Art by Lee Ann Petropoulos

Do as I say, not as I do….

noreply@blogger.com (Lee Ann) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:16:00 +0000

I am nothing if not a rule breaker. Rule flaunter, even. The key to doing this successfully is to: 1) understand the risks you take, and 2) be at peace with the potential consequences.

So here is today’s situation…I have an end table that I picked up at a garage sale a couple of years ago. I didn’t like it, but I needed another one and it was solid wood and cheap. I thought it might grow on me, but it never really did. It’s just a bit too large for the space, and it has no shelves or drawers.

We have just moved into a new house and it has a wonderful deck, part of which is under a large overhang of the roof. I have an old rocking chair that I have been intending to refurbish and set outside, and this end table would be a perfect accompaniment. The chair is the one my grandmother used to rock me in when I was a baby (aw!!) so even though it was badly in need of a new paint job and had no seat, the sentimental value meant I would willingly put the work into it rather than find another.

I chose a periwinkle blue for the chair, and as you can see I have started reweaving a seat for it. I have done this on some old ladder back chairs from years ago using natural jute. I loved the look, but they didn’t last as long as I would like. So this time I’m using poly twine (also because it will stay outside). I will put an outdoor cushion on it too.

I decided that since the table will be under the large overhang and likely not get wet (it is also leeward – the rain generally comes from the other direction) I would paint it to match and mosaic the top. Yes, even though you should NEVER mosaic wood for use outdoors. (As per the first paragraph: 1) I risk the wood swelling and popping off the tiles, and 2) I expect to get several years of use out of it first, and when it’s a goner I’ll accept that.)

I do want to point out that if I were making this table for sale I would ABSOLUTELY NOT use wood.

As for design, I’m using a rug I snagged at the Dollar Store as inspiration. It looks very 70s to me. I’ll probably keep the same color scheme as the rug.

And the drawing:

Technorati Tags: mosaic table,70s design,rule breaking,mosaicing on wood

Totally phoning it in.

noreply@blogger.com (Lee Ann) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 00:38:00 +0000

I have internet again! Real internet – not that fake crap you get on a smart phone. The kind that allows me to find my photos, type like a bat out of hell, and post meaningless stuff all over the interwebs.

However, you can thank the brilliant mosaic artist Linda Smith for saving you from meaningless stuff today, because she shared her secrets for shading grout on a mosaic piece. I couldn’t describe it any better, and besides, she’s done all the hard work for me.

Click on the picture to fly on over to her blog and see her process for grouting this lovely piece.

I’m now settling in to my new home in Tennessee, and hopefully I’ll have some new work of my own to share with you very soon.

Let me apologize in advance….

noreply@blogger.com (Lee Ann) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 15:43:00 +0000

There’s a fine line between copying someone else’s artwork, and making your own interpretation of a theme. And I don’t mean to imply that I have walked that fine line this time. I totally copied. And I’m sorry. Really.

My son is 24, and still a kid at heart. Always will be, and that’s a big part of his charm. One of the things that tickles him is the Homestar Runner cartoons. Homestar, his girlfriend Marzipan, a Mexican wrestler named Strong Bad, The Cheat, Coach Z – they are all ridiculous, but they make me giggle. I can’t actually recommend you go waste your day on these cartoons, but if you appreciate utter silliness as I do, go check them out here.

Anyway, one of the characters is Trogdor (aka ‘The Burninator’)– a dragon with one arm. A couple of months ago, my son found this online, and posted it on my Facebook wall with the caption “DO WANT!”:

I have searched for the name of the maker, and would love to give full credit for it, but I haven’t had any luck. If you happen to know who made this, leave a comment here and I’ll update it.

So obviously, what’s a mother to do? I had to make him one.

