New Painting....

Summer backyard of a friend....

New painting....

This is a painting of Congress Street down near the Eastern Prom, in Portland, Maine.
Tempera Paint. About 11" x 17".

And then.....the reason I haven't posted for eons is because I had 3 other blogs on Blogger, one was photo heavy, so therefore, I exceeded my photo limit and was too cheap to pay the monthly fee to continue. I moved one of the blogs to Wordpress and now I'm good to go......for now, anyway.

First Friday Art Walk......

We had the best time last night. We often go to the First Friday Art Walk in Portland, but last night was the busiest I've ever seen it.

It was a lovely, warm September evening and an absolute delight to be wandering around aimlessly on Congress Street. Art, wine and music everywhere. What more could one want??

Street bands were scattered about. The gentleman in the white t- shirt was not officially part of the percussion entourage, he simply picked up a pot and a stick and joined in. He was actually pretty good, but after several minutes of banging around, the original members politely asked him to STOP IT!! He did so without incident.

I love this shot of the flat iron building housing Starbucks below and a gallery above.

The orange hair should be wearing the orange trousers!

There was a huge line at Otto's pizza just to get pie by the slice.

No, we did not go into Strange Maine. Birdman and I don't need any more strangeness in our lives.

I wish this was more in focus. This kid was so cute munching on pizza.

 We walked from City Hall all the way to Longfellow Square and ended up at LFK's pub, an new establishment in an old book store.

We had met up with a friend at the Gleason Gallery where they always have copious amounts of wine and snacks and he came with us.

It was a rocking place and we nicely settled in on a settee and some overstuffed chairs in the back of the pub after greeting several friends that just happened to be there.

These Art Walks are always a lot of fun. 

I also think they have works of art hanging up here and there.

I'll have to look next time.

New Painting......

Deering Oaks Park. Portland, Maine

Tempera paint. 17" x 25".

Puppy portrait....

My latest pooch portrait.

Started school mural....

Every fall I paint a huge mural to post outside of my classroom. I have a large bulletin board in the hall, covered in glass. It's 91 inches wide by 55 inches tall. Big.

I have been doing this for twenty years, including this year.

I base the theme on a current summer movie.  The movie has to be appropriate for middle schoolers to see, so 'Hung, the movie' ** would not be a wise choice.

It usually takes me a week to design and paint. This years honoree is the movie The Smurfs.

Here's a sneak peak of the beginnings.....

More to come as I proceed..... (there's a reason why they are not all blue....I'm the boss of the brush.)

**'Hung the Movie' is not really a movie, but Hung is an actual TV program. It's about an ex school teacher who is divorced with two high school kids that have, um, issues. He shares them with his ex wife (Ann Heche) and they have issues as well. Things are not going well for him in every way until he discovers how the fact that he's, um, well 'hung', is an attribute that could make him a LOT of money, especially with an 'agent'. The warped side of me loved this show. I think it was HBO, but you can find it to watch online somewhere. Just google 'watch Hung' and see what you get. It was quirky, and I like quirky.

BYW, you never really see how well hung he is, so you have to use your imagination. 

I have a very good imagination.

New painting.....

I was commissioned to do a painting of someone's house. I just finished it last week.

It's a tempera painting measuring 16"X 20".

Interesting stones built into the chimney.

How to make gigantic poppies.....

These poppies were adapted from directions on Martha Stewart's website.

You can see the scale of these flowers in a previous post. Here.

Here is a finished one. It's about 24 inches across.
I don't have the exact measurements for too much, as I basically wing it when I make them.

This pattern I made because some of my friends wanted to make some. This is on a piece of 12" by 18" colored construction paper. Cut 4 petals that look something like the pattern.

Cut 3 smaller ones.

Sorry, I didn't measure these circles, but they are placed on 9" by 12" colored construction paper, so you can estimate the size by comparing it to the paper. They don't have to be exact.

(this will be the centers of the finished flower)

Here is a close up of how I make the cuts. As you cut more, the paper gets weaker, so the later slits are cut shorter and shorter not to weaken the center of the circle.

Cuts already made. Randomly take something round like a marker and curl the strips of paper on the marker. See a close up of the finished flower up above to see what I mean. (biggify the photo)

The folds that are made on each petal are made on the edge of a ruler randomly, radiating out from the imaginary center of an imaginary circle. (Clear as mud......) Some folds are done from one side of the paper and some are done from the other side, in no apparent order and no rhyme or reason. 

All the petals are actually stapled together. First the outer four, in a circular fashion, and then the center three. Then I stapled them all to each other wherever I could.

I'm sure they are supposed to be glued together or something, but I didn't want to wait until the glue dried.

Poppy leaves are cut out to some shape that resembles poppy leaves.

I scored them down the center to create a vein of sorts.

After I took these photos, I forgot to take any more. But I think if you refer to the first photo of the finished poppy, you get the gist of how to glue the pieces together.

These are the worst directions I've ever given, I'm sorry to say. 

We just went out to dinner, had two glasses of wine, came home (we are actually in Oregon, believe it or not), had some delicious chocolate chip cookies, am stuffed to the gills and suffering from possible jet lag and THATS when I decide to do a blog entry.

You get what you pay for, and I'm paying.

Going to bed to try and remedy the situation.

Good night!

Paper Flowers I made...

Here are some large paper flowers I made for a special occasion at my school. I was inspired by googling 'large paper flowers'. Some places had directions, like the poppies, some sites were just photos and then I figured it out myself. A lot of the flowers I just made up.

They really make a big impact. I will post directions as soon as I can for some of them.

Oh, by the way, they are just construction paper.

Just a new painting......

I finished this one a few weeks ago, but was reminded of the snowy image because..... WE HAD ANOTHER SNOW DAY ON FRIDAY!!!! $^*))*&^%$#       It was not April Fools......

New painting.....

Another painting in my 'road series'. Tempera paint. 16" x 20"

New Painting.....

Here is another painting in my 'Road' series. It is Congress Street in Portland, Maine. (Intersection of Bramhall Street and Congress Street, heading out of town)

It is 17" x 22" and is in tempera paint.

New Painting.....

A tempera painting commissioned by a colleague. A gift for his brother.

New Abstract Sculptures......

My 7th graders just finished an Abstract Sculpture unit. Here are some images showing their work.

Pretty good, I think!