At Summer's End

Can it be that summer is nearly over? I apologize for neglecting this blog over the summer months. It seems that when you are busiest and have the most to say, you have the least amount of time to write.

Between visits from relatives, a long roadtrip with my boys, home renovations and soccer season starting, I have been consumed by an abundance of activity...unfortunately, most of it has NOT involved painting.

I have, however, taken many, many photographs over this busy, busy summer, and things should begin settling down enough for me to pick up my pastels and watercolors once again.

So, I'm back! Here are some of my favorite photographs from the summer...I hope you will enjoy them!

Fiery Reds

12" x 18"

Pastel

These brilliant red tulips were crying out to be captured forever! I preserved them in a photograph, but they really wanted to be painted, as well. I hope I've done them justice!

Vacations and Kitchen Renovations, Oh My!

We just recently got back from a fun family trip to Chicago. There is so much cool stuff to see there! Here are a couple of my favorite "public art" works there, both from Millenium Park along the lake.


This fountain is sometimes a face just looking serious and it looks simply like an electronic "sculpture" of sorts. Then, the eyes close, the lips pucker up, and suddenly, it's spitting a large stream of water out onto the walkway, much to the delight of any children (including grown-up children!) who run and splash barefoot in the water.





Another really cool public sculpture is also found in Millenium Park...its official name is "Cloud Gate," but many Chicagoans simply call it "The Bean."

Here's a fun photo I took standing underneath "Cloud Gate."

I know I do lots of floral paintings and photography, so for those of you who enjoy that, here's a Chicago flower for you!

Anyway, we loved visiting Chicago, my home for 14 years (and my husband's for most of his life), and sharing it with our kids. It was great fun!

Now that we are back, we are in the midst of a kitchen renovation. I've had very little time to post to my blog, or get much painting done, for that matter! Things should start to settle back into some kind of routine after this next week...at least I HOPE so!

How We Celebrated Earth Day

Photographing the beauty Earth is offering at the moment, of course! The world is coming alive with color once again, and I felt compelled to get out my camera and capture as much of it as I could! I collected a lot of painting inspiration...but I think some of the photos really stood on their own merits, too. Here are a few of my favorites:

My sons wanted to get in on the action, too. Here is one of my junior photographers at work:

And, I can't leave the other one out, can I?

Exhibition Entries

What a busy month this has been! I have been framing and

framing some more, and not painting nearly enough.

All with good reason, of course. I've been delighted that
my paintings, "Color Therapy" and "Avery" have been on display for the past month at the Dietrich Theater / Wyoming County Cultural Center in Tunkhannock, PA.

In addition, I just this past weekend got my entries completed and submitted for the annual Wilkes Barre Fine Arts Fiesta Adult Juried Exhibition.

Here are the five paintings I decided to submit...I'll find out in about a week whether or not any of them were accepted into the show.

I had a hard time deciding which five to submit. The final two came down to the "Quince" (below) and my "Gold Leaf" painting. I thought about posting a poll here on my blog to help me decide, but in the end, I simply e-mailed a few of my very good friends and supportive family members. The leaf and the quince were about tied, so I framed them both. Suddenly, the decision was really easy! The quince actually seemed to move once it was framed. It was quite dramatic!

The leaf looks really cool in its frame, too. My husband, who is a pretty good woodworker, made a custom frame for it out of some beautiful figured ash, which swirls around the outside of the mat like an extension of the water the leaf is floating in. It adds to the tranquil, watery feeling of that particular painting. I'll post a photo of the framed painting soon.

Anyway, I'll keep you posted on the results of my entries. Please keep your fingers crossed for me! Thanks!!

Faded, But Still Beautiful

"Faded, But Still Beautiful"

15" x 11"

Watercolor

I used to paint exclusively in watercolor, but it got to be more difficult to manage once I had kids. Waiting for layers to dry, taking care not to muddy the colors, making sure the paper was wet enough, but not TOO wet...it became nearly impossible when my kids were little.

