public art

I've been too busy to blog...
running Bellacompany.com, getting my art ready for Open Studios and life itself leaves me little time to sit and even seem intelligent.

We lost our big white dog, Luna. We found a puppy to keep Noodle company and to brighten our spirits too. That's working well.
This last weekend, I visited Salt Lake City to participate in a No More Homeless Pets of Utah fund raiser. What an inspiring event it was. These Utah volunteers are highly organized and put on a spectacular event. The best part was that people got to bring their dogs with them. It was great fun and I drew quite a few Luna Toons to help their cause. At the same time, I wonder what the world would look like if we all got some dogs and cats and took good care of them so that all of these devoted highly skilled volunteers could use their nohow to help with other causes on this planet! Being responsible for ones pets seems like a no brainer...but I'm somehow not quite right about that!

Blogging student

I saw " Julie and Julia" yesterday, and in addition to being a wonderful film to watch, I learned about blogging! So, if I could improve my blogging efforts and my cooking efforts, I'd really be on the path to heaven on earth!

Our household doesn't spend as much time as we could on creating great meals. The excuse is the same old same old...not enough time. But, we do have time if we plan ahead. Now that our kitchen is remodeled we don't have too many excuses for not eating well. There are lots of great vegetarian websites with wonderful recipes, so I'm on the path. ...even if the approach is a little slow. By the way, I'd love some suggestions for vegetarian recipe sites!

As far as my blog subject matter, I just need to keep on the art path. (Being "discovered" is a whole other arena.) What's enjoyable is viewing my own comments and paintings as I move along to each new painting. Hopefully I can learn to slow down my multi tasking gene (way over active), and sharpen my "stay in one place" gene some. This blog began as a way to organize my art, so I'm feeling pretty good about showing new work as well as a few pieces of work from 1960....and all of the stages in between then and now.

The artist coalition event, Artists Sudios: KC, will be happening in Oct. My studio will be open Saturday, Oct. 24th from 10-4 and Sunday, Oct. 25th from 12-4...or by appointment.

July of my Dreams

I'm not sure if it has ever been like spring in Missouri
...in the middle of July! A chance to not only get the garden into some kind of mid summer order (without a heat stroke)...but also, to paint. I'm sketching outside and painting in my studio.
Getting ready for Open Studios at the end of October.
I hope to have many new dog/garden paintings for visitors to enjoy and buy too!

When I first moved to Missouri, I was thrilled to paint flowers. There were so many in summer! I was raised in Seattle where flowers were abundant, so, in some ways, it was like returning home.
July 19, 2009

Spring to Summer

Spring is such a great and difficult time. It's nature's "e" ride at Disney World! Great to be on, but I also realize I'm already missing the contemplation of a winter day. Everything beckons! The yard gardening, the longer dog walk, the necessary home repairs. Like the fall season before winter, spring seems like the perfect time to get too many things done before summer. I did take several days away from other work to go out in the yard and draw some flowers. My studio is next to the garden so it's amazingly easy to get back in the cool and bug free environment to work on some small mixed media paintings! Enjoy.
ps. roof project done, new porch working, kitchen remodel turning the corner to completion!
In addition, I need to be working more in my studio as the Kansas City Artist Coalition is gearing up for another Open Studios event this fall in mid October! Folks visiting my studio in Weston will probably want to see some new work! More about that event later

learning about blogging

I'm trying to teach my old brain some new tricks, but it takes a lot of patience! Big Shamu is my only friend out in the universe of Blogging and she really keeps up with me somehow. So, now I can't figure out how to e-mail her, or where to make a comment! ...hence this blog!
Meanwhile, we are undergoing a kitchen redesign and on Wed. we're having our back porch and essential entrance to our backyard repaired. We seem to have nerves of steel when it comes to home repair, but our dog Helen who came to us with macular degeneration is not so understanding of each change in any part of her day, so the back porch repair is going to be traumatic as the back porch is her way to the backyard.
Top photo is our yard in early spring. We've had a cool rainy spring, so even the day lillies haven't bloomed yet! 2nd photo is of Helen relaxing in the backyard last summer.

Forget Spring

There's so much to do in the spring, that I almost don't feel like doing anything! Some time need to walk the dogs swiftly past all the new insects waiting for me on the path, some time for the garden which grows everything good and not so good in abundance, some time for public events to attend here in Weston, Bella Company activities including shipping and ordering shirts more this time of year (not complaining), a kitchen remodel in our house (which includes all kinds of activities you don't think of when you decide to have the work done (don't ask how many times we have been to Home Depot the past 3 weeks!),...
Do any of these activities have any connection with each other? it's like walking from movie to movie during the day. A Myspace and Facebook development project that is fun and confusing all at the same time has taken another time chunk to, but hopefully it's making my brain bigger too!
And painting...how about painting? I did manage to paint a small mixed media of this great pink poppy that's been showing off in our garden...and I have managed a couple of Luna Toons cartoons for customers. I hope to remember all of this when it's middle of winter and there is not much to do but paint!
And finally I "figure out" how to upload a photo of the hypnotic poppy! I must write more often and also find some other garden artists to share photos with...My next adventure begins!

trying something new

I'm getting ready to participate in a local "Woof to Weston" event. It's a fund raiser for a new rescue site in the north land. The name of the organizing group is NAWS. Mother nature is always cooking up some surprise, so having t-shirts and caps on a table just right in the great out of doors is risky. I've decided to start a new side line...called LunaToons. For a few bucks, I will cartoon individual dogs at the event! All will be simple. I love drawing dogs, so I don't know why I've never thought of doing this before. Who knows if it will be popular or if my drawings will be good enough...but I'm willing to give it a shot and I'll have some dog illustrations to bring home and put on a t-shirt or a card, so either way, I'll end up with something.
I practiced doing a toon of my neighbors dog this AM to see what I'd need to set up and how long it would take me to make a reasonable "toon"...I'm going to draw our dogs so I'll have some more samples of my work so folks will know what they're in for if they say yes. I guess I'm trying to make my life a little more simple and fun. Hope this is the right direction to go. I'll find out soon enough! the drawings shown are just a couple for practice run to get a feel for how things would work and to see if I had enough supplies with me to work with. The illustrations are of Tucker (bichon dog) and the girls, Star and Hannah...little long coated chihuahuas.

Revising the revision

Re-vision...maybe what painting is. After following Gainsbourgh down
the path of 4 paintings, I learned some...but I revised the last three
paintings back to M.Mason (me). It was a long journey and lots of
paint, but it's nice to be back.

Lessons from Gainsborough

I haven't done a very good job of posting anything on my blog spot, but I'm beginning the new year with some hope of working into this at least weekly. I enjoy reading my own blogs! It reminds me of thoughts I've had or processes that I've begun that I may not be totally conscious of!
I've discovered a local woman who collects vintage clothing. I was intrigued by the idea of making some paintings about her and her dogs in the Gainsborough style I played with in creating Blue Boy last summer. I'm dedicated to making three paintings using that style and form. I find it difficult to write all my processes because I'm not sure really what the process involves. For instance, last night I came to my studio to work on a pet portrait commission. However, I found it necessary to straighten up my bookshelf and then I found it necessary to rearrange my studio and put my sketch books in some kind of order. Finally, an hour later, I could settle down and work on a sketch. I'm not sure what this process is, but I just need to allow the rearrangement time as part of my time to paint.
Posted is my 2nd painting in this series called Walk in Winter