Seriously....

This was an actual sign on the door of an art gallery on a street I was browsing in a tourist's town. I had to laugh because I wanted to meet the owner(s) whom don't seem to take themselves too seriously. But it was closed. lol.

Sometimes my life, my art feels like this too. I'm in, I'm out and sometimes there all the time unless I'm someplace else? Are you like that? Or are you one of those scheduled, driven, stay-on-task, stay-in-the-moment kind of people?



sign Peter Hurd used outside his studio door

Sometimes I take myself too seriously. I add too much weight to my creativity. Pretty soon, it's like putting on shoes filled with concrete. It becomes a burden. Joyless.

I have to remind myself to enjoy my blog without the crippling worry that I don't always write with grammatical accuracy. Or that I have nothing super-interesting to show or tell.                         just post.
I have to remind myself that my drawing should get better but that every piece I produce is not going to be better than the last one.               just draw.
I have to remind myself that when no one buys my art that is still a valid and important endeavor and that has value simply because it brings me joy.                    just paint.
 So I write and draw and paint what I love and add important exercises in between and then back off and start back again serious, not so serious.... again... and again.

Following are a few of my recent journal pages.

My attempt at charcoal on gesso with pastel, trying to improve my hair strokes, thinking about light and shadows more.

My attempt at mark making with pen and no eraser- loosening up, trusting my instincts.

My attempt to visually express deep disappointment.

My attempt to draw postures and gestures.

 

My attempt to improve my anatomy and specifically, hand drawings.

 

My attempt to draw glass and work on values.

Some of these attempts are serious and some not so serious. But I have attempted- that is something I take very seriously.

 

Thank you to all who visit my blog. I treasure your comments and your thoughts.

Seriously.

I do.

A trip down Grateful Avenue.

This is my grandson, Cash, helping me celebrate St. Patrick day. We go to Target and borrow their hats to take our pictures. It seemed like a leprechaunish thing to do.

I draw almost every day now. I have a joined a site called "Drawing Tutorials On-Line" and have found it to be an endless source for learning and exploring. It also has running videos of poses of dressed and nude models for a pseudo life drawing experience and practice. I highly recommend -worth every cent.

Also, Pauline Agnew, an energetic Irish artist, over at Seedbed Studio is still encouraging me even after taking her class and is a constant source of good suggestions for great art books - (check out: "Drawing and Painting People). Her second class produced amazing art and we were invited to that event on-line. Check her out. She goes above and beyond as a teacher and gives honest and helpful critique of your work to help you move forward.

 

It's so amazing to me that a girl on a farm in rural New Mexico has access to so many amazing options that continually keep me inspired and pushing further.

You would think that Someone GOOD is looking after me and encouraging my art.

i want to make Him proud.

 I'M so G R A T E F U L

for the opportunity to do art, see art, be with artists.

Speaking of inspired- I took another art day through our museum and they were featuring New Mexican style design and art. Check out these lovelies.

Kim Wiggins - local Roswell, NM artist.

 

 

IN LOVE ...just in time

So much is happening over here! It's hard to stop and take the time to document the adventure and the PASSION I'm feeling about my art, about my life.

It waned for a while, quite a long scary while. It's hard to write when my soul is dry (sorry). The creative mind seems to take its own vacations. I still try to draw and paint through the hiatus, because it's much like the pounds I gain when I quit working out.

I lose ground if I quit the work.

I make myself draw and seek out inspiration from on-line classes. And remember.....it always comes back to me. Better.

 

It shouldn't make a difference, but it is SO VALIDATING when your art sells and my daughter sold SIX, YES SIX canvas giclee prints of the sheep painting (see last post) and sold the one above! (see me happy dance!)  I did manage to sell an 8X10 print of this one (on my own, mind ya)

 

It is so much easier, for me at least, for someone else to sell my art. Self-promotion is a tough sell for me.

She tells me to just hush and paint and she will keep them from being under my bed or replacing another painting on my wall. I LOVE IT!! I am taking the kid to Paris in September - if she keeps this up, she'll be paying her way in art sales!

I've fallen in love with charcoal and golden gesso. I've fallen in love with messy, and grungie, and scratches and hatches, and shapes and lines, and shadow and light.

Oh, it feels so good to be in love with my art again. It really feels fresh, raw and exciting like the first time- but a deeper, richer passion like what happens with Sweet Farmer and I over and over again. well maybe not just like it.. but you know what i mean..