I made the decision to do this just before packing up my studio and putting it in storage, so I held out only the things I would need for this project. Because I had no studio to work in, I decided to use only stained glass and polymer clay. My thinking was that a few sheets of stained glass would give me a range of hues without having hundreds of jars of glass to choose from. After researching the character a little more I decided to make the background from shades of white, which would also make the dragon stand out more. The letters, feet, eyes and smoke swirl are polymer clay, the rest is Van Gogh glass and stained glass:

Waaay outside of my normal style, but fun. And a surprising Christmas present for my son, who, at his age, isn’t easy to surprise.

Technorati Tags: Homestar Runner,Trogdor,mosaic,dragon,Christmas

Happy Holidays!

noreply@blogger.com (Lee Ann) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:05:00 +0000

Did you get a copy of my holiday newsletter? If not, why aren’t you subscribed?!? Run right over there on the right side of this page and scroll down and sign up before you miss any more! I’ll wait – go on.

Done? Ok, click the ornament to see what you missed this time around:

Technorati Tags: holiday newsletter,happy holidays,merry christmas

A monkey in the pudding

noreply@blogger.com (Lee Ann) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 19:02:00 +0000

There is not a lot of art being made here these days. I’m sure everyone is finding that the holidays slow them down a bit too. But in addition to the holiday hub-bub keeping me busy, my husband and I are getting ready to move to Tennessee, and most of you will know how a move (or even just the prospect of one) can throw a monkey in the pudding (my husband’s new phrase, thank you very much!).

We will be moving to Kingsport, TN (or very near) within the next month or so. On Wednesday of this week we’ll travel there to find a new home and check out all that the area has to offer. From the limited view I’ve had through the internet it looks like a wonderful area. I hope very much that there is a lively art scene, but I don’t think you can get a sense of it until you go see.

In the meantime, the best I could do is an unfinished study of a sycamore tree. It will likely never be finished, because…..well…. I just don’t care. But it was something to do, and it felt good to have an image develop from my scribbles again.

Sycamore study
Conte crayon on Bristol paper

Technorati Tags: Drawing,sycamore,conte crayons,Tennessee,moving

My creativity has severe limits.

noreply@blogger.com (Lee Ann) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 22:24:00 +0000

See what happens when I have to channel my creativity into other areas of my life?

Ok, I realize it doesn’t look that bad. But here’s the thing – the Old Bay seasoning was the ONLY thing that made it palatable.

Maybe you need a little backstory here: I hate cooking. No, that’s not quite it –

I loathe cooking. I hate kitchens and everything in them. Except the water tap. That I can handle.

But I have been left to my own devices now for 4 days and counting. I’m hungry.

All of the food that I could just take out of the fridge and put in my mouth is gone, so I had to cook today. Chicken breasts seemed like the easiest thing to prepare, but I like the one dish kinda thing – put your protein, your vegetables and starches all in the same dish, grab a fork and off you go.

But I wasn’t in the mood to hike off to the grocery, so we use what we have, right?

I had chicken, eggs, avocado, celery and

I hate to admit it

spaghetti.

Yeah.

That might have been creative, but it was barely edible.

I need a studio soon.

Technorati Tags: food,yuk,creative cooking

Stealing souls and stacking rocks

noreply@blogger.com (Lee Ann) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 20:18:00 +0000

Not much to talk about these days, at least in the art department. Don’t yet have access to a studio, so although I could just pull out the watercolors and set up on the dining table, I’m not yet in the frame of mind for that. With all the confusion over the move and my husband’s job offers (which is still not settled yet), and the news this morning that my mother fell and broke both of her elbows, I’m out of sorts. I feel so restless that I can’t really cope with having to drag everything out and put it all away each time I want to mess with it.

So instead I took Gracie to the lake on this gorgeous day (even though I should be doing laundry). I had a hard time convincing her that the camera phone wouldn’t steal her soul, wrangling her around to look forward. She finally decided that maybe having her soul stolen was less onerous than dealing with me.

