The Studio Tour was a big success with lots of people coming to visit. The bad part is that I completely forgot to take any photos AT ALL during the tour. Not of the lovely job we did of displaying artwork, not of the many people visiting. The only photos I took were of the mess of stuff I literally dumped from my studio into the garage in a cleaning frenzy. Which I’m not showing.

One of the great things about getting the art work out on view is that when things sell, I get to make new work to replace the old! Besides catching up on lots of business related stuff, painting is what I’ve been doing.

I’ve finally been back in the studio painting for long enough periods of time to actually accomplish something. It’s heavenly.

Here’s a peek at what I’m up to:

I’m not sure if these are going to be four separate paintings or if I’m going to join them together to make one long painting. Or I could arrange them into a big square painting. Stay posted on this.

I’m in the early stages on this one–it’s 23″ x 51″.

Here’s some information on the Open Studios. And for more details please go to the Oracle Town Website.

I’ve also put together the schedule for art workshops in May and June with lots of offerings and more coming. Summer is a great time to visit Oracle, cool in the high country, surrounded by beautiful oak trees. Tempting isn’t it? You can find the listings with details on my website workshop page.

There was a last minute scramble to get food items together. There my big worry went two ways. What if I made too much food and nobody came and I had to haul it all home? Or on the other hand, what if I made too little and people came and had nothing to munch on and thought I was stingy?

And drinks. Bottles of wine, water, soft drinks, beer. Cups to put these in. Ice to keep things chilled. Actually there’s an outside refrigerator. One of my first jobs early Sunday morning ended up being to help clean out the refrigerator on the patio outside the gallery. Ah, the job description for the artist is never ending. There was a mild panic when the re-plugged in unit didn’t work, but the intrepid Jim figured it out and soon the appliance was humming away.

I hadn’t even given a thought to flowers. Luckily it’s iris season in Oracle. And the most beautiful lavender iris’s had magically appeared amongst more mundane white and purple ones, for the first time this year. So I cut iris’s and put them in one of my Mom’s vases. It was like having a little piece of her at the opening.

What to wear? I ended up making a rare appearance in a dress. I have a few but seldom have occasion to wear them. I’m usually in paint encrusted studio clothes. It was nice to have something special to wear.

The biggest worry was whether anyone would show up at all. Or almost worse, if a handful of friends came and then felt obligated to hang around for three hours feeling sorry for me.

On the flip side, I had fantasies of a huge crowd, some dignitaries like gallery owners or heck even a museum curator. And best of all, a complete sell out of my work.

The reality was way better than my worst fears and landed somewhere below my biggest fantasies. There was a good, substantial crowd. It meant so much to me that so many people, friends and strangers alike, would take the time out of their busy lives to come to see my work. Although the reality is that I had more than a few people ask me beforehand if I was making my “famous” cookies and guacamole for the opening. When I said yes, they said they’d be there. Maybe they took a look at the work between munching on the food.

Below are some photographs Jim took of people at the opening and at the installation.

Thank you to all the friends and new friends who came to the opening. The exhibit is up through April 28th. The Rancho Linda Vista Gallery has an interesting policy. It is always open. You can just go there, flip on the lights and take your time viewing the work. And if you’d like, contact me via email (barbara@barbaracowlin.com) and I’d be happy to meet you there!

Calm until today. Today it dawned on me that I only have 3 more days to work until I hang the show on Saturday. I have one painting far from done that I really want to finish for the show. Paintings need to be wired to get ready to hang them. Actually Jim will do this for me. The painting I’m trying to finish needs to get done in time for Jim to photograph it.

What about food and drink for the opening? Haven’t even thought about that. Well, now I have. Tablecloth? A table? Paper plates, napkins, etc.???

Have I even thought about which paintings to include in the show? Well, no. My strategy here is to bring every reflection painting I have over to the gallery, and then decide. Thankfully the gallery is about 2 minutes away from my studio.

Once I have the show laid out, everything needs to be hung. Lighting will need to be adjusted. I need to make a list of the paintings in the order they are hung, then type up an official list with all the necessary information on each painting–title, date, medium, PRICE. I need to write up an artist statement and mount it or mat it to hang in the gallery.

Need to design, write and print brochures for my workshops to have in a stack at the opening.

Plants are dying outside because they need to be watered. The house is a mess.

