Lost Soul in Studio

I'm really not lost. I have been busy. We, Gene and I, have been busy. You will need a cup of coffee to read all this. Not a good idea to have a long wordy blog, but here goes anyway. I will try to post more often so the posts will be shorter.

We will have a ribbon cutting for my new studio/gallery with the Chamber of Commerce next Friday, April 23. The party will be from 1 - 3 p.m. with the ribbon cutting at 1:30 p.m. I haven't done this in a while. I think we will have sangria made with apple juice, non alcoholic, and then have wine if anyone wants to have some. I haven't decided on the snacks. After lunch, maybe some dessert things??

We started moving into my new studio in bits and pieces. It is a game of catch up. We found two nice shelves at Goodwill in Austin. $25 for two! Then we found a nice office metal desk here in Bastrop for $50. My friend, Lea, loaned me some glass shelving for 100 years. Gene spent the afternoon yesterday putting a small one and then a large one together. They are glass cubes that you stack. Today he made a stand for the large one. They look so nice. He cleaned windows and put up a door that had been taken off the storage area. Maybe he will get another shelf done next week.

I was painting for a donation for CASA, Court Appointed Special Advocate. They have a neat fundraiser, Justice is Served, every year. I started a landscape yesterday, wiped it off twice, so painted a Rooster. Sorry, no photo tonight. I hope we have sunshine tomorrow morning as I have to deliver the painting and I like to take photos of pastel paintings in direct sunlight. Hopefully I will get a good photo for you.

Roadside Blues, Acrylic on Canvas, 8 x 10 inches

This is a bluebonnet painting I did a few years ago. Today I was working toward a similar view and it didn't work out. I am surprised to see how close it was in composition. I guess it is true that if you look through paintings you like you will find things in common with them. The one today had only one tree on the left and one curve in the road. Interesting.

Judy Hawes brought some of her jewelry and two paintings so that is there, too. She doesn't have a website so you will have to rely on photos from me.

I have also been making cards for my paintings, getting some signs ordered, a stamp for checks and receipts, pricing my Cafepress items so I can have some small $$ items to sell, too. So much paperwork to keep track of things. I have to "move" paintings in my inventory from Peppers to here. (We brought home most of my paintings from Peppers in Magdalena. Marky is ill and not sure if she can keep her gallery open. So sad.)

I still have to get a credit card machine, cash box, a ledger or a way to keep books. I can use Quicken I suppose. Yikes!

Gene is amazing. He fixes, builds, carries, etc. Today he fixed the flag holder for the Guild. It was falling off the pole so he did that, besides what he was doing for me. He got me a light and timer for the window display so we can have a light in the evening for a while. He makes it easy for me to do what I have to do. I could not do this alone, for sure.

We have also been going to see the Longhorn Baseball team play! They are doing so well. This weekend are the games with Texas A & M. They play here in Austin tomorrow night and then in College Station on Saturday and Sunday. The game Saturday is on Fox Sports in the evening. It will be nice to be able to watch the game. Sunday it is on Fox College Sports or some such channel that we don't have. Sigh.... You can read about the games on Joanna's Longhorn Baseball Page and on the Longhorn's official site. Bill Little wrote a nice essay there today about confidence. Could apply to artists as well as baseball players. Confidence cancels fear.

Now I have to get busy and paint!!!