Featured Artist - Pat Catlett

 I don't often purchase artwork.  Mostly because, although I love other artist's work, those works often inspire me to paint more of my own things.  However, I do have a number of paintings by Pat Catlett.  Pat writes and teaches others to write icons at ongoing workshops at St. Mark's after a career in graphic design.  But in addition to the very careful and prayerful work of iconography, look at the wonderfully loose and colorful paintings she creates as well.  These paintings, along with those of other talented artists, are part of a show that opened last week at St. Mark's Sacred Arts Gallery.  If you are in the area, please drop by and look at them in person, and maybe, like me, you will be inspired to purchase something to support the ongoing arts projects and programs at St. Mark's. 

"Cloudburst"

"Dancing Rain"

"After the Rain"

"Pedernal Summer Morning"

Gallery open during office hours Monday through Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.  Sundays from 9:00 a.m. to noon.  Please wear a mask while in the building.  Our Montessori school children are not old enough to be vaccinated.  Check upcoming blog posts for more featured artists.

New Show Opens

 If you have been following my work, you might want to visit the Sacred Arts Gallery at St. Mark's Episcopal Church, 431 Richmond NE, Albuquerque, New Mexico.   Due to to Covid restrictions, there are limited hours and you will be required to wear a mask when you enter the church buildings.  For the next several posts, I will feature some of the artists whose works are hanging along with mine.

The Light-A Portrait of Amanda Gorman

 Hi.  I have been busy playing with portraits and clearly not finding the time to blog, but thought I would take a moment to post a few photos of what I have been working on.

The first step is always the drawing, but I forgot to take a photo of that.  In the second step, I lay out some of the shadows which establishes the structure of the face.  Then I added the highlights in the pupils so that I would be able to get her expression correctly. Can anyone guess who this is?  Not a lot of clues at this point....But maybe you can guess from the title of this post?

Blocking in the hair helps but the lips are making things much easier to identify.

A little more work on the eyes and more shadowing help bring a very glamorous poet laureate to life.  This painting is based on a photo of Amanda taken for an article on Afro hair styles, so she is highly styled and made up.  But a beautiful woman is gorgeous no matter what she wears if her spirit is lovely!

The Fight

 In Memory of Ruth B. Ginsburg.

I Never Met a Costume I Didn't Love

Except of course when little ones are dressed as these creatures and ring your doorbell on All Hallow's Eve!  All my life, I have loved costumes in any shape or form, comfortable or not!  So every year at Halloween, I am anxious to don one.  My husband?  Well... not so much!  However, in our off the grid neighborhood with only about twenty families, we celebrate all together.  This year we are hosting the party at our house, and I have gone a bit overboard with planning and playing.  One of the things I decided to do was make prizes for costumes.  I found lots of wonderful ideas on Pinterest and bought some of those skeleton garlands at the Dollar Store and little plastic trophies at Hobby Lobby.  Here are the results:

"BEST LITERARY CHARACTER"

 

"BEST COUPLE COSTUMES"

 

"BEST MOVIE CHARACTER COSTUME"

 

 

"MOST COMFORTABLE COSTUME"

THERE IS ALWAYS SOMEONE WHO CANNOT BE BOTHERED!

 

"BEST CHILDREN'S COSTUME"

"MOST FRIGHTFUL COSTUME"

                    

               IS YOUR COSTUME READY?

Missing in Action!

Checking in with myself, I was shocked to see that I had not posted anything for months, eight of them to be exact.  Any regular reader has long since given up!  

Life has a way of speeding by while you are busy.  What have I been up to in the last eight months?  Well, continuing to mentor a group of watercolor artists, painting a lot of works myself, teaching Sunday School, enjoying the grandchildren on visits to their states, spending time on the river, rafting with my husband and family, doing some landscaping at our house, spending time with my fabulous group of friends, finally working again on my Hogwarts Castle, and of course planning and volunteering at Harry Potter camp and Vacation Bible School.  You would think I had no time to write on my blog...

I have been writing some with a group of friends, and also my daughter signed me up to write a series of short stories at StoryWorks to be put into a book for my family. Some of those may appear here, but not promising anything.  

Today, I would like to promote an event that my daughter Brittany is helping organize.

join us for a day of learning and discovery

See the different kinds of beehives

learn why pollinators are crucial to our food chain

See how pollinators can positively affect climate change

discover how you can support pollinators in our area

Saturday, September 28, 2019

10 am to 4 pm

FREE!

More information here 

I have donated the painting below to their raffle:

  "To Bee or Not to Be"

 

Was the Grinch Here?

Not really!  I usually leave the tree up until Epiphany, but I stole the ornaments to create centerpieces for the Epiphany Party tomorrow at St. Mark's.

 The church has eight tables to decorate in the Parish Hall, so I pulled out some of my silver plate to fill with the ornaments.  There will be a tall candlestick, a small crown enclosed votive to represent one of the Wise Men, and each of the silver trays holds some stars to represent the star that guided the Wise Men to Bethlehem.

This little votive is not the right color for the light and dark blue cloths at the church.  It was my practice piece.

 Still working on the crowns for the votives.  Need to go to town to purchase more glitter!

If you are in the Albuquerque area, join us tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. for the Epiphany Service at St. Mark's Episcopal Church 431 Richmond NE with a Party after church. Children will  search for the Baby Jesus, and everyone will enjoy King's Cakes with Mimosas for the adults and Sparkling Cider for the children and youth.  Careful, if you get a piece of King's Cake with a small plastic baby, you will be crowned a King and need to make a toast!

May 2019 shower you will God's Blessings and Protection!