And no trip to the lakeshore is complete without a stack of rocks on the driftwood -

Technorati Tags: rock stack,Zen,Lake Ontario,stress

Now what?

noreply@blogger.com (Lee Ann) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 20:19:00 +0000

It’s a process, this adaptation. I know that. However, when you don’t know what to do next to facilitate it, you can really benefit from being the patient type. I am not the patient type. Although I am a much more patient driver than my mother-in-law. But that’s a story for another day.

I moved last weekend and am now 500 miles away from my life of the last year, but now I seem to be in a limbo of sorts. The majority of my studio is in a storage shed in Indiana for several reasons. The biggest reason is that it’s possible that job opportunities might necessitate another move. How many times do I really want to move several hundred pounds of glass? And yet, how will I know when this period of uncertainty is over?

For now I will look for the creativity in everyday things. And I will knit a lot. The repetitive nature of knitting calms me. I begin to seem like an obsessive troll to those around me – hunched over clacking knitting needles in a dark corner, ignoring the dog’s whimpers for a walk – but I tell them it’s cheaper than therapy.

Technorati Tags: adaptation,therapy,creativity,moving

Stunning portraits by Atsuko Laskaris

noreply@blogger.com (Lee Ann) — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 19:38:00 +0000

I am usually most captivated by mosaics by other artists that approximate what I am striving for in my own. There is one hearty exception, and that is Atsuko Laskaris. I have the utmost respect for her portraiture work, even though I haven’t the slightest interest in ever creating a portrait myself. The depth and beautiful light play are really astounding in her works. The one below, Soloist, is my favorite.

See a close up and in progress shot of this on the Mosaic Art Now blog. There are several more astounding pieces as well as a short bio of the artist on that post as well. Go check it out!

Technorati Tags: stained glass,Atsuko Laskaris,Mosaic Art Now,Soloist

I’m a little dizzy

noreply@blogger.com (Lee Ann) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 23:49:00 +0000

Well, the wheel turns, and things change. That’s the way it’s supposed to be, I guess. Sometimes you feel as if the wheel has nearly stopped and things will never change, and sometimes you get positively dizzy because the changes come too fast.

It has been about 14 months since I joined CrazyLake Art Gallery as director, and at the end of next week, my time there will come to an end. I will be moving to upstate New York where I hope to set up a studio and continue my mosaic work.

Now I just have to figure out how to squeeze my entire studio into a Nissan Sentra.

September, detail

Inspiration almost got away from me, but I grabbed her by the tail.

noreply@blogger.com (Lee Ann) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 20:40:00 +0000

I had a tiny little moment of panic this afternoon. I am back in my studio after my 2 1/2 weeks away and ready to rock. But I had nothing to work on! I had just finished September (which, by the way, is on its way to Ciel Gallery in Charlotte, NC for the Delish exhibit) before leaving, and nothing else in the works. That used to be a rarity for me, I used to have two or three things in various stages on any given day, but since I’ve been heading up the gallery, I function much better focusing on one at a time.

So – panic ensued. I rummaged through my collection of little bits of design inspiration I have squirreled away through the years – bottle labels, magazine clippings, photos from the internet, postcards, doodles, etc. I thought of working on a mosaic of a photo my daughter took last year at Kew Gardens -

Then I ran across a photo from my gardens that I had stashed away in an obscure file - a gorgeous purplish poppy -

I considered trying to do the poppy, but shift the colors more toward the hue of the lotus flowers. Then I got distracted.

I have two identical pieces of MDF that I have saved forever, planning to do a set of 2. I’m not good with the duplication of effort required for a set or a series (see my little self-discovery here). Fortunately, these are small (18.5” H x 6” W), so I can probably kick my butt through it with promises to reward myself with a bottle of 12 year old Glenlivet when they’re done.

And I’m in the mood to step outside the comfort zone here. I’m not going completely off the ranch (still botanical themed) but colorwise – a shocking lack thereof.

Yeah, that’s a fairly pointless photo. All it really tells you is the depth of my ADD. Oh well, I’m nothing if not honest about it.

