Friday, May 30, 2008

SOLD




A couple more paintings that sold in the past week -

Little Foxes

The Little Foxes opens next FRIDAY at Possum Point Theatre in Georgetown DE. Get your tickets by calling 302-856-4560. I'll post some photos here after the first weekend's run. The show will run the first two weekends in June. We've been working very hard, hope you can make it out!

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Technology....kewllll

Just got a wireless mouse and an ergonomic wireless keyboard. Love not having extra wires around. Can't wait till the day when everything's wireless, then there won't be problems with hiding cords from lamps, t.v.'s, etc. My daughter had stuck stickers all over my last keyboard - of that crude little bunny - you know the one? So I'm glad to get rid of that mess. This one is shiny and new and my son hasn't deposited pounds of food crumbs between the keys yet. Makes a nice little clicking noise when I type too. (Easy to please apparently.)

Anyway, here's the finished product of the latest painting. I corrected the problems (hopefully). Titled "Sunny Rehoboth backyard."



And here's a shot of the very beginning of McQuay's Market...hope to be done with this one in a week or two.

Monday, May 26, 2008

Mini's and mini-races

Had my "meet the artist" day at Sedona yesterday. I brought some "mini's" of my paintings that were matted and signed. Sold a few and the Gallery is carrying them also. For $20 they're a nice little pic for the walls. This is a pic of Marion (the owner) and me at the entrance to Sedona.



A couple on the wall.....



and a few more.




Our Memorial Day has been spent working on fixing the storm damage from a couple of weeks ago and getting the house clean. Ahhh, nothing like a clean house. And it's BEAUTIFUL outside! This weekend has been so nice. What a great treat for the business owners. Looking at two robins outside my window bobbing along by the Shasta daisies that are just about ready to pop. Wow, I love spring/summer. Nice. Great smells coming in through the window too - sun and grass and warmth.

We did the Masser 5-miler yesterday. Huge change from last Sunday. Ran 7:30-7:40, something like that, and finished in 38:32. Second in my age group. Kind of tough to get going faster after training slow for the marathon.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Friends and Art

Changing Seasons sold last night - here's a pic.


That's two in two nights - that's a good thing. :)

Sometimes it's nice to have a friend who will tell you exactly what they're thinking. My BFF Tina was over last night and will look at a "finished" painting and point out things that need to be corrected. It's easy to miss the obvious when you've been working on a particular painting for a while, and she never worries about offending me by telling me what's wrong. Her comment was, "that's not finished, right?" (Yes, it was...technically.) So I asked what she saw and she told me. When I woke up with the sun this morning (why is it so easy to wake up at six in the spring/summer but nearly impossible in the winter?) I couldn't stop thinking about "fixing" the painting. So I got out of bed and fixed it. Now I feel better.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Getting back to normal

Happy Memorial Day weekend! The start of summer! Hallelujah!

Lewes Fourth, an original, sold out of Sedona last night. This Sunday, there's a "meet the artist" at Sunday brunch between 10 and 2. I'll have my newest painting there and some prints for sale also.

The hand painted wineglasses are becoming popular at the Gallery. Not a lot of money to be made on those, but they're fun to do and a way for people to bring some art into their kitchen.

Sunday is another race - this time, only a 5 miler. Legs should be all recovered by then. Had a great hot stone massage yesterday which felt wonderful.

Just starting a new oil of McQuay's Market, which is at the entrance to Rehoboth on Rehoboth Avenue. That'll be a fun one - a piece of old Rehoboth.

Have a great weekend!

Sunday, May 18, 2008

A little more info

Just to give you an idea of how the day went....if you're interested.

After a good night of sleep, we arrived at Frawley Stadium (start/finish area) at 6 a.m. We were wandering around the parking lot, just trying to keep our legs moving and checking out the area. Saw some locals there and some strange sights as well. One strange sight was this guy - let me try to explain this - He had white shorts pulled up to mid-belly, with this very tight, very wide waistband - picture the shorts that boxers wear. (Not boxer shorts...boxing shorts.)He had one white kneesock on and I guess a regular sock on the other foot. No shirt. This is what I saw initially - the high shorts, kneesock and no shirt. Not all that strange, even though it was chilly in the morning. Robert said - "he's got his race number PINNED TO HIS CHEST".

Huh? What do you mean, pinned to his chest??

