Teresa Mallen Studio

garden therapy

teresa@teresamallenstudio.com (Teresa Mallen) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:47:00 +0000

Ever have a time when your mind seems to be completely preoccupied with ideas for new projects? This past week has been like that for me. I started off last Monday suddenly passionate about creating a Christmas card illustration. I proceeded to turn my studio upside down as I hunted up all sorts of Christmasy stuff that I keep for such times of inspiration. By the afternoon I had some draft sketches but no more enthusiasm. Humph...

The next day, I was off to the races chasing after the art card idea. As you already know, I then spent time on-line and in my vehicle checking out printing companies both near and far. I had to be out of town on Wednesday (selling my Dad's old car) and Thursday found me again at a printing company. As I was already downtown, I decided to revisit the National Gallery. (If you missed my last trip there with all of my touristy photos, click here.) After staring at some fabulous art for a couple of hours, my mind was now racing with new ideas for possible subjects, colour combinations, etc.

Suddenly it was Friday and it seemed like I hadn't had a productive week. I settled myself at the drafting table and worked on the peas. And oops if I didn't forget all about teaching the next day! I found myself losing track of time, dashing out of the studio at 5:00, hoping to get in a walk with the dog before pitch dark, with thoughts of what to cook for supper drifting through and then it hit me...I had to teach in the morning...I looked back at the mess my studio was in - Christmas stuff and art card stuff all over the place - I had material to print off - uh oh...

Monday and a fresh new week arrived and with it some fabulous, ridiculously warm weather. I decided it was time for garden therapy.

Time also to root out the invasive mallow plant...here is a blossom that managed to survive the snow storm. Looks innocent enough.

One of my flower garden beds has become overrun by this aggressive self seeder. Other flowers have been shoved aside and my colour palette has been reduced to a sea of pink cotton candy. I had thought this digging out job would have to wait until spring but this mild weather and my busy brain became the perfect combination for the job.

I ended up spending hours digging, talking nasty to the plant and chortling with glee as I yanked out the long roots. Very therapeutic!

Here was one of my challenges - twisting myself into a pretzel so that I could dig out some plants under a lilac bush.

Ah, the fruits of my labour.

There were also moments of art inspiration (I find inspiration everywhere which doesn't help with the overactive mind situation). I hope you can see the beautiful plum colour gradations in this decaying rhubarb leaf.

Several hours of good honest physical labour, digging in the aromatic earth and reveling in the peace and quiet of the great outdoors was just the interruption my busy mind needed. Tuesday morning found me calmly sitting down with my business journal to rationally plan the months ahead. Whew...then it was back to the drafting table...thank goodness for garden therapy!

Oh and for those of you with left over pumpkins and a yard where deer might visit, try putting your pumpkins out for them to munch on. They seem to really enjoy eating them and they will even dig out frozen pumpkin from the snow.

please be part of my focus group...

teresa@teresamallenstudio.com (Teresa Mallen) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:29:00 +0000

Note cards by artist Suzette MacSkimming

Earlier this week, in preparation for my upcoming studio tour, I decided to explore the notion of getting note cards printed. It has been a while since I have offered note cards for sale but I remember well the angst of printing them myself. I recall spending oodles of cash on printer ink, then there was lots of time spent sourcing great paper stock at great prices (or not so great prices), spending forever on the computer to get things formatted properly (so the images wouldn't print crookedly and then they did anyway), sitting by the printer doing production control...well, on and on the trauma went...so this time I started looking at outsourcing the job!

So far it would seem that the companies are coming in quite close in terms of cost. There are some major differences though. One well known on-line printing company (Vista Print) can only give me a 4" x 5.5" size (I want larger). The crop is goofy - for example borders may occur on top and bottom - it depends on your painting format. There is no option for text to appear such as my name, name of the work pictured and my website address. Yet they do offer full colour printing which gives my images the best chance of being identical to the original.

A printing firm locally is a bit more expensive but I would get a larger card, 5" x 7", which is what I want. The cards would be professionally set up so there would be proper borders. They also allow text and as I can pick them up, I save shipping fees. Ah, but the printing might not be as close to the original as I would like.

So now for the focus group bit...what would you pay for a quality art card? Please keep in mind that the aim here is not to offer reproductions that would be matted and framed. For this I would be offering a much larger size and a totally professional printing job - from the scans to archival inks. These are simply note cards - a colour image on good paper stock, folded, blank inside, with a bit of text with my name etc. on the back.

The picture at the top of this post shows note cards that I purchased from artist Suzette MacSkimming last year. They are 5" x 7" and the printed image is approximately 4" x 5". There is identifying text on the back and envelopes were included. I paid $2.00 each. (I tried using the company she used but they no longer print note cards. Bummer.)

Given the quotes I have received so far, if I did a large print run of 500 cards (10 different images with 50 cards each), the cost comes out to about $1.25 to $1.30 per card. So if I charge $2.00, I will be able to recoup my costs. Obviously this isn't a money making project, note cards never are. I would be simply doing this in order to offer a larger product line and to allow people who might not be able to purchase an original to take home a favourite image. In some cases the originals are not for sale anyway.

My wonderful readers/focus group, do you think $2.00 is the right price? Someone commented to me this week that people will pay $4.00 or $5.00 for a Hall Mark type card and they thought $2.00 was too low. Humm... I look forward to your response! Oh and thanks in advance. I appreciate the input. :-)

Woo-hoo, it snowed yesterday!!!! Yup, I love the white stuff - skiing, snowshoeing, beautiful vistas, no mosquitoes, no poison ivy, no yard work, the ability to follow wildlife tracks...I could go on and on but instead here are some pictures I took this morning.

Time to put this birdbath away and to get out the heated one...

Deer visited my flower garden this morning (the picture shows their tracks).

I no sooner filled the feeders and the birds were swarming around me...

Zooming in on a chickadee...what a cutie.

It is to really warm up this weekend so my winter wonderland will melt. Ah, but this brief treat will do me until the real winter hits some weeks from now. I am off to walk the pooch before supper. More time in the snowy woods...yum...

Samhain and new beginnings...

teresa@teresamallenstudio.com (Teresa Mallen) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 22:15:00 +0000

Good ol' Jack is glowing in the dining room as I type...

Today has been a great day. It started off when I had some very early trick or treaters - oh no wait, they were my students for my cp basics class. :-) As this is my last course before my break, things are definitely ending on a high note. The ladies are absolutely fabulous and lots of fun and I know I shall miss our time together when we no longer meet for class.

It is very elemental here today, with strong gusty winds, a wee shower here and there and leaves flying everywhere. Late in the afternoon I grabbed my camera and headed out to take some pictures. Here is our young chestnut tree. It has such an orderly canopy of branches.

Here is a chestnut on that tree.

A bowl of chestnuts and acorns...

A spectacular rainbow against a gorgeous dark sky...

And finally me and my 'best friend with the fur'. Hey, notice the white porch rails, the green table and bench, floor and yellow/cream walls? All painted by me last month! A wonderful change from the dark and dreary brown we had before. Brown, brown and more brown. Gone!

Samhain is one of the origins of Halloween. Samhain is an Irish word meaning summer's end. October 31 - November 1 was a time of celebrating the harvest, an acknowledgement of the dark time ahead and a time of remembering the deceased. Many scholars believe that this time also marked the beginning of the Celtic new year.

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you will know that I love any opportunity to declare a fresh start and to grab a new beginning. Samhain is no exception! A new year, well, why not? Tomorrow, I shall see November 1 as the start of two months of celebrating my renewed commitment to studio time. I shall make fresh goals and I shall tackle them with new energy and enthusiasm. Of course in two months I can assess my progress, make new plans and start off again with another new year celebration.

Perhaps your goals could use a bit of renewed fire under them. Why not celebrate this ancient Gaelic custom of a new year at summer's end? Oh and just a note for all you feral gals (and guys), the moon is full this October 31st night...perfect for a jaunt out with the wolves and a bit of howling don't you think?

peas in a pod, tweaking my art and the business of art

teresa@teresamallenstudio.com (Teresa Mallen) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:03:00 +0000

peas in a pod, work in progress, coloured pencil on Stonehenge, 6 1/2" x 20 1/2"

So here are the peas in their pod, as they look now. The next time you see it, it shall be finished. I will definitely have a better photo. The sky has been overcast for days and it makes taking photographs difficult. Even if we do get some sunny weather, I will probably have to do some Photoshop work to adjust for the large amount of white in the background.

It has been a joy to log in some serious studio time in the past two weeks. We have closed up the farmhouse and it has been pure bliss not to have to go out of town a couple of times a week.

I haven't been working on the peas that much. In fact, I have been revisiting several completed pieces.