Technorati Tags: mosaic,ADD,design inspiration

Toodles til October…

noreply@blogger.com (Lee Ann) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 20:38:00 +0000

Well, I just have all kinds of goodies to share with you! I have been a very busy little bee these last couple of weeks.

First of all, I finished the grape mosaic – it is titled September.

September
30” x 6.5”
glass, 24K gold and ceramic on Wedi
© 2011 Lee Ann Petropoulos

I also have 3 mosaic pendants I finished, one with matching earrings, but damned if I can photograph them. I’m going to have to investigate how to photograph jewelry before I can show them to you.

My other project has been glass painting. My mother, a friend of hers and I took a glass painting class at the Lawrence Art Center a couple of weeks ago. We painted wine glasses. I took the class with the intent of applying what I learned to painting clear glass to include in mosaics. But when I happened to see some really cool martini glasses with zigzag stems, I thought “tree trunks!” and took them home and made Mar”tree”ni glasses!!!!

I hadn’t thought about selling them but I had two people ask for them, so I’ve sold two sets already! I guess I’m in the glass painting business too, now.

So I hope all that busyness carries me for a couple of weeks…..I’ll be out of town and won’t be able to work on anything. If you get bored, you could check out my writing blog A Modern Dilemma….because you only want a few words. I post mostly very short fiction, and the occasional essay (still very short), and a poem once in a blue moon each Monday – Friday (except when I don’t). Some of the stories have a real twist at the end, some are pretty morbid, some are beautifully happy (but no fluffy marshmallows and cute puppies – I hate that shit). If you’re so inclined – I’d love to hear your comments over there.

Toodles til October…..

Technorati Tags: September,grapes,mosaic,glass painting,martreeni,jewelry,pendants

Hurry, hurry, hurry!

noreply@blogger.com (Lee Ann) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 16:18:00 +0000

The grapes are looking yummy. Almost finished. I had planned to do this one strictly for myself – no rush, no pressure.

Bwahahaha!

Now I have to have it done by next Thursday so I can submit it to Ciel Gallery’s grand opening exhibit in their new digs! The deadline is actually September 19, but I will be tied up from the 9th to the 24th, so I have to get crackin’!

The name of the exhibit is “Delish!” (Can I just say here how much I HATE Rachel Ray? Not that it’s relevant….) Pam Goode’s description:

Dig in, pig out, supersize, lap it up, taste, nibble, graze, imbibe, DEVOUR! This show is all about the human obsession with food. Mosaic works depicting edibles or the ritual of feeding, as well as work composed of china, vessels or flatware are eligible.

Here’s a link to her prospectus, if any of you want to play too.

And this month’s Virtual Paint Out is situated in one of my FAVORITE places, New Orleans! I missed out last month – so much going on that I just couldn’t get to it. And since I’m going to be gone a lot this month, I may not manage this one either, but I really want to. Check it out:

Technorati Tags: virtual Paint Out,grapes,September,mosaic,Ciel Gallery,Delish!

Grapes!

noreply@blogger.com (Lee Ann) — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 18:13:00 +0000

That was my husband’s comment when he saw this photo. We have always loved grapes – we grew two varieties in New Hampshire and my husband’s grape jam was TO DIE FOR! Over the years, we have talked about trying to make our own wine, but by the time we might have had enough grapes to give it a go, it sounded like altogether too much work. This mosaic will be for me – “Collection of the Artist”. Has a nice ring to it, don’t you think? And because of that, I am willing to do a little experimenting that I might not otherwise feel comfortable with. For example, the background: in looking at reference photos, a couple of them had a bokeh background in which I could tell that bright sunlight was falling on gold and yellow and brown vegetation behind the grapes, but couldn’t really tell what it was. I wanted that look for behind the grapevine, so I decided to toss in the gold and yellow and browns in opus palladianum. I think I will be happy with it, but I don’t know…

And in other, random grape-related news, this picture is from our garden in New Hampshire. They turned a very deep purple in September.

