A rose is a rose......

Last fall, while on a trip to Valu, a local hardware store, I noticed a sale bin filled with bare root roses, above which a crudely painted sign read "Roses- $ 2.00." Well, roses have always been my favorite flower, so I looked through the selection and found one of my longtime favorites- a 'Kordus Perfecta." I didn't know that rose was still available! With a price like that, there wasn't much to lose, so I bought it and took a chance on a $2.00 rose from a hardware store.

Last fall I planted it right near my front door, never really expecting much. Right now it is about 3 1/2 feet tall, and even though we've had more rain than the Amazon rain forest, it is rewarding me with some gorgeous August blooms. The blooms in June were gorgeous, of course, but what a treat to see roses at the end of the summer.

Little watercolors are fun to do, and I think a nice watercolor of a single rose will be a lot of fun to work on in the dead of winter.

Moral of the story? You never know what you'll stumble upon at a hardware store!

Quebec City conclusion.....

I'm very thrilled to have finally finished my Quebec City painting. Haven't settled on a title yet. This painting was fun to do, yet it did pose some unique challenges. Colors I rarely use were required for this piece. I had originally thought of changing the trim colors on the buildings, but then decided that I couldn't really do that and stay true the flavor of Quebec City. So I was forced to use the burnt umbers and warm, gold tones that are not my favorites.

Another unusual feature of this piece is that the center of interest, most often the part of a painting with the strongest contrast of color, is located pretty much in the background. I took the reference photo in the early morning, and I loved how the morning light shown upon the distant building, while the closer part of the street remained in shadow. Painting the stone road was certainly a challenge as well. I delineated the stones with pale lines before I put the varied washes down, so that the lines wouldn't stand out too much and look too prominent, or "painted on." I love the hanging multicolored balloon! Residences are interspersed amongst the storefronts and restaurants, and those residences were so lovingly maintained and artistically decorated.

So glad I finally got to do a painting of at least a tiny corner of a beautiful city.

The Lewiston Art Show "saga"......

On the left is a photo of my booth at this years Lewiston Art Show.

Saturday started out so well!! The sun ( I did see it on Saturday morning) was out and it is so nice now that the entire street is closed to traffic- just like Allentown. People have so much more room to stroll the festival, instead of trying to squeeze along the narrow Lewiston sidewalks.

The photo on the right is the featured artist at Lewiston this year, Travis Louie, creating his own chalk walk piece. The photo can't do it justice.

The rain started around 3 or so, the crowds thinned as the afternoon wore on, so we packed up a little early, with hopes of a better day on Sunday.

Sunday began with a nice blue sky, even though the humidity was oppressive. The clouds quickly rolled in, the sky darkened, and then........KA BOOM!! The rain began with large, intermittent raindrops, then quickly it began to pour. People scurried for cover, artists lept to bring their pieces into the "relative" safety of their tents. It got even darker, the lightning got closer and the winds kicked into overdrive. My tent was screwed into the street and the winds lifted it up, and it would have blown away had we not been hanging on to the posts as tightly as we could. The rainwater turned into a current that ran about a foot deep behind my tent. Standing in my tent, hanging on to the metal posts, all the while under a tree while the lightning was hitting so close......was truely frightening. When Bob felt he could safely run for it, he ran to the car, pulled it up to the tent (even though the road was technically closed to vehicular traffic until the show ended) and we as quickly as we possible could, loaded up my "water"colors and fled. We were in the car racing away at 1 pm. I ended up leaving my rug. It was deeply underwater- no sense trying to salvage it.

My paintings all made it out just fine- thanks to the Herculean feats of my husband. Not a great way to end the art festival season! But now is actually a fun time for me. I'll be participating in some gallery shows in the fall, and I get to spend more time "in studio" where I truely long to be. No rainstorms in my studio!!!!

Art Park Gallery- Buffalo Society of Artists.....

Friday night was my night to work at

the Art Park Gallery. Such a beautiful

gallery in such a beautiful spot- right on the Art Park grounds. The Buffalo

Philharmonic event that evening was Video Games Live- a symphonic performance of music from video games. I could recognize several themes- the Zelda music, especially! Spent many hours listening to that!!

The view on the left here is a selection of the artwork. So much talent on display here.

We had a sale the night I worked, and there have been steady sales so far- even in this economy. So many things are contributing to the success here, I believe. A wide variety of art is on exhibit- all media, and all styles- from abstract to photorealism with everything in between.

I'm breaking a rule and including photos of myself here, even though I acutely despise having my photo taken. Ugh! In the photo on the left, my fellow artist and friend Gail is on the right in the photo, and my painting "Jurassic Tree" is between us. It does help me to know that the gorgeous Johnny Depp and Robert Pattinson cannot stand to look at themselves in photos or on screen!! It was a very enjoyable time, and nice to know that people are still loving and buying art. The photo on the right is of me and the gallery director Helen Russell. She has done so much work to keep the gallery going, and the fact it is such a success owes much to her drive and dedication.