I shall be participating in a studio tour in just four weeks and that means that I have to get busy framing art. Before I frame a work, I revisit it. That means that I put it on the drafting table and I start looking it over very closely. Then I grab my pencils and I start to tweak. Sometimes I just need to crisp up an edge or two or slightly deepen a value. Sometimes I do more than that. The advantage to living with art for a while is that I can be more objective. The distance of time helps me to see if I captured what I had intended to. Once this stage is done, I sign my name and then the art is ready for spraying, scanning and the framing process. Perhaps this is my own oddity but I find I do not like to sign a work until I am completely satisfied that it is done, 100% done.

One piece that is getting some significant tweaking is my peony stamen picture. I finished working on this piece early in the summer and I placed it in my studio where I could see it. I didn't feel that I was quite done with it but I wanted to sit with it for a while. In the end, I decided I would take the risk of bumping the whole piece up a few notches. When I left it, the piece had an overall soft quality to it. While the stamens did pop, the whole piece seemed lower key than I eventually felt I wanted. So, onto the drafting table it went for some serious tweaking. I deepened all the shadow values, strengthened lines and enriched colours. I also lifted some veiny bits that I had put into the petals. I didn't like them so off they came.

Now it is taped to my white board that I have out for teaching. I have moved into the tweaking standing up stage. This position allows me to step back from the piece which I am doing a lot! It is almost ready to sign. :-)

I have had some interesting conversations with folks since declaring that I am running with the wolves in 2010. It would seem that my decision to stand my ground for studio time and not teach was interpreted by some as meaning that I was "taking a year off". I am still chuckling over that one. No I am not retiring, nor am I taking a year off. In fact my goal is to work lots and hard but just not at teaching.

Running a business takes time, a lot of it. Unless you are fortunate to be represented by fabulous galleries that manage to consistently sell your art (which isn't the reality for the majority of artists) you end up doing the business stuff yourself. In a given 40 hr work week (most self employed people work more than that), lets say that 50% of an artist's time is spent on business. That means that the artist has just 20 hours to throw pots, carve wood or work on their reference photos, drawings and colouring. Humm...a bit sobering isn't it?

The business stuff for me involves correspondence (student inquiries, registration receipts, art business related email, writing newsletters), doing my accounts (managing my income and expenses), marketing (creating print ads, writing press releases, designing and getting business cards and media cards printed), buying supplies (for creating art, for teaching art classes, for matting and framing, for displaying art, for the office), doing research (keeping abreast of art information, art business trends, how to keep marketing strategies current), networking and selling (being involved in art groups, both local and international, participating in shows and doing volunteer work for a couple of these groups), having an internet presence through a website (which involves designing the website, learning software, obtaining quality scans of work as well as maintenance through regular updating) and a blog, entering work into juried exhibitions, continuing to learn new computer skills, creating product beyond original art (notecards, reproductions, designing and printing off kit material, creating teaching curriculum), etc. etc.

My new fangs bared approach is my way of claiming those 20 hours a week in the studio. I am also striving to get this number higher. Without fresh new work, the rest of the effort doesn't make much sense. Like most self employed people I work weekends and evenings. For example last weekend I taught Saturday, had my mother-in-law visiting from out of town and still managed to attend an important local arts group meeting for two hours on Sunday. Tuesday night I wrote a new bit of press material that the coordinator of the studio tour requested. Wednesday night I updated my accounting ledgers. Last night I designed and printed off 16 full page, colour ads, again to be used in conjunction with the studio tour. Tonight I shall get ready for tomorrow's teaching session.

Please don't misunderstand. I am in no way complaining. I love what I do and I feel privileged to be self employed. I even enjoy the business end of it. I also appreciate that many artists do this business stuff, create art and work at a full time job! I just wanted you to know that I am not retiring! :-) When that time comes, I will do art just for fun. There won't be any business related tasks and there will be no teaching.

I shall leave you with a couple of fall foliage shots, but not of trees. And yes, despite my rant above, I do find time to be in the garden. :-) I love how the plants start to take on different hues in autumn.

Like this hosta...

and this clump of solomon's seal...

autumn cp newsletter and time to run with the wolves

teresa@teresamallenstudio.com (Teresa Mallen) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 00:19:00 +0000

Well woo-hoo a new issue of my newsletter is now ready to read. If you are new to my blog and you are a coloured pencil enthusiast, do check it out. There are all sorts of interesting things in each issue from featured artists, to tips, Q & As, websites and blogs to visit, etc.

Don't miss Newsletter Group Member Sandy Oveson's woodpecker as well as a very practical tip from fellow blogger Laure Ferlita.

Membership is free so if you are interested in joining the Newsletter Group, just contact me. If you haven't read any of the other issues, grab a coffee and get comfortable. There really is a lot to check out. Enjoy!

This is a view of our meadow and some wonderful fall foliage. You can click on the picture for a larger view. If I had seen the property in the fall, I would have bought the place on the spot, even before seeing the studio! :-)

Yes, it is time to run with the wolves and I am oh so excited. This reference will make more sense if you have read Clarissa Pinkola Estes' book, Women Who Run With the Wolves (if you are in a creative slump, I highly recommend it). Okay, when my German Shepherd and I are out wandering the woods each day we usually aren't running but given that my big fellow spends his days on the furry edge between feral and domesticated, I think this is more applicable than not.

I said in my newsletter that I would write about my decision to not teach any classes in 2010. Well, here it is, this she-wolf has her fur up, she is baring her fangs and she is standing her ground and defending her territory. I have compromised long enough and 2010 is going to be all about my art. I am reclaiming my studio as a creative space instead of a teaching space and all hell may just break loose!

If you have been reading my blog for a while you will know that the past two years have been tumultuous. We found the home and land we had dreamed of so we bought and sold houses and moved. I ramped my teaching schedule up to new heights in my eagerness to make use of my large studio space. Then my Dad became ill. I left Ottawa and became a care giver. Then he died. I returned to Ottawa and hit the ground running determined to meet all the commitments I could. When this was over I tried to slow down. I had an out of town estate to deal with and I needed a break. So I talked about taking a break. I wrote about it. I put it in my newsletters. But in the end I caved. Perhaps it was the fear of slowing down my success. I have spent years building up a reputation, spent money on advertising, I finally have the right facilities, how could I stop teaching now? Part of it was also my desire to help people. I really want to help people in their artistic journey and I enjoy opening up the world of coloured pencil to those who are eager to learn. Maybe it was the economy. When someone from the city of Ottawa calls and wants you to teach classes, how can you say no to the income? In the end, in this year that I was going to slow down and take a break, I taught more classes than I am comfortable admitting to.

Oddly enough, this was a year when I had problems with students. I ended up being led down the garden path by people who said they really wanted me to offer classes and then they changed their minds. I had cancellations. Yes, life happens but I suspect that in some of these cases, they registered rather flippantly, like impulse buying. I started to sense an expectation that folks could just take the course in a few months when I offered it again. This she-wolf doesn't like being taken for granted.

So now I am digging in my toes and I am starting to snarl and growl. I am an artist first and a teacher second. I always said that if the teaching got in the way, then it would have to go. So what does this mean? Well it means that it is time to shake things up around here. It is time for a change. And you know what, now that I have wreaked havoc with the business plan, the adrenaline is starting to pump through my veins. My senses are stirring. My ears hear the sound of breaking glass as I resume stained glass work, my hands can feel the coolness of clay, my nose smells the oil paint and oh the sight of those coloured pencils that are waiting for me!

2010 is going to be a great year. I can feel it down in my bones. Of course I still have my parents' home to deal with and there will be more house painting and renovation projects but the Saturdays will be mine and so will the studio. There is an new glint in my eyes these days and the hint of a wildish grin.

How are things going with you? Maybe we should meet in the woods and howl at the moon. Why not choose to get a bit feral? The wolves and I are waiting...

peas in a pod wip and food fantasies

teresa@teresamallenstudio.com (Teresa Mallen) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:54:00 +0000

peas in a pod, work in progress, 6 1/2" x 20 1/2", coloured pencils on Stonehenge

Here is how the peas are looking now - of course the paper is white not blue. I am thinking of calling this one Brocade Peas. I abstracted the wrinkles on the top of the pod and now the design reminds me of brocade fabric! Keep in mind that I jump all over the place when I work so if the peas don't look done, well they aren't, if the top doesn't look done, it isn't, you get the idea. When it is finished I shall post a larger file image so you can see it better.

So what do you think about when you draw or paint? I ponder all sort of things when I am colouring with my pencils. One topic that has been on my mind lately is green tomato salsa. :-) I know, this makes the third post in which I have mentioned it. Perhaps I need Green Tomato Salsa Anonymous.

