This is Renee's blog.

May I have your attention, please?

2013-11-10T14:12:00.000-05:00

My blog has moved to:

reneeleighstephenson.blogspot.com

Don't forget to update your bookmarks, links, and feeds! This blog will remain posted but will not be updated.

That is all.

Hometown U.S.A.

2013-11-03T15:42:00.000-05:00

Whoa. Have you ever tried to create a map of the town you live in? And do it in less than a day?
Yeah. Me neither - that is until now.
Creating an illustrated map of your town was this week's Make Art That Sells project for the Editorial market. I sat down at my computer and before I knew it four hours had passed. My morning coffee was cold and past its prime. I could keep working and refining this piece but the assigned deadline intentionally prevented any revisions.

Baby Apparel

2013-10-21T07:30:00.000-04:00

Who knew?
I would have never guessed that the Baby Apparel week of Make Art That Sells would include so many little, personal art break-throughs. I figured I would do my best to create art for baby clothes with little expectations, but I wound up learning quite a bit.
I figured out how to put my art on a template - with many thanks to the super talented Miriam Bos. I even used a little bit of Illustrator; enough to know that I am quite early in that learning curve.
That's a pretty cute onesie, right? You can get one for your little one or as a gift here!

Gratuitous siamese kitten shots

2013-10-20T14:28:00.000-04:00

Olive in deep thought

Olive and Louie are pretty much inseparable

Here you can see Olive's kinky tail end

Lest you think she usually sits still, this is what most of the photos looked like

(more photos here)

Hick's Orchard

2013-10-14T09:00:00.000-04:00

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anyone have some good apple recipes to share?

Project: Paper

2013-10-13T13:53:00.000-04:00

Class is back in session - Make Art That Sells, that is. This week's adventure was the Paper market and we were assigned to create a holiday card using ornaments and/or candy.

I've been finding that I have a tendency to create artworks that are too busy when working on MATS class assignments. I haven't figured out if this is because of Lilla's great push to create "icons" in order to cross-market pieces or if it's just how the other artists in class are influencing me. When I think about what I would buy or prefer to have, simpler and cleaner compositions always win. I guess I need to follow my own instincts to pare down.

three moons

2013-10-06T17:47:00.001-04:00

This was just a warm up painting but I think it turned out better than anything I "intended" to do in the studio today. It's funny how that happens.

welcome home!

2013-10-04T15:56:00.001-04:00

We are very excited to add Olive to our family! She's currently adjusting to her new surroundings and has a little sanctuary built in my studio. There's been a little bit of hissing from our other siamese, Louie but our rescue cat, Stan Lee is non-plussed. It's a lot to get used to for the little one, especially with a big, goofy dog in your face who makes a ruckus with her feet clicking around on the floors!

C'mon...sign up.

2013-09-29T16:24:00.002-04:00

Did you know that I have a newsletter? Would you like to get updates about my artwork, shows and other fascinating stuff? Sometimes I'll even give out discount codes for my shops! I promise it's not spam (both the unwanted mail kind and the unknown meat kind).
There's a little signup box over here on the blog up at the right. Let's see if I can embed it too...YES! I guess I have learned something from blogging for a million years.

new stuff.

2013-09-23T18:15:00.000-04:00

i'm not sure why but i think teeth, molars especially, are fun to draw. i painted a few new works today and they are all in my etsy shop.

esther and whiteface make 46!

2013-09-15T10:36:00.001-04:00

in just under eight hours of hiking adam and i finished esther and whiteface bringing us to the finish of our quest to complete all of the 46 adirondack high peaks! i'll be writing the rest of my trip reports and submitting them to my correspondent ASAP in order to officially become an adirondack forty-sixer!
we started from the atmospheric sciences research center. while this trailhead shaves some distance off the total hike it leads you up a less than beautiful first mile of loose rock on a very steep trail up marble mountain. luckily, once you reach the summit of marble the trail becomes much more enjoyable albeit no less steep. the trail was also very wet and muddy. waterproof boots were well appreciated, especially after seeing so many folks on the trail in just running sneakers.

just one portion of the "trail"

there's not much i can say about esther that hasn't been said before. the herd path to the summit is relatively flat and painless, but is very muddy. while there is no view, there is a plaque which offers some gratification for the walk.
back on the wilmington trail we headed for the summit of whiteface, passing ski trails and a lift, soon coming to the intersection with the scenic highway to the top of the mountain.

encountering whiteface veterans memorial highway

undoubtedly this is a strange high peak experience to encounter so much "civilization" on a summit. the final part of the hike is quite steep and you emerge onto the summit (and into a gaggle of tourists) from behind the tower on the peak. it is an interesting mix of folks - lots and lots of them. you can tell who drove up the mountain mainly by their lack of muddy clothing and that they do not sit on the rocks (too dirty).

no lack of company on the summit

we certainly underestimated the mighty winds of whiteface and were woefully underdressed. it was cold enough to see your breath. adam had a difficult time "uncorking" our little bottle of champagne. despite the conditions we spent at least a half an hour on the summit. the clouds were below the summit making it feel like you were on top of the world.

the "view"

a little more than two knee breaking hours of descent and we were back at the car, in disbelief that we had ACTUALLY DONE IT!!!

more photos from this hike are here.

more photos documenting (most of) our 46r trips are here.

two years ago.