And I used to make sculptural grapevine trellises from wild vines. I made one really cool sculptural element for a wine shop in Wolfeboro, NH but I can’t find the picture of it! However, you can get a little peek of it behind the owners on their web page. Next door to that shop I did a trellis for the front of the Winniepesaukee Chocolates shop.

Technorati Tags: grapes,mosaic,grapevine

Rant alert

noreply@blogger.com (Lee Ann) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 02:09:00 +0000

Well I’m going to open up a great big can of worms here. Don’t try to stop me, it’s what I do best.

As you know, I have been serving as the Gallery Director at CrazyLake Art Gallery for nearly a year. And I have spent a lot of time thinking about the attitudes about art and artists espoused by visitors and often, unfortunately, reflected by artists.

In fact, it’s something I have been pondering in the context of my own art business for several years.

So here is my interpretation of the comments I’m hearing regularly:

Artists don’t deserve to make a fair wage for the work they do, whether in producing art or teaching it.

Every time I hear it from a gallery visitor, I patiently try to educate them on the value of what they are looking at, and remind them that there is a real human being behind each piece of art in the gallery. Someone who spends a great deal of time and care on each piece, and deserves to be paid a fair price for that. Someone who is quite possibly using this as their main means of support for themselves.

The next comment is usually something along the lines of “well he could get a ‘real’ job and just do this on the weekends.”

And when it comes to classes, they want a full roster of classes available so they can be sure to find one that is convenient for them, and they want them offered at a price that is nearly minimum wage for the instructor. And this is the very community that supported me as a private piano teacher 20 years ago at $20 an hour without a single complaint that my services were too dear.

There was a time when it was recognized that art was a good thing, generally. That creativity was something that everyone should nurture in themselves because it helped them broaden their horizons and cultivated their problem-solving skills. That people who dedicated their lives to being creative and coaching others in creativity were worthy of admiration. Art served many functions – it taught appreciation for the beauty of the natural world, recorded and interpreted history, demonstrated moral lessons, provided glimpses into emotional states that we all share at some time in our lives. It connected us. It gave us a reference for trying to understand the lives and decisions of people with whom we have little in common. These are the attitudes that support a healthy art community, and a healthy society in general.

Now everybody wants something for free.

I realize this isn’t a problem confined to the arts. In times like these, many people are forced to tighten their belts, and they begin looking for bargains in every area of their lives. I would like to remind everyone that 99% of all artists are among that crowd.

And there are a fair number of people who haven’t in fact been forced to tighten anything, but they will certainly use the economy as an excuse to extract a discount everywhere they go.

But the thing that really roasts my peppers is when I hear an artist (especially a teaching artist) making excuses for the very people who devalue the work they do! Just because the price of a gallon of gas went up, how do you then conclude that your services as a teacher are now worth less? In fact, it now costs you more to get to work – and you are willing to lower your fees? Where is the logic in this? If you were a doctor, do you suppose you would lower your fees to accommodate people’s pinched budgets? Or is it just that you don’t believe what you do is important? If you don’t, no one else will either.

My belief is that it isn’t an action rooted in logic, but in fear. These are artists in fear that others will no longer pay for their art or their teaching skills if they don’t set their prices terribly low. But this is a losing battle – once you tell the public that YOU don’t believe you are worthy of your asking price, they won’t either.

So I will end this with a call to action to all you artists out there: stand up and demand the respect you deserve. Don’t let your insecurities allow you to be bullied into working below poverty level. Don’t let your insecurities contribute to the perception in the public mind that art isn’t a real job. I believe our society depends on it.

*I am not in the habit of justifying my prices, because I believe that if I have to explain them to someone, they don’t want what I’m offering much anyway. But in this case I want to illustrate a point.

The only piece I have produced in which I kept record of both the materials I purchased and the hours spent was Indian Summer. I purchased over $200 worth of materials, although a fair bit was left over to use in other projects. Let’s say I used $75 worth. I spent 60 hours on the construction of it, although I didn’t think to keep track of hours until the concept and design work and surface prep was already done. Let’s add a conservative 3 hours for that.