I am hooked on this stuff. So far I have enjoyed it with tortillla chips (I like the bakes ones), with rice and I also used it to add spice to a lunch time wrap. I am now daydreaming of adding it to omelettes for a fiery Mexican style brunch, or to homemade soup to add some zing. Did I mention that I made another batch this morning while I waited for my coffee to brew? Oh and when I am not thinking of recipes, I am planning my 2010 vegetable garden. Where will I plant the tomatoes next year? How many more plants should I save space for? How early can I harvest green tomatoes? Good grief, I have just finished this year's gardening season! Is isn't just me that needs help of some sort. My husband is so wowed he suggested I bottle it and sell it. Humm, Teresa Mallen Studio expanding to include salsa for sale. Diversification is good, right? Maybe it is a good thing that this morning's salsa cook-up used all of the green tomatoes that I had left. (I could ask my neighbours but we have had several hard frosts so that isn't really an option.) Anyone willing to do an intervention?

Ah, but before you feel too smug, just what exactly do you think about while you are working? Come on now, fess up...

Sharing our passions and quirks...

teresa@teresamallenstudio.com (Teresa Mallen) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:29:00 +0000

I did this pumpkin piece some years ago. I really like pumpkins and in the end this became a 'not for sale' item. It is on the wall of my studio and I never tire of looking at it. (Okay, maybe that sounds weird but if we don't like our own art, how can we expect anyone else to?) So, I confess that I like pumpkins from their first growth as a gorgeous yellow flower all the way through to pumpkin bread and pumpkin pie and of course as dried gourds. My own little quirk. What might yours be?

I imagine I am like the rest of you in that I read blogs written by fellow artists. Every now and again I find that this gets a bit old - so and so is doing another cat picture, this gal just won another award, this one is doing another piece featuring petals - (oops that one would be me). When the blog blahs last hit me (sometime in August), I started to wonder about the millions of blogs that are written. I decided to look for blogs that were not art related but were written by people passionate about my other interests.

I mentioned last time that I would share a fabulous green tomato salsa recipe. Well, I found it on a blog written by a woman, 'Farmgirl Susan' who shares my passion for homesteading. Yup, a back to the land, nature nut, that's me. She writes a lot about food and if recipes and such are you thing or if you just like looking at pictures of sheep, her blog might be a nice diversion. If you still have green tomatoes languishing in your garden, I highly recommend this recipe!

If you too are interested in modern homesteading - growing food, raising chickens and other critters, living in harmony with the seasons and nature, I also recommend this blog. It is written by a 27 year old gal named Jenna who dreams of owning her own farm but for now homesteads on some rented property in rural Vermont. She is a gifted and entertaining writer which helps make for a great blog experience.

Do you ever get the blog blahs? Perhaps you too have found some interesting non-art blogs that you enjoy. If so, why not share your passions with the rest of us? I am confident that you have your own quirks and your own unique bit of weirdness - we all do! I would love to hear about your interests. Just leave the address in a comment or perhaps point us to your own blog should you care to write your own post.

I hope my fellow Canadians had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. I also hope everyone is having the opportunity to get out and enjoy the fall foliage (assuming there is fall foliage where you live). These days I am at risk of tripping and falling on my face as I hike with my dog, cause I am always looking up! See below...

peas in a pod, new wip

teresa@teresamallenstudio.com (Teresa Mallen) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:22:00 +0000

peas in a pod, wip, 6 1/2" x 20 1/2", coloured pencil on Stonehenge

No petals! Here is an early-on view of my newest piece, peas in a pod. The paper is white and unfortunately you cannot see my line drawing. There will be a bit of stem on the left side as well as a shadow under the pod.

A lot of my work is rather minimalistic and usually deals with a single subject. What I wish to capture in these pieces is the inherent beauty one can find in something simple - something as simple as peas in a pod.

You may have noticed my fondness for a narrow, horizontal format. At over 20 inches wide, these seven peas in their pod get the attention they deserve. I am always mesmerized by the beauty of peas, especially when harvest time comes and I am opening the pods. I saved some of the finest looking pods from the garden for a photo shoot. This image is inspired by one shot in which the peas were back-lit by the afternoon sun. I really like the intrigue of the partially open pod. It makes me think of a cave. Caves are places of mystery, secrets and the unknown.

Doesn't everyone like caves? Even if you haven't been inside a cave, the idea of one is interesting, right? I remember when I was a little girl my mother would tell me about these Indian caves that she explored as a child. Finally when I was old enough to make the walk, she took my sister and I to see these caves. I was disappointed to discover that these 'caves' were simply areas underneath rock outcroppings. Yes, one could take shelter from the rain, start a fire and bed down for the night and yes the rock cliffs were lovely but they weren't the caves of my imagination. My mother and her brothers had found Indian arrowheads and such but despite much looking I never did. More disappointment. :-)

Today was a perfect day to be in the studio. It was a blustery wet day. The sky changed its look several times and the wind caused the clouds to race by. I really like elemental weather and I couldn't wait to take my dog out for a walk before supper. The fall foliage looks stunning now and there is more colour yet to come. Isn't October fabulous? I'm off to deal with the green tomato salsa that I cooked up tonight. If you are interested in a way to use up your green tomatoes, stop by my next post as I will be sharing the recipe. It is yummy!

finished piece, critiquing our art

teresa@teresamallenstudio.com (Teresa Mallen) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:14:00 +0000

Red Petal Peony, 5 3/4" x 15 1/4", coloured pencil on Stonehenge

It has been a while since you have seen this one as a work in progress. Here it is finished. You might recall that in the past I talked about not being one to work in a series. I had hoped to attempt a series of large, simplified and somewhat abstracted rose pieces. Well, I finished two and then I got distracted by peonies. So here are the four below...The rose pieces are my favourites and I think I will do another one some day. That would make three for the rose series. For now, I guess this is the 'petal series'. :-)

When I returned from the CPSA's convention in Atlanta, I mentioned that I would write about a workshop I attended. Well, it has been a while but what the heck...

The workshop involved watching a mock jury in action. Three distinguished cp artists: Jeffrey Smart Baisden, Elizabeth Patterson and James Mateer made up the panel of judges and the moderator of the workshop was CPSA founder, Vera Curnow. The art being juried was from 25 submissions for a non-CPSA show. There was a variety of styles, subject matter and media. The neat thing about this workshop is that as the jurors examined the projected images, they spoke their thoughts about each piece into their microphones allowing those of us in the audience to watch and listen to the process.

So what are judges looking for? Is there anything here that we can use when reflecting upon our own work?

First of all, it seemed that factors like composition, handling of values and edges, drafting skills etc. were expected to be executed well. Of course it got their attention when they weren't executed well but the judges were looking for more than technical ability. What each judge articulated time and again, is that they were looking for something that "gave impact at first glance". Originality was a big plus. Was there an emotional response?

Work that was well executed was dismissed on the grounds that work like it had been "seen a thousand times". Sentimental work or work that was "too sweet" and "warm and fuzzy" was readily dismissed.

The judges were also looking for consistency in a painting. Was the artist technically consistent across a piece and was there balance? Was there a sense of 'wholeness'? Elizabeth was very turned off by bold colourful signatures. They were too distracting. James often referred to any technical glitches that he saw (as he said, "Don't show what you don't know") and he seemed to focus on the design of a piece and he looked for movement.

Jeffrey commented a few times that the artist needed to do more than record information, she "wanted to be moved". She also stated that she wanted "punch, impact" and "something that would jar my teeth"! Elizabeth commented on how the artist "shouldn't make it a chore for your audience to figure it out". Again and again the panel referred to the mood of a piece, did it make them curious, did it make them want to think about it, was it compelling, was it thoughtful, was there emotion?

Ultimately, whether the piece was a pastel or an oil or an abstract or a traditional painting, what the judges were looking for was to see what the artist was trying to say. What was the point of their art? They commented that the artist should be able to convey why they are doing what they are doing.

This was a very intriguing event to watch unfold. I found their views insightful into the process of jurying. Perhaps their comments will give you something to ponder the next time you head to the studio. What are you trying to say? What is the point of your art? Is your art original, compelling and does it convey emotion?

Of course there is also the reality that work that sells is often sentimental and has been seen a thousand times before! :-) I recently read a comment on artist Aili Kurtis's website and I quote: "Human perception of what is good or bad varies from human to human and from one culture to the next." Think about what has been thought of as good art or bad art over the past few hundred years in Western culture...humm...perceptions do shift and change. For now, I am just going to focus on whether or not my next piece might just jar someone's teeth!

And now for my favourite garden plants, brown eyed susans and purple coneflowers. I transplanted these as small clumps from my former home two years ago. They are spreading and thriving beautifully.

