What I have learned from art magazines

Thanksgiving weekend was a wonderful time with family, yummy food, and for me: time to catch up reading my four artist magazines: Pastel Journal, Watercolor Artist, The Artists' Magazine, and Art Calendar. What a treasure trove of information the most recent issues provided me with!

Watercolor Artist had an article on how to take good photos of your art work - a great nuts and bolts article for the non-photographer.

The Artists' Magazine had an article on copyright law as it pertains to the artist.

And my favorite business magazine, Art Calendar, had article after article like: "Getting Connected on LinkedIn" (a business oriented social networking site), "How to Work With Art Consultants", "Almost Everything You Wanted to Know About Solo Exhibitions", "How to Sell (Art) on eBay", and several articles on cultivating networking skills, keeping in touch with your customers, and more.

For a year I've been reading whatever I can get my hands on - about how to be a professional artist - the business side of it - the mysteries of the unknown. My husband and I sat by the fire the other night and had a brainstorm about my direction next year. I am going to paint a "body of work", i.e., 20 paintings of a similar subject, style and media. Next, I will put together my first solo show, and hold it in our Truckee house. I have decided to do this in pastel, and paint landscapes depicting the Sierra Nevadas - in and around Lake Tahoe, Truckee and surrounding areas.

While my brain was spinning with details and ideas, I spun about 5 skeins of yarn at my spinning wheel! What a great way to meditate and think about things! Spinning is so rhythmic, tactile and doesn't require any mental effort - so your mind is free to think about whatever. And then you have come up with great ideas and produced a useful product to boot!

Happy Thanksgiving! How about some pie?

How can I paint when there is food to prepare? So, I'll share a Pecan Pie recipe with you. It is my own alteration of an existing recipe - so I kind of made it my own. Here is what makes it different - less sweet gooey stuff - more nuts!

Pie Crust:

2 C flour

1 teas. salt

2/3 Cup and 2 T shortening

4-5 T cold water

Mix dry ingredients, cut in shortening. Stir in water, roll out dough to fit pan. This should be plenty for a deep dish 10" pan.

Filling:

2 eggs, separated

1/2 C brown sugar, packed

1/8 teas. salt

1/2 teas. cinnamon

1 T flour

1/4 C butter, melted

1/2 teas. vanilla

1 C dark corn syrup

1 C coarsely chopped pecans

1 C pecan halves

Preheat oven 350 degrees F.

Beat egg yolks, add brown sugar, salt, sinnamon, flour, melted butter, vanilla and syrup, beating well to blend.

Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry, fold into egg yolk mixture, and add the chopped nuts.

Pour filling into pie shell, arrange pecan halves on top in a nice pattern

Bake 350 degrees about 45 minutes or until center is set. Test by shaking gently. Cool.

Have a great holiday!

Life in the Desert - Pastel Painting

Yesterday we hiked Cottonwood Canyon at the opposite end of Joshua Trees National Park. Since we come from Reno, Nevada, we are used to massive cottonwood trees - all golden in the autumn air. So we had to remind ourselves this was out in the middle of the desert, in a canyon with very little water ... so there weren't very many cottonwoods! There were a few palms in there as well, but mostly the hike is a dry wash canyon that was interesting and fun to hike down into.

This painting is from a photo I took of looking up out of the canyon, where the small Joshua trees are struggling to survive and are silouetted by the bright pale sky.

Tomorrow we drive home. I finished knitting two pairs of fingerless mittens, and now will be knitting a neck warmer scarf out of Miss Lucky's yarn (my French Angora Bunny). We are preparing to go back to cold weather...

Visit to Indian Canyons

Yesterday I drove to Indian Canyons. I will have to come back next time we visit the Palm Springs area. It is a trail system (well marked and you get maps) of three canyons on Indian Reservation land. You pay an entrance fee, but it is well worth it. I only had two hours, so I only went to Palm Canyon. These fan palms are natural and wild for this area, and they grow in the canyons where there are spring-fed streams. The Indians covered their huts with the dried palm leaves. It was very peaceful and shady in that canyon, and cool, since it was a warm day. This is a little pastel I did of the light coming through the trees in the canyon.

Joshua Tree in the Desert

Yesterday we drove through part of Joshua Trees National Monument. There are many turn-offs where you can go on little hikes and nature walks. Our favorite one was Hidden Valley. This area has many rock piles and interesting rock formations made of monzogranite - a pink colored granite.

I had some problems with this painting, but I'm sharing it anyway. It is pastel on a medium blue paper - really too dark and too blue. The earth is really warmer in color. Oh, well.

Cactus Garden

We are in Palm Desert. Yesterday we went to the Living Desert. It is a combination of zoo, gardens, model train town, and natural desert trail system. It was very nice! We had an enjoyable day there. I took pictures of some of the cactus gardens. This morning I painted from one of them. We have a balcony and the weather is pleasant, so I worked out there. I referred to my photo on my laptop. This is a pastel painting on Canson paper.

After the leaves fall, comes cold weather

... and other excuses why I haven't painted!!!! It is colder now. Below freezing at night. Thanksgiving around the corner ... and then the Holiday rush to make or shop for gifts. This is when I crave working with fiber when I'm not working with paint or pastel. This is when I start wearing wool socks. I have a few here to show. Some will be gifts. This is when I want to sit at the spinning wheel in front of the fire. I joined a few spinning friends at one of their houses for a spin-in, and she had a fire going in the fireplace.

Another project I'm doing for holiday gifts (and for myself, too) is fingerless mittens. We are driving (about 8 hours) to Palm Desert, California tomorrow. While my husband drives, I can knit away. We will be staying a week at a timeshare. I'm bringing my pastels and I hope to do some painting of desert scenery. We will go to Joshua Tree National Park and I hope to get some good photos to paint from. Check out www.nps.gov/jotr for the Joshua Tree Park website.