Now let’s work backward. It is retail priced at $900. Subtract 30% right off the top for gallery commission (that is a decent commission – one of my galleries takes 50%) bringing our total to $630. Subtract the materials = $555. Now at this point I could also subtract the entry fee and shipping costs for the exhibition I sent it to hoping to get more exposure, but we’ll even leave that out. That means that when it sells, I will have earned myself an hourly wage of $8.81. However, if I were to go work at McDonalds and happened to work my sorry self up to an assistant manager position, I’d be making $10.36 per hour (click HERE for reference).

I know artists whose numbers don’t work out as favorably even as that, and yet the perception from the public is that we want too much. So my point is that I believe art is being valued at a level that puts us on a par with fast food workers at best. And if you don’t also think that’s a problem, then I really think there is no hope for us as a civilized society.

Technorati Tags: rant,worth,value,Indian Summer

Mosaic mirror

noreply@blogger.com (Lee Ann) — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 14:50:00 +0000

The mosaic mirror I repaired for my friend (see this post) is finished. After gluing in the replacement tiles, I decided to grout the whole thing. It wasn’t originally grouted - the tiles were obviously supposed to fit in tight so there would be no need. However, the were several scattered section of maybe 3” x 5” where they didn’t fit tight, and bits of white mastic showed through.

So I mixed up some snow white grout with blue and green powdered pigments to get a pretty good match.

Dummy that I am, I forgot that it was going to dry considerably lighter, so those gaps were still quite noticeable.

After I cleaned it up, I went over the whole thing with a thin wash of acrylic paint – green black, titanium white and a touch of french ultramarine blue. The lines disappeared and here’s the finished piece:

Technorati Tags: mosaic,mirror

Fun with glass paint!

noreply@blogger.com (Lee Ann) — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 22:33:00 +0000

A friend bought a mosaic mirror at a big box store on clearance. They ended up giving her an extra 25% off because a couple of pieces on the edges had been knocked off. From a distance, it’s a very pretty mirror, lol! But looking at it closely, it has suffered A LOT of damage, most of it I can’t fix for her. It’s constructed of rectangles of clear glass that have been painted on the back, and assembled with no grout. But even where pieces are still firmly attached, you can see that something has cracked and/or chipped the surface.

But I told her I’d fix the missing pieces with something that was a close approximation, and touch up as best I could. It’s going on a wall behind a desk, and the remaining damage shouldn’t be noticeable.

<—(view of missing edge tile)

Interestingly enough, I had saved some old clear sheet glass and cut it into rectangles with the intention of buying some glass paint for the backs of them. I think that would be a great way to add interest to boring backgrounds in future mosaics. I hadn’t actually done anything about it though, so I headed off to the art supply store for glass paint.

So…..apparently painting on glass is not a terribly popular pastime? I found this –>
but in rather limited color selection. I wanted a bluish green and a copper color. Strike. I found turquoise (a greenish blue, but only just) and gold.

I ended up buying both of those and a pearly white, intending to paint a very thin layer of a mix of gold and white, then put a second layer of the turquoise all over the back of that. My theory was that even if I didn’t think they would blend in well enough, I had more glass, and could buy some green paint and try mixing it with the turquoise.

The piece on the top is an original, and the lower piece is one I painted. After laying the new pieces in place, I think they will blend well enough. I wish the gold were darker, but there was no option for that. There was no copper color, so that’s that.

I’ll post a picture when I get it finished.

Technorati Tags: mosaic mirror,glass paint

Oh, here we go again.

noreply@blogger.com (Lee Ann) — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 20:14:00 +0000

I’m starting on the grapevine mosaic, and I’m determined not to make this one as detailed and difficult as the last one! I didn’t really expect to on the last one either, but it just sort of happened. Something a little easier and faster this time.