And oh the apples I am getting this year off our elderly apple tree. I am busy these evenings cooking up apples (with butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, lemon juice and brown sugar) to store in the freezer. Absolutely yummy with french toast and pancakes.

drawing with a grid, staycations, more studio pics

teresa@teresamallenstudio.com (Teresa Mallen) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:08:00 +0000

Welcome to the National Gallery of Canada! There are many reasons why I love living in Ottawa and this gallery is one of them. Last Thursday evening, I had a bit of a staycation. I attended a special exhibit and I decided to take my camera along so you could see this wonderful gallery.

The collection of art that makes up the permanent collection exhibited in many locations until this new facility was built in 1988. Architect Mosha Safdie designed this award winning glass and granite building and it truly is stunning. The above pictures show the front entrance and the photo below shows a side view.

Next is a shot taken right into the setting sun. :-) Oh well, it was going to be dark when I left the exhibit so it was now or never. This is the other end of the gallery which faces the Ottawa river.

The next picture shows the area just as you approach the entrance to the gallery. 'Maman' is a fabulous 30 ft high sculpture by artist Louise Bourgeous. The bronze spider even has marble eggs in her sac. Across the road, you can see another fabulous piece of architecture, the Notre Dame Cathedral Basilica. It is absolutely incredible inside.

The picture below shows a lovely view of Canada's parliament buildings, taken from inside the gallery.

Here is an interior shot and the door under the artwork is where I walked into the exhibit I went to see. The exhibit was titled 'From Raphael to Carracci, The Art of Papal Rome'. This three month exhibition, here at the National Gallery, was the only venue in North America. There were 150 drawings and paintings by 16C masters such as Michelangelo, Raphael, Giorgio Vasari, Titian and Carracci. All I can say is wow. What a treat to see this work. This brings me to the part of the title that mentions drawing with a grid.

Over the years that I have been teaching art, I have been amazed to often hear students remark that they can't really draw because they use a grid. Some refer to it as cheating or they will say that this is how they know they aren't really artists. I wonder if they would consider Raphael a real artist? The man used grids all of the time!!! This exhibition had many drawings by these masters that had carefully rendered one inch grids covering the page. One Raphael drawing showed a preliminary sketch of a horse. He made several mathematical notations on the page noting distances and proportions, from the front leg to the hip, the girth of the belly to the neck etc. Are these sorts of math equations wrong too? Soooo...if you are someone who uses a grid in order to help you draw, please don't think this is a really bad thing to do. Artists use many tools. Besides, you still have to get the bits you draw inside each grid right. Grids will only assist you so far. :-) Relax, stop feeling guilty and realize you are in excellent company!

My next photo is my last gallery picture. It shows a walkway heading back down to the main entrance.

So what is going on in your city? When was the last time you went to a show at your local gallery? Even if you live in the country, most folks live within an hour or two of a city. If you don't have a grand gallery like this to go to, you will find that browsing a small private gallery can really stir up your creative juices. Why not plan a staycation this fall? I know that I shall be heading back to the National Gallery soon as I want to see the permanent collection again. Oh, and I saw some art books in the gallery bookstore that would make perfect Christmas gifts. I like to save my husband the bother of shopping! :-)

From the sublime to the ridiculous. For those of you who enjoyed seeing my studio (pics in previous post), I thought I would share how the room looked two years ago when we moved here.

I'm thinking ugly mock Tudor??? Ugly something anyway...

You might recall that we are currently painting the dark brown siding on the exterior of the house. Well two years ago, as soon as we had the keys to the house, I rolled up my sleeves and started to cover up all of this dark brown. I had a deadline as I was scheduled to teach a course in this room in just a few weeks. The paint on the floor was barely dry and my husband made new tables the night before. I didn't get the track lighting added until later.

Here is another shot of the studio now...ah, much lighter and brighter...

You can click on this studio pic for a larger image. So, tell me - where are you going to staycation this fall? (Can you believe such a word was even created?)

new course dates and studio pictures

teresa@teresamallenstudio.com (Teresa Mallen) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:36:00 +0000

We all love seeing where artists work don't we? Here are a few pictures of my studio. I teach in my studio as well and the picture above shows how my studio looks when I teach, all nice and tidy. I set it up with more tables and chairs but you get the idea. You can click on the pics for a larger image.

I have added new dates for my Coloured Pencil Basics course. The course will run Saturday mornings from October 24th until November 7, 2009. This is a great introduction course as it provides everything you need to know in order to 'paint' with coloured pencils. Students learn how to correct mistakes, how to create colours on the paper and they experience the difference it makes when working on different papers and surfaces. Also covered are stroke techniques, how to burnish cp pigment so it looks like paint, and much more. For more information or to register, please see my website, or click here.

Below is a picture of how my studio looks right now...not so tidy, but hey I'm working!! :-)

In the next photo, may I draw your attention to the lovely green chair on the left? You might recall that I discovered several old chairs in the attic of my parents' farmhouse. This poor thing was covered in pigeon poop and the arms and legs were discoloured from water damage. After a good scrubbing and after applying some wonderful wood refinishing products, I have a lovely chair. One down, three other chairs to go. One chair is a lovely antique rocker that is broken (nothing modern carpentry glue and some clamps won't mend) and one is an elegant antique chair with a woven rush seat (You guess it, the woven seat is broken. I have discovered a small local company that does this sort of restoration and they also sell kits to repair such seats should I get inspired to fix it myself.) The third chair is a rose coloured one that matches the green one in the picture. I am not sure where all these chairs are going to go in my house but I couldn't see them get hauled away as garbage.

I am leaving the bliss of my studio this afternoon in order to do some advertising and to enter the bliss of the National Gallery of Canada. I am participating in a studio tour in November. The brochures have just arrived from the printers so I am heading out to drop 400 of them off at the Council for the Arts in Ottawa. They do quarterly mailings, so thanks to this service, these brochures will end up in the hands of some movers and shakers in the city. After that I am heading off to see a special art exhibit. I am a blessed gal!

Motivation Monday

teresa@teresamallenstudio.com (Teresa Mallen) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:35:00 +0000

September...humm, are you ready?

Tomorrow we enter the final quarter of 2009. Amazing isn't it? Are you ready for a fresh start?

September is a great time to shift gears and to get into new routines. New beginnings are all around us. Children and young adults return to school. Vacations are over and a new season of recreational activities start up. There is a sense of change outside our doors as the daylight hours get shorter and the leaves start turning colour. There is also a sense of change inside our homes as we look at our calendars once again filling up with activities.

This is a perfect time to review your goals. What had you hoped to accomplish in 2009? As you revisit your list, start to think about the 122 days you have until January 31st. Review and refresh your plans. Maybe you have new priorities and interests. Perhaps you need to prune out some of those goals and ideas that can wait until next year.

Feeling overwhelmed by our tasks can cause our motivation to vanish. One way to feel less overwhelmed is to get organized. I suggest you grab a cup of your favourite beverage and sit down with a pen and a sheet of paper. Think about what is really important to you. Perhaps you would like to sign up for a fall class or perhaps now is a good time to join that local art group you have been meaning to check out. Whether you are making a fresh commitment to sketching more often, carving out regular art time, getting more exercise or healthy eating, September is a great time to refocus our direction. There are a whole 122 days ahead...I encourage you to 'seize the day' in these last four months of 2009. May these be the most satisfying days and weeks of the entire year. Go for it!

new wip and a botanical artist

teresa@teresamallenstudio.com (Teresa Mallen) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 18:01:00 +0000

WIP untitled, Coloured Pencil on Stonehenge, 5 3/4" x 15"

Here is my latest work in progress. Peony leaves instead of rose petals! :-) With a width of under 6" and a height of 15", you can get an idea of how I wanted to crop this image tall and narrow. The peony I had photographed was white with one unusual reddish, pink petal and that is what interested me. Of course I got carried away and I have added all sorts of colour to the 'white' petals. I may tone it down by lifting some pigment. I'm not sure yet. I shall wait until I get colour all over the piece before I start making any adjustments.

Gosh, I hadn't intended to take such a long break from blogging but wow, August has just screamed by. I have been rather busy in my spare time so I guess blogging just fell by the wayside. I did some more test driving of vehicles once I returned from Atlanta and I am delighted to have made a purchase. I was out of town last week interviewing real estate agents with my sister (for the selling of our parents' farm) and we also had the property appraised. Of course the weeds are winning the battle but I do try to exert some control over the garden and my veggies are all ready to eat NOW. I wouldn't be surprised to wake one morning to find that I have turned into a giant tomato or zucchini. If things weren't busy enough, we are now painting our house. I mean this literally, no hired folks, just my husband and I wielding paintbrushes and rollers. Our house has wood siding that the previous owners stained a very dark brown colour. It is time to lighten things up. The veranda is already looking very fresh in its new white state. The rest of the house is going to be a yellowish cream. Forget petals on a bit of Stonehenge, our house is the real work in progress!