REally, it's also like a new plane to stand on after a tough climb. REFRESHING.

I n v i g o r a t i n g.

I hope you are in love with someone, something - that makes your heart beat faster today. If not keep climbing, keep working, keep seeking- it's just up ahead... right around the corner.

30 X40 Canvas with Acrylic "Stay Curious" (prints available upon request)

 

You get your intuition back when you make space for it, when you stop the chattering of the rational mind. The rational mind doesn’t nourish you. You assume that it gives you the truth, because the rational mind is the golden calf that this culture worships, but this is not true. Rationality squeezes out much that is rich and juicy and fascinating.” -Anne Lamott

A Sweet Christmas

hand-carved Santa's by Wylie Worthington

Ahhh... the sweetness of Christmas. This one, for me, is only slightly bitter-sweet. This time last year my Dad was strong and healthy, playing golf three times a week, carving Santas for his kids. In February, he had a massive stroke, which he survived, but it has left him almost completely left-side paralyzed. Short of a miracle, there will be no more carved Santas by my sweet Dad. But I'm lucky that I have a nice collection.
And they remind me of how special he is and how important our time is together.

This is sweet, I think. I decorated my chairs with a little white tulle and burlap rope.
Speaking of sweet- look at my lovely, little Labradoodle- Gurdy. Hasn't she grown? She's a gem of a pet and is learning tricks almost daily. LOVE HER!!
She has made Christmas decorating a little challenging this year, however.

My Christmas tree forest will have to be on the sofa table this year. Gurdy might not recognize that my decorations are NOT her toys- and man, does she love her toys!

 I'm pleased with my dining room chandeleir and it's cascading snowflakes!

This is a cross-stich hand-crafted by my Mom. Tiny little stitches. We moved her to an assisted living place in October of this year. Our family home was dismantled as my Dad is in a full-care facility. They can't be together because there is no facility in their area that has both full-care and assisted care. Precious items were spread among myself, my brothers and all our children. Maybe that's why my decorating reflects a softer side of myself- a little vintage sweetness of family heirlooms, and pretty things to remind me of what is dear. 

 

 

I love this little pillow. I made it myself to sell, but couldn't part with it.

I love little vignettes of collected items set together to tell a story.

I put this together with lighted LED branches in the hopes it would be an arrangements that I can keep through January above my entertainment center.

 

I hope you and yours have a wonderful holiday season. It really is about the goodness of love and family, of giving and sharing. May sweetness spread like raspberry jam on warm toast in your heart this season.

 

 

 

Bubbles of Bliss

20x30 Gallery Wrapped Original with Acrylic by Peggy Krantz and Joli McCombs

This is what happens when you get Crazy Consuela and Odd Chick together! It's a passionate, crazy world with a Bliss Fairy blowing bliss bubbles all over a colorful flower-garden world.

My daughter came down and we painted together and it is such a blast. It's a strange, synergy that happens between like-minded souls when we paint. Like a dance, we go in and out of each other's way adding to and taking from and spray painting and detailing, until we both say it's done. And then we just sit back, drink some crazy juice and enjoy it. Our hope is that this little Bliss fairy finds a happy home and blesses the owner with wild, passionate dreams that come true...every day. I know Joli is one of my greatest blessings. She blisses my world!



Gurdy and Joli

20X30 gallery wrapped canvas with acrylic  Original SOLD

We also painted this delightful little owl painting and Joli posted it on Facebook and sold it within 15 minutes but prints are still available.

 

Find someone fun to collaborate with in your art because you can't get stuck in a rut.  You can feed off each other's energy and ideas and mixing the styles adds interest and mystery to the direction the art will take.

Also, you have twice as many customers to share it with.

 

 Check out my Etsy store when you have time. I thought I would open it up for Christmas. THanks, chick-an-oddees!

 

http://www.etsy.com/shop/chappedchick

 

 

Gypsy Wagon

I'm pretty sure my daughter and my Sweet Farmer thinks I'm going through a mid-life crisis. I just bought myself a 1963 Shasta trailer. She is mint condition and ready for the road. There was something about her that called to me, deep in my gypsy soul and so I brought her home to Krantz Farms. I have big plans for her during the winter - maybe some words painted on her, like "Passions of an Odd chick" or "Adventures of an Odd Chick" in a cute funky font with a flying chick here and there, or maybe I'll leave her plain and buff her up like a shiny tin can. Either way, I'll prepare her for an adventure soon.

