky" look that I like.  I wanted to make him sad but still keep him child-like so I made sure to have some "brighter" colors in the painting, but not too bright.  Now that he is done he needs a name!  Any suggestions?  Comment below with your ideas:)