I mentioned in last post that I was going to chat about the Mock Jury workshop that I attended. I shall save that for the next post (I need to get outside painting!) but I did want to pass on some info for anyone who is interested in botanical art. The September 2009 issue of the Artist's magazine features the work of botanical artist Wendy Hollender. She works in coloured pencil! Woo-hoo. To download two step by step demonstrations by Wendy on drawing and colouring a tulip, click here. I discovered a fresh new twist on botanical art on her website - you can purchase a print of a poster that features hallucinogenic plants! Now that's different. Enjoy surfing the net, I am off to cover up more dark brown wood.

back from the CPSA convention

teresa@teresamallenstudio.com (Teresa Mallen) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:32:00 +0000

Here is a picture of my home away from home last week while I attended the Colored Pencil Society of America's annual convention in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The meetings and workshops were held at this beautiful Marriott hotel in Duluth. Everything about the exhibition and the convention experience was fantastic and more than I could have hoped for. The art world may be filled with lots of big egos and arrogant attitudes but not when it comes to coloured pencil folks. All the people I met were friendly, kind and welcoming. What a joy to experience! Oh and they just happen to create incredible art too!!

This picture of the hospitality suite shows some of the works of art donated by CPSA members for a silent auction fund raiser. Seated at the table are Cindy Haase (CPSA Membership Director) and Gemma Gylling (CPSA Convention Director). Thanks Cindy for the impromptu tutorial in all things Twitter!

Here is another shot of some of the silent auction art. I fortunately found a time when this room wasn't busy. On the first evening when everyone got together for a meet and greet it was so crowded you could hardly see the tables.

The picture above is a portion of the goodies table. Hundreds and hundreds of dollars of free stuff is donated by various sponsors. The goodies were later bagged up and given out during a CPSA members meeting. I even managed to snag some loot!

While at the convention I took the opportunity to attend a workshop with Pat Averill. Pat is a very talented cp artist who received her fifteen year merit award this year. That means she has been juried into the CPSA annual exhibition 15 times!! Most impressive.

Pat's workshop was all about rendering water - standing water, waves, foam patterns, reflections, rocks with spilling water and wet sand. Pat is a fabulous landscape artist. What she is creating from her fascination with water is equally wonderful. As an instructor, Pat was very well prepared. We enjoyed oodles of beautiful ocean pictures as Pat shared with us many of her best water photographs in a large screen presentation. There were four exercises to complete and the day flew by. I was most interested by Pat's use of Paraffin wax and crayons in her cp art. I think this info will be very helpful when I consider creating something for the CPSA mixed media exhibition.

The picture below shows part of our workshop room as we regrouped following lunch. I believe there were about 40 people attending this session. I so enjoyed meeting Pat. Like everyone, she was so friendly and welcoming to this new convention attendee. Pat even joined me for breakfast one morning. Unfortunately we just didn't have long enough to chat. If you ever have a chance to study with Pat, I encourage you to do so. She is a wonderful, talented person.

Remember my Newsletter issue of November 2008? I featured Ester Roi's heated drawing board in that issue and I also mentioned the release of a smaller board in my March 2009 Newsletter. Well here is Ester and her husband Mario. I actually had a chance to watch Ester demonstrate how one could work on her heated board. It was thrilling to watch her work her magic. I love Ester's work. The techniques she has developed while working on this surface are worth exploring. Do check out her website - Ester has lots of step by step info and she is using more than just coloured pencils on her board - do go see. I am sure you will be inspired.

Perhaps you are sensing a theme here, but gosh, if Ester and her husband aren't just the nicest people you would ever meet anywhere. Absolutely delightful. Ester, Mario and I hooked up after the awards banquet for a good long chat. It was like we had known each other for years.

Here is a picture of myself and Ester just before the awards banquet.

I took lots of photos at the awards banquet but I will post just this one. This is a picture of the incredibly talented Jeff George receiving the top honours of the night, the CIPPY Award and CPSA Best of Show. The woman at the podium is CPSA President Kay Schmidt. Congratulations Jeff. Jeff is just the nicest man you will ever meet and I really enjoyed a conversation I had with him. I know that Jeff has achieved his level of success because of his determined work ethic. Jeff has a day job and all of the responsibilities the rest of us has. Despite this, for years now he has made it a point to work at his art everyday - even when that means setting the alarm at an incredibly early hour in order to squeeze some time in. Such determination and dedication to his craft has definitely paid off. The vast majority of successful people are successful because of good old fashioned hard work. May Jeff's fabulous art inspire all of us to work that much harder on our own creations!

If you would like to see a complete list of all of the award winners, visit the CPSA website. Also, please note that a DVD of the entire exhibition can be purchased from the CPSA! If you can't get to the exhibition in person, it is a great way to see the show. I was at the show and I bought one so I could remember it!

Before moving on from the awards banquet, I would like to congratulate Holly Bedrosian on winning an Award for Outstanding Achievement. I watched her piece unfold on her blog and it was a treat to see it in person. I had the privilege of sitting next to Holly and her husband at the banquet. I really enjoyed the opportunity to meet Holly in person. And yes, she is as beautiful in person as she is in all of those self portraits!

During convention week, there was a special reception at the gallery for all of the artists. Here is a picture of the Jacqueline C. Hudgens Center for the Arts, Duluth Georgia.

This next photo shows the entrance into one of the main exhibition rooms. Holly's self portrait is on the left.

Another gallery room....

Another gallery room, and woo-hoo I see a chunk of chard!

Now here is one of my favourite photos. This is none other than the incredible Linda Lucas Hardy posing with her amazing art. Congratulations to Linda on winning the Award for Outstanding Recognition. It was very well deserved. I have long admired Linda's work and getting to see this piece as well as her silent auction entry was a real thrill. Linda is truly one of the nicest people you will ever meet. She has such a warm personality, she is funny, intelligent and gosh who wouldn't love that Texas accent? It was an honour to meet Linda and to become new friends. Linda has a blog with convention photos and she even has said hi to me in a post! How cool is that? Didn't I say these folks were wonderful?

Well hey, here is proof that my Swiss Chard Mosaic actually made it there and is on the wall still...sorry for the reflections...

More gallery photos...

Another gallery wall...

Finding room for the 120 paintings wasn't easy for the gallery.

That's it for now. (Next time I shall share some of the ideas that came out of the Mock Jury Workshop I attended). It was a tremendous exhibition and I am honoured to have been accepted both last year and this year. I had such a wonderful time, met such wonderful people and saw such fabulous art. I am sure I shall attend another convention in future! I highly recommend the experience. All of those pictures and not one with a lampshade...humm...did she or didn't she? Ahh, that stays in Atlanta!

finished pears and work interrupted

teresa@teresamallenstudio.com (Teresa Mallen) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:52:00 +0000

'Simply Pears', 7.5" x 10.5", Coloured Pencil on Colourfix Paper

Here is a picture of the finished pears. This was a fun, undemanding piece (with the exception of the previously mentioned background experiment).

You may have noticed the dates posted for the pears. While coloured pencil has a reputation for being a slow medium, it really isn't this slow! :-) July has had some unexpected events and it hasn't been the productive month I had hoped. I look forward to July and August. I normally end my teaching gigs by the end of June and I usually anticipate catching up on my to-do list over the eight weeks of summer. This summer has the added responsibility of getting the farm where my parents lived ready to be sold. But, there have been other hiccups along the way.

The province of Ontario is currently switching all of the land titles and deeds from one type of registry to an automated one. We found out this month that a lakefront property that my sister and I inherited did not make the transfer. Our deed got flagged as missing a severance stamp and we now had a Planning Act Violation and an invalid deed. Kind of reminds me of my painting getting held up at customs! After much angst and two law firms working on our behalf we have discovered that the original severance and issuing of a deed was in fact done properly by our parents but we still have to have a lawyer argue our case. This has been an unexpected drain on my time this month.

In addition, my 16 year old car is suddenly having some issues and it has become clear that the time has come to replace it. So I have begrudgingly spent many hours in the past two weeks test driving cars, reading consumer reports, etc. I don't like to shop, I am a frugal gal who doesn't like to spend money and I like buying cars even less. Grrrr....

So now it is the last week of July and things are looking up. The legal issue is now being dealt with by a lawyer. I am close to making a car decision. Most importantly, I am packing to go to Atlanta this week to attend the Colored Pencil Society of America's Convention. Woo-hoo!

Wildlife update: I have been asked if the deer I mentioned a few weeks ago is still around. Yes she is.

