New Images for Painting Workshop Added

I have just finished uploading some new images which will be/are being painted in my Michaels Painting Workshops this February. I have been working hard to develop some new ones and am very excited about some of them.

Look for the "Painting Workshops" link you see above and click it to see them and to get more details.

There is just one thing I don't understand:
Some folks have balked at the $27 price of a class. Are you kidding?!?
Think about other classes and how much they cost. I pay my son's guitar teacher $20 for a half hour lesson. He gets 30 minutes of instruction for that. That equates to $40/hr. If Michaels were to charge the same rate for my two-hour painting classes, students would have to pay $80 per class! Talk about a value!

Rainbows in Winter

Rainbows in Winter.

Anniversaries can be joyful. They can also be hard to go through. This time of year is the anniversary of my mom's passing. It also would have been my Dad's birthday yesterday. Dad passed away almost two years ago in April. I visited my April '09 blog posts and along with my thoughts about Dad, I found some nice pix you might enjoy seeing around now. I did. With snow all around us, I thought it might be a nice visual break to take a look at some rainbow pix! There's also a nice daffodil close-up, too!

Here's the link.
 http://jeanneguerin-daley.blogspot.com/2009_04_01_archive.html

Are You Having a Bad Day?

A few years ago, when my dad was still alive, he sent me an email that made me feel much better when I was having a bad day.

The bills were piling up,their due dates looming closer and closer. Bad luck seemed to have decided upon me as its constant companion. My day-to-day responsibilities, it seemed, were compounding by the hour. I was doing everything I knew to muddle through it, yet it still wasn't enough.

I vented to Dad a bit in an email; I just couldn't keep it all inside.

Dad sent me a reply with a quote from Cervantes' book. "Man of La Manche" (Don Quixote).

"All these bad things that happen are signs that soon times  will calm down and things have to get better; it isn't possible that neither the bad nor the good last forever, and if bad things have lasted a long time, the good things are near."

I printed it out on a document, in large green letters to fill half a page, and taped it to my wall near my work space. Reading it often has improved my outlook on tough days... in my life, and in my painting.

Thanks, Dad.  Try it yourself if you like.

Conchita's Passing: Four Years Later

It has been just about four years since I experienced the very sad event of the death of my mother, Conchita Guerin. I can't believe it has been that long of a time.

I still remember being overcome with grief at the loss of her, yet also feeling a twinge of relief that her/our* painful fight with Alzheimer's Disease had come to an end.

*I refer to a fact which I discovered: when one family member has this disease, it truly affects everyone, and is everyone's fight.

 She was such a wonderful human being; I feel the desire to share my thoughts about her again.
Four years ago, I wrote a blog post about her. Here is a link to it.

http://jeanneguerin-daley.blogspot.com/2007/01/good-bye-conchita.html

MLK Day at Girard College

Yesterday I was able to contribute to the Giant Surge of Volunteerism that spreads across our country every year on MLK Day, thanks to the memory of that great man Martin Luther King.

I helped out an event held at Girard College where all kinds of things were offered to the attendees. I was at one of the two Phila. Mural Arts tables, the one where kids could help to color in a huge paper drawing of Dr King. They had crayons, colored pencils, markers, and a cool new thing called slip sticks [I think!] They were like oil pastels contained in a plastic holder and could be raised up and lowered like a stick of lipstick. Very fun to draw with!

I posted a couple photos of the activity on my Facebook page too. I am very grateful that I could be there.

Marianne Mitchell Gives Artists Talk at DVAL

 "Wine Country" 10x10" Oil Pastel, (c) Marianne Mitchell

Friday was an art day for me. First, I attended the monthly Board meeting of the Delaware Valley Art League.
Then, after a lunch break with fellow artists, was the general meeting for members. I was treated to a presentation by an artist whose work I hadn't yet seen, Marianne Mitchell.

She showed photos of her oil pastel works, her acrylic paintings, and her photographs, pointing out the similarities between them. I found it quite striking how although the medium may change, the artist's hand/mind still shines through.

As you can see, her art is rich with color and full of contrasts: complementary colors, organic vs. architectural shapes, fluid vs, straight lines,...
Abstract images that emerge from her reactions to her environment and the seasons filled her paintings. She has traveled to many places, among them: China, Maine, the Pacific coast, Canada. The colors and shapes in her paintings reflected her experiences there.
I was sorry that my fellow ARTsister, Linda Dubin Garfield, wasn't able to attend. I saw many similarities between the two artists' works.

Towards the end of the presentation, Marianne answered questions, many of which were concerning the materials she uses, and we got a great tip on a painting tool. Called an auto body spreader, and found at auto parts stores, she said of the tool that it is "the cheapest, most fabulous tool you'll ever buy." (I stopped by Auto Zone today and picked up a package of three for $3 so I can give it a try.)

I also am perplexed a bit. A few years ago, when I heard about the Delaware Valley Art League, I was invited to a meeting to check it out. At this meeting, the presenter was artist Nancy Halbert, who creates and teaches art. She showed a slide presentation covering the history of art from cave paintings to abstracts.
By the meeting's end, I decided that joining this organization would be a good career move for me. Here was a chance to meet other artists, to learn from other artists, (and I firmly believe, when one stops learning, they stop living) to show my work, to network,...
Since then I have joined the Board and have made every attempt to attend to every meeting. It was through DVAL that I was introduced to many wonderful area artists like Sarah Yeoman (watercolors) , Carol Kardon (oils, pastels), and Ann Northrup (murals).

So, can someone please tell me, why are the meetings so often not well-attended? We have many members, but only a few take advantage of the wealth of benefit of the monthly meetings. I just don't get it!

Fearless with Paint!

I just read a comment that someone said about me online. She said I had fearlessness with paint! Reading the comment made me smile. No one has ever put it quite like that, yet I believe it to be true. Playing with paint is fun and exciting for me. There is no room for fear! If I play around and the paint doesn't do what I want it to do, I may get frustrated a little, but I am never fearful to try. I guess it's because it's my passion. How can one be scared of one's passion? Preposterous!

The Tenth Day

So far so good. We made it to the tenth day of the year.

Happy Birthday, kiddo!

Nice Art Exhibit at Artists House this month

I stopped in the Artists House Gallery yesterday in the Olde City neighborhood of Philadelphia. I was treated to a delightful exhibit of oil paintings, portraits and pastels by eight of their artists. There were some very nice works there. Landscapes, cityscapes, still life, portraits,... a little bit of everything... even a newell post or two!

Runs until Jan 30, 2011.

http://artistshouse.com/
57 North Second Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106
215-923-8440

Changing layout colors...

Am playing around a bit with color/background/layout decisions regarding the layout of this blog. Learning as I go....

So much I have learned about computer capabilities that way. Just playing around,...

Miss You Guys!

: (

 I miss my Spanish cousins already!
(They left this morning.)