Here is is already past the fourth and I am just getting back to up date the posts. Here is the last top ready for the machine quilter, called Shoofly. Three ready to be picked up tomorrow for me to bind. The show at Handworks Gallery was a huge success for me ; I sold a triptych of the Chain Link Islands in oil on panel. Friday I picked up my friend Nancy in Thomaston where she vulunteers at the animal shelter. We drove all the way to Blue Hill where we had a nice lunch and saw the Handworks Gallery in full swing. When I dropped off my work Marcia was just getting the floor painted for the opening show which was the Great Spruce Head Island Show. From there we drove over to the Leighton Gallery to see the new show there and were not disappointed. Then we meandered over to Stonington where they were going to be having First Friday with 11 galleries and studios open including Isalos where I had an encaustic painting. I was glad to see the show in the afternoon before it got too crowded. We checked out several other galleries, Nancy got an ice cream and we walked down on the working piers. I tried taking some photos but the camera was not cooperating so went back for a sketch book. The sky was spectacular with fog coming in and the water luminescent as the colors turned from blues to silver and smoke.

Time for the opening and off we went glad to be inside and a chill had come in off the water with the fog. The show Ames Pond was hung very well and even the color of one wall was just right. I liked where they had hung my piece and enjoyed looking at the variety of work that came out of Michael's call for Ames Pond art. The pond itself is spectacular when at the height of the season its full of a soft pink waterlily and a few majestic herons. I had seen it on my many trips to Haystack and made a special trip to see it last fall. I sketched a few pages and when I came home from that trip made a series of encaustics form the sketches. From here we went to more of the galleries that were open and then the rain began. We said we;d call it a day and head back to Port Clyde. Then we went by Anne-Claude Cotty's studio which was open. So we dashed inside out of the rain to be pleasantly surprised with her delightful pinhole camera photographs. Made me wish I was still into photography. She also uses the plastic camera of which I also tried. Especially the Holga with all the light leaks and tape that wound around the camera. But what struck me most were the brooches. Delicate photos set around with hammered silver. I coveted one immediately but when I saw the price realised I would have to work many hours to come up with the money. But just sometimes it all works out. Through many emails we came to an agreement and I will be getting one of the beautiful brooches in the mail this week. Please go to http://www.anneclaudecotty.com/ to see both the photos and the silver work she does.

From there we drove home stopping for a light dinner in Lincolnville. Talking over the varying pieces of art we saw and how fun Stonington had been even though the ride is long its a beautiful small town on the coast of Maine full of artists, galleries and wonderful views of the water.

The summer is here make sure you do something wonderful, take a long drive down to the wateror walk along the beach. Cheers, Diane

Another Quilt Top

Hello again from Westport Island, I keep thinking I will be on line in a timely fashion only to find life gets in the way. I am on the home stretch with my goal of having 12 quilts for a show in August. I took 3 to a machine quilter to quilt them and chose patterns that will go with the finished quilts. That was a fun experience as this is my first venture into the machine quilting realm. The next 2 will go to another machine quilter in Northport. I am working on 2 small and 1 twin with hand quilting. Plus have been going to a home sewing machine quilting class. What an interesting time that has been. My machine balked right off. It snarled the threads jammed the needle and was very much like an adolescent in its behavior. Once home and with some beautiful all cotton thread the machine has been a charm Now it is operator error that holds me back. So I have made lots of "sandwiches" with muslin and batting and another slice of muslin and am "practising" until my stitches look more or less even. They are controlled by the pressure on the foot pedal. I needed to slow down and that has been difficult. But I like to think I am improving and once I have a piece for show and tell will post it here.

On the web site front I have someone working on it as I type. The whole project is to learn how to update it myself. Especially to add new work and shows as they come not a year later and then say oh my word I need to update! This is what has happened now. Things look so old and I have lots of new encaustic paintings to put on the site. I will have an encaustic piece in Isalos Fine Art Gallery in Stonington, Maine for the Ames Pond Show. The opening night is July 6th. If you are near Stonington I invite you to come see the show. I still have encaustic postcards at the Deer Ilse Art Association Gallery in Deer Isle. They had a fund raiser where 2 of mine sold and they are keeping the unsold work over the summer so lots of good art for a worthy cause and not so much money. They are selling for $50.00 a piece and artists all over sent in post cards for this fundraiser. I think the number was over 600 cards.