We also have another doe and her twin fawns making appearances. My husband has seen a small black bear twice in the past week. She probably wants my raspberries! The rabbits have taken over the back yard. This is a fenced piece of land so they are safe from coyotes and foxes. Some lilies in my front garden were eaten by the deer and the lilies in the vase below were chewed off of their stems by a rabbit. I guess they weren't tasty. I am not sure if Beatrix Potter would approve but I am starting to sympathize with Mr. McGregor in the Tale of Peter Rabbit.

Actually, if truth be told, I am delighted to have wildlife problems. I love living amongst these animals. I feel truly blessed to see them and it is worth raspberries and chewed lilies. :-)

As I mentioned I shall be away this week attending workshops and meetings at the CPSA convention. No doubt I shall be having a wee bit of fun too. I hope I can find a lampshade to fit my head! LOL Perhaps there shall be some pics in the next post. Of course I shall edit out the incriminating ones!

So how is your summer going? Are things turning out the way you planned and hoped?

simply pears, new cp work in progress

teresa@teresamallenstudio.com (Teresa Mallen) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:06:00 +0000

Time for a new piece and for a change from flowers I decided on fruit. I grabbed some pears and headed outside for a bit of a photo shoot. I must admit that my photos leave something to be desired as I was rushing things. My initial thoughts were that I would like to do a simple, rather stark, contemporary piece. I would have liked to use quartz or granite counter tops as a surface but as I don't have either of those in my house I used my old faithful marble pastry board instead. A lot of great pie dough has been rolled out on that marble! Humm...how about a pear tart? Oops, I digress...

The above photo is one of my not so great reference photos but that's okay as I cropped it anyway. I created a drawing and the image below shows how it looked once I transferred my drawing to my paper and started adding colour.

I chose an olive green sheet of Colourfix paper to work on. I wanted a change from white Stonehenge and I wanted to work on something sanded. The piece is approximately 7 1/2" x 10 1/2" in size. If you haven't tried coloured paper and you are not sure how to transfer a drawing to a coloured surface (or to a paper that is too thick to use a light box) please click here for a description of how to do it. Just scroll down to the question section.

In the above photo, I have put down three different pencil colours to make up the background. The pears are untouched and are still the colour of the paper. I started in on the marble with a first layer of pigment. Then I started to wing it when I should have proceeded with caution. The picture doesn't show what I did next.

After stopping to take a photo, I decided to tackle depicting the dark veins in the marble. I also decided to bump up the detail in the marble to make it more striking (and more like granite). So I started in applying dark streaks all over the place. I wasn't sure it was working but I kept going. Well, when I was finished I knew it didn't work. It was just too busy for the simplicity of the piece. And uh oh, I had got quite carried away and there was a lot of pigment down! Darn.

So I got out my tape and I started to lift...and lift...and lift. It wasn't coming off evenly but hey maybe another layer of pigment would cover it. I tried that. Nope, now it was worse - a real streaky mess. So back to the lifting. Finally I decided that this wasn't doing the job so I reached for my electric eraser. I had hesitated to use it as I thought it might remove the sanded texture of the paper. But hey, things were looking too awful to leave it the way it was. You know what? It worked! Like a charm. Yippee! The lesson I relearned here was that when things really don't seem to be working, stop and assess what is happening. I should have done a test on a scrap bit of paper to see if I liked the marble look. I was impatient and I paid the price. Lifting and erasing took too much time and was quite boring.

So I continued on and started in on the pears.

So at this point, there is still work to be done. I haven't finished the pears (you can still see the green paper at the bottom of the front pear), the shadows are not done and I shall tweak the new non-marble background colour. I should have stopped to take a picture of the awful 'marble' background before I erased it. It was truly hideous! :-)

Now for some garden photos...yarrow

More yarrow...I love yellow in my gardens.

For some shocking pink, good ol' phlox.

I shall show you the finished pears in my next post.

The moral of this post is that sometimes it is best just to keep things simple...oh and slowing down to do a test strip saves time in the long run.

Motivation Monday

teresa@teresamallenstudio.com (Teresa Mallen) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:28:00 +0000

Are you fierce about your art?

Like you, my inspiration comes from many sources. Something I read recently had an impact on me and I would like to share it with you.

On the last page of The Ark magazine, summer 2009 issue, (a publication of the Nature Conservancy of Canada) there is a feature article of someone who is an important volunteer. The text that grabbed me is this: "So fierce is Mabel's conviction that this is a special place that for the past several years she has worked to ensure that the Musquash Estuary would be protected for others to enjoy." Humm...fierce, such a powerful word. A fierce conviction...Wouldn't it be extraordinary to have someone define you as fierce?

A dictionary definition of fierce states this: savage and violent in nature, ferocious, extremely severe, very ardent or intense - now this last one sounds right. Very ardent, intense. I started to ponder what am I 'fierce' about?

Let me ask you again, are you fierce about your art? Can you honestly say that you are very ardent and intense about creating your art as well as honing your skills as an artist? Don't we all wish to be deeply devoted to our art not to mention passionate about it? Perhaps you aren't as fierce as you would like to be. Maybe you have let things get stale and routine. Maybe you have let other tasks get in the way of making your art. Don't settle for that. Now is the time to make a change. Bump your motivation level up to the heights of ardent intensity. Go on, choose to be fierce!

(If you are new to my blog, you can check out other Motivation Monday posts by clicking on the button in the sidebar. I recommend scrolling down to the very bottom and reading up as the posts tend to follow on from the previous one. May you be inspired!)

another peony and milkweed

teresa@teresamallenstudio.com (Teresa Mallen) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:21:00 +0000

peony leaves (untitled), Coloured Pencil on Stonehenge, 8 1/2" x 9 3/4"

Well, after looking at all of the peony photos that I took a couple of weeks ago, I couldn't resist doing a quick picture of some peony leaves. I especially liked the leaves near the bottom that seemed to me to look like an open clam. This piece whizzed along and I didn't end up taking any work in progress pictures...oops.

I have finished teaching my Beyond the Basics course and I now have a break during July and August. I have lots of projects I hope to get to this summer - I shall keep you posted.

The Coloured Pencil Society of America's 17th Annual Exhibition opens tomorrow. For a teaser photo of one of the gallery exhibition rooms, click here. Three weeks from today I shall be on a plane heading south to Atlanta in order to attend the CPSA's convention. I am getting excited!

Now for some trivia...did you know that milkweed flowers have a beautiful scent? They do, really! I have some milkweed flowers in a vase in my house and their lovely perfume is filling the air.

I am a fan of weeds. What isn't there to love about milkweed? They have beautiful flowers - which you now know smell wonderful. Also, monarch butterflies need milkweed to survive. The larvae/caterpillars of the monarch feed on milkweed. This is their only food! Monarch butterflies are one of the few insects capable of making transatlantic crossings. They are becoming more common in Bermuda due to increased usage of milkweed as an ornamental plant in flower gardens!

Here are a few of my milkweed photos.

Asclepias, the milkweeds, is a genus named by famed Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus. He named the genus after Asclepius, the Greek god of healing because of the many folk remedies associated with the plants. Here are a few fun facts: The milkweed filaments from the follicles are coated with wax, and have good insulation properties. Tests have shown them to be superior to down feathers. The high dextrose content of the nectar led to milkweed's use as a source of sweetener for Native Americans and voyageurs.

The fibers of some species were used for cordage. Milkweed also contains latex and both Germany and the United States attempted to use it as a natural source for rubber during World War II. Milkweed is a common folk remedy for removing warts. The sap is applied directly to the wart several times daily until the wart falls off. The sap is also used externally as a natural remedy for poison ivy. The plant also contains cardiac glycoside poisons which made it useful for native tribes to use in their arrows. Milkweed is toxic and may cause death when animals consume 1/10 its body weight with any part of the plant. Okay, don't eat the plant!

Who didn't love pulling apart milkweed pods as a kid in order to set loose the seeds? Remember that sticky white sap that covered your hands?

So if you want to encourage Monarch butterflies to visit your garden, why don't you grow some milkweed? You will enjoy the smell of the flowers too! :-)

coloured pencil rose finished, updates

teresa@teresamallenstudio.com (Teresa Mallen) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:31:00 +0000

Rose Center # 2, 18.5" x 8", Coloured Pencil on Stonehenge

Here is the finished rose, number two in my series of rose center close ups. Due to its foot and a half width it looks quite dramatic when I look at it from a distance. I have it taped to my studio wall so I can see if there are areas I wish to tweak. Whew, number two is done and you know what? For a gal who doesn't like to work in a series, I think I even have a third rose in me. Wouldn't that be something?! My apologies to those of you who are following my blog who do not like floral art. I do other subjects as well. Please hang in there.