Well, yes, I guess I am hysterical. And when I get this way, it’s best to just stay out of my way. As my family knows full well. Apologies in advance.

So my solution: get over to my wonderful wall easel and get painting.

Here’s the invitation to the show:

Cross your fingers that it doesn’t snow. Hope to see you there!

Here they are:

Reed Crossing, acrylic on panel, 12″ x 12″

Rhythm in Blues, acrylic on panel, 24″ x 24″

These are both part of my Water Reflection series. Rhythm in Blues is the painting I just completed yesterday.

Water in Scottsdale, Acrylic on panel, 12″ x 12″

Water in Scottsdale is part of my Nooks & Crannies series. A friend pointed out that I’m being clever–paintings of water and then a painting of a water drain cover. I hadn’t even thought of this. So no, not clever, but still, kind of a neat accidental connection. Photography of the paintings by James Cowlin. Thanks, Jim!

And here are a couple of my snapshots of two paintings I just started yesterday.

Fresh start over stencils, vertical panoramic

The painting above was going to be of Mexican sunflowers over a stencil I had painted onto the canvas. I got as far as the stencil part and then got busy, the sunflowers totally dried up and fell off the stems. There’s still a bit of the stencil showing through, but probably not clear enough for you to see. Maybe if the sunflowers come up again this summer, I’ll try to paint them again. Meanwhile, I’m excited about the start of this new water reflection and the one below.

Another start of a vertical panoramic water reflection.

Lots to do before my upcoming solo show at the Rancho Linda Vista Gallery here in Oracle on April 7th! We’ll see if these two get done or not. Ordinarily paintings take me several months to complete but you never know.

Most exciting (to me anyway) is the part in which PaperWorks has in the event. As a member of PaperWorks, I’m involved, hence my excitement. The Special Collections Library at the University hosts an exhibition of books made by PaperWorks members each year. It’s so exciting to be able to see the creative, funny, beautiful, thoughtful works produced by the members. Here’s an article just published in Zocolo magazine about the exhibit, written by C. J. Shane, a PaperWorks member.

This year in addition to the exhibition in the Special Collections Library, PaperWorks will have a tent on the Mall. It’s booth #335, just adjacent to the library. A group of us will have our books, cards and other paper related items for sale.

Here’s a peek at one of the books I’ll be showing in the Special Collections Library:

Work in progress–a pile of drawings and photographs for the Pack Rat Attack book

A page of the Pack Rat Attack book, in progress

The cover of Pack Rat Attack

A finished page from the Pack Rat Attack book

The Tucson Festival of Books runs on Saturday and Sunday, March 9th and 10th from 9 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. each day. Join the crowds, enjoy the fun. Books in all their forms are still alive and well!

The printing of postcards used to be the major expense. And since the more you print the less expensive the per card cost is, back in the day, people would print large numbers and send them out everywhere they could think of. My friends Patricia and Jacob Sahertian recommended gotprint.com awhile back and I’ve used this online printing company several times and been happy with the results. It’s remarkably easy to design postcards online, order them and get them printed within a couple days. The shipping takes a bit longer depending on how much you want to pay.

The largest expense is on the mailing  end–the postage. When I first thought about postcards, I figured I’d order 500 and send them out to the hefty 300+ Rancho Linda Vista Gallery list, plus my own list. Then I calculated the mailing costs! So I decided to do a combination of email “postcards” to the gallery list and physical postcards with real stamps to my mailing list. And so I ordered 250 cards.

I answered my own question. A combination of email and printed cards, a nice compromise. The printed postcards should arrive in a week or so. Enough time for me to address them, stamp them and get them mailed out. Let me know if you’d like one, send me your address and I’d be happy to send it off to you!

Well, a week or so ago, the April  2013 artist dropped out, leaving an opening. I had my name on the waiting list so I got the offer to show earlier than planned. 10 months earlier to be exact. Of course I said yes!

As it turns out, this February through May are extraordinarily busy, which I didn’t exactly factor in to the equation when I took the leap. But I’m okay, really. I’m trying not to think about the upcoming Tucson Festival of Books  for which I need to make a couple of books for the PaperWorks exhibition in the Special Collections Library. Plus a bunch of books to sell in the PaperWorks tent adjacent to the Special Collections Library. Then there are my workshops, scheduled nearly every week. And a previously scheduled 3-day US Route 89 work trip happening in March.

