"Salon"

When we have Life Drawing, coffee breaks are never long enough to talk about art shows, critique new paintings or discuss art in general. We decided that what we needed was one evening a month devoted to art talk. It was also decided we would have an "educational" element and talk about one artist and look at his/her painting reproductions . After a too-busy summer and then the Czech trip, we recently held our first evening salon over dessert and tea or coffee. It was a great success in many ways but we need to fine-tune the format. One problem was that as artists arrived, they immediately began enthusiastically discussing paintings - so this wasn't as organized as it could have been- so we'll change the order somewhat. However, it was obvious that this time for talk was something we all felt filled a need. Now we have the next one in January to plan for....

Torture..

I'm currently working on a drawing for a new painting. It is based on a line of bikes and a scooter that were in a courtyard in Prague. I thought all the wheels overlapping would make something different for a painting. Well! It probably will if I survive it. The drawing is a real challenge and painting it may very well be more so. I always think it is funny when people say "Oh, you paint - that must be so relaxing!" Actually, painting is work if you are thinking about what you want to achieve. I think this painting will definitely be one that I will work on for a bit at a time - and paint other things in between - or it just might prove to be a new form of artistic torture.