Okay, updates: well woo-hoo, I nearly fell off my chair this morning when I checked the status of my Chard's journey. I had had no new info since 3:30 a.m. Friday morning when it had left Syracuse and to be honest I wasn't too hopeful that all was well. Yippee, it has made it to the state of Georgia. Not only that, the scan says that as of 11:00 this morning it was in Doraville. I did a google map check and good ol' Doraville looks like it is about a half hours drive from the gallery! Can you believe it? Surely in the next 48 hours my funky chunk of chard can be transported just a few more miles. Surely...If it doesn't get delivered by Wednesday morning, I shall hire a taxi driver to go pick it up. So close I can taste it...

As for the adorable Miss Bambie, well if the big furry marmot didn't chew some flowers last night! Grrrrr....Not just ordinary lilies but the exotic ones....more grrrrr....I hope they gave her indigestion. We have a motion detector sprayer and while it can't cover the whole garden, I will make sure it is on tonight and in the area of the lilies. No doubt she will just enjoy the shower! :-)

New update: My tracking info is now showing a 3:04 Destination Scan! Destination, as in the gallery?!! Somebody pinch me or fetch some water, I think I have gone into shock. Time for a happy dance!!! Can you dance and be in shock at the same time? Let's see...Woo-hoo, woo-hoo, woo-hoo...

DIY

teresa@teresamallenstudio.com (Teresa Mallen) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:36:00 +0000

Look who joined me for coffee this morning...okay she didn't want coffee, she was happy to eat our wildflowers and clover. We have lots of deer that wander through here but this gal has decided she likes it here and I guess she is going to stay. We see her everyday, usually more than once. She is becoming quite tame. The other evening she watched me work in the vegetable garden. We had two deer that were around here a lot in late winter and early spring. I don't know if she is one of them and the other met its demise or if she is new. These two were responsible for eating most of my day lilies as soon as they came up through the soil. (My sentiments at the time ran more along the lines of 'big furry vermin'.) My dog is on window duty and if the doe walks across the lawn, heading for my perennial flower beds, he gets to bark wildly at her. She isn't scared of him. She eventually slowly wanders off, probably because she is at risk of going deaf! My veggie garden is protected by an electric fence.

So what about the DIY title? Well, sometimes you just have to do it yourself. I am referring to my painting being stuck at customs. After several days of letting the various channels sort things out, I wasn't happy with the results so I decided to see what I could learn and accomplish. I was determined to make something happen and after three hours on the phone yesterday morning I am happy to report that as I type this, my painting is now back on a truck heading down Interstate 81.

If you are curious as to what happened, I shall tell a bit of the saga. If you would rather, skip down and see the posies.

I started off with the UPS store owner in Ottawa as I shipped my painting from there. Officially, he is the shipper and he is the one who finalized the customs documents etc. that I filled out. He wasn't interested in helping me. So I started calling a 1 800 UPS number in Canada as well as the US. Their information wasn't much more detailed than what was showing on-line. It appeared that my painting was being held by customs "awaiting a special examination". No one could tell me what that might mean. The US representative told me that my Ottawa dude "had" to help me and it was up to him to contact customs on my behalf. I went back to him but I wasn't convinced that he was motivated to help me and at this point, I didn't want lame emails sent. I wanted action NOW. So I took matters into my own hands and I started my search to locate the phone number for the customs warehouse in Plattsburg New York. They don't publish these phone numbers as they don't want people like myself calling the warehouses directly. Thank goodness for my great long distance plan. After calling all over and telling my story for the umpteenth time, I finally was given the number for the warehouse!

At the warehouse I encountered a wonderful man named Mr. Lehman. He actually listened to my story. He was a bit perplexed as to why I was calling him directly but I was able to convince him that UPS was not interested in being my customs broker, at least not in a manner that was acceptable to me. Next, he did the unthinkable - he offered to search the warehouse to find my package. We had no corresponding numbers or codes but he went off anyway. I could have hugged and kissed him. When I called him back after fifteen minutes he happily reported that he had found a woman who knew what had happened and he could let me talk to her. Again, I could have kissed him. After more than two hours on the phone, I was now going to talk to an actual customs officer who was in the same warehouse as my painting and who had my paperwork in front of her! Yippee. Now it was time for the nitty gritty.

So here is the what happened... A 'formal entry team' randomly selected my package from the customs line up in order to check my paper work. They ended up disputing the value I placed on the painting. Apparently I had priced my art too low! Now let me interject that Canadian art work is exempt from duty and the value shouldn't be important. Add to this, the painting was entering the country for the sole purpose of an exhibition following which it was being shipped back to the original owner in Canada. I included pages of documents in the shipment that testified to these facts. The painting was for exhibit only and not for sale. I had even included the International Harmonized Code that was developed so goods could more freely between industrialized countries. Ha! Since they had determined that I wasn't being completely honest in my paperwork, my painting was on hold and would eventually be sent to another building where the UPS broker would then have to start communicating with me to obtain new documents from me here in Ottawa before the painting would be released. This was going to take weeks. She kept insisting that this was what was going to have to happen. I kept her talking. Short of hanging up on me, I was determined that she would give me a better option.

I finally found out that they had determined that my painting was valued at $1800.00. I told her this wasn't correct and I kept asking questions. Finally she revealed that someone had "looked on-line". You mean all of this was because someone came up with a number from a website that wasn't even mine?!? I told her to look at my website as I didn't even have prices on my gallery page where the Chard painting appears. Finally after much discussion of my limited options this wonderful lady relented. She even came around to the point that she agreed to physically take my package to the place where it would be cleared and she would sign off on it herself as the new documents required my signature! Hallelujah!!! And that is what she did. After almost a week in customs, (and other than my conversation there would have been no end in sight), my painting was finally released from hold and it entered back into the system. It went onto a truck last night and is in-transit now. A lot may happen yet to derail things but at least now I have a chance of my painting making it to Atlanta in time.

Time for a peony break...

To be really clear, the CPSA International Exhibition does allow paintings to be for sale. When I submitted my digital files for jurying, I had to declare whether or not the paintings being viewed would be for sale. As less than 10% of the paintings sell I decided to list the painting as Not For Sale as it would make it easier to set up the return shipping from here before the painting went.

So why is the exhibition so important? Actually it isn't, with one big exception - one cannot get CPSA signature status from being juried in alone. The painting actually has to hang in the exhibition. Also, you need to be accepted into the International Exhibition three times over a 10 year period. With over 700 entries and only 120 painting being chosen, the competition is stiff and the odds are stacked against you. I was accepted last year (and my painting made it to Seattle!) and I don't want to forfeit this acceptance by having my painting stuck in customs due to some wonky bean counting! If I go down, as it were, it won't be without a fight. The exhibition rule is that the final date for receiving our paintings is Wednesday. No late paintings are accepted. Now it is time for UPS to do what they do best - quickly and efficiently ship packages across the continent. Right now I am just glad my painting has cleared and is on a truck.

On that cautiously optimist note, here is another peony. I have several peony plants and they are all at their peak right now. Absolutely gorgeous. My rose work in progress is almost finished and I shall have a final image next week. Tomorrow I teach again. Where did the week go? Have a great weekend everyone and thanks for all of your concern and well wishes regarding my shipping woes. I appreciate it!

Rose wip, a lovely blogger gift and shipping woes

teresa@teresamallenstudio.com (Teresa Mallen) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:26:00 +0000

center of a rose, wip, cps on Stonehenge, 18" x 8"

Here is how my rose looks now. I still have petals on the right that don't have any colour yet and I am about half way along in developing values elsewhere. I haven't had much time to work on it as I have been busy getting my painting framed and ready to ship. I also wrote my newsletter last week and I had to prepare for my Beyond the Basics course which I started teaching Saturday. I have great students and I had a wonderful time with them on the weekend. I have also been out of town again cleaning out my parents' house (my on-going summer project). I shall have more studio time this week than last, so I hope to be able to finish this rose image soon.

Here is a picture of my Swiss Chard Mosaic piece now that it has been framed. I thought you might like to see the scale of the work as it is hard to judge things from a compressed image of just the art. I had to frame it in acrylic as it is being shipped to the CPSA International Exhibition. Acrylic is painfully expensive. In fact the acrylic cost more than the shipping fee.

I packed it up and shipped it off last week. It hasn't gone very far. In fact my art is stuck in upper New York state in some sort of governmental limbo land. Prior to shipping, I spent 45 minutes filling out shipping forms and customs documents for the US, and for reentry back into Canada (for this purpose I am both a shipper and an importer). I even knew my International Harmonized Code for a work of fine art (I spent two hours on the internet trying to obtain this info). I didn't use it last year but hey, I figured the more info the better!