She reminds me of a cozy little play house or gypsy wagon or a quiet, zen place to refresh.

 She needs very little really. She looks like a happy place, doesn't she?

 

I added some art that speaks to me. And to my critics. :)

I added some of my own art. Who knows? Maybe I'll sell my art on the road.

It's not fancy but it's good enough for me.

I like little compact, efficient spaces.

My new little puppy, Gurdy, will be ready to travel with me by Spring.

 

I think there will be some good living coming from this space.

And some good stories to share on my blog. If you have any good ideas for my little Shasta, please share!

 

 

 

Brave and Bold with a Sista on your Side.

This is a new animal painting. Yes, I said animal, as in COWs gone wild. You know me, I get stuck on something and I can't let it go. (I call them PASSIONS) I have to paint it this way and that way and I had these great photographs that I had taken of dairy cows and I wondered.... can I convey the energy and tension and curiosity of these animals that I felt when I was kneeling in that cow pen and they were coming forward intense and curious about the camera. It's not an easy thing to convey emotion, I found. Somewhere I read that you can use "fighting colors" to convey tension or energy. And of course, eyes and stance can convey feelings and erratic line and form can be emotive, but without instruction a new artist just simply has to experiment and so I was exploring this process through this cow painting.

24X36 acrylic on canvas "Brave & Bold with A Sista on your Side" SOLD

I'm in this amazing closed facebook art community through Flora Bowley's class and this group of women just continually inspire me with their best art and push me with gentle nudges for more. Sometimes when I get stuck on a painting I can post it there first, and for some reason, I feel encouraged to bring it home for them- like a waiting audience that is cheering you on toward a finish line. My setting is fairly isolated like I'm sure a lot of people feel in rural environments. I hope you can find a community some way that has some expectation of you and encourages you to succeed. (thank you girlfriends- you know who you are!) These cows remind me of how we push forward, curious and bold and brave, and a little scared, but determined to learn something new.

AND The other animal that I'm passionate about in my life (and slightly sleep-deprived):
MEET GURDY - the 6 week labradoodle that has made a home at Krantz farms and in our hearts! More stories to come.

Autumn Scene

mixed-media collage on large canvas
 

Autumn Scene

Upon the hills the giant trees with color were ablaze,
Like smoke from smouldering embers rose the late September haze.
All silent and magnificent I fancied I could see
The Master Artist touching up some solitary tree,
But the glory of the landscape was a flash of crimson flame
At the bottom of the picture where the painter signs his name.

Now I cannot speak the language of the men who paint and draw.
And with technical precision can't describe the scene I saw.
All I know is that a picture was unrolled for me to see,
And the high lights and the shadows just what they ought to be,
But that gorgeous burst of color
in the foreground caught my eye
And I knew it made the landscape,
though I couldn't say just why.

It struck me as peculiar, where an earthly painter signs;
The Master Artist signed His name in tangled shrubs and vines.
And as I stepped up closer
I discovered and was glad
He had given that touch of splendor to the poorest stuff He had.
To the common things in summer
Which man scarecely sees at all
He had given the place of honor and the glory of the fall.
                                                                                - edgar a. guest

The Glorious Giraffe.

"The Glorious Giraffe" Original Acrylic on wrapped canvas 30x40
prints and cards available upon request.

Oh good and glorious giraffe,
I'd like to speak in your behalf.
It's clear that there are very few
Who decorate the world like you.
                             - Johannes Eff, 1969

It seems I am working my way through the animal kingdom. I have to admit that giraffes are a favorite of mine. Their inexplicable oddness and their sweetness combine to win you over completely, along with their kind gentleness and sweeping eyelashes. You never hear of anyone being killed by a giraffe. They have huge hearts to raise and lower that neck so quickly. And they are graceful and dignified despite the fact that their build is so strangely unbalanced. 

"It was as if his hide had been in two layers, one creamy and pale, the other crisp and reddish brown. Maybe the dark upper layer had been to fragile for the equatorial heat. It had cracked into blocks, like the glaze on the Chinese pottery."   -Gladys Schmitt in "Consider the Giraffe"

I was forever changed once I saw a free giraffe move across the landscape in Africa in 2007. I've sketched them for years.
It was important to me to get this painting right and it owns a piece of my soul.

"It was really rather eerie; one got the same sense of unreality one would get- the same shock- if one suddenly saw a tree uproot itself and drift across the landscape."  -Gerald Durrell, zoo keeper