So I (unfortunately) got a better look - and yes, the number was PINNED TO HIS CHEST. I've seen guys with nipple rings attach the safety pins to the rings before, so that wouldn't have been so much of a surprise, but THIS guy had the safety pins THROUGH HIS SKIN. If you don't believe me, there's a shot of him in the photo album at races2run.com. I tried to look (without getting to close or staring) and from what I could see, it was through the skin - with no blood. I don't know if he was some kind of undead vampire or some freaky s&m dude or what. It was completely gross. And, as it often seems for me, the minute I recognize a sight like this, the chances of me being thrown into this person's path again and again rises exponentially. During the first ten miles I kept noticing him in my peripheral vision. At one point as we were running by the beautiful Brandywine River, he was inches from me. I could have touched his undead arm to my left. I immediately broke into a sprint just to get myself away from the general area. (Shiver).

My feet started to go numb at mile 7. No idea why, and it only got worse. I would wiggle my toes to keep them from going to sleep and that helped, but after a while, I just stopped. So it became like running with cinder blocks attached to my ankles.

At mile 10, I stopped to wipe my face with a sweat towel I left at a friend's "tent" that was set up for the race. Robert didn't stop, and that was the last I saw him until about mile 18. The boy was moving!

I only saw one street guy on the course - he was seated on a milk crate giving the stink eye to all the runners as they went by. Oh, and I did see one female crackhead was yelling "I'm right behind you!" She was scary too. It was Sunday, so there were a bunch of downtown people going to church (we sinners were running....bad runners) and MAN, the outfits!! I saw one guy in this white double breasted suit with gold buttons and shiny, pointed shoes. His date or wife or whatever had a fancy dress with an equally fancy hat. I got the feeling that the dressing up was as important as attending the services, or maybe more so.

After the first 10 miles, there were three 5.4 (?) loops that ran along the riverfront and also into a not-so-nice part of town. It was kind of boring looping like that. When I finally caught up to Robert at mile 18, we ran together for a little while. I finally saw my family shortly before that, and that was a huge boost. My son and daughter, mom and dad, brother and family. There's nothing like support at the end of a marathon, it's so important. So on the way back, I pushed a little harder, "only" having a 10k to go. My hamstring started cramping at mile 21 and 23 so I had to back down a little more than I wanted to. I used four Gu's and needed them all. There was a beer stop at mile 23 and I had about 1/4 of a cup for fun.

Saw no one I knew at the finish line which was kind of a bummer. My family didn't make it back in time and Robert had fallen behind.

Overall, a good experience, difficult, sweaty, painful, but fun in a weird kind of way. Wonder where the next one will be???

Sixth!

In my age group today, not too shabby! 39th out of 189 women. Funny thing is, it was a tough race for me. By mile 7 my feet were numb and I was having trouble. Not a good sign when there's 19 miles to go.

The rain held off till after the race which was awesome. We had sun and blue sky for the full four hours. Now we're just nursing sore muscles and are planning on taking it easy tomorrow. I'm waiting for photos from my family and will post them when I get them. You can go to races2run.com to see results and photos of the race.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Told ya...

it wouldn't last. RAIN again. Yeesh.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Wow, sun!

Sun and warm weather?? Can't last!

2 days till the Marathon. Oh, good Lord. Looking like it's going to be 68 and mostly sunny. Let's hope. I've decided I'm going to wear "wheelies" and just covertly skate when people aren't looking.

My daughter had a pep rally today. I wish I had taken a picture of her before she left the house. Oh. My. God. Let's see, she had on a teal-colored top (which she claimed to be blue), gold shorts (blue/gold-school colors), white knee-socks, pulled all the way up, Uggs over the knee socks-but the socks poked out the top, and hair in pigtails. She looked like she was part of Cirque S'oleil. (I have no idea if that's spelled correctly).

My son - another story altogether. Can teenagers have Alzheimers? Or it just that they are so wrapped up in their own world that they don't notice that rest of us are here? He completely blew off Mother's Day - never said the words, and his father had to sign his Mother's Day card for him because he just couldn't find the time. (Am I whining?) It's a good thing I love him so much, he gets away with murder.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Paint, paint...

So here's my chair for the Children's Beach House Barbecue that will be held this August. The chairs, to be completed by a dozen local artists, will be auctioned off to benefit the CBH. Perdy butterflies.