I do hope the way this started wasn’t an omen, though. I had traced the outside of the Wedi on brown kraft paper and then drew the design. I seldom do that anymore, I usually just draw right on the substrate. Anyway, I got my graphite paper out and made a nice little sandwich with the Wedi and the drawing and traced away. When I took everything off the substrate, there wasn’t a single mark on it! I didn’t have the graphite paper upside down (and yes, I have done that more than once!) but for some reason, it didn’t transfer at all! I redrew the design by hand, and of course that always means a change or two. But so what, right?

I considered getting one of those contraptions that will cut perfect stained glass circles as small as 3/8” for the grapes to make it even easier, but decided against it for two reasons: 1) this is a bad time for me to be investing in equipment, even if it is fairly inexpensive, and 2) I decided that perfect circles would look too unnatural, and I wouldn’t want them all exactly the same size anyway, which would mean constantly readjusting the machine.

I think I’ll be happier with the grapes cut so that some of them are peeking out from behind others, like so:

But of course they will take a lot longer - this is how it always starts!

Technorati Tags: The Harvest,grapes,mosaic,grapevine

Plein Air Fail.

noreply@blogger.com (Lee Ann) — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 16:12:00 +0000

Yesterday our little gallery Plein Air group was supposed to meet at the Holden Horse Farm in the early evening to paint. And when I say little…the max we could probably expect to show up, under the best of circumstances, is 6 or 7. Yesterday only three of us were available, and the weather was still hot (not a problem for me, but others balked).

We met at the front gate of the horse farm. Not being a real fan of horses, I thought that was the prettiest part of the whole place. Gorgeous, ancient sycamore trees shaded the entrance, and mature pines lined the other side of the entrance.

We went in to the horse barn and met the owners – they have about 100 horses, and raise them to race at the local horse tracks. About this time, one of our painters got a call that her 91 year old mother wasn’t well, so she left. So the two of us who were left set about taking some pictures for reference:

AND THEN……….

We discovered that our other group member is quite allergic to horses.

FAIL.

Technorati Tags: plein air,Holden Horse Farm,painting

I must be looking forward to autumn.

noreply@blogger.com (Lee Ann) — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 20:31:00 +0000

I’ve had a couple of pieces of Wedi and MDF of odd dimensions lying around the studio for quite awhile, cutoffs from other projects that I figured I would one day put to use. I decided today was a good day to get one of them underway and out of the way.

Wedi, 6.5” wide, 30” long. Since it’s so skinny, I decided it needed a french cleat on the back for hanging rather than wire. I have no idea why. I don’t think it would matter. But I do like the way these make them hang flush against the wall.

I’m going to finish it off so that it will be appropriate to hang outside as well as in.

Something that tall and skinny just cries out for a vine of some sort, don’t you think? I took some reference photos in May when I visited my in-laws in Ft. Lauderdale of the bougainvillea growing outside their condo building, but somehow it just didn’t feel right. I decided to go with grapes.

I know I want purple grapes, but I’m having a hard time deciding whether to make the leaves green or to put a lot of red in them, similar to this:

What do you think?

Technorati Tags: mosaic,vine,grapes

Callusa Butterfly

noreply@blogger.com (Lee Ann) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 20:57:00 +0000

Here’s the butterfly I made for Eve Lynch and her project at the Callusa Nature Center in Ft. Myers, FL:

Forty-some artists are sending her butterflies for an outdoor mural – she will cut them out and attach them to the wall, then grout them all.

I told you I’d finish in time, Eve!

I got a little funky with the colors – wish I’d planned that a little better. But I decided to use all stained glass because I wanted it all flat (ok, I lied, I used unglazed porcelain for the body, but it’s the same level as the stained glass). But that meant that a) I had to use what I already had [because I was running behind and didn’t have time to order more], and b) that I was only going to use stained glass that had been previously cut into manageable strips [because I’m lazy].

