Well, it's 12:00 midnight and I'm uploading a quick post for my art show, the opening of which will be tonight at 5:00. Over 30 paintings, some baskets and a bronze on view at the Artists Guild Gallery, 44 Royal Palm Point, Vero Beach, Florida. The last show at our at the old gallery, as we will be moving to the Arts District, 1974 14th Avenue in Vero come November 1st. The show will benefit the Food Pantry of Indian River County--we have a basket for food donations, and a fishbowl for monetary donations to the Pantry, and a portion of my sales will be go towards this worthy cause. We had a great response from the media so a good crowd is expected. Shown is the postcard invitation that I sent out.

On the left is my latest painting, created last minute for a show in Melbourne, the deadline of which forced me to work into the wee hours of the morning. But finally at 3:00 am I was able to digitally photograph the still-wet painting, upload it onto my computer, download and complete the application, and send it off a full 9 hours before the deadline of noon on Tuesday, July 28th. Phew! It's a 24" x 20" oil painting, framed in a 3" gold leaf over wood plein air frame. The location is from several photos I took last week in Fellsmere which is just west of Sebastian, at Blue Cypress Recreational Area. It is a very beautiful location, active with fishermen, air boaters, kayakers, birds, butterflies and gaters.

I photographed the egret in the photo at various stages of his fishing expedition, the success of which is picture here. It was quite

entertaining watching him try to get that big fish down his throat! Ah, the adventures in paradise!

ART GOES GREEN!

Well, here it is July 19th, 2009, and I haven't updated this blog since December. Some blogger I am! Lots happened since December, which I'll skip over and come up to date.

During a long bout with a bug and many days and nights on the couch, I developed a fun new "Green" craft, recycling plastic grocery bags into delightful decorative baskets! This month's (July's) theme for Artist Members is "Art Goes Green" in the Artists Guild Gallery, Vero Beach, (http://www.artistsguildgalleryverobeach.com/) so this was a very fitting contribution to that theme. The basket pictured above was my first attempt, and quite a learning process it was. It is made of plastic bags coiled and wrapped with raffia, joined in a circle and "coaxed" into a basket shape. Visible are the ginea hen feathers I wove into the basket, and it was finished off with a higher lip topped with a possum jaw bone handle. The second basket I created is embellished with ostritch feathers, and is of a finer quality in balance and symmetry, as I gained more experience in working with this unusual material. Next week I will teach the artists in the Artists Guild how to do this, and I believe this won't be the end of it. This craft is very clean and portable, requires minimal supplies (bags, raffia, needle, scissors), is very addictive and enjoyable, great exercize for the hands and fingers, and EXTREMELY GREEN, using over 75 bags per standard 8"x8" basket as pictured.

I am also displaying two of my latest oil paintings for your enjoyment, "Marilyn Monroe" and "Portico at Windsor." "Marilyn" started out as a demo for my students at Oak Harbor in Vero, which I mostly finished up at my favorite artists' weekly gathering place - the Sebastian River Art Club. "Portico at Windsor" also started out as a demo for a plein air painting day-long workshop I conducted at Windsor in Vero.