Well, anyway you get the idea. It really is great to be so busy doing the art related things that I love to do. I just need to get organized. Actually I need to get organized enough to start getting organized.

Here are five of the paintings I’m working on, all in different stages of completion:

If I can figure out how to do it, I’m going to paint the dried sunflowers (see photo below) on the surface of this painting.

The process itself is pretty simple, although preparation for making the paper takes a lot of time. And when doing it as a workshop, there’s even more preparation. In this case, the challenge was to get everything organized for the group so that when they arrived, after introductions and a few demonstrations, they could get right into the fun of making the paper.

Here’s a photo essay of the morning. Many thanks to Val Bembenek for taking most of the photographs.

These tables show the set-up for 6 of the docents. Gerri and Val are in the background, awaiting the arrival of the rest of the group.

Getting started, dampened paper on the left foreground, first application of color, center

Adding color and texture

Applying color with a brush

Off to a great start–what to do next?

Concentrating while having fun

One of my jobs while the paste paper making is going on is to whisk away the wet, completed paste paper to make room for the participant to make another. No time wasting allowed around here! Here I am carefully laying out the wet papers

Kind of like finger painting but with much more sophisticated results. Jashio really got into the process!

Into production mode. At this point everyone is excited and hard at work making as much paste paper as possible!

An assortment of wet paper, drying

As the paper dries, it curls. Here’s part of the big pile of dry but curled paper. The docents have gone home, with the promise of receiving the flattened paper in a few days

Another use for heavy art books. Under each book is a stack of damp paste paper. Each sheet is interleaved with wax paper. The wax paper keeps the damp paint from sticking to the paper below.

After a day, I take the damp wax paper out, replace it with dry paper towels and put the weights back on. This is done several times a day until the paper is completely dry. Here is an array of the flattened paste paper, ready to go home to it’s creator. Isn’t it beautiful?

The show is all about artwork highlighting ways in which paper can be used creatively. There will be all kinds of interesting, beautiful and unique work. Artist-made books, handmade papers, collage, sculptural paper and more will be shown.

Paper in a variety of art forms is getting long overdue recognition in the art world these days. I’m seeing more and more exhibitions featuring paper in the art magazines and in the news. This makes me and other artists who enjoy using paper as a part of their art practice very happy.

We are at an interesting place in history where physical books are being displaced by electronic versions. And paper is gradually being replaced by electronics as well. No revelation here, we all know this. What I find interesting is the way in which this puts real, physical books and paper into a different category than before. As books and paper are threatened with becoming obsolete (not yet, but eventually) a new possibility opens up for artists. And that is an upsurge in interest in using paper and books as creative vehicles for art-making. I can’t help but think that part of the renewed interest in paper and book arts is being motivated by the realization that they may not always be such common items. Instead of being so ubiquitous that we virtually don’t even notice them, paper and books may some day be a rarity. When a material becomes less available it gets more respect. I hope that eventually that the various paper arts will get the respect it deserves from the art world.

Work using paper in creative and unusual ways tends to be challenging to display. For example, artist-made books are often displayed in cases in order to protect the book, making it impossible for visitors to handle and turn the pages much less admire the texture and details on each page. On the other hand if the book is accessible to viewers, even with gloves available, there’s always a chance that it could be damaged.

My previous experiences as a participant in exhibitions at Tohono Chul have been positive. Installations by the capable curators Ben Johnson and Edie Wageman have been beautiful. I have a feeling they’ll come up with unique and thoughtful ways of presenting the work in this show.

There are quite a few members of PaperWorks, a wonderful organization based in Tucson, who have been included in the exhibition. I highly recommend anyone who is interested in book making, paper making, collage and other paper arts and crafts to have a look at the website. And if you’re in the area, come to a meeting and see what you think. All the information you’ll need is on the website. There are quite a few out-of-town as well as out-of-state members who benefit from the wonderful newsletter, workshops and publications by the group. I’m very happy that I joined the group and have gotten increasingly involved in it.

Below is the invitation to the upcoming exhibition. Entrance to the Park is free on the evening of the opening.

I am pleased to have one of my pieces included in the exhibit.

Sunrise Woven Collage using paste paper, Japanese paper, Saguaro spine and wire