The art has cleared customs but I have been informed that it is being held by a Non Customs Government Agency. From what I can find out on-line, it would seem that after clearing customs, my package has to be cleared by the Agency Task Force. I guess they look for bombs and guns. I would think a simple scan of my box would determine that there is just a painting inside. It was to arrive in Atlanta tomorrow but right now my painting seems to have slipped into a black hole. My tracking info shows no new developments. I have one week to get it to the gallery, after that paintings are not accepted. So I sit and fret....

On a happier note, look at what I received in the mail last week.

Fellow blogger, Beth Macre mailed out gifts to those of us who commented on her blog. I am so delighted with my clay magnet. I love the colours and of course my big T. I think I may just convert it from a magnet to a pin so I can wear it! You can also see two cards that have examples of her work. Beth has wonderful clay houses, tiles, and other art available at her etsy shops. To see more of her work and to make a purchase visit www.bmacre.etsy.com and www.hearthomes.etsy.com. Thanks again Beth!

New Issue of Coloured Pencil Newsletter

teresa@teresamallenstudio.com (Teresa Mallen) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 05:25:00 +0000

Coloured Pencil Bird Collage

Image Copyright of Artist Heather Gaff Mewis

A new issue of my Coloured Pencil Newsletter is now ready to read. Don't miss the artistic creations of featured artist Heather Gaff Mewis. Her bird collage is above and her jewelry is below. I am sure you will be inspired by all of her creative endeavours!

Jewelry by Heather Gaff Mewis

Also, if you are interested in taking my Beyond the Basics course, please note that you have just two days left to register. Hustle, hustle...

If you are new to my blog, do check out my newsletters by clicking here. Why not consider becoming a Newsletter Group Member? Membership is free! You will receive an email as soon as a new issue has been posted and is ready to read. I hope you will participate by asking questions, submitting art work to share, or making suggestions. If you would like to be featured or you have a business you would like me to mention, that would be wonderful too. If you would like some help with a piece just send me a photo or a scanned image and we can go from there. There is an on-line show coming up this fall that you would be welcome to participate in. So, if you are interested in becoming a member just email me.

Enjoy the issue!

new coloured pencil rose

teresa@teresamallenstudio.com (Teresa Mallen) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 20:49:00 +0000

center of a rose, wip, coloured pencil on Stonehenge, 18" x 8"

Here is my newest work in progress. You might notice the similarity in size, subject matter and style to my last piece. Woo-hoo, looks like a series is in the making! Usually I am not keen to work on a subject that is so similar to something that I have just finished. As a result, I usually don't work in a series. Of course all artists know that it is a good idea to work in a series (at least once in a while) but I must confess that I am a bit too hedonistic to stick to this good advice. Ah, but perhaps this time...I would just need to complete one more and I would have a small series!

Like the last piece, I am working on a rose - cps on Stonehenge paper. Again, this piece is all about curves and delicately blended colour. As you can see, I have yet to add colour to some petals while other areas have been quite developed. I hop all over as I work, adding a bit of colour here and there. At 18 inches wide, the piece has some lovely drama to it already.

My flower gardens are flourishing. Peonies, poppies and lupines are all displaying their beauty. Here is a lovely lisianthus...

and an allium...

I think it is time to brew up some tea and to sit amongst the flowers for a spell. I want to rewrite some of my press material and sitting in the garden will help make this a more enjoyable task!

So how about you, do you like working in a series?

Abstracted Rose Finished

teresa@teresamallenstudio.com (Teresa Mallen) — Mon, 25 May 2009 20:00:00 +0000

Rose (untitled), 8"w x 15"h, Coloured Pencil on Stonehenge

Here is the finished image of the work in progress I showed last time. You might recall that I was going for abstracted realism here. While the piece is a representation of an inner section of a rose, my desire was to capture and emphasize the various lines and curves that I found so appealing. You can click on the detailed view below for a better idea of how the piece looks close up.

I haven't given any thought as to what the title of this piece might be. I will tape it to the wall of my studio and perhaps something will come to mind as I look at it over the next little while.

It has been two weeks since I posted. Please don't infer that this piece took that long to do! In fact this piece came together quickly as there wasn't a lot of detail to render. Unfortunately I just haven't been able to spend much time in my studio recently. As some of you may know, my father passed away last year. My mother died six years ago. My sister and I have inherited the family farm and we are now in the process of going through the house and all of their belongings. For those of you who have already had to face a similar situation, you know what a huge task this can be. It is at least a three hour drive to get to the farm and back so these sessions are time consuming and tiring.

My parents moved a few times but eventually they bought a farm in 1957 and they lived there the rest of their lives - long enough to settle in well and accumulate stuff. So we sort, throw out, clean, sort some more, throw out, clean...on and on it goes. I have done at least 20 loads of laundry in the past week as I prepare their clothing to go to a charity. Once we are done the house, we can look forward to sorting the outbuildings. Old farm machinery, yippee. Right about now I could use a few extra siblings. :-) Then again, I have heard a lot of horror stories of how family members fight over their parents' estate so maybe things would just be more complicated.

It has been an interesting time wandering down memory lane. Many items bring back memories of the childhood that I spent there. Holding a crystal pickle tray transports me back to Christmas dinners with Mom's homemade relishes and bread and butter pickles. Long forgotten and tucked at the back of my old bedroom closet I discovered my buffalo sandals from the '70s. The stuff we choose not to throw out, it is so interesting. Costume jewelry that belonged to my grandmother - my mother couldn't part with it and now neither can we! This is a time of memories, laughter and tears.

The unexpected fallout of this is that as we sort the farmhouse my home suddenly becomes stuffed with items that I am bringing back. Yikes...Oh, but there are some groovy finds. Last week we accessed a couple of storage rooms over the kitchen. You can only get up there via a ladder and we hadn't done this in many, many years. Well woo-hoo, I was still climbing the ladder when I spied some lovely chairs. One really gorgeous looking one (lovely lines to its construction) and a few others. They were buried under other things so I don't know if my woo-hoo will turn to an uh-oh. Perhaps they are broken or something. I do know that there is pigeon poop on everything so some serious cleaning will be required. My sister has dibs on the 1900 Singer treadle sewing machine. So now you know what I am up to if my blog posts get rather infrequent!

So what is up next in the studio? Well, this week I have to work on getting the Chard piece ready to ship to Atlanta. Tonight I am going to haul out all of my mat board to see if I have a large enough sheet in the right shade of off white. I had mentioned in the last post that I might do a few of these rose pieces. To get started I will look for another reference image from my photos. Right now though, I am going catch up on reading some of my favourite blogs.

Abstracted Realism - new cp wip

teresa@teresamallenstudio.com (Teresa Mallen) — Fri, 08 May 2009 21:23:00 +0000

'rose flame', work in progress, 15" x 8", coloured pencil on Stonehenge

Isn't it wonderful to start a new piece? I thought I needed a break from working big but I missed a larger format so this one is 15 inches by 8 inches - lots of room to stretch out and breathe! So what am I doing with this and what do I mean by abstracted realism? Well, have a look at my rose photo below.

Using Photoshop, I played with some reference photos. I ended up with a composition that I really liked. I chose a close up view, a vertical slice of the center of the rose. This piece is all about shapes and curves. I saw curves that reminded me of a candle flame or smoke rising. That is the story I wish to tell with this new work. The piece is grounded in realism as I am drawing an actual rose but it is also undergoing a bit of abstraction as the cropping focuses on shapes and curves. I love the shapes and curves of the crop and it doesn't really matter to me if the source is a rose or a tree branch or whatever.

I have lots of yummy colour down already but for now the photo isn't showing it well. I am working on white Stonehenge and I am building up colour by applying light layers of pigment. I saw a few other compositions that appealed to me so I think there may be a rose series in the work here...maybe...

For those of you who are wondering if there is going to be a May issue of my newsletter...humm, I am quite busy right now with commitments outside of the studio so it may be a while before I can get writing another issue. For those of you who are subscribers, you will of course be notified as soon as a new issue has been published. The silver lining is that for those of you who are new members, you have more time to catch up with your reading of past newsletters. If you are new to my blog and you don't have a clue what I am talking about, hop on over to my website to read my newsletters for coloured pencil enthusiasts.

Finally, for the birders out there, not only did I hear a whip-poor-will this week, (as mentioned in a previous post) I actually saw a mother and her oh so adorable baby (half way between fluff and feathers). I was walking my dog one evening and we happened upon them resting in the grass. Mom flew off. I so wish I had my camera so I could have taken a picture of the baby. The site was close to the house and I could have returned to the spot but I didn't want to disturb them more than we had. Don't worry, I kept my dog from having a curious sniff. :-)