This is a painting IN PROGRESS - (yes, I see the problems, and they will be fixed.) Still working on it, but should be done in the next day or two. Look for the finished product on kimklabe.com soon.





And WOW, what a storm. Dustin took these shots around Rehoboth and Lewes. Our house took some storm damage, which means it's currently off the market until I can get repairs. Sigh.



These are his feet (he's wearing hip waders) standing in the road.



This was in our neighborhood.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Overbooked....and liking it...kind of.

I have no idea how I worked 40 hours. I think I've now filled all those hours with other things to keep any possibility of boredowm from setting in. Ever.

One week to the Marathon. Thank God this training is almost over. I always start to hate running at this point, but it's always temporary. I really, really, really hope there's nice weather on Sunday.

Yesterday was the all-day (too long) Jazz, Blues and BBQ event at Killen's Pond. I froze my butt off. Sold some stuff, but froze. Enough with this weather already. We definitely had spring this year, no jumping from winter to summer like Delaware usually does.

The Little Foxes is coming along. Lots of rehearsals, lots of lines, a very long play. But it's really fun playing Regina, who is just about the meanest, coldest woman next to Joan Collins. Love her. :)

Sheridan is complaining about sweating in Hawaii. How dare he. I'd like to bounce a pineapple off his head.

Come to Sedona over Memorial Day weekend for a meet-the-artist day. Bring money, buy art!

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Solo Show at Sedona Restaurant

For the month of May, I'll be the Featured Artist at Sedona's in Bethany. I hung the work yesterday and they'll be opening for the season tomorrow. I'll be there on Sunday, Mother's Day, for a "meet the artist" kind of thing at brunch. Lots of good buzz about the artwork, and I'm excited to have a change of venue.

Since most of my artwork will be split between Sedona and the Kennedy Gallery, there is very little left to take to the Blues Festival this weekend. SO, I'm planning on taking hand-painted wine glasses and a few originals and prints. It's supposed to be 80 on Saturday and the music festival is outside, so I'll be sure to bring sunscreen too. If sales are slow, at least I can get a tan.

I'll post pics after Sunday's meet-and-greet.

(Only 11 more days till the marathon. Eek.)

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Attack of the face painters

Okay. So this was my first year doing "Dover Days". I agreed to participate months ago, and thought I'd do face painting instead of taking artwork because there were supposed to be a lot of kids at this thing. And yes, there were a lot of kids. However, there were also a lot of FACE PAINTERS! In fact, look at this monstrosity that was DIRECTLY ACROSS FROM ME. For crying out loud! They had three people painting for less than what I was charging and they were clowns! There's no competing with that. AND, if you walked three booths up, there was ANOTHER face painter. Turned out to be plenty of kids to spread among the three face painters. Here are some of the faces:







Friday, May 2, 2008

Arti Gras

Man, plein aire painting is TOUGH! I find it extremely frustrating, but I'm not giving up on it yet. The difference between a studio piece and a plein aire piece is huge. Loockerman Street in Dover was closed for this event tonight, which was kind of like a block party. There were bands, vendors, artists and MIMES. MIMES! Children mimes. They were hideous, and kept coming up behind me and posing in these creepy, frozen stances. Then they had a make-believe baseball game in the middle of the street that was so realistic, I ducked when the ball appeared to be coming my way. (I hate mimes, now more than ever.)

So, here's a few shots of the street, and of my crappy painting. There was nothing much to paint, so I painted the Bell, Book and Candle shop which is where I was assigned to be. It's a, um....wicca-kind-of-fairy-dust-occult but not in a scary way- yoga-ish-sandalwood scented-kind of store. I gave them the painting and they were thrilled. I was thrilled to have it leave my hands. Ugh.

Dover Days

Okay, so I'm headed up to Dover for their "Arti Gras" which preceeds tomorrow's all day event at Dover Days. Tonight there are just a bunch of slacker artists hanging out doing their thing in and around the streets of Dover. I'm taking some canvas panels and an easel and am doing some plein aire practice. It's from 4-8, and I'll be in front of Bell, Book and Candle. If I paint anything worth sharing, I'll post it.

Tomorrow I'll be doing face painting for kids (and adults if they insist). See my October posts for some examples. This is not your "balloon on a cheek" kind of face painting.

Enjoy this BEAUTIFUL weather!