Well, they're growing now, and even though I'm totally hooked on my pastels, I still like to play with my watercolors once in a while. Well, I got a terrible craving to do something loose and free with my watercolors, and this was the result. It was fast, loose, and lots of fun to paint!

Avery

"Avery"

12" x 18"

Pastel

This is a moody view of Avery Mountain from my husband's aunt Calista's house in Tunkhannock, PA. I have always loved the view of that mountain, and her lovely garden helped frame it perfectly. I finished it a couple weeks ago, but just got around to photographing, matting and framing it.

Color Therapy

Untitled (any suggestions?)

9" x 12"

Pastel

I started this painting a couple weeks ago, on a day when my 5-year-old son woke up for the day at 5:00 in the morning. It was still cold and cloudy outside. I was bleary-eyed and couldn't shake it. All I was desperately craving (besides a lovely cup of coffee) was some COLOR THERAPY!! Well, this is the ultimate result of that dreary Monday morning. I hope it brings you some of the energy that painting it brought to me...enjoy!

Spring Blossoms

"Spring Blossoms"

18" x 11"

Pastel

Yes, I am CRAVING the warmth and sunshine of spring! I normally like winter, but we've had so much ICE this year, that it's difficult to even get outside for a walk. I'm ready for the fresh spring air...I LOVE that smell! I'd pass on the allergy part of it, but I'll take the allergies just to be able to get outside! For now, this is how I satisfy my craving...if I can't actually HAVE spring right now, I'll PAINT it instead!

Flowering Quince

Flowering Quince

9" x 12"

Pastel

My mother-in-law has a beautiful flowering quince bush in her yard. Even though it blooms every year, I always surprised by its vibrant beauty when it does. Completing this painting restored my sanity on a cloudy, overcast day when the temperature was -4 degrees farenheit!

Cosmos

Cosmos

17" x 11"

Pastel

A bit of a departure for me...this is a bit looser than I normally get with my pastels, but I think I'm liking it! I worked, very loosely, from a photograph I took in Monet's garden in Giverny, France.

DRIP! - Part 2

DRIP!

9" x 12"

Pastel

I've been wanting to paint this Mexican Sunflower for quite some time. I think it may be done, but I'll turn it to the wall for a week or so and look at it again before I decide for sure. I never know what I'll see when I look at a painting with a "fresh" set of eyes.

ACEOs

I've decided to do my first attempt at an ACEO. ACEO stands for Art Cards Editions and Originals. They can be done in any medium, they can be originals, they can be open edition prints or limited edition prints...the only rule is that they have to measure 2.5 x 3.5 inches.

Some people collect these, and now I know why! They are ADORABLE! (No kidding, I giggled with delight when I saw them!) And because they are miniature, they are also inexpensive.

So, I am doing my first few, and we'll see what the response is like. The first one is now available in my Etsy store. I had them professionally giclee printed on Somerset Velvet archival paper, which is a nice, thick, textured paper. I, of course, could not resist adding a miniature Certificate of Authenticity to ship with my tiny little works of art!

Moody Flower

I'm really drawn to this faded black-eyed Susan. I can't say why, for sure, but I think it has to do with the fact that I see an unusual beauty in this faded bloom that I don't see in the fresh ones. Maybe it's that the colors are more complex in the faded blooms, before they turn totally brown.



I completed this pastel last night. I've cropped it to 10 x 8, which is not only better for framing, but I think makes it a more interesting composition than what I had originally planned out.

Current Works-In-Progress

I have a couple of pastels in progress right now. I always have more than one going at a time, because I usually need to put one away for awhile when I get stuck, but I still want to be painting. And sometimes, in the course of painting something completely different, I realize exactly what it is the other painting needs. Funny how that works!


I'm feeling like this pastel of my mother-in-law's old barn is nearing completion. It's almost there...