2013-09-10T07:00:00.000-04:00

this just in

2013-09-08T17:08:00.000-04:00

i put some new stuff in the society6 shop today.

incidentally there is also free shipping on all orders over $50. if you're in the market for some tote bags, phone cases, laptop skins, tee-shirts or other assorted consumer merch you can head on over to check it out.

i know you should live in the moment...

2013-09-02T16:29:00.000-04:00

...but i would much rather be doing nothing sitting here,

than my current status of researching long overdue updates to promotional mailing lists. i would show you a picture of the current state of my studio table but it could potentially cause a small part of your creative soul to suffocate.

watercolor doodle.

2013-08-26T07:00:00.000-04:00

skylight - #44

2013-08-19T11:19:00.000-04:00

we are only one dayhike away from becoming 46rs after this weekend's backpacking trip. we spent three days camped at flowed lands and climbed mt skylight. so many people say this is their favorite high peak and after seeing the summit on a clear day i can understand why.

many more pictures here.

ursine dancers.

2013-08-15T07:00:00.000-04:00

bear point - tongue mountain range.

2013-08-11T11:55:00.003-04:00

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- more photos here -

happy wednesday.

2013-08-07T07:30:00.000-04:00

berry pond preserve.

2013-08-04T10:47:00.003-04:00

after purchasing the newest edition of the adk's eastern region trail guide we discovered an unknown (to us) trail system right in our backyard and yesterday we set off to explore the lake george land conservancy's berry pond preserve who's trailhead lies within the lake george recreation center.
the park was nearly empty which seemed unusual for a perfect saturday in summer. in order to get to the berry pond preserve trails you need to hike through the rec center's maze of hiking/cross country ski/snowshoe system. there are blue trail markers to help you find your way through but there are a few tricky intersections where we lost our way. luckily all of the trails tend to intersect so we found the trail register within 20 minutes.
we chose to take the full loop which includes climbing to the height of land and the two scenic overlooks, and walking around berry pond itself. the hike up to the scenic overlooks was more strenuous than we expected. some sections were very steep and you gain (then lose) 1,000 feet.

the view looking northeast to lake george

the view looking southwest to butler pond

after descending the "mountain" the trail quickly leads to berry pond which is a stunning example of an active beaver pond with multiple dams and lodges. great blue heron nests can also be seen in the tall dead trees throughout the pond. unfortunately our plan to hike around the pond was thwarted by the beavers plans. a dam was created near the far end of the pond which flooded the trail and makes it impassable. regardless, it was fascinating to see all of the chewed and downed trees, and all the other clear evidence of beaver activity.

this is just one example of the beaver chew.

here is where the beavers decided that the trail around the pond ends.

great blue heron nest

a vegetable garden mystery.

2013-08-02T07:00:00.000-04:00

i'm not sure what exactly we are doing right this year to make our tomato plants so robust and productive. maybe it's adam's diligent feeding of seaweed and bat guano. maybe it's the extra sun from having torn down that super awful fence. or maybe it's just the steaming hot summer we have had. regardless, most of the plants are at least five feet tall.
but here's the weird thing - something came through the garden recently and grazed the top greenery off of some of the tomato plants. i tried to show this in the photo below although i realize it's a bit hard to see. whatever it was had to be tall enough to eat the leaves only off of the top of the plants.
i thought that tomato greens were poisonous? any ideas on what could have done this?

*update: we have found the culprit!!! the sneaky fella was properly disguised. it was a tomato hornworm and a big guy indeed.

sketchbook page.

2013-07-31T07:00:00.000-04:00

sacandaga campground.

2013-07-28T14:09:00.000-04:00

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(more pictures here - including some pretty frightening dobsonfly pics)

i hit 'send'!

2013-07-14T14:56:00.003-04:00

wish me luck folks...here is my entry into Lilla Rogers Global Talent Search!

ella.

2013-07-09T19:30:00.000-04:00

there really never are words for this, are there?
we are heartbroken. today we made the decision to say goodbye to our beautiful, gregarious cat, ella.
she honored us with sixteen years, which sounds like a lot but i selfishly would have taken more.
ella had struggled with a myriad of health issues in the last three years, some of which made us fear it was the end. somehow, each of those times, she endured and kept her same tenacious and entitled personality. she continued to open the kitchen cabinets and sleep on the bags of rice. she always looked you in the eye and held the stare, often speaking pointedly as though you understood what she was saying. she would still sleep in the bed at night, preferably under the blankets. she would find any available lap in the house, regardless of whether it belonged to a "cat person", always preferring your left side (which will remain one of life's great mysteries).
then three days ago she stopped eating. she was lethargic. she would not sleep in the bed and did not follow her pattern of clockwork daily habits. we chocked it up to the heat and humidity. then we realized that we were ignoring what was really going on, took a hard swallow and chose to give ella dignity.
what an exquisitely painful decision to end the life of a creature, a companion, that spent their entire life with you and what a great blessing these creatures choose to share their lives with us.