A sunny day

Yippee, a sunny day. So wonderful to have one! It is even 72 degrees outside. Dick is planting his garden as the soil is at last warm enough.

I am working on my newest painting still. It has a complicated rocky background, so has a lot of different forms in the back. It is still fun to work on it, the painting hasnt gotten to that difficult finishing up stage yet.

You may notice that I am very short on my supplies of apostrophes. My keyboard simply wont print one. I have brushed it, banged it on the desk, blown compressed air into the keys, and still cannot dislodge whatever is stuck in that key. I may have to actually buy a new one. grrrr.

Carole (daughter) is coming for dinner. She is one of my toughest critics, but usually right on. I will have her take a look at this newest painting.

I now have my paintings on Imagekind and Yessy. So far no nibbles for sales. But, I remain hopeful. I have been looking at Artspan, they sound as if they have good services for artists, but they are more expensive. So, I am still thinking about them. I would like to sell some paintings through them. On Imagekind, I can order prints at a reasonable price and have them sent to me to sell. I plan to do that for a couple of open air sales we will be having in May and June. Well see hos productive thatis. Allene

Grandchildren

My grandchildren, ages 16,11 and 8 are coming here for a visit this weekend. I have paintings to give to two of them, and must get them framed. One is of Garfield for the 8 year old, The other is of the 12 year old playing and practicing baseball. They both were fun to do, especially the baseball one, as I painted Andrew (the grandchild) in 5 different activities on the painting. (Well, One activity was Andrew showing his dog at a dogshow, the rest were baseball.)
The 16 year old, Maria, does not have her birthday until June, and I have to decide whether I should gift her now or later. She will be working this summer, and wont be out here with the rest of them, sigh.

A gallery artist thinks I should advertise painting various children or grandchildren doing their favorite things. I will do that, and see if I get a nibble. Allene

www.Allene

Reading mail

At last I checked for comments, and was delighted to find a couple. Anne and Bud, Eric took a job with a medical electronics company in Issaquah, a town east of here. It is not a bad commute for him, and he plans to ride his bicycle some days.

Liana, thanks for the mouse poem. Sounds charming. Now, if I could only hear you sing it.

I talked to Arlis about Mike (my nephew who is having cancer treatment.) He feel pretty miserable, I asked what the medical marijuana laws are there. Marijuana is used here, as the law allows it, for medical problems, and nausea from chemo-therapy seems to be helped a lot by it.

Thats all with th family news!! Allene

Well, nearly spring. April 8, 2009.

It is gray and cloudy today, supposed to start raining this afternoon. Oh, well, spring will surely come some day.
Went to my sketchbook project last night. There are 12 of us exchanging sketch books. I had fun with drawing portals--the theme of the book. Some entries were really formal with poetry by Rumi and complicated locks and doors. I chose to do a humble mouse hole with a welcome to his or her world. I can not be serious all the time!

My computer keyboard still has the flu. When I try to type an apostrophe, I get È. When I try to type a question mark, I get É also. I am still trying to remove whatever bit of detritus that is screwing things up. I really dont want to buy a new keyboard. Anyway, you will find my blogs devoid of apostrophes in contractions and question marks.

Today I am going to see my daughter, have lunch with her, and hopefully get my unruly locks shortened.. So, I will only have a few hours to work on my newly begun painting of a rocky British Columbia shore. I am still painting large, 22 by 30 inch, paintings. Fun to be able to spread out like that and have a greater challenge.

I am in a constant intellectual battle over whether I should paint abstracts or stay with realism. I truly love painting in a realistic representational style, but keep thinking I should branch out into something looser. My heart is not in another style, though. Oh, wurra, wurra me. Any comments from you that have seen my paintings. My website is AlleneSoshea.com and at Imagekind.

Adendum:

If you would like to see my newest paintings, go to www.imagekind.com or to Yessy.com and click on my name in the artist lists. Allene

Sunshine at last!

It is possible spring has sprung here. I am still a little suspicious, as we were having snow day before yesterday, but the sun is shining gloriously today. Dick (husband dear) is aking the temperature of the soil in his garden to see if the snow pea seeds and garlic he wants to plant will germinate or lay there and shiver.

I am going to be taking part in a plein aire painting event in Snohomish (our local town) this month, and have a table to sell prints. I have been spending time this a.m. trying to master the art of ordering my prints from Imagekind. I am sure it is easy, but have not found the right page yet. It better be easy, or else what would all my eager customers do!

I have once again started another LARGE painting of the Pacific Northwest trees and rocks on an island somewhere in British Columbia. I also have been working on a friends sketchbook for the sketchbook project a group of us are doing. We work in each others sketchbook, writing or painting in the theme the artist has chosen. Then we trade books all around. This month the sketchbook I have been working in has the theme of portals. Some artists are really formally creative, with quotes from Rumi (an ancient Greek poet) and depict locks and doors, etc. Me, I am humbly offering a mouse hole with a little brown mouse. Welcome to HER world. Wonder if I can find some mouse poetry. Allene

Of course it snowed on April 1st!

It is a common question here, is, when is it going to be spring. Most of us here in Washington state are tired of cold, wet, rainy weather. We have a new word, Snaining--a combination of rain and snow, which it has been doing all too often these days.

My painting has been going well, I have finished two more large paintings. My daughter Carole has been giving me some valuable critiques--except they usually mean reworking some areas. This is both good and bad--I need to remember to keep a light hand with changes.

I have my paintings on two internet web sites, Yessy and Art ID. So far not a nibble. I am looking for alternate places to hang, as the gallery business seems very slow these days. Sigh. My teaching is going well, though. I need to add another class at the gallery classroom. I prefer my cozy studio, but I would like to increase the size of the class.

My grandogger (shepherd-type) broke her foot when on squirrel patrol--the squirrel jumped up on the fence, but Kya couldnt stop in time. She now has her foot in a big white cast and is not too happy about that. It will take several weeks before it is all healed, as she crushed her foot. Squirrel patrol is something that she does seriously.

I am sorry for the long hiatus in messages, but I have been a bit under the weather. But, Things are looking up now, and if it gets sunny, it will really be good. Allene