The pastel below is one that I almost threw away back in May. I just got stuck and couldn't get unstuck. It had no depth to it at all and I was frustrated. I recently decided I'd get really bold and play around with the color on it, since I was going to throw it out anyhow, and I'm now beginning to see some of the depth I was unable to achieve in May. I'm still not sure I can "save it," but I'm learning a lot from this painting as I'm playing around with it.

Seeing it photographed always gives me a new, more objective set of eyes, and I think I need to pull those shadows out even more than I have...and I thought I was being bold with that purple! Time to grow a pair and go even bolder!

Comments, suggestions, feedback...anyone?

Busy, busy, busy!

I'm realizing that I haven't blogged in awhile. I have been working on various projects, including organizing my digital photographs in Photoshop Elements, adding keywords and tags so I can more easily find specific photos that I'm looking for. Let's just say THAT'S going to be a work in progress for some time...I discovered that I have more than 20,000 digital photos on my external hard drive alone!

Oh my!

I have also been working on uploading more of my photos to my photo website and adding keywords there...the link is in the right column, but if you prefer to type the address into your browser, it's http://mdevensfitz.zenfolio.com/.

I'm also deciding what to add next to my Etsy store. I think it's time to add some greeting card "sets," notecards and notecard "sets." With the holidays approaching, this would be an easier option for some potential buyers than sending me a message asking me to do so.

Regarding this blog, I've been spending time debating with myself what the "format" of this blog should be. While I want to add neew art and photography as I go, I have some less-recent favorites that I want to share as well. So, please forgive me if I am violating some unwritten code of art blog protocol, but I've decided that I will be sharing old favorites mixed in with new stuff.

On that note, here are a pair of pastel paintings that I really like. I worked on these last winter when the weather was so dreary. We got so much ice that I couldn't even take the kids outside to play in the snow...they just slid around on top of it. I was really needing to expose myself to some color and light, so I decided to MAKE some!

"Dreams of Spring"

9" x 12"

Pastel

"Grand Opening"

9" x 12"

Pastel

Both were juried into this year's Wilkes Barre Fine Arts Fiesta, along with my "Portrait of a Stunning Redhead." The best part about painting these, though, is how that process pulled me out of a bad case of the mid-winter blues!

Portrait of a Stunning Redhead

I just discovered my greeting card made with this image in an Etsy treasury entitled, "Redheads." This painting is one of my personal favorites. I completed this pastel last winter during a dreary period of lots and lots of ice. I just needed to immerse myself in vibrant color for awhile! The original painting is 9" x 12" and is not for sale. However, greeting cards and giclees on paper or canvas are available.

Please send me a message if you are interested!

Photos in the Spotlight

I was pleasantly surprised to find a couple of my photos listed in treasuries on Etsy...a treasury is where somebody on Etsy puts together a group of their 12 favorite items and posts them for all to see. They usually follow some type of theme, but they can also just be a list of favorites. It is essentially free word-of-mouth advertising on Etsy, and I think it's a fabulous compliment!

So, I was honored to stumble across the following two photos in two separate treasuries.

I call the photograph above, "Drip!" This is a photograph of a Mexican sunflower that I took in Monet's garden on our trip to Paris last year. The air was pleasantly misty with an amazing filtered light effect that I have never seen anywhere else. The mist was condensing on all the flowers in the famous garden, which made for some wonderful photographic opportunities!

I found my above photograph, "Burning Bush," in a separate treasury. This photograph was taken after the first snow last winter. I just loved the effect of the white snow on the colorful leaves. I'm so glad to discover that someone else loves it, too!

What I Love About Autumn

Autumn painted her canvas with "weak-in-the-knees-stunning" color and light today. I'm making a point to appreciate it now, because winter comes early here, and all the colors will soon be gone.

My Road Home

Tree Of Light

Maple Swirl

No name for this one yet...I just loved the play of the blue-purple against the golden background. Any suggestions?