Well, the garden calls and needs attention. All the rain and sun have added weeds to places I never expected but the overall look is one of lushness as the lupine are in full bloom, different colors this year as a pale pink has crept in. Foxglove are in bloom with the lemon lilies; blue and yellow Siberian irises, white anemones and a few primroses still blooming away,

Have a great week now that summer is just about here. Diane

Holiday weekend

Writing every day does not appear to be an option at this point. Somthing always gets in the way. I am madly trying to fill out forms and answer questions and write about proposals for 2 residency forms. This all takes time but helps to clarify what I want to spend a month doing in the middle of next winter. My house was way too cold this past year. I had an inefficiaet furnace taken out and 2 Rinnais put in . They were just not up to the job. Too mnay air spaces so I said I'd try to go somewhere during January or/and February next year. All the ground work needs to be done now.

And so do quilts need to be finsihed and the yard caught up to speed. My lawn is what they call a hot lawn you look at it and it grows 8 in and then you turn your back and its up over 12". My son is/was supposed to keep up with it since he took my lawnmower last year to change the oil and sparkplug and get it running. This did not happen and I fear the motor seized up which has left me with no mower when I had a decent mower that needeed some work last year. While i was at work on Saturday the lawn got "mowed". I am not clear what was used and because it was so high it looked chewed. In talking to my daughter who lives an hour away her husband over heard and I got a call back saying they were coming up and would bring lunch and a weed whacker. I have to say my yard looks 100% different now. Places that were not getting mowed are now all neat and tidy the wild strawberry bed is back in a circle and not coming over a large portion of the yard. My little garden of herbs I can see and the beautiful hosta plants that I made into a circle last year are all happy and weedfree. This does as much for my ablity to concentrate on art as having the laubdry caught up and the groceries bought and put away. So today is open to work on the last 2 quilt tops that seem to allude finishing. And I also want to take all the encaustic paint along with the table , well the whole set up out into what was last year a gallery. With 2 jobs this summer I need to make art when I can and want that area designated to encaustic. I can paint ourdoors with the oils and that way I will have the house more or less as house. When I come home tired from work I want to relax and not "see" my studio as it sprawls out into the living space. I live in a 1 room schoolhouse no partions in the big room so what is there you "see". And just sometimes like now I woudl like to not "see" all the stuff.

Ok I need to take my morning walk before the day gets away from me. I will put up another encaustic. "Dreaming of the Sea" And eventually will have awhole section devoted to the encaustics.

Gardening is a form of meditation allowing the mind to clear itself, Diane

ok where did the photo go???

This one got here but what happened to the other ones. Guess I need to learn a bit more I'll post this before I loose it, Chow, Diane

Now that we have the sun and spring has appered....

Here it is finally sunny. The State of Maine has had more rain then I ever want to see at one time again. But today was a gorgeous day sunny and warm a slight breeze and i spent the major part of it getting images turned into slides to submit for a winter residency. Seems a strange way to spend a day off when the grass is knee high, the dandilions are blooming and so many weeds are in the flower beds. But deadlines come and a day off is a chance to get caught up on paper work. I said i'd put some images into the blog today and will attempt it now. I took pics of lots of encaustics to see what i wanted to send. Ok I just uploaded 3 images and now I want to end this post to see if they got onto the blog.

Next is to update my web site seems like the time to make art grows shorter and the time for maintenmance grows longer..... Happy Spring, Diane

Time to write, time to paint, time make quilts

Well, Here it is 8 months since the last post or update to my web site. And I say its about time for some changes. I have been busy working 2 jobs and making quilts and encuastics. I will try to put new work here tomorrow taking some digital images first thing in the morning. I have been busy getting work framed and out to shows. In January I had 2 pieces in the Residency Exhibit at CMCA in Rockport Maine. The next exhibition was encaustic in New Hampshire at the Gattley Gallery. This May I have post cards in the Deer Isle Post Cards from Away fundraiser coming up this weekend and also paintings at Handworks Gallery in Blue Hill from my week at Great Spruce Head Island last June. In July, look for one of my encaustics in the Ames Pond Show at Isalos Gallery in Stonington.

I am planning a quilt show later this summer and will post updates as I get closer to that realisation. I have 10 quilt tops done but now need to have them machine quilted and then I will bind and put a hanging sleeve on. Seems like all I do is go to work and sew but its been great fun to gather the differnt colors of fabric and work out interesting designs for the quilts. But as the weather warms I really want to be outside painting again. I also need to put the series of encaustics I have done over the winter on the web site. So more to come... keep watching for new pages on the web site, Happy Spring, Diane