And now I have nothing in the queue! It’s been a REALLY long time since that happened. That’s a little frightening, actually. I get squirrelly when this happens because since none of the ideas in my head have been given a priority yet, they all want out AT THE SAME TIME. I don’t know what to do with that!

A nicely chilled glass of Pinot Grigio will probably help, though.

Technorati Tags: Callusa Nature Center,Eve Lynch,butterfly,what's next?

Gratitude

noreply@blogger.com (Lee Ann) — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 12:00:00 +0000

So here it is, finally. My super secret project that I couldn’t share with you until it was done.

Rayna Clark asked me to do a mosaic based on the theme of the four elements – earth, air, fire and water – for her book WIP Yourself Into a Mosaic Artist. This is the design I came up with. The description of the process and photos will be included in her book – I hope you’ll get a copy when it comes out.

My favorite part of it is the crow.

*Whew* This was definitely the most difficult mosaic I’ve ever done. I’m ready for something simple and mindless now.

Technorati Tags: Gratitude,mosaic,Sedona,Cathedral Rock,Oak Creek,crow,WIP Yourself Into A Mosaic Artist

Grout, schmout

noreply@blogger.com (Lee Ann) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 23:27:00 +0000

When I was growing up, my mother used to tell me to be sure to get the house cleaned up and all your projects finished before going on vacation “…because you don’t want to have to come back to that.”

You know what? The old bat might have been on to something.

I had finished gluing all the tesserae on my super secret project, and had a few days before leaving on vacation when I could have grouted it. I was so tired of looking at it (as always happens) that I just couldn’t make myself do it.

Well. I really wish I had.

I returned to work on Tuesday and spent the day catching up on emails and various projects. But yesterday, I started grouting at 10:30 in the morning. And kept at it with only a 1/2 hour break for lunch, until 5. And started back at it this morning at 11, finishing around 4.

Now I know you’re thinking I must really suck at this if it takes that long, but the problem is that I have used so many different shades of grout (10, to be exact) and the color changes happen in such small sections……well, let’s just say it was………frustrating.

So tomorrow I will add a little thinned acrylic paint to help with the shading in a couple of areas and give it the final spit and polish. Then I’ll show you what has kept me so quiet these last few months.

And then I can finish the butterfly I promised Eve Lynch (which is half done – I promise I’ll finish on time, Eve!).

Technorati Tags: grout,super secret project,Gratitude,mosaic,butterfly,Callusa Nature Center

New blog post–another way of avoiding what I should be doing.

noreply@blogger.com (Lee Ann) — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 19:49:00 +0000

I’m SO close to finishing my current project I can hardly stand it! I get so anxious to finish when I get close – and for some reason that translates into flitting around doing everything BUT finishing it. I can’t explain it. Anyway, as soon as it is done I’ll post a picture of the finished piece.

I am going to shift to a change of pace after that. I have done a couple of big pieces in a row, and next I’m going to do a few small ones. I have promised Eve Lynch a butterfly for the Callusa Nature Center in Ft. Myers, FL. She is coordinating a public project to be installed outdoors there.

Then I’m going to give mosaic pendants a shot. I haven’t really been to interested in doing mosaic jewelry before, but I’m looking for something that won’t take too long, and might sell in this market (small town) and economy (sucky). I don’t care for millefiori at all, so I will mix some glass bits with gemstone chips that I found at a bead supply house. We’ll see how those turn out.

Also, I decided to try to mosaic some tennis balls. I think I’m going to regret this. I should have wrapped them in Rigid Wrap first, because thinset DOES NOT want to stick to the furry outsides. Look what a lumpy mess they ended up! I’ll have to give them another coat, but I think it would have been a lot easier to just start with Rigid Wrap. Live and learn.

Technorati Tags: tennis balls,Callusa Nature Center,butterfly,mosaic pendant,mosaic jewelry

The perfect artist’s statement?

noreply@blogger.com (Lee Ann) — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 12:13:00 +0000

This is priceless! Enjoy!